Race Report: 2013 Bonk Hard Chill 12hr AR

originally posted by Alpine Shop Adventure Race Team member, Emily Korsch here! Thank you, Emily, for these awesome reports!

Exactly a month after our overall win at the 2013 Bonk Hard LBL Challenge 18hr AR, I reunited with Alpine Shop to take on the 12hr adventure race known around these parts simply as The Chill. We had been training together a little bit more since LBL and were excited for this barn burner of a race which would feature some smokin’ fast teams from around the Midwest.

PRE-RACE
I meet up with the boys at our favorite commuter lot to load everything into the Sona-van for the trip down to Osage Beach, MO. There’s nothing I love more than the sheer absurdity of 4 bikes mounted on 1 mini-van and we get a lot of looks as we cruise down I-44 to the race site. A quick stop for lunch lets us visit with Jeff’s dad which is awesome, they are even wearing the same pair of Crocs!! When we get to Lake of the Ozarks, we check in at race sponsor Oz Cycles & Kayaks. We get our race packets, visit with Gary and Ellen, and chat with Dan about the upcoming OGRE.

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After check-in we stop at next-door Paul’s Supermarket for some last-minute junk race food and water. Then we bring everything back to the hotel for bike prep, and thankfully it’s nice enough to do this outside. As we are messing with our gear, racers start streaming in and it’s fun to greet our friends! Pretty soon it’s time to head over to the pre-race meeting where Bonk Hard hands out tons of schwag, along with a kayak raffle (we did not win) and the race map for tomorrow. We get coordinates for the first 27 CPs, and will receive coordinates for 2 more CPs (8 and 27) on the course tomorrow, along with however many checkpoints he will have after we punch the first 29.map2

 

Back at the hotel, we chow down on my favorite pre-race meal (pizza!!) and get to the business of plotting. This course is more traditional than last month’s LBL Challenge, but we are excited for the head-to-head competition it will bring. Gary still manages to include some choice into the race, allowing CPs 16-18 to be visited in any order and in any mode. We decide they will be a short trekking loop for us. We also pack our gear bags with extra food and water which we will have access to at CP20, slightly past the mid-way point of the race. After the map is done, we spend some time agonizing over clothing and food choices. It’s clear that the resupply bag isn’t all that necessary – each of us could carry enough calories to get us through the entire race – but we plan on stashing a few treats in there, just because we can. And although it takes us at least 20 minutes to decide on which pair of gloves to wear (fleece? wool? windproof? waterproof? mittens? etc etc etc), it takes the boys about 30 seconds to decide how I should do my hair (“PIGTAILS!!!“).Race morning wakes us up at 4:45am, and I am proud to say I have had yet another sound pre-race sleep. We quickly pack up the Sona-van, eat breakfast, drink Doug’s special turbo-charged coffee, and head over to the bike drop at 5:30am. Then it’s back to Race HQ in Osage Beach City Park for the pre-race meeting at 6:30am and the race start at 7:00am!

TREK 1 (4.7mi, CPs 1-6, 1:06)

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GO!

It’s a mad dash to CP1, with 39 teams all gunning for the same location. We push the pace out of HQ and run right past the Sona-van where David chucks his warm-up fleece. Turns out that most of the field follows us and we run in a crowd to CP1. I’m excited about racing and it occurs to me that this is so much better than a mass Ironman swim start. At some point we slide down a super-steep bank and I can feel something’s wrong with my tights. Did I rip them? Is my butt hanging out for the entire race to see? My tights were already tattered from the infamous CP E at CPT Nationals, but I keep hoping they’ll last for one more race. In any case, there’s no time to worry about unintentional flashing now, because we have punched CP1 and are streaking (pun intended) through the woods on our way to CPs 2, 3, and 4. On the attack to CP4, we have a little bit of hesitation, but there are several other teams around us and everyone struggles from the group think. But we bounce one reentrant north and find the CP. We jet off to CP5 and then up the trail to CP6 where our bikes are waiting.

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David, (Jeff Ryan from 34 Down), me, Jeff, Doug at CP6.

It’s mass chaos as there are at least six other teams all arriving at the TA within 5 minutes of each other. I do my best triathlon-inspired transition and then help the boys with their remaining shoes and gear. Then it’s time for some biking!

BIKE 1 (7.5mi, CPs 7-9, 0:36)
We have a slight (aka 30-second) lead leaving the TA and we are firing on all cylinders. We enjoy a lightning fast, paved descent and then it’s time for a towing paceline. My goal for this race has been to stay in the boys’ draft as much as possible to keep the team speed high. It’s working so far as we hit CP7 in the lead. Here, we are given UTM coordinates for CP8, which we must plot on the map. It’s my and David’s job to plot and my brain completely freaks out…we can’t find the right box, I use the wrong scale on the plotter, and suddenly we are surrounded by other teams and it’s chaos. Jeff snaps us to attention and we finally get the point plotted correctly, but by now our slim lead has evaporated.

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Gear check at CP9, me showing the race volunteers’ my emergency blanket.

But we do our best to push to CP8 and CP9 and get the job done, clawing back a few seconds’ advantage over 34 Down, Team Fusion, and Bushwhacker. When we arrive at CP9, we have a gear check, which we pass successfully and then it’s time for a short trek to the boats.

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Me taking David’s shoes off after passing the gear check at CP9.

TREK 2 (1.5mi, CPs 10-12, 0:22)

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Alpine Shop leaving CP9 in the lead!

We run out of CP9 just barely in front of 34 Down and Team Fusion, but we are all feeling good on our feet.  David nails the nav as usual, but so do the other 2 teams and we all pop out of the woods together at the paddle put-in.

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Approaching CP12.

PADDLE 1 (3.5mi, CPs 13-15)
At the put-in, Doug and David pick out some boats (what kind? good ones!) as Jeff and I assemble paddles. We are trying a new nav strategy for the paddle, and it involves me holding the maps. At LBL, David had his hands full trying to nav and steer the boat through tough conditions, and he suggested that it might be easier for someone in the front of the boat to take over nav. With my recent success on the maps, I volunteered and we are trying the arrangement for the first time today. I am slightly terrified about holding this responsibility, but I just narrate our route constantly and things actually go pretty well. We are able to pull slightly ahead of 34 Down (who are using canoe paddles) and Team Fusion as we punch CPs 13, 14, and 15.

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Time to paddle and nav! Leaving CP12.

TREK 3 (2.1mi, CPs 16-18)


The race instructions have told us that we can punch CPs 16-18 in any order and by any mode. If you look at the picture above (recreated from google maps), you can see that if you were a good paddling/bad trekking team, you might want to hit one or more of these CPs from the water. But, we are a good trekking team, so last night we decided to beach the canoe at the north end of the peninsula and trek 17-16-18 and then get back in the boats. We punch CP17 cleanly, but Team Fusion catches us on the way to CP16. They get slightly ahead and as we’re running, David starts to sense that we’ve gone too far and missed our spur. We backtrack a little, and then get on the correct spur for CP16. We breathe a sigh of relief (actually more like a gasp, we are really pushing the pace here to get away from Fusion). But our good vibes are short-lived as we spot 34 Down attacking CP16 from below and they get the punch first. Crap!! We chase them to CP18 and then back to the boats, where they are in the water a few minutes ahead of us. And, just as we push off the shore, Team Fusion comes crashing out of the woods. This is a tight race!!

PADDLE 2 (3.5mi, CPs 19-20)
The chips are DOWN here at the Bonk Hard Chill, and we decide as a team to give the maps back to David for the return paddle. The wind has kicked up a little and I find that I can paddle faster without staring at the maps, and we need all the team speed we can get to claw our way into the lead of this race. However, Team Fusion has other ideas as they put their excellent paddling skills to good use and get a decent gap on us and 34 Down. We are approaching the take-out at CP20, which is also where our re-supply bags are located. We do a team check and everyone reports having plenty of calories in their packs to finish out the race. So we decide to only grab Coke and Ensure out of the drop bags and drink those on the run to CP21. It’s a furious transition as we stack the canoes, disassemble paddles and put them into the drop bags, grab the drinks, and boogie out of there.

TREK 4 (0.5mi, CP 21, 0:09)
Have you ever tried sharing a can of Coke with someone who has just chugged strawberry Ensure? I have, and the results are not as bad as you might imagine. It’s like a variation of Cherry Coke….mmmmmmm. But there’s hardly time to enjoy this “delicious” flavor combination since we have a super-short trek up and over a ridge to CP21 where our bikes are waiting. Team Fusion is just leaving as we arrive and we quickly throw on bike shoes and take off after them.

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Getting ready to leave CP21

BIKE 2 (15.5mi, CPs 22-28, 2:13)

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Time to hustle!!

We are in a really tough spot here. We are more than half-way through the race and have been unable to get a permanent gap on Team Fusion. And 34 Down is only a few minutes back, only thanks to the advantage our kayak paddles gave us on the water. How can we possible take the win here?? There’s only one way to find out, and that is to bike our tails off in pursuit of Team Fusion. And we do just that, flying down the paved road and using the paceline and tows to our advantage. After about 6 miles of pavement, the route turns to singletrack and by the time we reach CP22 on the trail, we have Team Fusion in our sights. We keep pace with them to CP23, and then it’s time for some race strategery.

On Friday night, we noticed that the route from CP23 to CP24 involves a large amount of singletrack. While we are a good biking team, singletrack can be slow, especially when it contours around like this trail is shown on the map to do. We also noticed that there is an airport boundary oriented almost exactly in the direction we want to go between these two CPs. So, we gave ourselves an option: depending on what the vegetation looks like on the airport fence, we could bikewhack to CP24 to shave off some distance between these two checkpoints. Trouble is, Team Fusion is right on our tails, and we don’t want to give our plan away. So when we get to the airport, we pull the most obvious diversion tactic known to adventure racers: a well-timed pee break. And we sell it too, each of us finding excess liquid in our bladders that needs to get out, NOW. Team Fusion takes one glance and decides to jump on their chance to gain the lead, taking off down the trail. Once they are out of sight, we gleefully grab our bikes and take off on bikewhack along the airport fence. It’s even better than we imagined; parts are actually rideable and the spur we need to attack CP24 is obvious. The woods are pretty open, too. This is good. This is really good.

After punching CP24, we bikewhack again for a short distance to CP25. On the way to CP26, we encounter a long line of horseback riders out for a trail ride. Trail etiquette (and race rules) require us to yield to horses, so we get off our bikes and wait while the horses pass. This is hard to do since we are pretty sure we just leapfrogged into the lead and have to bank any precious time we can. But, we know it’s also important to be good AR ambassadors so we stay quiet and let the horses go past (and do not feed them any treats even though I want to).

We enjoy a loose, sketchy, screaming fast downhill into CP26, and then have to plot coordinates to CP27. I’m nervous about this after my brain explosion earlier at CP7, but the calm surroundings help and David is able to easily pick a route to CP27 (again with a little bikewhacking). At every soft part of the trail we come to, we are looking for tire tracks, but we don’t see any so our confidence starts to grow. We zoom into CP28, our last known checkpoint, and are greeting with one of the favorite sights of adventure racers: a TA with no other bikes. The bikewhack worked! We are in the lead!

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Plotting the last trek.

TREK 5 (5.5mi, CPs 29-36, 1:33)

The final trek. Map and CPs are to scale. Route is….not.

We are feeling awesome. Tired from the previous 6 hours and 43 minutes of racing, yes, but having this hard-fought lead is like fire in our blood. One last trek stands between us and the finish line, and we haven’t seen Team Fusion in all our time spent plotting. We thank the volunteers and take off into the woods for the final 8 CPs. These are ROGAINE-style, but I can’t remember the order we took them in. I do, however, remember absolutely hammering this trek. We are all out of breath, sore, and cramping up a little, but we work as a team to get each other up each hillside and down each reentrant. Jeff and David share the workload of the passport. Doug tows me up the steepest hills. Chocolate-covered espresso beans andLiquidShot are my late-race fuels of choice, and they help convince my legs to keep firing. David’s navigation is impeccable and we tick off each CP one by one. By the time we punch our last one, I’m so exhausted that I don’t even realize we are headed towards the finish line. The baseball fields appear as we crest the last ridgeline, but I’m confused as to why we are finishing when there are still more CPs out there. The boys assure me that we’ve got everything, and we make one last route choice around the outfield towards the Bonk Hard inflatable arch.

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We’re done!!

All is quiet at Race Headquarters, and that’s exactly the way we like it. In another extreme departure from Ironman, a quiet finish line is the best kind there is because it means you’re the first to arrive. It’s like waking up before everyone else on Christmas morning and just sitting in your bed, listening to the quiet house and anticipating the awesome presents that are surely waiting downstairs. Or like hanging out in the tent before attempting to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.

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I give an exhausted hug to Gary, thanking him for an excellent course.

But as soon as the Bonk Hard staff sees us, they start clanging their signature cowbell greeting which is my favorite sound to hear at the end of a tough race!

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David, Jeff, me, Doug. Shorties in the middle. Winners all around.

POST-RACE (1st place division, 1st place overall, 8:16 total race time)
After crossing the finish line, we have a little chat with Gary about route choices, and then hurry back to the Sona-van to change into warm dry clothes. While we’re back there, Team Fusion finishes only 25 minutes behind us. We learn they had a flat just after leaving us at the airport, and were confused why we didn’t ride by as they changed it. And that they arrived at CP28 only 2 minutes after we left. They put up a huge fight and we are so excited to squeak by with a win. 34 Down rolls through the finish line in 3rd place overall, also finishing up a really great race. On Friday night, we went through the course and made some time estimates for each leg. At one point in the race we were an hour ahead of that schedule. This just goes to show how heated the competition was, everyone was blowing past their pre-conceived paces to try and gain the lead. That’s really racing, and that’s why we love this sport!

Sorry to finish this report with a pic of my butt, but this is what happened to my tights in the first 30 minutes of racing. Kitten bottoms indeed.

Special shoutouts to: Alpine Shop for awesome sponsorship of the team and the sport of AR in general, Carrie Sona for cheering us on from St. Louis, Leonard for cheering us on before and during the race, Joyce for cheering and bringing us delicious gooey butter cake after the race, and all of the Bonk Hard volunteers for being on top of their game all day long!










Courtney Palm Qualifies for the USSA Junior Championships


New Press Release from Hidden Valley Ski Team

Wildwood Teen Courtney Palm is a 4-Peat!
15-Year Old Qualifies for a Record 4th Time for
National USSA Junior Alpine Racing Championship

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, February 25, 2013 — Courtney “Coco” Palm, 15, from Wildwood, MO, is now a four-time repeat qualifier for the USSA Junior Championships in Alpine Racing after competing at the USSA Rocky/Central Regional Championships held in Marquette, MI this past weekend. Palm is the first member of the Hidden Valley Ski Team to be invited to the USSA national championship races for a record fourth time.

Palm placed 22nd overall against a field of 65 other competitors, taking 11th in downhill racing and 25th and 20th in Giant Slalom racing during the Central Division championship qualifying races held last Thursday-Saturday. More than 250 athletes competed in the event from Ohio through Minnesota, along with athletes from Canada.

“Being able to qualify four years in a row shows me that even though I live in St. Louis, I’m able to keep up with the best girls in the northern regions,” said Palm after her wins. “The time commitment and effort put in is huge, but my coaches, friends, and family on the team make it constant fun and a great learning environment. I’ve learned that I have a lot of potential to become a really good competitive alpine ski racer.”

The USSA divides its competitive racing circuits into four regions — West, Far West, Rocky/Central, and Eastern. As a result of her finish at Marquette, Palm will be heading to Beaver Creek, CO, from March 3-9 for the USSA Marriott Rocky/Central U16 Junior Championships. The Junior Championships are considered a conduit for the U.S. Ski Team and, until a recent name change, was the Junior Olympics event.

“Courtney really put her heart into the last three days of ski racing and I’m very proud of her,” said Hidden Valley Ski Team coach Craig Spidle, Palm’s primary coach. “I have been at this event with most of our junior champions over the past 10 years and the competition this year has been tougher than any I’ve seen. Courtney has really matured as a racer. She is focused and has the technical and tactical skills to win against any girl in the Region on any given day.”

As a testament to the quality of coaching and the dedication of its member athletes, the independent Hidden Valley Ski Team (HVST) has had 13 straight years of athletes qualifying for the USSA Rocky/Central Junior Championships. Palm, who started racing with HVST at age 12, is an avid skier who has racked up impressive wins over the past four years.

In acknowledging her coaches, Palm said, “The feedback and encouragement given by my coaches really helped to develop me as a good skier. Without my coaches, especially Coach Craig, I wouldn’t have been able to progress as I have throughout my ski racing years. It takes a lot of work and dedication from them and I am so grateful for their willingness and commitment to help me grow as a racer.”

Spidle, along with Palm and her family, traveled to Marquette from Wildwood just ahead of a fierce winter snowstorm that hit the Midwest. “We made it to Marquette despite 12 inches of new snow and 40 mile-per-hour winds,” said Spidle. “The Hidden Valley Ski Team is consistently the team that travels the longest distance to compete in these regional championships.”

Spidle, a former racer himself, has been a nationally certified alpine race coach with the Hidden Valley Ski Team since 2005 and travels with several of the elite athletes to races throughout the Midwest and Colorado. He also serves as a USSA Technical Delegate and Referee and has annual alpine racing camps in both the United States and Switzerland during the off season months.

“Ski racing is a tough sport,” said Spidle. “It’s just the athlete against the mountain. The most difficult thing young ski racers must overcome is having the confidence to push themselves, take risks, and ski on the edge. Courtney has worked incredibly hard over the past several years to get to this point, and we are so proud of her consistent track record of being invited to the national junior championships.”

He added, “In the downhill, especially, which we don’t train for locally, Courtney was fantastic. Against a field of tough competitors, she posted a time of 42.31 seconds in her first race, and then 41.72 seconds with her second run, six-tenths of a second faster, enabling her to finish 11th overall in downhill. I have to admit, she was going so fast on the last run, it was thrilling and worrisome at the same time!”

What’s next on Palm’s agenda? She will be back running track and playing volleyball at Lafayette High School. But she’s already looking forward to next winter when she can get back on her skis. “My goal is to race in college,” she said. “In addition to being a ski racer, I look forward to becoming a coach myself and helping younger kids to enjoy the sport as much as I do!”

About the Hidden Valley Ski Team

The Hidden Valley Ski Team, established in 1991, is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and advancing the sport of alpine racing. The team trains at Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Wildwood, MO, and currently has more than 80 team members, ranging in age from 5 to 19. HVST also has more than a dozen certified coaches, many with racing experience. Coaches are certified and licensed through the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA). For more information about the team and its levels of involvement, visit www.hvst.org.

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Race Report: 2013 LBL Challenge 18hr AR

originally posted by Alpine Shop Adventure Race Team member, Emily Korsch here.
As I mentioned earlier, I am substitute racing on Alpine Shop‘s adventure racing team this season because Carrie hurt her knee in a mountain bike crash and needed surgery to fix it. While she recovers, I’ll be racing with Jeff, David, and Doug. Here is the first installment of the season, the Bonk Hard LBL Challenge 18hr Adventure Race.

PRE-RACE
We all arrive at Kentucky Dam Village, site of the pre-race activities (check-in, dinner, meeting, cabins) and are given really nice Columbia fleece vests as part of our race entry. Thanks, Bonk Hard! Jeff’s reserved an “Executive Cottage” which is probably the nicest pre-race accommodations I’ve stayed in – tons of room for all of our gear and bikes, a kitchen, and a great table for map prep. We do some bike fiddling and then go to eat dinner where Carrie is bombarded by questions about her knee. She has been a fixture on the AR circuit for so many years, and racers want to know what the story is. We all finally manage to feed ourselves (2 servings of the bread pudding for me, thanks!) and go across the street to the pre-race meeting.

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Gary starts the pre-race meeting and the course is quickly revealed to be one of the most interesting ARs I have ever participated in: 45 checkpoints, all rogaine-style (meaning you can visit in any order), and only 3 are mandated as paddling. We can get the other 42 CPs via foot or bike or more paddling. This is truly a choose-your-own adventure and allows every team to play to their strengths…are we better bikers? Runners? Paddlers? Navigators? Game on.

planningAs it happens, Alpine Shop is pretty dang good at each AR discipline, but I’d say the biggest strength we have is experience. Or rather, the biggest strength the boys have is experience, since I am a newcomer to the team. We return to the Executive Cottage and plot all 45 CPs efficiently. Then, we start looking at route options. I trust David and Jeff’s wisdom and we start piecing together a sweep route. It comes together gradually and in chunks but pretty soon we have a good idea about how best to complete the course. But, once we put some time estimates to it, we realize that sweeping the course (getting every CP) will be tough. So we revisit our route, giving ourselves some time cutoffs and identifying good CPs to jettison (word of the evening, along with mint gum) if things are going poorly. We finally wrap up map and gear prep about 1:30am, which barely gives us any time to sleep before the 3:30am wake up call for the 4:00am departure, the 4:15am bike drop, and the 5:00am start.before startWe arrive at Race HQ (Hillman Ferry Campground) with about 30 minutes before the start. We huddle in the warm van and debate glove choices. I try the Executive Cottage coffee in my mug and it’s really, really bad. But thankfully Bonk Hard Racing has provided hot coffee at the HQ so I fill up on that. It’s a delicious luxury and very much appreciated at a winter race. We say hi to our AR friends/competitors and are treated to an AMAZING performance of the National Anthem by one of the racers.

TREK 1 (CPs 6, 5, 23. 2mi. 5:00-5:40)

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Did I mention, we are doing this in our bike shoes? It’s such a short trek, and we are going almost directly to the bike drop at CP23. When we first planned this I was not amused. But, as I thought about it, it made lots of sense because our feet would already be in warm gear once we hit the bikes, and we could get out onto potentially bottlenecked singletrack with more speed. So, Gary counts us down and we clomp off into the pre-dawn woods. We have a little nav bobble on the way to 6 but David corrects it quickly and we run into the bike drop in good spirits. My bike shoes weren’t nearly as uncomfortable as I thought and now my feet are toasty as we quickly transition.

BIKE 1 (CPs 4, 3, 2, 1, 11, A. 12.5mi. 5:40-7:45)mtb

Our first order of business is to crush some of the sweet singletrack LBL is known for. It reminds me a lot of Council Bluff Lake, except without as many rocks. I’m on the new SegSlayer and it is one amazing machine. David leads out the team and sets a perfect pace – it has me hustling to keep up but doesn’t trash my legs. The sun rises while we are still on the Canal Loop and it is beautiful. I’m so thrilled to be outside, racing on awesome trails with an awesome team on an awesome bike. Life is good. Except when David gets a flat on the singletrack. But we execute a lightning-fast change (seriously…less than 5 minutes…I timed it) and are back on the trail with minimal interruption. The rest of the singletrack is wonderful and soon we hop onto the paved North/South trail, where we are able to tow and GO FAST. We have a little trouble with CP11 which requires a short out-n-back run in the woods off of a fire road, but again David corrects us and we are able to keep pushing. We see Rachel and Dylan from Bushwhacker just after we punch 11 and that motivates us to hustle to CP A, a manned transition area where we have a gear check and the canoe put-in. Despite the general disdain that most adventure racers feel about bikes in boats, we decided the night before that the most efficient route requires us to bring the bikes with us on the 12.5mi paddle. So after we pass our gear check, we break the bikes down to the shore, lash them to the canoe, and shove off into the chilly waters of Lake Barkley.

PADDLE 1 (CPs 10, 26, 8, 25, 24, 12, 14, 27, 28, B. 12.5mi. 11.5mi. 7:45-11:00)
I’m in the boat with Jeff, paddling with my Christmas/birthday present, a new Epic 4-piece carbon paddle inspired by the one I borrowed from Brian of Epic Machinery for the 2012 MNOC Adventure-O. This paddle gives me great feedback from the water and makes me look like I actually know what I’m doing (hint: I’m not a very good paddler…yet). So we start paddling our way to CP 10 and before I know it, the wind has picked up and I start to get cold. No worries, I tell myself, just paddle harder. It doesn’t help that I’m getting wet from paddle splashback, and it’s barely 25F. Then on the way to CP26 I start to realize I might be in trouble. Jeff seems to sense this and starts asking how I’m feeling. Um, pretty cold, but I think I just need to eat something, can you hand be a probar from my bike’s bento box? He does, and I chow down while David and Doug complete a mini-portage, punch CP26, and return to the lake. We are faced with a really strong headwind on the way to CP8. The chop on the lake picks up and there’s nowhere to hide from the gusts. Jeff does an incredible job guiding the boat through the waves, but the situation is such that I forget about the race and just focus on not dumping the boat. At least it helps take my mind off being cold. And I am REALLY COLD – the worst I’ve felt in recent memory. There are Coast Guard safety boats on the water and we speculate if they will call off the paddle due to dangerous conditions. I am in enough discomfort that I hope they do. But, no announcements are made as we pass them (very slowly), so we just keep paddling. We make a plan to full stop at CP25 and put more clothes on me and Doug while Jeff and David punch 25 and nearby CP24.

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We beach kind of in the middle between CP25 and CP24 (they are on 2 separate but close islands) and when Jeff gets out of our boat to punch, he can hardly walk from his legs being so cold. But he soon shakes it off, goes and gets the punch and comes back with my rain pants which were in Doug’s pack. I put them on along with my fleece and shuffle around the beach to try and get my heart rate up. Doug does the same and I imagine we look like waddling penguins to the other approaching teams. No one ever said adventure racing was dignifying.

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Back in the boats, the horrific headwind has turned into a terrific tailwind, and we are able to make up some time on our self-imposed schedule. I am warming up significantly and as we pass the Coast Guard safety boat, this time I hope they will let us keep paddling despite the bad conditions. They do. We get the rest of our CPs with minimal fuss (I even punch a few, which entails more waddling). But, as we are approaching the last two CPs, we know we are behind schedule so decide to drop CP27, a longish out-n-back paddle into the wind. It is a tough decision to make this early in the race, but we are committed to our plan. As we approach the take-out at CP B, we see Carrie’s van there since she is volunteering. It’s nice to see a friendly face after such a painful paddle. We assemble the bikes, break down paddles, and are thankful for the steep hill out of transition that helps us start the long warming-up process.

BIKE 2 (no CPs, <1mi, 11:00-11:15)

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We only have a short distance to ride before we find a spot in the woods to stash the bikes before we set out on our first significant trek. We’ve dubbed this the “north o-loop” and transition as quickly as possible with frozen extremities.

TREK 2 (CPs 17, 19, 18, 20, 21, 22. 6.5mi. 11:15-2:00)
The first few CPs on this loop are completed on frozen feet. Since 5:00am, we have been racing in bike shoes which, at least for me, have been soaking wet since 7:45am. Now that I have my dry trekking shoes on, my feet finally have a chance to thaw. My body is warming up too; at each of the first few CPs I’m removing various items of clothing until I’m down to my base layers and the new 2013 Alpine Shop jersey (still can’t believe I get to guest race on this team!). I don’t really remember much about this section except David nailing the navigation and the team moving very efficiently through the woods. We’re not sprinting, but we’re not stopping either unless it’s at a CP. Constant forward progress helps us make up time on our schedule and we are back at the bikes with a smaller deficit than when we started.

BIKE 3 (CPs 16, 15, 13, 40, 35, C. 11mi bike + 3.75mi trek. 10mi bike + 1.5mi trek. 2:00-3:30)
We return to our bikes that we stashed a few hours earlier and find that our spot has turned into a mini TA. Several other teams have left their bikes next to ours and it’s sort of humorous to see them all in this random spot in the woods. But there’s no time for laughing, AR is serious (ha!) business and we transition back into biking gear and back onto the fire road. Although less severely than before, we are still behind our self-imposed schedule, so we decide to drop CP15 and CP40, two CPs that would have required a longer out-n-back run from the road to collect. We’re all warmed up and we fly through this section. The boys tow me when the road is good. We even run into a few 8hr teams and exchange shouts and cheers.

TREK 3 (CPs 37, 36, 41, 42, 39, 38, 34, 30, 33, 32, 31, C. 9mi. 3:30-8:30)
CP C is a manned CP at a fire tower. As we arrive, we are finally ahead of our self-imposed schedule and ready to gobble up as many CPs as possible before the sun sets. We also get access to our gear drop bags which hold delicious treats – Coke, more sandwiches, and some EFS LiquidShot for me. I fill my pockets with calories and we jet off into the woods. The first 4 CPs are flawless. We are running really hard, spot on to everything. Things are jamming and we are happy (How happy are they, Jimmy? Happier than an adventure racer that doesn’t have to paddle any more!) So happy, in fact, that we start chatting and get distracted as we trek right past CP39. Like literally 10 meters away. Pretty soon David realizes what’s up and we take some time to relocate under the rapidly-setting sun. Thankfully, there is a fireroad we can use, but it’s still sort of confusing and it takes some time to get things straightened out. But, we soon do, and are more focused for the remainder of the trek. The sun completely sets now and we switch on our lights, but our pace through the woods and enormous calorie consumption keeps us plenty warm. We decide to drop  CP30, because it looks really hard to attack on foot, in the dark. It is close to a trail and we plan to instead get it on our final biking leg. For all our worrying about CP30, David is absolutely spot on for the remaining controls, including a really tricky attack on CP33 that he just nails. Solid. Jeff starts singing a custom version of:

BIKE 4 (CPs 30, 29, 7, 910mi bike + 1mi trek. 7mi bike + 1mi trek. 8:30-10:49)
Once we return to the fire tower, we are surprised to find out that no other teams left their bikes there like we did. We frantically consider alternate route options for a few seconds and then have to dismiss the distraction and focus on the business of transition. Everyone’s shoes are frozen and it takes extra time to cram our feet into them. The zippers on my shoe covers won’t work either, so I am just going to have to cross my fingers that they don’t get caught in my cranks. David, Doug and I finish transitioning just a few seconds before Jeff and are lured to the fire to warm our hands up. Approaching a warm fire in the middle of an adventure race is dangerous. Fires have magical abilities to lull racers into never leaving a TA. Jeff is aware of this and yells at us to get moving. We snap back to attention and depart the TA down a steep gravel hill. I chant IlovemybikeIlovemybikeIlovemybike because the windchill is really cold. We have a short bikewhack, then cross the Trace, then set out to get CP30, the one that we dropped from Trek 3. It’s a little tricky with some new singletrack being built in this area. On our way to CP30, we pass Bushwhacker riding the other direction and it scares us. What if they have a better plan? We hustle even more. David is fairly confident on our attack to CP30 and we strike off into the woods. He and Jeff thrash around for a good chunk of time without finding the CP. This is not a good sign. Finally Jeff takes a closer look at the map and sees that there are two similarly-placed gridlines. We might have used the wrong one when plotting the night before. We check the cluesheet quickly and his suspicions are correct – CP30 is misplotted. Fortunately, the actual location is only a few hundred meters away so we are able to fix our mistake quickly and are back on the bikes, once again behind schedule to make the final 11:00pm cutoff.

We blast down the singletrack and I start to get nervous. Racing against a team is one thing, but racing against the clock adds a whole ‘nother level of stress. We pick up CP29 after a short out-n-back run. We stop at the attackpoint for CP7 with 42 minutes left on the clock. We know CP9 is impossible at this point, and we estimate we need 30 minutes to get from here to the finish line. So we give ourselves 12 minutes to hike up the reentrant, punch CP7, and get back on the bikes. Let’s do this. We strike off into the woods, Jeff and David leading the way, until our headlamps ping the reflective tape of the control flag. Perfect! Jeff flies up to get the punch as we all start picking our way down the dark reentrant. We complete the out-n-back in 9 minutes. Now we have 33 minutes to bike the remaining few miles of singletrack back to Hillman Ferry Campground and the finish line. Those are some tense miles, I’m checking my watch every time the trail smooths out for more than a few feet. Pretty soon, we can see the campground lights filter through the woods. We use a short bikewhack to get onto the access road and start to hear Bonk Hard’s signature cowbell greeting. It’s such a relief and we cruise into the finish at 10:49pm!

POST-RACE

postrace

 

Carrie is at the finish line to greet us and we take lots of pictures in our new jerseys. I see a few other teams around but not as many as I expected. How did we do? I feel sort of funny asking but Carrie sees the question on my face and confirms that we won by a few CPs. Awesome! After the energy of finishing wears off, it’s clear we are all very tired and very cold. I feel more sleepy than anything – racing 18hrs is hard enough, let alone doing it on 2 hours’ sleep. So we all put on dry clothes and eat some of Bonk Hard’s delicious post-race food. I have been dreaming about those bbq sandwiches and baked beans for the last few hours! There is a great fire going too so we catch up with other racers while staying warm. I really start to fade about midnight, but we stick around for the awards ceremony since there are awesome prizes to pick from. However, when we are called up to the prize table, my brain can’t really make sense of anything so I pick a small red blinky light as my prize – completely passing over nice winter jackets, packs, watches, etc. That is race brain for you!

sunsetThe LBL Challenge was a great race to kick off our season. It was a really unique format that allowed teams to push themselves as much as they wanted in the cold weather. We made a good plan, dealt with really horrible conditions at times, adjusted our plan as needed, kept our stomachs happy, and managed to finish on time. And we all still like each other. Win!

 

 

Cats Tongue – Why do you need some?

If there are two things I’ve learned in the bike shop they are: #1 Ladies love bike mechanics, and #2 Ladies hate dirty greasy hands. I can’t do much about #1, we all have our crosses to bear. But I now have a solution for #2, Cat’s Tongue wipes. Made specifically for greasy bike repair induced filth. With a fresh orange scent and no rinsing required they are perfect to keep in your saddle bag or glove compartment. One of the keys to the Cat’s Tongue ability is one side has amazing scrubby scratchy thingies that help cut the crud, the other side is smooth for more delicate jobs. It also has aloe to keep your skin nice and smooth, for the ladies… Individual packets are $1.50 and a canister of 30 “shop-sized” towels are $9.99. And check out the sweet tat.

Love,

Uncle Joe

Definitely a sweet tat!
Definitely a sweet tat!

Gift of Life – RoadID and myID Personal Identification

Looking for a gift that shows you care? Or at least care enough to keep your loved one from being know as John or Jane Doe. A great gift for anyone with an active lifestyle, identification bracelets can provide essential information in situations when you can not.

RoadID offers multiple styles of id’s in both the original text version as well as an interactive version with 24/7/365 Emergency Response Support. Different colors, styles, sizes and versions along with personalized text make these a great gift that you hope they never need. Call or go online to order, free shipping with coupon code DJ579RR6, tell them Joe sent you, it won’t get you anything but its nice to be noticed.
We also have, from LifeStrength, the myID personal identification bracelet. Pick them up in our Kirkwood store, cut them to size and then go online to their secure website, enter your information and rest easy knowing you’ve got live 24/7 Emergency call center support for first responders, well don’t “rest” easy get out and play. We’ve got black with grey, white with grey, and turquoise with grey all with cut to fit sizing. They also boast Ion Health Technology, so they’ve got that going for them. Stop on into the store and tell them Joe sent you too, there’s no discount, but it makes me seem popular.

Screen shot 2012-12-20 at 3.32.25 PM

Note: This is Joe after getting injured at a race, if he had lost conciousness first responders would have been able to identify him by his bracelet.

Picture Yourself Outdoors – with Peabody eMints School

Mrs. Kathy Scanlon is the art teacher at Peabody eMINTS Academy in the STL Public School System. Each year, Alpine Shop collects donations to fulfill her wish list for her kids! Below you will find a list of the items that she most needs to keep her children engaged and involved creatively. Please feel free to download this list and share it with your friends! We hope the kids return to a whole classroom full of goodies for next semester.

UPDATE: Mrs. Scanlon has put out a call for children and young adult sized coats for her classes. She had many kids come in with no warm coat on the first below freezing day we had this winter. Alpine Shop will be collecting these coats until Jan 1st as well and they will be delivered when the kids return from winter break. THANK YOU!!

Peabody art wish list 3.0 12052

 

Keep Warm, Keep Bright

We’ve got the moody tunes and cozy feelings going on to start the weekend! Do a snow dance and hope the rain we have in store turns chilly over the weekend. Light a fire, light the tree and relax!

Mountain Hardwear’s BEST Fabric

Ghost Whisperer

 

 

Mountain Hardwear has been one of our premiere brand partners for years. We stand behind their quality and long lasting products. Any Alpiner that wants to get their hands on some of the newest tech out there should come in and try the Ghost Whisperer pieces! This week only we are offering them at 20% off. Great deal on amazing gear!

Take Five

Every day we need to Get Outside and Take Five. A great reminder from jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

“We don’t know the power that’s within our own bodies. ” -Brubeck