Training Log Archive: glewis

Super hot ride. Sunscreen and a long sleeve shirt seemed to do the trick along with a strategic water stop at the library. Too many cars, including 1 that flung gravel at me, another who was paying no attention and nearly hit me (by far the closest I've been), and too many too count who either intentionally gave no space or very intentionally let their feelings about me known with the horn. At least my legs felt alright!

As punishment for my terrible paddling performance on Saturday, I got myself onto the erg for a longer session. My arms were still tired and sore though, and anything longer than this felt like it would be counterproductive.

C • race report! 3

Recovery run from Altor - lots of roads closed from yesterday's rainstorm, so this was the best I could do. Felt alright, feet still a bit sore but nothing serious.

We took a long bushwhack over to 49 after getting 50. It was a nice trail climb up to 51, where we passed TrailVets and saw Rib again, who had moved quicker on trails while we bushwhacked earlier. We had finished the western half of the map, and moved on roads over to the eastern portion. Their were more trails, but we had a warning in the course notes about the excess of unmapped nonsense around 54 and 55. We caught back up to Rib at 53 after getting 52, and worked over to 54 very carefully. We had seen some crude trail maps in the woods, which told us that our map didn't match with what would be on the ground. After getting 54 we found the trail tough to follow over to 55. Back and forth with Rib we went, turning around and looking for blue blazes before Tom finally found a trail bordering an old rock wall, marked with reflective markers and blue blazes. It was tough to follow and was moving rather north, but we liked it at the time. It eventually turned hard east, and we followed that for a ways, passing Rootstock.

The trail that we were on ended, and we combined brains with Rib again. Tim felt like we had gone too far (not sure in which direction though) and I felt like we might not be north enough. We each looked in different directions...and we never saw them again! We spent 90 minutes looking way too far north and east of the control, hunting for the sounds of waterfalls and looking for the massive swamp to our north. We eventually realized that we were nearly passed the swamp, and after a series of frustrating fits and starts decided to head back to a known trail and most likely skip this point. This is where Tom had his MVP moment. He felt like a junction that we entered on 90 minutes prior was close to the CP - we followed a small stream that got bigger and bigger, and boom! We were super excited to then realize exactly where we were on the map - we entered the CP area on the wrong trail! From there we began moving quickly but smartly, sticking to trails and finding CPs efficiently.

Our main issue here were our stomachs - we were all essentially out of food. I personally was out for 2+ ours, but it sounds like Scott was much more than that. I also had an issue with my GI tract starting near 57. I never go to the bathroom (like that...) during a race, but this was the first of 3 "visits" in the morning. After 58 we hit a road section and tried to run as much as possible. Our time estimates had us leaving TA by 6AM to comfortably make it back on time, and we were going to cut it close. I was feeling a little more energy than the rest so I took the passport and tried to lead with some purposeful pace. Our last two points were 46 at a waterfall and 48 at a radio tower. The tower was much easier to find during the day. The trek back from there was just over 1km long, where Tom let us know that he was probably going to bail on us and ride right back to the finish. We hustled as best as possible into TA around 6:30AM.

Leg 9 - MTB
We devoured all of the food that we could see before riding out of TA just after 6:45. I learned after the race that I planned a sub-optimal route from here, adding an extra 2km to the ride. We were moving terribly slow despite our influx of calories, so it magnified this error. It took about 45 minutes to arrive at the first pocket of points, on a series of ATV and MTB trails. This riding was really tough, and zapped loads of energy from us as well as tons of time. I had expected it to take only 30 minutes, but it was closer to 80. With this time crunch, we resolved to get our butts into gear and push as hard as we could to clear the course. There were 3 more points at the Kate Furbish trail system (from our opening trek) that we needed to get. I had a feeling that we might need to drop one, so I took a conservative approach that made us double back at one point. From there, we hammered home as hard as possible. I was feeling great, so I tried to ride in front and act as a rabbit for the rest of the team - this clearly didn't work, as I got too far ahead by the time I got to the finish, just over time... Our official finish time was 45 seconds late, meaning that we dropped one CP as a penalty but not a spot in the rankings. There are about 100 places to recover 45 seconds in a race that long, and I can think of loads just from the last hour. Analyzing my own moves is my specialty, but I don't think it's worth it in this case.

We ended up 4th overall behind Rib and UNE/AE. Lots of fun, a beautiful course! I had a wonderful time with my terrific teammates - thanks Kit, Evan, and Scott (and Tom too!). Thanks also to Matt, Cliff, and Kate for a unique look at Maine! Already looking forward to the next one!!