This was our first SKMC (we missed the event in 2013 due to Cliff and Kate’s wedding), and we really enjoyed the experience. The event had a very homegrown, organic feel, which was fun but occasionally caused some grief (more on that later). Thanks mostly to Cliff’s anxiety, we arrived way too early and were the first ones to arrive at the Nordic shelter in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, which was a familiar location to Cliff because it doubled as the start of the Kettle Moraine 100, which Cliff ran in 2012. That’s right - we arrived even before the race director.
When he finally arrived, race director Andy McCarthy got teams organized and gave out maps. All points - and even the recommended route - were plotted, the first time we had experienced that. The race would start on foot with a three-point orienteering section, continue with a 15-mile bike to a one-point canoeing section (about eight miles of paddling), then a 10-mile bike back to Nordic to receive a final foot-orienteering map, followed by a three-mile bike to the 15-point o-section and a three-mile bike back once we had gotten as many points as we could.
Given that we had no plotting to do, we had plenty of time to get our gear together and eat breakfast before the race finally started at 8 a.m. The race started off on a sour note as we had trouble figuring out the scale on the aerial. It was doubly frustrating to Cliff because he knew the surrounding trails very well, but for some reason the map wasn’t clicking for him. It was also extremely disconcerting to have teams amped-up, adrenaline-soaked teams sprinting all around us in all directions (mostly in the wrong direction). Wandering down one trail, we found a map posted at an intersection, figured out where we were, and realized we had missed one point. We decided to keep going and get the furthest CP first, which we struggled to home in on even after we got close. Starker found it hidden deep in a thicket, and after a five-minute run, we faced another 10-minute struggle through thick brush and then a beautiful evergreen plantation before hitting CP2. To our chagrin, the first CP, which we had missed, was extremely easy to find once we had gotten our bearings. We headed into the the Nordic shelter to show our punches and then headed out on the bike.
With our opening nav section taking over one hour, we were already way behind the leaders, who finished up in less than 30 minutes. We pedaled hard to try to catch up, and as a light rain had started to fall, we pedaled even harder to keep warm. Because the course was marked, Cliff didn’t stress too much about the navigation. So of course, we took a wrong turn. Cliff hesitated for a moment and initially made the correct decision, but he saw several teams ahead going the opposite way and then got swayed to follow them. Fifteen minutes later, we were almost off the map, but a marked road showed us our mistake. Several other teams were in the area and we helped them figure out that we were all in the wrong place before we took off back in the correct direction. We rolled into the canoe TA a bit ahead of the pack, but now irreversibly behind all the leaders. We portaged our boat a quarter-mile down to the lake, pushed into a heavy headwind to find a tricky entrance into a swerving and small river, and then wound our way three more miles to the single CP. The allowed us to see where we were compared to all the top teams, and it was clear they were now more than an hour ahead of us. Boo.
The canoe CP was located on the far side of some whitewater and a dark tunnel underneath a highway. We had some fun getting in and then fighting our way back against the current, especially as a few other teams were coming downstream at the same time. We made good time getting back to the TA and then mounted our bikes for the trip back to Nordic. For the second time, we had trouble on the bikes, and Cliff realized that it was because the “suggested route” mark-up on the map wasn’t drawn directly on the roads, but rather parallel to them. That had been throwing him off and continued to as we overran a few turns. Fortunately, we quickly corrected our mistakes and made good time to the TA, where we grabbed our map and torched it the hilly three miles to the o-course. As we arrived, three cop cars were parked around the group of bikes leaning on every available tree and fence, and the cops and a park ranger were going around taking photos of the “crime scene” and the trampled grasses on the way to the first CP on the o-course. We didn’t have time to deal with them, as there was a sharp 4 p.m. cutoff and it was already 2:30 p.m. We gave ourselves a 3:30 p.m. cutoff to get back on our bikes, then sprinted out to pick up as many CPs as we could manage in the short time allotted to us. We found a second CP, then met up with Rib Mountain, who led us into a third CP. A fourth Cp was within easy grasp, but our alarm went off and we decided on discretion rather than valor and turned around for a run back to the bikes. We rode in with Jeff from Medicus WRX, who was racing with his teenage daughter and also riding a fat bike - two very impressive feats. We arrived with a safe enough time buffer not to be stressed. The sun had come out and we enjoyed sharing a beer and some good stories with our adventure racing friends, especially Amber and Steve from Mad S.
So long story short, the 2014 SKMC was not our best race. But because it was such a small race, there wasn’t much competition in the co-ed elite category and we finished with a second place in our division and a rather more expected sixth overall. Still lots of fun and it felt good to be racing so late in the year, especially knowing we had one more chance (the Milwaukee Area Fall Frenzy) to get things right.
When he finally arrived, race director Andy McCarthy got teams organized and gave out maps. All points - and even the recommended route - were plotted, the first time we had experienced that. The race would start on foot with a three-point orienteering section, continue with a 15-mile bike to a one-point canoeing section (about eight miles of paddling), then a 10-mile bike back to Nordic to receive a final foot-orienteering map, followed by a three-mile bike to the 15-point o-section and a three-mile bike back once we had gotten as many points as we could.
Given that we had no plotting to do, we had plenty of time to get our gear together and eat breakfast before the race finally started at 8 a.m. The race started off on a sour note as we had trouble figuring out the scale on the aerial. It was doubly frustrating to Cliff because he knew the surrounding trails very well, but for some reason the map wasn’t clicking for him. It was also extremely disconcerting to have teams amped-up, adrenaline-soaked teams sprinting all around us in all directions (mostly in the wrong direction). Wandering down one trail, we found a map posted at an intersection, figured out where we were, and realized we had missed one point. We decided to keep going and get the furthest CP first, which we struggled to home in on even after we got close. Starker found it hidden deep in a thicket, and after a five-minute run, we faced another 10-minute struggle through thick brush and then a beautiful evergreen plantation before hitting CP2. To our chagrin, the first CP, which we had missed, was extremely easy to find once we had gotten our bearings. We headed into the the Nordic shelter to show our punches and then headed out on the bike.
With our opening nav section taking over one hour, we were already way behind the leaders, who finished up in less than 30 minutes. We pedaled hard to try to catch up, and as a light rain had started to fall, we pedaled even harder to keep warm. Because the course was marked, Cliff didn’t stress too much about the navigation. So of course, we took a wrong turn. Cliff hesitated for a moment and initially made the correct decision, but he saw several teams ahead going the opposite way and then got swayed to follow them. Fifteen minutes later, we were almost off the map, but a marked road showed us our mistake. Several other teams were in the area and we helped them figure out that we were all in the wrong place before we took off back in the correct direction. We rolled into the canoe TA a bit ahead of the pack, but now irreversibly behind all the leaders. We portaged our boat a quarter-mile down to the lake, pushed into a heavy headwind to find a tricky entrance into a swerving and small river, and then wound our way three more miles to the single CP. The allowed us to see where we were compared to all the top teams, and it was clear they were now more than an hour ahead of us. Boo.
The canoe CP was located on the far side of some whitewater and a dark tunnel underneath a highway. We had some fun getting in and then fighting our way back against the current, especially as a few other teams were coming downstream at the same time. We made good time getting back to the TA and then mounted our bikes for the trip back to Nordic. For the second time, we had trouble on the bikes, and Cliff realized that it was because the “suggested route” mark-up on the map wasn’t drawn directly on the roads, but rather parallel to them. That had been throwing him off and continued to as we overran a few turns. Fortunately, we quickly corrected our mistakes and made good time to the TA, where we grabbed our map and torched it the hilly three miles to the o-course. As we arrived, three cop cars were parked around the group of bikes leaning on every available tree and fence, and the cops and a park ranger were going around taking photos of the “crime scene” and the trampled grasses on the way to the first CP on the o-course. We didn’t have time to deal with them, as there was a sharp 4 p.m. cutoff and it was already 2:30 p.m. We gave ourselves a 3:30 p.m. cutoff to get back on our bikes, then sprinted out to pick up as many CPs as we could manage in the short time allotted to us. We found a second CP, then met up with Rib Mountain, who led us into a third CP. A fourth Cp was within easy grasp, but our alarm went off and we decided on discretion rather than valor and turned around for a run back to the bikes. We rode in with Jeff from Medicus WRX, who was racing with his teenage daughter and also riding a fat bike - two very impressive feats. We arrived with a safe enough time buffer not to be stressed. The sun had come out and we enjoyed sharing a beer and some good stories with our adventure racing friends, especially Amber and Steve from Mad S.
So long story short, the 2014 SKMC was not our best race. But because it was such a small race, there wasn’t much competition in the co-ed elite category and we finished with a second place in our division and a rather more expected sixth overall. Still lots of fun and it felt good to be racing so late in the year, especially knowing we had one more chance (the Milwaukee Area Fall Frenzy) to get things right.
