Loreen and I decided to race the Castlewood 8hr Adventure race this year again. At 6:00 AM, 82 total teams loaded the buses liked packed sardines in our cold weather gear and packs. We were given all maps the night before so we knew we were starting out on foot. We were dropped off at Route 66 State Park were we started with a run within the park and quickly found all 6 checkpoints taking us 47 min. We then jumped into the canoe to paddle down to Sherman Beach. We felt pretty strong on the paddle and we pushed through many teams completing the section in 1hr 6min. From there, Loreen gathered the maps taking a quick look at the upcoming checkpoints while I pushed our 2 staged bikes up the beach shore to the trail. We took a quick 40 minute ride for an out and back collecting checkpoints along the Stinging Nettle Trail. We ran into Team Trailmonster who was going the opposite way looking for their passport they dropped somewhere on the bike section. Did I mention it was a very windy day and the temperaturs were dropping throughout the race? My stomach dropped thinking about them trying to find their paper passport blowing around near the swift moving river.Time to hop back into the canoe again but, this time we had to strap our bikes inside and paddle to Chubb park which was a short paddle downstream. Navigating at Chubb Park is where the race really 
started. This is very hill terrain and difficult navigation. The checkpoints were more spread out and there are many re-entrants, creeks, ridges, etc that all look the same. My feet were really starting to feel numb due to getting wet which would make it painful to run at times especially, when we were on top of a ridge exposed to the gusty winds. At one point, Loreen and I saw fresh blood all over the ground which was on our bushwacking path for awhile. I kept hoping we didn't look like some 4-legged creature running through the woods too! We made one small navigational error on this nav section ending up in the wrong revene. But, we quickly figured it out and wasted probably 10-12 min. Back to the heavy canoe filled with our bikes for another paddle to Castlewood taking us 47 min. We hadn't seen any female teams for a long time and were still feeling pretty strong going into our MTN bike leg in Casltewood. However, we noticed Loreen's bike had a flat after taking it out of the canoe. She added alot of air to the tire hoping it could hold throughout the last section trying to save time from changing it if she could. We heard we were top 20 some team so we hauled out of there hoping for top 20. 
We crossed the finished line with smiles placing 1st in overall female teams and 22 out of total 82 teams. We were happy to see Team Trailmonster found their passport along the river and came across the finish line with smiles on their face too. Kuat came through this year providing free beer at the finish line which was the pre-party to the annual Holtmann bash that my husband and I put on at our house, which is next to Castlewood. I felt a big relief with my last race of the year completing a total of 17 races. Now for some down time and to start planning 2011.
started. This is very hill terrain and difficult navigation. The checkpoints were more spread out and there are many re-entrants, creeks, ridges, etc that all look the same. My feet were really starting to feel numb due to getting wet which would make it painful to run at times especially, when we were on top of a ridge exposed to the gusty winds. At one point, Loreen and I saw fresh blood all over the ground which was on our bushwacking path for awhile. I kept hoping we didn't look like some 4-legged creature running through the woods too! We made one small navigational error on this nav section ending up in the wrong revene. But, we quickly figured it out and wasted probably 10-12 min. Back to the heavy canoe filled with our bikes for another paddle to Castlewood taking us 47 min. We hadn't seen any female teams for a long time and were still feeling pretty strong going into our MTN bike leg in Casltewood. However, we noticed Loreen's bike had a flat after taking it out of the canoe. She added alot of air to the tire hoping it could hold throughout the last section trying to save time from changing it if she could. We heard we were top 20 some team so we hauled out of there hoping for top 20. 
We crossed the finished line with smiles placing 1st in overall female teams and 22 out of total 82 teams. We were happy to see Team Trailmonster found their passport along the river and came across the finish line with smiles on their face too. Kuat came through this year providing free beer at the finish line which was the pre-party to the annual Holtmann bash that my husband and I put on at our house, which is next to Castlewood. I felt a big relief with my last race of the year completing a total of 17 races. Now for some down time and to start planning 2011.
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