So now I have the first 24h Adventure Race under my belt too, and what a race it was! Jeff and I raced as a 2M team (Team Manny's), since the woman we almost talked into doing that race with us backed out last minute, but promised to be racing the next one (her name is Brook, she looks strong!). But we had a great support team, Michelle, Jeff's wife came out there with another friend, and Yumay came out too, so at every TA we had not only extra help but also emotional support, yeehaaw!
Roger a little stressed pre-race....
Kayak dry practice pre-race....
Left!Left!Left!NO Right!Right!Right!
To the race: Started at Cashmere near Wenatchee, where we had to paddle down some pretty scary Type I/II rapids in the Sevylor Tahiti (a.k.a rubber duckies, a.k.a. the yellow death) inflatable kayaks. Question: what happens when you do a race in a sport you never practice? Answer: unless you are the biggest natural talent (not me, nor jeff), you suck!
And we did, suck and spin... we looked like we were doing a ride at disneyland, not take part in an adventure race. We spun and yelled, tried and tried, but our boat would just not go straight. That had the advantage that we were in like 10th last place after the TA to the bike, which meant we got to pass like 20 teams on the first hill.. and it was a huge hill.... like 2500 feet of climbing, and then another.
Emotional support.. the best kind!
Trek #2
We made it to the first foot TA where we saw our lovely support crew, but not for long since we were now hot in pursuit of the top teams... until we got lost. Almost forgot for a while that we were still not stellar navigators.. that did not help. After some quarrel and discontent we cound the CP and soon were trucking again. Back to the bike and off we were. From then on it was survival mode... extra shoes, 1 gallon of water, clothes, food, my pack felt like it was a million pounds. Jeff had a stomach bug and was using the trowel like it was never used before (what the f@## do we need a trowel for I asked before the race??!!, yup, for that), so that slowed us down a bit but not much. On the last trek we had no nav problems (other than that I wanted to go in the wrong direction but jeff yelled at me long enough until I got it.. sometimes I can be a bit stubborn you know :). and then it was done! 21h of racing, 5th place, 2nd in the male category, DART won in an impressive 15h... wow, we still need to learn a lot but heck did we have fun racing!
21h07min - 5th place... nice!
Roger a little stressed pre-race....
Kayak dry practice pre-race....
Left!Left!Left!NO Right!Right!Right!
To the race: Started at Cashmere near Wenatchee, where we had to paddle down some pretty scary Type I/II rapids in the Sevylor Tahiti (a.k.a rubber duckies, a.k.a. the yellow death) inflatable kayaks. Question: what happens when you do a race in a sport you never practice? Answer: unless you are the biggest natural talent (not me, nor jeff), you suck!
And we did, suck and spin... we looked like we were doing a ride at disneyland, not take part in an adventure race. We spun and yelled, tried and tried, but our boat would just not go straight. That had the advantage that we were in like 10th last place after the TA to the bike, which meant we got to pass like 20 teams on the first hill.. and it was a huge hill.... like 2500 feet of climbing, and then another.
Emotional support.. the best kind!
Trek #2
We made it to the first foot TA where we saw our lovely support crew, but not for long since we were now hot in pursuit of the top teams... until we got lost. Almost forgot for a while that we were still not stellar navigators.. that did not help. After some quarrel and discontent we cound the CP and soon were trucking again. Back to the bike and off we were. From then on it was survival mode... extra shoes, 1 gallon of water, clothes, food, my pack felt like it was a million pounds. Jeff had a stomach bug and was using the trowel like it was never used before (what the f@## do we need a trowel for I asked before the race??!!, yup, for that), so that slowed us down a bit but not much. On the last trek we had no nav problems (other than that I wanted to go in the wrong direction but jeff yelled at me long enough until I got it.. sometimes I can be a bit stubborn you know :). and then it was done! 21h of racing, 5th place, 2nd in the male category, DART won in an impressive 15h... wow, we still need to learn a lot but heck did we have fun racing!
21h07min - 5th place... nice!
The end...
