Skip to main content

2014 MISSION 18 Hour AR

MISSION Adventure Race
18 Hour
05/10/14
Versailles, IN
Team: Adventure Capitalists/BDAR
3 Person Coed
Racers: Don Bart, Heather Kluch, Eric Olsen



Pre Race

The couple weeks prior to race day were some of my most stressful in a long time. With trying to change my life around, I've been pretty much working 4 different jobs, two of them new jobs, so the learning process is stressful in itself. Aside from that I've been trying to fit in studying for my personal training certification, which I haven't been able to as much as I want. All these things combined made me want to pull my hair out, my brain was scattered and so were my emotions. I felt mentally drained which isn't how you want to feel right before an adventure race. During the week leading up to the race, the song La La La by Naughty Boy kept playing on the radio. Some might think this song is stupid, but this song played over and over in my head during the race, which made me feel better about myself, it gave me motivation to finish. Why? Well, I'm not sure what the exact meaning the artist meant for the song to be, but I have my own interpretation. Being a victim of child abuse, I have put that past me, or so I thought, but it seems that during my most challenging times, it rears it's ugly head every now and then. I know that none of it was my fault, there was nothing I did to deserve it, but when you're told to think a certain way about yourself for more than half of your life, sometimes it comes back to bite you in the ass. I was taught to not believe in myself, that I would never amount to anything and that no one would ever love me. So being in the not so fantastic financial and career state that I'm currently in, my mind starts thinking, well maybe the person that told me those things was right. So here are some of the lyrics in the song...  "Hush. Don't speak. When you spit your venom, Keep it shut, I hate it"..."I'm covering my ears like a kid, when your words mean nothing I go La La La. I'm turning up the volume when you speak, 'cause if my heart can't stop it, I find a way to block it, I go..La la" With these lyrics, in my mind I'm telling myself I won't let their words defeat me, and to stop believing in their lies. I felt like a failure for the first 20 years of my life, I can't let myself feel like that again. It's been a rough couple weeks, can you tell?? 

Anyway enough about me, let's talk about fun things like Don's suspected broken toe! Going into this race he informed us that his toe might be broken. He previously injured it and then reinjured it a day or two before we left. He had it taped together, but tape doesn't make pain go away! We were hoping that during the drive to the race, it would magically heal, but it didn't, well actually it temporarily healed. It didn't bother him at all during the race, but paid it's painful visit the next day. Since I covered both Don and my ailments, let's talk about Eric. There's nothing to say, he was all good. Well at least we had one teammate that wasn't falling apart physically or mentally!

When we arrived we hauled our gear to our cabin which we shared with Mary, Mike and John from Trainology Fitness. They're a great bunch of people, love them! The pre race meeting was quick and we learned that in each section, we could get the checkpoints in any order, but they were all mandatory. So if we missed a CP in one section, we would be ranked behind a team that got them all. Makes sense. We anticipated receiving our maps that night, but we got nothing! Totally forgot that we do everything on race clock with this one! We went to bed feeling like we were forgetting something, because usually we're up for hours plotting and planning our route. We felt helpless!! It did feel good to go to bed early though!




Race Day
Prologue


The race started at 6am, with all of us taking off on foot for a CP scavenger hunt. What's that? It's exactly how it sounds. We were told that we had an hour to find 7 CPs, but we didn't have a map telling us where they were. We had to wander around like lost chickens in the dark, and try to find orange and white non reflective flags that sat at 800 feet of elevation within a radius of 1km. This was frustrating because it was based off of pure luck. If you wandered to the right place, you found them, if not, you were screwed. We ended up finding two near a picnic shelter, but where the other CPs were hiding, we have no idea. We got back to the lodge in an hour, and we found out that it didn't matter how many CPs we got if we didn't get all 7 before an hour was up. So at least we didn't go at a full out sprint and burn out our legs trying to find all 7 CPs! This section was not my favorite, but no worries, it gets better from here on out!

Bike

After the prologue, we received UTM coordinates for our next set of bike CPs. CPs 1-5 were all on single track, and we decided to attack them in reverse order. We headed out for CP5, the trails weren't too technical and they were fun! We came upon a switchback and realized that we had gone too far. We turned around and the CP was right behind us! We rode right past it because our eyes were trained to look for the orange and white flags, we had totally forgotten that they use PVC type tubes for this race even though the race director told us that during the pre race meeting. Our bad! At least we didn't go far! As we kept on riding, we hit a trail with the word "cliff" in the name. I hate cliffs. They scare the crap out of me! The word "Shitballs!" came to mind over and over again. I seriously need to overcome that fear before I nervously shake my way off a cliff! Not only do cliffs scare me, they scare me even more when it's raining, and of course, it started to drizzle, so the trails and the rocks started to get slippery. I think I had a few anxiety attacks but I kept on riding through my fear! By the time we reached CP2, we had to get off our bikes for to hoof it to the end of the spur. We saw a team of 3 dudes, and after talking to them, we found out it was one of their teammate's first adventure race! High five to that guy for doing an 18 hour for his first race! As we approached the CP, I felt my legs burning and a few minutes after that, they itched like hell! We had just gone through a field of stinging nettles, oh nettles I really haven't missed you at all! These things are torture. They feel like paper cuts, then itch for about 20 minutes, and the more you scratch, the more they itch! Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Luckily that was our only encounter with these evil plants. We had one more CP to go and then we were off the trails. Don's chain fell off along the way, but it was super quick fix.

We headed out on the road for CP6 & 7. We pulled up to our attack point, headed into the woods and bushwhacked our way across a creek. We saw team No Sleep coming out of the woods as we headed in, and this began our leap frogging relationship. A little background on these guys, I've known them for years, well at least the John Farless part of the team, nice guy and a great navigator. They're a tough team to beat, so seeing them gave us a little kick to get our butts moving! The next CP was in a dry creek bed, we found that one pretty quick, but No Sleep was nowhere in sight when we got back to our bikes. We pressed on to get to the TA. We had the option of taking a known route back, or we could attempt a road that looked like it didn't go completely through on the map. We took our chances and rode this grassy overgrown road, and to our surprise, it actually went through and saved us a lot of time! I think we all did a happy dance as we headed to the TA!

Paddle


When we got back to the TA, we were given more coordinates to plot, and even though these were considered the paddle section CPs, not all of them had to be attained by boat, and we were allowed to split up. Sounds weird but it will all make sense in a few seconds. At this point we were right on the tails of No Sleep, so we got in the water as fast as possible! We paddled north to CP12, dropped Eric off at the bank and he ran into the tall grass to get it. When he got back into the boat, we talked strategy. We decided to drop Eric off to attain CPs 10, 11, and 13 on foot while Don and I paddled down the river to meet him near the last CP, kinda like an extraction point! (If you've ever watched "Naked and Afraid" you know what I mean by that!) Eric and Don picked a spot on the map as to where he would be plucked out of the woods, and I recommended we take a picture of the map since Eric would have it, and we would have nothing. They took a quick pic and Don and I paddled away as Eric went frolicking through the forest. After a few minutes we could hear thunder rolling in the distance, but it became louder and scarier real quick! I hate being on a boat when it storms, freaks me out! You know the face you make when you're constipated? Well I made that face every time I heard thunder! I kept my cool though, and just as we approached a grassy section of the land that looked like a perfect place to take out, the monsoon let loose! We knew it was coming but holy crap, that thing dumped on us! When we got on land, we quickly turned the canoe upside down so it wouldn't fill with water and put all of our gear underneath it. We both busted out our raincoats,
even though it felt like they weren't doing much. We weren't exactly sure if this was where Eric wanted us to pick him up, but then I remembered, the picture!!!! So happy we decided to take one! The pic was clear enough to see exactly where we were at, and yep, we were in the most perfect spot! The road that ended at the patch of grass was on the map, and we decided it would be a good idea to hike up the road just in case
Eric wasn't sure where we were. He could at least run into us on the road instead of being hidden down by the water. As we stood there freezing and shivering, we contemplated it would take him another 30 minutes or so until he got to this point, but after a few minutes, he appeared jogging down the road, no raincoat, and soaked to the bone! We waved at him but he didn't say anything. When he reached us, he said he didn't even know it was us! He thought it was some lost racers that needed help! He couldn't hear us with the thunder clashing, and he didn't recognize us with our raincoats on! He was super excited when he realized who we were! We all jogged down the grassy road and as we approached our boat, we saw Sarah Dallman from Flying Squirrel Adventures pulling up in her boat, alone. Well actually she wasn't alone, and here is where years of racing experience, being plain old smart, and thinking outside of the box, benefits a team. Sarah and Stephanie were a two person team, so when she let Stephanie out of the boat to do the nav section on foot, it was difficult for Sarah to paddle the huge canoe alone. So she found another two person team, teamed up with the female, they both got in Sarah's boat, and she tied a rope to the other boat and towed the empty boat behind them. Pure genius!!!! I will always remember that for future races in case I'm ever in that situation. Thanks Sarah for being so smart!

As we prepared to launch, Eric was standing right in front of me, and as I bent over to get my PFD, an awful stank floated up my nostrils. I asked Eric if he farted and he said no, but he's always farting so maybe he didn't even realize it. I put on my PFD and there it was again! So I asked him again if he farted because something meaty and rotten just wafted past my face again! He assured me it wasn't him, which he usually admits to it, so there had to be something else rotting or farting somewhere near us. All farting aside, we finally set out on our voyage, and as we paddled along, we came upon a dam. We had no choice but to portage around it, and as we were putting in on the other side of it, we saw No Sleep again! Man these guys were great motivation! It was like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit, or more like dangling a cheeseburger in front of a hungry adventure racer! As we went to put the boat in the incredibly shallow water, we hesitated and contemplated portaging the boat down the road instead. We decided against the road portage and stayed in the water until we reached CP14 where we began another game of No Sleep leap frog. No Sleep pulled over at a spot along the shore to go look for the CP, we paddled past them and past the CP to tackle it from a different attack point. We all got out of the boat for this one, and found it pretty quickly, hopped back in the boat, and there came No Sleep paddling down the river right behind us! It was like we were stalking each other! As we paddled on, the river kept getting more shallow, more rocky, more sandy, pretty much anything that would make us get out of the boat. So instead of a paddle, it turned into a draggle, dragging the boat more than paddling it. Luckily, my smallness actually worked in my favor for a change, and I was allowed to stay in the boat while my big manly teammates pulled me over the rocks. I did have to get out a few times, but not as much as they did. Thanks boys! Since I got to sit on my butt during all the dragging, I took over navigation. It's tough to figure out where you are on the map when you haven't been looking at the map at all, but just by the direction we were going and terrain features, I was able to figure it
out. At one point Eric asked where we were and I didn't want to tell him because we still had what looked like a million miles to go! This paddle took us well over 6 hours, probably almost 7, so as soon as we reached the take out near the bridge, we couldn't wait to get out of the boat! We were soaked, I was freezing, I had lost circulation in my fingers a long time ago, and we just wanted to be dry and warm for a change. The cool thing about the paddle was I felt like it was straight out of National Geographic. We saw so many different animals like super loud ca-cawing hawks, vultures, jumping fish, frogs, a duck protecting her babies, a snake slithering in the water right near me when I was in the water (creepy), and a cow duck, yes I did say cow duck. It was seriously spotted like a cow! MOOQUACK!

Orienteering Section

After that super soaker paddle section, we changed into dry socks, and plotted our next CPs. As we started plotting, No Sleep was pulling their boat out of the water. They were still right on our butts! It's hard to shake a strong team! As soon as we plotted, we grabbed our gear and hauled ass out of there. We knew No Sleep could catch us at any point, so we didn't want to give them that chance! We ran the flats and downhills of the road, and when we reached an intersection we dropped into the woods for CP22 which was a small creek reentrant junction. When we popped back out onto the road, of course we looked behind us for signs of No Sleep, but they weren't in sight. I finally decided to stop looking back, we needed to focus on our race, so I just wanted to keep looking forward.  We attacked CP21 next, this
thing sucked. The clue was forest maturity which made me think there would be a distinct line of old and new trees. We struggled trying to find this one, we even used a supplemental map that didn't help much. We felt we were in the right spot, so Don suggested we sweep North and South with the possibility of stumbling upon it. We ended up hitting a trail , went down the trail and of course, there was the CP! After losing some time on that one, we ran, well tried to run on the super muddy trail north to a road. We crossed the road and went up a spur for CP20 which was a building foundation.
This was a cool CP, kinda dangerous and dangling, which is what made it cool! Eric punched it, and we hurried back down the spur, went around it to the west, and hit a reentrant that lead us to CP19, a waterfall. It was gorgeous, and of course the CP wasn't at the base of the waterfall, we had to climb up to it! We then headed back out to the road and ran it back to the state park. Inside the park we grabbed the CP under the covered bridge, and then ran into town to get CP17 which was at a water tower. We wanted to get this one while it was still light out because we didn't just punch a CP, we had to climb up the water tower and rappel down!

This was super scary but awesome! Getting over that ledge scared the
crap out of me. I had to roll over it, then find my footing, which with being short, made that a challenge in itself! All 3 of us climbed up and flew down the tower one right after another. It was exhilarating! I'm pretty sure the race director fulfilled one of Eric's dreams! When we were all safely back on land, it was dark, we busted out our headlamps and headed to CP16 which was hanging on a stop sign at a church. We then headed back to the TA, Eric found a shortcut across a dam, so we shimmied across a narrow ledge of the dam with fast flowing water. It was pretty scary in the dark especially with a kajillion bugs smacking me in the face while I was trying not to fall in!

All of those white dots are bugs, except for Don's headlamp in the background!


Bike to Finish!

When we got back to the TA, we had to plot what would be our last CPs. The bike section was pretty huge and we determined that we could only get two of the CPs that were close to the TA since we only had a couple hours until the cutoff. CP27 which was a road turnaround was pretty close. We rode past a pile of rocks, which seemed like the wrong way to go, but it was right. We then biked to CP26 which the clue was a shore line, but the sneaky race director decided to put a challenge there, stocked with blow up rafts, paddles and PFDs. We had two options, to take the rafts across some swampy waters with using only two crappy plastic paddles, or use the PFDs to swim across to get a CP with a blinking light at the top of a hill on the other side. We opted for the raft, Don in front, me in the middle and Eric in the back. This raft was crazy hard to control, we were going in circles and the mud from the murky water smelled like rotting poop. Suddenly out of nowhere we starting flying across the swamp. Don and I thought maybe we were just stuck on something and we finally got free. We made it to land, but that wasn't the end of it. We portaged across the land and then Don jumped into the raft and it took off, with just him in it! Eric had to get in the stank water and pull him back to land so we could all get in. We headed across the swampy waters again at a pretty decent speed, but then Don looked back and realized that his paddle stroke with the crappy plastic paddle wasn't doing much, Eric was actually in the water kicking and pushing the boat! We had no idea!! No wonder we were flying, but gross! I felt bad that Eric was swimming in the liquid poo! We made it to the hill and hiked up some steep, muddy terrain in bike shoes, and then slid down on our butts back to the raft. Eric pushed us again since it was so much faster and we made it back to our bikes in no time. We were cold and we reeked like swamp butt as we got back on our bikes to head to the finish. We crossed the finish line at 11:03pm, we had almost an hour to spare, but with how far the other CPs were, we probably wouldn't have made it back in time if we attempted to get them. We saw No Sleep right when we finished, they couldn't go out on the final bike section because John lost his helmet during the trek which is required gear. That sucked! They would've have time for one more CP!  We had a fun and solid race with a 5th place overall finish and 4th in our division which qualifies us for USARA Nationals! And we forgot to take finish photos, so you get maps instead!







Comments

  1. Sorry to hear your mother put you thru such abuse as a child! But at this time of your life it's time to put that behind you and move on. God's blessings for your future!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. And just to clarify it was my father, not my mother. I don't want my mom to get the blame. :o)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Unexpected Visitor

Imagine… Imagine you’re a server at a busy restaurant, and it’s one of your busiest nights. You’re running around getting it done, and you happen to notice a couple being escorted to a table near your section. The couple looks familiar so you do a double take and move closer to get a better look. You freeze. Your heart beats like it’s going to jump out of your chest. You can’t move, you’re shaking, and you can’t breathe because you just realized that this couple is your father and his wife, who you haven’t seen in 19 years.  A few of your coworkers see the look on your face, they’re concerned and ask if you’re ok. As you tell them the story of how your dad just walked in, who you haven’t seen in years because of physical and mental abuse, there are so many emotions running through your head. Your eyes are tearing up, you’re stuttering, and you feel like you’re about to pass out. Your coworkers are sympathetic and can’t believe this is actually happening. What are the chances that

Gear Review: currexSole Runpro Performance Insoles

currexSole RUNPRO Performance Insoles     Being an adventure racer, most of my running is done on trails, or off trail jumping and sometimes tripping over logs and rocks. I was having issues where my feet were moving around too much in my shoes, causing some discomfort and irritation, so I was excited to try out the currexSole inserts, hoping this would solve my wiggly foot problem.  The Insoles: Currently four types of insoles are available. The RUNPRO is made for running, walking, or triathlons, and they can also help you transition to minimalist shoes. The ACTIVEPRO is good for multisports such as running & hiking, racquet & nets sports like tennis or volleyball, and ball sports including baseball, basketball, rugby, and football. The BIKEPRO is for bike shoes, and lastly, the EDGEPRO is strictly for ski and snow sports which are perfect for ski, snowboard, alpine boots and skates. When you select which type is best for your needs, you will then have to

Planet Adventure Challenge 30 hour AR

Planet Adventure Challenge 30 Hour Adventure Race Derby, IN Team Eyes of the World: Chuck White, Don Bart, Heather Kluch Pre-race After a 7 hour drive to our hotel with the excessive use of the words bogart, epic, and hoss, we finally arrived around 3am. Luckily they let us have a late checkout or we would’ve been zombies. We pointlessly brought all our gear into our hotel room thinking we were going to get it ready to go from there, but instead ended up loading everything back into the SUV. Smart move there. We decide we all need coffee and find this cute little shop that’s cooking up greasy fatty goodness. Even though I had already eaten, the bacon is making me drool. I resist my meaty temptations and go with the best mocha frappacrappy midgetchino (or whatever they called it) I’ve ever had. Since I don’t like coffee, they created magic.  We then head over to the prerace meeting location even though we’re super early. We figure we can hang out and get our gear toget