Dixie Conquest, Our First Elite Race: We Came, We Pushed Our Bikes Through Mud and Water, We Didn't Drown

The Dixie Conquest at Bayard Conservation Area was our first Elite Level race.  We would have preferred to make the the transition to Elite races at a shorter event, but our work/life schedules wouldn't cooperate, so we jumped feet first into the water and mud, I mean the 10 Hour Dixie Conquest, to be henceforth known as Swampfest 2014.

Our last race was the Resolution AR and our plan was to train hard between that race and the Dixie Conquest.  Because either Jeff or I had some sort of family or work responsibility, we got in very little training in March. We were, however, able to get in two FLO Orienteering Events and a couple of sessions getting comfortable using kayak paddles prior to the race. As usual we didn't get nearly enough time on the bikes, and lo and behold a good chunk of the Dixie Conquest was on the bike, or at least pushing the bike through mud and water.  Overall, however, we felt good about the race.

Given this was our first Elite race, our strategy was to take it slow, minimize mistakes, and get through the course in 10 hours or under with as many points as possible. 

Foot1
After the hidden egg search start (each team had to find 4 hidden eggs to receive their punch card), we headed out into our first Elite Adventure toward CP1.  Given our strategy was to move slowly and we wanted to be separated from the other teams, we began by walking.  Once into the forest, we quickly picked up the pace to a modest but steady run.  We collected CPs 1 and 3 easily and headed to CP4, which required teams to find the CP by shooting a bearing off of an observation tower.  While we had a bit of trouble finding the CP (along with three other teams) we found it within several minutes and headed toward CP 6.

We collected 6 and moved on to CP 5.  This is where our fate was determined.  The map showed the trail on which CP 6 was located deadended into a North/South trail which would immediately dead end into a trail heading Northwest.

As we approached a large and easily visible trail, I saw a trail to my right, but didn't see it on the map, so we headed to the large trail and looked for the next trail that should have been within a few meters. It wasn't there.  I turned in all directions and saw no other trail, except that mysterious trail I had seen earlier. We headed up this larger trail about 100m and found an intersection, but decided it was too far up the trail.  The intersection we were looking for should have been immediately after our first dead end.  So back we went, now to South of where we intersected the trail earlier. Again nothing.  We found a fire break  right across from our original entry point and decided "Aha. That's it" We walked knee deep in water about 100m until the trail disappeared. We headed back to the main trail, frustrated and upset that we didn't know where we were.  I once again looked back up the trail we came in on and looked at the map.  30 minutes after we hit this intersection, I realized how much we had goofed.  That mysterious trail to our right was the trail that the "CP6 trail" dead ended into, and we were standing in the middle of the right trail. So we quickly ran to the next intersection(the one we were at earlier), turned North and collected CP 5.  From there we grabbed CP 2 and headed back to the Main TA, wondering if we were in dead last.  We were! According to Ron Eaglin more than one team had trouble at the intersection; I'm not sure it took 30 minutes for them to correct their mistake, however.  While, we thought we were ok, that 30 minutes cost us later in the day.  Lesson Learned?  Stay focused.  If the map and the terrain around don't match up, figure out why. Don't wander.  We've known these things for awhile. 

Boat

The boat section turned out to be pretty uneventful. The water was calm and we decided to definitely get CPS 8,9,10,11, and 12.  We would decide about 13, 14, and 15(which were on land) after we got 12 and if we had time we would go for 7 which was North of the TA.  CPs 8,9,10,11, 12 were pretty easy to find, with the exception of 11, which was on the straightest "leaning tree" I have ever seen.  The nice part of CP 11 was that we saw a fawn that could not have been more than a few days old hiding behind a tree hoping we didn't see him/her.  We decided to go after 13, 14, 15. We beached where several other canoes were and looked for the trail. It didn't take long to realize this trail didn't exist, so we shot a bearing (assuming we were in roughly the correct location) to the cleared area on the map surrounded by a loop trail.  Within a couple of minutes we found 13 and headed for 15.  Somewhere, on the way through the palmettos to CP 13, Jeff's bike shoe began to come apart.  Knowing we had a long bike leg ahead of us (little did we know) we decided to walk to 14 and 15,  and then back to the canoe. This was unfortunate, because the paths to these CPs were easy running.  We collected 15 and then 14 and headed the canoe back North. We passed the TA, collected 7 and headed back to the TA. We were slow on this section (Jeff's shoe didn't help), but happy we had collected all of the CPs available to this point. Our spirits were high.

Bike 1

We collected our map for the Bike section, ate a bit of food, and headed for CP 16. When we arrived at the intersection of the trail and powerlines, the ground was full of water. Surely we can't go through that! (We learned within the hour we could.)  So we headed up the trail to an intersection and bushwhacked through palmettos to the power lines and the location of CP 16.  The description was a Cypress Swamp.  I grew up in Florida and have spent much time in the woods, so I started looking for Cypress Trees. I spotted them, and hey they were on our bearing!  We found the swamp, which was about 10 meters off of a fire break. We couldn't see the CP at first, but out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of orange all the way across the swamp (about 50 meters).  I assumed it was shallow so I set out across the swamp and soon learned it was waist deep.  I actually enjoyed walking across it (I was a swamp rat as a kid) , although the thought of an angry cottonmouth encouraged me to move as fast as I could through the water.  With CP 16 collected we headed toward the Bayard TA.

At this point we made a reasonable decision, that probably cost us.  We decided to do all  of the bike CPs first and the foot section later, so we rode passed the TA to CP 17 and punched the card. When we entered the access gate for the trail on which CP18 was located we saw a lot of water.  For a moment we thought we would leave our bikes there and run down to the CP. We decided to take the bikes and quickly learned what the rest of the bike section would be like. Water. Lot's of Water. Oh yea, and mud.  We found the creek mentioned in the description and headed out to find the CP.  I'm not saying we nailed it straight on, but after about 100m I saw the flash of orange.  We punched the card, and debated whether or not to bushwhack to 19, because it was almost due south of 18. We quickly ruled that out, climbed on the bikes and headed to 19. Along the way, Jeff's shoe finally gave up. It completely came apart. I had duct tape, but it was hopeless, so he put on his running shoes and pedaled without being clipped in.  We got to the creek where CP 19 should have been and along with another team found it in good time.

We headed to 24 and like other teams missed it to the south. As we wandered back to the trail cursing, my eye once again caught the flash of orange of CP24.  We would have never seen it from the road, or from the North. Good thing we went too far South.  It was getting late and we wanted to get back to Bayard TA by 3:30 at the latest, so we decided to get 26, 20, 22 and maybe 21 and to definitely skip 23 and 25.  We collected 26 quickly and headed east on a trail to intersect with a trail that headed north to CP20. That's when we saw the water. "So what. It's water. We'll push through it. We are Elite Adventure Racers!" And push through it we did until we hit three feet of water. "It can't be this deep for too long. We are Elite Adventure Racers! So onward!" And onward. And onward through  thigh deep water.  We may be Adventure racers, but we had been moving forward for almost 7 hours, and this sucked, so we decided to turn around. So back through "Trail Lake" we slogged. Once we got out, our bikes looked like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean (slimy and scary with sea weed hanging from all parts of the bikes).

After almost 7 hours, our will was broken--for the moment. It was almost 3:00 and because we assumed the foot section at Bayard would be this bad also (Primal Instinct told us as much) we decided to forgo 20, 21, 22, 23, and 25 to give ourselves enough time on the foot section.  Our final position was determined right here.  If we only had that 30 minutes back.

Foot 2
We set a pretty good pace--for us--on the bike back to the Bayard TA. About half way there, Honey Stinger blew by us, at least  I think it was Honey Stinger, all we saw was a blur as they went by. This helped us put things in perspective.  As we were heading out for the trek at Bayard, the volunteer told us that the average time was a bit below 2 hours and the best was just under 1.5 hours.  If we could come in at 2 hours or under then we would clear this section and get back to the Finish in plenty of time.  We headed out with Lolowildlife just ahead of us.  We found 27 with no problem.  We then quickly found 28, took a moment to discuss with Lolowildlife if a dark brown snake lying by the creek was a cottonmouth (I think it was), and moved on.  We collected 31 and 32 and then moved to 34 with Lolowildlife.  The instructions called for a bearing of 120MN from a man made structure (a square pen), 120m into the woods.  Jeff shot the bearing from the corner of the square pen.  At 120m it was obvious the Cypress Tree called for in the instructions was no where to be found.  After about 5 minutes, Lolowildlife called out "over here."  We had missed it about 50 meters to the North and in deep forest, that is a very long way. As we arrived back on the trail we encountered Team Disoriented. All three teams headed to CP 35.  At the CP we discovered a deep creek.  Jeff walked across the higher than waist deep water to the CP on the other side.  We collected 33 and 30, said goodbye to Team Disoriented, who had cleared the course, and moved to CP 29 with Lolowildlife.  Because it was only fitting, the trail to CP 29 was filled with ankle to knee deep water.  We plodded through as if it were normal to be walking in muddy water, found the CP and headed back to the TA.

Bike 2

We had collected all of the CPs in this section in a respectable 1:41 minutes. Our orienteering training had paid off.  It was only 5:00pm, and the ride to the finish would take less than 30 minutes, so Jeff and I briefly debated whether to head back to the bike CPs to collect a couple of CPs.  We decided that would cut it too close, so we headed out to the finish about 100m behind Lolowildlife, who were riding a tandem bike retrofitted for trail riding!  About halfway to the finish, we passed Lolowildlife, but within ten minutes, my lack of training time on the bike and 9 hours of constant movement caught up to me. I was done, and that wall you hear about appeared before me.  Lolowildlife slowly reeled us in and passed us, and we followed them into the finish.

We finished 18th out of 19 teams.  Given that our goal was to move slow and steady, and to complete the course without too many serious mistakes, we were satisfied. We knew however, we could have acquired more CPs.  We checked in at 9 hours and16 minutes, so we had 45 minutes left.  We couldn't help but believe that our mistake in the prologue, one we normally don't make, cost us in the end.  If we had those 30 minutes, we probably wouldn't have bailed on the remaining bike CPs.  Additionally if we had known we could have cleared Foot 2 in a bit more than 1.5 hours we would have completed it prior to the bike CPs and we would have more points. Oh well, that's racing.

Our take away from our first Elite race? 1) That was a hell of a good time! and 2) We can definitely do Elite Level races. Can we compete at the top? Not right now, that's for sure.  But we can go out and competently move through these courses. Oh yea, next year at Bayard, I'm bringing my kayak instead of the bike.

Thanks to Pangea for another great race!

Our First Race

January 19, 2013 was the day of the Resolution AR in Clermont, Florida, our first race.  We had done what little training we could and resolved the most serious issue—finding bikes.  As a triathlete, Jeff had a very nice road bike, which would be completely inappropriate for trail riding, and my only bike was a Walmart beach cruiser, also inappropriate.  Because we had no idea what we were getting into and had more sense than money, we concluded that going out and buying high-end mountain bikes was not the prudent course of action. Jeff settled on using his wife’s Huffy front-suspension bike, and I was lucky enough to have a friend lend me his Trek 4500, which was well worn but quite functional.  With the bike problem resolved, we were ready to race.

Jeff and I decided that there was no reason to arrive at the Lake Louisa State Park prior to the 11:00am check-in so we set out at about 9:30.  Due to the wonder of iphone maps we got a bit lost on the way, which is not a good sign heading into a race in which navigation with a map is a central part of the competition.  We arrived the main transition area (TA) to find it full of teams with pop-up tents, tables, coolers, high end bikes, and equipment of all sorts.  Every where we looked we saw very fit people combing over maps with compasses. We concluded that these were, of course, the elite teams in the middle of their 8 hour race. Surely, the sport division teams would not take a three hour jaunt through the woods so seriously.

We checked in, received our map, found a spot to place our bikes and gear and started looking at the course.  There was a beginners’ orientation meeting at 11:30 and a pre-race meeting at 12:00.  We had just enough time to think about the first three control points (CPs) and the orientation began.  The main message of the meeting was to have fun, and not try to get all of the control points, because most teams wouldn’t be able to. According to the meeting leader only 5 of the 32 teams in the sport division would successfully find the 18 points in the three hour time period (in the end only 4 did).

As the pre-race meeting for all teams began it was clear that the hyper-fit teams we saw working so hard to prepare for the race were not, in fact, elite teams, but our competition. As he explained the course, the organizer noted that there were several control points that inexperienced teams should think about skipping.  Those CPs were 1, 6, 7, and 18.  We decided right away that we would take his advice by skipping those four and we would only go for 17 if we had time.

The race started in two waves and we were in the second.  As the start time grew near, we realized, based on the direction people were facing, that we were the only teaming skipping CP 1 in our wave.  When the race started we ran in opposite direction of every other team and directly at CP 2 which was about about a half a mile down a dirt road. Jeff set a brisk pace and we actually caught the Wave 1 group which started 5 minutes before us. We found the control point quite easily, punched the card and headed back down the dirt road to find CP 3.  I made the first of many mistakes that day by misreading the map, causing us to run beyond the exit point by about 200 yards. We turned back and were joined by a group of people heading for CP3. We found it easily—how could we not we 10 people heading right for it—punched the card and headed quickly back to the transition area to complete the first trek section and to climb on our bikes for what would prove to be the very challenging—for us—first biking section of the course.

The first thing we realized as we started the bike leg was that we ran a bit too fast in the first section. Our heart rates were up and we were now on the bike heading down the paved road with several teams all riding at a doable but quick pace.  A couple of other teams peeled off before the path we had chosen. When we reached the CP (8) they were there waiting on us. They had clearly chosen a better route. Heading back from the CP to the paved road, the reality of the day hit us: we would be riding in deep, loose, leg burning, soul sucking, sugar sand.

This hit us in the face (or legs) again as we turned off the paved road to seek out CP 5.  The sand on this trail was particularly loose and deep and the riding was slow and difficult.  You could ride on the side of the trail where leaves and sticks covered the sand, but that wasn’t always possible.  We were looking for a side trail, and rode by the turn literally as I looked at the sign for the trail and said to myself “good we are on the right path.” I have no idea what I was thinking at that moment other than “oh my god, my legs hurt.” That mistake meant going about five minutes out of our way to the next trail, which we thought would take us to a point of attack on the CP.  As we approached the area we believed to contain the CP, we realized we were blocked by impenetrable palmettos.  As Jeff walked along the row of palmettos searching for the access he just knew existed,  I stood on the side of the trail trying to make sense of the map, with my head reeling, my legs aching, and my heart pounding in my chest. We were about 45 minutes into the race, and we realized that this was not going to be easy. We discovered later that the map legend actually told us that the dark green where we were indicated...wait for it....impenetrable palmettos.

We eventually concluded that we would need to backtrack and go to the next trail to find an accessible attack point to the CP.  I once again misread the map, and we went beyond our turn by about 100 yards when we realized the team we just encountered had found it.  We turned around, quickly found the CP, and headed for the next CP (4).  There were three teams moving in the same direction. We took a different trail to the location of the CP, and as before we encountered almost impassable sand.  At this point, we decided we could push the bikes faster than we could pedal through the sand, and to our relief we saw others doing the same thing.  As usual we located the CP at the same time other teams did, and we set out to the Dixie TA to turn in our punch card and begin the second foot section of the course, but once again rode by our turn and had to backtrack a couple of hundred yards.  Just prior to the parking lot where the TA was located we encountered a hill, at the bottom of which were, of course, sugar sand and a photographer.  There was no way we were pushing the bikes in front of the photographer, so we powered through, although we gave up halfway up the sand/grass covered hill and pushed until we hit pavement. We did thankfully ride into the transition area.  One hour and nine minutes after we began the bike section of the race, and a mere two miles down the road from the start/finish line as the crow flies, we turned in our punch card and started the second foot portion of the race.

As we started the next foot section we, of course, missed a turn and had to backtrack.  We ran down the trail with two other teams, found CP 15 easily and then found the next trail leading to CP 16.  We made it there is relatively quick time, located the approximate location of the CP, which was supposed to be above a stream in a “high palmetto.”  We found a stream and a palmetto on a mound.  To us this meant “high palmetto,” and that meant we would find the CP there. Clearly other people believed this to be the case also, as there were many foot prints in the muck, and another team with us looking for the damn orange and white square cloth.  The four of us searched the immediate area, and just as I said…”You’ve got to be kidding me.  It has to be here,” Jeff said “it’s over here.”  As we headed over to the palm tree (I guess that’s a high palmetto) about 100 yards away, we noticed a competitor quietly leaving the area.  He clearly did not want us to know he had located the CP, and I grumbled about him the remainder of the day and the rest of the weekend. We had helped other teams and we were helped by other teams, so in my tired state his covert effort annoyed the crap out of me. Oh well..

At this point we had 1 hour left and still needed to complete the canoe section and the 2 mile bike sprint back to the start/finish.  The question was whether to go for CP 17, which was several hundred yards away.  Given that we weren’t sure how the canoe would work out, and my left shin, which had been bothering me for 10 days was starting to ache, we decided to skip 17 and get all 6 of the available points in the canoe.  In the canoe we followed several teams in moving along the shoreline to find the easily located CPs. After the 5th CP, three teams headed back west— with the 15 mph wind at their backs—to the side of the lake where we launched in order to gather their 6th point.  We decided to continue following the shoreline to the next CP and we found it quickly. Unfortunately, we now had to paddle about 1 mile back across the lake with a 15 mph easterly crosswind. As Jeff said, “the paddle back was brutal.”

We came out of the lake with a total of the 13 points for the day, and we had 30 minutes to make the two mile bike back to the start/finish on a relatively flat paved road. We took it easy on the way back, and arrived at the start/finish with 17 minutes to spare.  We consumed some Mt. Dews and Publix subs, relaxed, and celebrated a job well done.  Well, Jeff did. I lay on the ground asking for an IV.

When all was said and done we finished 25th out of 32 teams. We were disappointed, but in retrospect it was a pretty good showing for a team with no experience.  Of the 24 teams finishing above us, 18 of them had at least one member with experience, and some had extensive experience.  So, overall, we are happy with the performance.  What did we learn?  Be one of those teams planning your route before the race.  You cannot figure it out on the course.  There isn’t enough time.  You have to pace yourself. You don’t want to go too fast, but there really isn’t enough time for walking. Trust yourself. Jeff and I knew how to use a compass, but we stuck to the advice of the organizers and skipped CP1, which in retrospect we could have easily acquired.  The race organizer’s advice was good advice for beginners, which we were, but we could have used the compass to find that CP easily. That alone cost us 4 places.  Observe other teams, particularly the ones you know are experienced. They are experienced and learned from earlier mistakes. What did I learn? Eat well before the race, and keep nourished during the race.  I was gassed at the end, and needed 30 minutes of recovery time.
So that was our race.  We can’t wait for the next one. Top ten here we come, or at least 24th. :).

The Team

Over the summer (2012) I was searching the internet for one of those “mudder races” to compete in.  Along the way, I found the website for Pangea Adventure Racing and quickly decided that running, biking, and paddling while navigating through the woods sounded far more interesting than crawling through mud, climbing walls, and being shocked with hundreds of other people.  I sent an email to several friends who might be interested and three agreed it was something they would like to do.

After struggling to find a race in which we we could all compete we settled on Resolution AR in Clermont, Florida held on January 19, 2013.  Due to scheduling problems and an injury, the team was narrowed to me, David Hill, and Jeff Bates, and we took on the name Running on Empty.
Jeff is an experienced endurance athlete with triathlons, marathons, and ultramarathons under his belt. I had little recent endurance experience, but after 18 months of daily Crossfit training and about 15-20 miles a week of running I was in pretty good shape for a 51 year old.

Given that neither one of us had any experience navigating with a map and compass we spent three weekends practicing on a Florida Orienteering course at Kelly Park near Apopka, Florida. Jeff was obviously a very strong runner, and I was improving rapidly, so we decided we would do nothing to prepare for the running section of the race other than our normal weekly running.  We would, however,  need to practice trail riding and canoeing.  Given the holidays and our busy lives we were able to get in one trail ride at a local mountain biking trail and two brief canoe trips.  In all our preparation for our first race was three visits to the orienteering course, one 7 mile trail ride, and two canoe sessions.  Ready or not we would compete in the Resolution AR.