2014 Break Up AR

On March 29 we decided to take on a shorter sprint Race called The Break Up, put on my LA Racing. This was a 12 hour sprint race located in Junction City, Kansas....Yes Kansas. This would be our First Race in Kansas and really did not know what to expect. This would also be our first Race with, Derek Allison. Yet another first, It was Derek's first Team race.


We arrived about 6:00pm on Friday, checked in to the hotel and did a quick tire change. We had kept our knobs on because the past races here were rain and mud. So we got to work, in a fluid assembly line, swapping out the tires on Pwilds bike and JZ's. I don't know how but I think we got the trailer unpacked tires changed and bikes loaded all in 30 min. First good sign the team is firing on all cylinders. After we got that done we hit the room for a quick gear go over for the bike drop after the pre Race meeting at 8:00pm. We were able

to leave a bag for after paddle to refill water or food. They gave the option to bring your own paddle or use the Oar they provided. We opted for four blades instead of two. Oh and the third was not permitted to paddle, which we thought to be strange but that was the RD's choice. Needless to say P-Wild was not happy with this, She loves her paddling. We packed up the bike gear and off to the bike drop and pre Race meeting, 14 miles to the small lake town of Milford,KS. Were we received the first of the pre-plotted maps. and by plotted we mean a 75m blue dot covering all "terrain" in the area. more on the later. No clue sheet, paddle put in or real clues to anything other then a 1:24,000 map with cp's 1-21. There are is however three short urban o sections where you have to chain up your bikes and grab some on trail CP's so thats about it. we staged the bikes and grabed some Kansas BBQ then back to the hotel to do final gear check and get some sleep. 

We awoke at 4:30am. Race check at 5:30am in downtown Junction City historical Museum. This is were we picked up our second map, clue sheet with UTM's, the most Vague Clues we have ever seen in a race (Off Trail, Terrain, and New house)that's about all you get, and passport. CP's were your normal O flag at some places were they wouldn't be stolen, and a black cable with a punch and tiny reflector at others). Let it be known it is not easy to find a black cable hanging from a tree in a 75m area because many of the UTM's Vs. actual location within the blue dot varied quite a bit as we learned. We also went over last Q and A's about the race. on the second map we found that things were not quite making sense and we knew the RD had not given us all the information for a reason. BUS trip to start Ugggg. we loaded up with a last minute skirmish for final route planning materials. And off we went. We actually started at 7:00am by the time we got to the top of the map. "Lights On" RD says So boom Lupine Wilma and Piko take charge of the morning.
  This course was not in number order it was kind of all over the place which made the Rabbit/Derek have to keep on top of his game to make sure there were no mis-punches. Prolog consisted of trekking to two Cp's in the dark. We decided to shoot for 22 first so we set our bearing and pace count and off we went. Pwild got her count and JZ had is bearing easy as 1,2,3 right. That's what we thought, between first Race jitters and first CP jitters and not knowing how this RD would be placing the CP's, we missed it on our first shot. To later find out that we were pretty much right on it. We searched a bit for it up and down the re-entrant it showed with no luck. Out to another attach point and a new count to verify we were in the right place. We were, the CP as Derek said "was hidden up a trees ass". This was a hint on what was to come. So we hit the next easy in and out then jog to the paddle. We lost quite a bit of time on the first CP but knew we had to not leave one this early. We Jammed the paddle section gaining quite a bit of time thanks to Pwilds Nav....like she had anything else to do. "I hate just sitting here" playing paddy cake to keep warm. Paddle was about 5 miles and the CP's were nice little trek O sections. This was nice as we were able to stretch the legs, recharge on Perpetumn,  and warm up between the paddle sections. We made some great time up passing a few teams on the paddle.

Into the Paddle take out and a short 1K jog to the the Bike TA. Quick Transition sock change and off on the bikes in 4 min. We hammered to the first of two single track loop rides this one was not plotted so you pretty much had to ride the whole thing. This was fun, a tight windy 3 mile loop. Then back on the road...Fast Pace line all the way. Hit 35 then......then came 36, "ohhhhhh 36 you son of a Bitch". This CP was under a lot of scrutiny at race end. This is what changed the Race for many teams. The UTM plot showed it on the South side of the bend in the road, The very edge of the Blue dot just touches the north side and the clue was terrain and it was a black cable. When we arrived Team Lederhosen was still looking for it and let us know that two other teams could not find it and left it. We searched the "Terrain" and combed the area up the rock pile threw the tight cedar trees North side and south side...No luck. We looked for at least 20 min...Combed the 75m blue dot.
No luck..."its not here" with Dog barking in the back round. This sucks..."Total bull $^#@" JZ said. We knew other teams did not find it, just not how many and who. So we continued on to the dirt road...fast and efficient knowing we had to keep it clean and fast to make up all the lost time. Hit the next plotted bike section and did an out and back for 38 and cut over to 37. Road to 39 and back out to the Path. Rolling into TA10 to drop off our bikes and on to the biggest trek of the day. Hit 11, 12 and hit the road to 13-16 "Hey Bushwhacker" as we pass each other going opposite directions. Hit 13 then on to 14, this is were having updated maps is nice. these were from the early 80's and The roads that is showed were no longer there and the structures we not there either. We first tried to use the north road to hit the re-entrant (clue was just "terrain" again). it was pretty thick in the re entrant and we had some troubles finding this one. We decided to try the attack from a road that was on the map from the north and Finally found it. Once again it was tucked in the brush, if you didn't approach from the right angle you could walk 5m on the wrong side and never see it. Finally found it punched and put it behind us. Lederhosen was still looking for it as we left. Nailed 16 up and over to 15 clue "Terrain" (aka. re-entrant) and down and out the large re entrant and across the chilly spill way and back to TA10 for the final bike/O leg. This was pretty straight forward and more of an urban race at this point. More issues with those Damn cables, and outdated old maps. We pace counted cp 6 around the lake but the size of the lake and path were not even on the map. At this point this was getting frustrating. Punch and off to the last section, later we found that we took the long way around as the maps was missing all of the roads just to the west of 77. So we wound up taking twice the distance around (locals advantage) JZ kicked himself for not checking current maps for this area. Derek took the Nav on this section so JZ could refuel on Perpetumn and Hammer Gel for the final Bike to the finish. Derek had the eagle eye and took care of this section quick. Back on to the Bike and Pace-line all the way to the finish with an 11 hour 18 min 29 second finish for 4th place Coed.

Great first race of the season Team Lupine Racing USA.  BTW 7 teams could not find CP 36 and three of the top four Coed teams were part of that 7. Congrats to NSpire (3 Coed), Hope to Survive (2 Coed) CO represent, Shake n Bake (3 Male) great to meat you guys, Cold Beverages (2 Male), Dirty Martinis (2 Female) keep it up girls, and Bob Billings (solo) for your division wins.     

Needless to say we loved the format and had a fun race, but we think this could use a little tweaking to become a race that will draw more teams. We didn't know what to expect out of Kansas but it turned out to be a great and challenging venue for an Adventure Race. Thank you to Lupine Lighting for lighting up our morning trek, and Hammer Nutrition for taking care of us pre, during, and post race. Salomon brought us crazy spider man like traction and support and Suunto for leading the way.