On Dec 4th, Loreen Mattson and I met at the Alpine Shop the night before the race to check-in and receive race information. However, the only thing that was given to us were our racer numbers. We were instructed to take our bikes to the mandatory bike drop at the Wymann Center in Wildwood on Friday night. I was happy that we didn't have to plot our maps the night before which means good sleep but, have no idea where we were racing and which discipline to prepare for. Also, the temps were really dropping and this was going to be a cold start in the AM. I took my bike to the bike drop only to find a broken spoke from riding the day before. I always clean my bike and prepare it before the race but, I failed to see the broken nipple. I reloaded the bike, took it home, switched out wheels, and went all the way back out there. So much for my sleep strategy. We arrived at Castlewood at 5:15AM for the race start and started loading buses. We were transported to Greensfelder for the race start. The race started with a 15 point orienteering section which was very hilly. We were doing great but, had difficulty with the last couple checkpoints which cost us a lot of time. Normally, we are use to super stud Matt Keeven or Kerry Rascher navigating and dragging us around so this was a change for us. Now we had the maps, compass, and had to read the land. Next, we came off the O'section to our bike drop. We were given the rest of the maps for the race and had to plot it all. We were pretty quick here but, we had some serious time to make up. We packed up and left on bikes out Alt road and to the Al Foster trail. We did some flat single track back in there and came back out to Sherman Beach. We had to load our bikes into the canoe. Yes..they were both 29ers too! From there we did a quick paddle upstream to retrieve a checkpoint. I realized that we didn't go upstream far enough so I decided to climb into the water to get the checkpoint. Did I mention how cold it was during the race?? With wet feet, I climbed back in the canoe for the final paddle leg all the way down to Castlewood. From the beach, we unloaded the bikes, hopped on saddle, and set out for the last leg which was all single track-my favorite.
We had smiles all theway into the finish line since we knew we had won 1st in our division. I gave my winnings/prize to my husband, Todd. He is always very supportive and always there for me! Thanks! And big thanks to Loreen Mattson for a fantastic race. She did a great job navigating and was super strong as always. This race was a blast!
