Cerberus 3 Day Expedition Stage Race - Day 2

After a solid 5 1/2 hours of sleep, Lisa and I were ready for redemption. Morning temps were perfect at 50 degrees, with highs in the low to mid 70's. 

First off was the trek prologue at camp.  We crushed it and were first back to our bikes.  We headed out with the leading mixed teams just behind us. The pedal up Big Mack's was the biggest climb of the day ... on bikes. Surprisingly, after that 1 mile prologue sprint, my legs were opened up and it felt like we were flying up that climb.  It also helped that we had some some heavy hitters (Britt Mason and her team, the dynamic duo of Jesse Spangler and Andrea Larson, and  THE Mari Chandler, and her mixed team) hot on our heels.  The 5 CP's on the bike were relatively easy, especially with several teams on the look out for them.

We rode to the Allisonia boat ramp, where we had to disassemble our bikes and put them in the canoe for the 10 mile paddle on the New River down to the TA at Lowman Ferry Road. Having practiced this at Lisa's house last month, we were like an F1 pit crew and were the first team in the river.  Our lead did not last long as the mixed teams were just stronger and more skillful paddlers.  But we had not seen CheckPoint Zero and they were the team we needed to beat.  

There were 3 CP's on the paddle.  The first one I nabbed, but the remaining 2 were kinda tricky as they were on super steep technical terrain and very close to private property.  We made the decision to let Lisa out at CP 5-2 and then I would paddle around the point and pick her up at the re-entrant where she would come down through after nabbing CP 5-2 and CP 5-3.  She took the map, but gave me a Day 1 map with the same area.  However, I did not realize that the map I had did NOT have the paddle points on them.  Frack!  I knew the general area of the last paddle CP, but there were 2 re-entrants.  I picked the first one.  After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I started yelling her name.  Two other teams passed on by.  I asked if they had seen her up river (in case I paddled too far); they had not.  But then they made it to the correct re-entrant, where Lisa was waiting for me.  I finally heard her cry out my name.  It was as if I heard an angel calling my name.  I paddled over to the second re-entrant and there she be, a sight for sore eyes.  I was like a dog being reunited with its owner!

Reassembling the bikes.

Once we arrived at the TA we made quick work of getting our bikes off the canoe and back together.  We then headed out for the pedal back to Camp Powhatan. There was a mandatory crossing point at the top of Duncan Hill Lane.  We would be on private property for about 1 mile. There was also a CP here as well.  As we were traversing this area, we could hear a lot of screaming and cussing at the racers as they passed through.  I don't know if the property owner was just messing with us or truly pissed off, but we didn't want to hang around to find out.  But the map of the CP was at 1:35,000 and the trail was just a black smudge on the map.  We over ran the CP, going downhill, but corrected quickly, and found it.  It was much easier to see pedaling up a 15% grade as opposed to bombing down it.

After snagging the final bike CP back in the Boy Scout reservation, we pedaled on into the TA at the dining hall.  We dropped our bikes and headed out for the trekking rogaine. We had 5 hours to collect as many CP's as we could. But first we headed over to the string course and the climbing wall.  We did the string course first as the climbing wall was occupied.  This was a 1/2 mile obstacle course where you were zip-tied to a string and had to negotiate through trees, under fences, down steep embankments, through creeks, and over logs.  Being small was an advantage as some of the things we had to weave through and under were quite tight.

The climbing wall was pretty straight-forward.  We could belay each other or let the volunteer do it.  We opted to let the volunteer belay us as it was a better management of time. Then we headed off to get CP-R19.  Attacking from the south (as opposed from the North yesterday), Lisa had redemption #1 finding R20.  We continued North and R2 was quickly gotten, redemption #2.  Lisa was on fire!  

We headed up Shelby's Dream Trail, with its infinite number of switchbacks.  My glutes and quads were on fire and I had a hard time keeping up with Lisa.  She was a bloodhound and was hot on the scent of R12, R5, R8.  After R8, we began a bushwhack over to R3.  We overshot it; Lisa was having a hard time making heads or tails of North and South.  I believe her brain was low on glucose; she needed a ketone shot! We found it, working our way back up the spur.

Heading down Burke's Run, we nabbed R2 and R1. and then headed back to the dining hall to finish the day.  We finished with 23 minutes left on the clock.  Once again, we nabbed 26 CP's.  This put us first on the day.  We were now ahead of CheckPoint Zero with 52 points; they had 47.  We also managed to snag the QOM/KOM of the day (CP 4-1 to CP 4-2).

Day 2, although still hard, felt easier.  The shock and awe of yesterday was gone and my body had settled into that adventure racer rhythm.  I was very impressed with Lisa, as her body was firing on all cylinders.  I was doing all I could just to keep up.  It probably didn't help that I had raced a 2 day gravel race the weekend before and then played bikes in the week leading up to this event.  Hello, my name is Carey, and I am an addict 😂😂😂.

Today's numbers were once again 50 miles (10 paddle, 12 trek, 28 bike) and 5700 feet of gain (1/2 bike, 1/2 trek).

Dinner was chili.  I opted out and once again had chicken salad sandwiches and homemade cookies.  Although we were able to get to bed a bit earlier, the sleep just would not come and when it did, it was a toss and turny kinda night.  It felt like I was still on course.  But, it was still another 6 hours of rest.

All we had to do tomorrow was stay focused and finish.