Training Log Archive: silkychrome

Off Road Rage 12hr AR w Jason & Jeff, aka how to do a 12hr race somewhat off the couch...have great teammates that can tow for miles!

1 - TREK around town
about 3-4 miles? urban-o, took pictures at each CP instead of punching, easy enough and great way to start. i wore a fleece and immediately overheated, had to take it off. finished this about 3rd OA?

2 - BIKE longer road/gravel
about 18-20 miles, all road. we started with the Wild Hares and they rode our wheel for a while. after 25 we had a sneaky route choice planned so we stalled at the punch until they left. executed our route and...BAM private property about 1 mile into it. turned around....now down to about 6th or 7th OA? and more importantly behind Unplugged's co-ed team.

i didn't care for this section because there were lots of unmapped roads that we had to draw in the night before from google maps. it's not that hard to add in unmapped roads in MyTopo...it should be a basic standard to provide teams maps that they don't HAVE to supplement themselves the night before. there were also private roads that were not shown on the map, and teams had to be told last-minute not to go there - this should have been drawn in on the map as out-of-bounds and/or included in the race instructions. I totally understand teams using google maps the night before to add in unmapped details/landmarks, but basic things like roads should be provided on the maps as a minimum. we lost about 10 minutes to our route choice (our decision) and another 5 minutes to unmapped roads (better routes existed that we didn't transfer from google maps).

3 - TREK, two points in the swamp
nice little o section before paddling. i really liked this format with short treks sprinkled in to help keep fingers and toes warm. again, the map was pretty useless as both CPs were on trails that were unmapped. the trails were rough and faint, BUT...if your clue is "trail/creek junction" i believe both the creek and the trail should be mapped. in our case we only had the creeks mapped. anyway we finished this trek back in 3rd or 4th OA, but still behind Unplugged by about 15 min.

4 - PADDLE/portage
paddle on the reservoir, we got to all use kayak paddles (a first for an Off Road Rage race!!) that was nice. windy on this point-to-point leg. we saw Unplugged ahead of us portage towards the end and even though we hadn't planned on it, we portaged as well. about a mile which didn't cut off much distance but allowed us to trek on a paved road instead of paddle into a headwind. Wild Hares called in a complaint about this, since they claimed we didn't get 21, but we did, we just portaged our canoe to in instead of paddled to it. still about 15min behind Unplugged.

5 - TREK, four point loop
another short trekking loop to warm up, we had seen Unplugged ahead of us (walking) and thought maybe we had a chance. Jason zinged this loop and we all ran hard to keep up. came into TA now 10min down.

6 - PADDLE tailwind
put in and rode the tailwind home. at the take-out we saw other teams just starting their paddle and DANG the wind had really picked up, it was going to be tough for them. at the take-out we also saw Unplugged just leaving so thought we had gained another few minutes.

7 - BIKE back home w singletrack
supa fast TA (we all had flat pedals so no need to sit down) and rolled out, headwind to start on the levee trail and Jeff towed awesome the whole way. got into the singletrack and it was really rocky/bumpy so rough on our poor rigid bikes (again we all had rigid hardtails). but we kept pushing hard and hoping that Unplugged and the Skeletons would be hating it too. there were 6 CPs in the singletrack and no bikewhacking allowed. the trails were hard to follow with all the leaf cover. we caught Unplugged at the 3rd CP and kept riding hard to build a gap. on the way to the 5th CP i got separated from Jeff & Jason as i totally missed a trail junction that they took. SO LUCKY that the trail i was on looped around to hit the junction they took. when i met back up with them, Unplugged and the Skeletons were there two, looking for the CP. well luckily I had ridden past it on my detour so i clued all 3 teams in (lack of sneakiness on my part there) and now it was a tie for the lead with 1 CP to go. AHHHH!!! we took off and almost missed a key trail junction, luckily we spotted it and used a shorter trail to get back to the road. once on the road it was a 5k sprint to the finish, we stayed ahead of Unplugged with timely road crossings and major team towing!! finished just about 30 seconds ahead of them for the OA win. 2nd OA Unplugged, 3rd OA Skeletons (2p male) who said they missed the last trail junction in the singletrack, otherwise they could have ridden us down too!

dramatic and fun race! despite my complaints about the map, afterwards it was so nice talking with Tiara that I kind of forgot about the map. I still think that there needs to be some mapping standards but Tiara really does put a lot of work into her races (including vegetarian post-race food, that is so key!!), and she does them with her dad Ben who is also a very kind human. so overall, i would go back, especially to the town of Warsaw which is a great location for the Missouri/Kansas/Arkansas crowd.

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