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!

Big Chill 2010

Team SteelSports: Rodney Skyles, Chris Clemmons, Lorinda Putter, Justin Reneau

You can also follow the race on CheckPoint Tracker, where there's a leaderboard, and race updates. Check it out:

http://www.checkpointtracker.com/events/27

The 2010 Too Cool Big Chill Race has begun! The day started off a warm, slightly muggy and overcast 64 degrees. The main transition area is at South Shore park on Lake Bastrop. In the pre-race letter, the racers were told to expect to be out on the first leg for 10+ hours. During the pre-race meeting Robyn Cantor, the race director, told the teams they would have a task to complete on the bus ride to the starting line. They had to take their paddling gear with them. At 7:55 this morning, the 24 hour racers loaded onto the bus and departed about 8:00. The official race start time is 8:30. The cutoff is 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Team SteelSports are ready to make this the best Big Chill so far. Their packs were heavy, but their spirits were high as they headed to the bus this morning. I don't expect to see them again until late this afternoon, or early evening. They are most likely doing some type of urban trekking, then paddling down the river. The pre-race letter indicated there would be about 18-24 miles of paddling. I checked the spot tracker tracking website, and the tracker doesn't seem to be working. Hopefully it will soon, so we can all keep track of where they are. I plan to head back to the main TA in about 8 hours. They all took plenty of food, clothes and hydration, so they should have an excellent start to this race!

10:00 Looks like the Spot Tracker is working now. I see they are close to the river.

2:00: Per the Spot Tracker Team SteelSports is off the water. According to some other support crew members, the main TA is 4 miles from the water exit, with one CP along the way. Team Vignette (who finished the first leg in 5 hours) and Team IMOAT have checked in and it appears Team SteelSports is pretty close behind them. I am expecting to see them in less than an hour.

2:45ish: Team SteelSports checked in from leg 1 of the race. They were in GREAT spirits and seemed to be feeling good. Justin's knee is hurting pretty bad, but he took some ibuprofen. They had a fast, efficient transition and took off on the second leg at about 3:00. They are now biking and expect to be gone for 4 - 6 hours. They are in fourth place overall right now.

6:30ish: Team SteelSports checked in from the bike leg. They said they lost about 40 minutes by going down a road that didn't go where they thought it would go and seemed to be feeling pretty down about it. They haven't lost their place and seemed to spunk up a tiny bit before leaving on the next trekking leg. They expect this leg to take about 45 minutes. Looked like they had 4 or 5 points to get. I know that the next leg is a paddle leg. Basically an out and back paddle to get one check point. I also know they will have to use the rented boats, pfds and paddles. The weather is cooling off a bit, but fortunately there no wind right now.

8:00ish: Team SteelSports checked in from the trekking leg and are now out on the short paddle. They are all feeling tired and fatigued, but feeling like they can finish strong.

8:45ish: Team SteelSports checked in from the paddle leg and had a longer transition to fuel properly for the next bike leg. It's an urban bike leg, so it will be on roads to a place called Tahitian Village. They will be gone about 2 hours. Justin said it would be a pretty brutal bike with lots of hills. They can get these CPs in any order. They left TA at 9:05.

10:50ish: Team SteelSports checked in from the second bike leg. They all seemed to be doing well and ready to finish strong. The last leg is another trekking leg to Bastrop State Park for the rest of the CPs then back to the TA to finish up the race. They expect this leg to take about 4 hours. They left TA at about 11:15, refueled and with fresh socks. : ) The socks they have taken off through out the day really stink, by the way. This from a support crews point of view. Other than the stink, they are rocking this race.

3:27: Team SteelSports has finished the Too Cool Big Chill 24 hour race. They got all the CPs and finished in 18:48. They are all exhausted and hungry. They're showering, sleeping for a bit and having breakfast, before the awards at 9:00am.

Thanks for following. Until next race, Katrina

Countdown to the Big Chill 2010!

Team SteelSports.net is excited to return to the Big Chill 2010 in Bastrop, TX!  This will be our third time to race this event and we're hoping to improve our showing.  For various reasons, we were unable to collect all of the CPs in our previous attempts.  This year's course looks like it's going to be even longer, so we have our work cut out for us.

Chris, Justin and I are excited to welcome Lorinda Putter to the team for this race!  We've never raced with her, but did some training together and we think she's going to be a great addition :)  We will miss Lesley, but she's in her first year of residency after finishing medical school.  You can imagine how little time she has!

Jan 9, 2010 Cold Training Day

We plan to have the SPOT tracker running during the race and Katrina will be blogging, so feel free to follow along!

Race site and info:  http://www.toocoolracing.com/bastrop2.html

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