Lightning Strikes 8 Hours

Team:  Off the Front Racing
Teammates:  Todd Dohogne and Zdenek Palecek

With USARA Nationals being in Brown County, Indiana this year, my team and I were eager to attend an adventure race which would be a qualifier for Nationals. In order to qualify, you have to be top 3 at that race However, the rules state if a team qualified in a previous qualifying race then, the spot rolls down to next top team. Not all adventure races are qualifiers for USARA Nationals. There have only been a few qualifying races so far this year so we would have to probably place top 3 in the next race.

I found a USARA National qualifying race in Mt. Carroll, IL., Lightning Strikes. This is a 8 hour adventure race consisting of MTN biking, running/bushwhacking, paddling, and rope sections with ascending, rappelling, and traversing, all using map and compass in Northwest Illinois. There were some competitive teams registered and I was sure we would all be fighting to win top 3 to qualify for Nationals.

Race Headquarters

We arrived in Mt Carroll, IL and there was still snow on the ground. Some of the exposed areas were muddy and sloppy. Race Headquarters and lodging were Camp Benson. This is normally an adventure camp for kids in the summer where they learn how to navigate, paddle, ascend/rappel/traverse on rope sections, team build, caving, and much more. Our race fees help provide scholarships for kids who want to attend camp but, maybe can't afford to go.They will never turn a kid down who wants to attend camp but, can't afford it. We also had the opportunity to buy a cool sweatshirt and 100% of the cost went towards the kids scholarships too. Being an advocate for kids being outside, I had to buy one!

While on our way to register,  we ran into Robyn Benincassa, who is known to be the top female adventure racer in the world. She raced with top teams such as, Team Nike, Eco-Internet, and Zanfell, in some of the toughest 7-10 day adventure races in the world- Eco-Challenge and Primal Quest.  She was also a national level endurance kayaker and currently holds the Guinness World Record for distance on flat water in 24 hours. I was quick to pick her brain about the paddling section in the race, river level, and boat types. She informed us the race director had
to remove the paddling section due to water levels, frozen sections, and cold temperatures. Bummer!





 Our race fees included meals and lodging at the camp in these cool cabins which can sleep up to 16 people. The cabins are equip with electricity, heat, and bunk beds. We knew we would be sharing the cabin with other teams and I was a little worried about us getting sleep or us keeping up other teams. More on this later. We also got a bag when we registered which had a ton of cool schwag to include a nice first aid kit and gators. I think this is the most I've ever received in a schwag bag at any race.









After we  registered, we had the opportunity to practice the ropes sections before the race. These were the permanent courses for the camp and would not be the actual rope sections for the race. We decided to take this time to fine tune our climbing gear and practice. We also
found this really cool human luge where you go through a long tube system on a sled. We decided to have a little fun before the race.

Traversing across the river

 Pre-Race

The pre-race meeting opened up with Robyn Benincassa sharing her previous experience and knowledge on how to be successful as a team and at adventure racing. She is no longer adventure racing due to multiple hip surgeries but, has now started Project Athena Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women who've endured medical setbacks achieve their athletic dreams. Robyn is also a keynote speaker across the nation for team building events and has a new book out, "How Winning Works." http://www.robynbenincasa.com/ Her talk was so inspirational, motivating, and perfect to hear the night before a race.

 When she was done speaking, the race director handed out some of the maps and checkpoints to plot around 9:00 PM. We quickly headed back to the cabin to plot what we had on a fold up table I brought. The other teams in our cabin chose to plot at the main lodge either on the floor or on the metal chairs since all the dinner tables were put away to accommodate the racers for the meeting.

Since this race was important to us we took a lot of time with the maps
with double checking and map rolling road sections so we could be quick during the race. The other teams came back to our cabin and quickly crawled into bed while we were still plotting and gathering our gear. This meant we were still talking, make sounds, and lights were on! I felt really bad about this but, we were there to race and needed to do well.

The Race

When we awoke, with approximately 4 hours of sleep, the ground was covered with a new thin layer of snow and the ground froze underneath it. It was slick out there. We arrived at race headquarters for the pre-race briefing and 20 minutes before the start, we received our passport and a new map which had pre-plotted checkpoints 1-3 and 18-22.


Trek 1:  (cps 1-3, 1.0 mile, 0:14 min )
              

All the 4 hour and 8 hour teams gathered at the start line and the race begun at 6:00 AM. It was still a little dusky out but, not dark enough to need a headlamp. The first orienteering section which consisted of 3 pre-plotted checkpoints (cps) which could be done in any order. Teams scattered from the start in all directions. We chose to run a trail out to the furthest cp first. Once in the woods, the ground and rocks were slick due to the snow and overnight freeze. Yep, I took a good fall running down some rocks. We nailed the 3 cps and hustled into the transition area in 2nd place overall behind team Rev3.  Then, team Rib Mountain slipped in there and choose to use platform pedals so their transition was quick with not needing to change shoes and both those teams were out of the TA before us.


Bike 1:  (cps 4-6, 10.49 miles, 0:54 min)

After a quick transition, we took off on our bikes to collect the next set of cps, 4 and 5. We had 2 competitive teams in front of us and we weren't sure who was on our tail. Our plan was to utilize the bike tow on all the road sections but, the road conditions were not good. The temps were in the 30s with a thin layer of snow and hidden icy spots.  We tried to stay in a pace line as much as possible and visibility was difficult due to snow pelting our eyes from the sky and road. We picked up the 2 cps and headed to the steep road that dumped us into Mississippi Palisades State Park. We saw a couple sets of bikes laying there when we arrived. We quickly transitioned back into our running shoes and pulled out our maps we plotted the previous night.

Trek 2:  (cps7-15, 3.5 miles, 1hr 9min, elevation 700-940ft)

Zdenek took a quick look at the orienteering map which had 9 cps we plotted the night before. As soon as we stepped foot in the woods we were already heading up a steep re-entrant. The terrain was really hilly in Palisades Park. We worked together really well in this section. Zdenek was dead on with each checkpoint and Todd was efficient punching the passport. After grabbing all nine cps, we had a quick steep downhill run on the road back to where we left our bikes. Once again, we changed into our biking shoes and headed back to Camp Benson on our bikes.

Bike 2:  (cps 16-18, 12.9 miles, 1hr 11min)

With warming temperatures, the roads became more wet and slushy. We were told there were still two teams in front of us and we assumed it was still the co-ed teams, Team Rev2 and Rib Mountain. We were getting closer to the finish and tried to hammer out the last bike section hoping to gain a little time. We picked up the 2 cps on the road section and flew into transition area 18. Here we dropped the bikes and quickly put on our climbing harnesses and gear.

Ropes Course: (cp 19-22, )

We headed off running to the first ropes section which was ascending. We had to find the quickest way to get to the bottom so we chose to run the trail a little and found a section that wasn't as steep to scramble

down.  There were 3 ropes set up but, only one rope per team. We decided ahead of time we would send Todd up first so he could scout the area for the next cp. I went up second. I felt I was ascending pretty fast until I got to a ledge near the top. I couldn't get my ascenders to slide along the rock. I kept trying and my arms became very tired and shaky. I realized I had to push off the rocks with my feet and do a little jump to push my ascenders past the ledge. That did the trick and I was able to ascend over. Zdenek quickly ascended behind me.

Next, we had a quick zip line off a steep ledge that required a running start. This brought us to the bottom with a nice snowy slide on our butts. We ran across the flats and scrambled back up a hill to attack the next cp in a rocky ledge. Once we got it, we realized we could of stayed low to save time. We knew we had to get to the rappel next but, there was a wide creek with some pretty cold water in front of us. We knew the race director said we would not have to paddle or cross any water "intentionally" for the race anymore due to the conditions. This seemed to stick in our heads and could not figure out how we were suppose to get across. The night before they had fixed ropes across the same creek that folks were traversing across to practice. We figured this must be somewhere since we weren't going to have to cross water anymore. We went up and down the creek for awhile. I finally told the boys "screw it. We are going to jump in." We found a spot we thought was safer and jumped in. The water was about thigh high and boys helped me get across. Wow..that was some cold water!


Once we  got to the rappel, we realized we really were suppose to jump in the water and there was no static line crossing the river to traverse. The rappel was high and fun. Once we all got down we headed to the "human luge." Since we practiced the night before, not knowing we would use it in the race, we knew exactly where it was and what to do. We shot down the tubes with a big grin on our face and headed towards the finish line. We ran across the line with arms in the air. We were told we finished 3rd in division, 3rd overall, and going to Nationals. Yeah..goal achieved!!

Innsbrook Off-Road Team Triathlon

The weather didn't looking promising for the 4th annual Innsbrook Off-Road Team Triathlon to be held on March 10th this year. The forecast called for 80% chance of steady rain all day. The race director decided to remove all the dirt roads and trails from the course, due to extremely muddy conditions,  forcing us to run and bike mostly on paved and gravel roads. I was bummed to read this initially since this could make the race faster for experienced triathletes.  We made a last minute decision to use our cross bikes instead of mountain bikes due to single track/double track sections being removed.

Todd Dohogne and I were signed up to race in the combined age 80 and over coed division and our other Off the Front teammates, Marci Morris and Aron Rauls, were to race in the under 80 coed division. This was going to be an interesting race for us. We have mountain biking and adventure racing experience but, neither of us have ever raced a triathlon. We were worried about the speed triathletes would have on the run and bike especially, since they removed the dirt sections. We knew we had to hammer on the bike and attack the hills. We have a lot of paddling experience and hoped we could gain some time in this section too.  We decided to use a running tow, which was a bungee attached to Todd that I can hold on to in order to keep his pace. 

Pre-race

The rain stop when we arrived which made it nice for pre-race set up.  I tried to pick a prime spot to hang our bikes on the racks in the transition which was on the end of the last rack on the way out to the gravel road. We put our biking shoes upside down in plastic bags to prevent the shoes from filling with water later. The radar showed more heavy rain and wind coming again.  It started out a little warm and muggy but, I kept my tights and long sleeve base layer on since temps would probably drop once the rain started. I chose not to carry anything on my back since I knew I could hydrate after the short run once on the bikes.  

           

Run 1 (2.88 miles)

We maneuvered our way to the front row with my bungee attached to Todd's pack and the start gun went off.  We started off on the run pacing ourselves since we were warned of the "hills." In fact, the first run had some pretty decent elevation. We were thinking the elevation would be good for us since we are not flat road runners. Our goal was to keep our other teammates, Aron and Marcy, in sight since we knew they were faster runners.  We seemed to be able to pass some of the teams the more hills we encountered. We came into the muddy transition area (TA) and quickly changed our dry shoes and put on a helmet. 

Bike 1 (2.94 miles)

We took off quickly on the cross bikes onto a flat gravel road which was slick in spots.  We seemed to be in a pace line with other teams until we reached the paved roads. I tried to hold on to Todd's wheel as close as I could. Good thing I had clear sunglasses on since I was constantly being sprayed in the face with his back wheel. We started passing teams once we reached the first couple of climbs.  We could tell the wind was really starting to pick up so it was really helpful and fun working with Aron and Marci taking turns pulling in a pace line. This section seemed to go pretty fast and we found ourselves pulling into the boat launch in 3rd position overall.

Paddle (2.83 miles)

Todd and I felt we could use our paddling experience to either gain some time here or at least, hold our position. I was worried about the 31 total all male teams who might be stronger than a coed team.  We had 4 checkpoints we had to collect on the paddle section which could be done in any order but, you had to punch the corresponding checkpoint number with the same number on the passport. Excited but, nervous about our current position we quickly put the canoe in the water and jumped in. It didn't take me long to realize we got in the boat backwards. You have got to be kidding me! Of all the years I've been paddling, I made a total rookie mistake.  I decided the quickest way to correct for it was for each of us to carefully turn our bodies around in the canoe. Oh crap..this meant I had to steer the canoe. I don't usually have to do this.  I became a little more nervous so, I made Todd still navigate so I could focus on the steering.

We decided to attack our checkpoints (CPs) in a counter clock direction. Each of the 4 CPs were in a deep cove which can be seen on the above map. Once we arrived to the first CP and punched our passport, we quickly switched spots in the canoe since Todd is more experienced with steering and navigating at the same time.  However, I was surprised I seemed to do ok steering our boat on the way there.

It was hard to tell how we were doing overall now since teams went off in different directions. We seemed to be holding our 3rd place overall position at least in our direction.  On the way to the third CP, the rain and wind really started to pick up. When we got close to the CP, Todd had a great idea and decided it would be quicker to pull over and run along the bank since it would be faster than paddling in there and back out. We were on our way back to the boat launch which was the last CP. The rain really started to pour and we were now paddling against the southeast headwind.  We pulled the tip of the canoe onto the rocky shore. We both attempted to get out of the boat at the same time. Suddenly, the whole boat tipped since it was partly onshore causing me to fall into the water on my left side. Oh crap...again! That was some cold water! We came off the water in 3rd overall so managed to hold our position on this leg.

Bike 2 (9.4 miles)

The last bike leg was super hilly and mostly all gravel roads. This was good for us since we are normally mountain bike racers and we were hoping we could catch another team here or maybe lengthen our gap with other teams behind us. Initially, the steep climbs were warming me up since my clothes were soaked. But, I'm sure everyone's clothes were soaked anyway since we were all out in the pouring rain.  The downhills were starting to getting a little sketchy on the cross bikes and water was starting to accumulate at the bottom of them.  The downhills were also making me really cold with my wet clothes and my teeth chattering.  I tried to keep focused on catching the top 2 teams.  Where were they? I starting giving up hope on seeing them then, in the last few miles, my eyes spotted them. "Oh yeah! There they are!" Immediately, Todd and I started to really crank it out and passed them on a big climb. It looked like maybe the two person male team was a little tired. We bolted into the TA for the last time and heard we were now in 2nd place overall. We quickly changed into our cold running shoes with our frozen hands and soaking cold feet.

 Run 2 (1.4 miles)

Initially, I was excited at this point that we were doing well and I could smell the finish line. However, Todd and I both felt like we were running with bricks in our shoes and could barely feel our feet and legs.  The last run leg was mostly flat. I was worried some of the fast triathletes could catch us on a flat run. The first half started out on gravel which was getting really soupy and not easy to run on. Sure enough, the 3rd place 2-person male team decided to get us back by passing us up in the first 1/2 mile of the run. Bummer! We kept our heads up and keep trying to squeeze it out. We had about another 1/2 mile to go on pavement and headed up a short climb. I looked over my shoulder and there was another 2-person male team chasing us down. "Oh no you don't!"  I turned to Todd and asked, "how bad to you want to win 3rd overall?  Let's do it!" 

 The Finish 

We started to dig a little deeper on the last quarter mile of the race and found ourselves crossing the finish line in 3rd overall out of 48 teams and 1st overall coed team. We were both so stoked about our finish with our first off-road triathlon but, we were also freezing so it was hard to stand around to celebrate. I waited around the finish line for our teammies, Aron and Marcy.  They came in shortly after us with an awesome finish and won 1st in their division and 5th overall. They also raced in the trail run the day before and both did really well. It was great for both Off the Front teams to podium and make our coach, Chris Mileski, proud!

Land Between the Lakes-18 Hours

 

We had so much fun racing together at the last Castlewood 8hr Adventure Race in December, that my adventure racing team, Off the Front Racing, decided to put several races on our calendar for the year. Land Between the Lakes was our next adventure race and was held in Kentucky on February 16^th. This was an 18 hour non-stop adventure race put on by Bonk Hard Racing which consisted of orienteering with map and compass on foot, mountain bike, and canoe on the largest inland peninsula in the United States with over 170,000 acres of land. The race director, Gary Thompson, informed us a few weeks before there would probably be no way you could finish the course early and to plan on being out there the whole 18 hours. To me, this meant there was going to be at least one section that had so many checkpoints (CPs) to get that it might be impossible to get them all. 

The Team

I feel it is so important to be on a team with folks who you really enjoy spending a lot of time with and share the same competitiveness you do.  These qualities are different for everyone and every team. For me, I like to race with folks who are competitive, funny, and are team players. The longer the race, the more important these qualities are to me.  My teammates, Zdenek Palecek, Todd Dohogne, and Dave Hagen, are all super strong athletes, very competitive, and so fun to be with. Zdenek is really good with reading the land and navigating so he was our lead navigator for the race. All four of us can navigate too and were ready to put our head in the maps to help if needed. All three boys are super strong, smart, and racing machines!

Pre-race

We arrived the day before and stayed at the Kentucky Lake Dam Village where race headquarters were. We spent the day before preparing our packs, gear, and food for the race.  However, we had no idea what the leg orders were yet and the length of time we would be out there before seeing food and water again. I decided to carry all my own personal gear and not give it to the boys unless needed. We had a bike tow set up on Dave’s bike and body tows for the runs if needed. Mandatory team gear was dispersed among the boys.

Where did all of our time go? Before we knew it, it was time for a little dinner and the pre-race meeting at 7pm. I always try to be prepared at pre-race meetings by bringing paper, pencil, and race info.  I knew by the time we left the meeting, it would leave us little time to plot maps and perfect our gear/food before we had to be at the race start. But, whoever really sleeps the night before an adventure race anyway?

Gary handed out 2 USGS maps to every team. He then announced the checkpoints could be done in any order and my any mode of travel with the exception of 3 checkpoints that must be done by canoe. Wow…of all the adventure races I have done, I have not seen this idea before. I loved it!

 

Once we were released from the meeting, we quickly headed back to the lobby where big tables were to begin plotting the 45 checkpoints and decide our strategy to get them.  We thought about our strengths and figured out a good plan to attack them. We were awake almost till 1:00 AM with alarms set at 3:30 AM in order to pack up and to be race-ready at start at 5:00 AM.  

The Race

We had about a 15 minute drive to the bike drop and another 5-10 minute drive to the race start. It was a chilly start with temps in the mid-20s and highs in the 30s for the day.  One of the racers did an incredible job singing the National Anthem and then, the race started.

We started off on foot with our running shoes on and bike shoes in our packs. We knew we wouldn’t see water and food again till the afternoon so packs felt heavy at the start. Our first two checkpoints weren’t as smooth as we wanted. We saw a few other lead teams perhaps making the same mistakes. Once our nerves settled, it seemed like we started getting into a groove.  We arrived at the bike drop and transitioned into our bike gear and shoes.  We quickly took off hoping to gain some time back since we feel our strength is on the bike.

We arrived at the canoe put in and we were greeted by Suzanne Renner and Jackie Dozier who are awesome women from St. Louis I know who came to volunteer. I normally will choose to use kayak paddles in the canoe if we are given the option. However, we felt it would be more of a hassle to carry our kayak paddles the whole race and decided to use the canoe paddles the race provided. The winds on the water were ripping from the North at 10-15 mph with gusts up to 20-25mph. Two coast guard boats were on the water to look after racers. We took off immediately into strong side winds and large swells which felt like we were on white water. I was getting pretty wet in the front of the boat which left my hands freezing even with 2 pairs of gloves on. Luckily, Todd, who was doing an incredible job steering the back of the boat through the brutal conditions, had an extra pair of awesome Craft Siberian gloves which saved my hands. I loved them so much I purchased a pair for myself after I got home. 

 

We nabbed the mandatory paddle checkpoints and grabbed 2 additional points which were close to shore. We felt this would save us time later trying to grab them by bike or foot. After portaging our canoe over a road and into a pond to grab the 5^th point, we decided to put the canoes over our heads and carry them approximately a mile down a paved road back to our canoe drop. We figured this would be quicker than battling the head winds back up the lake to get there. This was probably the hardest part of the race for me. Those canoes with our packs on were not light.

We continued back on the bikes trying to quickly grab as many cps as we could before it got dark. Since we choose to attack these cps mostly by bike, we would either ride our bikes as close as we could until we were forced to run into the woods. Sometimes, we even bushwhacked our bikes through the woods by riding them or pushing them by foot.  We finally decided it was inefficient to keep changing out our running and biking shoes so, we decided to ride with our running shoes on for most of the race. Maybe  putting platform pedals on for this race would have been a good idea?

Zdenek did a fantastic job with navigation. He was so good at getting us as close as he could by bike in the middle of nowhere then, we just had to go another 150-400 meters by foot to nab the cp. Did I mention this was his first time as primary navigator in an adventure race? Amazing! 

We arrived at our food drop later in afternoon and we were greeted by one of my favorite female adventure racers and friend, Carrie Sona. She normally races on the Alpine Shop team but, was volunteering due to an injury. We refueled and then, we were off on our bikes again.

As we approached the evening hours, we realized we were not going to be able to get all 45 cps. We looked at the maps and came up with a new strategy to get as many CPs as possible before the cut-off time at 11pm or 18 hours. For every minute late after 11pm, you would lose 1 CP. For example, if you come in at 11:15 PM you would lose 15 CPs! Since we feel we are faster bikers,  we chose CPs which were closer to roads or single track.

During the night, I was having a lot of problems with my hands being cold when we were riding on the road sections. I decided at the last minute before the race to not carry the extra weight/bulk and could manage with the 2 lighter pairs of gloves I had.  I didn’t want to stop to warm them so, I put my fingers in food and bar wrappers I had to protect them from the wind which seemed to really help.

Around 10:15 PM, we had to decide if we were going to grab one more CP or head in to the finish line. We figured the CP would of taken around 15-20 minutes on foot once we got there. It looked like the single track back to the finish line would take approximately 35-45 minutes.  But, what if we got a flat, mechanical, or took longer finding the CP? We had 31 CPs at this point and had to make a decision.  Would it change our current standings by getting one more CP or could it destroy everything we worked so hard for if we were late?

The Finish

We decided wanted a little cushion with time and crossed the finish line at 10:31 PM with 31 checkpoints. We were greeted by cheering volunteers and cow bells. We still had no idea how we placed among the other teams in the race at that point but, I had a good feeling about it. We jumped at the opportunity to join the hot tub party around the fire pit and devour the tasty warm food Bonk Hard Racing provided us. We still had over an hour until the awards ceremony so we climbed into our car with the heat cranking at 90 degrees and fell asleep. We magically awoke 5 minutes before the awards ceremony and headed over there. 

We were excited to hear when they announced we placed 2^nd in our division behind Team Alpine Shop and 3^rd overall. We were very happy on our placing especially, since we just started racing together last December. Congrats to Team Alpine Shop and their solid finish collecting 41 of 45 CPs. There were other teams we knew who also did very well. Congrats to Scott Kiefner’s team on 2^nd and Bill Langton’s team on 3^rd in the 8 hour race too. As always, Bonk Hard Racing always has awesome swag to give away.

 Afterthoughts

It was such an awesome feeling to cross the finish line with a team who I feel are incredible athletes and friends. I had such a good time with them and felt we worked well together. We have been training really hard together for the past 3 months and will keep pushing for ways to help us get faster and stronger as a team. 

Up next, Todd Dohogne and I will be racing the Innsbrook Off-Road Triathlon this weekend. This will be a short race for us but, we will be up against some super-fast triathletes.  On March 24th, Todd D., Zdenek, and myself will be heading up to Mt Carroll, IL for the Lightning Strikes 8 Hour Adventure Race. This will be a qualifier for USARA Nationals which will be held in beautiful Brown County, Indiana this year.

Winter Training

Even though I miss competing during the winter months, I do need the mental and physical break from racing and enjoy hitting the weight room with Off the Front folks and coach Chris Mileski. Our workouts take place at the Sports Enhancement Group in Chesterfield Valley from November through early March. Coach Mileski incorporates a lot of plyometrics and core work along with the weights. I have also added circuit fitness this year to increase my speed with sprint work and fast twitch drills to help prepare me for different races I have added on the calendar for 2013. Our workouts last 1 1/2 to 2 hours twice a week. It's always a blast training with a group of fun energetic people who also share the same passion I do-endurance racing.

This winter I will also be incorporating more trail running, paddling, and climbing/rope work to prepare for long adventure races and off-road triathlons and biathlons I've added to my 2013 calendar. I use to do a lot of adventure racing back in the day and do miss it.  I'm really excited about racing with my teammates, Zdenek, Todd Dohogne, and Dave Hagen more in 2013. They are such great guys to race with and super strong and fast. I  need to bump my training up a bit though in order to keep up with them! Our goal is to qualify for and race USARA Nationals, which will be held in Brown County, Indiana in 2013. Off-road triathlons (with kayaking instead of swimming) and biathlons will be new for me and can't wait to see what I can do. 

No, I didn't give up mountain bike racing. In fact, I have some of my usual endurance mountain bike races on the calendar along with some biggies-24 hours of Alaska-Mud, Sweat, and Gears and 24 hours of Dino in Indiana. I am also looking forward to breaking out the singlespeed again for more races next year.  I have a new sponsor that I will be racing for in 2013. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to share soon.