2015 USARA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Fun dinner at Cerulean in Indy for Cliff's birthday before the race.
Since the beginning of the 2015 season, a primary goal was to race in our second national championship race, and we were very excited when it started getting closer on the calendar. We had qualified in a number of races during the season, but hadn’t gotten any regional sponsorships, which take a $400 chunk out of the $900 registration fee. One week before the race, we got the welcome news from USARA informing us that our rivals from the Physically Strong AR, Off the Front Racing, had dropped out of the national championships and that we therefore inherited their $400 qualification voucher. An auspicious beginning!
On the Wednesday morning before the race, Kate and Cliff drove down from their new home in Portland to Boston in a torrential rainstorm caused by Hurricane Joaquin. The rain would be a common theme throughout the weekend, though it strangely didn't cause any delays in our flight, as we got into Indianapolis earlier than expected. Starker picked us up at the airport in Sketchy, his rusted-out minivan, and we cruised over to REI to pick up some last minute gear items, including a functioning bike light for Cliff and some very important chafe lube, and then headed to La Quinta Indianapolis to check in. The room we got was amazingly weird, with an overly large living room and walls that sounded like they had coffee percolating in them. We got Starker a trundle bed and then headed to dinner at Cerulean, where we feasted like it was somebody's birthday. Actually, it was somebody's birthday - Cliff's. After five courses, a round of beers and a bottle of wine, we stumbled back to La Quinta and crashed by 10:30 p.m.
On the Wednesday morning before the race, Kate and Cliff drove down from their new home in Portland to Boston in a torrential rainstorm caused by Hurricane Joaquin. The rain would be a common theme throughout the weekend, though it strangely didn't cause any delays in our flight, as we got into Indianapolis earlier than expected. Starker picked us up at the airport in Sketchy, his rusted-out minivan, and we cruised over to REI to pick up some last minute gear items, including a functioning bike light for Cliff and some very important chafe lube, and then headed to La Quinta Indianapolis to check in. The room we got was amazingly weird, with an overly large living room and walls that sounded like they had coffee percolating in them. We got Starker a trundle bed and then headed to dinner at Cerulean, where we feasted like it was somebody's birthday. Actually, it was somebody's birthday - Cliff's. After five courses, a round of beers and a bottle of wine, we stumbled back to La Quinta and crashed by 10:30 p.m.
Sitting next to Tecnu for the second year in a row. Both times have been purely coincidental (we swear!), and the result is that we're in a lot more photos from the pre-race briefing.
We woke up by 8 a.m., took one look at the hotel's buffet breakfast, and headed for Starbucks. That choice took us through the center of Indianapolis, a beautiful roundabout with a large tower-like statue surrounded by art-deco buildings. Starker couldn't stop raving about it. After grabbing coffee, we headed south, stopping at a creepy hardware store along the way to buy more duct tape and tow and map materials. Had lunch at an artsy cafe, made a quick stop at Walmart, and arrived in Pineville by 3 p.m. after an easy drive made interesting by the many rednecky/Appalachiany sights along the way. We checked in at the resort park’s front desk (PS - what the heck is a resort park? Apparently a state park with a really swanky hotel and a golf course) and then checked in at race HQ (Starker glowed when handed his yearly allotment of free Darn Tough socks). We then went to our room, which was really nice (we were lucky to have booked the last available room) and started preparing our bikes and gear before the 7 p.m. race briefing. It was fun to be surrounded by other adventure racers, especially so many serious racers. We saw and said hi to Abby from Tecnu, met Garrett Bean and Kyle Peter, introduced ourselves to NYARA, saw Anna, Tim and Ryan from Rib Mountain and Heather and Eric from AC/BDAR, and other friends from around the country. We got most of our prep work done and made it to the race briefing just before it started. Starker snagged seats that happened to be right next to Tecnu (just like last year) and we sat down for the meeting, which last year took more than two hours and this year took about the same. The frustrating part about these meetings is that you don't get much information about the course you're about to embark on, so people are forced to ask stupid-sounding questions (and the race director is forced to obfuscate), and that whole process takes an unnecessarily long time. What's even more frustrating is that teams only get the maps an hour-and-a-half before the race starts and at that point they're too rushed to ask any questions, even though that’s when actually important questions come up. Despite our frustration, we all took an immediate liking to Stephanie Ross, the race director, who had a great sense of humor but also clearly took her job seriously. As we expected, she didn't give us much detail about the course, but she did assuage some of our fears that it would be too tough of a course when she said she expected the top teams to clear the course in 20 hours. She also let us know that there would be no TAs in the entire race - that it would be run expedition-style. That meant we would be carrying very heavy backpacks. We saw other teams were ordering food during the meeting, so we sent Starker on a mission to get us some, and he delivered with veggie pizzas and Caesar salads. Everyone around us started giving us hungry looks as we chowed down.
The briefing continued longer than we wished, mainly due to the whole "have to ask it but probably won't get an answer" phenomenon. Finally at about 9 p.m., it adjourned. After the meeting, we would up in the main lodge, where we saw the weather forecast had worsened, and that the area we were racing in was likely to receive 3-8 inches of rain in the next 24-48 hours. Ugh. Headed back to our room and finished packing up, did our bike drop at the state park’s amphitheater, then got back to our room and tried to figure out sleeping arrangements, as we only had one king-size bed to share for three of us. Fortunately, the room was large, and Starker graciously agreed to take the airmat option on the floor. We set our alarms for 4:15 a.m., as maps were to be given out at 5:30 and the race was scheduled to start at 7 a.m.
The briefing continued longer than we wished, mainly due to the whole "have to ask it but probably won't get an answer" phenomenon. Finally at about 9 p.m., it adjourned. After the meeting, we would up in the main lodge, where we saw the weather forecast had worsened, and that the area we were racing in was likely to receive 3-8 inches of rain in the next 24-48 hours. Ugh. Headed back to our room and finished packing up, did our bike drop at the state park’s amphitheater, then got back to our room and tried to figure out sleeping arrangements, as we only had one king-size bed to share for three of us. Fortunately, the room was large, and Starker graciously agreed to take the airmat option on the floor. We set our alarms for 4:15 a.m., as maps were to be given out at 5:30 and the race was scheduled to start at 7 a.m.
Plotting the morning of the race.
When we woke up, it was still dark, but we immediately snapped into action, stuffing some food in our mouths as we got dressed and made some last-minute adjustments to our gear and packs. We headed over to the lodge at 5:15 and had a moment to breathe before they had us line up and get the maps. Kate and Cliff started plotting in earnest while Starker went to get the GPS tracker. As we plotted, we realized that the course wasn’t very large and that there were about 10-15 fewer CPs than the 2014 race. The course started sorting itself out: a quick orienteering prologue; an 8-mile canoe (2 CPs), followed by a short run; a 7 mile uphill bike (the King of the Mountain section); a 5-point hilly o-course; a huge 40 mile bike ride, about half of it on trails (7 CPs); a 4-point canoe on a lake; a 15-mile tough mountain bike ride (2 CPs) and finally a 15-mile hilly o-course (7 CPs). All in all, it looked pretty doable, which we didn’t expect after last year’s very difficult and large course. This messed with our minds a little, as we had formulated a strategy to be ruthless in skipping sections of the course that were remote and focusing our energies on areas with large bunches of CPs. However, it looked like we would be able to clear the course or at least get close to it, making our whole strategy discussion moot. The one section we identified as being skippable was the 15-mile mountain bike ride, which looked like it gained a lot of elevation and would take a lot of time for only 2 CPs.
Ready to go! Just before boarding the buses
At 7 am, we boarded one of four school buses outside the lodge that took us on at 30 minute or so ride to a bridge, where the prologue started from. The buses were very full, given that teams had to carry very large packs and their paddling gear. We were one of the last teams on the buses and there wasn’t any room for us, but we forced our way into some crowded seats. Unfortunately, we had to sit separately, which was too bad as this could have allowed us to look at the maps together and study the course. However, I got a nice conversation in with a guy named Jake from Florida, who told me a crazy story about a race he was in the month before where an alligator had jumped up on the trail his team was biking on (note to self: never race in Florida). The bus ride felt long, probably because it was still mostly dark out and it was raining outside, giving us foreboding thoughts about what the next 30 hours would be like.
Strong Machine (Team #7, at left) heads off the start line at the beginning of the race. (Valerio Viti photo)
The buses came to a stop at a large bridge and shortly thereafter, we were given our prologue maps, then were lined up on the bridge and the starting cannon went off. We began a plodding run uphill towards the back of the huge pack of racers. There were five CPs to find, with values of 2, 4, 4, 6, and 10. Only 10 points were needed to clear the prologue, and Kate decided to hit the easier four- and the six-pointer. This decision seemed to be popular, as we followed about 30-50 racers up to the 4 pointer at the top of a hill, then down off it back onto the road and along a trail to the six-pointer. We hesitated for a moment in deciding whether to follow other racers up the main trail and a steep hill or to follow a less pronounced trail that looked like it led more directly to the CP, but then we saw most of the top 10 teams running returning from the CP via the second trail and decided to follow it. We shuffled along for about ½ mile and saw a clear path up to the CP, which we nabbed and then reversed course. We got back to the road and jogged back down the hill to the bridge, Starker picked up our bag of paddling gear and we continued over the bridge, seeing Rib Mountain underneath just getting underway on their canoe ride. We gave them a shout, then Cliff traded the passport to Starker in exchange for the paddle bag. We continued all the way down to the TA, where Starker took a leak while Kate and Cliff checked in and grabbed a canoe. As were were preparing to head out, we had a joking moment where one of us (forget who) asked if we had handed in our passport. Scarily, we had not. Freaked out, we began retracing our steps back up the road to the bridge, asking teams coming down the hill if they had seen it. We knew it had to be below the bridge, but we couldn’t find it. As we searched, Kate and Cliff became more convinced that the passport couldn’t have come out of the hole in Starker’s pocket - the hole was too small. We made our way back down to the TA, not sure what exactly to do, and then Starker found the passport right where he had stopped to pee. Relief flooded through all of us. We didn’t know what the consequences would have been if we couldn’t find our passport and we were glad we didn’t have to find out.
Heading up to the amphitheater with Team Geared Up, post-canoe. (Valerio Viti photo)
We handed in our prologue passport, received our full race passport in exchange and portaged our canoe down to the edge of the river. The passport snafu had cost us about 20-30 minutes, which had dropped us down to the back of the pack of teams, and we all felt some pressure to get ourselves back in the race. But the first part of the river required some caution, as it had several sections of swift-ish whitewater and a number of exposed rocks that could easily have knocked us over if we hit them. We started out with two other teams, Florida Extreme with Hunter Leininger - it was cool to see the famous wunderkind in action - and a three-person male team. We also saw a boat abandoned on the side of the river about a mile downstream - we assumed they had tipped or forgotten something at the TA. As soon as the whitewater ended, we started paddling hard to make up time and ended up putting a bit of a gap into those teams. We then caught and passed a co-ed team struggling with a broken paddle and offered them what small consolation we could. We took a left at a split in the river caused by the island containing CP1, which appeared to be a bad choice as two of the teams we passed caught us at the CP, and in reaction, we paddled a bit too hard out of the CP without studying the map. About 15 minutes later, at a bend in the river containing a particularly difficult whitewater section, Kate shouted that she thought CP2 was on the right, but Cliff couldn’t get the boat far enough river right to make the landing, and by the time we had the boat back pointing safely downstream, Kate had reconsidered and said we needed to keep going (Cliff’s insistence that no CP would be located at such a treacherous part of the river probably contributed to that decision). We then paddled for another 20 minutes without stopping until we hit what without a doubt was the big bend in the river that marked the end of the paddling section, meaning we had missed CP2. As we sat making our decision about whether to trek back for the CP, all the teams we had been paddling with caught up but none of them had gotten CP2 either, so we weren’t sure where it was. In retrospect, we should have taken another minute to study the map at some point after Kate spoke up, or stopped further up and hiked back up to the CP, but we already felt like we were so far behind that we agreed we didn’t have time to go back for it.
We finished the paddle up a small stream and made our way up a muddy embankment to the TA, where we made a quick transition. We formed a friendly group with Team Geared Up and jogged up a one-mile run uphill to the bike drop at the amphitheater. We jumped on our bikes and started the King of the Mountain climb, which took us more than an hour as we rode our bikes up the beautiful and paved but steeply inclined mountain in the park. The effort put in by Kate and Starker was impressive as neither of them got off their bikes at all. Two-thirds of the way up, Troy Farrar and Valerio Viti from USARA were waiting for us at a scenic overlook and Valerio snapped a few classic vanity shots of us cresting the top of a ridge:
We finished the paddle up a small stream and made our way up a muddy embankment to the TA, where we made a quick transition. We formed a friendly group with Team Geared Up and jogged up a one-mile run uphill to the bike drop at the amphitheater. We jumped on our bikes and started the King of the Mountain climb, which took us more than an hour as we rode our bikes up the beautiful and paved but steeply inclined mountain in the park. The effort put in by Kate and Starker was impressive as neither of them got off their bikes at all. Two-thirds of the way up, Troy Farrar and Valerio Viti from USARA were waiting for us at a scenic overlook and Valerio snapped a few classic vanity shots of us cresting the top of a ridge:
On the King of the Mountain climb (Valerio Viti photos)
Finishing the first, four-point orienteering section. (Valerio Viti photo)
We continued to climb for another 20 minutes until we got off pavement and headed up the last bit of climb on a double-wide trail. Near the top, we passed Team Lupine as one of their teammates had crashed and banged up his knee. We checked to see if they were all right, and when they gave us the thumbs-up, we continued to the TA, checked in and out, and headed out on the o-course. We started with a steep downhill, passing GOALS and Tecnu (Abby, who we got to know at her Teton Ogre race in July, gave us high-fives as we passed), then continued straight ahead north up a hill to nab CP 3. Kate then pointed us down the west side of the hill and through a sopping one-mile mud slog of a road to CP 4, which Cliff saw from a long distance away hiding in a reentrant. We then headed west again, down a separate reentrant that was steep and slippery, until we hit our desired elevation and turned north again. We came across what we have dubbed the “superhighway” - basically the well-trod path left behind by dozens of teams of adventure racers moving from CP to CP, and followed it for about 100 feet of steep uphill climbing directly to CP 5. We reversed course, heading down to a valley, then up the other side to a trail, which we crossed. Kate told Starker and Cliff to look out for a distinct reentrant, and we passed one where a bunch of teams were searching for CP 6 and found another one that looked correct on the map. Searching uphill from that spot, Cliff spotted the CP and quietly signalled to Starker that he had found it. He climbed up the steep and very slick side of the reentrant, using his hands to pull himself up to the CP and as he punched, he heard a team in the distance shout, “There’s the CP!”. It was probable that Cliff had inadverdently guided them to it, but there was really no other way to get the CP. Sometimes, that just happens in adventure racing. We got back to the trail and continued to climb uphill, moving south now, and hit CP 7. We then continued along the trail back to near CP 3 and climbed back up the hill to the TA. The whole section had taken us just a bit over two hours, which was a testament to just how good Kate has gotten at land navigation.
We got back to our bikes, ate a quick snack of some leftover pizza Cliff was carrying in a ziplock, and headed downhill the way we had come up, stopping to refill our water at the amphitheater. Along with another co-ed team, we churned uphill on the shoulder of a trafficky highway for three or so miles of biking, then turned off it onto a winding country road that led to CP 8. We continued on the road for a ways, then met up with the river we had canoed on earlier and hit CP 9 with about four other teams. Everyone stopped here for a bit to decide whether they wanted to take the longer but paved route or the shorter but singletrack route to CP 10. We saw two of the teams we were with choose the long route, and even though we had decided to do that route ourselves during our plotting in the morning, we changed our minds and headed to the trail. It was definitely hike-a-bike terrain for us, but we were impressed by the Hombres de Maiz, who managed to stay on their bikes up the steepest part of the slope. The team even managed to say hi to us through gritted teeth. Further on, we pass the strangest sight: a Toyota SUV overturned in a sinkhole off the side of the trail. From the smell of gas, it seems like this catastrophe has happened recently. Kate was very sketched out and wants to know what happens, but there’s no one around to ask. No one was in the car so we decide to bike on. We got up to the T-intersection halfway between CP 10 and 11, and decided to turn left to CP 10. We got there and then proceeded up to the main road, which we found was a deliciously paved road that we took to the turnoff to CP 11. We got to the trail, which headed downhill off the ridge, and Kate and Cliff decided to drop their bikes and hike in. At this point we saw NYARA Masters and several other teams going in both directions, which gave us the satisfying feeling of having clawed ourselves back into the race. We got CP 11 without an issue and headed back up to our bikes, stuffed a little more food into our mouths and continued along the main road for another ⅓ of a mile until it dissolved into about three different roads. Stopping for a moment to figure out the nav, Cliff eventually steered the team back onto the correct road but we didn’t get far until Starker yelled that he had a flat rear tire. We stopped and our bike guru Starker got to work replacing the tube, but it was super muddy and he had a tough time of it. First, his tire was really tight on the rim, and then when he got it off, it was so coated with mud that he needed to dip it into a nearby puddle to clean it off. In the 20 or so minutes during the change, four teams (including BDAR) passed us, which just shows what a big race the USARA National Championship is, and also how linear this year’s race was, with few nav choices to make and pretty much one clear route to follow.
We got back to our bikes, ate a quick snack of some leftover pizza Cliff was carrying in a ziplock, and headed downhill the way we had come up, stopping to refill our water at the amphitheater. Along with another co-ed team, we churned uphill on the shoulder of a trafficky highway for three or so miles of biking, then turned off it onto a winding country road that led to CP 8. We continued on the road for a ways, then met up with the river we had canoed on earlier and hit CP 9 with about four other teams. Everyone stopped here for a bit to decide whether they wanted to take the longer but paved route or the shorter but singletrack route to CP 10. We saw two of the teams we were with choose the long route, and even though we had decided to do that route ourselves during our plotting in the morning, we changed our minds and headed to the trail. It was definitely hike-a-bike terrain for us, but we were impressed by the Hombres de Maiz, who managed to stay on their bikes up the steepest part of the slope. The team even managed to say hi to us through gritted teeth. Further on, we pass the strangest sight: a Toyota SUV overturned in a sinkhole off the side of the trail. From the smell of gas, it seems like this catastrophe has happened recently. Kate was very sketched out and wants to know what happens, but there’s no one around to ask. No one was in the car so we decide to bike on. We got up to the T-intersection halfway between CP 10 and 11, and decided to turn left to CP 10. We got there and then proceeded up to the main road, which we found was a deliciously paved road that we took to the turnoff to CP 11. We got to the trail, which headed downhill off the ridge, and Kate and Cliff decided to drop their bikes and hike in. At this point we saw NYARA Masters and several other teams going in both directions, which gave us the satisfying feeling of having clawed ourselves back into the race. We got CP 11 without an issue and headed back up to our bikes, stuffed a little more food into our mouths and continued along the main road for another ⅓ of a mile until it dissolved into about three different roads. Stopping for a moment to figure out the nav, Cliff eventually steered the team back onto the correct road but we didn’t get far until Starker yelled that he had a flat rear tire. We stopped and our bike guru Starker got to work replacing the tube, but it was super muddy and he had a tough time of it. First, his tire was really tight on the rim, and then when he got it off, it was so coated with mud that he needed to dip it into a nearby puddle to clean it off. In the 20 or so minutes during the change, four teams (including BDAR) passed us, which just shows what a big race the USARA National Championship is, and also how linear this year’s race was, with few nav choices to make and pretty much one clear route to follow.
Hanging with Claire Riley, Strong Machine superfan, after the race.
We got underway again, cruising through patches of thicker mud and the occasional deep mud puddle, arriving at about 6:30 p.m. at CP 12. Ten minutes later, it was dark and we turned our bike lights and headlights on (Starker always does this way later than he should to save batteries, which is always humorous as Kate and Cliff have trouble finding him in the dark). Past CP 12, we reached a fork in the road and Cliff mistakenly had the team go left instead of right, mistaking it for another intersection. He got worried as we headed downhill off the ridge, following only a single other set of tire tracks. But we didn’t stop until we reached the bottom, where there was a paved road. Immediately, he realized his mistake, and immediately after that, realized it could actually be a nice shortcut. He showed Kate the map and Kate agreed that the road was a much easier route than the singletrack we were supposed to be on, and we took it downhill for another 5-10 minutes until we cut back up and onto the correct path. At this point it was pretty dark, but Cliff navigated the team onto a small, subtle path through a flat plateau of farmland. Right as Cliff said we should be getting close to CP 13, we saw the bright headlights of three teams searching down in the valley below us, and in looking down at them, we spotted reflectors of the CP off the trail about five feet in front of us. Finally some good luck! After punching, we tried to be as casual as possible about continuing on our trail without being noticed, but the three teams (including BDAR again) must have all spotted us coming from the flag and continuing onwards, or else must have just figured out that they were searching too low, because in the next 10 minutes, as we stopped to eat a quick “dinner” of more pizza and some peanuts, all three teams passed us. It took us another 30 minutes or so to reach the area of CP 14. An all-male team was there searching for it, and they were looking at the map when we approached. They asked where we thought the CP could be, and Cliff said, we just continue a little bit further and it should be on our left. Not more than two seconds later, it came into view and Cliff looked like a nav genius (for once).
We cruised back the way we came together with the all-male team until Kate took a fall off her bike, an older Stumpjumper with rubber brakes that were not holding up well in the mud. We took a minute so she could collect herself, then headed to an intersection where we had a choice of either going the long, easy way around or taking a shortcut down what was marked as a very difficult trail. We decided to take the shortcut and it turned out to be pretty rideable. We made it down intact and saved approximately 15 minutes, but stopped at CP 15 to tighten Kate’s brakes, which were so loose as to not even be functioning anymore. Once again, the three teams rolled by us (again including BDAR). With Kate’s brakes fixed, we cruised down the rest of the trail towards what we thought should be a major road, but we didn’t see it when we were supposed to, just a big dirt parking lot. We decided to try a path that looked like it had a lot of tracks on it, but after we crossed a major stream (getting our feet soaked in the process) and starting to head uphill, Cliff realized where we were on the map and we turned around. We got back to the dirt parking lot and followed more bike tracks to the other side of the lot, where we found another dirt road that was heading in the right direction. We followed that and after a little ways it turned into a paved road and then, certain we were going the right way, we started cranking to reach the TA, where we knew there was hot food waiting for us. Three miles or so later, at around 11 p.m., we turned onto the road to the TA and saw none other than Strong Machine superfan Claire Riley cheering and waving to us!
Claire had also been in Maryland for last year’s race (she had a moment of fame when she and our other friend Gilly were featured in a USARA video for the amazing Strong Machine costumes they wore there), and during the off-season she had moved to Indiana for grad school. As true superfans do, she told us before the race that she would make it down to Pineville no matter what. Even though she missed the first part of the race because got tied up in schoolwork, she drove the four hours down Friday afternoon and was able to follow us on the live-tracker to know where to meet us. What a pick-me-up she was for team Strong Machine!
After a quick greeting, we rolled down the small hill to the TA and past the overwhelmingly delicious smell of grilling food. As Cliff rolled by the grill, he yelled “two veggie burgers with cheese!” and the chef at the grill took off on the double to grab them out of the cooler and start cooking them. As we parked our bikes, we noticed the TA was inside a large, heated industrial water plant. We weren’t planning on making a long stop here, but with Claire making a surprise visit, we extended our stay to chat with her as we changed out of our wet clothes, hung them to dry under the blasting hot air in one corner of the plant, and tugged on the few dry bits of extra clothing we were carrying with us (socks and buffs for Cliff and Kate). When they were ready, we also chowed down on our veggie burgers. As usual during longer adventure races, the first bites were blissful, tasting like the best food we’ve ever eaten, and then the food quickly gets nauseating and becomes hard to finish. Still, we got most of it down, knowing that the caloric boost would kick in soon and charge our batteries for the long grind still ahead. After a break that felt simultaneously too long and too short, we headed out of the TA on a quarter-mile hike to a small lake, where there were four checkpoints waiting for us. The paddle went quickly as we nabbed the four CPs without issue and then turned off our headlights and paddled silently back towards the take-out across the lake. Despite the rain all day long, it turned into a beautiful night and we really enjoyed ourselves as we crossed the lake, watching the lights of various teams shine over the lake and even a few stars popping out through the clouds. We got back into the TA and while we collected our belongings (amazingly all dry), we found out that Tecnu had already finished and won the race. We realized for the millionth time that there are some stupid fast racers out there. For the rest of the race, Starker occasionally exclaimed “I can’t believe how fast they are!” totally unprompted. Speaking of Starker, he finally perked up after a long quiet spell caused by his getting down on himself for losing the passport and getting a flat tire. For hours, we told him not to worry about it (and were sincere about it) but he couldn’t help himself. But once we had a quick coffee, wished goodbye and goodnight to Claire and headed back out into the night, Starker was once again chatting and chipper, which always picks our spirits up, as he says some truly hilarious things in the middle of the night (most of which are kept as secrets among Team Strong Machine).
We cruised back the way we came together with the all-male team until Kate took a fall off her bike, an older Stumpjumper with rubber brakes that were not holding up well in the mud. We took a minute so she could collect herself, then headed to an intersection where we had a choice of either going the long, easy way around or taking a shortcut down what was marked as a very difficult trail. We decided to take the shortcut and it turned out to be pretty rideable. We made it down intact and saved approximately 15 minutes, but stopped at CP 15 to tighten Kate’s brakes, which were so loose as to not even be functioning anymore. Once again, the three teams rolled by us (again including BDAR). With Kate’s brakes fixed, we cruised down the rest of the trail towards what we thought should be a major road, but we didn’t see it when we were supposed to, just a big dirt parking lot. We decided to try a path that looked like it had a lot of tracks on it, but after we crossed a major stream (getting our feet soaked in the process) and starting to head uphill, Cliff realized where we were on the map and we turned around. We got back to the dirt parking lot and followed more bike tracks to the other side of the lot, where we found another dirt road that was heading in the right direction. We followed that and after a little ways it turned into a paved road and then, certain we were going the right way, we started cranking to reach the TA, where we knew there was hot food waiting for us. Three miles or so later, at around 11 p.m., we turned onto the road to the TA and saw none other than Strong Machine superfan Claire Riley cheering and waving to us!
Claire had also been in Maryland for last year’s race (she had a moment of fame when she and our other friend Gilly were featured in a USARA video for the amazing Strong Machine costumes they wore there), and during the off-season she had moved to Indiana for grad school. As true superfans do, she told us before the race that she would make it down to Pineville no matter what. Even though she missed the first part of the race because got tied up in schoolwork, she drove the four hours down Friday afternoon and was able to follow us on the live-tracker to know where to meet us. What a pick-me-up she was for team Strong Machine!
After a quick greeting, we rolled down the small hill to the TA and past the overwhelmingly delicious smell of grilling food. As Cliff rolled by the grill, he yelled “two veggie burgers with cheese!” and the chef at the grill took off on the double to grab them out of the cooler and start cooking them. As we parked our bikes, we noticed the TA was inside a large, heated industrial water plant. We weren’t planning on making a long stop here, but with Claire making a surprise visit, we extended our stay to chat with her as we changed out of our wet clothes, hung them to dry under the blasting hot air in one corner of the plant, and tugged on the few dry bits of extra clothing we were carrying with us (socks and buffs for Cliff and Kate). When they were ready, we also chowed down on our veggie burgers. As usual during longer adventure races, the first bites were blissful, tasting like the best food we’ve ever eaten, and then the food quickly gets nauseating and becomes hard to finish. Still, we got most of it down, knowing that the caloric boost would kick in soon and charge our batteries for the long grind still ahead. After a break that felt simultaneously too long and too short, we headed out of the TA on a quarter-mile hike to a small lake, where there were four checkpoints waiting for us. The paddle went quickly as we nabbed the four CPs without issue and then turned off our headlights and paddled silently back towards the take-out across the lake. Despite the rain all day long, it turned into a beautiful night and we really enjoyed ourselves as we crossed the lake, watching the lights of various teams shine over the lake and even a few stars popping out through the clouds. We got back into the TA and while we collected our belongings (amazingly all dry), we found out that Tecnu had already finished and won the race. We realized for the millionth time that there are some stupid fast racers out there. For the rest of the race, Starker occasionally exclaimed “I can’t believe how fast they are!” totally unprompted. Speaking of Starker, he finally perked up after a long quiet spell caused by his getting down on himself for losing the passport and getting a flat tire. For hours, we told him not to worry about it (and were sincere about it) but he couldn’t help himself. But once we had a quick coffee, wished goodbye and goodnight to Claire and headed back out into the night, Starker was once again chatting and chipper, which always picks our spirits up, as he says some truly hilarious things in the middle of the night (most of which are kept as secrets among Team Strong Machine).
Team Strong Machine at the finish of the 2015 USARA Championship (Claire Riley photo)
Amazingly, we were also nearing the end of the race. As we only had a 7 point O-course after the bike, during the canoe ride, we decided that we would go for CPs 20 and 21 after all, as it was only 1 a.m. Nonetheless, we knew this section would be hard and take a long time, which is a tough mental hurdle at that point in the night and having already raced for a solid 15 hours. Nevertheless, our spirits remained pretty high as we found the correct turnoff to the dirt path we needed to take and found out that, as expected, the road was muddy and steep. We pushed our bikes uphill for an eternity and finally topped out and located CP 20 easily. Then we slogged along the muddy road on the ridgeline for a while longer until we got to CP 21, which was right at a power line cut and impossible to miss. We rested there for a bit, taking a Frito and Nuun break, and Team HalfwayThere caught and passed us. They greeted us quickly before shooting down the power line trail and the 1,000 or so feet of vertical. With Kate’s bike not in great shape to begin with and in even worse condition due to the mud, and the traction on the trail minimal at best, we took our time going down. We emerged from the woods at the bottom of the hill and ran into a paved road that followed a haunting, rhodedendron-lined stream for a few miles. We left the stream to climb a hill, then descended it again, once again running into several teams along the way. We climbed the final ascent to the lodge and the TA with these teams, passing them in the final 400 meters or so and heading into the lodge without having to wait for the crowd to check in in front of us. As we checked in, Rootstock Racing burst in the doors and finished in eighth place. They were super excited and, having met their teammate Abby Perkiss at last year’s race and knowing her to be amazingly nice, we shared in their excitement.
We got our final passport, headed into the main lodge to warm up while we made a plan of attack, and found a half-dozen exhausted adventure racers catching naps on the floor and couches. We did manage to find a free table and quickly decided to go for CP 27 first. Our thinking was that starting there would allow us the greatest flexibility in route choice - if we wanted to get all of the CPs, we could (we probably had enough time), or if we got tired, we could reroute and still pick up some CPs either way we headed back. It was about 6:30 a.m. as we headed down the paved road from the lodge to CP 27 and we started getting the serious sleepies. Cliff especially was having issues and developed a serious rightward lurching problem as he drifted to sleep while walking. We woke back up as we tried to cut the hypoteneuse to the CP by cutting down a steep slope in the woods, but when we got to the bottom, we found there was a big river that was not entirely visible on the map (to tired eyes at least). After a few minutes of trying to bushwack and finding the route steep and very thick, we retreated back to the road and took it down to the rails-to-trails, which led directly to CP 27. We hit the CP just as it was getting light, which was perfect timing, as we saw it was in an absolutely gorgeous location at the mouth of a rail tunnel chiseled through a mountain, accessed by a partially washed-away bridge. Once there, Kate and Cliff had different ideas of where to go next. Kate wanted to grab the three other lower CPs and call it a day, while Cliff thought it was a better idea to go for three further-away CPs that would be easy because they were all on trails. Ultimately, the best decision probably would have been to start our counter-clockwise route from CP 24, but hindsight is always clearer than the picture during the race. We began a long slog on a paved road past the resort’s golf course and then climbed up to the amphitheater once again. We then got on a trail heading uphill and started seeing the real beauty of the place we’d been racing in for the past 24 hours. We hadn’t noticed it that much because of how nasty the weather has been, but it actually felt a little like New England, with the steep mountainsides and changing leaves. The climb took a while, as it was more than 1,000 vertical feet, but it was highlighted first by CP 28, which was hanging under a rock arch, and then by some really narrow staircases carved out of the rocky hillside. At the top, we found the trail out to the famous Chained Rock, where we found CP 29 attached dramatically to the top of the rock. Cliff punched and we all stopped for a short break, enjoying the expansive view of the valley shrouded in fog. We climbed back to the ridgeline and found the paved road that would take us west toward CP 30 and beyond, or to the finish if we wanted to bail. As we walked down the road, Kate and Starker were in great discomfort. Starker said he would keep going if the rest of the team wanted to, but Kate was in favor of grabbing CP30 and then finishing. Cliff wanted to clear the rest of the o-course, or at least get the two points up on the ridge (CP 22s and 23) but his feet were hurting too. Ultimately, the team decided in favor of Kate’s plan. Because Kate was in a lot of pain (especially foot pain), Cliff took the maps and navigated to CP 30, which was on a trail leading back down to the lodge. We arrived just before 11 a.m. and hit the punch marking our official finish. Claire was there to greet us and she snapped a few photos of us running across the finish line. We looked pretty epic, covered in 27 hours’ worth of mud splashed from foot, paddle and bike tires. Overall, we agreed it has been a good race. We got 34 CPs out of a possible 40, which is better than we did last year and shows good incremental progress. We didn’t get hurt or lost and we worked very well as a team, as usual for Strong Machine. Slowly but surely, we’re figuring out this sport and becoming stronger, smarter and tougher adventure racers!
We got our final passport, headed into the main lodge to warm up while we made a plan of attack, and found a half-dozen exhausted adventure racers catching naps on the floor and couches. We did manage to find a free table and quickly decided to go for CP 27 first. Our thinking was that starting there would allow us the greatest flexibility in route choice - if we wanted to get all of the CPs, we could (we probably had enough time), or if we got tired, we could reroute and still pick up some CPs either way we headed back. It was about 6:30 a.m. as we headed down the paved road from the lodge to CP 27 and we started getting the serious sleepies. Cliff especially was having issues and developed a serious rightward lurching problem as he drifted to sleep while walking. We woke back up as we tried to cut the hypoteneuse to the CP by cutting down a steep slope in the woods, but when we got to the bottom, we found there was a big river that was not entirely visible on the map (to tired eyes at least). After a few minutes of trying to bushwack and finding the route steep and very thick, we retreated back to the road and took it down to the rails-to-trails, which led directly to CP 27. We hit the CP just as it was getting light, which was perfect timing, as we saw it was in an absolutely gorgeous location at the mouth of a rail tunnel chiseled through a mountain, accessed by a partially washed-away bridge. Once there, Kate and Cliff had different ideas of where to go next. Kate wanted to grab the three other lower CPs and call it a day, while Cliff thought it was a better idea to go for three further-away CPs that would be easy because they were all on trails. Ultimately, the best decision probably would have been to start our counter-clockwise route from CP 24, but hindsight is always clearer than the picture during the race. We began a long slog on a paved road past the resort’s golf course and then climbed up to the amphitheater once again. We then got on a trail heading uphill and started seeing the real beauty of the place we’d been racing in for the past 24 hours. We hadn’t noticed it that much because of how nasty the weather has been, but it actually felt a little like New England, with the steep mountainsides and changing leaves. The climb took a while, as it was more than 1,000 vertical feet, but it was highlighted first by CP 28, which was hanging under a rock arch, and then by some really narrow staircases carved out of the rocky hillside. At the top, we found the trail out to the famous Chained Rock, where we found CP 29 attached dramatically to the top of the rock. Cliff punched and we all stopped for a short break, enjoying the expansive view of the valley shrouded in fog. We climbed back to the ridgeline and found the paved road that would take us west toward CP 30 and beyond, or to the finish if we wanted to bail. As we walked down the road, Kate and Starker were in great discomfort. Starker said he would keep going if the rest of the team wanted to, but Kate was in favor of grabbing CP30 and then finishing. Cliff wanted to clear the rest of the o-course, or at least get the two points up on the ridge (CP 22s and 23) but his feet were hurting too. Ultimately, the team decided in favor of Kate’s plan. Because Kate was in a lot of pain (especially foot pain), Cliff took the maps and navigated to CP 30, which was on a trail leading back down to the lodge. We arrived just before 11 a.m. and hit the punch marking our official finish. Claire was there to greet us and she snapped a few photos of us running across the finish line. We looked pretty epic, covered in 27 hours’ worth of mud splashed from foot, paddle and bike tires. Overall, we agreed it has been a good race. We got 34 CPs out of a possible 40, which is better than we did last year and shows good incremental progress. We didn’t get hurt or lost and we worked very well as a team, as usual for Strong Machine. Slowly but surely, we’re figuring out this sport and becoming stronger, smarter and tougher adventure racers!
Waffle House is definitely our new restaurant of choice for breakfast the morning after the race.
