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!

Cerberus 3 Day Expedition Stage Race - Day 3

Mack Creek

After a fitful night of sleep, I awoke with a mild bike hangover.  Nothing that a 20 ounce mug of Christopher Bean coffee couldn't fix.  I had brought my electric kettle and so was able to heat up water for both Lisa's and my french press.  The smell of coffee permeated the dank air of our cabin and made our bunkmates jealous, as they awaited the opening of the dining hall at 6 am and their Sysco-branded coffee.

While Lisa partook of scrambled egg whites in a carton and well done bacon, I finished off my farm fresh hard boiled eggs and home made chocolate chip banana bread.  Although breakfasts and dinners were included with our sign up fee, it was a little lackluster.  

The forecast for today had been rain showers, but fortunately they rolled through last night.  And some heavy ones at that.  Although the terrain would be wet and potentially sloppy, the skies were blue and the forecast was low to mid-70's once again. This morning was just a bit chillier and with almost 24 hours of racing under my belt, I was chilled at the start.  So I opted to wear my rain jacket.

Stage 3 started out with another 2 CP trek prologue at camp.  Lisa and I were first out of the gate, but did not realize there were 2 bridges crossing the creek.  We took the one that cost us just enough time for about 3-4 teams to jump ahead of us on the steep climb up to C-1.  We managed to scramble up the cliff face and get around a couple of them, punch the CP and then butt slide our way down to C-2.  This one was in the middle of a creek.  I don't know why I spent so much time/energy drying my gear, as each day and at each TA, we would immediately get soaking wet.  I am surprised that through it all, our feet remained happy and healthy.

The dining hall that served as a TA and the Start/Finish 

We were the 4th team to arrive at the TA (dining hall) .  I stuffed my jacket into my pack and changed into my cycling shoes.  Then we were off down the gravel road.  I shifted down ... and nothing happened.  Again, nothing.  AXS battery was dead.  I could have  kicked myself as the night before the thought about recharging it, but did not.  I called out to Lisa to stop.  I quickly took my battery from my dropper and replaced the one on my derailleur.  

All was good again, except a number of teams passed us.  But on the climb up Greenwood, we quickly passed many a team and were once again up with the top mixed teams. Lisa informed me of her mechanical, which was a broken Boa on her shoe. Since I was the CP gopher and we only had 2 on this bike leg, we decided we would duct tape her shoe once we finished the O course.

We were the 2nd team to  arrive at the Ottari O course.  11 CP's, in order.  And once you missed one, you were done and could not proceed collecting any more. 

Lightning Lisa continued her CP quest and we were nailing each one. However O4 had pink flagging under the incorrect building.  So while we were searching all the nooks and crannies of that building for the punch, two mixed teams caught up to us.  But they did see the punch on the building next to the one that we were searching.

From there we all kinda teamed up for O5-O10. Here I was, a newbie to the sport, and running alongside THE Mari Chandler.  She even offered me a swig of her Mountain Dew, which I gladly accepted.

Once at the lake, we split ways.  We went CCW around the lake while the other 2 teams went CW. I elected to do the 30 yard swim to the platform to get the final point.

Killing 2 birds with one stone ... nabbing the CP and ?? (hint: made a warm spot)

Once back at the TA, I went to fill bottles while Lisa worked on her shoe.  Mari's and Britt's team had already taken off.  We took the higher North Ridge route.  There were 3 high points and CP 8-3 was at the 3rd high point. We eventually caught up to Mari's team and saw where Britt's team dropped their bikes at the 2nd high point ... whoopsie!  After nabbing 8-3, the road/trail conditions slowly got worse with a infinite number of downed trees, some we could hop and others we could not.  The trails in the boy scout camp reminded me of Pisgah: steep and technical.  I was definitely getting my cyclocross practice in.  Finally we started to descend, but unfortunately I had a nonfunctioning dropper, having taken that battery to keep my derailleur functioning.  The descent was very similar to Cantrell Creek in Pisgah, only steeper. Lisa was having a good time shredding this section, while I was being conservative.  I did not want our day to end here with a crash or bike mechanical.  

So many derailleur demons during this 7 mile, 2 hour section, my patience was getting tested.  I may have thrown out a cussing rant or two. On the final descent, I heard someone behind me.  Turning around it was Jesse and Andrea.  WTF?  I thought they were ahead of us.  Jesse said that they had mis plotted the corrected O7 at the O course, so it took awhile for them to find it. We collected 8-4 together.  Man those two are like deer running through the woods. From there we hit the gravel road and made our way over to Lowman's Ferry Road to start our paddle, nabbing the final bike CP on the way

There was a gas station at the paddle TA.  As we were approaching, I hesitantly asked, begged, to be allowed to go in the store and fill our bottles, as opposed to filtering from the river.  Being the Transition Nazi she is, barked back, "As long as it doesn't take forever."  Oh, she's a hard one 😥. I managed to hit the solitary bathroom just before a couple of teams also stepped in  to fill bottles.  So I filled quickly, pee'd quickly, and then bought us an ice cold Coke.  Nazi Lisa became Mother Teresa Lisa once she saw that Coke.

I took off my pack and reached to get my rain jacket.  I wanted to wear this as I had gotten shivering cold on yesterday's paddle.  But the zippered compartment was wide open and my jacket was gone.  F*ck me!  I think I was more concerned about losing a $200 jacket than getting cold.  I quickly pushed those negative thoughts from my mind and got our gear ready to paddle.  This paddle was on Claytor Lake and their were 5 CP's. 

We were the second ones, of the leading teams, to start the paddle.  Jesse and Andrea were no where in sight.  I was the gopher for these CP's, all of which required exiting the canoe and going for a short trek.  Having witnessed just how skillfully tricky Mark Lattanzi was in placing these CP's (think nooks and crannies, not hanging where they are clearly visible), I made sure to walk with purpose and have my head on a swivel.

CP 9-4

Going after the 9-4, I felt like I needed a tetanus shot.  I had to make my way through muddy muck and find which rust bucket had the hidden flag. CP 9-3 was the trickiest, as there were multiple downed trees in the re-entrant.  When I came to the first tree, I did not see it, so I started making my way up the re-entrant to the second tree.  But something told me to turn around and look back.  Sure enough, the baby flag was hidden amongst a bunch of brush that had gathered up against the fallen tree.

Once we nabbed the first 3, we turned around and were met with a brutal headwind.  It was so strong it was interfering with my paddle stroke.  And I started shivering. For 4 miles we fought our way back to the TA, nabbing the remaining 2. Once I saw the bridge, signifying where the TA was, I was able to stroke it up a notch.  

I was a shivering mess once we reached land.  And my legs did not want to work.  But I was smelling the barn.  All we had left was a 5 mile pedal back to camp, no more CP's. Once we hit the climb on Julia Simpkins Road, I found more watts.  By the time we had crested the hill, I was warm again.  Even though we had first place in the bag, "racers will race."  We emptied the tanks those last miles, passing several teams, who had not cleared the course, on our way back to Camp Powhatan.

We arrived at the finish with 2 hours to spare.  With another 26 CP's collected today (26 must be our lucky #), we secured first in the women's division (78 CP's total), and 6th overall.  Today's totals were 42 miles (10 paddle, 7 trek, and 25 bike) and 6300 feet of gain.  And my $$$ rain jacket was awaiting me at the lost and found ... another victory!

No teams cleared the course.  Britt's team won the overall with 85 CP's; Andrea and Jesse came in second with 84, and Mari's team came in fourth with 81. The podium prizes were a hodge podge of goodies, including a rain kilt and a 1/5 of moonshine.

For its first year, this was a well run and organized event.  It was also frigging hard, which is great!  The trekking rogaine was the hardest discipline due to its vastness, the technical terrain, and the tricky off trail points.  The single track was very technical in the camp.  I just wish that some trail maintenance could have been done prior; the boy scouts take care of that once their summer camps kick off.

Although the food was mediocre, except for the final meal, a taco bar and ice cream, which was amazing and the bus hiccup on Day 1, I give this race 5 stars!  I don't come for the food and the additional 3 mile trek was icing on the AR cake.  

I want to thank Mike and Mark for a FUn 3 days of putting our bodies and Lisa's mind to the ultimate test of durability and resilience.  

Race HQ with grandmaster Mike Lattanzi at the helm

I want to thank Lisa for once again pushing us to victory.  I just wanted to point it out that initially on the drive up, we were just gonna focus on our division.  She specifically said, "So many big hitters coming that we needn't pay the other divisions any mind."  Well, that quickly went out the window on Day 1 when we were up there with the best.  And so, despite her initial ho-hum nature towards the other divisions,  she was "balls to the wall" ... the ... entire ... time.  Just one of the many attributes I love about her; I can now say that after a week of recovery.  During the race, if you had asked me, it might be a different story 😄. 

As the mighty Cerberus retreats to his place at the gates of Hades his anger grows. These souls came too close to securing a clear course back to earth. He is reminded of his solemn duty: no mercy to those who wish to escape from this realm. 

And so he plots. Studies. Trains.

Committed to redouble his efforts to protect the Underworld.

The Cerberus will return.

                                   Put this one on your calender for next year:  May 1-3, 2026

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.

Cerberus 3 Day Expedition Stage Race - Day 0 and 1

 

After having done PMBAR 2 years in a row with Lisa, we wanted something different.  I happened upon this adventure race while doom scrolling on FaceBook last fall.  3 stages, each 12 hours long, and sleeps in between ... sign us up! The race was staged out of Camp Powhatan BSA, located south of Claytor Lake in BFE Virginia.

Day 0

We arrived Thursday afternoon and checked into our cabin.  Pretty much as I thought ... dark, dank, and with leaves, mouse poop, and a few dead critters on the cabin floor.  I quickly took the broom that was in the corner and tidied up. There were 3 rooms in the cabin and we were sharing a room with a 3 person female team.  Fortunately, we had one side that had 2 bunk beds so that we both could sleep on the bottom.  We wiped down the plastic covered 2 inch mattresses and then put our own linens on the bottom and our gear on the top. The bath house was within a short walk.

While waiting for the official check-in, we prepped our gear and bikes.  Lots of decisions on what to pack based on the race schematic. Most of those decisions had already been made in the weeks leading up to the event, as both Lisa and I are planning demons.

Upon checking in, we were told that the Day 1 prologue was not going to be a trek at the start, due to a bridge out.  Instead we got to pair up with another 2 person team and play carnival games, which we are not very good at:  ball toss, frisbee golf, and hula hoop toss.  For each game you won, you scored a point.  We ended up winning one and losing two, which gave us a 10 minute time penalty on Day 1.  Once we finished the silly games, we were given our maps.  

We also had to transport our bikes down to the Allisonia boat ramp that evening. So while I drove the 30 minutes to the boat ramp, Lisa began plotting our route.

By the time we had packed our gear, taken our paddle bags to the box truck, and dropped off our bikes at the boat ramp, it was close to 9 pm. We were in bed with the alarm set for 5:30 am, but our cabin mates were not as efficient or as quiet as us, so sleeps did not come until around 10 pm and then were interrupted with the sound of others: talking, snoring, gear prepping.  

Day 1

Motorcoaches were gonna drive us to the start.  However, they could not negotiate the tight twisty gravel road and the multiple extremely narrow bridges leading to camp.  So we got to walk the 3 miles to where they could pick us up.  Just a small hiccup in the race's first year.  This also delayed the start by an hour.

3 mile trek to the bus

With our 10 minute penalty, our start time was 9:14 am.  We had a 1/4 mile run to the canoes.  The paddle was on the Big Reed Island Creek.  What with not much rain leading up to the race, the 12 mile paddle ended up being a "canoe-cross."  The creek was low and there seemed like a bajillion places where we had to get out and drag our canoe across the rocks.  Since we were both small, we at least could make it over more sections than most.  There was only one tricky rapid, where a canoe ahead of us flipped.  They got out of the way just in time as we hit it cleanly.

I was the CP gopher and hopped out to snag them.  The first 3 were on the creek and the last 3 were along the New River Trail.  For those, I hopped out and ran the trail to punch them, while Lisa paddled to the take-out.

CP # 1-6

At the Allisonia Boat Ramp, we quickly transitioned to bikes.  As I loaded our paddle gear in the box truck, I counted only 6 other paddle bags.  We had made up a lot of ground in our weakest discipline! There were 4 CP's in the small Hoover Mountain Bike Area.  What with all the access roads and trail intersections, it made navigation a little tricky. 2-1 was an SOB as we had to scramble through a huge pile of boulders the size of Mini Coopers, trying not to break a leg as we searched every nook and cranny for that damn orange/white flag.  Once out of the MTB park we continued on the New River Trail. 2-5 was at the end of a peninsula on the New River.  We dropped our bikes and ran out to the peninsula in energy-sapping sand.  Once we found it, we then decided to ford the creek (as it wasn't over our heads as we thought it might be). As we were halfway across the creek, my old foggy brain couldn't remember if I had punched it or not.  To be sure I trudged my way back through the shoe-sucking mud and punched it ... again.  

New River Rail Trail

The remaining CP's on the bike were pretty straight forward and we managed to nab them without too much wandering.  However, what really burnt a lot of matches was the bike-whacking climb up Chimney Mountain along a re-entrant.  Think 1/2 mile with pitches of 30% through thickets of rhododendron. It was a 20 minute push of death.  By the time we reached the top, our lungs were screaming and our hearts were beating out of our chests.  This extreme effort caused Lisa to go right instead of left.  She quickly regained her sense of direction once the oxygen hit her brain again and we corrected quickly.

From there it was a mostly downhill pedal back to Camp Powhatan that was serving as TA2. After a quick transition where I beat Lisa ... finally 😄, we headed out on the trek.  We had 4 hours remaining. It was a rogaine.  There were 24 CP's.  We could get a max of 14 today.  Then tomorrow we had the remaining to go after. This section was extremely difficult as there was no clear right way to pick them up.  They were either at high points or low points, so it seemed.  And the elevation  ranged from 2000 to 3200 feet; these hills were steep AF! R9, R24, R18, R16, R22, and R21we nabbed within 2 hours. I've got to hand it it Lisa, she was spot on through here. I was a hurtin' buckaroo trying to keep up with her on the steeps.

Unfortunately, we spent 90 minutes looking for R4 and R20 and came up empty handed. Lisa was pretty frustrated, but I was trying to keep her spirits up.  If only I had her experience and mad nav skills, I could have been a better partner.  She was burning calories not only physically, but mentally as well, like a master chess player. 

We hoofed it back it with 18 minutes to spare.  This put us in 2nd place with 26 checkpoints, and just 1 checkpoint behind the 4 person female team CheckPoint Zero.  

Day 1 was a shock to my system.  We paddled 12 miles, biked 28 miles, and trekked 10 miles with 5000 feet of elevation gain, with the majority of that on the trek. The course was physically hard, what with the steep terrain of Appalachia.  Most of the trek was bushwhacking, either straight up/down or off-camber side cutting hills.

I consumed at least 1000 calories at dinner.  Unfortunately the only thing I could eat that the kitchen staff cooked was green beans.  But I had a hearty supply of chicken salad,  GF bread, and home made protein powder cookies in my cooler.

Neither of us had any issues falling asleep Friday night.  Exhaustion, full bellies, and an edible did the trick.  We both got a solid 5 1/2 hours of sleep.