We
ended up at the Tower, which had pizza and Mexican food, which may be the best
combination ever. There was a little bit of a wait for the
tables, so Mickey and I stood inside while Captain Ahab and Neil made nuisances of
themselves by plotting their map on the sidewalk directly in front of the door. After
stuffing my face with steak fajitas and Blue Moon (pre-race carb loading?), we
went back to the ranch. I got my pack ready for the morning and started
to get ready for bed, when the 4-person coed team Off the Front arrived. They
asked if I minded if the guys stayed in the cabin, which I didn’t and I hung out in my bed and eavesdropped on them doing a final gear
check and talking about strategy and clothing. They won last year and I had read Karen’s race report before the race to get a feel for what to expect. This
was only my second AR, so it was good to listen to an experienced team make
plans, even though they probably thought I was a total creeper. Before
too long, Super Kate and her sister-in-law, Kristy, arrived, so at least I knew
people then. Once everyone was ready for bed, one of the Off
the Front guys turned on a noise machine to the soothing sounds of raindrops,
which only partially drowned out the crinkly noise my mattress made every time
I moved. It was great to fall asleep to, but not so
great when I woke up at 3am having to
pee and the only bathroom was far away across a mostly-deserted boy scout
camp. (Mickey: I only
wish I could have fallen asleep!) Maybe next
time frogs and crickets would be better.
Alarms
started going off a little before 5 and everyone was chatting as we were
getting dressed. I joked that if there was no coffee at
breakfast, I had a Jet Boil and coffee in my bag and would be selling cups for
$10 each. A couple of the Off the Front guys said they
would be first in line. We made it to the dining hall about 6:00, where I met up with Mickey to do some last
minute route planning. I saw Dave and Jules, who got in late the night
before, plotting their map. Dave’s morning face looks like grumpy cat, so I left him to his plotting. (Mickey: Dave was definitely
under duress trying to plot UTM with all of those people milling around
talking, and only a short time until the race start.) After getting some orange juice, yogurt, and a granola bar, I watched a
staff member make several comical attempts to make coffee (pour water in
machine, watch water pour out all over counter, wipe water off of counter onto
floor, repeat. Over and over. Give up and barricade off the lake that had
formed on the floor). I briefly considered going back to the cabin
and making back my race entry by selling coffee, but, sadly, there was not
enough time.
About 6:30, we went outside to an amphitheater area and
got some last-minute instructions on some checkpoints that didn’t have flags (2, 13, 14, and 15) and that a couple checkpoints were on
private property. (Mickey: I completely missed that part. I must have been noting the lack of flags and
location hints for CP2, CP13, CP14 & CP15 on our map when he mentioned
that. Glad you were paying attention!) After
they told us to go, people scattered. We ended up taking a different route to TA1
than we had originally planned but everyone but us (or me at least) seemed to
know that there was a trail that led out of the amphitheater area to the road
that led down to a suspension bridge across the lake. Crossing the bridge with all of the other
racers in the dark was disorienting, sort of like running across a line of SUP
boards tied together. I wasn’t sad when
it was over and I thought, “Whew! Glad I don’t have to do that again!”
After
trying and failing to not get my feet soaked running to TA1, Mickey and I
worked together to get running shoes clipped to our packs and got on the bikes. We
made a wrong turn almost immediately, turning left onto the gravel road instead
of right. Thankfully, we realized our mistake pretty
quickly and turned around. We started using the tow as soon as we hit
gravel and we continued to use it for most of the first bike leg. It really helped keep me pushing. I
did ask Mickey to slow down on a steep downhill between TA1 and CP1, but that
is because I’m a chicken on downhills and really need to
work on that. We located CP1 in a dry pond without any
difficulty and headed for CP2. On the way, we passed Off the Front, who were
in first, and then Captain Ahab and Neil, who we thought were in second, going in the
opposite direction. When we got to what we thought was the
checkpoint, we looked, but there was no flag. We backtracked, looked more, and then decided
to go further. It was around a corner and down the road a
little ways. It turned out that the coordinates we received
for the point were off by about a kilometer.
(Mickey: Looking at the map after the fact, this was
obvious. Hindsight… At least we didn’t waste as much time as some other teams.) When we were leaving CP2, we passed a group of
people, including Captain Ahab and Neil, up the road looking for CP2, and we were
excited at the thought of possibly being in second. We passed Super Kate, Kristy, Chuck, and
Patrick on the road. I waved and Kate yelled that she thought we
were in second.
CP3
was a skills challenge, the tomahawk throw. Mickey took this one while I planned our route
to CP4. He got the hang of it quickly and we were on
our way down a reentrant to a creek, which we followed without too much
difficulty to CP4. On the way, the lanyard to my compass came
loose and I dropped it. I found it quickly and tucked it away for
safekeeping. After taking a muddy trail up the hill back to
our bikes, we headed out on the gravel back to the boy scout ranch. We
had to take the same slimy trail that we had previously run up in the morning
to get down to the CP5/TA2, which was a fire-starting challenge. I
changed my shoes and planned our route to CP6 while Mickey made quick work of
starting a fire in a cut in half 50-gallon drum that had to burn through a
string across the top. He changed shoes too and we started
bushwhacking to CP6.
As
we pushed through thorn bush after thorn bush, I began contemplating what I
could wear to work on Monday that would hide the scratches that were
accumulating on my arms, neck, and the little bit of exposed skin between my
socks and tights. About the time I decided that only a burka
would do, Mickey suggested taking a longer route that would keep us on the
road. I agreed and we changed direction. About
that time, he offered me a cheese and salami tortilla roll, which was
delicious. We jogged where we could, but running is not my
strength and I was lagging behind. Mickey offered to carry my pack and after I
gave it to him, I was able to go a little faster. We ran down the steep
downhill that had scared me earlier on the bike and ended up on a long stretch
of pavement that we jogged/fast hiked until we got to CP6, the slingshot
challenge. Neil and Captain Ahab were there when we arrived,
having taken a more direct route there. We had initially planned to have me do the
slingshot challenge because a bonus point was given if only one member of each
team accomplished the challenge. The volunteer staffing the challenge told us at
first that we had to wait for the other team to finish before starting, but he
gave in and let us shoot at the same time.
(Mickey: My incessant whining paid off!) The task was to use a slingshot to shoot soda cans off of a piece of wood
set across sawhorses. You could use rocks or some Ol’ Roy dog food that was
provided. We were told that the first place team, Off the
Front, had used all four members firing at the same time and that it had taken
about 20 minutes for them to knock over the required 5 cans. About
10 minutes after we arrived, Neil got his last can and they were off, having
earned the bonus point. I shot about 10 rocks and then suggested to
Mickey that he help too, or we would be there all day. We might still be there, actually, if I was the
only one shooting. He ended up getting 3 cans I got the other 2,
after about 10 more minutes of shooting.
(Mickey: This challenge was 99% luck. It’s BS that it cost us the race. But, kudos to Neil for getting it done by
himself.) Two more teams arrived while we were shooting,
so it was a firing range of rocks and dog kibble.
After
finally finishing with the slingshot challenge, we hit the road again to take a
slightly longer, but much faster (for us) route to CP7. We missed the clearing where we were planning
to turn by about 1/3 of a mile, but realized our mistake and backtracked. (Mickey: Good catch by Amanda!) Mickey carried my pack for most of this as
well. We found CP7 in a deep ravine easily and tried
not to be obvious about its location because a couple other teams were walking
around in the area. CP 8, 9, and 10 also went quickly and we stuck
to our strategy of taking the roads and clearings as much as possible. (Mickey: While this strategy
definitely added some distance to our route, it paid off in the end. We spiked every CP on the foot orienteering
section, and saved ourselves a lot of physical stress not bushwhacking through
the sticker bushes.) While we were walking between 9 and 10, I
noticed a thorn sticking out of my forearm. I pulled it out and the next time I looked
down, I had a nice trail of blood down to my hand. I probably should have put it back.
We
broke through the woods on the dangerous end of the archery range, which
happened to be CP11. After we were told that we were the first ones
there and were in first place, Mickey and I said some words that Captain Ahab would
probably edit out of the blog. We
hadn’t seen anyone since CP11 and had no idea how we
were doing compared to the other teams. Hearing that we were in first, even though we
knew that Neil and Captain Ahab had earned a bonus point at the slingshot that we didn’t get, gave us a huge boost of energy. I completed the archery challenge and we took
off down the road to TA3 to get into canoes. Since I had more paddling experience (though
not much with canoes), I sat in the back and steered while Mickey paddled in
the front and navigated. We got CPB first, a good decision Mickey made
based on the wind direction, and then A, with no problems. While we were on our way to A, we saw Off the
Front come down to TA3 and get into their canoes. They went in the same order as we did and we
passed them in the middle of the lake. We finished the canoe and started heading for
CP12, the rock wall. Thankfully, Mickey realized before we had gone
too far that 12 was supposed to be gotten by bike, so we went back to TA2 and
retrieved our bikes. While we were on our way, we saw Neil and
Captain Ahab, who should have been heading for the lake, following us. We
told them they were going the wrong way and finally they decided to trust us
(admittedly a risk) and turned to go to the canoe put-in. (Mickey: It’s like they didn’t even trust their own teammates…)
After
crossing the scary suspension bridge two more times, once with the bikes, which
was super fun, we rode to the rock wall. We had left our trekking shoes on after getting
our bikes because we knew we were going straight to the wall, so we just had to
get harnesses and helmets. I climbed first, trying to ignore my fear of
heights which made me feel as if death were imminent as I got higher and
higher. When I made it to the top, the person helping
us at the top clipped me to the center support pole and then Mickey started
climbing. Despite never having climbed before, he did great. I
knelt by the edge and tried to encourage him. The staff person told me I could stand up if I
wanted and I wouldn’t fall because I was clipped in, but I
preferred my head to be as low as possible. Mickey quickly made it to the top and we
rappelled down, one after another. (Mickey: Amanda totally rocked the rappel! The volunteer at the top was super
impressed.) I was glad to be back on solid ground. Right
as we finished, Off the Front rode up on their bikes. We changed into our bike shoes, swapped
climbing for bike helmets and took off for CP13. Mickey said he thought it was down the road
that went behind the women’s cabin and I thought it was down a different
road. We went with my road, which ended in a very
muddy clearing, but no sign of a “Yellow Trail” which was the clue. We back-tracked back to the area where the rock
wall was, where Off the Front was still climbing. We took the main road that lead out of the
scout camp to a maintenance shed with a bunch of kids’ bicycles outside of it. After looking at the map, we decided to
bike-whack our way to CP13, so we took a faint trail that led us into a creek
bed. We followed the creek bed for a little bit,
lifting our bikes over logs, before heading up a super steep hill to higher
ground. To get up the hill, I was lifting my bike as
high as I could while keeping a hand on the brake and then using my bike to
pull myself up. I was starting to get discouraged, but I kept
telling myself that we only had 3 more checkpoints and then to get to the
finish. When we got to the top of the hill, we had the
terrible realization that we were in the same clearing where we had been before
on our first attempt to find the trail. We then went with Mickey’s original
idea, which was to follow the road behind the women’s cabin,
but that was a dead-end as well. After looking at the map, we decided that more
bikewhacking would be a fun thing to do and we headed off down the hill toward
the lake. (Mickey: We completely botched this part of the
race. It probably cost us close to an
hour, and a ton of fatigue. I still don’t know where the heck that trail
starts…) We finally saw yellow paint on trees that
signaled that we had found the yellow “trail” (I use that extremely
loosely because it was as if someone on acid wandered around the woods painting
random trees and that was considered a trail). Mickey initially headed left to find the
checkpoint, which was just a punch with no flag, but I happened to glance right
and saw it about 100 yards down the trail. We punched that and began to ride down the
trail toward CP14 and 15, which were on the Orange Trail. CP14 also had no flag and again, I just
happened to notice the red punch as I was walking past it. If you missed it, it would have been very
difficult to find from the other direction.
(Mickey: Amanda did an awesome job of spotting the
punches on this entire leg.) As we progressed down the trail, we would ride
a little, but had to mostly push our bikes because the trails were so muddy. We
were both getting quiet and I caught myself staring down at my feet as I was
pushing my bike. I had to keep reminding myself to keep an eye
out for CP15. As I looked up, I realized that I couldn’t see any orange trail markings and I had a bad feeling that we had
missed a turn-off. I yelled up ahead to Mickey and we backtracked
until we picked up the orange paint again.
(Mickey: Another good catch by Amanda!) The trail did turn and shortly after the turn, we punched CP15, which
had no flag, on a downhill.
That
was the last CP, but the end was still not in sight. We still had to make it around the end of the
lake and back to the dining hall to finish. At different places on the trail, we saw foot
prints and tire tracks so we thought Off the Front may had found the trail
easier than we did (it would have been difficult to take a worse route than us)
and gotten ahead of us. We tried to loosely follow the trail markings,
but they weren’t much help due to the condition of the trail. We
went through a marshy area where we had to practically throw our bikes across
the water and then jump after them to get across. I shortly gave up that strategy and started
walking through the water, as my feet were already soaked. After more thorn bushes and more cursing, which
I’ll leave out because Captain Ahab thinks kids visit
the blog, we saw buildings. We had one more steep, brushy hill to make it
up and then we pushed our bikes around the back-side of the dining hall. We
were told that we finished first, which was great news, but we knew that Captain Ahab
and Neil, had a bonus point that we didn’t get. They arrived about 15 minutes after us and they
did, in fact, have one more point than we did, so they won. I
am still incredibly happy with our second place finish (first in 2P coed, but
we may have been the only ones in that division) and I’m proud at
the way Mickey and I worked as a team and kept pushing through that last hour
even though we were both incredibly frustrated with the difficulties through
the last section. (Mickey: There’s been a lot of joking throughout this race
report. But, seriously… For anyone wondering, Amanda is one seriously tough
chick. Yes, we did some towing on the
bike. And, yes, I may have occasionally
carried her pack for her on the trekking section. That’s just good strategy and her being smart enough to
accept help when it made the team faster.
But, she totally impressed me with the way she pushed through on the
last section of the race. We did a TON
of bikewhacking, some of which was completely fruitless & deflating, but
she powered through it all, and kept her head in the game until the very
end. Respect.)
After lots of burgers, brats, and Gatorade, Mickey, Dave, Jules, and I received our
TeamBOR balls and Mickey and I got our medals for winning our division. 
We then had a TeamBOR group shower. Just
kidding. Kind of. We were in different stalls, I promise. While
I was getting ready to shower, I found a bunch of sticks and, surprisingly, my
compass, in my sports bra, where I had forgotten I stashed it because I didn’t have any pockets handy. We made plans to meet in Hannibal for food and
drinks. On the way, Mickey and I sent pictures of
ourselves with our medals on to our teammates to remind them how awesome we
are. We also wore them at dinner in case anybody
forgot. (Mickey: We really were pretty awesome. ☺ )
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