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"After racing a near flawless race in our victory at the Cal-Eco Pacacho, Team Bones was ready for the snow and altitude at Cal-Eco Eagle Mountain. However, Race director, Dan Barger had some "schooling" up his sleeve for those who expected this to be an easy race. " |
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Once the coordinates were given to the racers, the distances appeared short for a typical Cal-Eco race: 30 miles of mountain biking transitioned to approximately 17 miles of hiking/running. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well check your compasses again, and make sure your maps aren't upside down, because this was no picnic.
The race started at 12:01 A.M. on the mountain bikes. As nearly 100 racers left the start, keeping track of your team was very difficult. Team Bone's Ron Kelly immediately had bike troubles, which forced the team to stop and wait for repairs. With high hopes of leading the race, we were sad to watch the competitors lights disappear into the forest. Once the repairs were made, we made our move to climb from last place to the front of the pack. After passing a few teams, it seemed to get very lonely out there in the woods. Given that there were 34 teams out in the dark, we expected to see more teams working their way through the course.
Finally we caught the great mountain biking team, KOL. We knew they were great riders, so we hoped to overcome them by navigation. Back and forth we both went, until we reached checkpoint #1. As in turns out, most of the teams had gotten turned around in the woods, and we were pleasantly surprised to be the second teams to that checkpoint. We continued to battle with Team KOL (a very nice, friendly group of racers) until the transition area at C.P. #7, unfortunately neither of us had made any ground on Epinephrine.
Note - In team sports, each member has certain strengths and weaknesses. I normally don't have the best balance at night and my teammates are usually prepared for the swerving that I do in the dark. However, combined with allergies, I could not keep my bike upright. I had no less than 12 crashes during the single-track sections. And for much of the ride, it was faster for me to run my bike than try to ride. Roy tried everything to keep me upright. Putting riders on either side of me, having me hold on him, or towing me with a tether. On a wide road those would have worked fine, however not options on technical single track.
Here comes the fun. Most adventure races give you an equal amount of physical and mental punishment. That way the day after is a little easier to face - misery loves company. Except for maybe a couple of teams, this race pushed most to their limit with regard to team dynamics, navigational skills, and mental persistence.
From checkpoint #7 on, most teams probably felt like pulling a "Donner Party" on their navigator. I suppose if you carry one of your teammates across the finish line in your stomach; that's a finish, right? Anyway, no navigators were eaten, because teams realized it was just too much effort.
The navigation was tough from #7 to the 300-foot rappel at C.P. #13. Teams making it this far were rewarded with an easy path to C.P. #14 then back to the lodge. For Team Bones one of our critical errors came in locating C.P. #9. All of our navigational factors were correct, except there was no checkpoint. Little did we know that after over an hour delay, C.P. #9 laid only 100 ft below our original point. We had thought it to be at the 6500-ft. elevation, when it actually sat closer to 6400 ft. That is what makes this sport great, and challenging. Such little things can make big differences in the race.
Upon reaching the elusive checkpoint, we realized that we had been passed, by how many we weren't sure. Our hopes to catch the leaders seemed to fade away, and we continued on toward the finish line. Heather and Roy pushed hard and were fresh enough to go a few more days. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way Ron "postholed" through the snow and twisted his ankle. The pace slowed as we made our way home to an almost surreal state. We crossed the line in third, and were pleasantly greeted by Maria, the staff, and our most patient crew.
We learned once again how critical navigation is in adventure racing. Good navigation allowed us to move from last place to second place by the middle of the race. By getting a little careless, it also stopped any gain on the leaders and cost us second place. As usual we must pick up the pieces and learn from them. Remember, one of the best navigators in the sport had some difficulty on this course, so take it easy on yourself and your navigator.
Dan Rathbones
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