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Ali and I woke up Saturday morning and jumped in the Jeep to meet our buddy
Jon at his place in Salem. From there we headed to my cousin Adam's place
in Stratham, where we would be meeting him and Cassidy, another cousin of
mine. Adam, Cassidy, and I would make up the co-ed race team, with Ali and
Jon comprising the gear team.
PRE-RACE
We arrived at Wildcat after an expensive trip to EMS (more gear, hooray!),
and cruised through the gear check. Next up was the pre-race briefing given
by Norm Greenberg and Tracyn Thayer (the organizers), and the handout of
directions to the starting point. After reading the directions, I
immediately realized that we would be performing the canoeing section first,
starting on the Saco River at a spot that Ali, Jon, and I paddled last year.
An informational advantage! We could stay at Ali's brother Marc's place for
the night, about 35 minutes away, instead of camping 45 minutes away at
Wildcat like we had originally planned.
We picked up an AMC map of the Carter Range (where I assumed the race would
take place) on the way back through North Conway and shared a quick
carb-laden dinner of breadsticks, salad, and pizza while checking it out.
Then it was off to the house for a five hour nap after going through the
gear one more time.
4:15 am Sunday morning saw us throwing our race gear into Jon's SUV, leaving
the Jeep, and driving to the starting point at Swan's Falls Campground. We
arrived at 5:30 for the pre-race briefing, and at 5:45 we headed back to the
truck to do some quick warm-ups and go through the gear one more time. It
was then that we realized we had missed a crucial bag containing some
required support gear in the Jeep (it was dark, the bag was black...). Ali
and Jon would need to go back for it while we were paddling to the
transition area. I tried to not stress about it, hoping that the paddling
section would be longer than my gut was telling me it would be.
START!!!
Ali remained at the starting line to wait for the maps, which would be
handed out to each team at 6:00. Just after 6:00, people could be seen
running back to the trucks with the maps. Ali came tearing up to the truck
and we quickly opened the maps and read the CP information. We had 11 UTM
coordinate sets to plot, and we had nine different maps to use. Not wanting
to waste time figuring out the most useful map for each CP, I grabbed the
AMC trail map of the Carter Range and found that I could plot ALL of the
checkpoints on that -- we had guessed correctly, and could use the other
maps for extra reference.
At 6:25 we ran down to have the plots checked by Norm. It was awesome to
see everyone staring at us as we ran by in our cool CR jerseys, still
plotting their points and trying to work with all the different maps. I
even heard one guy say something like "Those guys look pretty hard-core."
Hey, at least we LOOKED cool!
Norm approved the rough plots I had made and we ran down to the canoes. My
marks were a little off, but I just wanted ball-park plots for the time
being. I knew we were going to have some time at the next TA while waiting
for Ali and Jon to arrive, and we could take another look at the maps when
we got there.
Grabbing three canoe paddles and three lifejackets, we threw them in the
boat and shoved off. It took us a couple of minutes to find a good rhythm,
during which we were passed by two teams using kayak paddles and creating
mega-wakes, but soon we had it down and we were able to crank through the
course leg, reaching CP1 in about 35 minutes.
CP1 / TA1
Checking in to the transition area, I optimistically looked around for Ali
and Jon. However, we knew that there was no possible way that they could be
there already, so I pulled out the maps and proceeded to re-plot my CPs,
trying not to stress out about the other teams arriving and clearing the TA.
At about 7:45 Ali and Jon came bombing down the road to the TA. We quickly
changed into our bike gear and checked out. We headed west to Route 113,
which we would be taking North to Stow, and then west again to Chatham and
CP2.
As we began to approach the turn for Route 113 North, I spied another team
ahead taking a left to go South. One less team for us to worry about! We
took a right and headed through farm-country, passing two more teams along
the way. We were warming up and gaining some lost ground on a mostly flat
ride, and we were feeling pretty good about it.
CP2
Arriving in "downtown" Chatham, we checked in with the guy manning CP2 and
then headed West on a dirt road that would take us to the Mountain Pond
Road, where CP3 was located. The road abruptly turned into a steep bike
trail with lots of long grass and mud, and the traction was minimal. The
trail then opened into a clearing with two paths leading away, one going
straight up the mountain (West), and the other going to the right (North).
Intuition told Adam and I to head North. However, I opted to follow three
other groups of people in front of us and head West/up the mountain. Hey,
everyone else was doing it, right?
CP3
The trail completely died out after about thirty minutes of pushing our
groups' bikes over rocks and fallen trees. At this point everyone was sold
on the idea that we had to get to the top of the mountain, so we bushwacked
on toward the summit. Upon reaching the top after about two hours of
bushwacking, I realized that I had made a horrible error. We could hear
teams all around us in the bushes trying to get a bearing, etc., and finally
Adam heard one team shout out an altitude: 2100 feet. We were about 1500
feet higher than we were supposed to be. 1500 feet!!! Looking at the map
and determining our position using the altitude reading and a little
dead-reckoning -- we couldn't see squat to shoot a bearing -- I quickly made
the decision that we had to head DOWN and North as fast as possible, and we
began to crash through the bushes dragging and pushing our bikes through the
scrub.
We popped out on a trail after about 45 minutes of drop, and we could see
bike tracks and footprints headed to the North. Another team came up on us
from behind, and reported that they had also been in the woods. But they
had originally taken the trail to the RIGHT. They also told us that they
had crossed CP2 in 40th place. Yep, that was it, we were screwed for sure.
We booked it around the bend, and there was the unmanned CP3 hanging off a
bush. We quickly punched our passport and jumped on the bikes, making our
way to CP4.
Biking to CP4 was not easy. The grass was long, and had been flattened by
previous teams, so downhill traction was minimal. Adam hit a hidden rock at
one point and went over the handle bars, but managed to clip out in the nick
of time, turning the spill into a semi-graceful superman impression.
Cassidy handled the terrain great for a first-time mountain biker. We went
as fast as we could without crashing, and made it to CP4 in about 30
minutes.
CP4
Upon arriving at CP4, we inquired about our check-in position, figuring we
were completely out of the race. I could see the dreaded race result in my
head: "Team 12: HCPro / CrankRacing - DNF." How would I react when people
asked me how the team did? The navigation error was my fault, after all. I
should have listened to my gut. However, when she rattled off the
placement, we found out we were in 21st place. There were still 20 teams on
the mountain trying to find CP3!!!
We headed on, refreshed to know that we were still in the running to finish
in the top 50%. The only thing to worry about now was the 2:00 cutoff time
at CP6, which would determine whether we would follow the full course or an
alternate version. We screamed South down Slippery Brook Road, passing two
teams along the way. We were so jazzed to be moving fast that we totally
missed the dirt road to CP5 by about 5 minutes and had to quickly turn
around.
Getting back to the turn, we saw one of the teams we had passed on the side
of the road, bandaging up their female member. Apparently after we passed
them, they kicked it up and she had mashed on the front brake at the turn,
doing a total endo/faceplant right on the pavement. There was some blood on
the asphalt, they were wrapping her head/helmet, and she had gauze in her
mouth. A forest ranger had stopped and was assisting them. Cassidy hopped
off her bike and administered some quick first-aid, and then we headed to
CP5 to let them know about the injury.
CP5
Checking in at CP5, we found out we were the 18th team to pass through. We
were gaining ground, but it was already noon and we were running out of time
to meet the CP6 cutoff. We knew that the leg between CP5 and CP6 was going
to be a bear -- a climb up Dundee Road pretty much the exact mirror-image of
the road we had just hauled down. We were starting to feel pretty beat up,
and decided to take a quick fuel break. We sucked down some Gu and began to
head up the road. And we headed up the road. And we headed up the road.
Five miles of interval-type climbing, with hardly any flats. It might have
been a little better if we hadn't already dragged our bikes up 2000 feet
through the bushes, but probably not by much.
Finally, we reached the crest of the hill and began our descent to CP6,
marked by the greatest sign ever designed by man: a yellow diamond with a
tractor-trailer on it, pointed down at an angle. Previously, "Bad Curves"
was my favorite road sign, but now I think this one is. It had been raining
on the climb, and now as we dropped it was coming down pretty hard. I began
to wish that I was wearing some eye protection as I was getting muddy water
in my face. I didn't want to stop to pull them out of my pack, though, so
squinting had to suffice.
CP6 / TA2
We came around the bend and into CP6 / TA2 at 1:25, about 35 minutes ahead
of the cutoff. Checking in, the lady informed us that we had indeed beat
the cutoff time, but we needed to hurry, as there was a 2:30 cutoff at CP8.
I had totally overlooked this fact previously -- probably a good thing, too,
as my enthusiasm might not have been as high for the climb.
We found Ali and Jon, who had been waiting at the TA for over five hours!
We replenished our water and fuel supplies and changed out of our bike gear.
I quickly checked the map with the assistance of a support crew member from
another team who was rumored to be pretty good with the maps. He pointed
out that CP7 was located on the Wildcat Brook/Valley Trail, but most teams
were overlooking that fact and heading further to Crawford Notch Road and
then trying to bushwack through to CP7.
We finished switching our gear over and ran down the road, trying to find
the beginning of the trail. Coming up to a clearing on the right side, we
checked it out, but we couldn't see a trailhead. We decided to head further
down the street toward Crawford Notch Road to another dirt road -- maybe
that was it. Upon inspection, we were unable to find the trailhead at the
second dirt road. Now we were in a dilemma: Run the rest of the way to
Crawford Notch Road and attempt CP7 via a bushwack, or head back up the road
to the first clearing to look for the trail again. Either way we were going
to be losing time. We decided to go back and look for the trail again.
CP7
After getting back up to the clearing, we headed in just as another team ran
past us toward Crawford Notch Road. My gut still felt good about our
decision though, and we found the trailhead after about 10 minutes of
searching. It was now 2:10. We had 20 minutes to cross both CP7 and CP8 in
order to follow the full course. The trail was basically two miles of mud,
littered with rotten logs and moss-covered rocks. Adam ran ahead of us,
being the lightest-footed of the group, and worked on locating the trail
markers. Cassidy and I ran and speed-hiked as much as we could.
We located the unmanned CP7 checkpoint at 2:25 and punched our passport. We
had five minutes to hit CP8, and it was looking grim. I took a hit of
Adam's Cytomax, and we pressed on. We popped out of the trail at 2:45 at
the base of the Black Mountain ski area and ran down the dirt road to CP8 --
maybe they would let us continue the full course anyway since we were so
close to the cutoff.
CP8
Arriving at CP8 at 2:51, we were informed that we had missed the cutoff, and
that sorry, there were no exceptions. We were instructed to head down
Crawford Notch Road to the alternate gear drop area, where our support crew
had dropped off our biking gear. The woman at the CP explained to us that
the race was not over for us by any means, it was just an alternate course
now, bypassing CP9 and CP10. We then came to the realization that we could
possibly finish near the top of the alternate-course pack, since we were the
first team to miss the cutoff, and we picked up the pace.
We ran/walked down the road as fast as we could. Ali and Jon sped by on
their way back from dropping off the bikes, shouting encouragement to us and
providing a great morale boost. We came around the bend to the gear drop
and asked the race volunteer about our position. We were the first team to
hit the gear drop! We quickly checked the map and jumped back on the bikes
just as another team came around the bend. In front of us lay a 12-mile
climb up Route 16 to the Wildcat Mountain ski area, and our legs were toast.
Cassidy's seat was hurting her badly, and we ended up taping a fleece hat to
the top of it for some extra cushion.
ALTERNATE COURSE
Route 16 was painful, to say the least. Due to the bike-seat issue, and
overall team stamina, we biked as much as we could and then opted for a
system of biking the flats and drops, and walking/running the ups. Two
teams caught up to us during this leg, but we learned that each of them had
missed CP7, so we knew we were still ranked ahead of them. At one point
Cassidy told me she could run faster than she could push her bike, so I
grabbed her bike by the stem and rolled it alongside mine (still riding
mine) while she ran in front of me. We finally reached the crest of Route
16 and everyone jumped back on the bikes for the final stretch.
FINISH!!!
Our spirits picked up as we passed the AMC's Pinkham Notch Visitor Center,
knowing that we were about a mile from Wildcat. Reaching the 3/4 mile mark,
we started to gain more speed, and we began to whoop it up with each other.
We tore into the Wildcat parking lot, cheered on by support crews and race
people, and headed slope-side to the finish line. I chose to take the
wheelchair-accessible route instead of the stairs, and caught a bar-end on
the railing, pitching out in front of everyone -- my first true wipe of the
day... (doh!)
Crossing the finish line was unbelievable! Everyone was cheering and
clapping. Norm came over and congratulated us, which I thought was really
cool because there was a lot going on and he was still making sure to see
each team as they came in. Ali and Jon came running up, snapping pics and
giving hugs and high-fives -- just awesome!
BREAKDOWN
45 miles of paddling, biking, and running, in just under 11 hours. Out of
42 teams, Team HCPro/CrankRacing ended up placing about 15th overall, and
out of 30 co-ed teams, we placed about 9th -- rankings are still being
worked on due to some discrepancies with the alternate-course teams. If we
could have avoided both the delay at CP1 and the bushwack while enroute to
CP3, we may have been in contention for a top 10 position. But, not a bad
finish for our first race! Now, if I could only get myself to LIKE running,
I might be able to get myself to actually train for the next one...
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