Sand Spring Adventure Race

The Sand Spring Resort Adventure race is a popular sprint race just outside of Lebanon , MO. Marc has run this race three years previous and claims this is one of his favorite races. I was unsure at first whether or not I wanted to do it since I have absolutely no sprinting ability! Plus, it was the same weekend as volleyball sectionals. Unfortunately for my volleyball girls at Zumwalt West, we lost in Districts. But on a positive note, I was able to run the race with Marc. The weekend actually turned out perfectly. Friday afternoon I left St. Louis to go to Richland/Lebanon to spend some time with my family for the Halloween weekend. I was able to not only run the race with Marc, but also able to participate in some Halloween festivities with my sister, my nieces and nephew, and my parents. What a great weekend! And to top it all off, Marc and I surprised ourselves a bit and did pretty well in the race.

Marc and I arrived to the race fairly early as usual. The morning was chilly, but bearable. We hung out by the fire until the race meeting started. During the meeting, I just happened to ask Marc is he had any bike tools with him. He said no, so last minute I decided to run back to my car to get some bike tools just in case of a flat. I rushed back to meet Marc, and a few short minutes later we loaded the buses so they could drop us off at the race start.
We started the race with a short sprint run for about 3 miles before jumping in a four person raft to begin our journey down the Niangua River. Since the rivers were above flood stage at dangerous levels, we were not allowed to go down the river in canoes. We happened to get into a raft with Amanda Glendenning (the wife of the person in charge of the race) and her partner. Amanda immediately instructed us on where to sit and how to keep count on our strokes. It was intense, but she led us exactly where we needed to go down the river. We actually went at a pretty good pace with the water moving so fast.

In the middle of the rafting section, we jumped out of our rafts, jumped in the water (about waist high, burrrrrrr……… It doesn’t get better than river water at the end of October) and began our hike up the mountain. It seriously felt like a mountain even though it was just a huge steep hill. In my opinion, this part of the race was pretty intense. I had to keep telling myself to keep my legs moving, pick one leg up, then the other. I am not sure how Marc felt during this part. There wasn’t much talking. But at one point, Marc did tell me to take a second and look at the view. It was an awesome view, not realizing how high we had hiked. Wish there would have been more time to relax and enjoy the fall scenery! Once we made it to the top, it was time to go down. Parts of this were a bit rough with the ground being muddy and slippery, but we managed to make it back down, back through the river (but this time chest high for me), and back in the rafts. Away we went for another couple miles or so with a different team.

After the rafting, we arrived at our bikes. Our families were there at this point cheering us on. My parents even brought Cooper (my dog) down to the river. It was now time to complete a 2-lap bike course with an obstacle in the middle. We changed our wet muddy running shoes to our biking shoes and off we went. Near the end of the first lap, we were walking our bikes up a hill (yes, Bryan, we were walking) and I looked down to notice my front tire was completely flat! Uugggghh!!!! I was so upset, this was the second race in a row one of my tires has gone flat. Marc did an amazing job getting the tire off, tube switched, aired up, and back on in about 5 minutes! Thank goodness I took the extra minute before the race to get my bike tools!!! While Marc was changing the tube, about 3-4 teams passed us. It was so disappointing trying to play catch up the rest of the race. Five minutes in a sprint race is actually quite a bit of time lost. Marc even did an amazing job with the obstacle by splitting a piece of wood with one swing!
We finished the race in 2 hours, 37 minutes finishing 10th overall and 2nd in the co-ed division out of about 30 teams. After looking at the final results, 5 teams were within about 2-7 minutes of our finishing time. It’s disappointing about the flat tire, but I guess that’s going to happen from time to time. Let’s just hope it’s not my tire AGAIN next time!
Post by Jill Plassmeyer

Berryman 36 hr Adventure race

Wow, where do I start? Chronologically I guess.
I arrived in Van Buren about 5:30 on Friday and met my teammates for the first time ever near Race HQ. I was never concerned about racing with people I don't know, and after meeting them, I was even less concerned. I knew everyone was cool, prepared and easy to get along with. We signed in and then took our bikes to the trailer for the race management to haul to an undisclosed location. We continued getting some gear together, then went over and ate at the pasta dinner, then off to the pre-race meeting to find out exactly what this thing was all about.
The pre-race meeting was at the Landing which is right beside the Current River and almost under the Hwy 60 bridge. Here's a shot of the pre-race meeting:


Very cool place. It was outside and weather cooperated. Jason began explaining things, and most importantly finally disclosed that the 36 hr race would start at 11 pm Friday night, just hours away. He then said that we would board buses beginning at 9:30 and the bus ride was an hour away. So it was getting to be 8 pm. How would we have time to drive back to Race HQ, pack our gear, and plot so many CP's before 9:30? Well, that question was answered when he then revealed that the entire course was pre-plotted and every CP was already on the maps! Wow, that was a first. It took the UTM plotting completely out of the mix, so there was no chance of anyone mis-plotting and searching in the wrong area for mis-plotted CP's. We also learned that we would have some disposable sacks to stash a food cache and anything else we might need later on in the race. These would be encountered much later in the race and provided the much needed opportunity to refuel.
So we stuff our packs to the gills, including our breakdown paddles, and we boarded what had to be one of the smelliest buses I have ever been on. We turned on the headlamps and looked over the course maps and highlighted our agreed upon route choices. This worked out very smoothly between me, Mike and Bill, and we discussed different routes from each CP to CP, pros and cons of each, and then by committee came up with our agreed upon route. They all turned out to be pretty much 'spot-on' for this initial nighttime 17 mile trek.
So we arrive at riverside and get dropped off, warned about wild horses on the trails, and off we went into the dark of night. It was really foggy at times too, expecially with the scattered hue from our headlamps.


We had no significant problems at all finding these CP's. There were several times we had to cross knee to thigh high deep creeks, but nothing any deeper than that. We had very minor problems finding two particular CP's. We wandered for a bit looking for CP 7, then we decided to go up to the peak (a known point) and shoot a bearing to the CP. We headed off in a southwesterly fashion and began dropping down the hillside and sure enough, we hit it. It was there that we encountered the Iowa Wolfpack and kept running into them for many, many hours to come. We also refilled our hydration packs several times with Mike's water purifier which did a bomber job. The creeks were clean and water tasted just fine. It was super nice to never have to worry about conserving water, we had so much clean water around us at all times.

Night trekking:



The good thing about the terrain is that there were almost always jeep trails running along the ridge tops which didn't show up on the map, but nonetheless were there. Sometime about 3-4 am we came to a clearing and we all marveled at the clear sky and the stars. While I don't by any means live in a metropolitan area, it is big enough to have city lights which inhibit such killer views of the dark night skies. It was truly phenomenal. I think it was also about that time that we discussed hallucinations and sleep deprivation, and somehow this resulted in us singing the song to the Muppet Show under a canopy of stars. But I digress......
We made our way towards CP8, crossed a creek and found the correct hollow and began following it, waiting for it to turn westerly, then began looking for the second reentrant on the left which should have CP8 ready to welcome us. We finally came to the second one, but the downfall was very thick, so the movement was very slow. Mike started scrambling up the reentrant in the lead and finally shouted out that he had found it. We were thinking that it shouldn't have been up the reentrant that far off of the creek, but we found it and continued climbing out of the hollow and back to ridgetops to head to CP9. As the sun began to come up, Karin's knee was really beginning to bother her greatly, especially from the brutal terrain. We did what we could, but ultimately, when we came to CP11 and prepared to transition to the canoe leg, she made the tough decision to pull out. I knew she was in pain, and selfishly I would have loved to see her continue onward with us, but when a knee begins hurting that badly, no good can come from pushing onward, especially with what still lied ahead of us. She could have done some serious damage to it had she continued. Due to having lost a teammate, we were now considered an "unranked" team so we were only racing for pride from here on. So we bid her farewell and we took off in canoes for the 25 mile canoe trip. Mike made like Rambo and said he would prefer to paddle a canoe solo rather than three of us in one canoe, and that was a solid decision. He managed his canoe very well down river. If Bill and I pulled ahead a little bit, I used the opportunity to get some 'shut-eye' and practically fell asleep in the canoe for a brief few minutes. Here's a shot of what the river treated us to all morning and early afternoon on Saturday:


Once we pulled into the riverside TA, we finally arrived at our first re-fueling station. We chugged Monster energy drinks, scooped our fingers into a jar of peanut butter, and pretty much ate and drank to fill the ole tank as much as we could, then threw some of the food into our packs and took off onto what would be another trekking section, this one about 12 miles. Once the three of us took off, a pretty chubby rain began to fall but it cleared out after about 15-20 minutes. We made a small navigational error here but we realized it fairly quickly and righted ourselves just fine and it was of no real consequence.
We hit CP13 & CP14 nearly perfectly, passing GoLite and DFW Hounds, then came to the infamous CP15. From CP14 we followed the reentrant down to a creek/hollow, and followed that creekbed into Sugarcamp Hollow which brought us to a crossing with the Ozark Trail, and then came to the base of the looming Barnett Mountain straight ahead of us. With no obvious trails up and around it, we just went UP, and kept going UP, through a large boulder strewn course. We started at 600 feet elevation, and ultimately the peak was nearly 1100 feet. It was a very strenous 500 feet of elevation gain. Towards the summit, the downfall was utterly insane. I don't know if this was due to higher winds up there, lightning strikes, or the recent devastating ice storms that the region sustained, but the peak of Barnett Mountain was awful. It was the only time all day that I saw a snake too, and I nearly stepped on it. And there were many false summits as well. Yes, I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't been there, but it seemed so many times it was about to plateau and peak out, but just kept going on and on. Finally the three of us came to the CP, took in a super awesome view from the top, shot a bearing and took off down a spur to where we would descend the mountain and intersect with the Ozark Trail. The descent was not any easier than the ascent with navigating through the downfall and bushwacking. And to top it all off, the gnats that were swarming us at the top of Barnett Mountain were awful too. They tapered off as we came down the side of the mountain though.
Finally we came to the bottom and intersected with the Ozark Trail. From here at least we were on a trail finally and no more bushwacking, and we were to follow this to CP16 & CP17/TA where the bikes were waiting.
This hike on the Ozark Trail was a big relief but took longer than we had expected. There were several little shut-ins type areas with small waterfalls, etc. We agreed that Rocky Falls (our destination) would have to be pretty impressive to be better than these spots. It was...

We finally came to Rocky Falls probably about 6:45pm or so. It was still daylight. The CP was in a spot that you really had to scramble up alot of rocks to get up to it but the falls were spectacular. Once we punched the CP we followed the creek and came to CP 17 and the bike transition area where we would get additional maps with the bike course. Here's a shot from the TA with the race volunteer laying out our new maps while we pondered life....



When we hiked into the TA we could see that there were many, many bikes still there, which is always a comforting sign to know that there were still alot of teams behind you.

Many teams were transitioning in progress also. We began fueling again as this was a second food cache that we had with our bikes. Prior to coming into this TA we were all having foot issues with wet feet non-stop, and unfortunately Mike was suffering from some severe chafing in his nether regions from just trekking 30 brutal miles in cycling shorts with a chamois. That does have a tendency to rub you the wrong way if you get my drift. Despite applying generous amounts of Bodyglide on several occasions, he was in major pain. He tried to sit on his bike seat to test the waters, but the pain was too much. We were staring at a 65+ mile biking leg ahead of us all through the night, and he made the decision to pull out. I didn't doubt for a second his pain and discomfort, as I had just raced along side iwth him for nearly 24 hrs, and it was clear to me that he was a warrior and a very strong racer, never complaining about fatigue or soreness, etc. I knew that he still had energy and strength in his legs, but if you can't sit on a bikeseat, all the strength and energy in the world can't compensate for that. Bill and I changed into dry socks which felt soooo good as our feet were killing us with wet socks. When I took off my shoes I was prepared to see something out of horror movie, they felt that bad. I thought the soles had split open on me. There were deep fissures and swelling but nothing beyond that. We dried them and rubbed them back to life.
So Bill and I put on our bike gear, I looked over the new maps and highlighted our routes, and we took off into the dark of night with lights burning. We hit CP18 pretty easily, and then we were off to CP19. This was the very first time all day long that somehow, someway we could not get the right road to connect us from 18 to 19. We tried several different jeep trails/fire roads, but none of them were the right ones. We would ride one for a mile or so and it would be a screamin' downhill, only to come to a deadend and have to spin back up and climb back out of there. I knew we couldn't keep doing this or our legs would be zapped.
A straw that broke the camel's back was when I went through a large puddle in the road that turned out to be deeper than I thought, and the mud stopped me in my tracks. I had to put my foot down and the water went up to my ankle. So much for the dry socks and shoes now. I was back to having feet issues again.
After never finding exactly which trail connected to CP19, I suggested to Bill that if we continued to wander, and even eventually came to CP19, we had so much left to do, and if we pulled the plug later on we would be that much further from that last TA where there were volunteers and potential to get a car ride back to Race HQ. Since we were only about 8 miles from that last TA where we took off on the bikes, we made the call to turn back and return to CP17 and hope to get a ride back to my van. It also made a difference, at least mentally, that we had dropped two teammates at this point, and I believe that we would have been more likely to push onward had we still had a full team. Nonetheless, Bill and I pulled the plug after having raced about 24 hrs. I have no regrets. Even though we were an incomplete team at that point, we made it much further than alot of other teams who had pulled into CP17 and decided not to go out on the bike leg at all. They all got DNF's but will still rank ahead of us since they never dropped a teammate, even though Bill and I in reality went farther and longer than many of them did. But that's the way the game is played, and rules are rules.
Parting thoughts: This was a remarkable race and I had a great, great time racing with Karin, Mike and Bill. Ultimately the dropout and DNF rate was extremely high, evidencing the brutality of the course. In fact, all three Colorado teams that came in for this race didn't finish either! That should say something! Morale was high throughout the race generally (with a few lows but nothing that spoiled the race by any means). Morale certainly hit a low point on Barnett Mountain. I suspect that teams who summited that at night were demoralized beyond comprehension. That would not have been pleasant.
I never had a single cramp, never bonked, and overall felt very strong throughout. My legs felt super strong when I mounted our bikes Saturday night. My feet hurt alot from the long treks but that was the extent of any pain that I had. I really feel like I have had some good races this fall that are preparing me for some good racing next year. And I am very fortunate to have had the Mid-Rivers gang invite me along to race with them since my normal beloved Cyclewerx comrades could not do it with me due to schedules.
What a great weekend, man, just great. All told we trekked 30 miles, paddled 25, and Bill and I covered 20 miles on the mountain bikes. And I came home to a beautiful loving wife and beautiful loving little daughters, and I was once again reminded that I am the luckiest guy in the world......

Post by Bryan Greaser

Berryman 36 Hour Adventure Race

Since our Cyclewerx team cannot do the Berryman Adventure due to several schedule conflicts, I have managed to team up with Mid-Rivers Adventures to compete in the 36 hour race on September 26-27. I really didn't want to miss it this year. While I don't know the people that I am racing with, it is sure to be an adventure on so many levels.
There are some great teams coming in for this race, including an awesome team, WEDALI, from Minnesota, Golite from Colorado, Alpine Shop, Bushwacker, and a team from Texas. There are 12 teams in the 4 person co-ed division and many more in other divisions competing in the 36 hour race.
My goal is to finish this race. Post race report to follow sometime next week!
Post by Bryan Greaser

Berryman Offroad 6 Hour Duathlon

The weather for this Bonk Hard race could not have been any nicer. Well, I can't lie, I was a little hot a few times. Maybe next year the highs can only be about 72 instead of 80. Ok, KIDDING. August in Missouri and the high was only around 82 with low humidity. It was great.
It was nice being casual about getting ready in the morning for the 9 am start. Marc and I agreed that it sure beats these 4:30 am wake ups, and 5:30 pre-race meetings that we always have in adventure races, not to mention the last minute scramble to make sure we have all of our mandatory gear, maps, cluesheets, passports, etc. We got up early, cooked some breakfast, tooled around, and got ready to line up for the race. You can choose which leg you do first, bike or run. Marc and I both chose to do the bike leg first. It seemed more people chose to do the running loop first.
We lined up, and I made sure to be out front and found the 'hole-shot' into the woods right off of the bat. I wanted to get up front on this bike leg and stay there. Immediately onto the trail I was reminded of the extreme technical nature of this trail. Roots and LOTS of rocks. Big ones, small ones, sharp ones, loose gravel, you name it. I was intending to set down a hard pace on this bike leg. It consisted of 8 miles of singletrack on the Berryman trail, then it hit a connecting fire road up to a gravel road which we rode back to the Start/Finish. All told the bike loops were about 12.2 miles or so. One screaming downhill on the gravel had me clocking myself on my cyclocomputer at 35 mph! Yikes.
I stayed out front for this bike leg and came into the transition area, my computer showing me having completed a 1:12 minute lap. I think official race time might have been 1:14 though. It was time to transition to the run.
I transitioned and took off onto the run, knowing it would not be my strength for the day. I just came off of a 50k trail run two weeks ago, and being undertrained already for the run, coupled with fatigue from the 50k still (yes, I know, sad isn't it?) I wasn't counting on setting any records for the run. I took it at a moderate pace. The run had alot of doubletrack climbing towards the end, like some seriously long hills.
There was a cut-off time where you had to come back in to Race HQ under the 5 hour mark or you would not be allowed to go back out for another lap. I came in under it and transitioned again to go out for the final lap. I was told by Jason and Laura that two of the guys ahead of me pretty much just went out for their final laps also, one on the bike and one on the run. I had some work to do if I wanted a top 5 finish. I didn't see Marc at that time but I later found out that he had come in after 2 laps just over the cut-off so he was held back from doing a 3rd lap. He completed 2 laps in 5 hrs 19 minutes. Nice job Marc!
I went back out for lap 3 knowing I had to catch one of the guys on the bike. I finally caught him about 5 minutes from the end, so I hit the transition area, laced up my shoes, and took off knowing I had a fight going on with me and this guy. I was concerned because earlier on one of the laps this same guy went blazing by me on the running loop, so I figured he was a stronger runner than I. I also had the motivation of knowing that the other guy ahead of me was out on the bike and only minutes ahead of me.
So here I go, leaving Race HQ knowing I was in no worse than 4th but needing to fight to stay there, and possibly shooting for 3rd place. When I did this final run I swear I looked over my shoulder 50 times, thinking he would be fast approaching. It got to be a bit dangerous as it isn't too wise to turn around and take your eyes off of a rocky trail, but I couldn't help it.
I came to the long doubletrack climbing section and slowed it down some, still looking back, still seeing nobody. I ate a final AccelGel packet for the final push, pulled my hydration hose up and sucked for some water but it was EMPTY! No big deal rally since I was close to the finish, but I had a mouth full of gel that was thick and no water to wash it back. Anyway,I wondered what had happened to the guy giving chase? I was only a few minutes ahead of him when we left Race HQ, and I really thought he would catch me early. Well I kept pushing along, finally hitting the gravel road which takes you back to Race HQ/Finish. This meant about .6 miles left. I knew when I looked back then that if I didn't see him coming, I could hold my lead over him for that short remaining distance. As I was running this final portion, a guy came by on the bike (the end of each loop shared some of the gravel road) and I didn't know for sure since many different divisions were racing, but I had a feeling that it was the other guy who was minutes ahead of me.
When I came into the finish, I was told I secured 4th place in the 6 hour solo division, with a race time of 7 hrs 5 minutes, and sure enough, the bike that had just gone by was 3rd place, beating me by about 2 minutes. It turned out that the guy who was running that final lap that I kept looking over my should for finished 15 minutes back.
It was a fun time, pushing your body hard always is, and with great company and great weather, what more could you ask for? I had a great time talking and camping with my ace Marc Fisher, Jeff and Carrie Sona, Jason and Laura Elsenraat, Todd Holtman, Dathan Atchison, Jim and Wendy Davis, etc etc. I love this sport and all of the people who go along with it. The course was super fun, although I have to admit that by the 3rd lap I was really beginning to hate the rocks and found myself longing for some hardpacked singletrack like my hometown Klaus Park trail, or the Canal Loop trail at Kentucky Lake. The Berryman has a way of beating you up on a hardtail, but that's what makes it soooo fun. Like I have said before, to do these types of races, you have to like to suffer..... 37 miles on the mountaibn bike, half marathon trail run, and like minded people=A good day to be alive.
Post by Bryan Greaser

The 'Stank' not so stanky....

Well the Stanky Creek 50k trail run is over, and as I write this my legs are back in normal shape again. For a couple of days there my legs were sore enough for someone to have mistaken me for Frankenstein as I walked, but I am feelin' oh sooo good once again.
It was a hot day but the trails that this course covered were almost completely shaded from the sun, so that helped. But countering that was that there is no breeze blowing through this wooded area on a trail run, and the humidity was pretty much typical Memphis humidity in August. There were about 75 runners for the race, some doing 50k, some doing 40 miles, and some doing 50 miles. One thing that I noticed was that everyone was fit, fit, fit. Aid stations were spaced out nicely. I was drinking and eating like a maniac despite my stomach not really wanting anything. My fingers were really swollen from retaining sodium and fluids, as well as my feet, so I got some weird blisters and hot spots on my feet from that. And the roots on the trail cause you to trip now and again, especially later in the race when you start to get the heavy feet and heavy legs.
I felt pretty strong on the first 17 miles, but after that my lack of any real serious training and preparation for this race began to sneak in a little. My mind kicked it into overdrive and took over for the weakening legs, and I ultimately finished at 6 hrs, 22 minutes. Not by any means a blazing fast trail run, but it was my first ultra, and I truly just set out to hopefully finish the race. It ended up being 14th out of 38 total racers in the 50k race.
Ultra running is a very different creature from mountain bike racing and adventure racing. There was something very simple and primal about just running out into the woods with some food and hydration. When doing an Adventure race, it is nerve wracking to make sure you have all of the necessary gear, maps, etc etc. And the navigation throughout the adventure race is stressful yet fun. Doing an ultra trail run, it was you and the trail, and that's about it. When the run started, in my mind I said, "Well, here's to 6 hrs of getting to know yourself even better." That pretty much sums it up. I
It was a great event, and I am really glad that I did it. I cannot wait to step it up a notch and take it to the next level, whatever that might be. But I do know that I loves trail running.... Always have, always will. And that's all I have to say about that.

by Bryan Greaser

Sunflower State Games

On Friday, June 25th I picked up Lullel Hickman in Bolivar, MO and we headed to Perry State Park in Lawrence, KS. Before that time I had never officially introduced myself to him but had seen him many times at other events. I was thrilled to finally meet him and even more thrilled to get to race with him.



We pitched a tent when we got there at around 10:30. We did not waste much time getting some rest. Overall we both agreed that we had gotten more and better rest than we thought we would.



Saturday morning we were up at 6:00 and we began to take care of prerace stuff. We knew that this was a sprint race but we both had taken enough stuff to race a normal 8 to 12 hour race. My philosophy is if I do not pack it I cannot use it.



At 7:30 the pre-race meeting got underway with Jason Elsenraat of Bonk Hard racing directing the rodeo. He was in a chipper mood once again and was having way too much fun throwing out Salomon water bottles.



We got our map and clue sheet and began to strategize. This race had a specific bike section, a specific run section, and a specific canoe section. Jason allowed the racers to choose the leg that they wanted to do in any order. Each time you finished a leg you came back to HQ to receive a punch on your passport. We chose to bike first.



Before we took off we looked at the bike section as it had three checkpoints(CP's). The first was at the entrance to the singletrack trails and the other two were in the midst of a complicated trail system. I was very concerned about finding them but I kept that to myself.



Lullel and I had about a mile to the entrance of the singletrack and we then began our quest to find the two CP's amongst the puzzle of trails. My concerns were greatly brought to life as we struggled a little to find CP #6. The concerns were full blown as we struggled greatly with #7. We were falling behind at a rapid pace. Our biking was very fast but our locating of the CP's was very slow. We found them both and finally escaped the maze.



We then chose to trek. Lullel's gift is running. He towed me with a bungee. It was awesome. We knocked out the trek pretty quickly. We were slowed a little as I fought off some cramps. This was the first time that I had ever been towed running and we would not have gone even close to as fast as we did if it weren't for Lullel towing me. It was a great experience.



We then bolted for the canoes. When we were done they had told us that we were the fastest canoe time recorded for the race. We bushwhacked a hundred yards to the finish and was through. We ended up 22 minutes behind first place and we are thoroughly convinced that we lost all of that on the bike section.



Results completely aside, I was thrilled to spend some awesome time with Lullel. I truly looked forward to spending the time with him way more than the racing. My expectations were fulfilled.


This post is from Marc(as if you could not tell by the above picture).

What's that Stank??? It's Stanky Creek!

www.swampstomper.com

Yep, you read it right,the Stank is a comin'. Marc, Ken and I are switching gears a bit and doing a trail run only instead of an adventure race. It's on August 8th in Memphis, TN so you can bet your can it's gonna be hot and humid. Those two crazies are doing the 50 mile trail run, which was what we had planned for all of us to do together, but my running has really been lacking in quantity so I decided to just register for the 50k instead. The cool thing is that this race allows you to switch during the race, so if somehow I am still feeling good at 50k I could continue onward, but I am not betting on that. Making things worse, I tried to break my collarbone last weekend in a bike crash.....50k will be a serious effort for me as it is.
Berryman duathlon is slated for August 22nd. I am planning on doing that also, just haven't decided what I am doing there yet. Then there's the Berryman Adventure of course in late September.... Hmmmmm, hoping we can somehow make that happen too.

Post by Bryan Greaser

New jerseys

Ozark Greenways Adventure Race

May 16, 2009. OGAR comes up again on the schedule. This was our first race together as a team in 2008 and we did well and had a great time, so we were very much looking forward to this one again. Marc, Ken, Jill and I were racing this year. We had all planned ahead on making a weekend out of it, camping at the Gasconade Hills campground/resort with our families along. That aspect of the whole weekend really made it a memorable weekend in and of itself and completely aside from the actual race.

Friday night: We checked-in and went back to camp to get things together and cook some food. We had heard that a fairly nasty storm was moving through, so we were all trying to put things away at camp and prepare for it. Right before dark, the sky became really black to the west and that is when the winds began to pick up and then the rain came. The rain began around 9:30 or so and we all took shelter and tried to go to sleep. I think it rained all night long, and probably didn't quit until maybe 3 am. We got up for the pre-race 5 am meeting where we were given our maps for the first time and cluesheets. We went back to the campsite and continued to get things together. Another mandatory team meeting was at 6 am where we were given a few more bits of information, one of the most important things being that the race format had changed due to weather conditions. The paddling leg, which would have been canoeing on the Gasconade River, was scrapped and taken out due to swift water from all of the recent rains. So this meant we were only running, trekking, biking and orienteering. It is nice in an adventure race to transition to a paddling leg to rest the legs and use the arms for a while, but we would not have that luxury this time. This was beyond everyone's control and they made the right decision.

The race started out from the campground on bikes. 55 teams lined up for the start. We were moving along nicely, probably sitting in the front 10 of the pack, and unfortunately we had a flat rear tire. We all stopped to change it and I used the opportunity to take off my lightweight rain jacket and stow it away. As always, a ton of teams began passing us by. It rips apart part of my soul when that happens. I cannot stand it when teams you were ahead of start passing you by when you have a flat or mechanical. But these things happen, plain and simple, through no fault of anyone's. So there is only one thing you can do. We knew we had to hammer again so when we got rollin' we took off hard and slowly began checking off alot of the teams that passed us. We eventually arrived at a transition area and bike drop. We transitioned pretty well and took off on trails for a run. Boy were they a mess from the rain. Literally there were spots on the trail where water was flowing like a creek. Not just standing pools and puddles of water, FLOWING water. We started passing more teams on this trail run. When we arrived back at a manned CP we were told we were sitting in about 10th place and we were heading our on a Rogaine style Orienteering course to find 9 CP's.

We took off and found the first 6 of them very well, but I had some difficulty finding 2 of the last 3. There were some parts of this trek that took us through some serious bushwacking, our lower legs being sliced and diced by briars, etc. Right now as I type my shins look as if I got into a fight with 100 cats. We also ran into some of the worst 'itch-weed,' probably Stinging Nettle, that I have ever encountered. Once you ran through it the sting and burn hit you immediately like a Mack truck. Mine went away after about 20 minutes though. Once we checked back in after the 3+ hr O course trek we had another run back to our bikes. When we arrived back at bikes we were still sitting in about 10th place so we were hoping to possibly catch a team or two who might be bonking on the final 7 mile bike leg back to the Finish.

On the final bike leg we were moving along nicely and wouldn't you know that with less than 3 miles to go to the Finish we suffered another flat tire. We changed it pretty quickly though, so it was not of any real consequence. We got passed by a couple of teams while changing it but I know at least one of them had dropped a teammate and were racing "unranked" so it didn't matter.

We pulled into the Finish at 7 hr 33 minutes, good for a 9th place finish out of 55 teams. We were happy with that. We all had a great time racing this race again. We all agreed that there is still room for improvement and places where we can shave more time, but most importantly, we had a very good race. Physically we were all feeling good at the finish and nobody bonked or cramped. Good signs indeed.

Here is a link to our results: http://www.greenwayrace.org/races/ogar-2009/teams/cyclewerx/

Race report by Bryan Greaser

Frisco 50

Marc, Darren & Ken all went to Willard for the Frisco 50 last weekend, although Darren strictly went to steal T-shirts.
The weather could not have been more perfect; we had mild temperatures in the upper 50s & low 60s most of the day with cloud cover the entire time, which kept temperatures bearable for a long run.
Our families dropped us at Willard school for the start, then met us, albeit a bit late, at the finish in Bolivar. My race was perhaps one of the best races of my life. I turned in a 4:46 time for 31.+ miles; not too bad for my first 50K that actually went the entire distance. Marc also reports that his race was equally stellar, & he finished with a huge smile as all of his children & one stray ran him across the line.
I had to go to work upon returning to town, so we left very quickly after the race was over. I barely can remember anything about working at the store the night after the race, so I must have been pretty taxed.
Lessons learned from this one: I am adopting the Boy Scout motto of “be prepared.” No where can this be more useful than in long distance racing. Several aid stations only offered water, but fortunately I had some nutrition in my pack. I have also developed blisters & other foot oddities of late. My new best friend, the book “Fix Your Feet” helped me to prepare for that. I had all the supplies I needed to keep my feet happy during the trek.
Highlights for me were a nice pre-race meal the evening before with the Fishers, good pre-race coffee, perfect weather, & family & friends to celebrate with afterwards.

Next up, 100K or 50M, whichever comes first.

This and that....

Some general notes on the early season....

On May 16, 2009 the Ozark Greenways Adventure Race is set and we once again will be entering this race. It will be myself, Marc, Ken and Jill. Last year we entered and raced under the team name, "Epic Adventures," and had a great race (See our 2008 blog posts.) We are hopeful for another great race this year.

Marc and Ken have been trail running alot, and I am wanting to do a few of those races as well. I have had a goal now for a couple of years to run a 50 mile trail ultra but it just hasn't happened for me yet. I am looking at doing the Bonk Hard Berryman duathlon again this year though in August or September. I did it last year with my friend Matt Ochs and I ended up running 27 miles on the Berryman trail, but with one hour breaks in between laps while Matt mountain biked the bike course. Marc and Ken are running the Frisco 50k on April 18th.

On June 6 I am planning on going down to Arkansas for an Ozark Extreme Adv Racing race at Village Creek State Park. I'll do the Advanced Course.

Our team still hasn't done the Berryman Adventure yet. I am really hoping to do it this year. I hope our team can do it, but if not I will look at alternatives like finding a replacement for whomever cannot race it or finding a team to join that might need another male racer.

Jill and I recently ordered some new take apart kayak paddles.
We decided to give these economical paddles a try, as none of us are in a hurry to go out and buy an Epic Wing paddle for $400. We are crossing our fingers on these paddles. I often find myself using the "You get what you pay for" phrase, but hopefully these will turn out to be solid paddles for the price. The weight looks good and the breakdown length of 25 inches looks about as small as I found. I will post an update when they arrive. If they turn out to be good this is a great find for adv racers on a budget! They are the Advanced Elements Packlight Four piece take apart paddles, and we found them for $59.

Post by Bryan Greaser

LBL Challenge

Where to begin? Hmmmm, I guess where it all truly began. Probably about a year ago I was talking to Jason Elsenraat, owner of Bonk Hard Racing, and mentioned to him that he should seriously consider putting on a race at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area at Kentucky Lake in western Kentucky. I live about 2 hours away, but Jason lives in the Kansas City area which is more like 7 hours away. So he did some research on the area and decided he wanted to give it a go. He asked if I would be willing to help design the course and put it on since I live closer and am familiar with the area, and the rest is history. A race was born. This picture is Gary and I (me in red) going over the maps, UTM's and cluesheets one final time on Thursday night at the lodge.

Many months went into the planning and preparation of this race. We initially intended to put the race on in September or October of 2009, but circumstances changed and April 4, 2009 was the date we came up with that worked for the US Forest Service and ourselves. While things were progressing along, the worst ice storm in history slammed the LBL area, causing complete and utter destruction right through where our race was going to be. The KY governor called it the worst natural disaster in modern history. Widespread power outages, power lines snapped in half, and trees, trees, trees snapped and down everywhere imaginable. HUGE trees, even the healthy ones, weren't spared. We had a conference call with the LBL US Forest service trails manager Bill Ryan who is a real class of a guy, and one of his co-workers Kyle Varel, another class of a guy. They described the condition of the area but remained committed to making this event continue nonetheless. They had crews cutting trees across roads and trail non-stop. The local bike shop owner Steve Wilson from Wood N Wave sports in Grand Rivers was a HUGE part of this as well, rallying crews to clear the very well known Canal Loop trail on the North end of LBL. Steve also helped us out in other ways as well and we really appreciated his help. Another jewel of a guy. And I also had some major help from two of my friend in Cape a few weekends before the race. Keith Hente and Tom Farden both dedicated an entire Sunday to help me with some back breaking work on clearing a certain key road that was decimated with trees, just to make it somewhat passable for bikes. Huge thanks to those two guys too.

Registration was looking great. For a first year race, we anticipated maybe 150 racers, and considering the news of the ice storm slamming the area, we were anxiously awaiting to see if people were scared off from coming. To our delight, we ended up having over 210 racers for this race. Because of the condition of the trails and side roads and jeep trails, I had to spend many, many man hours working on clearing downed trees and branches from roads we intended to use for our route. I spent many weekends doing hard back breaking labor to make this race work. Unfortunately this took away from my time on concentrating on different parts of the race that I needed to do. This is when Jason and I decided to ask Gary Thompson from Osage Beach, MO to come on board. Gary is an orienteer and an avid outdoorsman, having done many O-meets, Rogaines, and even some adventure races in the past. In fact, after the LBL Challenge he was driving straight to Atlanta to begin his hike of the Appalachian Trail. So we now had three heads working on this event and things were progressing well.

Race week: I headed over to LBL on Wednesday, April 1 to begin setting up the course. Every CP was flagged previously with pink colored surveying tape and the location and description plotted onto our master map. Gary had arrived a day earlier and began placing the actual CP white and orange bags/flags. He and I continued to place the flags on Thursday and Friday before the race. We stayed at the Ken Bar Lodge in Gilbertsville where the owners treated us like family. Very interesting place they have there.

The pre-race meeting was Friday evening. Racer check-in began at 3 pm and you could feel the excitement in the air. And the race shirts that Jason ordered from the North Face were simply awesome, and I mean super groovy awesome. WAYYYYY better than just an average ole race t-shirt that we all have too many of already. These were tech shirts, not cotton.

We had some seriously good teams coming in for this race from all over the country. And I mean SERIOUSLY good. It was very cool to have met those teams and racers individually. Adventure racers are such cool people. The one thing I always tell people about adventure racing is that you have to like to suffer, plain and simple. Crazy isn't it? Anyway, the racers got their maps and cluesheets and after the meeting they began plotting their UTM coordinates and plotting their routes and gameplan. Jason, Gary and I had more last minute work to do. No rest for the weary. div>
I went back to Race HQ on Friday night with 4 of my good friends from Cape who came over to volunteer for this race and help me out. I think they got more than they bargained for. We ended up being short on volunteers so we 'recycled' these guys all day long over the course and worked them like dogs. So here is a seriously, from the heart SHOUT OUT to Pat McMenamin, Ben Gray, Chris Heeb and Matt Ochs for coming over and helping me. Steak dinners are in order for these guys to say the least. I hope they at least had some fun. When we arrived back at Race HQ on Friday night we set up the HQ tent and took care of some other business, and then eventually we went to sleep right there in the parking area for a couple of hours before the sound of a 6000 watt generator was fired up at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. What an alarm clock that was for my boys! It was SHOWTIME. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and a high of 70 degrees.

Once the race began, things calmed down and the race begins to play itself out. All of the planning and coordinating just kind of comes to a stop and things progress out. Jason, Gary and I were driving all over the course just checking things out from different locations and transition areas where we had volunteers stationed. Occasionally you get the call from a couple of racers that had bike problems or whatever so I ended up picking up a few and driving them back to Race HQ where they called it a day. These things happen. The 12 hour racers were finished and off of the course by 8 pm Saturday evening. This is when the REAL fun began for the 24 hour racers.

The 24 hour racers were paddling two person canoes from Demumbers Bay all the way around to Cravens Bay, which was about a 14 mile paddle. Unfortunately, as the day progressed, the lake conditions worsened. Winds picked up, waves whipped up, and temps dropped slightly. It made for a really, really challenging paddling leg for some of the later teams. Some even described it as actually moving backwards when the momentarily stopped paddling. Once they became wet, the winds just caused them to be very cold. A CP location at Eddyville Ferry Lake Acces (CP14) had my good buddy volunteers mentioned above with a nice fire going lakeside. Some racers came up to the fire to get warm for a moment and I think they appreciated that. We also had many teams finishing up the paddling leg in the dark of night. Truly tough conditions.

In the evening hours, after 6 pm, I went down to Hematite Lake to set up a very key transition area. The 24 hour racers would be coming into this TA on bikes, drop them and head out into the woods for a 12 mile trek finding 13 CP's in the dark. We gave the racers sacks the night before to do a food and water drop at this area so when they came in they could refuel, etc. The first team(s) to come through were WEDALI and Eastern Mountain Sports. At this point in the race, I had sheets printed out and provided to me from Jason who had internet access. This race was a Checkpoint Tracker series race, which means that friends and family could follow their daddies, husbands, wives, etc. nearly live. I say nearly live because Jason has to actually get updates from the volunteers on the course about what place the teams are in, then he has to run back to the lodge where he could access the internet and actually sit down and input the information, all while trying to do a ton of other race director duties as well. But we did the best we could. Anyway, these people at home could also post "Shout Outs" to their racers and we would then print them out and I would literally "Shout Out" to the teams while they were transitioning at Hematite Lake what their friends and families posted on the internet. It appeared to be a real hit with the racers. There is nothing like hearing "Go daddy, I love you and I hope you aren't tired" coming from your 5 year old daughter while you are out in the woods in the dark 16 hours into a grueling race. It seemed to be a morale booster for most of them, and every time I read these to the teams they all gave a very genuine "thank you." My favorite Shout Outs were from Carrie Sona who races for Alpine Shop. She races with her husband Jeff on that team. She had circumstances come up days before the race that didn't allow her to race with the team. You could tell that it was killing her, just killing her, not to be there. But she should be aware that Jeff, Dave and Doug were getting her Shout Outs down at Hematite TA, probably where they needed them the most. After WEDALI and EMS finished the Hematite Rogaine style 13 CP trek, Carrie posted, "Please come out of the woods next." I believe Alpine Shop did just that!

This Hematite Lake transition area ended up being my favorite spot in the entire race. It was nearly the furthest place south that the racers would go during this race, and it was truly a really full-on effort for some of them to have even gotten down there. Once many of them arrived there, they didn't have plans on going out on this very tough night trek to get many of the CP's, so some of the teams just sat down by our campfire, ate, took in fluids, and shared stories and just chummed around the fire. It had a "we're all in this together" atmosphere down there at Hematite Lake. Many teams sat with maps and plotted a route back to race HQ (20+ miles away on the bike) which didn't allow them to get any remaining CP's, but instead allowed them a manageable way to get back to race HQ nonetheless on their own power and without calling for a ride and pulling out. So many of these teams down there were obviously not "in it to win it" at this point in the race, but showed so much heart that I just really, really enjoyed sitting there talking to them. Many of the teams were fighting major adversity. Team Just for Kids comes to mind. These guys had one teammate who suffered four flat tires relatively early in the race. It was the ole thorn in the tire that kept popping the tube. That is sure to be something they will look for in the future. They also had a teammate who was having major problems with his seat, and they ended up using duct tape to help fix that problem. Wow. And these same guys busted a chain too. But they never even contemplated quitting. They had real heart, let me tell ya. I really grew to like those guys. And they were raising money for a good cause too. This Hematite transition area put many of these teams into a "survival mode" so to speak. There is an old joke in adventure racing about not stopping to get warm by the fire. Once you do this, you get sucked in and something grabs ahold of you and it is very, very hard to get away. It is just too easy to stay there. Well, many teams fell for it. They put wet socks near the fire, warmed their shoes, etc. Some spent a couple of hours by the fire. One guy slept by a tree for probably two hours! But they knew that the leaders were many, many hours ahead and that a win was not in sight, so they took the time to get refreshed and this allowed most of them to eventually bike their way back up north to the finish before noon on Sunday.

Having been on the racing/participating side of adventure races, this was my first time being on the other end of it. After the race is over, racers pack up and leave, but our work was just getting started. Taking down race HQ tents, cleaning up trash, and most importantly, going out onto the course to retrieve all of those CP's over the entire 95 mile course. Fortunately, many were pretty easy to get to by car and a short hike, but not all of them. We worked all Sunday afternoon and Monday until mid to late afternoon getting everything picked up. And although the weather for the race was great, the weather for the course takedown was awful. Windy, cold rain was switching back and forth from rain to sleet. But we got it all done nonetheless.

Some general parting thoughts: As a race designer, it is the goal to strike a balance between making a race course that is both enjoyable and manageable for both experienced teams and less experienced teams, while at the same time making a real challenge for all racers. If you make it too easy, less experienced teams will probably like it more, but the real top dogs who traveled from so far away may not feel that it challenged them enough. We attempted to strike the balance, but many variables come into play that are very difficult to plan for. One such variable was the wind on the lake later in the evening on Saturday. My impression is that it was less of an issue for the 12 hour racers who were on the lake on Saturday morning, and the winds picked up significantly into the evening when our 24 hour racers were out there. Also, the ice storm caused the trekking sections in the woods to have slower travel due to the large downed trees and limbs. Finally, we were limited in our route choices somewhat due to certain roads being open and others being closed from trees being across them. Due to that, the final biking leg was probably longer than I would have liked, but it was really the shortest route we could design while making due with the roads that were open and usable. While we projected the top finishing time to be about 18 hours, it was 19 hour hours and some change, which wasn't far off of the mark.
I learned alot from this race that should prove to be invaluable to me as a racer. And I learned alot more about adventure racers than I knew before. While racing, you are going through alot yourself, but when working on the course during the race and observing, you learn more about racers in a different perspective. I have come to respect adventure racers even more than I used to and I never thought that was even possible.

Ok, ok, I might be waxing poetic here, but I am not done yet... All of these racers, both 12 and 24 hour course participants, they have heart and soul, and determination beyond comprehension. Some are in it to win it while others are there to have fun. I can only hope that despite a very tough course, everyone came away having had a great time, learning alot about themselves and their teammates and friends, and learning that adventure races are not meant to be easy, and just like life itself, an adventure race throws things at you that you might not expect, might not want, and might feel like you cannot continue on any longer. There are trials, and tribulations, but more trials than tribulations, but at the end of the day, just finishing the race, or even knowing that you gave it your best shot, that is what matters the most. When one reaches down deep and puts their mind into it, and when the legs say "I can't go any more" but the mind and heart says "GO," you put one foot in front of the other, rely on your teammates to help, and make it to that finish line knowing you took the challenge head on, and came away a winner regardless of the time or number of checkpoints that were punched.

This was an unforgettable experience for me of which I am so grateful that Jason asked me to help him out with this event. I hope he feels the same way.

There were five teams who finished with all CP's punched. That was a monumental effort for those five, and of course, you can't forget WEDALI, being the first team to finish by about 45 minutes, only to later discover they had missed CP 24. That was a real shame as they raced an incredible race. But things like that happen in adventure races.

The race course ended with a 20 mile bike leg, a little less than half of which was singletrack. I know some of the teams liked it, but others said it was less enjoyable, and more like a ride on the 'pain-train.' But the teams can't say that they weren't warned ahead of time. Our race description told the racers that they would be on very few roads, and instead on alot of singletrack trails.

Finally, a big thanks to Jason and Gary, two really great guys who were great to work with. A big thanks to Bill and Kyle with the USFS, Steve Wilson with Wood n Wave, and all volunteers who made this possible, especially my good buddies Pat, Ben, Chris, Matt, Tom and Keith. And finally, and most importantly, a HUGE thank you and lots of love for the patience and sacrifices that my family endured through all of my time away while working, designing and planning this race. I have such great friends and family, and at the end of the day, there really isn't anything more important than that. As my profile states, I continue to be "the luckiest guy in the world."
Post by Bryan Greaser

3 Days of Syllamo- 50k

Ken and I travelled down Hwy. 5 South to run the 3 days of Syllamo 50k trail race. It was a tough drive down there with both of us struggling to stay awake at times. We arrived about thirty minutes before the start. We sat in the truck for the last few minutes before the start with the engine running and the heater cranked. I have learned to almost hate the morning of a race because of the anticipation of just wanting to get out there and go.

At last we were off. The race headquarters was where the first aid station was at the Sylamore 25k that I had done three weeks earlier. I do not have the patience to tell about all of the details of the run. Two people, among many, that we became acquainted with were Lindy from Republic, MO and Robert from Georgia. I believe that he said Augusta. Allen Honeycutt lives in Berryville, AR and we talked for a small stretch. That is one of the neatest things about these races. No one is so ultra competitive that they cannot talk. You can tell that they are just happy to be out there experiencing the trails and the people.

The run ended up being twenty-five miles. The experience was awesome. I do not know what next year holds but I would like to run all three days next year. The three days consists of a 50k, 50-miler, and a 20k.

The legs were tired on the drive home and we had to make a couple of stops to stretch and revive a little. I definitely know what they mean by a runner's high after completing these races. I hope to do a 50-miler soon.

My next race will be the Frisco Highline 50k on April 18th. Overall, I feel like leg strength is my biggest training thing right now. I just need to get more miles in on running.

This post is by Marc.

The Sylamore Trail 25k

I had been viewing this race for some time on the internet and I decided about 3 weeks before the scheduled date to sign up for it. I wanted to do the 50k but I did not have the guts to get that done. Looking back, I could have done it, but I am glad that I did not.



I headed out on Friday afternoon, and after about a three hour drive I ended up in Allison, AR. I got my sweatshirt for entering and proceeded to find a campground for the night. I was going to sleep in my truck and then later decided to get a campsite and pitch a tent. I built a fire in a fire ring with old scrap lumber from the addition to the office at the Sylamore Creek Campground. I sat around the fire for a couple of hours reading and eating peanuts and drinking Gatorade.



I turned in about nine o'clock and slept well until about one. I was a little cold. I dozed until three and nature called. I was in and out until 4:19 and I decided to get on up because my alarm was set at 4:30. I was cold as I laid on the ground in my sleeping bag. I expected the weather to turn colder that morning according to the news. As cold as I was laying on the ground I really figured that I was in for a cold race. As it turned out I figured out that the ground was cold, but the air was not nearly as cold. I could not even see my breath as I came out of the tent.



I proceeded to drive to the Angler's resort where the race started. We were supposed to check in at 6:00 a.m. I was there at 5:00. I love being early. I had my choice of parking spots. I knew it would get crowded and boy did it.



The 50k started at 7:00 and the 25k started at 7:15. We were off. We encountered the creek crossing at just over a mile. This was not wading. This was crossing the Sylamore Creek which was up to my titties. There was no rope and it was slippery. One miscue and you were swimming. One lady was swimming in front of me. It really would not have been that big a deal had I fallen because I was pretty deep already.



Anyway, out of the water and on with the run. It was beautiful. It completely blows away anything that I have ever ran before as far as beauty. There was over 6,000 feet of ascent and descent. There was one aid station for the 25k'ers at about six miles. I stopped long enough to get a peanut butter and syrup sandwich square and a quarter of a banana. We then proceeded up a million stairs. This began the major climbing portion of the race.



After climbing forever, I distanced myself from two girls that I had been trailing for some time on the downhill. I made it to the halfway point and punched my bib number and began the journey back. I met a guy named Ryan and he trailed me the rest of the way. He ran when I ran and walked the hills when I walked the hills.



We came back to the same aid station and I refueled with the same food as before and I filled my Camelbak with Gatorade and was off again. Ryan and I talked a little here and there. I heard the girls talking behind me and it inspired me to run harder. They caught me at the creek crossing. This crossing was very cold. The adrenaline was not surging like the first time and my legs ached. The girls passed me in the creek and they began running as soon as they exited the water. I was not able to start the running engines immediately. It took me a hundred yards or so before I could begin to jog again.



I walked up a steep, short climb and then began to run the rest of the way in. I crossed the finish and asked if I was the first 50k'er. It got a chuckle from the race director's wife. I was chilly very quickly after stopping. I drove back to the campground and took a wonderfully hot shower and began my drive back home.

It was a wonderful trip. I plan on doing it again next year. I encourage anyone to. I am now preparing for what I was glad that I did not do on this one.........the 50k at the 3 days of Syllamo. This will be ran on March 13th on a lot of the same trails as this one. I am very excited about this next challenge.

This post is by Marc.

The Bonk Hard Chill

As Shakespeare once said, "What’s in a name?" Well in this case, not much. This is a February race every year for Bonk Hard and is always appropriately named, but at the pre-race meeting Friday night, Jason started off the meeting by grabbing the microphone and saying, "Welcome to the Bonk Hard ‘Heat-Wave.’ Yep, that sums it up. Somehow the temps have been in the low teens and 20s for most of this winter it seems, but on race weekend, the lows were only 45ish and the highs were in the 60s. As always, Bonk Hard had some killer prize give-aways at the Friday night pre-race meeting, including free entries into a Bonk Hard Race, AR backpacks by Columbia, Salomon XT Wings trail shoes, a Kuat bike rack for cars, and many more. The free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s was killer too, but we all left town before we could use it. Wonder if we could sell them on eBay?

We stayed up late Friday night plotting CP’s 1-26, and getting last minute mandatory gear stuffed into our packs. As usual, we didn’t sleep very soundly in anticipation of a long raceday ahead. I was especially anxious to see how my new GoLite racing pack was going to perform for this race. I really like my Salomon pack, but it is about an 18 litre volume, and this new GoLite pack is a 25 litre pack which I thought would be better since some of the mandatory gear in a winter race tends to be bulky and heavy. Well it turned out to be the schnizzle-fo-dizzle, plus a few more schnizzles and another mo-fo-dizzle. It was super roomy like the Adams Mark Honeymoon Suite, and all of my gear fit nicely in there with room to spare. I think I am becoming a backpack junkie. Most of my friends call me the headlamp junkie. Ok, I have a couple, or nine....

On race morning, we had to first stop at Camp Rising Sun to stage our bikes, and then we drove our cars to the actual Race HQ at Camp Clover Point.
At 6:25 am, the National Anthem played, and we started off on a trekking leg at 6:30 am with headlamps. We hit all of the CP’s without any problems, and then went on to the bike drop area and rode our bikes a very short distance down to the lake where we dropped them lakeside in a staging area and transitioned to the paddling leg.

The paddling wasn’t too bad. Admittedly, the lake water was really, really cold, and the coves had a ton of ice in them, with very large pieces floating about too. It was a bit disconcerting to run your canoe into those floating ice chunks with thoughts of capsizing into the frigid waters. But it wasn’t that bad, and we never came close to capsizing. The biggest thing about the paddling leg was the paddles. The race website stated that you can bring your own paddles. Well... we didn’t. When we saw so many other racers with double bladed kayak paddles, we knew we were in trouble on the paddling leg. Teams can put down some serious time on opponents if they are jamming with two people who both have kayak paddles rather than a standard single blade canoe paddle. Add new break apart kayak paddles to the gear wish list.
Once we finished most of the lake paddling, we canoed back to the beach where we dropped our bikes off earlier, but this time we had to load them into our canoes and strap them in and take off for another mile or so of lake paddling. That was stressful. I just bought a new carbon framed mountain bike, and thoughts of that bike on the bottom of the lake were.... well, there was a ‘pucker’ factor of 10+ during that paddling leg if you get my drift. Two bikes strapped into the canoe also adds some problems to the stability of the canoe, but honestly, it turned out to not be a big deal.
So we paddle to the next CP where we took out the canoes and transitioned to the mountain bike. As always, it feels good to use different parts of your body just about the time when your muscles are getting tired from doing something else. Arms and back were tired, but now it was time to mash on the bike and crank those leg muscles.

The biking leg was mostly on gravel roads, so that was good as we knew the trails around the area were very muddy. We hate riding on muddy trails for a lot of reasons, but not the least of which is that it just isn’t good trail stewardship at all. Alot of racers on trails can cause some serious damage, but thankfully we were mostly off of them except for trekking on them at times. So eventually we biked our way down to a church (CP23 I think) where we went inside and received an additional 16 or so CP’s that we had to sit down and plot. We also took some time to re-fuel as the church volunteers had tons of juices, fruits, turkey sandwiches, etc waiting for us. Wow, these volunteers never cease to amaze me for the hours they dedicate to races like this for our benefit. I was plotting our new points as Ken and Marc took turns reading out the UTM coordinates to me, and between the CP plots I would scarf down a bite of turkey sandwich that was handed to me. They had bananas to eat too, but our team was really hoping that they had plantains....Oh well, that’s another story.

After plotting the new CP’s we took off to hit a few more CP’s on the bike, and then we came to CP26 where we dropped the bikes again and transitioned back to trekking where we were essentially doing an orienteering course. Often an orienteering course isn’t all that large, but this one seemed to cover miles, and the terrain was pretty darn steep and muddy at times. We had an awful time finding one of the CP’s and we became discouraged for a short while, but we got our wits about us, regrouped and somehow we intersected with a jeep trail that actually showed up on the map! It was then that I knew where we were again! We then backtracked a bit to hit the CP and all was right with the world again. We had reference points again to shoot bearings to the remaining CP’s. We all agreed that this was tough terrain to bushwack through. It was steep, muddy on the hillsides, rocky at times, and lots of deadfall. We weren’t traveling on trails, I’ll put it that way.

While still hitting the CP’s on this trekking leg, we came to what I refer to as a crucial point in the race. We hit the CP that was on an old abandoned boat dock. We had about three more CP’s to hit before we were to go back to the bike drop area and retrieve the bikes. It was beginning to get dark. I asked Jill what time it was and it was getting to be about 4:00. We had only an hour or so of daylight left. We had to decide if we were going to push on and try to find the remaining CP’s, or whether we would just start making our way back to the bikes and then on to the finish and skip the last few CP’s. Ken did a great job of rallying the troops, and we agreed that we had headlamps, let’s use ‘em. We hit the last few CP’s very accurately during the waning hours of daylight. Unbeknownst to us at that time, this would become our demise for our final ranking. Then we made our way back to the bikes. It was about 6:15ish, and yes, very dark.

We transitioned back to the bikes and rode about 3 miles maybe where we then had to get back across the lake where the finish area was. Since it was dark and getting cold, the race directors decided to hold up our team and a few others so that we could paddle across the lake as a large group for safety reasons. They also provided a small watercraft that followed us as well for safety. We once again strapped our bikes into the canoes, turned on our headlamps and blinking red lights on the bikes and off we went into the icy waters one last time in the dark. It reminded me of the scene in the movie "Titanic," minus all of the floating bodies in the water, of course. The water was very calm. Fortunately this paddling leg was only about a mile. We took out at the beach and jumped onto our bikes for the final few miles or so of biking to the finish.
We made it to the finish at about 7:30. Technically the race cut-off time was 7 pm, but we were told on the course that we would still be allowed to finish since they were holding us up as a group at that final lake paddle.

Once race results were posted, to our surprise we had a very disappointing finish. It turns out that the volunteers supposedly informed us at a bike drop to trek transition area that we were to be back at the bike drop no later than 5 pm or suffer a CP penalty for every minute past 5 pm for the CP’s in that orienteering section of the woods. For whatever reason, we didn’t hear that or it wasn’t told to us, and so we made it back to that area well past 5 pm and unbeknownst to us, we suffered severe penalties, getting credit for only 31 CP’s when in reality we hit all 42. Oh well, life is full of disappointments. We still had a lot of fun and learned a lot about racing, ourselves and each other.
Race Summary by Bryan Greaser
Next up: Ozark Greenways Adventure Race