Untamed VA 2008
I will edit this later, I have a bunch of posts to post and wanted to get this out......
It has been a few weeks since I did this race, but I have not forgotten it. We were supposed to be a team of 4 but lost a racer due to weak ankles a couple weeks before race start. So the final team was made up of myself, Miss Polly and Johnny Mapquest.
First, we had to arrange for riverboards/boogie boards. This was tough as we had no idea what to expect. And the cost did not seem worth it. So I went with the boogie board, while my teammates used riverboards. The $250 riverboards were heavy as hell, big, and had no advantage over the $50 boogie board. More on this part of the race later. Second, it was an unsupported race so we had more gear to carry than usual.
The check in went smothly this time with my teammates arriving in time to check in this year. We even had a chance to sleep for a few hours which was a plus over last years crazy pre race night.
The start was a 90 minute drive from the city of Richmond VA. But, from there we were put onto school buses for a 120 min. drive to the official start. On the bus ride we had the opportunity to start plotting and planning our race. And develop a huge urge to pee.
Because our team dropped from 4 to 3 people, we also dropped a canoe and stuffed all 3 of us into it, along with our river boards and boogie board, and packs packed for 30 hours. The race started with a 1 or 2 hour portage (I have no idea how long it was, but I do remember it was up and over a very large hill). We did not have wheels, which did not seem like a huge advantage over the rough terrain, but I am sure would hve helped. We were about 3rd last into the river, but we gained allot of ground in the paddle.
We spent the majority of the day on the river. The very shallow river. We were scraping bottom or out walking the boat for a fair bit of the race. As we progress through the river section, pasisng other teams, we increasingly came across locals out fishing on the river. Because of the shallow water they were all in canoes as well, it was neat to see so many boats out enjoying the very warm sunny day.
As a result of being on the water all day under the clear sky, I got the worst sunburn I have evr gotten. The shirt I wore had a large head holeand exposed about a 1 inch width piece of my untanned back. Over the subsequent days this section of skin became a nice pink. The tanned part of my neck was just fine.
Anyway, after the paddle we put on our swim fins and bike helmet, climbed in the river and onto our river boards. Then we floated down the calm shallow river for a couple check points. The water was very nice and this was a huge waste of our time. If they said get a piece of foam board and expect to float on the river for a few kilometers, that would have been cool. But part of the pre race material should videos of people going through crazy whitewater on river boards. I think the race director was buddies with the local river board dealer.
At least the swim was nice.
Then it was trekking time. We found all the checkpoints before the sun set, but made it to our bike pickup in the dark. From here we started the bikesection that first followed gravel roads for about 50km, then we were on paved roads for the final 30km.
The ride was very hilly, which took us b surprise. It should not have surprised us, but it did. This is a very hilly area. Not big hills, but there is not flat terrain. This seemed to be a bit too much for Johnny Mapquest. He had to bail about 60km into the ride. In fact this point was a popular bail-out location. After all that time on the gravel roads, this was the first sign of real civilization - a grocery store, gas station and a bank. Basically, as people came across this oasis of rural Virginia and saw others stopped in the bank parking lot the group of people calling it quits grew.
Oh, about 10km before the infamous bank (~2am), we stopped in some guys driveway and slept for 30 minutes (as some of you know, I could not sleep, while the others slept just fine.... oh wait, is it the other way 'round?).
This is where the race organizers plan for the weekend began to fall apart even more (after the lame riverboarding). So they got people to shuttle the group calling it quits at the bank to a point farther away from the finish line in a very remote location. Miss Polly and I rode from the bank to the point where the quitters were being dropped. Suddenly there was a large group stranded in a low lying marsh further from anywhere waiting for the same people to come and shuttle us back to the finish line. Here we waited for about 4 hours. I think I slept a bit, no sure. Then it was our tuen to be picked up driving us back to where we left our cars before the bus ride. The route back to our cars passed the bank where we (or at least Johnny mapquest) had just been picked up.
The race organizer claimed to design the race for a 40% finish rate. The complained about all the picking up that had to be done.
Overall it was a good race route, I wish we could have finished it. I would do this one again next year. With teammates that have been properly training.
It has been a few weeks since I did this race, but I have not forgotten it. We were supposed to be a team of 4 but lost a racer due to weak ankles a couple weeks before race start. So the final team was made up of myself, Miss Polly and Johnny Mapquest.
First, we had to arrange for riverboards/boogie boards. This was tough as we had no idea what to expect. And the cost did not seem worth it. So I went with the boogie board, while my teammates used riverboards. The $250 riverboards were heavy as hell, big, and had no advantage over the $50 boogie board. More on this part of the race later. Second, it was an unsupported race so we had more gear to carry than usual.
The check in went smothly this time with my teammates arriving in time to check in this year. We even had a chance to sleep for a few hours which was a plus over last years crazy pre race night.
The start was a 90 minute drive from the city of Richmond VA. But, from there we were put onto school buses for a 120 min. drive to the official start. On the bus ride we had the opportunity to start plotting and planning our race. And develop a huge urge to pee.
Because our team dropped from 4 to 3 people, we also dropped a canoe and stuffed all 3 of us into it, along with our river boards and boogie board, and packs packed for 30 hours. The race started with a 1 or 2 hour portage (I have no idea how long it was, but I do remember it was up and over a very large hill). We did not have wheels, which did not seem like a huge advantage over the rough terrain, but I am sure would hve helped. We were about 3rd last into the river, but we gained allot of ground in the paddle.
We spent the majority of the day on the river. The very shallow river. We were scraping bottom or out walking the boat for a fair bit of the race. As we progress through the river section, pasisng other teams, we increasingly came across locals out fishing on the river. Because of the shallow water they were all in canoes as well, it was neat to see so many boats out enjoying the very warm sunny day.
As a result of being on the water all day under the clear sky, I got the worst sunburn I have evr gotten. The shirt I wore had a large head holeand exposed about a 1 inch width piece of my untanned back. Over the subsequent days this section of skin became a nice pink. The tanned part of my neck was just fine.
Anyway, after the paddle we put on our swim fins and bike helmet, climbed in the river and onto our river boards. Then we floated down the calm shallow river for a couple check points. The water was very nice and this was a huge waste of our time. If they said get a piece of foam board and expect to float on the river for a few kilometers, that would have been cool. But part of the pre race material should videos of people going through crazy whitewater on river boards. I think the race director was buddies with the local river board dealer.
At least the swim was nice.
Then it was trekking time. We found all the checkpoints before the sun set, but made it to our bike pickup in the dark. From here we started the bikesection that first followed gravel roads for about 50km, then we were on paved roads for the final 30km.
The ride was very hilly, which took us b surprise. It should not have surprised us, but it did. This is a very hilly area. Not big hills, but there is not flat terrain. This seemed to be a bit too much for Johnny Mapquest. He had to bail about 60km into the ride. In fact this point was a popular bail-out location. After all that time on the gravel roads, this was the first sign of real civilization - a grocery store, gas station and a bank. Basically, as people came across this oasis of rural Virginia and saw others stopped in the bank parking lot the group of people calling it quits grew.
Oh, about 10km before the infamous bank (~2am), we stopped in some guys driveway and slept for 30 minutes (as some of you know, I could not sleep, while the others slept just fine.... oh wait, is it the other way 'round?).
This is where the race organizers plan for the weekend began to fall apart even more (after the lame riverboarding). So they got people to shuttle the group calling it quits at the bank to a point farther away from the finish line in a very remote location. Miss Polly and I rode from the bank to the point where the quitters were being dropped. Suddenly there was a large group stranded in a low lying marsh further from anywhere waiting for the same people to come and shuttle us back to the finish line. Here we waited for about 4 hours. I think I slept a bit, no sure. Then it was our tuen to be picked up driving us back to where we left our cars before the bus ride. The route back to our cars passed the bank where we (or at least Johnny mapquest) had just been picked up.
The race organizer claimed to design the race for a 40% finish rate. The complained about all the picking up that had to be done.
Overall it was a good race route, I wish we could have finished it. I would do this one again next year. With teammates that have been properly training.
posted by Us at
7:33 PM 
1 Comments:
OWEN, I've seen you catching zzz's on the side of a mtn holding your bike... and I've heard you snoring even above the crazy hum of the zillion mosquito's that were eating us alive in Quebec.... what's this about not being able to sleep?? har har. Nice try.
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