Team Ragged Glory – Adventure Racing, Multi Sport, Friends

November 5, 2004 marked a milestone for Team Ragged Glory. Somewhere in the mix of our passionate pursuit to have fun and give it our best shot, we qualified for the USARA National Championships! So we traveled to French Lick, Indiana with no expectations other than racing against the course and giving it every bit of energy we could muster. We had no idea of what the outcome was going to be.

Upon arriving at French Lick Springs Resort we were greeted by Doug as he had been there helping GlobalX set up for the race. It brought a sense of calming as I had been dealing with nerves all week. Shortly thereafter Steve arrived as he was going to be volunteering at checkpoints. Our team is so supportive and I am so thankful for the efforts everyone made to be there and encourage us in this event. At dinner and the pre-race meeting it was great to run into familiar teams and faces as well as meet some new ones that had traveled far distances to be there. AR has some of the nicest people I have met.

Dave Tanner was the newest addition to our three-man team. It would be Bob “The Mule” Mueller (how do you like that? I just made it up), TD (TannerDave), the legendary endurance athlete (who I found out has completed, competed and accomplished more than any one person I have ever met), and my young and inexperienced self. We later would learn that our team dynamics would be a perfect match.

Stage One
At 5am on a very crisp Friday morning the team prayed, then we received our maps and began plotting our points. The first section would be trek, paddle, and trek. At 7am, after singing a rather pleasant and in-tune national anthem, we were off. The moment we started I was able to totally relax and settle into race mode. It is the anticipation that is the killer. I looked around and tried to take it all in. I was surrounded with some of the top AR athletes in the country and today we were battling a course together. We were running to the West Baden Springs Hotel where we had to check in before heading to the canoe put-in.

We grabbed a brand new Mad River three-seater Adventure canoe, donated by Gaylans, and headed to the Lost River. We actually managed to get in with a lot less trouble than other teams. It was beautiful with the steam and fog resting just above the water. We couldn’t see too far in front of us, but we could occasionally hear a team scream, then a crash, and then a splash. We didn’t want to go over; it was too cold. However, there were approximately seven log jams in the 12 miles of river and for each of these we had to get out and maneuver around or over the moving logs. This proved to be quite the feat as the water was deep, the logs would suddenly move, and the canoes were more than just a little tippy. Dave’s expert canoe skills came in handy! Dave jumped out heroically into the water to push us over logs. I was soaked and was afraid that hypothermia was going to set in as I had no control over my shivers and couldn’t feel some of my body. We were on the river for about two and a half hours and immediately after we got off the river I started running around trying to get my blood flowing. Later we found out that Team Salomon (the defending champions) had dropped out of the race after the paddle because of hypothermia.

We were back on foot. It took a while for us to get the feeling back in our bodies, but it felt so good to be out of the boats and in the woods. We traveled to several check points in the woods, along stream beds and eventually ended up back at TA1 at about 11 am.

Stage Two
We attempted to make a quick transition and get going on the next section of the race that would be bike, paddle, bike. We put on some warm clothes and were off on our bikes. We took a roundabout way to get to the first CP because we had thought that Hwy 56 was off limits, later to find out that it wasn’t. TD informed me later that we actually probably saved time instead of losing time on this misunderstanding. Not very soon after starting, Dave had trouble with his pedal and it went flying into the ditch! We didn’t have the proper tools to fix it so we were uncertain of the future of our bike portion. However, it lasted as long as we needed it to! We made some huge climbs that never seemed to summit, gathered some CPs, did some single track, (approximately eight miles of 24 total off-road miles), and headed to the boat ramp. Here we picked up the canoes again and headed out on Patoka Lake for 10 miles of paddling.

This time I had on a waterproof top, pants, neoprene gloves and booties. Dave maneuvered us around all kinds of stumps and we picked up the CPs we needed before we turned around at the boat ramp and headed back. We were working very steadily, yet seemed to be getting passed. We just stayed steady and consistent. It felt so good to get to the final boat ramp and be done with the paddling portion of the race. I think all of our arms were tired and ready for the break. We ate and jumped back on our bikes. We made it our goal to try and finish the single track portion before the sun went down. We had to get going.

We made our way on the open roads (approximately 24 miles of road biking) and collected the CPs before entering another portion of single track. This wasn’t easy because this section was horse trails. There was a lot of mud, a lot of climbing, and the sun was going down. It wasn’t long before we were making our way in the dark. This meant we couldn’t go as fast as we liked, but we had no choice but to keep on moving and pushing forward. Bob is always a great encouragement to me on the bikes. The guy never tires and is able to help me and encourage me. Dave kept me up-to-date on how many miles we had to each check point and how soon it would be until we were back on roads. I didn’t realize that we still had another portion of single track around the lake. I was super discouraged to learn that we weren’t on our way back to the TA. Dave told me that the next mile was going to be free-mostly down hill. So after getting CP 14, we headed into the woods again. Much to my surprise the two CPs we had to get were manned by Bill and Steve-what a sight to see after racing hard for the past 12+ hours. It lifted my spirits and gave me the drive to keep on pushing. After yelling “I love you” (because of Steve’s encouragement) across the lake to Bill, we headed back to TA2. It was a long ride, but Bob put me on the tow and we made it back as the temperature was dropping.

Stage Three
We ate again. This time it was pop tarts — I learn about new foods at every race and I have to say that these were quite satisfying. I wanted to make this as fast of a transition as possible because I know that the moment that we slowed down our tiredness would set in, we would want to warm up, and finishing would seem farther away than ever. For this section of the race we would have to bike, a Farsta orienteering leg, and a triad. We set out on bikes once again. We had to travel 7.5 miles to the point of the Farsta (a Swedish orienteering style). However, somehow on the way there we got mixed up and went a bit out of our way. We weren’t the only ones though. There was another team that had made the same mistake and that clued us in that we were off course. We just shook it off and kept on going. It seemed like a complete up-hill climb all the way to the Farsta. However, we later learned that our alternative route was less hilly than the direct route.
We got to the Farsta and learned that we were in 30th place. They had an oasis there with warm soup and apple cider. We quickly grabbed some, did the gear check, checked in and out again, and set off on the orienteering. We would be doing two loops with eight controls on each loop. Four of those controls would be common controls. We had heard that the first place team had done each one of the loops in around two hours, but the average was more like three and half hours per loop. We took off running and easily grabbed the first point, and we made our way through the woods with very few mistakes. There was lot of climbing and the burning was intense in our legs. We kept on very steadily. Control 5 was a manned control on the top of a steep hill. This meant we were nearly half way done with the first loop. We pressed on and were soon done with the first loop.

We grabbed a little more soup and took off quickly as we knew we couldn’t linger because that would be our end. There was a fire and food — we had to go. Greg Arnold (GlobalX race coordinator and the reason Bob and I were able to be competing in Nationals, as we qualified with him) was there and he was sporting a nice gash above his eye. I didn’t even realize it until he asked me what I thought about it and I told him that at one point I wanted to kick him in the face for this course. We took off and set out again to see what we could do with the goal of finishing this loop even quicker. We were off running to the first control when I twisted my ankle and went down. It killed, but I just made the decision that I wouldn’t think about it until the race was done. We trekked on with few mistakes. We felt like we were passing teams, but really didn’t know if we were going fast or not. We had trouble finding the last control but upon finding it decided to take a bearing instead of taking the trails back. We though it might save some time though it required a very steep climb.

We made it back to the CP and discovered that somehow in the mix we had passed 12 teams! We were now in 18th place! This was the best news all night. It lit us all up and gave us the drive and enthusiasm to finish hard. We made a lightning transition and started the triad, an event that we had been nervous about. We needed to have one biker, one runner/on-foot, and one scooter the 7.5 miles back to the finish line.
With that combo it wouldn’t be easy to keep the same speed. We decided that I would run, Dave would take my pack along with his while he scootered and Bob would bike while towing me. It wasn’t too long after starting that we discovered two things: 1) the scooter was actually slower than the runner with the up hills, and 2) towing caused me to have a more painful impact (I have had a stress fracture in my left foot). But this event was the icing on the cake. We worked together so well and each did what we needed to do for the team. I raced back as fast as my battered body would take me, Dave scootered, powering up the hills and zooming down them, and Bob informed us of where we were and how much farther we had to go. It wasn’t long before we zoomed past a team. We were now in 17th place. Bob and I switched for a mile or two while he ran, I scootered, and Dave biked. We soon switched again as we descended back into French Lick. The stars were shining extra bright for us and we were going to be finishing under 24 hours. It was sweet victory and we weren’t even back yet.

We crossed the finish line together and it was a feeling I will not soon forget. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to race not only with the best in the country, but with Bob and Dave and the support of TRG and Bill. We raced against the course and we won! We didn’t win the crown, but we placed 17th among the 48 teams that competed. What more could we ask for? We gave it everything we had and reflecting back, I don’t think there was ever a time I could have given more — we left it all on the course. It was a brilliant 24 hours in the woods. And as Dave would put it, a great day for the fellowship of the trail! Thanks again to all the great volunteers, patient families, the USARA and GlobalX Racing.