Tis the season

Time to get my ass in gear and make things happen. Hold tight.

DG

Hawkeye Downs HPRA Sept 17/18th

For those of you looking for something completely different to do in September.....

http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/calendar/Ride.asp?e=5977

Yard sale 2011

Time to liquidate and fund for future adventures.
http://dgyardsale.blogspot.com/
DG

2011 Schedule

Rough sketch(all events subject to life, love, and whatever. high priority on adventure)*

Jan 2nd kccx
Jan 3rd

Jan 9th kccx(Series 60, 30plus series winner)
Jan 10th

Jan 16th Triple D(ski)4th skier. My hip adductors hate me.
Jan 17th

Jan22/23 NEIAKDG(North East Iowa Kill DG training sessions)

Jan28-Feb3 Arrowhead(crewing)

Feb 5/6 NEIAKDG

Feb 12/13 NEIAKDG

Feb 19/20 NEIAKDG

Feb 26th Cirrem(flatted, 10 bonus miles, ect)
Feb 27

Mar 5/6 NEIAKDG team edition


Mar 12/13 Minor hand injury/rest week

Mar19 Local 100miler. Jefferson Co tour of dirt roads(Pugsley29er)
Mar20

Mar26/Mar27 Decorah spring training[Cronus]

Apr2/3 NEIAKDG Finale

Apr 9
Apr10 Gods Country duathlon [Pugsley 29er] 5th overall.

Apr16th
April 17th -Bone Bender 3/6 MTB Odyssey-(Smithville Lake, Mo.) [Badger] 24th Solo 6hour(damage control).

April 23rd/24th TransIA [Cronus]1st overall.

Apr 30 Decorah TT [Brew]
May 1st

May7th Smithville Adventure race [KM]
May 8th

May 14th Almanzo 162 [Cronus] DNF hypothermia
May15th

May 21 Chequamegon 100 [Badger] 20somethingth
May22

May 28
May29

June 4th Dirty Kanza [Cronus]DNF Heat
June 5th

June 11-12th Waterford HPRA 1st streamliner, 1st stock, 1st in trike.

June 17
June 18

June 25th
June 26th

July2
July3

July 9-10th Northbrook/Kenosha HPRA 1st streamliner, 2nd stock both days.

July16th
July17th

July 23
July 24th


July 30
July 31

Aug 6
Aug7

Aug. 13th
Aug 14

Aug 20-21 Manchester HPRA

Aug27
Aug28

Sept 2/3/4/5th Dakota 50


Sept. 10
Sept 11

Sept 17/18 Hawkeye Downs HPRA

Sept. 24th
Sept 25

Oct 1 Dirty Wooden Shoe CX [Cronus]
Oct 2 Altoona CX

Oct 8-9 Chicago marathon(crewing)

Oct 15/16


Oct 22
Oct 23

Oct 29/30 Spooky CX [Cronus]

Nov5
Nov 6

Nov12
Nov13

Nov18/19/20 Lincoln CX

Nov25/26/27 Jingle CX[Cronus]

Dec3
Dec4

Dec10
Dec 11
Dec17
Dec18

Dec24
Dec25

Dec31
Tuscobia Ultra? [Skate ski]
Jan1

Jan7
Jan8

Triple D? [Skate ski]

Jan14
Jan15

Jan21
Jan22

Jan28-Feb3 Arrowhead 135 [Skate ski]

Feb4
Feb5

Feb11
Feb12

Feb18
Feb19

Feb25
Feb26

DG

TransWisconsin

It's taking me a bit to get back in blog mode, so these last two posts here will be a work in progress. The raw data is here, but there is alot to think about behind that data. While all the many races this past winter and spring have had their lessons to be learned, TransWisconsin was the first I've felt warrants a complete writeup. So many things learned. Now to get them on this page...

The pictures(with captions).

The main website and audio updates

The Data(with some description on the Garmin page):
Day 1 112miles
Day 2 120miles
Day 3 120miles The day of sand, missing completely from my GPS. This annoys the crap out of me.
Day 4~90miles?
Day 5 140miles
Long damn day, less to do with mileage more to do with route.
Day 6 160miles
Mother. Rain, rain go away.
Day 7 Fin

Race Schedule: Past and Present

January 9th Triple D snowbike race 60miler, Dubuque IA(2nd place overall)

February 1/2nd Arrowhead 135 135miles snowbike race, International Falls MN(Perfect conditions, flat tire at mile ten, rode from last place bike to tenth overall)

Feb 27th Cirrem(should have taken the studded tires off)

March 13th Bonk Hard Chill adventure race(beating a fitness wakeup call into my head)

March 26/27/28 High Profile Adventure Camp(Awsome)

April 17 Bone Bender 6hr mtb, Smithville MO (Finished 4 of the 6hours. Not a rigid friendly course after all)

April 24/25 TransIA 300something gravel miles Grinnell and surrounding area(Epic conditions, used it all up to get further than most)

May 1st Syllamos Revenge 50mile mtb, Mountain View AR (Epic conditions, again. Crankarm started falling off at mile 2. Ran alot. McGuyvered a finish.)

May 9th Camp Ingawanis IORCA mtb, Waverly IA (A chain dropping good time)

May 15th Almanzo 100, gravel Rochester MN(Fast gravel. 21st overall)

May 22 Chequamegon 100, 100 miles of singletrack in the Cable WI area(Lost in Chequamegon national forest.)

May 29 Balltown Classic(dns, spent the weekend cheering friends at the memorial day weekend races and building bikes)

June 5th Dirty Kanza 200 gravel, Emporia KS (dnf at 100miles due to a crash at 20~30miles in. First visit to the hospital in 3 decades.)

June 12/13th Waterford HPRA races, human powered vehicle races, Waterford MI(1st Streamliner, 2nd Stock, 1st Trike. New trike 200ft record, real close to the course records for faired and unfaired hour races)

June 18-24th TransWisconsin(epic. 3rd person to finish on route)

July 10/11 Northbrook/Kenosha HPRA weekend, human powered vehicle races, Chicagoland

July 17/18 IA games road TT/MTB race

July24/25th Dusk till Dawn adventure race, Perry, KS

July 31st Spolka 6hr adventure race, Prairie du Sac, WI

August 7th Metamora 4x50, 200mile road, Metamora IL

Aug 14th Rapture in Misery 12hour mtb race, Trenton, MO

August 20th Gravel World Championships, 135-150is miles gravel, Lincoln NE

August 28-29 Thunder Rolls 12/24 hour adventure race, Oregon IL

Sept 4/5 Dakota 50

September 11/12th Hawkeye Downs HPRA, human powered vehicle race, Cedar Rapids IA I promote this one, come check it out.

Sept 25-26th Berryman Adventure race 12/36hour, StL MO

October 9/10 Xenia HPRA, human powered vehicle race, Xenia OH
or Milford Extreme 6/12hour adventure race, Milford KS

Some CX races in here

Dec 4th Castlewood 8hour adventure race, StL MO

Some more CX racing

Dec Tuscobia Ultra 75mile snowbike race

January Triple D snowbike race 60miler, Dubuque IA

February Arrowhead 135 135miles snowbike race, International Falls MN

WWMD

One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about
humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very
very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear
you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright?-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Don't lose hope, there will be race reports. I've just got to put out some fires and start some others....

In the mean time, check out my yard sale here: www.dgyardsale.blogspot.com

DG

Triple D

After doing Arrowhead last year and the Tuscobia Ultra just a few weeks before, Triple D looked to me more like a sprint event. No matter how bad the conditions, it would still be much, much easier than either of those two.

As usual, Lance announced super fast conditions the weekend prior, which properly sets the scene for freak weather phenomena. Hence Thursday before the race, 8" of snow. Good. My specialty is attrition racing, not rail-trail time trialing. The intranets composed of much whining and talk of course re-route.

By the time race day rolled around snowmobile traffic had compacted most of the trail back to super fast condition. Re-routes were minimized to staying on the Heritage trail for all but the first and last 2-3 miles of the course to minimize the amount of hike-a-bike.

Competition was much the same as the previous years. No Pramann this year, but I knew I'd still have to work to stay ahead of Cory, Lance, Adam, Trevor, Ben, and Nick.

I made sure to pay close attention to the roads as we rolled through town on the way to the pavetrail. I could see how I got off track the first year. The pavetrail was 8" of un-packed snow over iced over footprints, pretty much unrideable for 90% of us. Cory got off the front early here. Sometimes breaking trail is easier than following, I believe this was one of those times, as he rode away on a 29er as the rest us were left to flail and walk in the tracks left behind. Trevor ran close behind Cory, and soon enough Ben and Lance rode away as well.

The trail eventually popped out into a bar parking lot where I found no trail markers or riders in sight. Great, 2 miles into the race and not only have I let the lead pack get away, but I've lost the trail. I was hearing a whistle tho. Lance was on the edge of the woods behind the bar blowing his emergency whistle. Turns out one of the key trail markers was missing. As soon as I hit the snowmobile trail behind the bar I knew I was going to have to hammer to catch the leaders and keep the rest of the 29ers behind me, the trail was indeed very fast. It didn't take long and I'd caught Lance, then Ben, then Trevor. Cory was way out there though.

Ten minutes of hammering brought him back, but then I couldn't get rid of him. I would punch it and he'd drift back a bit, but as soon as I let up he was right there again. The trail was too fast for the snowbike to have any sort of advantage. So I towed Cory for a couple hours, never really letting up, as I knew if I let up at all the rest of my competition would be rolling right back up to me. Then I saw the strangest thing coming down the trail at us, a trail groomer.

I had no idea they groomed the snowmobile trails here. My first thought was, "sweet, fresh packed trail". Then after actually getting on the groomed trail I found it slightly harder to ride than the snowmobile pack. Stopped and dropped tire pressure here after zig zagging a few times, and then it was much better. Well, for me anyways. A few minutes later and I could no longer see Cory behind me, sweet. Still wasn't going to let up as I knew Lance would be rolling faster on the groomed stuff with his wider rims and lighter weight.

The trail between Farley and Dyersville is always windblown and this year was no different. There was a fair amount of gravel showing, but there were also lightly drifted sections that could have used some increased floatation. I cranked into Dyersville with no one in site. Checked in, swapped water bottles, downed a chocolate milk, grabbed a hamburger, and started heading for the door just as Lance came in. Crap, he closed that gap way too fast. I jumped back on the bike, burger in hand and started cranking back down the trail.

I passed the rest of the crew still struggling their way into Dyersville, many of them making more progress sideways than forward. Keeping the bike heading straight while riding across their ruts was a challenge. Lance was only a hundred yards back or so. Every time I dabbed or zig zagged the distance between us halved. He caught me by the overpass at Farley. I tried to stay on his wheel, but he was floating where I was not. A couple more flails and he was out of site. I got back on the bike and rode tempo, taking my time finishing off the burger and hydrating.

The ruts kept me from getting too much speed built back up. It would start to roll pretty good, then I'd catch someones zig zag rut and have to catch myself from falling. Rewind, repeat, a dozen times or so. Then the groomer came back, how strange. Sweet, no more ruts. But it was soft. after awhile I could see where Lance had floated across the top where I was still punching through. I stopped and dropped my pressure some more. Back to rideable again, why didn't I do that sooner?

Back to hammering. New goals:A)keep Lances split to less than an hour ahead of me B)finish in the daylight. Unlike the previous two years where it was getting dark by the halfway point, I was now nearly 3/4 of the way finished and the orange ball was still above the horizon. It was nice to ride past the Sundown resort in the cold shadow of the bluff during daylight hours, I still remembered those chilling miles from the first year. Step into Durango, make sure I'm seen, step out, continue hammering. Even if I had caught Lance in this section, I'm sure he would have dropped me on the foot pocketed pavetrail massacre on the way back into town. It was like trying to do a trials competition on a loaded touring bike, not pretty. I finally escaped the pavetrail and managed to find the ribbons guiding me back to the finish. I was happy to be doing this in the daylight and not completely drained like last time.

I finished in 6:59, Lance finished 11 minutes ahead of me, in the daylight, no mechanical issues, and I learned a thing or two. Arrowhead is now less than a week and a half away. I've dropped about 20lbs off the total weight of bike and gear I'm hauling this year. I'm not entirely happy with my fitness. The competition for Arrowhead is the most stacked I've ever seen it, but I guess I just don't know how it will go until it's happened. I only hope to learn as much as I did last year.

DG

XC ski season

Everybody's doing it. Hope for snow!

DG

Hope for snow.

DG

Next

How the...maybe I'll just start by running for awhile.

DG

Because it is about the bike

It's that time of year again. Human Powered Vehicle racing at Hawkeye Downs Raceway in Cedar Rapids IA this weekend, Sept 19th and 20th. Come check it out if you can: www.midwesthpv.blogspot.com


This week is also Human Powered Speed week at Battle Mountain, NV. Male and female top speed records will almost certainly be broken.


DG

It's like they know me personally or something.....

http://www.xkcd.com/

DG

Not dead yet

Blog posts have been lacking due to lack of free time and dwindling internet access.

Some of what I've been up to but likely won't get around to writing much about:


Bone bender 6 hour mtb race. Raced SS solo. It was gumbo muddy to the point of taking nearly all the geared riders out on the first lap, had to wash my freewheel out with heed nearly every lap to keep it going. Finished 2nd SS and 4th overall due to my outstanding walking skills.


Wilson Adventure Race.
The day after Bone Bender I headed over to Wilson for a super fun sprint adventure race with SK and Scott. No orienteering, but two "mystery events" one involving ropes and one with a blindfold, 3foot swells and whitecaps on the paddle section, and all the running and biking was on the Wilson trail system. I'm ready for another trip out there already.


Indy HPRA races.
Another breezy weekend, but otherwise good weather. Set a new streamliner course record on the velodrome and got my but handed to me by Sean again in stock.

TransIA.
Weather was mild, course was good, but I didn't keep track of my hydration well enough. Fried myself by the 2nd checkpoint, crawling along at 7mph on the flats, peeing brown. Dumbass.


Almanzo 100.
Brisk and breezy on great roads. I could see my breath when we started, wind felt like TransIA last year. 20mph winds with gusts to 30. Started this race on the winning end of a gnarly cold, so breathing wasn't going so well yet, but I didn't want to miss the race. The roads up there are super buff and the event organization is top notch, it was a good ride even though my results were were some what mediocre.

Memorial day weekend.
Sat: Cobble climb 3rd place. Guess I should train or something. Watched A damn near lap the field in the Womens open. Caught up with all the bike race people.
Sun: Forc trail Trifecta. Dirty good times with the FORC folks at Sylan Island, Sunderbruck, and Scott Co park. It's always good to ride new trail, even better when you riding with a super cool group of folks, and you add a picnic in the middle.

Odds and ends taking my time:
The microbus is back on the road. Still ironing out a couple details, but it should be fully roadtrip-able by the end of the week or so.

The WRX is re-assembled and running, but I've still got to get the turbo rebuilt and finish the gauge install before it's road ready.

I moved, am still moving. Two miles from my prior location. It was overdue. Unfortunately I've moved into a black hole, no tv(yay!), no internet access(maybe a good thing, too easy to lose time there), barely any cell reception.

Hobie. New hobby.

DG

Random roundup

Lots of random thoughts and happenings as of late.

Explored Wildcat Den state park Friday night and Saturday morning. Another Mississippi river valley gem.


Nice sunrise.


It's a long fall from here.

Rode a 200k Saturday on the Bacchetta. First outing with the new wheels. A little faster and a little lighter. Thankfully no flats since I've yet to acquire an inflator to fit the disc or a spare tubular tire. Rode fairly strong, but my knees were giving me some trouble by mile 100, so I backed it way off. Even walked one of the longer hills. I need to take a closer look at my bike fit on that thing. One IT band injury is one IT band injury too many. Really don't want to go through that again, and I really want to be able to ride the Corsa a bit more this year.


All it's missing is a CinQo Saturn and a Garmin 705.

I think Im going to use my Karate Monkey as my official adventure race bike. Simple, dependable, fast enough. Maybe I'll swap the tires out for something a little faster. The Nevegals are overkill for the terrain most adventure races see. I'd use the Pugsley, but it's pretty much my full on touring bike at this point, and I'd prefer to be ready to roll out on tour at a moments notice.

I'm going to try to do a few Orienteering events to hone my navigation skills. And maybe try a thumb compass.
Kinda suprising just how competitive some these orienteering events sound. I suppose people think the same of cycling.

Our guest speaker at Adventure camp, Robyn Benincasa, was singing the praises for this ultralight set of "RAID trekking poles", which appear to have been updated to standard weight poles since hers were made. I'm pretty sure hers were made of four sections of Easton tent pole, a carbide tip, foam grip, and small accessory cord and lock to hold it all together. Sure sounds like a MYOG project to me.

The Subaru is coming together, very slowly. Hope to have it back on the road by the end of the month. I'll miss my cheap insurance, though.

Hoping to get back to bike commuting soon, but the weather's not cooperating. 30degrees, plus a 25mph wind chill, plus a good chance of rain, is not much of a fun commute.

The new streamliner is slowly starting to take form. Ideally it would be built already. I've got all the parts, Actiontec fork, Scalpel rear triangle, Rotor cranks, wheels. Front frame's built, just gotta connect the rear triangle, build the seat, and start the shell. Maybe a Zote shell.


Normal weekly training is starting. A little more overall fitness than normal. Race group/intensity training on Tuesdays, ride/run on Wednesdays, upriver paddle on Thursdays, long race/ride on weekends.

Race season is pretty much here. Bone Bender 6 hour mtb race this Saturday, Wilson Adventure race Sunday, Indy HPRA races next weekend, TransIA the weekend after that, Quad cities 300k brevet, Almanzo 100, Dirty Kanza.

Busy, busy, gotta go. Woo hoo!

DG

Adventure camp

I attended the High Profile Adventure Camp this past weekend. The goal was to try conquering my fear of heights(again), work on rope skills and climbing, get some more time practicing my UTM coordinate plotting/navigation/terrain contour reading, and gain some general adventure racing tips.

It was a two and a half day camp. Friday night was an introduction and navigation seminar. Saturday was a trip to Mississippi Palisades for navigation practice, back to camp benson for a ropes seminar and ropes practice (including 3 rappels, 2 accent's on accenders, 2 top roped climbs, 1 wire ladder, 1 travolian traverse, and 1 zip line). Then after dinner there were seminars on poisonous plants and treatment, Adventure race tips by Gerry Voellinger, Adventure race tips by Robyn Benincasa, and 8 essential elements of human synergy by Robyn Benincasa. Sunday included a seminar on cyclocross, a seminar on foot care, and concluded with a short adventure race. The adventure race included a really strange cyclocross race(~120people on a .4mile long course, most of which are not cyclist by nature), a bike navigation course on paved roads, and a trekking navigation course that included about 20 shallow river crossings, 1 rappel, 2 caves, 2 stair step waterfalls, one 80' tall zip line, and lots of really cool terrain.

This was a great experience. I came away feeling it was not my skills that needed improving, but more so, merely my confidence. Adventure racing feeds right into the positive/self starting mindset, exploring/adventure seeking, problem solving, total fitness ethos. Pretty cool group of people.


Deb and Shaun, my team mates for the adventure challenge.


The bigger cave. Getting in this one involved a waist deep river crossing, the deepest of the race.


The spring fed staircase waterfall, really cool.

I'm definitely looking forward to more of this.

DG

Womble

That was fun. Next?

DG

Last signs of winter

Things are in full on spring cleaning mode around here. I've been busy overhauling and optimizing every bike I own, finalizing my bikepacking/touring/multi-day race setup, analyzing and improving my snowbike setup for next year, revamping my commuter/hybrid Xtracycle, trying to get the Subaru back together before the Fox blows up, and training for the looming storm of gravel enduros that will be the month of May.

.
The gravel is primo, but the trails are on the edge of unrideable. I've still managed to find some gems hidden in the forest.


I can't even count the number of times I've ridden past this spot in the forest, but I'd never noticed the cool little rocky stream that drains out of it.



Welp, headin' for Ouachita a week from tomorrow for a camping/training/good times gettaway. Then its straight into race season, or what I consider race season anyways. Might have to ride to the races to afford them....anyways...

Woo Hoo!

DG

VR50

I learned a camera trick.


Naked eye.


Oakley VR50

Yay for snow.
DG

Follow the Bleater

So I'm way behind on posting up events. The Arrowhead post previous is complete. There will be another one reviewing what worked, what didn't, and what I'll do differently next year coming up.

Arrowhead was on Monday and Tuesday, Feb 2-3. I recovered on Wednesday, went to work Thursday and Friday till noon, and then met up with Deb Wood to head for the Bonk Hard Chill 12 hour adventure race that was on Saturday.

Adventure racing is completely new to me, sort of. It seems every ride I do ends up being an adventure race(breaking a frame in half 20 miles into the 60 mile Ouachita Challenge and tying it back together to finish, having a half dozen flats tires at 12miles of Hell and somehow having five random sized tubes in my pack but no patch kit, Having an equal number of flats and almost running out of patch glue at both the Dirty Kanza and Sylamos revenge and finishing, Breaking my bottom bracket in half halfway through the Porcupine Rim loop and riding the rest coaster bike style, fun with tubeless tires at -35deg F at Triple D, TransIowa in general, ect.) I've come to believe that I may be misusing my skillset, so I started seeking a race to test my theory and a partner to keep me from getting in too far over my head. All the beginner races and camps are all way off in April or May and that's just way too far out there, but I found this race down in the Ozarks. Trekking, paddling, and biking around Lake of the Ozarks in February. Heck it's gotta be a good ten degrees warmer down there right? Alright. I've never plotted a map, too antisocial for the boy scouts, so I better find someone with some experience there or I could be lost for days. The only person that I know that has done any adventure racing is Deb Wood, and she had expressed some interest in some of the other frigid and/or foolish things that I've been doing, maybe she'll be up for it. Turns out she's had her eye on this race for awhile, but never found anyone else willing and/or foolish enough to attempt it. Good deal, we've got a team!

The plan was hashed out to meet up for some training sometime before the event after New Years eve. I'd been busy since September trying to gear up for Arrowhead and somehow the team training just never happened, so I studied up on the UTM guidebook as much as I could and hoped for the best. The thought that it was three days after Arrowhead was maybe a little concerning, but I've pulled that sort of thing off before so I wasn't too worried. It's not like we were trying to win the thing, basically we were out to prove that we could both do this and learn for future events.

Friday came and Deb met me in Keokuk to reload the van and carpool down the rest of the way. She announced that she had poisoned herself and almost left her mountainbike behind to add some challenge to the event. Perfect. She had also recently spent a day walking in knee deep snow to properly adjust herself to the suffering mindset. We spent the drive catching up with goings ons and trying to recuperate from our respective tortures. Moods were generally positive, considering.

We made it to the race check in with a less than an hour to spare and headed for the gear check. After gearing up for Arrowhead, gearing up for this adventure race was a cakewalk, once again I was carrying way more than needed, except that I had forgotten my emergency blanket at home, doh! And we were informed that all the local stores had already sold out, as I was apparently not the first person to forget gear. Luckily Deb had loaded her emergency "everything I own" gear box in the van, and seconds later the issue was resolved. The race is called Bonk Hard Chill because it's in February and it's supposed to be cold, but it was 60 degrees outside, so we got to drop the mandatory heavy fleece jacket and gloves.

The race meeting felt strange as we were in a room full of athletes of which we knew not a one. After being part of the cycling community for a decade or so it's rare to go to a race without knowing someone. But this is a little different group. Maybe if I were more of a runner or paddle-er it would be different.
Thankfully maps and half of the coordinates were given out so we could plot them tonight. Neither of us are entirely confident in our navigation skills, but we double check each others work and work out a plan of attack. Race starts at 7am but we'll need to be up at 5am to get bikes dropped off at the checkpoint and get to the start on time.

Racing starts after the national anthem and the sun rises, then it's a mob of people running through the woods. My knees aren't too happy to be running quite yet, so we compromise with a brisk walk. The first few checkpoints really are more follow the leader than read the map, but soon enough people are of on different routes to the same locations. It seems you can run all you want but if you don't know where you're going or you end up sliding around at the bottom of a gully you're not going to beat anyone, so we take time to stay on route and read the terrain for easier routes to the checkpoints. Amazingly enough we do seem to be staying ahead of a few groups of runners.



All the checkpoints are found and we head off to the bikes. It's a short reunion, as we're only riding from the top or the hill down to the beach for the canoe section. I guess I should mention that I took my Pugsley as my race bike. It's really the only MTB I've got put together at the moment and I've really come to love the thing. Plus it'll float if it happens to fall out of the boat later during the crossing. I should also note that this race contains the biggest collection of vintage 90's MTBs I've ever seen, first edition Marzocchi forks, Girvin Proflexs, Softride MTBs, you name it. So we roll down to the canoes. Wow theres alot of folks out there already.
I should also mention I've never been in a canoe before. I've got plenty of time in kayaks, but thats different. Pretty hard to eskimo roll a canoe.

Anyways, we get out in the water, Deb's steering in back and I'm up front. It's a little tippy at first but soon enough we're moving. Slowly, but we're moving. It's kinda windy today, so we spend alot of time wondering if we're actually moving or not. That's the thing with canoes, the difference really isn't that much. Gives me a better appreciation for snowbike racing. At least when I'm walking next to my bike I can tell that I'm moving. The leaders are flying around using kayak paddles. Lesson learned. By the time we finish up the water checkpoints I'm starting to get the hang of the canoe paddling thing, but I can tell this is my biggest weakness. We are the second to last team back to shore.

Once we get to shore we have to load our bikes on the canoe and paddle about two miles over to the other shore. Now we have a tailwind, so no problem right? Turns out tailwinds are worse tha head winds. Every five or six strokes the boat gets blown sideways. There are already 8-10" swells in the water, being blown sideways in them gets to be a bit concerning a couple of times. My mindset is annoyed but I know that if you bang your head against a brick wall long enough, eventually it will fall down. Deb is a bit more than annoyed. It takes us 37minutes to go the 2miles to the other shore. I'm not sure I like canoes.

Finally the bike section, something we are somewhat accustomed to. We ride up the paved road and head for the first checkpoint. Ride, ride, ride. We find a volunteer and a bunch of bikes, but it's not the first checkpoint. Now we question our map reading skills, and roll on. Up and down a bunch of hills. Eventually we come to a T intersection. Crap. We missed the first checkpoint. Go back or skip it? Skip it. The bike section is all pavement and gravels. There are a few hills but for the most part it's pretty fast, so we have to stay alert not to miss checkpoints. You can tell that this group of athletes is primarily runners and paddlers as many of the gravel hills have footprints walking up them. At one point we are almost outrun by a beagle, but we nail all but one other checkpoint on the bike leg, and make decent time to the next trekking section.



In the middle of the bike section we recieved the second half of the checkpont coordinates and we spend some time plotting, checking, and routing the rest of our checkpoints. Theres a ton of checkpoints in the second treking section and we're running short on daylight when we arrive at it. We chose to just hit the close ones, which there is really only two of. The first checkpoint is no problem, but the second one is nowhere to be found. Dangit. Daylight's wasting and after the canoe crossing on the way over here we'd rather not have to tackle that in the dark, so we skip the rest and head back to the canoes.

Still alot of canoes on the shore, so there must be a bunch of people still out on the trekking section. The wind has died, the water is calm, and the sun is setting. A much nicer crossing on the way back. Not a curse word to be heard. Unload the bikes, cruise up the hill from the beach, and an easy cruise to the finish.



Food, awards, and damage accounts taken. We're not really all that tired, just out of time. Wasn't really too hard of an effort, but then again we weren't moving that fast either. We both learned that we can plot coordinates and read land features pretty well. I definitely have some paddling work to do and likely some run training to do.

The days following the event would reveal some tight muscles and unhappy joints from overdoing it between Arrowhead and Bonk Hard Chill. I've got a knee that's still not too happy. I think it was from jumping into riding platform pedals for two weeks and too much float. I need to simplify my race kit and work on cross training a bit more to prevent some of these funky aches. From what I'm seeing of these events, even though the specify that you need a MTB, you could darn near get by on a road bike. I'll prolly put together some sort of mutant road bike that looks like a mtb to lighten the load.

I've signed up for the High Profile adventure camp so I can hone my navigation skills and scare the crap out of myself with climbing. Hopefully I can do a couple more of these races this year. Maybe even try doing one quickly.

Many thanks to Deb for guiding me through this one and not throwing me out of the boat or anything. You know I've heard she's a violent person ;)

DG