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