Wild Wonderful 24 Hour Adventure Race - Part Two

When I arrived at my house after driving home from the race, my kids ran up to me - first to give me a hug and then to count the bruises, scrapes and scratches. There were a lot to count. My husband was right behind the kids and he simply asked - "... so when are you doing the next one?" He knew, as did I, that doing this race would mean that I would get hooked and doing just one would not be enough. I had a dim thought of doing an adventure race one day, but I purposely did not want to do one because I was afraid that I would add it to my growing list of hobbies. Time is precious - and I am simply running out of it. But the opportunity to do an adventure race presented itself during the month I took off between jobs and I'm glad I took it.

From what I've gathered, no two adventure races are the same. They can consist of a variety of elements, including water sport (swimming, white water, kayaking, etc), trekking, ropes, mountain biking, to name a few. They can range in time from a couple hours to a couple days. The Wild Wonderful Adventure Race was a 24 hour race consisting of white water rafting, trekking, mountain biking and an optional orienteering course.

I spent the week before the race at the Odyssey Adventure Academy (see previous blog) with nine other racers and most of us went on from the academy to race. My team consisted of two other academy participants - Curtis and Andreas. Unlike the other teams, none of us knew each other prior to the academy, and it was clear from the beginning that managing personalities would become as difficult as the physical aspect of the race. I often referred to Andreas, a 31 year old software engineer from Uruguay who is temporarily stationed in Memphis, as the "bad boy from South America." Curtis was far more conservative and a bit of a geek. By the end of the academy he managed to alienate just about every other participant. At the very least he prompted many eye rolls. He was however, a great navigator - something I clearly was not.
As for me - I have my own flaws and my lack of patience came out often - particularly as I became more and more exhausted. At times it felt as though we were stopping every couple minutes, to get our barrings or change clothes, etc. when I just wanted to ride or walk. Curtis and Andreas - on more than one occasion had to remind me that we had a long race and stopping was inevitable. The three of us did not have much in common, but in the end we really did not have much opportunity to hang out and talk anyway.

The race started with white water rafting. Teams were placed on rafts based on lottery with 7-8 total people per boat. We ended up with the perfect storm resulting in what I believe to be a last place finish in that stage of the race. First each team had to select a member to run up stairs, down a little hill, jump into the water and swim to the raft. Most rafts had two teams and thus two swimmers. We had four teams - a team of three, a team of two and two solo racers. We were only as fast as the slowest swimmer and unfortunately one of the solo racers was pretty darn slow. We also only had seven paddlers, while most other boats had eight. And just to put the final nail in the coffin - our guide, Stan, announced that last time he did a race like this one - his boat placed last. In fact, the only person who nearly got ejected from the boat was Stan. Despite the less than stellar finish, the water was high so we got to go through a number of class 3-5 rapids.

After the white water, we transitioned to the first trek along the Endless Wall. With in the first hour of the trek, I slipped and hit my knee squarely on a rock. Andreas asked me if I was okay. I replied "Don't ask me again, because I'm afraid if I think about it I'll have to stop, sit on a rock and cry." Yeah - it hurt... a lot! It bruised and swelled and fancied a couple scrapes, but as I continued, it hurt less and less. We came across the first couple check points with relatively no problem until CP 4. There were about six teams hanging around a flag that didn't seem quite right according to the coordinates. The navigators all huddled and discussed until someone finally called the race management. He described the location of the flag and mentioned that it did seem quite right. The person on the other end of the line, suggested we punch our passport and move on. She took a list of all the teams for further reference. We punch and were ready to move on - but by this time Andreas had disappeared. I whistled, I yelled and I got very annoyed. He had gone off exploring and now we could not find him. After several minutes, we finally located him and continued on - but not after letting him know that he had to stay with in 100 feet of his teammates per the rules. We caught up with the other teams by the time reached CP 5 about 6 hours into race. CP 5 was the transition to bikes and we were all looking forward to getting off our feet for a bit. BUT - as we were getting our bikes ready we over heard another team talking to the race director, apparently the flag we thought was a check point was actually mistakenly left up from the previous race several months ago. We were very disappointed to learn that we had to trek back to the real CP 4 and return to CP 5. This mistake cost us nearly an hour - more than physically - it wore us down mentally.

When we finally made it back to CP 5, we discovered that Andreas had a flat. It seemed like we were never going to get beyond CP 5! Andreas was quick with the tire change and we were off to to check points 5a and 6. We went screaming down a hill in search of CP 6 when I discovered that I had no back brakes... scary. We pulled over to fix them and a solo rider walked past us on the steep incline. We said hello and asked how far he thought CP 6 was - and that is when we found out that it was actually behind us. It wasn't too far distance wize, but we would have to work our way up the huge hill we just came down. Another costly mistake!

There were several points where we were unsure of our direction, but after a while I learned that Curtis did best if he went on his first instinct then when he second guessed himself - so I was the one who after listening to his options - generally pushed him towards his first direction. Most of the time he was right on. We ended spending over 10 hours on the bikes mostly at night. Andreas nearly fell asleep as we rode and swerved several times. We ran out of water at 3AM and had to re-fill at a stream. Right before dawn my front lamp began to dim, but we made the bike cut off and thus could continue to check point 11. Unfortunately, we did not make it in time to do the long course, so we had to settle for the short course (which seems like a misnomer to me...).

We transitioned from bikes back to trekking and I was ready to move... once again my teammates had to urge me to be patient. I think because I was moving slower to stay with the team, I started to fade - I did most of the trek out to CP 11 with my eyes closed. I think Andreas was completely a sleep - yet still walking. After the check in and turn around at 11 I got my second wind and as I walked back to the finish - this time with my eyes opened, I was amazed at what I had traversed with my eyes closed!

We reached the finish line and successfully completed the short course in less than 24 hours. We opted to get at least one optional orienteering point. We found one and then lost the concentration to go after any more. I was exhausted and ready to be done. We returned to the finish line, grabbed some food and started talking to other racers. I had to chuckle when I found myself asking other racers about good races to do in the fall... yeah, I'll be doing another!

Adventure Academy and Race - Part One

What a great week! When I took off a month between jobs, I promised myself that I would do something entirely for me. My plan was to go away for a week all by myself - no kids and no husband. This sounds selfish, and it probably is - but man was it great!

Given the uncertainty of when I would be leaving one job and starting the next, I did not have much time to plan my trip. I knew I wanted to go some place where I could play and sweat - what ever I did, I wanted to go at it hard! I searched the internet for options. I looked a vacation packages and camps. I soon focused in on surfing camps and adventure camps. Surfing in Costa Rica looked like a blast, but since I had waited so long to make a reservation, the flight was over $1500 - thus making the trip financially unreasonable. So adventure camp it was...

I quickly weeded out those camps that had pictures out of shape people on their site. I soon focused on Odyssey Adventure Academy - a 5 day camp that culminated in a 24 hour race. I rationalized all the gear I had to purchase by comparing it to the cost of the plane ticket to Costa Rica. Besides - I knew I'd use the gear again and it helped that REI was having its annual sale!

There were 9 students at the academy. Some were experienced adventure racers and other, like me, who had no experience at all. I was the first one to show up at Camp Washington Carver near New River Gorge in West Virginia. The gates were closed and a quick stroll through the camp revealed no one. I was beginning to fret that I sent my money to a black hole! Fortunately another person showed up, and then another until there were seven of us hanging out at the locked gate, wondering if there was in fact a camp. There was no cell phone service at the camp. After about an hour we left as a group to find a location with cell service - when we finally able to reach a live person, we learned that the location of the camp had changed. Apparently none of us got the e-mail... At least we didn't have to go through any of those silly ice breaking exercises, since we all got to know each other while we hung out at the locked gate. Everyone had a great sense of humor, and I was looking forward to a fun week.

When we finally made it to the correct location, we were shown to our lodging. A 20' x 20' cabin with a loft. Six of of us were to sleep there - four women and two men. Good thing we all liked each other!

The first day was repelling and ascending. We spent the morning learning techniques and safety and headed to the cliffs in the afternoon. The repelling was awesome! What a high. I headed over to the "lobster claw"climb next. Two people had gone before me up this wall. Mike, a very fit and experienced adventure racer, scaled the wall with some difficulty but made it all the way up. The next woman got stuck at a very difficult section and ultimately gave up. When it was my turn and when I got to this same section of the climb, I refused to stop trying. It took a lot of coaching from the instructors and some pure gutting out but I made it through the section. The rest of the climb was tough, but the adrenaline got me through it.

Day two we learned navigation. Despite the great instruction, it was clear from the get go that navigation was where I was going to struggle the most... After doing classroom work in the morning, we headed out to the park to test of our knowledge. Before leaving, we packed up our gear in our packs. Because of our tight quarters, I left some things in my car that I had to retrieve for the day's activities. After getting what I need out I slammed the door shut (the car was parked at a side angle and the door needed a hard slam to close). I was horrified when I realized my finger was caught in the door. I had to drop everything out of my other hand so that I could open the car door to release my finger. I took a quick look at the cut and bent finger to confirm no broken bones. The cut was pretty deep, and I knew I was going to need at least a butterfly band aid. I made my way up to the main cabin where every was waiting to leave and found a fellow participant who I knew was a doctor in real life. He took a look and confirmed I would probably need something to avoid infection and to help it heal faster. I thought it would be okay to do the afternoon field work first and then we could pick up some durabond and steri stripes at the pharmacy. One of the instructors went to work cleaning my finger and and bandaging it up, during which I got more and more light headed, until I eventually was looking up at three faces all of which were asking if I was okay. Yep - I passed out! In the process I hit my chin on the fireplace and scraped it up pretty good. Now the Doc was checking my face to see if I broke my cheek bones! They all laughed when I said "you guys are still going to let me go today - right?" They did let me go - taped up fingers, bleeding chin and all. Since there was no durabond or steri strips to be found, I headed out to the closest urgent care facility and they took care of the finger. The emergency doctor and I had a little disagreement over whether I could continue doing the adventure camp... I won. I was back at the camp and I was able to grab a quick bite of dinner before heading out for nigh navigation.

Day three was canoeing and kayaking. Good thing we are building a new garage... cause I'm going to need the space for the new kayak! Day four we spent another day on the water white water rafting. In addition to all the field work I've described above we had class room work on first aid, back pack packing, foot care etc. We also did a little mountain biking and trekking. In all the earliest I went to bed all week was 11 PM the latest was 3 AM and averaged about 1 AM. By Friday I was beat and I still had a 24 hour race on Saturday! Stay tuned for my next entry about the race...

Is Doing it All Too Much?

I recently wrote about “doing it all” (see previous blog entry). I read an article a couple weeks ago about how people are squeezing “31 hours of tasks in a 24 hour day” by multi-tasking using a plethora of electronic devices(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3735970.ece). Are we all really that consumed with trying to do all? When is doing it all too much? And most importantly – are we setting unrealistic or unhealthy examples for our kids?

I am currently between jobs and I’ve taken a month off to relax, rejuvenate and start my new job re-energized. During my first week off I learned that… well, I don’t know how to relax. Heading into the week, I planned to read a book, write, spend time with the boys and work-out. But as I sat down to read my first book, I'd found my mind drifting to the things I "should"be doing. So instead of relaxing, I headed to Home Depot to buy a door, I got both cars serviced, I cleaned out two closets, I raked the front yard, and so on. As the week came to close, I could feel myself stressing that a week had already passed and, despite all that I had done, I really hadn’t done anything!

I sit a local coffee shop as I write this entry because I know that if I sit at home, I will feel compelled to switch the laundry from washer to dryer, to empty the dish washer, make the bed and pick up shoes – man we have a lot of shoes! At night, I watch an hour of TV during which I fold a load or two of laundry. If I watch TV without folding, I feel guilty. No one makes me feel that way except me. Sleeping past seven o’clock - like I did on Mother’s Day - is a guilty pleasure reserved for holidays. Of course, I didn’t actually sleep since the kids came into my room every five minutes to encourage me to sleep until they were finished making breakfast.

A couple days ago, my oldest came to me before going to bed and started to cry uncontrollably. When I finally calmed him down, he explained that he had not done his homework for two days. When I asked him why he hadn’t done his work, he said that sometimes he just wants to play. Brendan is a very responsible and smart kid so his response hit a chord with me – every kid should be able to play! A couple days later I met with the teachers to see how we could relieve some of the stress. His teacher looked at me and simply said – "Your son wants to be like you. He sees you doing it all and he thinks he can do it too." Ouch.

The night after Brendan’s crying out burst, he actually came to me and asked how I do it all. Without much thought, I told him that I just find away. I now realize that I could not have responded more inappropriately. What Brendan doesn’t see or know is that some things don’t get done… or they take far longer than perhaps they should. Our basement is piled with so much stuff, that I will not let anyone outside the family down there for fear of embarrassment. We have more “junk drawers”then most people have junk. And until last week, my closet was such a mess that finding anything was chore. Oh – and it has been year since I washed my car. I pay people to do things that my parents did themselves.

So how do I do it all? First off, I sometimes don’t do it very well – but deciding what is important help set priorities. Family will always come first for me. Leading a fit life style comes next and my professional career is also up there. If you see me doing it all... it is usually focused in one of those three areas.

Next week I head to West Virginia to participate in an Adventure Camp culminating with a 24 hour Adventure Race. My kids are jealous. Mountain biking, rock climbing, repelling, trekking…I can’t think of anything more fun - except perhaps a surfing camp in Costa Rica (next time)! So this week I WILL relax. I will read a book, I will sit in coffee shops writing, and I will pick up the kids early from school. I will write a little and maybe even take a nap. I will do this all - and I will not feel guilty!