12 Hour Berryman Adventure Race

The Grandpappy of 'em all, the Berryman. If you're looking for a short and dull read, just go ahead and navigate away from this page and click on some silly Yahoo! story about how scientists disagree about the health benefits of almonds. If you actually want to read something about a cool race put on by cool people, and raced by cool people, read on my friend, read on....

The 10th running of the Berryman Adventure took it back to it's roots, the area surrounding the Berryman trail sandwiched between the small towns of Potosi and Steelville in the heart of the Mark Twain National Forest. Nearly 250 racers were signed up between both the 12 and 36 hr races. For the last four or so years this race has been held near Van Buren, MO. We were signed up for the 12 hour race. July and August delivered record heat waves, and I can at least speak for myself when I say that my training suffered greatly, as in, nearly non-existent. So when it came time to decide which race to do, it was a pretty easy call. Momma didn't raise no fool.

Jill was unable to race this one with us. Her high school volleyball coaching schedule conflicts with this race pretty much every year. So, we went on the recruiting trail to find another female who was up for the task. That's not always easy to do. Well as it turns out, it was much easier than I would have ever thought. "Team, meet Missy Phegley!" Missy lives in Cape Girardeau also and she raced the Berryman with a team in 2009 but that was the extent of her AR experience. But don't mistake that for not being battle tested. Ahemmm. How about competing and finishing the Branson Half Ironman just six days prior to this race? This aen't no disco. Now that's what I call a competitor!

So myself, Marc, Ken and Missy head to Bass River Resort on Friday ready to take on the Berryman. I was super impressed with Bass River Resort and Campground. Great place for a race HQ. So the Friday night pre-race meal pretty much rocked, I caught up with my friend Gary Thompson, and then we took our bikes over to the YMCA Trout Lodge about 16 miles away for the bike drop. Yep, we (ok, I) busted off a few bars of our own version of the "YMCA" song, rest assured. After that we hauled back to Bass River for a standing room only pre-race meeting, got the maps, and headed back to our tents and canopies to plot 25 CP's. We plotted the CP's, highlighted our anticipated route choices, filled our packs and probably got to sleep around midnight. Ahhhh, tent camping before a race. Nothing quite like it. Not much quality sleep.

Saturday morning wakeup. About 4:45 am to get breakfast, finished last minute preparations, and boarded the buses which were pulling out of Bass River at 6:05 and were to arrive at the YMCA Trout Lodge for the race start. We were dropped off at the YMCA next to Sunnen Lake where we were to start off on a trekking leg, hitting CP 1-3, then CP's 4-12 in any order. There was a long and steep road hill that helped separate the pack early on. It got the blood flowing right off the bat. No doubt that was by design, right Jason? We hit 1 thru 3 with no problems, then chose to hit CP 8, then down to 4 and the rest went in order. We were nailing these CP's with no problems at all. A minor 5 minute snafu here and there, but no major hiccups. I think we came out of the woods after that O Course in about 10th place out of 60 12-hour teams so we cleaned the course pretty well. We came in to CP12 which was a mystery event. It turned out to be that we crossed a creek and then came upon an artificial rock climbing wall. Awesome! Two team members had to put on a harness and climb to the top and then rappel down. Ken and I chose to do it. With no problems, we came down, loaded up the packs and took off for CP13 where we then received the UTM's for another mystery event, CP14. Yummm, they had Snickers and Oreo's too! Once we plotted CP14, we made our way to it and as we approached it, we could hear what we all agreed sounded like a ZIPLINE! Sweet. We had to wait a few minutes until the line was available, but once it was, Ken and Marc put on the harness and zipped on down. We found out what we had suspected already. We were in first place in 4 person co-ed, but the Tulsa team was pushing and closing fast.

Once we finished the CP 14 zipline, we then made the short trek back to the start where we transitioned to the bike. While transitioning, we heard a couple of male racers next to us talking about how they forgot to get a CP punch at 14. One of them said, "No problem, Jason and Laura saw us up there, they'll know we were there but that we just forgot to get the punch." Ken couldn't help himself, and tried to kindly inform them that they needed to go back and get that CP 14 punched on their passport. Rules about getting your passport punched are pretty strict, and I would NEVER count on trying to explain that we were there but just forgot. Well, the old phrase about no good deed going unpunished rang true. It seems that two guys thought we were trying to mess with them and cause them to lose time since we were both at the same point in the race. I suppose they can draw whatever conclusion that they want, but I just hate seeing or hearing a team make a mistake like that when they were so close to the CP still. It is always the right decision to go back and get it. Anyway, we learned after the race that they thought we were trying to just make them go back frivolously and lose time against us I guess. I think they went back and got it, and I think they also finished ahead of us. Good for them. If you ask me, we saved their race for them. I would be surprised if Jason had made an exception and gave them the credit for the punch if the passport didn't have it. Maybe he would have, but I don't think so, and I would never chance it, being so close still to the CP to where you can still just go back and get it. They were gonna not go back and get it. I think they would have found out the hard way that they would have been ranked behind all teams who got it. If you guys are reading this....you're welcome. We would never practice crappy sportsmanship like that to deceive or mislead another team. We don't want a reputation for that because that is not who we are. Alright, enough typing wasted on that stupid subject anyway.

Off on the bikes in great shape, first place in our division after having just done a great job on the Rogaine style O course. We hit 16 and 17 with no problems, climbing up and descending down pretty big hills on gravel roads until we then got onto the Berryman Trail. CP 18 was a little more challenging. Reading a topo map on the bike presents more challenges than being on foot. Despite being on a cable on a tree, trailside, we blew past it but not too far. I realized it pretty quickly and we turned back and got it. It was at that moment that the Tulsa crew came up on us. I knew they were giving chase all day long, and there they were. Good group of folks though. It was fun to Yo-Yo with them back and forth throughout the next hour or so. CP 19 was at a natural spring, and we quickly refilled water bottles and then got back on the Berryman Trail where we linked up with a gravel road for a few miles, then got back on the Berryman Trail near the Berryman campground and hit CP 21 with no problem.

After CP 21 we headed through the Berryman campground and linked up with the Ozark Trail section that descends down to Highway 8 where we hit CP 22. The night before the race we had the Shirley Ridge Road highlighted as our route down to Hwy 8 from the Berryman campground right after we hit CP 21, but Jason had said at the Saturday morning last minute directions/rules that the ONLY time we could be on Hwy 8 was between 22 and 23. Obviously this meant that we could NOT be on Hwy 8 between 21 and 22. WHile this important detail was not on the cluesheet, nor was it covered in the pre-race meeting, we nonetheless heeded his rule that was mentioned Saturdy morning. I now know that many teams went ahead and descended down that gravel road (Shirley Ridge Road I believe) to Hwy 8. This was a big time saver for them. I shouldn't have listened so closely to Jason at the Saturday morning start. Anyway, we all agreed that that section of the Ozark Trail that we took instead was super fun, fast, good surface, and just plain fun. We were still rockin' in first place in our division but the Tulsa crew was minutes back, having just stopped briefly on the trail to deal with a bike issue.

We blasted down Highway 8 for about a mile and a half until we came to the Hwy 8 bridge at the Curtois River where we dropped bikes, did a gear check, and transitioned to the paddle. The Tulsa crew pulled in and were putting on PFD's as we launched our canoes. Now something I haven't mentioned yet is that around CP18 when they caught up to us, I noticed that they had double bladed kayak paddles sticking out of their packs. I kindly asked them how many they had, to which they replied, "Three." For a second I thought that he had said that they had a 30 horsepower outboard motor in their pack. One and the same at that point, really. Either way, I knew we were doomed on the final leg. 11 miles of canoeing against a team with three double bladed paddles and of course a regular single blade, to our 4 oar type single blade paddles, and it was all she wrote. We held them off for about 20 minutes or so, and then they came by in a fury, and off they paddled into the sunset and on their way for the 1st place prize in the premier 4 person co-ed division. They earned it though. They put around 25 minutes of distance on us on that final paddle. Some people don't take any solace in losing to anyone, but if you are going to lose, personally, I'd rather lose to good teams with cool people, and they are both. Despite losing our lead on this final paddling leg, the paddling leg nonetheless offered a surprise as we encountered none other than my friends Jim and Wendy Davis. What a treat to see them at this manned CP!

We came into CP 25 at the takeout within Bass River, parked the canoes and made our way across the river and ran through the finish line at 8 hrs 52 minutes, good for 2nd place in 4 person co-ed, and 5th out of 24 in 4 person overall teams, all male and co-ed. It was a solid race for us. The weather was phenomenal, trails and course were great, mystery events added some unusual elements to the race, and it's always great to get together with my teamies and camp, hang out, and race.
Everybody on the team pitched in and we all performed well with no performance issues of any kind. No cramps, no bonks, crashes, etc. It was just a really good day to be alive and racing. Can't wait for the next one. Man, such good times....I am one seriously lucky dude.

by Bryan Greaser