Cereberus Expedition Stage Race - Day 3

40 miles, 4500 feet

8 mile trek, 8 mile bike, 1 mile trek, 7 mile bike, 6 mile paddle, 10 mile bike

5 am wake-up, 5:05 am scare as I looked into the mirror seeing someone who looked like they lost a boxing match, 5:10 am coffee feeling some life come back into this battered and bruised body, and the best breakfast ever at 5:45 am ... corned beef hash! Although it may look like dog food, it tastes like heaven!

Today's leg started off with taking 3 bearings from the start: 110m @ 60 degrees, 260m @ 180 degrees, and 300m @ 305 degrees.  There were 12 maps at each location and 31 teams, so choose wisely based on running speeds. We took off on the 60 degree bearing, which involved crossing Craig Creek.  Wet feet, nice way to start the day.

The first leg was a bike to the Lignite Mines.  At the first CP, we would receive a secret map, that we would need to get the next CP's 7-3 through 7-6.. At the CP, race director Mark Lattanzi's long lost identical twin, with a Irish accent?? was there handing out the "treasure" map.

Cute, real cute.  There was about 10 minutes of reading through the jibber jabber to get to the important stuff, like where the CP's were. After nabbing CP 7-2, we made our way to the mine, dropping our bikes and proceeding on foot to acquire the 4 CP's from the treasure map. CP 7-4 had us scrambling up a steep red earthern almost cliff-like hillside. CP 7-5 was pretty cool and I had to scramble down into a cave about 10 m to punch. The last one was a butt slide down into a pit and then a crawl back out of.

We ran back to the bikes and pedaled to the TA where we transitioned to our pack raft.  No near CP misses today! This paddle was 6 miles which allowed us to stay ahead of the top teams.   They didn't catch us until the take out.  

The next leg was a trek in the Craig Creek Recreation Area.  I did not realize just how fatigued I was until Lisa shot straight up a 40% grade to attack CP 9-1.  I looked for my book of matches, but found it empty.  I was definitely on the struggle bus, grabbing saplings as I could to help me up the mountain.

Despite how slow I felt, we were still able to catch Pretty Reckless, the leading women's team of 4, which included some heavy hitters:  Mari Chandler, Kit Vreeland, Abby Perkiss, and Ashley Eaton.  We slowly pulled away from them after nabbing CP 9-2.  Heading towards the next one, we ended up running with Sojourners, the #2 coed team.  Every time we came upon another team, Lisa managed to pick up the pace even more.  Good Lord, she's trying to kill me!  

The biggest issue was the gut bomb I had.  Nothing like running with a sloshy GI tract.  I was probably also a little dehydrated and my BeFree filter was not playing nice.  Eventually I just took a chance and drank the water unfiltered.

After a few more steep ups and downs, we nabbed the final CP (thank God!) and ran back to the TA.  Now to just get back to the finish by bike with only 1 CP left. Despite how terrible I felt on foot, I did not feel bad at all on the bike.  It was mostly a flat pedal back on pavement and rail-trail.  But Lisa did manage to put the final nail in my coffin by having us bikewhack up to the rail trail ... oomph!

We arrived back at the Wilderness Adventure Center at 2:37pm. We were the 4th team back, behind Enabled Tracking, No Complaints, and Chip Dodd.  

We ended up finishing second in Women's and 7th overall.  The top 6 teams had cleared the course.  While we were definitely disappointed not clearing the course, we were stoked about our overall time of 25:21, the third fastest.  We feel we have a good shot at being a podium contender at AR Nationals this October in Oregon.  Especially with Susie on our team and our secret weapon, the Super Yooper.

I want to give a shout out to Lisa.  She has sharpened her nav skills over the past year.  I was very impressed how fast she could nav on the fly this year.  We were always moving, having very little down time. 7 minutes on Day 1, 8 minutes on Day 2, and 15 minutes on Day 3, of which 8 of those was reading the jibber jabber map.  And the TA Nazi Lisa is, our transition times were close to lightning fast.

Cerberus 3 Day Expedition Stage Race - Day 2

 

35 miles, 4500 feet

12 mile paddle, 18 mile bike, 5 mile night-O trek

5 am came earlier than I wanted it to.  Coffee at 5:05 am made the tired and somewhat sore awakening bearable.  Once again we were provided with a hearty breakfast:  I chose the eggs and oatmeal. 

At 7 am the games began.  Our maps for the day were at 2 different locations:  the pavilion and the gazebo.  Lisa made the longer run to the pavilion, while I walked to the gazebo. All team members had to be back at the start/finish before we could start blowing up our packrafts. We were one of the first teams in Craig Creek.  The first leg was a 12 mile paddle.  Since I had gotten chilly during yesterday's paddle (when it was 68 degrees), I threw on a heavy wool base layer, rain jacket, buff, and chemical warmers in my heavy weight gloves. Today's starting temperature was 50 degrees.

Although the creek during this section was deeper, it was still agonizingly slow.  15 minutes into our paddle, we began to hear the MRS Barracudas bearing down upon us in our Kokopelli sausage of a pack raft. Although we are not the strongest nor most technically skilled paddlers, we were getting our doors blown off by teams even less skilled than us. I could smell the smoke coming out of Lisa's ears. 

No less than 8 teams passed us during the 3 hours 50 minutes we spent paddling "The Slug," There were still an annoyingly amount of times we either had to butt skooch the raft across rocks or get out and walk for a bit.  But there was one Class 2 rapid towards the end that upped the fun factor of this leg.  

We came close to repeating yesterday's tragedy by almost paddling on by CP 4-3 ... Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! 

Taking out at the TA, we made quick work of packing up our rafts and gear and loading them onto the box truck. Once on our bikes, we turned the afterburners on!  The bike points took us up Bald Mountain, a 6 mile 2500 foot climb.  In the pre-race briefing, we were told that there would be a KOM/QOM award for the fastest time up Bald. And we were looking for a little redemption from yesterday's fiasco.  After nabbing the first CP on this climb, I stopped to take off my base layer as I was now getting hot!  Continuing powering up the climb, I realized that if they started the "clock" at the first CP, I wasted 45 seconds of stopped time.  I hoped this would not come back to bite us.

This climb is our jam!  With a nice steady average grade of 8% and smooth gravel, we were able to get into a good rhythm.  CP 5-2 took a little searching and CP 5-3 was tucked away in a boulder field.  It was a 30m scramble down and back up, using 3 points of contact. Fortunately there was a team just ahead of us that found it, allowing us to nab it quickly.  From there it was a furiously fast descent down to CP 5-4.  This one was rather tricky as the old roadbed was very faint.  Once again, lady luck was with us, as several teams had dropped their bikes to go get it.

One last CP at a cemetery and then it was a short bike back to the finish. We rolled in at 1:10 pm. Despite our slow ass packraft, we managed to only lose a few minutes to the top teams that so far had cleared the course.

Although the day was done, we still had a Night O course that would begin at 8 pm.  We went into recovery mode, eating lunch, squeezing our legs, and taking a short nap.  Dinner was some of the best damn chili I have had, with ALL the fixin's.  Followed by banana pudding.  

At 7 pm, the race directors gave out awards for the fastest paddle and the KOM/QOM.  Enabled Tracking won the paddle award.  For the KOM/QOM, No Complaints had a time of 70 minutes, Enabled Tracking was 64 minutes, and we took the W with a winning time of 58 minutes!  Hell yeah!  We received a mountain feedbag, a tow rope, and the best prize of all was a friendship bracelet, with the words "Queen of the Mountain," made by the race director's son.  That was so very cool!

The Night-O began at 8 pm with teams going off in 1 minute increments.  We started at 8:07, just behind No Complaints. Light was fading fast, but we were going even faster!  I think I tasted my chili more than once as we flew past No Complaints going after the 2nd CP.  Lisa was on point, smelling those CP's like a bloodhound on the trail of a killer. We did have a little hiccup looking for CP 6-10, managing to be one spur over.  This allowed Enabled Tracking to catch up to us, they having started 2 minutes behind us.  

From that point on, we were pretty much running with Enabled Tracking.  Not wanting to be "dick-ettes" and follow them, as they were taking the same route as we were, we tried to press ahead, but they were on point as well ... and fast!  I really don't know what the proper adventure racing etiquette is for this kind of situation, but neither one of us could shake the other.

From CP 6-5 to CP 6-7, we took the "low road," which meant grabbing onto the rocky cliff-face whilst submerging our lower halves in Craig Creek.  That was kinda fun, not knowing if we could make it around the cliff face without going for a swim.  Lisa led the way and fortunately I never saw her take a step in the creek and disappear.

After nabbing the final CP, it was a foot race back to the finish.  My wad was completely blown, as this night O was pretty stiff in the steep climbs/descents department (1400 feet in 5 miles).  We finished on the heels of Enabled Tracking in 1 hour 35 minutes.  But since they started after us, their finishing time was 1 hour 32 minutes.

We were still 1 CP down from the top 6 teams, but time wise we were the fastest team at 17:46.  Enabled Tracking had a total time of 17:50. 

We need a strategic Day 3 if we hoped at all to get back into the game.

Cerberus 3 Day Expedition Stage Race - Day 0 and Day 1

 

44 miles, 6000 feet

8 mile trek, 7 mile bike-O, 21 mile bike, 1 mile packraft trek, 6 mile paddle, 1 mile packraft trek

After having participated in last year's inaugural event and having a really good time, Lisa Randall and I were back for more punishment ... err, FUn.  This year it was taking place near New Castle, Virginia, in the heart of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest.  The host site was the Wilderness Adventure Camp at Eagle's Landing.  Lisa and I stayed in a room in the Sly Lodge.  The accommodations were a huge improvement over last year ... real beds and no dead critters to sweep up.

Having received the schematics back in March, being the planner I am, I started throwing things into my AR bin 2 months ago.  By May 1, I forgot what all I had packed, so I dumped my shit out and made sure I had everything I would need, again ... and I do tend to pack my fears (ALL my winter clothing)!  Fortunately, Mother Nature played nice, so I wouldn't have to worry about becoming a popsicle.

Day 0 involved checking in, getting Day 1 maps, and competing in 3 summer camp style games to determine which leg the team would start on Day 1.  We fared well in the ball toss, frisbee golf, and bow and arrow and ended up with our first leg choice on Friday, the trek.

Since we were one of the first arrivals, once we unpacked, Lisa had plenty of time to plot our route for Day 1.  The pre-race meeting did not start until 9pm, so we ate, got our gear ready, and were in bed by 10pm.

Day 1

Wake up at 5am, coffee at 5:05am, breakfast at 5:45am, and go time at 7 am.  This was the chilliest morning at 48 degrees, which is why we opted to trek first, as opposed to the bike/paddle leg or the on site climb, string, outer space leg.  We needed to get the blood warm quickly.

Right out of the gate, I had to light a match.  Lisa was Jesse Spangler'ing it up the road to the first CP.  Of course the first 2 CP's would be hilltops.  Nothing like seeing my HR hit threshold within the first 10 minutes.  After the second CP, Lisa dropped back down to the road.  Other teams kept on trekking through the woods on a NW bearing. I assumed they were just contouring down to the road. And Lisa does not contour; it is straight up or down with her. But then Lisa let out an expletive as we hit the road; she had forgotten the one back up on the saddle. So we had to go back up a 20% grade to get that one. Lisa outran her coverage 😆😆😆on that one.  

The remaining CP's we nabbed without issue and ran back to camp.  We hopped on our bikes and made our way over to the climbing wall.  Only one member of the team had to do the wall, so while Lisa knocked that task out, I took a breather.  The next "task" was the string course, where we were zip-tied to a string that was strung out through the woods for about 1/2 mile.  We had to go around trees, over trees, under trees, through a spiderweb of more string, tight squeezes between trees (glad we are small people), underneath platforms, and then back to the finish.  It was about a 12 minute effort.

String course through the string spiderweb

Then we were onto the Bike-O course on the Outer Space Trail.  Some sweet single track through the WAC property, with a brief stop at Raider Bridge, where we were hooked up to a 5-point harness and then had to walk across a ravine on an 18" wide, 75 foot springy suspension bridge that had no hand railings.  Each team got a safety briefing which made Lisa's eye twitch ... a precious 60 seconds lost listening to the instructor.  For me, it was another chance to breathe and recover a little.

The last leg was a bike/paddle section.  Leaving the Wilderness Adventure Center on bikes, we had to ford Craig Creek, which was about knee deep.  We forgot to punch the CP on the near side, so I had to go back through the creek and nab it.  Climbing up Caldwell Mountain Road, we passed No Complaints, who we had been yo-yo-'ing with all morning.  We nabbed the CP at the top and then hopped onto a decommissioned forest road.  We contoured along the mountain for awhile before dropping down into a re-entrant and began the bike whack along a creek, as there was no trail.  At least it was downhill.  CP 2-3A (edge of pool below cascade) was a tricky one.  Water levels were low and at times the "trail" veered away slightly from the creek.  Even with my "speedo" tickking off the meters traveled, we still managed to go right past the CP.  This cost us 18 minutes, as we dropped our bikes at the bottom and then trekked back up, along the creek, and finally found the damn flag, tucked way down into the creek.

Next up was the Ferrier Trail, a 5 mile black diamond trail.  It was a very steep, side-cut, half-track climb, followed by a spicy descent. We passed No Complaints ... again, and enjoyed the descent back down to the town of New Castle.

We dropped our bikes at the TA, grabbed our paddle gear, and made a 1/4 mile trek to the put in at John's Creek.  You have got to be kidding me!  The creek level was 3-6 effing inches! We ended up slip sliding through the creek while dragging the boat for a solid mile before the water was deep enough where we could paddle.  Lisa was managing way better than I, as I managed to pull a hamstring and jack my back making my way through the slippery ass river rocks.

Our only job was to get 2 CP's along this 6 mile paddle/pack-raft-whack.  How we managed to paddle right on by CP 2-7 still befuddles me to this day.  I can only surmise that we just didn't see the "island" where the CP was, probably because water was not running on the right side of it due to low water levels. We did not discover our mistake until we were too far down river to do any sort of back tracking. So frustrating and disappointing.  We paddled on and got CP 2-8, where we pulled out, and then hiked our pack raft and gear about 1km through the WAC property to the finish.

At day's end, we were 2nd place female team and 7th overall.  But on the bright side, we were the 2nd fastest team on the day (10:07), only 1 minute behind No Complaints. And there were still 2 more days of racing. 

Now I only had to exorcise the squirrely Jesse Spangler demon from Lisa to help keep us on track over the next 2 days 😁

CP 2-3A  sneaky little bastard, gotcha!