2014 MILWAUKEE AREA FALL FRENZY (MAFF) AR
The 2014 MAFF brought us back to familiar territory - Lapham Peak, a nice park less than an hour from our home base in Madison. The 2013 race had been fun and so we were excited for the 2014 version. It was cold on race morning but we were able to plot our maps in the nice warming hut the MBM group rented for the race. Taking a look at our finished map, we still had a lot of questions as to what the race was actually going to be like. There were seven distinct stages, at least 50 points (we didn’t have to plot them all) and one special event, which we were not given any information about.
The race started with a quick five-point orienteering/trail run that took us about 15 minutes and mainly served to spread out the field. We then hopped on our bikes and rode out of the park, eventually reaching a lake after about an hour, including some stopped time at a strange intersection involving some a “closed trail” sign that we should have ignored. We made a quick transition into the canoe, making sure to layer up as the wind looked like it was whipping on the lake. So far, so good, but the first CP on the water was a very confusing question - asking us about the stairs of a lakeside house. There were a couple of options and neither one was obvious, so we ended up spending about 10 minutes here, paddling back and forth along the coast with our friends Anthony and Eulalie from Elkbones, trying to figure it out. Eventually, we just wrote down all potential answers and moved on. The other CPs - also questions - were easier and we made our way counter-clockwise around the lake, at one point heading down a small tributary into a shallow muddy section to find out the color of a barn. We opted to pass on the most distant two CPs, both about 20 minutes too far north for us to gamble on with so many points left to get in the race, and continued back south along the western edge of the lake, this time into the wind. The chop was spraying Starker in the bow, and we were all getting pretty soaked from the wind blowing water off the paddles. Still, we were having fun, and nabbed one last point on an island and then headed back to the TA, spending about an hour and a half on the water.
Our bones were aching after the cold paddle, but the day was warming up and we transitioned quickly in the hope that we would dry out on the bike. We took a really nice bike path to our next destination, which was marked as the location of the special challenge. We pulled up to a building labeled “Archery Center” after about 30 minutes and discovered we were going to be sport climbing and then arrow shooting. We each took turns on a 20-foot climbing wall set up in the parking lot, easily nabbing the maximum three points, and then headed inside the shooting gallery, waiting our turn behind Rib Mountain. We had to wait a few extra minutes because we needed lefty bows for Kate and Cliff, but eventually Cliff showed off the skillz he learned at summer camp and we also got top points for our several bulls-eyes (shot at a very close 15 yards).
Back outside, we congratulated ourselves for once again mastering the odd challenges that so often get thrown our way in adventure racing, and went on a meandering bike ride through suburban Waukesha, at one point taking a crafty shortcut through what looked like a cul-de-sac in a planned community but actually had a secret thru-road. We got all five points on the bike in about an hour and ended up at a state park, where we were handed an aerial map with 11 points shown, each about 5-10 minutes apart. We started off at a run and found the first two easily. But the third eluded us. Aerial satellite maps can be tricky, especially when you don’t have a ton of experience navigating off them (like us). The clue was ridge, and we found what we thought was the only correct option, but could find any flag. We tried another ridge and also had no luck. Cliff made the argument that there were so many CPs on the course that it wasn’t worth spending any more time looking for this one. Kate, our navigator, reluctantly agreed and we ran off to find all the rest except one without any problems, snaking through wooded trails and then running through a field by a nice lake. The other point we didn’t get was intentional, as it looked too far out of the way to be worth it. We finished the section in a speedy 52 minutes, which was 14 minutes less time than eventual winners Rib Mountain, though they did get the two additional points.
The rest of the race, we knew by this point, was straightforward: a three-point bike back to the race start/finish, and then a big orienteering course around Lapham Peak Park. The bike went well and took about 50 minutes. We arrived at the finish line but we weren’t finished - instead, we got our final foot-O map and immediately started ticking off CPs, which were numerous and relatively easy to find. There were a total of 16 CPs to get, and we hit most of them without problems, except for one in a depression we passed accidentally and had to recalculate to get back to. We then came across our first missing CP, which had been located near a trail intersection. After a good 10 minutes of looking, we knew with near-certainty it had been taken and decided to continue on. With about 25 minutes left, we got scared about missing the cutoff and headed back, finishing without drama (and probably a little too early) in 7:46, getting 10 out of 16 of the orienteering points available. We heard after the race that another CP had also been taken, and we were glad we weren’t faced with the tough decision of looking harder for it or heading back and ensuring an on-time finish.
Upon finishing, we knew we had had a good race. Kate had done the best navigation we had ever seen her do, and we had kept a good pace constantly through the race, running most everywhere we could and keeping our transitions fast and furious. Still, we were very surprised to hear our names called as the second-ranked team for the co-ed division, behind only Rib Mountain, who had cleared the course with 49 CPs in under 8 hours. Starker beamed as we got our picture taken with our fall-themed, pumpkin-topped trophy and we knew immediately it was destined for an honored place in his quickly expanding AR shrine in his warehouse in Rockford. Overall, another fun MAFF - a race that doesn’t take itself too seriously and manages to always be more fun than anticipated.
The race started with a quick five-point orienteering/trail run that took us about 15 minutes and mainly served to spread out the field. We then hopped on our bikes and rode out of the park, eventually reaching a lake after about an hour, including some stopped time at a strange intersection involving some a “closed trail” sign that we should have ignored. We made a quick transition into the canoe, making sure to layer up as the wind looked like it was whipping on the lake. So far, so good, but the first CP on the water was a very confusing question - asking us about the stairs of a lakeside house. There were a couple of options and neither one was obvious, so we ended up spending about 10 minutes here, paddling back and forth along the coast with our friends Anthony and Eulalie from Elkbones, trying to figure it out. Eventually, we just wrote down all potential answers and moved on. The other CPs - also questions - were easier and we made our way counter-clockwise around the lake, at one point heading down a small tributary into a shallow muddy section to find out the color of a barn. We opted to pass on the most distant two CPs, both about 20 minutes too far north for us to gamble on with so many points left to get in the race, and continued back south along the western edge of the lake, this time into the wind. The chop was spraying Starker in the bow, and we were all getting pretty soaked from the wind blowing water off the paddles. Still, we were having fun, and nabbed one last point on an island and then headed back to the TA, spending about an hour and a half on the water.
Our bones were aching after the cold paddle, but the day was warming up and we transitioned quickly in the hope that we would dry out on the bike. We took a really nice bike path to our next destination, which was marked as the location of the special challenge. We pulled up to a building labeled “Archery Center” after about 30 minutes and discovered we were going to be sport climbing and then arrow shooting. We each took turns on a 20-foot climbing wall set up in the parking lot, easily nabbing the maximum three points, and then headed inside the shooting gallery, waiting our turn behind Rib Mountain. We had to wait a few extra minutes because we needed lefty bows for Kate and Cliff, but eventually Cliff showed off the skillz he learned at summer camp and we also got top points for our several bulls-eyes (shot at a very close 15 yards).
Back outside, we congratulated ourselves for once again mastering the odd challenges that so often get thrown our way in adventure racing, and went on a meandering bike ride through suburban Waukesha, at one point taking a crafty shortcut through what looked like a cul-de-sac in a planned community but actually had a secret thru-road. We got all five points on the bike in about an hour and ended up at a state park, where we were handed an aerial map with 11 points shown, each about 5-10 minutes apart. We started off at a run and found the first two easily. But the third eluded us. Aerial satellite maps can be tricky, especially when you don’t have a ton of experience navigating off them (like us). The clue was ridge, and we found what we thought was the only correct option, but could find any flag. We tried another ridge and also had no luck. Cliff made the argument that there were so many CPs on the course that it wasn’t worth spending any more time looking for this one. Kate, our navigator, reluctantly agreed and we ran off to find all the rest except one without any problems, snaking through wooded trails and then running through a field by a nice lake. The other point we didn’t get was intentional, as it looked too far out of the way to be worth it. We finished the section in a speedy 52 minutes, which was 14 minutes less time than eventual winners Rib Mountain, though they did get the two additional points.
The rest of the race, we knew by this point, was straightforward: a three-point bike back to the race start/finish, and then a big orienteering course around Lapham Peak Park. The bike went well and took about 50 minutes. We arrived at the finish line but we weren’t finished - instead, we got our final foot-O map and immediately started ticking off CPs, which were numerous and relatively easy to find. There were a total of 16 CPs to get, and we hit most of them without problems, except for one in a depression we passed accidentally and had to recalculate to get back to. We then came across our first missing CP, which had been located near a trail intersection. After a good 10 minutes of looking, we knew with near-certainty it had been taken and decided to continue on. With about 25 minutes left, we got scared about missing the cutoff and headed back, finishing without drama (and probably a little too early) in 7:46, getting 10 out of 16 of the orienteering points available. We heard after the race that another CP had also been taken, and we were glad we weren’t faced with the tough decision of looking harder for it or heading back and ensuring an on-time finish.
Upon finishing, we knew we had had a good race. Kate had done the best navigation we had ever seen her do, and we had kept a good pace constantly through the race, running most everywhere we could and keeping our transitions fast and furious. Still, we were very surprised to hear our names called as the second-ranked team for the co-ed division, behind only Rib Mountain, who had cleared the course with 49 CPs in under 8 hours. Starker beamed as we got our picture taken with our fall-themed, pumpkin-topped trophy and we knew immediately it was destined for an honored place in his quickly expanding AR shrine in his warehouse in Rockford. Overall, another fun MAFF - a race that doesn’t take itself too seriously and manages to always be more fun than anticipated.
