Training Log Archive: bugeater

milford KS

Break Up Adventure Race

March 20, 2021 Milford KS


The weekend was ripe for excitement and the team was ready to roll. This past year’s racing has been muted with the covid situation, and as the world is still figuring out how to get back to normal, the Break Up AR was able to move forward. Micah, Jim and I agreed to give it a go. This would be Jim’s first adventure race ever and if there was a first-timer 24-hour race to dive into this, would be one I would recommend. This was a good early season race for myself, as I am still working back into fitness from a let’s just say an ‘easy’ covid season. This year, there would be no paddle section due to permit issues, so it was biking and trekking for 24hrs.

I journeyed south from Minnesota, and we gathered at Micah’s place the day before and continued our march to Milford. This being Jim’s first AR, micah and I attempted to give him every piece of advice and strategy we could think of, without scaring him off prior to the start; Micah and I were confident in Jim but were in for a treat we did not expect. Race check-in was smooth, we received our first map and race instructions. We received the first 26 checkpoints (CPs) up until transition area (TA) two. The pre-race meeting was at 745am, with the start 15 minutes later. We spent the rest of the evening strategizing, and prepping gear, then getting the last bit of precious sleep we could.

Saturday morning, we awoke, made our way to the hardware store to pick up a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (race required team gear). Then we worked our way to the start/finish line to prepare. After some routine last-minute announcements, the GO signal was given at 8 am sharp.

Trek- The first section was a two-part trek, that we elected to complete all together, to minimize transitions. We moved smoothly through this section; I focused on getting a handle of the maps, while Micah and Jim worked out the passport punching and soon Jim had the groove. We finished this section under two hours, seeing the surrounding area, primarily Corps of Engineers land and the town of Milford.

Bike- Hopped on the bikes and headed south for what would eventually be a tour around Milford Lake. We were with the lead pack of teams, and more importantly still within ourselves as a team. We visited several CPs and in parks, along roads, across cow pastures, along trails that did not exist on the map. Trails (and occasional road) that were not on the map would become a theme of the adventure; a bit of a navigator’s puzzle when there is maze of trails going every direction and no idea of which one is correct one. We rode along a bike path towards Junction City. Along the way we had the dreaded CP clue- ‘tree in a clearing’; this was next to a campground area, in a flat bottom, wide open area. A mess of teams ended up spending way to much time looking for the punch, until someone located it finally. This bunched the front teams up again. We made out way to the next TA, with only one other glitch CP finding episode, basically the front four teams together.

Trek- 3 CPs. These were nearby and took about one hour to get, we navigated straight to each one, and spooked one skunk in the process; Micah jumped over it, yelled “skunk!” and Jim managed to slam on the brakes cartoon-style, wiping out, and startling me all while trying not to get skunked! We had a good laugh. Back to the TA and were in a solid third place. We received more CPs to plot for the next bike and trek sections.

Bike- this was a biking leg across the countryside on the southwest side of Milford lake. One section of the ride lead the team off and back on the map for a brief period of time; this was bit of a heart-in-throat moment, as there is no way to follow along in the case of unexpected direction changes, etc., but the road worked it’s way back onto the map, and we moved along to the next few points. We had some trouble locating a CP in an inlet, off the main road; turns out I had stopped us one inlet early, and we lost another solid chunk of time.

Trek- The next trek was doosie. It covered some serious ground and with evening approaching, getting as many as possible with daylight would be advantageous. We were behind the lead team about 40 minutes, but we would be quick on foot. We hit the jets; we pushed hard on everything, I took every shortcut and bushwhack I thought we could benefit from. Jim, turns out, is a monster punch card rabbit; he was rocking the course. As a new person to the sport, the team needs to look after new folks, and Jim was dragging Micah and I around; he was strong and not showing any signs of cracking, but there was a lot of course left. We spiked every CP, with going past one, in which we literally walked right past it, while looking for it. This caused me to believe at the time, we were in the next inlet over and we moved to the next inlet over. When we did not find the CP in the next ravine inlet, we backtracked, and followed our own tracks back to the CP, to punch it!! We lost a frustrating 30-40 min here. This resulted in some interesting reflection comments. This was at least the third CP that as a team, we moved within 10 ft from and did not see it, each time actively looking for it. These controls are constructed of white PVC pipe and reflector tape, sounds easy right, how hard can it be! Wrong! If they are hung right next to a tree or post, they are tricky to spot, especially if there were on the back side of the tree/post, and this was biting us in the butt. We finished the trek and got back to TA just after sunset, just as the first three teams were departing; we took a little time to recover from our effort. We had net-gained some time back, but we still were back a solid 25 min. We each gulped some of Jim’s warm soup, t’was awesome.

Bike- this next leg was significant in that it would be long, with several options to alter course and bring skips into play. By skipping CPs, we could make up serious time, but take the risk that other teams would obtain those CPs and still have more points at the end. We decided to take the first few for sure, and evaluate getting the next one after that, one by one. We moved ok on the bike. I drafted what I could, behind Micah and Jim. We had one dumb lucky find; because of being in an area with roads going everywhere, and only one incorrectly mapped road on the map. I followed contours and direction on the map, and we happened to bump into another soloist, who was helpful and saved our bacon – the AR gods were smiling upon us, thank you. The rest of the navigation was smooth for the most part, with one minor bobble costing us 5 min to backtrack and one other -went right past it, without seeing it - # 4 - of the course. We had stopped immediately, as I knew with certainty, we were in the correct spot; Jim happened to spot it while stopped, against a tree, while getting food from his pack; that was close. We elected to go for all the CPs as we thought we had time. It was about 10pm, and with 10 hours of course time left, we felt we could make it. I rode my best and stayed tucked in the draft of my teammates; we made our way around the north side of Milford Lake and worked our way back to the final TA and trek section before the finish. Into the southern wind, we chugged into TA roughly before 1 am.

Trek- 6 cps. I was starting to feel the length and pace of the race at this point, and this trek was the big one. We transitioned with purpose and got going. We were behind leaders roughly an hour, and this was a big leg, late into the course. Even if we hustled, we would have a hard time closing for the lead, unless mistakes were made by front teams. We estimated 3-4 hours for us, if all went well. We worked hard. This was completely in the dark thus adding a layer of complexity to the navigation piece. CPs came and went, and we gave a 100 percent. Micah and Jim were fast. We did manage to see a lower in height, pair of eyes watching us go by, which we agreeably voted were not deer eyes. Possibilities were fox, coyote, or Chupaquabra; we debated, and fox received the most votes. We reached a point, were we needed to get a CP that was way out there, and although we agreed, we technically had time to get it, we decided it was not wise due to the required effort to obtain it in a timely fashion in conjunction with the risk of underestimating our time. This would save about an hour, and about 3.5 miles of trekking. We decided to skip this furthest CP, knowing other teams would have a hard time getting them as well; normally, I stress quite a bit doing this, but on this course, it seemed to be the right move for us and the team was quite at peace with the decision. We got back to the TA and learned we were the 2nd team in, and 1st place was still transition. They were on their way out and had gotten all the trek CPs, so we could not beat them, barring disaster on their part. I was gassed and needed to recover, significantly. I took the time to get food, change clothing, stay warm. If another team did not show up, we would take a comfy 30-35 min to transition for the last bike leg home.

Bike- 5am-ish. 15 miles. The wind had not died down much overnight, and it would be directly in our face for a majority of the ride home. We had two CPs to get and they quick grabs to keep racers headed on the right direction. My teammates were the reason I made it back. They pushed, towed, and allowed me to draft the entire ride home. We made it back to the start/finish at 630 am. We found out we likely had 2nd place wrapped up, unless a team behind us obtained all the CPs.

Our team was very glad to be back, for an estimated 90 miles of riding and 30 plus mile of trekking. It was unfortunate we did not get to paddle on the lake, yet I was also grateful we did not have to battle strong afternoon winds on a lake. Our gear all worked for us, no failures, or losses. Nutrition was dialed in for everyone. We could have used a bit more of ‘real’ food towards the end but we survived. Our entire team’s lighting worked well; on a personal note, I’d like to give a shout out to Light and Motion – their lights and batteries functioned flawlessly keeping our team on the right path(s), and Helly Hansen top and bottom base layers worked perfectly; their gear is top-notch and proven itself time and time again. Their light highly functional gear managed heat and perspiration throughout the course for me.

Finally- thanks to my teammates. I needed help at times, and they were right there for me. Most impressive was Jim- he seemed to barely break a sweat the entire race; his background as an ultra-runner meant he blended in as if he has been there for the last 10 years with Micah and I. Positive attitude, squared away, and “here for the ride!”.