I was glad to see 4:45 am on the clock, as I had tossed and turned all night. I made some hotel room coffee, which tasted like the bottom of my shoe. Time to board the bus was quickly approaching and I still hadn't made race weight, which has NEVER been a problem.
Lisa and I grabbed the maps, 30 of them, as we boarded the bus for the ride over to St. Marks, the start of the race. We spent the next 2 hours doing the necessary prep work, marking the CP's and plotting our route. Several times during the 3 1/2 hour ride, I went to the lavatory, but the plumbing was not cooperating. This caused me some concern, as I am as regular as clockwork.
The start was at Saint Marks River City Park. I grabbed the satellite tracker, sealed my phone in a tamper-proof bag, and grabbed the map for the initial trek. With sunny skies and warmth, it was a good day to go into the belly of the beast.
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| Almost Go Time! |
Leg 1: trek, 4 miles, 4/4 CP's
At 10:21 am, we were off. Lisa was in greyhound mode, and I was having a hard time keeping up. The CP's were straightforward and we nabbed them in 40 minutes.
From there, Lisa filled up our bottle 1/2 way with sand, and I stowed it away in my pack. We would carry that little bottle with us to the finish and fill the remaining half up with sand from the east coast beach. More than once that bottle caused me anxiety, digging into my pack to ensure that it was still there.
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| I needed a tow rope! |
Leg 2: paddle, 25 miles, 3/3 CP's
We traveled south down the St. Marks River, fighting a 15 mph headwind. I was still in my trekking attire (t-shirt and light weight pants) and the sun felt good shining down on us. Even though I felt strong, a lot of teams slowly passed us. At first it was a bit frustrating, but I also knew that we would most likely reel them in later, as they seemed to be exerting themselves a lot.
We pulled ashore to collect CP 5, as it was on land about 0.4 miles from the river bank. There was a "trail," although quite soggy and boggy. Hopping back in the canoe, we then made for the lighthouse in the distance as that would be where we would round the point and begin to paddle in the Apalachee Bay. Once we hit the bay, we were met with a serious crosswind and choppy waters. I saw some land on the horizon that was about 1/4 inch tall. I asked Lisa if she thought that was where we were headed. She said yep and I thought OMG! I estimated it to be 14 miles of paddling in this bay where it was a struggle just to keep the boat in a straight line and at a speed of 3 mph. There must have been a serious current for although we had a cross wind coming hard at us from the south, our boat was being pulled out to sea.
When we landed on the island to nab CP6, we both put on our midweight base layer and our rain gear. With the sun getting lower in the sky, the constant winds, and the ocean spray soaking us, we were starting to get chilled. We still had miles to go and the land on the horizon did not appear to be getting any bigger. The waves were rough enough to cause a few solo racers in non sea worthy kayaks to capsize and require rescue by canoeists around them and even one fishing boat came to help. The canoes were getting swamped with water and it required a lot of bailing.
We finally made it to the mouth of the Aucilla River and the winds died and the water became glassy. As the sun was setting, we nabbed CP7 on our way to TA1, the Mandalay boat ramp. We were able to get to the TA just as darkness enveloped us. Here we ditched the boats, grabbed our bins, found our bikes, and prepared for the third leg.
It was now 7 pm. Shivering uncontrollably, I immediately took off my wet paddling clothes, caring less about being naked in a sea of adventure racers and more about getting warm ASAP. Putting my light on my helmet, changing out to a bigger pack, acquiring water and food, and attempting to poop again (no luck) took about 50 minutes.
Leg 3: bike, 82 miles, 9/9 CP's
We headed out under the cover of darkness, with our lights shining the way. It felt oh so good to be pedaling. Night time temps were at a pleasant 50 degrees and I managed to stay warm for this leg.
The first few CP's were spread out but easy enough to collect as they were right along the road/trail. It was now approaching midnight and my stomach was taking a turn for the worse. I was burping a lot, nauseous, and whenever I would eat a bite, it would sit in my stomach like a rock. This was a new experience for me, and I attribute some of it due to the fact of not being able to have a bowel movement. So I just stopped ingesting anything, other than some sips of water.
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| Those CP's ... all lies! 😂 |
CP13 (dead tree in clear cut) was the first slightly difficult one, but fortunately we had some extra sets of eyes, Lubano Capital Racing (David, Nick, and Cody), and were able to find it without too much time lost.
CP15 (holly tree on a knoll) required a bit of time as there was no "knoll" and about a gazillion holly trees! Once again we combined efforts with Lubono Capital Racing and eventually found it.
CP16 (distinct tree) took 25 minutes to find. I am calling bullshit on this one, as it was NOT a distinct tree. While there were several gargantuan trees that were distinct, the CP was hanging on this pitiful looking broke ass tree in the middle of heavy underbrush. I swear David must have a sixth sense, being able to communicate with trees, because he found this CP as well as the previous one.
From there we crossed under I-10 and started on the most direct route to CP17 (sinkhole). The trail soon became non-existent due to the shitshow of blowdowns. Up until this point, the trail had been cleared of the fallen trees from Hurricane Idalia. We attempted to bike whack through, but after 10 minutes, had traveled less than 100 meters. So we turned around and tried another route, taking the powerline easement to the main road and then attacking from the other side. It still took us and several other teams to find this sinkhole, which was further off the trail than indicated on the map. We spent an hour on this CP, but we did not want to quit, as we had cleared the course so far.
We arrived at TA2 at 6 am. I turned in my passport and grabbed the one for the next leg. The smell of hamburgers permeated the air, but the line was too long to wait, so I settled for reconstituting some broccoli cheddar bone broth soup, while I prepared for the next leg. As I opened up my bin, it began to rain lightly. I stared blankly into it, waiting for the items I needed to jump out into my hands. When they did not appear magically, I began a little cussfest, as the rain intensified. I'm sure Lisa was getting a chuckle out of my frustration. I slowly got out the necessary gear, including nutrition, the sight of which made my stomach knot up. Despite my bloated abdomen, now carrying around 2 days of shit, I managed to choke down my bone broth; at least it was warm and savory.
This was probably my lowest moment, as thoughts of "how the hell can I keep this up for 2 more days," raced through my mind. Lisa was buzzing around me, ready to go, and waiting on me, as I was having a pity party. She got rid of my trash, took care of my bike bag, and then took care of my bin, after I was finished getting out what I needed. We spent about 50 minutes at this transition.
Leg 4: trek, 30 miles, 9/10 CP's
My pack was super heavy, as I had 2.5 liters of water in it, along with food and all my mandatory gear. It felt like a death march early on. Why I filled it up so much, I do not know, for we were trekking along the Suwanee River. I was still feeling sorry for myself. Lisa was crushing it and could have run/shuffled had it not been for me. I was in no condition to go any faster than a speed walk.
CP18 was down by the river. As we grabbed that one, Randy Ericksen was trying to get us to cross the river, "It will save you 5 miles," he said. Only if you were going to stay on the Florida Trail. We opted to walk the railroad tracks and and then several miles of road, before getting back on the trail. This could have been a runnable section, but I was still feeling ill. I also felt like I was letting Lisa down. I finally got the poles out of my pack and using these as crutches, was able to pick up the pace a little.
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| So much deadfall and blowdowns! |
The forecast called for scattered showers and a high of 70. We did encounter some occasional light rain, so would pull out our rain jackets for 5-10 minutes at a time. The day was comfortably warm and I shed my base layer and wore just the Warrior bib.
As we were walking along a paved road, against traffic, an old dude in a clapped out car came across the lane, and asked us to approach his vehicle. We did not and kept moving. So now he is driving in the wrong lane and asked us if we knew about the bees that made milk. I said, no, to which he responded, "boo-bees." I replied, "Have a good day, sir," and he finally drove off. Lisa said he probably didn't have any pants on.
Soon we entered Holton Creek WMA and found a water spigot, where Lisa filled. Dumbass me, a glutton for punishment, still had plenty. This section along the Florida Trail had multiple re routes because of the hurricane. It was all marked well, but with all the zig and zagging, it definitely increased our mileage. My feet were beginning to develop hot spots all over, as the re-routes were up and down and off-camber. At one point I took my shoes and socks off and noticed several blisters forming on my toes, forefoot, and heels. Not terribly bad, but something I wanted to address at the next TA. I couldn't understand why, as I have never had an issue with blisters. I could only surmise that it was due to how wet my feet were staying, what with the paddle, sweating, and the rain we were encountering.
We caught up to Jim and Susie at CP24 (oak at sinkhole). Trekking with them over the next 5 miles or so was quite enjoyable. It did make the time go by faster and got my mind out of a funk. As we hit CP 26 (foot bridge), we opted to not go for CP25, as we were behind schedule, and that out and back that would have taken 40 minutes.
After grabbing CP27A, we were envisioning some warm TA food and getting back on the bikes. The day had been beautiful and we would be able to ride some in the daylight. But as we approached the cattle pastures, we heard rolls of thunder. Looking north, the skies were as black as night and the clouds were angry ... like tornadic angry! "You have got to be fucking kidding me," Lisa and I said in synchrony.
We made it to CP27B when the heavens opened up. The once dry roadbed we were walking on soon turned into a creek. We looked like drowned rats as we hit the TA and immediately went over to the food tent. It was raining buckets for 40 minutes; it dumped at least an inch. So we ate; those grilled cheese, egg, and bacon sandwiches were scrumptious! My stomach was finally happy. We each inhaled two.
When the rain abated, I went to retrieve our bins while Lisa snagged some dry space in one of the box trucks that transports our gear. After a couple rounds through the bins, I could not find ours. I asked Lisa to come help, as I was probably just overlooking the obvious. But nope, she couldn't find them either. I asked a volunteer for assistance. When she could not find them, she asked if we had put them back on the box truck at the previous TA when we had finished with them. Oh, crap! We had forgotten to.
Luckily there was a nice gentleman in a Sprinter van who went and retrieved them for us. But this would take 30 minutes. While waiting for our bins, we both hit the porta john. Neither one of us was successful.
Once our bins arrived, I opened it up to find that three sets of clothes were drenched ... WTF! Then I saw the crack in my lid. As if I did not already have challenges, yet here was another one. Fortunately I piecemealed some warmer gear. The night was supposed to drop into the 40's, so I put on a heavy wool base layer as well as leg warmers.
We spent 90 minutes at that TA.
Leg 5: Bike, 63 miles, 6/13 CP's
It was 5:30 pm when we left. The roads, which had been firm and dry were squishy, like riding on a wet sponge. My energy was good, my spirits had improved, and despite the course conditions, I felt almost invincible. It must have been the real food at the TA.
We collected the first few CP's with ease, but I was kind of surprised about CP30 (Jim Mike hill). It was really a hill, a solid 100m climb. When we hit the town of White Springs, we initially set out to get CP31A, but after seeing the first 200m, which was all underwater, we turned back and headed to CP37A. We made it to the low spot, searched a few minutes, couldn't find it, so Lisa said to go deeper. We climbed over and through a thick palmetto thicket and found it, about 25m deeper than the low spot.
From there we headed to CP37B. Since this one was a two-parter, you had to get both A and B to receive one CP credit. Easy enough and the trails were dry on this side (or so we thought) so we next picked up CP38A(pine at a wall of palm thickets). We approached this from the southwest, along an old abandoned road. We were having some difficulty finding a pine tree until Lisa pointed to one about 30 meters away, through some dense brush ... O Miss Eagle eyes!
CP38B was more difficult to find as the trail did not appear to line up with the map, most likely due to the flooding. As we were studying our map, Team Thisability rode by us, hot on the scent of CP38B. We followed them to where the trail just disappeared ... underwater. I was definitely not keen on getting wet tonight, as the temps were supposed to drop into the 40's. But the look in Lisa's eyes told me otherwise. We followed Thisability through the flooded trail and even forded a thigh deep creek crossing. Riding their wake of water, we nabbed the B portion. (Looking back at my Strava, we blew right by CP39A, but it might have proven just as difficult, given the flooding situation).
We decided to skip the other CP's in this area, as it was 11pm (2 hours behind schedule). We hopped on the Florida Trail, hit a side road that brought us back out to CR 246 to US441. We blew right by the turn onto Northeast Burlap; Lisa thought the sign read Bluebird. We back tracked and got back on course. As we were traveling down Northeast Molino, I started to see Lisa weaving on the bike. She said she was falling asleep. After struggling for a few miles, we stopped along the road to CP40A, she pulled out her puffy, and took a powernap right on the dirt road.
Twenty minutes later we nabbed the CP40A, but minutes later rode right past the retaining ponds. That was my fault. Lisa was still fighting the sleep monster and although I saw the body of water, I thought that it was a much smaller one that we should be looking for. We were 1.5 miles down the road when we discovered my mistake. Part of me wanted to say screw it, let's just get to the TA. But the competitor in me did not want all that energy spent in acquiring the A portion to go to waste. That mistake cost us 30 minutes.
Lisa had to stop 3 more times on the way to the TA, because of falling asleep. It was weird because it only happened while she was pedaling. Once she stopped and got off the bike, she was wide awake. We made it to the TA at 4 am. We decided to get some sleep here, after we ate some hot TA food and change into dry clothes. Apparently my stomach could "stomach" the real food better than what I brought. The volunteers were awesome at this hour, treating us like queens, smiling and laughing.
While I was waiting on my grilled cheese and egg sandwich, Hunter approached me and asked when we were gonna start the O-relay course. He also told us that we were currently in 3rd place! Shut the front door! What a morale boost. Had I known of my sleep dep superpower before this, I would have gone out and got a couple CP's while Lisa slept. But I told Hunter we were skipping the relay for a 2 hour sleep and needing to get back out on the next leg to make the future cut-offs.
The race-provided tents were all occupied so we took over the handicap stall of the bathroom, pulled out our bivies and used our packs as pillows. Lisa fell asleep immediately. Before I laid down, I made another attempt at having a bowel movement. Five minutes later and with enough grunting and straining to cause a brain aneurysm, out popped a small log, which I swear came out sideways! Now I have 3 days of 💩 I am carrying around. Thankful all my pants had stretchy waistbands 😂
I think I may have dozed off for a few minutes, but I got cold and woke up not soon after lying down. At the most I got 15 minutes. At this point, I should have gone out on the O-relay, but all my biking gear was wet. Fear of freezing to death on the next leg trumped more CP's, so I used the hand dryer in the bathroom to dry out my gear as well as my trekking shoes ... and eat some more, while Lisa power napped. We spent 3 hours 15 minutes at this TA.
Leg 6: O-relay, 0/6 CP's
Skipped
Leg 7: Bike, 50 miles, 3 CP's
We left the TA at 6:30 am. This next leg was pretty straightforward. Lisa's 1 hour 40 minutes of sleeping revived her and she was motoring down the spongy sandy roads. I was not quite as sparkly, but spirits were good as I was warm, dry, and well fed. And then we came to a low spot in the road that was flooded and no walk around. You have got to be freakin' kidding me! I saw a truck just up the road and prayed that it was heading this way because I was going to ask him for a ride across this ridiculousness. It turned off before it got to us, so I had to HTFU. It was knee deep and cold. At least the sun was out and we had bluebird skies, so it was not really too bad, other than my feet and blisters getting wet and staying that way for several hours.
We did enjoy 3 legit descents on this section; the kind where you can just stand and coast and say yipee! CP43 was a c-store near the town of Macclenney We did purchase some water as well as sunglasses for Lisa, as she had forgotten hers in the bin and some lip balm for me.
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| Getting ready to sport her new $3.00 shades |
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| Notice the difference in how we dressed. |
The roads through Macclenny and then CR 228 were dangerous. No shoulder and cars whipping past us at 60-70mph. Fortunately the wind was in our favor and we made quick work of this section. We arrived at TA #4 at 11:30am. The sun was out and it was warming up nicely. As I had left my light weight trekking pants in the paddle bag, Lisa let me borrow a pair of hers. The volunteers were cooking quesadillas, so we ate a couple while transitioning, and grabbed one to go. We laid out all our clothing and shoes to get as dry as possible before changing. I spent some time drying out my feet and taping my blisters, which were quite painful now. We spent an hour at this TA.
Leg 6: trek, 13 miles, 7/7 CP's
As I was preparing, I happened to see a couple of teams start their trek. They made their way down an embankment to WTF?!? A creek! They were holding their packs high above their heads as the water went up past their belly buttons. Another exasperated "You got to be freakin' kidding me!" moment. I had just taped my blisters and put on dry socks and shoes and you are telling me that I am going to get soaked within the first 10 meters of this trek! A volunteer mentioned that usually this creek is only shin deep, but what with all the rain Florida has been having ...
Lisa did manage to find a slightly shallower crossing. With my hiking poles to steady us, we forded the creek which was butt deep and ice cold! Cold plunges may be all the rage, but not 257 miles and 2+ days into an expedition race. I did take my socks off and once across, drained the water and sand out of my shoes. At least with dry socks, my feet were not soggy Sponge Bob wet. And going commando in Lisa's orienteering super lightweight pants made for a quick dry.
This trek was in Jennings State Forest, land that had topography! It was beautiful and the trails were in great shape. There was a lot of up and down, which hurt my feet, but the hiking poles helped to minimize the pain. We were yo-yo'ing with the Air Force Special Warfare team. Although they were running, Lisa's bushwhack skills kept us right on their tails, at a fast walk.
CP46 (turpentine stump) stumped us for 30 minutes before Lisa figured out that we had just not gone quite far enough. Would have been nice to know there was an actual sign for this one on the trail 😆. We nabbed all the others on this trek in a reasonable amount of time. Here is where I don't remember much, as halfway through this trek, my eyes had that 1000 yard stare. My mind went numb and along with that so did the pain. All I could think about was taking a nap at TA # 5.
We arrived at the TA at 5:30pm. I grabbed some PFD's and went to a soft grassy spot and lay down. I told Lisa to give me 30 minutes. After 15 minutes of just laying there, I realized sleep was not going to come. I went back to Lisa and finished preparing for the paddle.
Leg 7: Paddle, 24 miles, 7/8 CP's
We grabbed a newer canoe and drug it down to the river, actually called North Fork Black Creek. This was the same creek we had followed during the last trek. We were concerned about how narrow and swift the water was flowing, as well as all the obstacles present early on. But it had widened quite a bit by the time we put in.
The current was fast and we were like a rally car sliding through the corners. We enjoyed this free speed for a few miles, snaking our way through deadfall and half submerged logs. We then began seeing boat docks and huge houses to go with. The creek widened, the current slowed a little, but we didn't have to worry about running into downed trees anymore. The full moon was rising and there were parties happening at many of the houses. I could smell hamburgers and hear music playing. I also began to envision climbing into one of the larger boats, one that would definitely have a bedroom with a king size bed; I was definitely jonesing on the creature comforts.
We almost missed CP52 (boat ramp) as it was obscurely hidden amongst some deadfall. CP's 53 and 54 involved going up into backwater, but not far. Luckily for us, racers were coming out as we were headed in, reinforcing what we thought was the right area. Once we hit a confluence, we lost the current and were under our own power. The moon was so bright we didn't even need lights until we got close to a CP. I had several episodes of the yawns and my lizard brain kept nudging me to close my eyes for just a few minutes. Oh, hell, no! I would then reposition myself and focus on paddling harder. If I kerplunked over the side of the canoe, Lisa would make me swim the rest of the way.
We passed several canoes, with their occupants just sitting there doing nothing. We asked if they were ok, to which they responded they were just taking a break. For me, I never even thought of stopping. For one, I would get cold. And two, it is going to take just that much longer to get to the take out.
Team Thisability came blowing by us, paddling for all they were worth. We did some basic math and realized that there was no possible way we could finish the paddle by the 6 am cut off at TA6. Even Team Thisability was probably not gonna make it, as they couldn't possible keep up that pace for another 9 miles. We strategized and decided to go for all the points on the river, so that if we got short-coursed, we would at least have a shot of having a higher placement, than those who chose to go for TA6 and didn't make the cut-off. The short course option was to get off the river at mile 24, at a marina, just before the Black Creek emptied into St. John's River.
As we approached the marina, we pulled over to get clarification about the TA6 cut off. Lisa got a little heated when the volunteers would not answer her on the near side, but told us to paddle around to the take out side. I knew she thought this was costing us precious moments, in the off chance that the TA6 cut-off had been extended. But as we approached the boat ramp, they were telling everyone that this was a mandatory take out. Conditions in the St John's River were too dangerous to continue ... strong winds and white caps. We would all get a free shuttle ride over to TA6 with no penalty.
We were elated that we did not have to paddle another 8 miles. We jumped into a warm van and Hunter drove us over to the TA. That van ride was a moment of "having your cake and eating it, too." We arrived at the TA at 1:30 am.
We prepared for our last leg. The grilled cheese sandwich, chili, and hot chocolate gave me the urge I had been waiting 3 days for. I ran to the porta john and one of the best poops of my life! Not that I completely emptied, but enough that I no longer looked pregnant.
This was the coldest morning of the race, upper 30's/low 40's I believe. Both Lisa and I put all our layers on, including our puffy jackets. I slapped chemical warmers on all appendages and my chest. We headed out at 3 am.
Leg 8: Bike, 62 miles, 13/14 CP's
We were glad to be riding through the community of Silverleaf at this hour. We had the roads to ourselves. And this place looked like it would be heavily trafficked come sun up. It was quite surreal; millions of dollars of brand new real estate, yet not a soul in sight. All the roads, buildings, and residences looked perfect, like we had just come out of the wilderness and entered Utopia. This went on for 10 miles.
We were so set on getting to Guana River WMA that we blew past CP61. I should have said something sooner because I thought that there was another CP before we hit trails, but I didn't, until Lisa stopped before the bridge to get her bearings. We backtracked almost 2 miles to get it, but at least it was a quick pedal back. That bridge over the Tolomato River almost broke me, after riding so much flat. The quads were on fire!
Nabbing CP62 was the first time we had to take a bearing. Nothing like walking through 200 meters of dew soaked underbrush when it is 38 degrees to make you feel painfully alive ... and cold. It felt like the temperature had dropped 10 degrees from Utopia to the WMA. Despite all my clothing and chemical warmers I was shivering. But I knew daylight was fast approaching and with that, the sun's warmth.
We almost gave up on CP63 (highest point). There were many sets of eyes looking for this one and still no luck. If anything, the highest point may have been 12 inches higher than the surrounding land. Basically it all looked flat as a pancake. But Lisa's eagle eyes prevailed once again, and after about 30 minutes of getting nowhere, she found it!
I was giving Lisa time checks on the 1/2 hour. We wanted to make sure to give us a nice cushion to get to the finish. We opted not to get CP64, but headed down to CP65 (viewing tower). Of course, the CP would be at the top of the platform, 3 flights up. Legs were angry on that one!
CP66 looked difficult and most likely under water, so we were going to pass on that one, too. But lo and behold, we came upon a handmade sign that said to stay on trail to get to CP66. And then Hunter popped out from behind some palmettos, cheering us on. He said that the original placement of CP66 would have required a swim. So they moved it to the road we were on, which was still quite soupy, but rideable.
Despite having to ride through many mud bogs, we thoroughly enjoyed the single track and snagged the remaining CP's in the WMA. Lisa took one for the team when she waded through belly button deep water to get the one at the South Point.
From there we hopped on to the bike lane along A1A and rode 8 miles. With a strong tailwind and renewed vigor, we slayed that last section, cruising along at 17-18mph. The final CP was at Vilano Beach. While Lisa punched our passport one last time, I struggled at finding a quick method of filling the remainder of our bottle with sand.
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| Almost finished |
From there, it was one more giant bridge crossing over the intracoastal waterway, and then on into the finishing chute at the Southern Oaks Inn. We crossed the finish line at 10:38 am, 72:18:31 later. We captured first place in Open Women, and 5th place overall. We nabbed 56 CP's, 61 if you include the 2-parters, and got credit for 2 more (CP11 and CP 58), as did everyone else, for a grand total of 63. Total distance was 353 miles.
What an amazing adventure! This has been the hardest race I have ever done, and I have done a lot over the past 25 years. The first 24 hours I was in shock, but over the next 48 hours, my mind went to a place that I had not experienced before. I had several aches and pains that developed the first day (the nethers, foot blisters, shoulders from heavy ass pack, but somehow I was able to mute the pain over the next 2 days, despite those problem areas getting worse.
I also learned that my AR superpower is sleep deprivation. I only got 15 minutes and those were restless at best. I will definitely use this to my advantage in the future ... yes, I am hooked! As far as nutrition goes, I learned that eating at night does not bode well with me. I do better with taking in a solid 1000 calorie meal in the late evening and then "fasting" until daylight ... similar to how I eat in my daily life, although not that many calories.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Lisa, for asking me to be your team mate. While I felt like the caboose, you never once got frustrated with me. I went into this thinking I would be the one to pull the extra weight at the TA's, yet it was you, taking me under your wing, and assisting me with getting ready for the next leg in as timely a fashion as possible. Your patience was remarkable during the treks when I was on the struggle bus. Your navigational skills were exceptional, sniffing out the most difficult ones when other teams gave up. Your strength was undeniable, steering our canoe through rough waters. Had you raced this solo, there is no doubt in my mind that you would have been a challenger for the top spot overall. I could not have had a better team mate!
What David Goggins says about the 40% Rule, "When you mind tells you that you're exhausted, fried, and totally tapped out, you're really only 40 percent done," he's absolutely f*cking right!
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