Team SteelSports -- Big Chill 2010 Race Report by: Rodney

I'll just insert some info that Katrina's blog did not have:


Mystery Event:


When we boarded the bus at 7:55 am, the 24-hour teams were taken to McKinney Roughs Nature Park (http://www.lcra.org/parks/developed_parks/mckinney_roughs.html)  While on the bus, teams had to complete an 18 question trivia quiz.  The team with the most correct answers would start the race, followed by the next team about a minute behind, an so on.  Team Superbad was first and to our surprise, we were second :)


We ran the trails with full packs, paddles and PFDs and picked up three checkpoints, on our way to the boat start.  The boats were on the shore of the river at Hyatt Lost Pines Resort (http://www.lostpines.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp ).  Nice place, from what I recall.  


Paddle 1:


Lorinda and I paddled together and Justin and Chris paddled.  Before this race, we have had a tough time getting used to the fast, new kayaks we purchased.  Lorinda showed us some things we could do to improve our paddling and stability and BOY did it help!  We were much more stable and secure in our boats with no fear.  We knocked out the 20 mile paddle in about 3.5 hours.  Last year, the 27 mile paddle took us 8-9 hours.  We finished the paddle in Bastrop and ran back on the roads to the TA for the next leg.


There were a couple of strainers that almost knocked us out and one big rapid section that turned the stern of our boat around, but for the most part, it was a nice paddle.


Mountain Bike 1:


After transition, we headed out on the bikes to get seven CPs.  The route started with riding the NorthShore trail at the park and then getting the first CP at North Shore park.  We then headed out on the road FM 1441.  We had a nice pace line going here and made good time.  We crossed Hwy 21 and continued on an old road into Bastrop State Park (mixed in with some private land on the sides).


The CPs were not difficult to find, but some were off of dirt roads and/or utility lines.  Most dirt roads are not on maps, so you take them at your own risk that they may or may not end up where you want them to.   This brings us to the only real problem we had in the race.  After getting CP 8 off of a pipeline in a ditch, we needed to get to CP 9, which was South of us.  On the North side of CP 8, we noticed an old road that was running in the direction we needed, so we took it.  After about 40 minutes of chasing various "trails" and hitting dead ends, we went back to CP 8 to take a LONG pipeline ride out of the way to hit a paved road that would take us back to the park.  As we hit the pipeline and started heading Southeast, we noticed ANOTHER dirt trail/road that had been freshly bull-dozed.  We decided to try it, instead of the long way back.  We passed a HART team going the opposite direction and quickly confirmed between teams that we were all 24-hour racers.  Uh-Oh.  Is this going to be another dead end?  Luckily, we kept riding and watching our direction.  It ended up taking us to where we needed to go.  Justin commented how dumb we were for not noticing that THIS was the path we came OFF of to hit CP 8.  Why didn't we notice it continued past the pipeline after getting CP 8?!?!?!


We started seeing more teams around us and I think we all became a little frustrated that we had wasted so much time and lost momentum (more on this later in "The Big Transition" section).


Anyway, we wasted nearly an hour trying to "save" time.  We lost a little more time trying to avoid using private land to get to CP 9 (if I remember correctly).  The TOPO map only showed one old, dirt road leading to CP 9 area, but it was gated on the way with a private land sign.  We bushwhacked and crossed a creek (carrying/passing bikes to each other) along side the land, but ended up hitting a fence again.  Ugh!  We decided to head back up the dirt road and see if we saw a road heading left/West.  We did!  We wasted about 10 minutes, or so doing this, but when we found a road (not on the map) that was going in the right direction, we started making good time again.


We got CP 9 on a pond and headed down more dirt roads to an old barn.  There we saw LazyManRunning, a two-man team that we had been around all day.  Nice guys, so it was good to see them again.  As they were getting ready to bike back out they said, there's no barn around here (as they were standing in front of the barn).  That's one of the things I love about adventure racing.


From there, we hit a power line and were riding along with LazyManRunning for a while.  We then came to a gate that blocked some of the power line.  This could lead you to Hwy 21, from where you could continue on to CP 11.  OR, you could ride the park fence line, which was basically a fire lane bull-dozed a while back.  We decided to trust the fence line.  I think LazyMan decided to go the other way, since we didn't see them anymore.  While this route was pretty hilly, it took is right to the CP we needed.  From there, we just crossed the Hwy, and headed back to TA.


Big Transition:


Okay, here is where something happed that usually doesn't happen.  I thought it was just me, but Katrina said our whole team was DOWN.  All of us usually take things in stride and push on, but this was different.  I think it was obvious to Kip, too (he was volunteering for the race, but usually races with Vignette), because he and Katrina started really pouring on the encouragement by telling us how great we were doing and that we were in 4th place.  They also said we were pretty far ahead of the other teams behind us.  At first, I thought they were just saying we were doing well, but they really seemed to believe it, so we felt a little better :)


So what was the deal??  We usually don't get too bummed about messing up, because 1)it's a long race and 2) that happens all the time in adventure racing.  On the way home, I think Katrina diagnosed the issue perfectly.  She said she thought we were down, because of our history with the Big Chill.  Ah, that makes sense.


This was our 3rd year to race in the Big Chill.  For various reasons, we have been unable to finish the race, meaning, we did not collect all of the CPs.  While you CAN officially finish a race by collecting at least one CP on each leg, we are not a team that likes to skip CPs.


This year, we really thought we could collect all the CPs.  After having that dirt road issue, I think the harbinger of not finishing was whispering in the back of our minds again.  None of us liked that, so I think were were just keeping our mouths shut while dealing with that negativity, hoping it would go away and we would not spread it to the rest of the team.


Trek:


The next leg was a pretty short trek inside the South Shore park.  We ran a little, but walked much of it as we got these CPs and headed back.


Paddle:


A short, one CP paddle in rented Canoes on Lake Bastrop.  No problem, but we did see a bunch of teams going out as we were coming in.  At this time, I started feeling really sick!  Not in a "I'm going to quit" way, but in a "I wonder when I'm going to throw up" way.  I asked Justin if he would handle the nav on this leg and I would try to recover.  I took a little extra time in TA to eat and drink a little.


Bike:


This bike section was an Urban Bike Orienteering course.  I started feeling much better about 3 miles into the bike and biking around Bastrop to collect CPs was actually very cool.  Justin got us to all the CPs with no problem and we hustled back to the TA.  Oh, Justin also picked a route that had very few climbs, so I was able to recover very nicely.  Thanks, Justin!


Trek:


Now for the last leg!  We had a long leg that took the two top teams 3 hours complete.  We still had plenty of time, before the race cutoff, so we were feeling pretty good about achieving our goal.  Chris started feeling a little sick now, so I recommended some things I did in the last TA that helped me.


Heading out on the last leg, we knew we would probably walk most of it, so we told Katrina it would probably take us 5 hours.  Justin did the nav on this leg and I mostly tagged along and threw in my two cents when he asked.  He took us straight to most of the CPs, but the last two were in very difficult draws.  The last two CPs were in draws that were tricky to read.  Kind of clover-leafed, so when you are in them, it's hard to know 100% that you are in the right one.


The night was perfect for racing.  The bushwhacking at Bastrop State Park is really not bad at all.  It was just a nice last leg; however, the road walking part always seems to go on forever there.


Finished:


We finally did it!  Not our first 24-hour race to finish and will not be our last, but this was the one that kept frustrating us.  Not anymore!  We had a good time together and pushed ourselves.  Chris, Justin and I really enjoyed racing with Lorinda for the first time too.  She was a great teammate and contributed tons to our success.


Thank you AGAIN to my wonderful wife for letting me play in the woods and for helping the whole team.  I would list all of the things you do for us before, during and after the race, but the people who read this would ask why you married me.  I love you!