ICO 2012, 12HR Rogaine, Owne Putnam Forrest, Cloverdale Indiana
April 7, 2012 up at 5am and out the door by 6am to get to the race start by 7am. It was still dark as we loaded up in the car, Zender and gear, the air was very cool and breeze. Maybe around 35 but was to be sunny and clear with a high of 65 that day. But Brrrrrrr til then! After several twisty turns down country roads and stopping at a gas station on the way as Paula's stomach was not doing well. We arrived at 730 am to a small open field surrounded by tress with two cars and frank standing under a canopy waiting. Our thoughts first were, where is everyone but then slowly cars started to pile in. Paula immediately ran into the woods as there were no bathrooms at this location. Zender and I went to check in and get our map, clue sheet and passport. The main map didn’t have any trails on it but frank was so kind to have a forest map posted that we could transfer over on to the main map if we so choose. BOY were we glade we did this! Start time was 9am, seemed like forever but time got away from us again. At 8:45 Frank gave some pre race guidelines and safety concerns for the course and surrounding areas. There were lots of “out of bounds” and “off limits” due to private property. This one was going to be tuff. A total of 1250 points with a total of 40cps. In any order.
Promptly at 9am frank said “GO”! We headed back to the car to finish up a few things and make sure Paula's stomach was going to be OK. She said “lets go!” (have to mention that she wanted to try out her new expedition pack and soon into this race she was like “what was I thinking”. LOL) Its like trying to run with a dead body on your back.
I broke the course up into 4 sections starting with the south east section first, then we would move counter clock wise finishing with the south west section near the start/finish. We were off to a good start leaving at 9:08am. Heading for the first cp #12 taking the road southwest. Then off to cp19, then taking cp19 to 43 on the road. #43 was a slight delay as the map showed it near the road and after reading the second clue it was off the logging road near a large log pile. Back on track we took the logging road to stream to hit 50. Cp 50 we climbed the spur to the top then east to trail to cp28. Heading north on the trail to the road we kicked it to cp30. Cp30 up the spur to cp15. Cp15 was a power line/trail xing southwest quadrant but let me tell you the power line field below was NOT like we have ever seen. Paula called it large moguls with lots of stickers and some other colorful words that made me laugh, that didn’t make her happy either. LOL After cp15 we jumped on the road to cp 18. My knee was starting to ache at this point but we were doing well and still pushing on. Paula was going after those flags! Leaving cp 18 we were going for cp24 but ended up past it and went on to cp47. Cp47 to stream to cp27 with no problem, took a bearing and a small prayer and we took off up and down to cp24. Went back to cp18 so we “knew” where we were and took a bearing to stream, stream intersection bearing to cp39. Really wishing there was a trail on this one. But Paula's pace counting really does help ya out. I found this very helpful several times. Cp 39 we took off on the old fire trail to intersection to cp16. Cp16 we jumped on the road and picked up sometime to cp21. At cp21 we went south due to out of bounds back on road to fire road to ridge to cp36. Going north west to top of peak we went to cp44. This one was like a treading a needle, we came up on several no trespassing signs, turned around and went back to the peak. I took another bearing, we got to the location on pace counts as well and realized we were with in 50 feet of it 30 minutes ago. Frustrating! CP44 took another bearing to cp17. There was a nice fire road from 17 to near cp42. This would then start the awful trek thru the most painful stickers, briers, log piles start the awful trek thru the most painful stickers, briers, log piles you can imagine. One after another…..OUCH! Stuff that is not even jog terrain. Cp42 bearing to cp33. Cp33 bearing to Cp44, this was the farthest point north east on the course. My knee was really in pain now, we jumped out on the road to head to cp37, I clipped into Paula as she towed me on the gravel road the whole way to 37. Much need relief and the added ibuprofen helped. She said let me tow you now as I'm going to need you later on the hills. She makes one laugh but always a great teammate. We got to cp37 took the trail to cp26. I drew the trail a little off on the map so I took a bearing to cp26. Cp 26 another bearing to cp45. Paula is saying we are running out of time again so we need to think about the cut off. We decide to head straight for cp32, it had an extra 30pt bonus is you got the year of Abner Frazier's death. We got it! Cp32 took the trail to cp23. Paula mention time again so we knew we had to push harder now. I tell Paula as we are coming up to a fire road that cp25 is out there. I check the trail map at the trail head and told her to grab on we were going for it!! It as an uphill dirt trail climb the whole way to cp25. She hung on and we were up and down the ¾ mile trail and back in 15 minutes. Its now 8:25 and we need to be back by 9pm. One more cp to the finish line we wanted to try and find. Off down the road we went to find cp11, on the way to the finish. The clue for cp11 was trail/road crossing 70 meters due south to rootstock along stream. Paula pulled out my Lupine Wilma headlamp as dark was setting in and took the go pro for herself. She said no time to get her headlamp out she would just due with following mine. Took the first trail we saw along the creek and with in 3 minutes realized we had turned too soon, sprinted back to the road and went 20 feet and there was another trail, the correct trail. Sprint to the creek and trail crossing not far in. Paula read the clue out load again as l was looking west down the creek, she yelled “other side! South!” as I jumped to the other side and there it was, another meaning to punch and GO! Time was ticking and off we went to the finish. Paula counting down the time, knowing we were close but she didn’t know how close we were as her map didn’t have the trails drawn in. 15 Minutes! She yelled, I said grab on! It was really dark now and with one head lamp I was afraid she would fall not being able to see. I told her to get in front of me and Lupine Wilma lighted the way. We sprinted to the finish with 10 minutes to spare! The last hour of this race was our favorite!! J Thank you ICO for another fantastic Rogaine! Our favorite event of yours!
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