Secret Training

Don't worry Steelsports.net is still alive! You can track two of their teammates training at a super cool website called www.attackpoint.org. Signup and add our profiles to your page and we can keep each other accountable and comment on your workouts.

Racing with SteelSports in the Ozark Extreme, Ouachita Adventure Race

Team SteelSports for this race is Justin Reneau, Chris Clemmons and Rodney Skyles

We arrived at the main transition area last night at 6:50 pm for a 7:00 pm pre-race meeting. We were a tad bit tardy.  Prior to the meeting, during check in, each team had a gear check, repelling skills test and a navigation skill test.  The navigation skill test required one team member to plot UTM coordinates on a topographical map.  Each number was 8 digits long, and the race director told them to "round off the last number".  Team SteelSports plotted the point successfully and moved onto the repelling skill test.  For this "test" each member of the team had to repel off a stump that was about 2 feet tall.  It was entertaining to say the least, but each team member completed this test, too.   

 

During the pre-race meeting they were told several things about the race.  First of all, one section of the race would be a marked course.  They will start and finish at the main TA, but will only come back one other time during the course of the race.  There will be a second TA, which would be determined after they plotted points.  There will be a bike drop.  There is a 14 hour cut off.  In the pre-race letter the start time was "TBA".  During the meeting, the race director said the start time would be a 5:00 am.  Bikes needed to be dropped between 4:00 and 5:00, at the trail head of the Ouachita Vista Trail.  Teams were also given maps and UTM coordinates for the entire race.  There are 28 checkpoints.  After the meeting was adjourned we made our way back to the RV where we had a surprise birthday cake and party for Chris, who turned 50 on Thursday.  After we had a bite of cake, the team sat down 

and plotted all the points and planned out the race and estimated it would take them about 9 hours to finish.  We all settled in for bed about 10:00, for our early wake up call at 3:30am.  

The alarms went off at 3:30, but we all rolled out of bed about 3:45.  After getting a few last minute things together, we made our way to the bike drop, then to the starting line.  The race started promptly at 5:00 am. with a trekking leg.  They left, running, to get 10 points. 

Team SteelSports made it back FIRST !! at 7:37 am.  They checked in, refilled packs quickly, unloaded a canoe (boats are provided for all teams at the race) and took off on the paddle leg at 7:42 am.  They anticipate this leg will take about 3 hours.  They will have a 75 foot repel sometime during the paddle leg.  The next leg will be the bike leg.  Diana and I are making our way to the Mountain Harbor Lodge for breakfast, then to see if we can spot them on the water, then onto the second TA, at the bike drop.  The second team behind them, a solo male team, got on the water 14 minutes behind team SteelSports, the next team, a 2 person male team, was 2 minutes behind him.  Shaping up to be a great race.  It's chilly here this morning, but it's supposed to warm up to a sunny, 64 degrees this afternoon.

We were able to drive to a section of the Mountain Harbor Resort and see the team paddling.  There were no teams close behind them and they looked strong.  We drove to the Tompkins Bend Recreation Park, where CP 21 was, but someone there told us we missed them by 5 minutes.  They are paddling way faster than they expected and are still in the lead.  We drove over to the bike drop, second TA, and waited for them.  

At 10:30, they were the first team out of the water.  We filled their packs while they took off their wet, paddling gear and got ready for the bike.  At 10:35, Team SteelSports was off on the final, bike leg.  They said this leg would take them about 3 hours.  We, expect to see them soon!  Hoping for a big win this race, and it's looking good!  The weather hasn't warmed up and the sun has not come out today, though.  It's 52 degrees, but it feels very refreshing.  It's a great day for racing for sure!

It's 12:55 and we're waiting at the finish line.  We haven't heard any updates or news and we weren't able to see them at one of the CPs on the bike trial.  We thought we would, but after we got there, we realized we most likely missed them.  As far as we know, they are still in first place.  The only team we've seen is the 2 person male team, biking on one of the roads near the trail.  Since Rodney didn't wear the spot tracker, it's hard for us to know where they are.  I knew I appreciated that thing : )

At 1:20 the race director told us Team SteelSports is about 3o minutes away.  He had just caught them in time, while putting out the last CP.  He said the rest of the trail is all down hill, so it should be a fun, exciting finish for them.

At 1:40 Team SteelSports finished the race.  Still in first place.  They won the race!!  The race is made up of teams of 3, so they will be first overall and first in their division.  

They've showered and are trying to get warm.  Rodney had a pretty bad wreck on the "marked course", which they are describing as a creek bed full of boulders.  He is out of the shower, but he is still bleeding.  He said the wreck was bad enough to knock the breath out of him and his bumps and bruises are hurting pretty bad.  Chris said that he fell on the trek this morning, on the second check point.  He went head first into a creek...so that was about 5:30 this morning and he's been wet ever since.  Justin said after he was finished he felt like passing out because they pushed themselves so hard and he was freezing.  He's showering now and we have some hot tea for him.  We've cooked up a pot of chili in the RV, so they can get all warmed up and rested after an outstanding race.  They are all three so excited and feel like they had a great race.  They are most excited about the paddle leg, because typically that's where they lose time.  Overall, this was an extremely impressive race.  Team SteelSports ROCKED!

Until next race!  Katrina

Ouachita 12-Hour Adventure Race!

Chris, Justin and I are racing in the Ouachita Adventure Race in Arkansas this Saturday. Katrina may, or may not blog. The connection is slow out there with AT&T's EDGE (2G) network.

• Race Website: http://www.ouachitaadventurerace.com/ouachita_race_home.htm
• Race Date: October 10, 2009
• Start Time: Listed as To Be Announced on the pre-race letter. Chris is hoping for an EARLY, DARK start. I have to agree, that would be fun :) Charging our lights now!

We will try to post some pics, too. I'm not sure I'm carrying the SPOT Tracker, since it's only a 12-hour race, but I may. I'll update the SPOT link, just in case.

~Rodney

Tyler Adventure Sprint 2009

Team Members: Chris Clemmons, Kim McClain, Justin Reneau (3 Coed)

This turned out to be a great race with a really good stratgey plan (that we failed to capitalize on, oh well, we were beaten by our own game i.e. I did this same thing at Mineral Wells as the race director.) The strategy was to have a special test that could be completed at any time during the race before a certain time of day. Idealy you would wait and finish the first leg before you do even think about going to the "test" leg that can be completed at anytime. Well we commited to going to the special test early and once we made up our minds we were commited. This error cost us an extra 1.8 mile run and about 16 minutes. If we would have just waited we could have completed the test during the bike course and would have only cost us about 30 seconds to get off the bike trail. Oh well, we live and learn. But the one thing that I have learned in my years of racing is you can't hesitate. You have to make up your mind quickly and once you do that you stick to it even if you realize you should have done something different. You reach a point where hesitation and revaluation costs you more time than just following through.

So we were first out of the shoot to hit CP 2 in a very prominate draw just north west of the TA off a road leading to the lake. Before we hit this point we all decided to go ahead down to the boat launch where the special test was. (This was our first and only mistake.) We aim high in the draw so we don't miss CP 2 and hit it dead on. We run to do the "test" which was having to make a raft out of big drum barrells, rope, and 2x4's. This was probably quite commical to watch but it wasn't to do. It was very challenging becuase most of us that do these races can be perfectionist. So of course we wanted to build a boat that would float. We had to at least sit on the boat for a second as a team and if it fell apart we could swim to a point in the water with our boat supplies then swim back. Of course our boat fell apart literally 2 seconds after we were all floating on it, so we swam. Back to the TA to hit CP 1 we take out noraml route and find CP1 no problem by the restrooms at the TA.

The next leg is a mountain bike leg and we don't have to do the last loop D. This saved us a lot of time. You didn't have to plot these points because they were all on the trail but we decided to just do it anyway. I mainly wanted to do this becuase one prior race we did the bike course was like this and we didn't plot and at one point of the bike course there was a pedestrian rider pulled over to get out of our way. Well that rider just happend to be standing right in front of our CP and we passed it up. Long story short, we always plot now and look behind all people standing on the trail.

This MTB leg was a fun ride and we passed a lot of teams on the mountain bike. I just knew we had to be in first overll. But we weren't because we did the boat launch special test first and like I said that was a big mistake. This was Kim's first race with Team Steelsports.net and she really held her own on the bike. Very strong rider and consistant in pace. We gave her the liability of the pass port and she handled it very well. Well, you know that special test I keep grumbling about? We this portion of the race is were we should have done it because when we skip loop D and head back we clearly see the lake and the boat launch. There we should have stopped and did the test. The three teams that finished in front of us either did this or did it on the last trek leg. Ok, now its up the big hill to CP 6 (another special test). This was a cool test where you had to throw clay pigeons through a vertical rope net and a teammate has to catch it on the other side. We did ok here and only broke one piegon. Now its back to the TA and one more point to get at the end of the bike trail. I ask Chris to tell me what the clue is for CP 7 (the last on the trail) and he couln't because our clue sheet got wet and torn up. We see what we think is CP7 and try to double check it but couldn't make anything out so we just punch it and say oh well. It turned out to be right.

The last leg was a trek leg that you could get the CPs in any order. CPs 8-11. CP 8 was a special test and we went there first. Right off we could see a bottle neck so we left there and ran the course first. We take off due south through the woods for CP10 on the south west corner of the lake. We hit it no problem. Then it is due north up the dam and sort of a north easterly direction us a big hill to CP9. Bamm, we hit it no problem. This it is off onto the road to CP11. (Enroute to CP11 would have been another GREAT time to do the boat launch special test.) We didn't run all the way around to the trail head that CP11 was on (which was at the ranger station) we shoot due east from a major road junction and just bush wacked to CP11. This proved benefical because again Bamm we hit right on. From there we took a nice little trail south west to the park lake and followed the trail that runs around the lake back to a point where we went south through the woods to get back to CP8's special test. We arrive at CP8 and it is a Special test with COMBINATION LOCKS AHHHHHH. Chris and I both dread the horrid combination locks. But not only that we had to open four of them by relaying the lock combo verbally from teammate to teammate. So what we had was four tool boxes with combination locks on them and the combination to the next lock was inside the prior box. And yes you guessed it we had to do it twice becuase we got to the last lock that had the CP inside and I forgot the combo becuase I yelled something out before saying the combo. So we had to start all over again.

So we head back to the TA thinking we had one more leg. On the way back from CP11 we passed a CP by a bridge that we had not retrived yet so we knew there had to be one last leg. To our suprise we were done after that test and we didn't have to get the CP down by the bridge.

Overall this was a great race and SUPER beginner freindly with relativly easy navigation. I like races where the navigation is hard because I feel that is my strongest point and I can complete those courses faster and smoother. For a race like this raw strength and speed is what will determine the overall winner, and of course with this race strategy played a crucial role in the overall winners stakes.

But we walked away with a first place 3 person coed finish and we are stoked to have that! Kim raced hard and we hope to have her back. Chris as usual raced a great race and held strong pulling us all through the course to the very finish line.

We look forward to more great races with STEELSPORTS.NET!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Katrina and Rodo!!

Justin Reneau

Team SteelSports Rockin' the Rock and Roll Adventure Race

Team SteelSports

Adam Hart, Rodney Skyles, Chris Clemmons, Lesley Conrad

The SteelSports Rock and Roll Adventure Race started bright and early this morning at 7:32AM.  Teams were given two instruction sheets, containing two different legs.  One, leg one, is the paddle leg.  The other, is the climbing leg.  Teams are going to choose when to do the climbing leg.  The only instruction is, it must be completed by 12:00.  Team SteelSports left the TA at 7:36 to paddle.  They did not take their climbing gear with them.  

Temperatures are expected to be in the high 90's today.  Currently the weather is, a humid, 80 degrees and so far, it's overcast and we have a nice, summer breeze.  The sun has started peeking through the clouds occasionally and promising to heat up the day soon.  The paddle is four miles and Team SteelSports, I'm sure, is hoping the cliffs surrounding Lake Mineral Wells will protect the boats from tipping over.

At 9:47 Team SteelSports made it back from the paddle.  They did tip over one time, in each boat.  One of the points was mis-plotted, so they had a little trouble finding one point, which slowed them down.  They arrived back to TA in 3rd place, overall.  There was a special test that had to be completed in the TA, which was a word find, a maze, a "what's different about these" and a "which two are the same" puzzles before they could receive the next set of instructions.  They completed the puzzles at 9:58 and started plotting the points for the next leg, which is a trek.  There are nine points on this leg, as well as the climbing leg.  Team SteelSports will climb sometime during this trekking leg because some of the points are close to the climbing area.  They left here at 10:06 and this should be a pretty long leg.

1:04 Team SteelSports has checked in from the Trekking leg.  They mis-plotted one point, so it took a little longer than they would have liked.  They all seem to be in good spirits and trying to stay well hydrated.  They had a special test to complete at the TA.  It was a soccer challenge.  Each team member had to make a goal from a line in the parking lot, about 35 yards..  If they didn't make it from the farthest line, they had run get they ball, return with the ball and try again.  They were able to move up 2 parking spots each time they missed.  They finished it pretty  quickly, although, none of them made it on the first, or second attempt.  I think most of them made it from the spot closest to the goal.  They were then given the next leg, which is a bike/trek leg.  They can get the points in any order.  There are seven points on this leg.  It's expected to take about 3 hours.  This is the last leg of the race.

Rollin' at the Rock-Stick Challenge with Team SteelSports

Team SteelSports: Rodney Skyles, Chris Clemmons, Lesley Conrad, Justin Reneau

Our morning started with a short, 20 minute, drive from the Hyatt Hotel in Grapevine to the bike drop for the Rock-Stick Challenge, on Lake Grapevine, near Flower Mound, Texas.  The bike drop was located at a camp ground about 4 miles from the main transition area.  The pre-race instructions were to leave the bikes, equipment and climbing gear at the bike drop.  Team SteelSports aired up tires, unloaded the mandatory gear and dropped off their bikes at about 6:40am.  Afterwards, we drove to the boat drop.  After dropping the boats, we headed to the TA to get things setup.  The team has set up, checked in an is ready for what the day has in store.  While checking in, we heard a rumor that the race was expected to take the entire 10 hours.  Team SteelSports is looking forward to a fun, fast race without tipping the boats over.  : )  The wind is expected to be 10-20 mph and we heard the lake here gets pretty choppy with minimal wind.  Pre-race meeting starts now...more to come.

The race started at 8:30 with a special test, which was plotting points on a map.  Teams who did not plot them correctly were given a 10 minute penalty.  Team SteelSports was the second team to turn the map in, and had plotted them correctly.  They were the first team to plot correctly.  The first leg of the race was a trek with 3 points.  They only had to get 2 of the 3 points and the instructions said only one team member per team had to get a point.  When they read the instruction sheet out loud, they vocalized the concern about the 30 second rule, which is, each team member has to be within 30 seconds of each other, but decided to stay together and get the 2 CPs.  (Turns out they could have split up, but they didn't learn that until they had already punched the CPs.)  They were the second team back to TA, though. 

The second leg was a paddle.  I drove over to the bike drop, which is where they would begin the next leg, after paddling.  After I made it there, I saw them paddle by and ran to the shoreline to cheer them on.  They yelled at me that they had lost the map.  I assumed I heard them incorrectly.  Dusty's team was the second team to arrive at the bike drop.  They told me that, indeed, Team SteelSports had lost their map.  Apparently, the boats tipped over, more than once, and they lost the map.  Dusty helped them along the way with pointers and directions to checkpoints.  Thanks Dusty!!  Team SteelSports made it to the bike drop shortly after that.  There was not a smile to be seen.  It was in their body language, and demeanor that they were not happy.  They decided to ride the trails to find the rest of the checkpoints and back to the TA.  During the bike leg there was a ropes course, special test.  I was able to cheer them on and watch them successfully complete this test.  The race director, Dwight Spencer, was kind enough to give me directions to where they would be.  So far, it's a great race an

d they seem to be picking up their spirits.  The race director gave them a new map and they are now on a short trekking leg.  I believe there were only a few CPs on this leg, one of which, they have to swim to.

Dusty's team is doing very well, too, however, they had a broken chain on one of the bikes, so they had to repair that before continuing.  Team SteelSports should now be about 45 minutes behind the leading team.

1:00 The swim/trek leg did not take them long.  I estimate 20-30 minutes.  Team SteelSports is now out on the next leg, which is a bike leg.  The CPs are along the trails according to what I heard them say as they were leaving.  They weren't sure ho

w long this leg would take them. They are 40 minutes behind the leading team.  I checked with the front desk and they are in second place, so, they're doing great.  

1:16 The leading team has arrived back at the TA from the bike leg.  It took them a little less than an hour to complete the leg.  I expect that Team SteelSports should not take longer than an hour either.

2:20 Team SteelSports arrived back at the TA.  Before they left, they had to complete a special test.  They had to climb a rope that is positioned atop some wooden rails that are raised off the ground, then they had to balance and walk across several wooden 

rails.  They all four completed the test and are now on the bike leg which is the last leg.  It's a paddle/trek/rogaine that's expected to take a few hours.  There are 6 checkpoints on this leg.  Number 24 is the only point they have to paddle to, so they are planning on trekking as much as they can to prevent tipping over in the water again.  They should be finished soon.

5:16 Team SteelSports has finished the race.  They finished third overall and second in the 4 person co-ed division.  They are resting up and reflecting on the race.  They are very grateful to Dusty's team for all the help in the beginning of the race, they are a little disappointed with the boats, they are hot and they are exhausted.  Overall it was a great race and they are glad to be finished.

Check out the video:

Team SteelSports, Rock Stick Challenge 2009 from Katrina Skyles on Vimeo.

This was a great Rock-Stick race, directed by Dwight Spencer and Tom McMillan.  It was a HOT day, 95 degrees for the high, and Team SteelSports had a great race!  They pushed themselves harder then they have and overcame a couple of obstacles.  One of their best races this year.  I look forward to them continuing to get better and better!  I was glad to support them, with the help of Craig.  Perfect day!

See you next race.  Katrina

Soaring High with Team SteelSports at Too Cool's Spread Your Wings Adventure Race

Team SteelSports: Chris Clemmons, Leslie Conrad, Thomas Mullins and Rodney Skyles

Pictures of the race.  

We awoke this morning to the sound of a pretty quite TA. Birds were chirping and singing softly, which gave the day a peaceful beginning. Everyone slept well last night and woke up ready to race! Chris slept in the Tundra. Leslie, Rodney and I slept in the travel trailer and Thomas slept in his trailer. After an evening of friendly chats with other teams, getting to know our new team mate and a hamburger dinner, we went to bed about 9:00pm. In getting to know our new team mate, we learned that his wife, Connie, made Italian Cream Cakes and cookies for him to share. Needless to say, with one question, “Do you guys want some cake?”, we quickly voted HECK yeah! So after dinner, we got the chance to enjoy some truly delicious homemade cake and cookies for dessert. We appreciated, and enjoyed it, very much.

It rained the majority of the afternoon yesterday here, so things are pretty nasty and muddy.  The day is beautiful so far though.  The sun is shining and the temp is not unbearable.  Shaping up to be a very nice day.

Prior to the pre-race meeting, we dropped their canoes at the boat drop, which was a short walk from TA. They had to rent canoes from a place near Dallas, because the park was out of canoes, and they didn't want to paddle/portage heavy kayaks. The boat drop was heavily congested with boats. This is a full race, with 12 and 24 hour races. The pre-race meeting started at 7:30. We headed over to hear what Too Cool events were planned for the day. As usual, the first team to sign up for the race gets free batteries, and it just so happens that team was Team SteelSports. So free batteries for them! During the meeting we learned they will do the “big” repel, which is approximately 175 feet. I'm hoping I can make it over to snap some pics of that. Robin, the race director, did say that will be later on in the race. Rules of the race are you have to get at least one checkpoint from each leg to be official, race cut off is 8:00am tomorrow morning and the other typical adventure race rules. It's a firm cut off, so they have to be back by that time. A few more announcements about the wonderful volunteers in yellow shirts and instructions about the ropes course and it was time to race! The team captains were given the maps, passports and first set of instructions and the race was on.

We made our way to the start line, after the team read, then re-read the instruction sheet. Each team member would have to swim, with their inflated tube, across the river to the other side, where they would receive a chip, then swim back. The race began and the teams ran to the water. Team SteelSports seemed to be doing really well. Chris swam first, followed by Rodney, with his intense fins, then Leslie and Thomas finished. They were all strong in the water and were the second team to leave. They received their second sheet of instructions, which was a bike. This bike leg only has one checkpoint. The had a fast transition and were off. They were about the fourth, maybe fifth, team to make it to the trails. I was able to trek up to a place called Windmill hill and saw them biking down a rather steep hill. They were the third team I saw, but I don't know how many teams had come through before I got there. Still, they seem to be doing pretty well. They were ahead of Team Vingette by a few minutes.

10:04 AM I'm back at TA waiting for them to arrive. Several teams have come through and changed into their PFD's, then leave on bikes. I overheard another team say this was a Swim/Bike/Trek leg. Team Vingette, left on their bikes a few minutes ago, and other teams are heading to the water with snorkels. Hopefully Team SteelSports will be right behind them.

At around 10:10 Team SteelSports made it back to the TA on their bikes. The next leg is indeed, Swim/Bike/Trek. They left here with goggles and PFDs. For the swim leg, they slide down big rubber slides into the river below. Next, they had to swim to what's called The Iceberg. This is a tall, inflatable peek in the middle of the water. Teams have to climb the slippery sides, punch each teammates wristband and slide back down. From there, they swim, a short swim, around a bouie, then exit the water. They climb a small, wooden staircase, check in, then head back to the TA. I was able to snap a few photos of them on the Iceberg and in the water, then headed back to the TA to clean off the black, caked on mud from their chains and derailers. Team SteetSports was back at TA by about 10:30. They grabbed quick bites to eat, filled packs, changed shoes and were off. There are only a few CP's on this leg and Rodney anticipated it would take them about an hour. They left here about 10:38.    

**Just a quick note to readers.  There is one place here that I have the ability to connect to the internet, so my posts might not be a regular as they usually are.  I'm trying to type in a word document and upload to this site as soon as I can.  Be patient.  I promise to get the whole race in here!  Thanks for reading and I'll try to post more pictures later, too.  There is a lot of thunder rolling in and I need to get back to the TA before everything gets wet.**

11:30 AM The team arrived back from this, short bike/trek leg. There are a few teams ahead of them, but I feel like they are doing very well. When they arrived back at the TA the thunder seemed louder and closer. The next leg is a trek, that has 3 points and a special test. Rodney thinks this one will take a couple of hours. They left here at 11:40 on foot. I followed along behind them on my bike, as I made my way back to the shop with internet. I saw them trekking/jogging down the main road to Camp Eagle. As I sat down to connect, it started sprinkling, so I decided to head back to the TA to get things covered. Before I left I overheard a volunteer talking about the repel, so I asked him if that is what they are doing now. He said they expect teams to begin arriving at the repel about 12:00 or 12:30. I headed back to TA to see if I could possibly get some stuff done and head over to the repel cliffs. As soon as I got back the thunder and lightening started to worsen. The lightening seemed like it was right on top of the TA. I got the bikes cleaned and moved under the canopy, but not before getting soaked myself. I heard a loud banging noise and noticed that Thomas's canopy on his trailer fell to the ground and crashed onto his bike stand and bike that were underneath it. I think the water collected on top of the canopy, making it fall. I moved his bike, but I think the canopy is broken : ( Rain is kind of a nightmare. As I said before, the mud is horrific, and now it's only worse.  But, that is the sport and adventure of it all. I really wanted to get some pics of them repelling, but don't want to chance missing them getting back here.

1:00 PM The team arrived back at the TA. They did not do the repel yet. It has been postponed until later. The rain has stopped and the sun was peeking through the clouds. This leg of the race is a bike/trek. There are 8 points and Rodney thinks they'll be gone 3 hours or so. They plan on biking as much as they can, mud permitting, so they didn't take trekking shoes with them. They all refueled, snacked, helped plot points and helped with route selection. They had a fast transition and were out of here by 1:15.   

8:30 PM The team returned from the bike/trek leg. They had some trouble finding a few of the checkpoints and have ended up skipping one. I may have not heard correctly, they may have skipped more than one. Rodney told me they were going to skip more, because they were out of water. They came across a windmill that was pumping water, so they refilled their packs there and were able to continue searching for points. Rodney's derailer is broken on his bike. They were low on fuel, so they ate a little more this time, before leaving. This leg is a paddle/ropes. Rodney said about a two mile, or so, paddle. They will paddle to the traverse line and repel cliffs. It's nearly dark, so they took headlamps with them. They left the TA at 8:45 and Rodney said this leg shouldn't take them more than a couple of hours.   

11:35 PM They arrived back a the TA. They all seemed in good spirits and ready to finish. They are on the last leg, which is a trekking leg. They spent some time here eating, plotting and refilling packs. Rodney anticipates this leg will, hopefully, take 4 hours. There are 6 points on this leg and from what they said while looking at route selection, some of them will be pretty tough. They are going to the CP farthest away first and making their way back, collecting the other five.

6:50 AM I was packing up the TA and heard their voices coming down the road. Team SteelSports has finished Spread Your Wings Adventure Race. They only missed one checkpoint. They are all saying how good they feel and how much they enjoyed the race. Chris said he ran into a pig and when he crawled out of the cave he had a tarantella on him. Eeek. Rodney said they had a tough race, but they enjoyed it. Now they are off to load up the boats and then to a tasty breakfast here at Camp Eagle. We'll be on the road back home shortly.

Sorry for the delay in posting. I hope I didn't cause anyone to worry if they ever finished. When I made my way to the store with the internet connection it was closed, and I think they needed to reset the connection. So, I had to wait until there was cell phone reception to use the wireless card.

What a wonderful, Too Cool, weekend of adventure with an awesome team. Until next time...Katrina  

There is a science to this

On Interstate 35, between Buda and Goforth Texas, Team SteelSports weekend adventure began.  At a speed of 70 mph, a man drove along beside us, waving for us to roll the window down.  Rodney and I had flashbacks of the flying canopy fiasco that took place only a few short months ago.  Same interstate, same scenario.  So, we immediately thought we lost something.  The man said "Your tire looks bad.  Those ball bearings don't look good at all."  We smile, wave and say thank you.  We pull over at the next exit, for gas, and to check out the tire.  Turns out the tire is worn down below the steel belt, to the soft mushy stuff.  Or, as Rodney said "the cream filling was coming out", and Chris says "it was worn down to the nub."  

After we established where we were, I used my happy birthday to me gift, my iPhone to find RV Centers near Buda.  The first place, I called, Camper Clinic II, told me we were close and gave us directions, but she didn't know if they sold tires.  She transferred me to the service department, where I had to hold for the guy who knew this info.  He was on the phone with a customer.  I'm impatient, so we decided to just drive there.  We made our way in the direction of the store, and found 2 other RV places.  We stopped at the closest one,  Crestview RV Center.  It had a nice parking lot and exterior.  Inside were tiled floors and a large, tiled, front desk area where a nice lady directed us to the service counter, where we were told someone would be with us shortly.  This fancy place, had a popcorn machine in the lobby.  Chris helped himself, then Leslie, saying, she "didn't want to be the first", nabbed some for herself.  Eventually, Rodney was able to explain the situation to a very well dress man, who looked like he was just the service department boss and didn't get his hand dirty.  He told us that they'd have to "get it in here and take a look at it" to know exactly what was wrong with it.  When we asked if that could be done quickly, he responded with "we're swamped today, there's no way".  They were no help to us, but they did have free popcorn.

We made our way to our next stop, Camper Clinic II, the location I had called first.  They had a gravel parking lot and the office was a double wide trailer.  Leslie and I decided since this place was not as fancy, they probably didn't have popcorn.  She said they might have suckers, though.  Maybe only Dum-dums, but a free sucker, none the less.  The service department was in another double wide trailer behind the office, connected by a wooden deck.  When Rodney opened the door we were greeted with an overwhelming scent of moth balls.  Mmm...looking good so far.  The man behind the service counter, looked like a man who had been working on motor homes and was wearing his service shirt.  He was surrounded by several staff members.  Rodney explained the situation to him.  He told us they wouldn't be able to look at it today either.  Rodney asked if they sold tires and he said no, that Discount Tire did.  After weigh in from other employees, they gave us three locations for Discount Tire.  We thanked them and left, but not without noticing the large box of Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pops by the cash register.  Indeed, they did have suckers...and not just Dum-dums, but we chose not to take one.  Another bust, but luckily, there was one more RV Center down the service road a bit.

Our next, and final, stop was Marshall's Traveland.  They had a paved parking lot and didn't appear to be busy as there were not many cars in the parking lot.  This place was nothing fancy, but not a trailer, more like a big metal building.  Inside we made our way to the service counter where a friendly lady asked what she could do to help us.  Rodney started the story and she turned to a man who was sitting at a desk eating and said, "Let me see if the service deparment can help you?"  He just looked at at us for a minute, then asked what kind of RV we had.  After Rodney explained the situation in a little more detail and asked for some advice, the man reluctantly got up from his chair and came over to the counter.  Rodney told him the tire was practically brand new because we had it replaced recently.  He offered his advice and Rodney asked if they sold tires.  He said no and told us about Discount Tire.  We already know that story.  He asked what size and how many lugs there were on the tire.  When Rodney answered, he, again, reluctantly said "Well, I've got a 15 inch here."  Rodney said "I'll buy it!" We went outside to make sure that was the correct size.  It was actually a 14 inch.  Coincidentally, he had a 14 inch, too.  He said he kept them around for spare parts.  He informed us that it wasn't part of inventory, so he'd take $80.00 cash, no tax, for it.  While Rodney was paying him he asked "Are you going to put that on yourself?"  Rodney said, "I can, unless you want to do it."  He (we'll call "he" Vido), said "Well, I'm really bogged down right now, got a man out, so I'm short handed, we're just really busy today."  Uhh...hmmm....really?  We took our tire and said our thanks to Vido.

In the parking lot, Rodney and Chris jacked the trailer up and investigated the axel.  Rodney can interject more details later, if he feels the need, because I have no clue what any of these parts are.  Ball bearings, lugs, axels...I don't even know how to tell what size tire we have.  All I know is I heard Rodney say, from the other side of the RV, "There's a science to this."  He asked Leslie if she was good with physics, to which she responded...no, with a smile.  But, all three of them took a look at the axel to decide what would be best.  We found some tire removing tools, and yes, I know they have a name, and they were able to remove the old tire.  After it was off we were able to get a good look at it.  There were frayed metal strips hanging from one side and the whole tire was worn at an angle.  The boys did some mechanical work on the axel, that made perfect sense to them.  They decided this adjustment would keep it from bending, which is what caused this problem in the first place.  Leslie propped the old tire up against the trailer and the boys put the new tire on.  After the tire was on and they released the jack, Leslie and I realized the old tire was now wedged under the edge of the trailer.  I mean, that sucker was STUCK.  It was not budging.  Rodney released some of the air pressure and pulled it out.  Leslie decided that was pretty smart, because her idea would be to jack the whole trailer up again.  The only air pump available was the bike pump, so that what was used to add 50 pounds of pressure into the tire.  Needless to say it took a few minutes.  Chris, Leslie and Rodney took turns and eventually it was ready.  We moved a few of their gear boxes from one side of the trailer to the other, incase weight distribution was causing some issues, too.  We loaded up the tools, bike pump and the old tire and were ready to go.  We cruised down the road a tiny bit and checked it.  The tire did not appear to be bending out of place anymore, so we headed back down the interstate to finish up our trip.  You may be wonder...What was I doing during all this?  You know I was snapping photos!  

Spread Your Wings 24-Hour Adventure Race

TEAM:  Rodney Skyles, Chris Clemmons, Lesley Conrad and Thomas Mullins

Race Date:  May 23-24, 2009

Start Time:  8:00 am

Race Promotor:  Too Cool Racing

Race Location:  Camp Eagle in Rock Springs, TX  

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Texas Quest Adventure Race

SLIDESHOW of pics

The main TA, at CampTexLake, was quiet this morning when Rodney and I arrived at 7:00AM. Lesley, Emily and Steve were packing gear and preparing for the day. Lesley said they slept well in the cabins because the constant hum of the air conditioner kept them sleeping peacefully. They shared the cabins with a few other people. Rodney had a good night's sleep as well, in the RV park and woke up refreshed and ready for the day.

As the gear list was reviewed, we realized Steve did not have a PFD. There was some miscommunication prior to the race. The boat drop was about a quarter of a mile from the TA. After considering trekking to the drop, they opted to drive instead. Once there, the team

unloaded their canoes from the stand and placed them near the lake, with the other boats. They loaded the gear into the boats that they will need for the paddle later in the day. They were able to borrow a PFD from another team. (Thanks to Mark with Team Thrive!) After the boats, oars and gear were loaded we headed back to the TA for race start.

The bus had not arrived for the 8:30AM departure. It arrived about 8:45 and the teams were instructed to load up. I followed along behind the bus for the near 45 minute drive to Reimers Ranch. Once we arrived at the ranch, the bus had some difficulty making it up the hill into the ranch entrance and had to back up a couple of times. The drive over was beautiful and seemed so vast. The view is full of steep, rolling hills. The weather today is overcast, windy and chilly.

Once we arrived at the Reimers Ranch TA, the race began at 10:06 with a short 2 mile run. The next leg was a bike leg that team SteelSports started about 10:30. They arrived back at TA about 12:10 and were instructed that the cutoff for this trek would be 12:45 sharp. Rodney and Lesley plotted the points for the trek and Rodney said it shouldn't be that far or hard. Emily filled back packs with water and was keeping track of the time. Steve seems to be enjoying the race so far. After they arrive back, all teams will load back onto the bus to travel to another location. I'm not sure yet where that will be. It's 12:26 and I'm waiting for them to arrive back here. They seemed in great spirits and all said they are feeling great. The bike was a little rocky, and a couple of them had falls. Nothing major hurt, except Emily's pride.

At 12:40, the team arrived back at the TA. They grabbed all their gear (except bikes), and headed to the bus. They are heading back to the main TA.

At 1:55PM, the bus arrived back to the main TA at CampTexLake. Teams checked in at the main check in, in the order in which they checked in on the bus, to keep things fair. Team SteelSports was the fifth team to arrive. They received the instruction sheet for the next leg of the race, which is a trek. Rodney estimated it should take them less than an hour to complete this leg. They had a very fast transition and were one of the first teams out of the TA. It's still slightly chilly, extremely overcast and it drizzles small amounts of rain periodically. The team seems to be doing well, although they got a little sleepy on the 45 minute bus ride back to Pace Bend.

4:15PM: Two, 4-person coed, teams have checked in from the trek leg. From what I've overheard at the front desk, the coordinates for the TA on the passports were wrong. So what they plotted on their map was actually the boat drop, not the TA. Teams are being given a 20 minute time bonus for this error. Still no sign of the team. I did see them about 20 minutes after the left. They passed by the TA looking for points. I overheard Rodney say a couple of times, that he didn't think the TA was plotted correctly. So, turns out he was right, now I just have to believe he will figure it out and they will get all the CPs and back here soon. They are on leg 4-b. Leg 4 has an "a" and "b". I think "a" includes a zip line.

5:35PM: The race directors have decided that teams who have not arrived back from the current trek leg, if they are not strong paddlers, will not be able to complete the race by the cut off time (1:ooAM). From what I understand, the remainder of the race is, a 9 mile (one way) paddle. Along the way, there is a special test, which is repelling. From the special test, they will paddle the remainder of the 9 miles to another bike/trek at MuleShoe Bend. From there, they will paddle 9 miles back to CampTexLake for another bike/trek to finish the race. They have the option to cut the paddle short, and only paddle to the special test and back. The ropes course will be closing when it gets dark. I overheard the race director say the bikes would be transported back to Pace Bend and they were hoping to have all racers finished biking at MuleShoe by 10:00. It appears as though most teams are going to be short coursed as I think there are only about 3-5 teams on the water now.

6:20pm: The zip line is closed. The staff was only reserved until 6:00pm, so Team SteelSports will not do the zip line.

6:35PM: Team SteelSports arrived back at the TA and didn't seem to be in good spirits. They have been "Super Short Coursed" by the race director. They are paddling 3 miles to check point 17 and back and will not get to repel. When they get back from this leg, they will trek/bike...if their bikes are back from MuleShoe.

7:00PM: The race director has left to go pick up bikes, but doesn't anticipate that he will be back for another 3 hours.

So, The Texas Quest Adventure Race was shortened from a 24 hour to a 15 hour race, combining 12 and 24 hour racers into one race. Within the race, there are now 3 categories. A long course, short course and super short course. Five of the 20 teams are long course teams and expected to finish by the 1:00AM cut off time. The Short Course teams paddled to the special test (repel) and back to Pace Bend. Super Short Course teams will paddle to one CP and back. The newer racers who have decided to call it a day, seem to be enjoying the race and are very complementary of the race directors.

I overheard the volunteer at the front desk talking about the 20 minute time bonus that will be given to teams who were not told about the wrong coordinates on the passports. Team SteelSports was not mentioned and when I asked about it, they said they'd have to ask the race director.

7:55PM: Two short course teams have arrived back from the paddle.

8:40PM: Team SteelSports arrived back from the short paddle leg. They were given another trek leg, which Rodney expected to take them an hour and a half if they run, 2 hours to 2 and a half hours otherwise. A few of them were smiling, and others were not. They seem somewhat frustrated with some of the navigation. Rodney will most likely elaborate on this issue in his race report. [Inserted by Rodney: The UTM coordanates were in 1927 datum, but the maps were 1984 Datum. We learned this from another team around 4:30 pm. After we learned this, we were able to find all CPs with less problem.] I left to get them some pizza, at their request, and passed them on the road. They were running...so I'm expecting to see them soon.

10:50PM: The team arrived back at TA, enjoyed some pizza and were off about 20 minutes later. This trek leg was originally supposed to be a bike leg. The bikes are back at CampTexLake, but the race director altered this leg to another trek. There are 3 points, which they plotted easily. The farthest check point was farther than they thought they could do in the remaining time. Their plan is to get the two closest points and decide from there, based on time left, if they want to get the others before heading back to the TA to finish the race.

12:25AM: Team SteelSports completed the race. They got all the checkpoints they were allowed to get. They were still smiling and glad to be finished. Overall, it was a good race for the team. More to come in Rodney's post race report.

I had a good day supporting an awesome team, taking in the scenery and enjoying the atmosphere of adventure racing. Until next time...when I'll be Katrina Skyles : ) ... KT

If you don't have a good time, it's your own dang fault

The Texas Quest Adventure Race is set to begin tomorrow morning at 10:00AM.  At 8:30AM, a bus will transport all teams from Pace Bend Park to Reimers Ranch.  Bikes for all teams were loaded into a trailer this evening and will be dropped at Reimers Ranch in the morning.  Team SteelSports is made up of Rodney, Lesley, Emily Haberman Roe and Steve Durnam.  Steve is new to the team and just met everyone this afternoon.  This will be Emily's second race to do with the team.

The trip to Austin was relatively uneventful.  Rodney and I met Emily at the Cracker Barrel in Tyler.  From there, we met Lesley at the Cracker Barrel in Desoto.  We got caught in some pretty heavy Friday afternoon traffic, but made it to Pace Bend Park, met Steve, set up the TA, checked in and got everyone settled into their cabin.  Lesley, Emily and Steve are bunking at Camp Tex, which is a girl scout camp located within Pace Bend Park.  The cabins are cedar with several bunk beds lining the cabin walls and two round tables at the entrance.   Located at the back of the cabin are two rooms on opposite walls.  One contains two shower stalls, the other two sinks and toilets separated by doors.  They are cozy and quaint.  

Rodney and I brought the travel trailer and are camping at Pace Bend RV Park.  After we left the park, we headed to the RV park to unload the trailer.  The manager helped us find our spot, after she had to walk up the hill to find "Vernon".  The original spot was 13, which I feel is slightly unlucky.  Plus, I'm a big chicken and may have to be alone at the park while they race.  So, we opted for 14, but were unsuccessful with backing the RV into the spot, even with the help of the manager lady.  She ran to get Vernon, who instructed Rodney to "put your front truck bumper right up to that RV in front of you...but don't hit it".  Eventually, with Vernon's help, we backed into spot 15.  We knew Rodney had the trailer straight, and well positioned in the spot, because Vernon yelled "YOU DID IT BROTHA!"  ... "Brotha from anotha Motha!"  Entertaining, to say the least.  When we got out of the truck to finish Vernon told us we were welcome to join him for some dinner, horseshoes and a beautiful lake view and proceeded to say, "Did y'all come here to have a good time?"  "If you don't have a good time, it's your own dang fault!"  (Vernon didn't say "dang", I've added that to be more polite.) He did recommend a local restaurant, Lake Front Cafe, which we tried.  The dinner was delicious and we enjoyed a nice evening on the patio. We finished off our meals with shared carrot cake.  The team is feeling good about this race and are looking forward to the challenge.  

   

Texas Quest 15-Hour Adventure Race - Austin, TX

Team:  Rodney, Lesley, Emily, Steve (recruited for this race)

Track us during the race!  --------------------------------------->

NOTE:  This race has been changed to a 15 hour race, instead of 24-hour.  The 12 and 24 hour courses have been combined, due to low turnout.  Here is a portion of the email notification:

"We haven't taken any elements out of the race just rearranged them a bit to get everything into 15 hours.  "

Race Promoter: Texas Adventure Racing

Location:  Pace Bend Park (Main TA), Reimer's Ranch, Muleshoe Bend Park

Date:  Saturday, April 11, 2009 - Sunday, April 12, 2009

Start Time:  10:00 am on Saturday

Approximate Distances:

• Mountain biking 60 miles
• Trekking 15-20 miles
• Paddling 20+ miles
• Rope work and mystery events

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I will be using my SPOT tracker, so you can view our position during the race.  

We just received our Pre-race letter.  We will get on a bus at Pace Bend Park and be transported to Reimer's Ranch to start the race at 10 am.  Our bikes will be transported for us.  At Reimer's Ranch, we will be biking and trekking with at least one transition, before we return (I assume on bikes) to Pace Bend to continue the race.

SteelSports 2009 Eco-Lonestar Race Report

*This is one of 3 maps that we used*

Team:  Rodney Skyles, Lesley Conrad, Emily Roe  Support:  Katrina

Eco-Lonestar event page

Race Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009

Race Start: 7:00 am

About:  This was a qualifying race for the 24-hour USARA nationals adventure race in October, 2009.   This was a 3-person race, instead of the normal 4-person, which was actually good for us, because Lesley and I could not find a 3rd person, until race week!  Our other teammates were either unavailable for this weekend, or injured.

Lesley knew Emily and invited her to come along.  Emily had never done an adventure race, but was very willing to give it a try.  She's a triathlete and is doing an iron man this year.

Pre-race:  Katrina and I arrived at the race Transition area and set up around 3:30 pm.  Lesley and Emily arrived a few hours later and we all set up our race gear.

Sleep was a little difficult, because starting out it was pretty muggy.  During the night, there were teams arriving and setting up their TAs, so there was always something going on.

Leg 1:  TREK

The race start was a 100 yard sprint to pick maps and instructions up off the road.  There was a HUGE bottleneck since all team captains were picking up these items from two piles.  One team came back saying they ran out of maps.  Oops!

We plotted the two points on the map and took off running down the road.  We were in the top 25% of teams as we turned off the road onto a logging road.  We took the logging road just short of the trail that the point was on to save some time.  It worked and we briefly jumped a head of three or four teams.

The clue for CP 1 was "Bridge".  As teams arrived at the bridge, there was a CP marker, but no punch.  Someone was there saying THAT was not THE CP, so teams began looking around.  I told Lesley and Emily that the CP was just East of where the bridge/trail crossed the creek, so we went down the trail a little ways.  Team Werewolves were close behind.  We all started looking where the trail headed East, after the bridge and then crossed the creek again.  No luck.  After about five minutes, I followed the creek back toward the bridge and BOOM.  Found it.  Tom Lane from Werewolves was right behind.  Off we go to CP 2.

Now here is where I made a rookie, navigation mistake.  Growing up, I have always defaulted to "muscling" through competition, instead of using my head.  I've gotten better as I've aged, but it's still a problem sometimes.  I think my dad can still beat me at basketball, because of the relaxed "touch" it takes to shoot.

For those who don't know, Navigating is a skill, just like any other discipline (mountain biking, paddling, etc.)  The more you do it, the better you get at it.   I haven't adventure raced much in the past few years due to money, time and injury, so I'm a little out of practice.  Usually Justin is racing with us.  I have a habit of planning the route and then quickly showing Justin what I am thinking.  He's a good navigator, so he will concur or let me know what he thinks.  Regardless, it's a quick double-check for me to make sure it's the best route.  Justin was directing another race on Sunday, so my normal routine was off.

In the heat of competition, there were now a lot of teams around us, I quickly decided to follow the creek to the next CP, since it went right to it.  Well, we tried to do this, but instead of heading East, we ended up going SOUTH.  We spent about an hour going in a circle (or two) back to CP 1.  From there, I did what I should have done before, which was actually look at my compass and head EAST to the CP2.  When we did this, we quickly found a HUGE, Wide trail that pretty much led directly to the CP on the bridge.  UGH!

We ran all the way back to TA.  Katrina let us know that Vignette was an hour ahead and Werewolves were a couple of minutes behind them.  We blew an hour on an easy CP.  SORRY!

Leg 2:  PADDLE 

I sold my Kayak after competing in the Epic last year, so Lesley borrowed Justin's boat and a solo Daggar whitewater kayak for this race.  We had to portage our boats about 300 meters to the water and start an 8 mile, open-lake paddle.   

I started out in the whitewater kayak.  It was a tight fit, but I was able to squeeze in there, with a shoehorn and some butter.  I was able to keep it in a relatively straight line, as long as I was paddling, but if I stopped, I would immediately do a 180 and face backwards (not sure why).After being the LAST team back from leg 1, we passed a couple of teams in transition, but they quickly passed us within the first quarter mile of the paddle (PB & J and Tom McMillan's team).

After about 30 minutes of paddling, Lesley volunteered to trade with me.  I pried myself out of the kayak and jumped in the big, roomy, tank that Justin calls a boat ( ;-P  just kidding ... kind of ).

Lesely paddled the remaining 6+ miles in the whitewater kayak.  It was still slow, but she is TOUGH!  I owe her a pizza or something.  Maybe I'll build her a cake.

We found CP 3 at the end of the lake with no problem and started heading back North for CP 4.   To our surprise, there were tons of boats on the shore at CP 4.  Mystery event!  We had to look at a map and memorize our location and the location of another CP.  As we arrived at each CP, there would be another map with our current location and the location of another CP.  There were three CPs on this trekking leg (CPs A, B and C).  With a ton of bushwhacking, we found each CP with very little problem.  We came back to our boats and noticed there were two or three other teams' boats still on the shore.  Bobby (volunteer) asked if we found all the CPs, we said, 'yes'.  He told us not to judge our position by the boats on the beach, because many teams did not find all of the CPs.  COOL!  A little encouragement after a poor race start!

So, we jumped back in the boats for the remaining 3+ miles back to the TA.  We did not get passed on the way back, so I guess we maintained our position, but our time was still slow.

Leg 3:  Mountain Bike

Glad to be off the water, we quickly transitioned to the mountain bike leg.  Lesley called out UTMs (very well, I might add), as I plotted and Katrina took care of me, as usual, by filling my water pack, providing food/fruit.  She rocks!

Oh, yeah, as a side note, Katrina said that our transitions were faster than she has ever seen them.  I was racing with two women, so that ruins the stereotype that women take longer than men to get ready (ZING!  Chris and Justin!)  

Anyway, this mountain bike leg would rely heavily on route selection for speed.  In spite of my nav error on CP 2, I was feeling pretty confident about our ability to navigate.  Most of the eight CPs on this leg were off trail.  I only remember #13 being on trail, so....

We made a number of route choices that saved a ton of time.  One was a risky choice that did not pay off and ended up requiring a little bushwhacking and fence jumping, but we did not really lose time.  Plus we knew it was a "risk" when we tried it.   :-D

The mountain bike leg required teams to bike on "multi-use" trails.  We saw a number of motorcross bikes tearing it up through the sand.  YES SAND!  Imagine the sandiest sectoins of Tyler State park.  Multiply that times 10 and have it go on for 100 yards.  Fun times!  Oh, by the way, Emily recently purchased her first mountain bike.  As we started the sand slog, Emily had her first wreck!  Congratulations, Emily!  ;-P

We passed a number of teams on this section.  Especially on CP 12, we bushwhacked through some gnarly briars.  There were three of us teams that went into the woods around the same time.  We found the CP and jumped back on our bikes and headed to CP 13.  As we passed the area all us teams jumped into the woods, there was Nancy Bills' team and a couple of other teams on the bridge looking at their maps and asked if we had found the CP.  I said, "Yes, but I'm hungry and need to find a pizza!"    Keep the jokes coming, is my motto!  But seriously, I was hungry ... didn't eat or drink enough.

We biked quickly back to the TA and got instructions for the last leg.

Leg 4:  Rogaine Trek

There were 6 points (plus a punch at the TA) on this leg.  We had to get as many as we could and be back by 7 pm (although this seemed to have changed by the time we got back, due to the late start).  We quickly transitioned again.  We had about an hour to get CPs and get back.  

The first CP to try was about a mile away.  We found the CP 16 with no problem, after a little bushwhacking.  We still had some time, so I thought we would try to pick up CP 18 and maybe stab at 17, depending on the time.  It started getting dark and rain a little.  CP 18 was a little under a mile away from 16.  It was getting dark and hard to see the terrain features, but we quickly started off the trail to look for 18.  In retrospect, I know that we were about 200 meters short of where we should have jumped off the trail to bushwhack.  Oh well, we need to get back by 7 pm (we thought), so we headed back.

We made it back to the TA around 6:40 pm.  The race started at 7:15 am, but Scott the race director said the cutoff was still 7 pm.  The race clock still showed 40 minutes left to race when we got back.

We found a race volunteer and asked what we needed to do.  We saw teams doing a special test.  She said, "If you didn't find all the CPs on the last leg, it doesn't really matter".  She scanned our bar code that recorded our finish time.  We talked to another volunteer and told them we want to do the special test, if it's part of the race.  We did that.  The race end was a bit chaotic.  We did not get five (5) of the CPs on the last leg, but got all of others (skipped 17 - 21 due to time) you can see on the map.

Finally:

Overall, the course was laid out very well and I really enjoyed the nav challenge.  I was not crazy about the sand, but that's part of it.  I'm looking forward to seeing split times of the other teams, because I think, the only "bad" parts of the race we had were my mess up on CP 2 and the paddle (of course).

This was Emily's first adventure race, but you would not have known it, by the way she raced.  She was fast, strong and positive.   She was a great teammate and I'm looking forward to racing with her again.  Lesley was strong, as usual, and showed that she is a well-rounded adventure racer.  I love her "can do" attitude too.

Even though we didn't achieve our objective for this race, it was still a good learning and training experience.  I do think we have the strongest, fastest team of core racers that I have ever raced with.  We just need to improve our paddle legs (working on that now) and keep reducing the nav errors, which I am more confident than ever we (and by "we" I mean my bonehead mistakes) can do.

When we finished the race, Katrina had most of the camp put up and ready to go!  I felt so bad, because I thought we would finish the race earlier and be ready to head back home.  Most of the people we know at races were not there, so Katrina was pretty much by herself most of the day.  I owe you BIG TIME!

Thank you, so much, to Katrina for feeding, packing, cooking, loving, caring for me/us while we race.  I love you!

I'M READY FOR THE NEXT ONE!

2009 Eco-Lonestar Results

• 15 of 28 Overall  (This is bad, but considering we were dead last after the 1st Trek and then we lost time on paddle, this isn't THAT bad.  I think we could have placed 5th or 6th overall with a faster boat.  That is with keeping the mess up on CP 2).
  

• 12 of 18 in Division
  

Lake Bryan Sprint Race - Bryan, Texas

Team Members: Dusty Williams & Lesley Conrad

Race Distances: 7-10mi mtn bike, 5-8mi trekking, 4-5mi kayaking

We took Dusty's dad's RV bus down to Lake Bryan, so our sleeping accomodations were quite luxurious. With 30mi wind gusts and Texas A&M kids partying next door, my sleeping was restless, but enough nonetheless.

Lake Bryan is horseshoe shaped with the campground located on a wiggly mushroom-shaped island in the center, connecting the north and south ends of the lake. TA was located here as well. See map above.

At 6am we all awoke to the dripping and smells of freshly brewed coffee. We gathered our gear and headed down to to set up our TA. Cold and windy! We gathered our maps and passports from the race directors and with freezing fingers we plotted CPs 4-6 and 10-13 with clues. The leg instructions and the rest of the CPs would be handed to us along the way. Leg one was handed out and as final questions were asked to the race directors, we received one last "clue." Due to the high winds, we were given the option of biking, trekking, or paddling to CP 3, which was located on the northwest side of the lake. I think they felt sorry for us. As Team Steelsports and fellow Team Slow n' Steady aka "Grand Masters" (Teresa White and Mike Williams) hundled behind a stone pillar to block the wind gusts, we eagerly awaited the opening of out first leg sheet with countdown to race start.

At 9am race start, Leg 1 read "CPs 1-3 can be obtained in any order. CP 1 trek, CP 2 bike, and CP 3 bike/trek/paddle. As many teams headed off running to CP1, Dusty and I quickly decided that biking to CP3, then biking up CP2 and catching CP1 on the way back to TA would be best. We headed out on our bikes to CP3 on the levee of the West Loop Trails with 30mi gusts to our right side. We swapped sides to block the wind and save our legs. About 2 miles out, we dropped our bikes and headed to the backside of an island to pick up CP3. We hopped back on our bikes and headed to the East Loop Trails to find CP 2 located on a pier passing by many teams on our way. This time winds were fiercely blowing to our left. At times, I thought we weren't even moving. Dusty waited as I biked out on to the pier to pick up CP2. CP1 was located back near TA, and since it was a trekking leg, we debated the idea of dropping our bikes at TA and trekking back out to CP1 or just dropping our bikes on the road as we headed back and trekking out to CP1. We decided the later as we noticed a team in front of us had the same idea. Good thing. I think we saved a few minutes.

We made it back to TA in just 39 minutes, well ahead of many teams. Leg 2 for CPs 4-6 could be obtained in any order, all by paddle (and quite a bit of portage as we later discovered). With wind being a huge factor in maneuvering the lake, Dusty and I chose to get CPs in the 4-6 order to avoid a big windy section. We pushed off the beach and headed straight into the wind for several hundred feet before we could turn south and round the bottom end of the horseshoe to reach CP4. Waves were crashing over the edge, soaking Dusty and I. We saw a team with a sit-on-top kayak flip over and hopelessly try to get back on. No such luck. We were hoping we wouldn't follow suit. However, we succesfully rounded the bend and found CP5 at a canal intersection without much trouble. We headed back in the wind toward CP6, seeing Mike and Teresa emptying their kayak on the shore. We snagged CP6 and headed back to TA with the wind to our backs.

Leg 3 was mtn biking again for CP 7-9, the doggy dash challenge, and as we later discovered the bonus CP for a (one) free beer! We came to the doggy dash challenge first. We looped our wrists through a foot long rope and headed over, over, over, straight-up, up-and-down, balancing along, and then through (or in my case...dragged) each obstacle before grabbing CP 7. Back on the bikes through the West Loop trails to find CP's 8 and 9...easily found right on the trail. We made it back to TA with no issues, picking up the last leg - trekking.

Leg 4 for CP's 10-13. We decided to take the longest trek to CP 12 on the northeast corner of the lake first, then pick up the final 3 CP's on the way back to TA. Rather than taking the windy trek on the East Loop levee, we took a risk and headed straight through the middle island, hoping over some fence property lines along the way. Seemed pretty quick. As we later discovered, most if not all teams stuck to the levee. We then headed for CP 13 and 11 located just of the levee with some bushwacking along the trials. These points were probably the hardest to find based on the lay of the land, but we persevered and found them with little time lost. CP 10 was at the restaurant "icehouse," and another challenge. Dusty and I had to string tiny necklace beads on to some fishing line until we reached about 8 inches. We saw another coed team next to us, but they we're well into stringing. It took about 5 minutes to complete. We raced back to TA for the finish.

We placed 3rd overall in the coed division with a time of 3:43, just 19 minutes behind Werewolves and 25 minutes behind Outcast. Not so bad! We won some poison ivy scrub and ultimate direction waterbottles! A great race all around.

Check out the race website and at http://www.toocoolracing.com/springsprint.html and pictures at http://bobcat13.smugmug.com/Too%20Cool%20Racing%20Adventure%20Races/727365. See if you can find out which teammate relaxed in the kayak as the other wet her (oops...gave it away) feet as she hauled teammate + kayak ashore :)

Big Chill Race Report by:JDog

“We are going to milk it for all it’s worth,” I kept saying after every mistake or misfortunate we ran into or plunged upon ourselves. We were four hours into the paddle when the pain began to arise from our arms and back on the paddle leg of this race. At this point we were about six hours and forty five minutes into the entire race; a race that would prove to conquer us and drive us back to our wits faster than a horse running back to the barn.

Race starts at 10am sharp with the sound of the female race director bellowing through the megaphone. She warns us to pack enough food to last 15 hours so we know this first leg is going to be a monster. The morning is a crisp cool morning with gusts of wind reaching well over 30mph and producing a bone chilling wind chill factor on any exposed skin. She begins by giving us an envelope with our first set of directions inside. We stand there with our teams of four waiting in anticipation for the horn to blow. The count down begins and race is on. Each team shreds through their envelope to discover the start of the course. In the envelope there are Bastrop City Maps, Tourist Guides, and tourist maps, with one clue on the place we need to go to get our next clue. This type of start is fun in adventure racing because you have to think quick and get there before everyone else. If not there could be a bottle neck at any special test the director might throw at you. All at once like a wild buffalo stampede each team is off in the same direction to make it to the next clue. At this clue we have to catch a goat in an arena and bring it to the volunteer in the middle. So without even thinking about it I jumped the pipe fence and took off to catch a kid. This was easy because I just corned the goat herd as other racers frolicked after them aimlessly. Now for the next clue; we had to find the opera house and take 4 canned goods. Then, we had to complete a puzzle for the next clue. This section of the course took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes because we were not able to run due to an injured teammate. It wasn’t that big of deal that we couldn’t run because after all this was a 24 hour race and we needed to conserve as much energy as possible. So we raced for all the clues and locations in town so that we could advance to the next leg. The last part of this leg we received our large water proof topo maps, the first two legs of the race, and the coordinates to go with them.

The next leg is the paddle leg. We launched our two kayaks at about 11:45am Saturday morning. We paddled down stream in on the Colorado River for about 20+ miles. This is where most of our problems began. We started out ok and feeling pretty good. We only had 3 check points to find on this leg but they are really far apart and when I say far apart I mean about 2-2.5 hours apart. Crazy! Our paddling vessles were not the right equipment for a race of this distance. One kayak weighed about 95lbs and the other about 70lbs with beams of about 32inches wide. That’s huge for a paddle this long. The more weight you have and the wider the beam the more drag you have. The more drag you have the more work you do and the more work you do the more pain you feel. Our kayaks were our remedy for being miserable on the water. At CP2 on the water we did have to get out of the boats and go find 4 quick points that had special letters on them that we had to spell and bring back to the boat docking area at the CP. The word we had to spell was duet. This was good to do because it warmed our bodies and gave our shoulders a much needed rest.

Now it’s off to CP3 of the paddle. The end is in sight, or is it? The map that we had used a datum of like 1983; so what that means is that the map hasn’t been updated since 1983. As we get closer to our final paddle CP we know to look for a bridge that crosses over the river. You can’t miss it, it is an obvious bridge. Finally we see it, but something isn’t quite right, it is way too close to a power just north of the bridge, but I don’t think anything of it and begin to paddle stronger to reach the bridge. About this time it is getting dark and it’s time to break the glow sticks and bring out the headlamps. Come to find out the area, Smithville, had added a new loop and that first bridge that we saw was the loop bridge. Talk about depressing! So here we are in a miserable situation with our 95 lb kayak that I am ready to sink at this point and still not there yet. This leg ended up taking us about 7 hours. But to our surprise at the end of this paddle were to angels waiting on us cheering us on. These two angelic, shadows gleaming in the dark where next to CP3. They were Katrina and Diana our support crew, two of our spouses. We could not have gone as far as we did without them. We love you guys!!! Your support for us kept us going and we needed it!

It’s dark now and we land our kayaks and start getting ready for the bike leg of the event. At first we aren’t quite sure where we are but we quickly figure it out. The reason for not knowing exactly where we were was because the CP coordinates for CP3 the directors gave us were wrong.(COME TO FIND OUT THEY WERE RIGHT ON, sorry to blame the race director, it was us again) We still have CP4 and CP5 to get in this first leg but we get them on the bike. The bad part about this is we remember that for the second leg, the bike leg, the directions say NO TRAVEL ON HWY 71 IS PERMITTED. So because we are on the bikes we automatically, without looking at the stupid clue sheet, conclude that we can’t travel on Hwy 71 to CP4 and CP5, so the road we need to get us to CP4 must be in this parking lot. Right? Wrong! We wheeled around the stupid area at night looking for this stupid road that doesn’t exist thinking it has to be there because we can’t travel on 71. We decide we will just get in the grass beside 71 and if we get disqualified then oh well! So we start out doing that, but being the good, rule abiding racers that we are we feel guilty and decide to turn back around one more time just to double check. The grass was a HUGE mistake. We ended up getting three flat tires on our bikes. Lesley, Chris and Rodney all got flats at the SAME time. To top it off our brainless CO2 would not work correctly and it wouldn’t completely fill a tire up. And guess what, none of us brought a mini hand pump so we were OUT of air. We were just about to give up when another team came to our rescue with a mini hand pump. So we aired up our tires and headed for 71. This time we said forget it, we are getting on 71 whether or not it is allowed. So we did that and then I had a brain flash. Duhhhh!! the clue for leg one didn’t say anything about not traveling on 71 just for leg 2 you couldn’t travel on 71. And we were still on leg 1. AHHHHHHH its times like that, that make me want to scream and yell like I did when my brothers would shoot my GI Joe men into orbit with bottle rockets. I was mad, not at the race directors, but at myself.

So now we are off to Rocky Hill ranch where there is superb single track bike trails. We have several points to get here at night then we are headed back to the transition area. I went ahead and transferred the approximate location of the CPs from the topo map to the Rocky Hill Ranch trail map so that it wasn’t a total guessing game with the location of the CP and which trail we should take to get there. This proved to be a success. We struggled with some points but for the most part found everything without any problem. Good job Rodo! Once we found all the CPs it was off to the TA, then suddenly cccsssshhhhh…. We have another flat tire! And no air to fix it with. So I get my phone out and call Diana, “Hey we just had another flat and can’t fix it so we are going to drop out, wait what’s that I think I see a light in the distance. Let me call you back later we might still be in this.” Team 118 pulls up and offers some assistance and loans us a co2 pump and some co2, awesome! We fix the tire and we are off again. We travel on park road 10 I think or it maybe park road 1. I didn’t have the map at this point so I don’t remember exactly. This road is long hilly and brutal. Towards the end Rodney is shot but, Chris is feeling good because this is his strong point. Lesley is hanging on with Chris because she just finished an Ironman and is in excellent shape. I’m just trying to hang on and so is Rodney. About 2 miles before the TA my front tire goes flat so I decide to just roll down the down hills and walk the up hills. This worked and we finally made it back.

We checked in and we had to put together a puzzle that was a map of Bastrop State Park. On that puzzle map there were four CPs that we had to transfer to another map and then trek/run to those CPs. Before we got those CPs Katrina had the best meal of our lives waiting for us. It was exactly what kept us going, it’s what helped us “milk it for all its worth.” Diana was there giving support to us also and the good Lord knows I couldn’t have made it without her. So now we are off to get the CPs. We make several mistakes here but like I said, at this point “we are going to milk it for all it’s worth.” And that we did! Up to this point we had gotten all the CPs and were going strong but running out of time.

We make it back in and the director gives us the wrong sheet, she gave us the final leg sheet and I thought we actually might have a chance when she did that, but she raced back to me to get it from me and give me the right leg. Another mountain bike leg! WE decide to give up getting all the CPs and just get the closest one which ends up being the ropes course CP. We do that and come straight back hoping that we can get at least one CP from the next leg so that we can be officially ranked.

She gives us the last leg sheet and we only have 1hour and 30 minutes to finish. We plot the closest point and….. You guessed it too far away. So at this point we realize, in utter disappointment that we are not going to be ranked. It would have taken us 2.5 hours to get the closest CP on the last leg. Oh well…

We learned a lot during the course of this race. I realized even more so that I really do need a new kayak if I’m going to race that distance again. Chris learned that 24’s just aren’t his cup of tea and right now I wouldn’t disagree with him myself. But I’m young and dumb and want some more. Lesley is a great racing partner because she is strong and offers good advice. She also isn’t afraid to speak up amongst a bunch of guys. Rodney is always fun to race with as well. We normally do a really good job of navigating together. This race we just didn’t have it. Maybe next time…

We had fun, but what killed us was poor equipment, direction misinterpretation, a bad decision making, but what kept us going was each other and that is what this sports all about.