What a fun idea for a newcomer to the sport of Adventure Racing (AR). The potluck weekend is designed to "get the feet wet" (oh man I'm good) of beginners, and help season an experienced racers time and orienteering. Chad and his wife Cortny and fellow teammate of Team POLeR, John "Code" Morse put on a fantastic weekend.With camp set up under a park shelter, racers were able to attend different clinics specializing in different areas of AR. From ARFE (adventure racers for the environment) to a rep from Salomon on what to look for when buying footwear, covering everything from when to use Gortex to talking about arch support and which brands are best (somewhat bias coming from Salomon, but it sold me).
The clinics took place after racers made one of two choices. Either kayak down the Vermillion River, or go on a ~30mile bike ride to/from Starved Rock. Angie and I did the kayak, which was surprisingly fun despite it being at the end of the whitewater season with very low water levels. The majority of the time we were paddling, but there were some good spots on the river where you could position yourself in the current, or pick a line and go over a 3-4ft drop. I survived one of the two here, while tipping on the second next to a HUGE cement factory downstream. Angie had the best quote because she made it past everything without tipping, "Guys are so funny, you get out, look at the other side, talk routes...I just go," and of course, she came out unscathed. I would love to go back and do the river again at the start of the season where the rapids can reach upwards of Class III. Thanks to Vermillion River Rafting for the rentals, and for smoking non-stop in the storage barn.Sunday was great for the race. Angie and I teamed up with Chupacabra (the Hernann family) which was some foreshadowing as I would go on to race with April & Ellie for the Sweaty Otter in August. We all agreed to take a more lax approach to the race and pick up the checkpoints after we'd found them, cutting down on course clearing time for Chad and Team POLeR.
We have some fun pictures from the first CP on top of a hill where John was waiting for us with camera in hand, and the swimming part where Neil "The Tax Dude" was waiting for us 50ft from the shore line with the CP attached to his kayak. Luckily, he wasn't sadistic and stayed where he was. I do anything to get to a control, so I would have tipped him if he'd gotten cute! Maybe not...After CP1 (the hill), we found a footpath that was next to some power lines that we were using as a handrail (something long and familiar that you find on a map to help stay oriented and keep tabs on distance traveled). The CP was at the top of a berm covered by bush and other foliage, and at the top waiting was Jeremy Van Ek with a length of rope. Time to get wet! We had to hang on to the rope and shimmy down into the river that would take us a quarter mile to CP2. The deepest this creek/river got was just below the waist, so it was nothing crazy or extreme, although cold at first...it was welcome due to the temperature rising. Found the CP and made our way to Neil, which we already talked about.
After that section, we had to make our way over to the orienteering course (o-course) which ended up throwing us for a loop. Had a decent bike to that section, but the kicker was the quarter mile or so bike up the STEEP gravel hill. Drew (Hernann) and I made it to the top pedaling the whole way, while the rest of the gang had to keep their pasifierers in and walk to the top (HEYO!). Tough climb, but felt good at the top like anything difficult and deserved.
After that exhausting display of manliness by Drew and I, we were able to hang out a bit and let the other teams put some more distance between us. Really cool bar/grill/PAINTBALL valley that I would love to check out next year. We look at the map and get ready to set out. Looking for a trail about 150meters from where we're gathered and then looking for a some type of man-made structure, from there we'll take a bearing on the map and find our way to the first CP, take another bearing and find the second and last of that section. Well apparently, we missed the fact that a) our map was last udpated in the 90's, and the trail/road we followed, was less than six months old. We had looked up ahead, saw road turning into the direction we were supposed to go and bit hook, line and sinker. Craziest part was that we still found a man-made shelter that helped us find a CP, but the CP was actually the second one we were to find, which COMPLETELY threw us off. Huge learning experience on map reading and pace counting (a way to measure how far you've gone without use of a pedometer or bike computer). Finally Chad came and found us and showed us where we made our mistake. The "sweeper" team had gotten a little too confident and zoomed past the fundamentals of orienteering. Big no-no.Found a remaining CP in the area and headed off to the singletrack part of the race, which we detoured once or twice (again). To get to the next CP, we had to follow old railroad tracks where the beams had been removed. Once we were on this, it was awesome. Nice, TIGHT, trails that at times left us looking over a 30ft drop. This trail's used more so by ATVs, so you at least know that as you're going over an extremely old and dilapidated rail bridge (again, 30-40ft drop), it'll support your weight. I would say this a good six or seven miles, and Angie held her own. It probably also helped that I had swapped the world's largest Gel bike seat for her, but hey, whatever gets you out there!!!
I REALLY liked this part of the race. It took us through an old rock quarry where we had to keep our eyes peeled for Chad's bright orange spray paint that would keep us on the correct trail line, otherwise throwing us to a creek that would just serve to get us lost! We did find some nice locals that let us fill up our CamelBaks with water, otherwise dehydration would not have been fun.
At least now we were back on road until we hit the finish line, where burgers and BEER were awaiting us. Enjoyed the different war stories that other people shared, or the post-mortem, as some call it. Re-hashing mistakes made and just talking about AR in general. One team did suffere a broken clavicle, which we think is attested to because gym shoes and clipless pedals DO NOT MIX, but hey, lesson learned and she was smiling, so she's tougher than I am. Tough "break."Great event and can't wait to do it next year!!
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