Training Log Archive: pfc

Florida Coast to Coast 3day AR

C • wow! 8

Road bike through Mayo and south into Mallory Swamp. Guess where the first CP was (answer: not where marked on the map!) Lots of teams had problems with this one too. We even investigated some other trails over to the east, but with no success. Finally we took a short nap, then decided to bag it and head for 26-27-28. It was a hard thrash to get to 26, but once there things got easier and the others were right on. Buck was almost dead tonight but perked up right near sunrise and started to tow all our sorry selves out of the swamp towards the last section.

When we got to the paddle TA, a couple other teams were sleeping. We blew through TA in 6 minutes and cruised down the Steinhatchee River to the finish in town. The other teams weren't able to wake up and get going in time and couldn't overtake us - we were able to maintain a 10 minute gap and then a steady stream of finishers trickled in. Great finish, and a beautiful paddle as well.

Crossed the finish line in 2nd place, 3rd place overall.

Took a quick TA and snuck out on the trek section before OA Gear. Our goal was to make the original 5 AM ropes cutoff (even though it had already changed to 8 AM.) Crossed the river on a footbridge and got a quick CP on the west side, then hiked down to the first traverse. We were the first team to arrive and got the volunteers out of bed.

The ropes were set up like a zip line and I went aross first. Unfortunately, the rope wasn't tight enough and was low enough that I plowed ass first into the river about halfway across and had to pull myself the rest of the way through. Everyone else did the same and we had a moment of consternation when we realized a couple of the maps got wet. We were able to dry them sufficiently, though, and I knew I could figure a way to sneak a peek at another team's maps later on.

After that, we had some nice hiking to the second (return) tracerse which was set up a little higher and tighter. Then a long hot trek with 2 more CPs, but we took a bad route out and wasted a lot of time getting to the next paddle section. OA Gear passed us while we looked for CP 23.

Simple paddle down the middle Suwannee River. Passed a lot more people and boats. There were several springs along the side of the river that were popular "swimmin' holes". We cooled off in one small rapid right near the end and pulled out at the Hwy 51 bridge. A bit slow since we were feeling the lack of sleep and had a headwind.

Sleep and transition time at Ocean Pond. Includes time for second set of maps, plotting, and checking.

Trek to three "swamp points" placed in the middle of (dry) swampy areas 600-1500 meters from possible attack points. LOTS of teams were unable to find any of the teams, a couple of teams did but were just lucky. This became a major point of contention later in the race.

We teamed up with Dirty Fish (who included Ron Eaglin from FLO) and Relentless at SP1. We attacked from two different direction, DF did those two and a third and we all came to the exact same spot multiple times - the right spot on the map, but no flag...

Finally we decided to bag the three points. Jay made the point that if we couldn't find the one 600m in, 1500m was out of hte question.

From east of Lake City to the upper part of the Suwanee River. Good cool evening with the wind at our backs.

Nightime paddle down the Suwannee River. Lots of twists and turns, but a quarter moon and bright stars helped guide the way. Picked up two CPs and had a cold last half.

Florida C2C Adventure Race. Started on the Atlantic coast near Guana River SP. Started with a road run down to the park entrance, then a trek through the park about a mile offshore.

Bike from the TA to the paddle section. No checkpoints and a fast road ride. I think it was added at the last minute as an alternate route around the fires.

Put in at Switzerland and paddling over the St. Johns River and through another one (name escapes me) to Middleburg. Windy with 2-3 foot waves on the St. Johns (2 mi wide) and we found the rudder was broken on our boat. That sucked. But at least we didn't get swamped by a curious manatee like another team.

Long bike through Jennings SF with some tricky drop-bike-and-bushwhack sections. Afterwards, an ice cream stop and a road ride to the midpoint of the course.

TAs were quick. We decided to sleep at the course midpoint near Lake City.