EROCK Sunrise to Sunset 2015, PWild Solo Female Mt Bike Race

EROCK Sunrise to Sunset 2015!

29th Annual Subaru Elephant Rock Cycling Festival

EROCK chewed me up and attempted to spit me out, but I fought my way to the finish! 

After missing out on a podium finish in last years Sunrise to Sunset and placing 4th, I had to sign up for a serious comeback in 2015. A new year also brought a new race venue at The Philip S. Miller Park in Castle Rock, Colorado. A pre-ride of the course a few weeks prior to the race set my mind at ease as I was able to identify some of the more technical sections, some sandy turns, low vegetation, and tree hang-ups. I only wish I would have ridden the course in the correct direction J

Race day arrived with an early mass starting lineup, cycle cross style at 8:00 am sharp. Our estimated finish time would be 7pm with each lap course being 7 miles long. 

http://erockrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/15-SS-sitecourse-map.7.pdf

At the start we ran our bikes about 100 feet up trail to a set of orange cones, then jumped on, and began to peddle. The trail bottlenecked into an amazing single-track climb and since it had rained the night before I was treated to some tacky hero dirt wonderfulness. 

I was movin my first two laps!  My chain skipped a little out of tune on the start of my third lap, so I jumped off and ran, carrying my bike to the top to fix my gearing. Dirty from chain lube, I proceeded onward only to be met with some debilitating quad cramps on the climb. I could see my quad contraction under the skin like an alien attempting to escape its host in a science fiction movie. Motionless, I massaged my leg as I watched others suffering, walking their bikes to the top of the climb. Once the contractions subsided, I was back on the bike and eager to see the next transition area (TA) for an electrolyte fix!

Jason was at the TA ready and waiting to load me up on electrolytes and some much needed pickle juice. Yeah, you heard me right, pickle juice. Off I went on lap 4, which turns out to have been my slowest lap. I was behind the cramping 8-ball at this point, so it was mind over matter time. Chatting out loud, I talked my way through the rest of the race, certain the other riders thought I was delirious with my own banter. My plan was to double up on electrolytes and pickle juice, walk the 3 climbs and ride the downhills as fast as I could to make up time. This rest time on the climbs paid off, lap 5 and 6 flew past. 

It was time to put the hammer down #howihammer for lap 7 and 8. Fighting back the tears of pain, thoughts of self-doubt began to surface as I heard the race director say, due to poor weather conditions no one else would be permitted out on course. The cooler temperatures, light drizzle of rain and encouraging words from a fellow rider washed my doubt away. I got my second wind, hero dirt beneath my feet, and the lightning in the sky, I was energized, a little adrenaline at this point was just what I needed. 

Water dripped from my helmet as the rain came pouring down in buckets. Jason shoved ravioli and more electrolytes in my mouth as he pushed me out on course, yelling, “push it!” I thought stubbornly, “I feel better than I did 4 laps ago”. 

Delirious as to time and place I flew over jumps on laps 9 and 10, laughing out loud and yelling some expletives. Finishing before the cut off time with little time to spare, I completed 10 laps. “I DID IT,” I thought. I didn’t even care what place I was in, Jason never would tell me my results until its official. What a great sense of accomplishment, to do what few others dare to attempt. 

It turns out I placed second in the solo female category! Continue giving it all you got and we’ll see ya out there! 

Run, Row, Rock & Roll, Nebraska 12 HR

Run, Row, Rock, and Roll 2015

Another one in the books for the team. This was a race we had on the teams sights from the big fining of the year and it almost didn't happen due to some injuries. But we shuffled some people around and managed to make a showing for the two person coed division. Pwild and JZ really went into this as a training race just to keep sharp, and sharp they did. Coming out with a First Place win in their division and 5th overall. This really was a surprise to them after some of the hiccups that occurred.




The Race Report:

 RRRR took place with the start in Fairbury, Nebraska. We arrived after a 7 1/2 hour drive at about 4pm. Check in was 5 to 7, where you got almost everything you needed (maps,number,clue sheet). There where 31 points to plot and as it looked from plotting we had a 30 min drive to the  bike drop in the morning and much to JZ's enjoyment..."a freaking bus drive to the start". We wake up at 4:15am get our gear together and head out to the remote bike drop/start/TA. Got that taken care of and headed back to get a quick breakfast before we had to go to the bus pick up/finish which was at the wellness center at the hospital. So on bus to take a second trip down to the start.

The start was located at a small lake which was separated by a causeway for a road about 2/3rds of the way up the lake. At the start gun teams had there option of doing the paddle or the trek to start. We went with the paddle first(Section 2). Reason being it was very humid and we thought it would allow the tall grass to dry and not be as wet and more packed down for quicker moving. Only about 10 teams decided to do the paddle first. So it was a lot of saying hi to our friends Boom Boom Pow, Shakenbake and another 3 person coed we found out later was NYARA. This consisted of 7 points(In Order) and four portages over the causeway, each time they checked your passport to make sure you didn't punch out of order.

Some of the clues for these CPs are as follows “Inlet on Tree, Tree on shore, Inlet on Tree, Inlet on Tree”. No real issues here other than teams were not permitted to use their own paddles or PFDs. Everyone except solo's had to use a canoe paddle and PFD provided.(3person teams could only have two people paddling at any one time). This was enforced as NYARA started with 3 paddling and the race staff took one paddle away sometime during the paddle.  We were not a fan of this handicapping as some teams are better at one discipline than others. I mean everyone doesn't have to run the same tires on their bikes or only aloud to walk on the trek. But we all had to do it so we just hunkered down and paddled our canoe. We had lots of laughs on the paddle as PWILD never used a canoe paddle before but picked it up pretty quick.  We managed to be off the water fourth and on to the trek.  We did a quick transition, checked in with race staff showing our passport and off we went.  PWild usually never carries the passport racing but she picked up the slack like a champ.  The trek section(Section 1) had 7 CPs(any order) in and around the lake we were just on.  Some of the clues for the CPs were “tree on dam, Tree on hillside, Meadow, Lone Cedar Tree,Tree in Bare Spot” it had seemed that some of the points
were strangely wrapped to the other side of trees out of site, most likely not how they were set (not nice, but it will take more then that to slow us down). It got hot out pretty quick and we tried to keep up on fluids, the race director did have water on parts of the course. (thank you!)  We only refilled when we were OUT.  That came up twice in just 12 hours, hot!  The heat was setting in and as the team was pushing JZ needed a mind break and Pwild stepped up and helped out. JZ ate some jerky, we walked some and then he snapped out of it after PWild said a few colorful words.  Then it was on like donkey kong.  We also got followed by a dog for miles during this section, ate up by mosquitoes, and trekked threw waist high poison ivy.  Almost as bad as Wisconsin.  Ok maybe not that bad.  JZ nailed the rest of the O section, running back to the TA to transition to bikes.  So glade to see our bikes.  JZ changed shoes, while PWild checked in with the Volunteers again, then he helped her pack her shoes away while she changed into bike shoes.  And OFF on the bike section(Section 3).

This mostly dirt gravel road ride was rolling hills with 6 CPs to get.  The CPs on this section were just a punch with cable so you really had to watch for them and trust the mileage you rolled out on the map.  Really strong on the bike and got them all, we even refilled at CP 15 “Fragers Water Stop” and met the owner as she was out pulling weeds, really nice lady.We thanked her several times.  JZ was out of water so good timing. and again we were chased for over a mile by a dog that didn't sound nice made us move a little faster.   Whats up with the dogs in Nebraska?    Arriving at the next trekking leg (section 4) there was a “special challenge” in this section as well as 8CPs in any order.  We arrive and see a 3 person female team doing a what it looked like stacking buckets in a pyramid shape.  I check in with the volunteer and they tell me what the challenge is.  “You can do it now or whenever during this section, its worth 2 points if you don't do it, all you have to do is stack the buckets as tall and neat as you can”.  PWild looked at JZ and said it looks like that team is almost done, lets do it now so we don't have to wait.  As the team disassembled their pyramid JZ mentioned that maybe we just stack them inside each other all the way up and get out of here.  We dont need the prize, lets just move on.  We agreed, and we had it stacked up in no time.  DONE!  Un stacked them and off on the Trek we went.  This happen so fast that we looked down and notice we were still in our bike shoes.We stopped in the shade and changed shoes really fast and went on.  Some of the clues for these CPs are as follows “Tree by Trail, Bare Spot (CP missing after wasting some looking time and checking with RD), Dam Tree (this one was tucked deep threw the gullies), Wheel, Bush on rocky ridge, Tree on Hillside, Shed”.  This was a tough section with deep dense re-entrants. Big enough to be a pain in the butt but small enough that many didn't show on the map. After getting the last cp in this section we jumped out on a gravel road to run back to the TA.  While on our way we ran into ShakeNBake again heading out on bikes on the road section back to town. They looked good and were peddling strong.  We exchanged “good jobs” and continued on.  Getting back to the TA we had some refreshing Ice Tea….so good….changed shoes and off on our bikes.  This next section was called (Section 5) TREK/BIKE/CANOE.   Bike straight to TA 3 and get instructions from Volunteer.  We were now back in town of Fairbury along a river.


At the start of the race, the race director said this section may change but will let us know when we got there.  So we had no idea what we were going to be doing.  As we arrived at TA 3 along the river we saw single kayaks.  The volunteer said one of us would paddle up river to the bridge, the other would run down the path to the bridge.  Teammates would punch the punch at the bridge and exchange places and arrive back at TA 3.  The water was moving pretty fast and JZ said I'll paddle up stream, as PWild took off down the path running.  Both in bike shoes still.  It started to rain and that felt good after a long hot day. PWild made it to the bridge and spent a few minutes looking for the CP as she couldn't remember what side of the bridge it was on.  Plenty of time as it took JZ some time to get up river.  Looking for a good place to exchange with JZ, the banks of the river were like quick sand, full of bugs, and tons of washed out wood logs from the floods.  Couldn't get out of that river fish smell, fast enough.  Why every AR river seems to smell I have no idea, you know the smell! :)  PWild jumped in the kayak, with some instructions on how to stay away from the “hard current” from JZ was off.  Scared but off!  JZ ran back the same way PWild came up the trail.  The Volunteer was so kind to help PWild with the boat MUD RAMP out of the river he about tipped her over right in it.  Muddy and wet but it stopped raining now we jumped on our bikes to collect one more CP back to the finish.  Pushing hard to the finish as we always try to, the race was complete!  The volunteers took our crumpled up dirty passport and told us about the food inside and showers.  Thank you!

Coming in HOT

We Showered up, ate and enjoy the awards...as we were happy to take away a 1st Place in the 2 Coed Division, and the prize for neatest stack on the team challenge. We are still wondering what that light was for.

UOG -ULTRA O-GAIN 24HR Orienteering Race, Buffalo Creek Colorado 2015

ULTRA O-Gain(Rogaine) Orienteering Race
Buffalo Creek Colorado
July 3-4, Friday Night start at 8pm.

We were really excited to see a 24 Orienteering Race in our own back yard!  We signed up right away!  Having work off on Friday July 3rd was great allowing for plenty of time to get to check in at 6pm.  We arrived to a remote start/finish location (camp site) in Buffalo Creek area.  We decided not to camp as we live only 1hr and 30 minutes away, we did bring sleeping bags for after if we were tired to rest before driving home.  We checked in, chowed our dinner and were ready to receive the Map only to find out they would not be handed out til 7:30 or until everyone is checked in.  So we went back to the car and got ready so that when we did get the maps we just had to take care of the route planning and we were off.  At 7:30 we got our  1:24,000 maps.  The rules and gear list were very detailed that there were no questions at the pre race meeting.  With 41 CP's (all different point values), 1983 Map with 1/24 scale with deceleration of 8.5. 

JZ quickly highlighted all the points greater than 50 on the map in one color, 49-20 in another color and 20 less than in another color.  JZ planned the route getting most of the high point values and picking up ones in between.  Leaving some around the start finish based on time at the end of the race.  It was a very informal and relaxed start of 8:00 pm.  Even thought the race was unsupported you could come back to your car at anytime during the 24 hours for anything.  We planned to not return to the start/finish until 24 hours was up.
We took off at 8:03 working the course in a clockwise direction.  The first 5 hours we picked off cp's with ease after some major bushwhack climbing (and lots of side hilling) on boulders that at one point felt unsafe.  Taking a barring from 27 to 76(big campfire here and they asked if we were in the amazing race lol) to 40, almost to 40 we turned around to take a look at the view and WOW!  Amazing!  The terrain was rocky, some nasty yucca plants that went right thru fabric, and a ton of freaking foxtails that stuck to socks and gaiters and don't like to let go. JZ had issues of these going thru the vents on the toes of his Salomon Fell Raisers as these great shoes that vent well turn into foxtail pin cushions (a strip of duct tape across the front would have helped but we had none) so he pushed threw until we were out of the area and then removed them.

Lots of mountain sand and not much shade from the sun about half the course was in the burned out area from the Buffalo Creek Fire on May 18, 1996. This area is amazing because its like being on different planets as the topography and vegetation changes. (do you see the cp next to the boulder at the bottom of the photo?) Tons of Climbing and bouldering took a toll on PWilds Insole to the point it started to cut the back of her left heal.  Mole skin did not help so she took the Insole out and did the rest of the race with out one in her left shoe.  Not recovering very well this took a turn and slowed the team down the rest of the 10 hours.  She was not happy as she felt good otherwise.  Getting her poles out she pushed on. 

Temps got into the 80's during the day and 45ish at night.  At one point the sleep monsters took over around 330 am and PWild had to rest her eyes for 20 minutes as we were up for 34 hours by this point.  Laying right on the trail side by side to stay warm.  We ended up putting our rain jackets on for a couple hours late night/early morning just to keep the chill off.  The sun came up quickly and we were re-leaved!  The CPs did have a piece of reflective tape on them, not traditional O Flags, they were white plastic PVC pipes. Will talk about the 3CPS that gave us trouble.

CP 55

  
We spent an hour and half at this CP before moving on.  Yea too much time, but ya just don't ever want to leave one.  The rest of the CPs we have found before this one were dead on with pace count, barrings and clues.  So we thought it has to be here. We counted in ran across a pile of boulders but searched and searched but did not see the control. So we check the surrounding piles up and down the spur.....Nothing......

 CP80

This was the second CP that gave us difficulty. We attacked off the gate again and counted in (we were not having much luck with gates today). . We scoured the surrounding area's and still no luck. Time spent...had to let it go. Ouch to leave 80 points.

 CP67

This was the third CP that gave us difficulty. We did not see the trail continue on the other side of the creek and things were pretty Steep in this area. So we elected due to time to leave it. (Later talking to Mark that is did pick up a bit down stream, but 67 was still a tough one to find)

 

We want to thank Patrick the Race director for putting on a challenging race. It was a great design as controls were well places and the descriptions were good. Now there were some tricky points which we shared above that if you didn't approach from the right direction you apparently will have a hard time or spend extra time pinpointing the point. We hope this is a normal race and the parks department helps support our sport as this could help show how much we love the area and enjoy Colorado.

PWild and JZ feeeling the heat in the burn zone.

We had to Treat the water we added in our Source
Water bladders. Yes, that is a dead mesquite larvae
so close to extra protein.

To our surprise Mark Lattanzi of Team Oddyssey was in town to race.
 He wound up first overall Surprise surprise. Great job Mark.
 Its always great to compare notes
 with a highly experienced Navigator like Mark.  

She moves so fast that she is blurry, Paulette showed up too.
on right is Teresa, Marks better half of course. 

It was great to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones during this race. The family is closer then you know and we enjoy that about our sport. We Finished the Day with as the 2nd place team and 6th overall.

 http://cpadventures.com/ultra-o-gaine/results/