Land Between The Lakes 12 Hour Adventure Race

I raced solo for this event, put on by 361 Adventures.  Temps were frigid at the start, by my standards. It was 36 degrees and the first leg was a paddle.  I made plenty sure I was going to be warm, as I wore wool long underwear, rain pants and jacket, with a trash bag over top, just to be sure.  I stuffed chemical warmers into my gloves and shoes.

Energy Lake

The paddle had 5 CP's.  Starting out on Energy Lake, the winds were pretty stiff, but the water was calm'ish.  After nabbing the first two, I headed out into the main channel, Lake Barkley.  The waters were very choppy and even with a stiff cross tailwind, it was still a challenge to paddle.  For CP3, I opted to skip an out/back paddle and instead make a 600 meter trek over to the point on Energy Lake.  On the way back, I was getting hot, so as to save some time while trekking, I removed my PFD and ripped off my garbage bag.  Unbeknownst to me I dropped my map.  When I finally realized my error, I had an 'Oh Shit!' moment. Fortunately I was able to backtrack and find it within 100 meters.

The remaining CP's were acquired without incident.  But boy, my tailbone was getting angry with all these miles on the water (11 to be exact).  I could have cut off 1 1/2 miles of paddling by portaging for 800 meters, but I knew that would ultimately destroy my legs.  Might have been a different story had I been on a team.

At TA1, I had a 10 minute transition for the next leg, a trek. This was the most difficult leg for me.  All maps were on a 1:24,000 scale.  While not a big deal for the paddle, because all the points were off-trail, my old eyes had a hard time reading all the itsy bitsy contour lines.  There were also trails on the map that were non-existent and trails I came across that were not on the map. I advocate for us peeps with old eyes that we get 1:12,000 or better 😁

CP 6 took me an hour (lost 30 minutes), as I wondered and wandered.  CP 7 took another hour (lost 40 minutes), and I almost gave up when Karen and Kristy (Chickpoints), who were in the 24 hour, helped me to find myself.  Once I nabbed it, I realized that I just had not gone far enough initially ... doh, just 75 meters away! CP 8 I thought was going to be easy, as there was a trail on the map on the opposite side of the road from where the point was.  Welp!  No trail!  Once again, burning daylight, I took over an hour to find this one as well.

There were 3 CP's left on the trek, but after having spent 4 hours on the first 3, I needed to get back to the S/F where TA2 was to begin the bike leg. 

TA2

After a short 8 minute transition, I was on my bike picking off the CP's in quick and methodical way.  I nabbed CP 12-17 in order and they were relatively easy, mostly visible from the road/trail. After CP17, I took a time check ... 5:58 pm.  I had 2 hours to grab any remaining ones and get back to the finish.  I had already been on the bike for 1:50.  So I opted not to grab CP 18, which was another 3-3 1/2 km north, but to start heading back and possibly get CP's 20-22, which were southwest.

CP 15 ... thank goodness it was NOT at the top

These remaining CP's were on the North-South mountain bike trail.  Finally some single track!  It was 6:24pm when I punched CP 20.  It was gonna be a definite nail-biter getting back to the finish by the 8pm cut off.  I had to bail on CP's 21 and 22.  These were cemeteries that I rode right by, but since the CP was not a punch, but involved answering questions regarding tombstones, I did NOT have the time to wander around the graveyard looking for the right answers ... meh!

Once I got back on the gravel, it was 7pm.  After 11 hours of effort, I now had to find energy to do a 9 mile time trial back to the finish ... on flat pedals!  I rode like a scalded dog and skidded across the finish line with 17 minutes to spare.  Probably could have found at least one cemetery CP answer ...

Somehow I managed the solo female win, and 6th overall.  It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.  Despite my mistakes and wandering more than I wanted to, I had a fantastic time playing in the woods.  Hopefully I learned a few things that will only help me to be a better navigator next time.

I ended up with 65 miles total (11 paddle, 15, trek, and 39 bike), and 6500 feet of elevation gain.

Thanks to 361 Adventures for a challenging and fun course.  And that post race potato bar was amaze-balls!