I knew going into this year’s Two Rivers AR that this race was going to be unique for me. First, it was my first race back after pregnancy. Just a little less than four months post-childbirth, I had only recently gotten back into light training (mostly four-ish mile runs and yoga). Second, for the first time ever, I would be racing without my husband, Cliff. And finally, related to both of these, Cliff would be driving our son, Wilder, around the course, meeting me at TAs, to breastfeed. Wilder had his first cold the week before the race, which he kindly passed on to Cliff and me. Between that and a recent sleep regression, I wasn’t feeling my best physically, but was otherwise feeling motivated and excited to get to the start line.
Luckily, I had two truly amazing teammates willing to join me on this first race back, in a still-recovering body with a hungry little dude to meet up with all over the course. This leads me to another new piece to this race - I would be racing as Chaos Machine, a beautiful marriage of Strong Machine (led by Cliff and me) and Chaos Raid (led by Rick Keilty and Eric Wyler). For this race, we were a coed premier team comprised of me, Rick, and Claire (who has raced with both teams before).
The Two Rivers AR, now in its second year, proved to be another fantastic course put together by our buddies at Rootstock Racing, this time around Wilmington, Delaware. Our team arrived at our hotel late the night before and quickly sorted gear before getting a few hours of sleep. Of course, Wilder woke up in the middle of our four-ish hour sleep, meaning that Cliff and I logged maybe two hours… getting right back into AR training. Nonetheless, we dragged ourselves to the bike drop and then registration and, after a minor bus-related delay (trauma flashbacks of MSAR 2017!), we were en route to the start line.
The race started with a couple hours of super fun single track and some interesting strategy choices with a mix of optional checkpoint combos and a max number of points to earn. We cleared the section and were on our way to the paddle put-in when we realized that we missed one of the few mandatory points. Oops. Rick was kicking himself for the approximately 30 minutes lost (of course he timed it to torture himself), but honestly we had nav-ed so well through the rest of the trails that Claire and I weren’t upset.
We got to the paddle put-in with time to spare to feed the baby before the cut-off, though towards the back of the pack. This would be a seven-mile paddle down the Christina River to the beautiful DuPont Environmental Education Center. We made decent time on this section, but decided to skip two CPs to catch back up to the main pack. Plus, the day hadn’t warmed up all that much, with a thick cloud cover blocking out what would have been some useful sunshine. We were chilly and needed to get out of the boat.
Off the water, we changed into dry clothes and then started an urban orienteering course around downtown Wilmington. I’d never visited before, so it was fun to check out the city and all of its historic landmarks. We decided to again skip two CPs. This was a tough section for me - I was feeling sluggish and frustrated at my inability to maintain any kind of steady run. I was really happy to make it to the next TA, where Wilder was awaiting another meal.
After another baby feed, we got back on our bikes for a fast ride along a bike path up to the final O section. We decided to skip some optional MTB points along the way to maximize time on the last section, where we knew the points would be denser. Also this final section just sounded super cool. RDs Brent and Abby worked with landowners outside of Wilmington to put together a “Farm-gaine” - a very cool O around some gorgeous and historic farm properties. But, before we got started, we met up with Cliff one last time - unfortunately the baby was asleep so I pumped as quickly as I could to reduce discomfort/allow me to run at least a bit on this section without pain!
The Farm-gaine was a great section. We scrambled around beautiful, old homes, hidden creeks, romantically-ramshackle farm buildings, and the occasional target practice range (eek!), picking up the pace towards the end to grab 15 of 30 possible CPs. I truly enjoyed sitting back and watching Rick nav this section. Having the pressure off me for navigation was really nice, and Rick moved us from CP to CP with laser-like precision. We nabbed a bunch of unexpected CPs on our way to the finish line, energizing us and motivating us to keep going for just… one… more… until we got nervous about missing the cut-off time. We sprinted back to the finish line and arrived with five minutes to spare.
We finished middle-of-the-pack overall, which wasn’t bad considering the high caliber of the other teams and the fact that we spent over an hour in TA feeding the baby (which was also rough on the team in terms of warming back up after these breaks). Overall, this was not bad for a first race back after a long time away from regular training. I felt good in many ways, like I could keep moving for 12-hours without any problem, but I also felt like I was missing that “next gear” needed to move faster and push harder. I finished feeling motivated and excited for next year.
I am so very thankful to Cliff for shuttling the baby all over the race course and for my awesome teammates Claire and Rick, who motivated me to race hard. This race was a team effort in the fullest sense. Can’t wait to see what Chaos Machine can do in 2018!
Luckily, I had two truly amazing teammates willing to join me on this first race back, in a still-recovering body with a hungry little dude to meet up with all over the course. This leads me to another new piece to this race - I would be racing as Chaos Machine, a beautiful marriage of Strong Machine (led by Cliff and me) and Chaos Raid (led by Rick Keilty and Eric Wyler). For this race, we were a coed premier team comprised of me, Rick, and Claire (who has raced with both teams before).
The Two Rivers AR, now in its second year, proved to be another fantastic course put together by our buddies at Rootstock Racing, this time around Wilmington, Delaware. Our team arrived at our hotel late the night before and quickly sorted gear before getting a few hours of sleep. Of course, Wilder woke up in the middle of our four-ish hour sleep, meaning that Cliff and I logged maybe two hours… getting right back into AR training. Nonetheless, we dragged ourselves to the bike drop and then registration and, after a minor bus-related delay (trauma flashbacks of MSAR 2017!), we were en route to the start line.
The race started with a couple hours of super fun single track and some interesting strategy choices with a mix of optional checkpoint combos and a max number of points to earn. We cleared the section and were on our way to the paddle put-in when we realized that we missed one of the few mandatory points. Oops. Rick was kicking himself for the approximately 30 minutes lost (of course he timed it to torture himself), but honestly we had nav-ed so well through the rest of the trails that Claire and I weren’t upset.
We got to the paddle put-in with time to spare to feed the baby before the cut-off, though towards the back of the pack. This would be a seven-mile paddle down the Christina River to the beautiful DuPont Environmental Education Center. We made decent time on this section, but decided to skip two CPs to catch back up to the main pack. Plus, the day hadn’t warmed up all that much, with a thick cloud cover blocking out what would have been some useful sunshine. We were chilly and needed to get out of the boat.
Off the water, we changed into dry clothes and then started an urban orienteering course around downtown Wilmington. I’d never visited before, so it was fun to check out the city and all of its historic landmarks. We decided to again skip two CPs. This was a tough section for me - I was feeling sluggish and frustrated at my inability to maintain any kind of steady run. I was really happy to make it to the next TA, where Wilder was awaiting another meal.
After another baby feed, we got back on our bikes for a fast ride along a bike path up to the final O section. We decided to skip some optional MTB points along the way to maximize time on the last section, where we knew the points would be denser. Also this final section just sounded super cool. RDs Brent and Abby worked with landowners outside of Wilmington to put together a “Farm-gaine” - a very cool O around some gorgeous and historic farm properties. But, before we got started, we met up with Cliff one last time - unfortunately the baby was asleep so I pumped as quickly as I could to reduce discomfort/allow me to run at least a bit on this section without pain!
The Farm-gaine was a great section. We scrambled around beautiful, old homes, hidden creeks, romantically-ramshackle farm buildings, and the occasional target practice range (eek!), picking up the pace towards the end to grab 15 of 30 possible CPs. I truly enjoyed sitting back and watching Rick nav this section. Having the pressure off me for navigation was really nice, and Rick moved us from CP to CP with laser-like precision. We nabbed a bunch of unexpected CPs on our way to the finish line, energizing us and motivating us to keep going for just… one… more… until we got nervous about missing the cut-off time. We sprinted back to the finish line and arrived with five minutes to spare.
We finished middle-of-the-pack overall, which wasn’t bad considering the high caliber of the other teams and the fact that we spent over an hour in TA feeding the baby (which was also rough on the team in terms of warming back up after these breaks). Overall, this was not bad for a first race back after a long time away from regular training. I felt good in many ways, like I could keep moving for 12-hours without any problem, but I also felt like I was missing that “next gear” needed to move faster and push harder. I finished feeling motivated and excited for next year.
I am so very thankful to Cliff for shuttling the baby all over the race course and for my awesome teammates Claire and Rick, who motivated me to race hard. This race was a team effort in the fullest sense. Can’t wait to see what Chaos Machine can do in 2018!
