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