This year was the 24th edition of one of the longest running adventure races in the U.S. Jimmy the Greek gave it two thumbs up, so I entered into the solo category. It would be a great opportunity to work on my navigation skills ... hopefully one day they will be #LisaApproved. The course was within the Red River Gorge, a place I had never been to, but had heard it was stunningly beautiful. And the race director had been teasing us all week by posting amazing views and arches where the CP's would take us to.
It dumped rain the night before, but the morning brought warm temps (50 degrees) and abundant sunshine. Maps were handed out at 6 am, with the race to start at 7. That left me with about 45 minutes to read the course instructions and plot my route, as 15 minutes was spent back and forth to the bathroom. Apparently making race weight at the cabin did not fully happen.
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| One of many gorge vistas |
Leg 1 was a 5 mile bike TT on pavement to CP1. Leg 2 was a bike/trek to acquire 19 CP's. All the CP's were either on trails or a short bushwhack off trail, but no bikes were allowed on trails. Four CP's were just a short run on trails, right off the gravel road that ran atop the gorge. I quickly acquired those and then had to make a decision. Do I acquire the next 10 CP's on one big trek from either Water Stop #2 or near TA1, or break it up into 2 smaller treks with a bike in between? I decided on the latter for 2 reasons. The first being that I had rolled my ankle earlier in the week and sprained some ligaments in my foot. While 95% of the pain had resolved, I was concerned that one big trek might cause a flare up, whereas breaking it up by bike might give my foot a rest. The second reason was that one big trek was daunting to "newbie" me.
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| One of many creeks I had to cross; feet stayed wet most of the day. |
After grabbing those initial 4, I dropped my bike at the Red River Gorge TH and began trekking down the gorge to collect 4 CP's. These trails were gnarly! Rocky, rooty, and damn steep, I had to be careful of foot placement. It was also a little bit muddy and I did not want to end up busting my ass. I still motored along fairly quickly: all that trail time on the Cumberland Trail paid dividends. 2 of the CP's were at trail intersections, the third was up a stream, and the fourth was on a hill top. The only one that gave me pause was the hilltop, CP7; it seemed that the trail on the map was not quite in sync with real time. I only lost a few minutes finding it. From there it was a doozy of a climb out of the gorge and back up to my bike.
I then pedaled another 5 miles and dropped my bike at Koomer Ridge campground to nab CP10 at the Hidden Arch. The clue said the punch (no flag) was at the bottom of the stair case. Welp, I went ALL the way down the stair case and did not find it. I then back tracked UP the staircase and there she be, at the bottom of the first staircase 😠.
Another 3 miles on bike and then I dropped it at the Sheltowee Trace TH to go and get the remaining 5 CP's in this area. I nabbed CP12 first, another hilltop, backtracked along the Sheltowee Trace and then proceeded to get CP13, CP11, CP 14, and finally CP15 at Gray's Arch. There was a shit ton of ascending and descending to collect these, and my glutes were beginning to hate me.
Gray's Arch was by far my favorite CP. This arch was spectacular and I could tell it must have been one of the best ones to see, as noted by all the people here.
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| Gray's Arch |
While I was humping it back out of there, my head was mostly down, watching the technical trail. I smelled her before I saw her, like I was traveling through the beauty department at Macy's. The perfume emanating off her singed my nose hairs. When I looked up, my first thought was there was a high probability of a wardrobe malfunction. If those puppies were pushed any higher, they woulda rolled right out of her V-neck shirt. I was having a hard enough time on the trail with my Brooks Calderas and here she was with some sort of fancy boot with a 2 inch + sole! The yin and the yang crossed paths and she was the "boost" I needed to get back to my bike quickly, quietly laughing inside.
Reaching my bike, I quickly pedaled the short distance to TA1. At the start, Jim had said that I should leave TA1 no later than 3 pm, in order to finish the last trek, paddle, and then the 5k road run to the finish. It was now 2:30. There were 5 points to the NW of TA1, but seemed so far away. I did not want to take the chance to even to an out/back by bike to the first CP in that area. As I approached the TA, Jim and Susie were leaving.
I quickly transitioned, grabbing a hot dog, and then ran to catch up to the Farmer's. I reached them just as we were approaching the Sheltowee Trace Trail. They were moving as fast as I was, so I opted to hang with them during this trek (leg 3) to the paddle (leg 4) where we could get 3 CP's along the way. Many other teams seemed to be congregating along this corridor, so it was pretty easy to find the CP's.
It was a 1/2 mile pavement run to the paddle after knocking out those CP's along the Sheltowee Trace. I got in the water ahead of the Farmers and made my way to the first paddle point. The clue was spur edge, small cemetary and a Question: How old was Paul? Although I navigated perfectly to the point, upon getting out I was looking for a flag and a punch. I did see a metal marker on a steel post indicating Paul's name, it did not register that was it. So I spent 5 minutes trudging around in that area looking for a flag/punch. Finally Jim and another racer found it and confirmed that all I needed was his age, which indeed was on that marker, if only I had stopped, took a big breath, and read it in its entirety. Dumb brain!
Fortunately the remaining 8 CP's were a bit more straight forward, but acquiring all of them required getting out of the kayak and trekking up some pretty steep re entrants, slogging through muddy creeks, and crawling on all 4's up to an escarpment, traversing a 45-60 degree hillside to nab another, and then butt sliding all the way back down to the lake.
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| Sketchy AF climb up to paddle point 3 |
I was grateful to be in company of giants. Even though Jim was nav'ing, I was also looking at my map and matching up the spurs and re entrants as we went. It was good to see that I was headed in the right direction; I was just able to knock out those 2 cliff side points faster with the Farmers. As I finished collecting my last CP, I passed a female racer headed up to it as I was headed back down. It did not even register to me that she was solo. As I got back into my canoe, Jim called out that I had better "bust a move" to get back to the kayak take out and then run like a scalded dog to the finish.
I had no idea how many CP's she had collected, but I told myself that we were "even steven" so it was a foot race to the finish. Fortunately, the final 5k was a slight downhill run on pavement, but damn were my feet getting angry on that hard asphalt. So many times, my lizard brain telling me it would be ok to just walk. Every time that thought flickered, I picked up the pace. It also helped that I had many carrots ahead, all of whom were walking.
I hit the finish line with 52 minutes to spare. That final run was mostly in the dark. I was glad I had not attempted those 5 most northern CP's, as that could have meant a dark paddle. And especially those 2 cliff base points would have made for a pretty sketchy trek. After everyone returned and CP's were tallied, I did end up with the win in the solo women's field and an overall placement of 14/35 teams.
With darkness upon, the temps began to fall. I quickly changed out of my soggy shoes and damp clothing, and made my way over to the food line at Hop's. Hop's is a farm to table restaurant in the gorge. While waiting, the wave of fatigue hit me all at once and I got light-headed. Oh please, oh please, don't let me faint in front of my fellow racers. Fortunately I went into a deep squat and instantly felt much better.
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| Sweet potato curry, amazing post race comfort food! |
I also give this race 2 thumbs up. It was a low key event with a grassroots feel (my fave!), the volunteers were wonderful, and the schwag and meal was most excellent! The way the course was laid out gave you many options at choosing your adventure. Having slept and replaced my calorie deficit, I could have had a better route. I should have nabbed those most northern 5 CP's (1 bike, 4 trek) instead of dropping my bike near TA1 and going after CP11-15. Studying the maps post race, I probably could have gotten all 5 up North and then went back and grabbed CP 12 and 13 along the rim of the gorge in the same amount of time I acquired CP11-15, just do to the harshness of the terrain.
But this is just one more amazing aspect to adventure racing: being able to debrief with others as well as your inner self about route choice. And if you know me, I just love looking at maps ... all ... day ... long!
And one step closer to becoming a master at this nav thing. But I probably have another thousand steps to go 😄😄😄
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