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 :)
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