Training Log Archive: britty327

1hr massage w/Kyori then adjustment w/Kathy. Back v tight from the race for some reason. Gonna blame it on the middle seat.

We slowed down quite a bit in the early morning hours but continued to make steady progress through the bike-o on our way to the Lykens TA. By the time we got there, we had decided to call it a day and skipped the final trekking section. GOALS had a solid 2 hours on us. I start recruit school in a week, so there were no complaints from me regarding the decision. We enjoyed a short, leisurely ride back to Wisconisco as Bill officially made his way out of town. By the time I woke up from a nap, the sun was shining, and Dusty (being a badass racing solo) had made it to the finish. She made great strategic decisions and ended up beating all the male solos. LEGIT. We came in 2nd coed, 3rd OA. Off day for us, but Joe can't win em all ;) Hats off to Jim and his team for such a great effort FTW. Also, thanks to Brent, Abby, Anne, Bill, and their army of volunteers for an awesome race in a cool area!

Event: Cradle of Liberty Adventure Race
 

Cradle of Liberty with Joe and Jeff in PA. Got an overview map the night before with mandatory points and TAs to plot. There would be about 70 CPs. Received the rest of the maps and some supplementaries as we boarded the bus to the start. The prologue was a 1/2 mile foot relay following a flagged route. It had a couple of bonus water crossings onto an island and back. It's not an AR if your feet aren't wet in the first 5min! We finished this mid pack and grabbed a canoe.

C • 70 CPs! 6

The paddle down the Susquehanna was a good time. The water was high and moving well. A few miles in, we entered a series of islands and channels that allowed for some good water nav. It required a couple of short upstream paddles that really let you get a feel for the current. Joe negotiated this flawlessly, and we left the islands with GOALS (or slightly behind due to pee breaks). We had another 8 or so miles left, but there were a few more CPs to break up the monotony. The last was on an island covered in poison ivy, which I am covered with as I write this. At the take out, we were greeted by young, energetic volunteers who carried our boat and even removed our 3rd seat. Riverside service!

C • PI 4

We had a quick road ride to the rail trail which eventually led us to the Ned Smith Center. The TA itself didn't have an obvious way to it, but a park map showed us the way.

The Ned Smith O course was quick and fun. We bushwhacked most of it and waded across the river twice. We skipped CP5 in the beginning and had to run past TA to get it. Attacking from below made it tough since there was really no attack point. The clue was downhill from a sign. We eventually went up to the trail and found the sign, which took us right to the CP. Lots of teams searching for 5. Apparently, if you took the trail from the beginning, you ran into a big sign first that was the wrong one. There was a solid trail heading down from it, but it wasn't close to the CP. No harm done there since most struggled with this one. GOALS had a 10-15min lead at this point.

From Ned Smith, we got back out on the rail trail and headed to a power line for an 800' hike a bike climb to the 2nd of 3 mandatory CPs. It was crazy steep at times, but we knocked out all of our climb in less than 30min. Then it was a rolling road ride to Lake Tobias Wildlife Park for a safari hike and ice cream!

Note: I wore my new PI X-Projects for this race and was having some heel pain on the power line climb. I stuck my heel lifts in them from my Altras on the next bike section, and it solved the problem immediately.

Race rules expressly stated NO RUNNING in the zoo. It was a nice little break in the afternoon. If you cleared the 9 CPs here, you got a 1 hour time credit. I was so excited for ice cream...the line was way too long. Cold Gatorade instead. Saw zebras, bear, monkeys, lots of aminals.

To get to the next TA at Minnich Picnic Area, you had to choose between one of 2 mandatory points, which would either take you on a southern or northern route. We chose the southern route via M3B. It was a beautiful ride through the country, with lots of shade and a long steady gravel climb up to the CP. We passed GOALS on the climb and left TA a few minutes before them. No sign of other teams.

We hustled out of TA, hoping to clear this section before dusk. We were steadily knocking CPs off, doing a fair amount of bushwhacking through the blueberry bushes, greenbriar, and eventually mountain laurel. The rain started at 7PM and turned into a downpour shortly thereafter. Oh hey Bill! It continued to pour until after midnight, then steady rain/drizzle/fog till sunrise. Not long after the rain began, we had an issue with the island CP. No good attack point from our direction, so we went out to the road backstop, and Joe attacked from the bend. This took us within 15m of the CP, but we went the other way down the stream because we didn't see it. Eventually we backtracked, and it was right there. The infamous "stream" CP was also painful for us. Multiple streams and dry stream beds in the area. We followed a couple that were not right and burned solid time here. Eventually we pinged it just after dark and headed back to TA, where we learned we had lost an hour to GOALS.

C • Stream 5

The 3 of us huddled in an outhouse to regroup and redress for an overnight ride. I put on a dry shirt and my Marmot Precip shell, choosing to leave my soaked tights on and add bike shorts. My clothing choice worked well. I was warm at times but never got chilly unless we stopped for a few minutes. Joe's headlamp wasn't working, so we took the Stella off my bike. Good or bad, I'm getting very proficient at riding technical terrain with 1 Stella on low for an entire night! (This makes race #3 I've done it in the last year.) Light&Motion FTW!!! This MTBO section in Weiser State Forest became the crux of the race. Teams slowed down a lot to navigate the maze of trails in the pouring rain. Surprisingly, trail conditions stayed very rideable. There was running water on many of the trails, but they were never muddy. As for the rocks, you could either ride them or you couldn't. For the trail system, we were given a supplemental trail map to go with the topo map. Joe managed to navigate the entire section solely off of the trail map which he had transposed the CPs over to. It was impressive. At one point, we missed a turn and ended up back at TA on accident. It was out of the way but not catastrophic. It ended up changing our route order. I really enjoyed this course overall and thought Abby and Brent put on a fantastic race. My only critique would be that we had to bushwhack A LOT for bike CPs, on an MTBO sandwiched between 2 bushwhack-intensive treks. If you can navigate the trail system, it would have been nice to be rewarded with CPs closer to the trails. I mean, we have to find 70! Haha.

EZ breakfast ride. Tried to go for crepes, but traffic was too much.

Met Sarah at PW Forest for a packed run. Checked out the permanent O courses. They have 29 courses! Chose #22 I think. 3 mile trail run to the start, then did the first 7 CPs. 3 miles back. Did a lil bit of a refresher course for her. Fun muggy morning.

C • Permanent courses 3