Team Ragged Glory – Adventure Racing, Multi Sport, Friends

The race was divided into two sections. On Saturday after we picked up our registration and the race directors checked our gear we had to do a trail run. Ron, Jamey and myself made up the team, Chirosport (they are chiropractors). They tethered us together and we had to do approximately 4 miles navigating through old Indian trails (lots of rocks, roots, and leaves covering them). We did really well and by the end of the run had a 4-minute lead on all the other teams. This calmed my nerves a little bit. I was VERY nervous and didn’t sleep too well most of the week. They gave us our maps and went over the race.

There was a lot of private property for us to stay out of, a TON of hills, a long biking segment, and a ton of mando gear. We were up early on Sunday and off to drop our bikes and gear off at the first TA. The race got started with a land navigation section of 6CP’s in about a total of 6 miles and we were off to a rocking start, by far the fastest team out, passing up all the competition. Well, the CP1 was about 2 miles from the start because we had to avoid all this private property. When were about 5 minutes from the point (we thought we were in first) another team passed us already had gotten the point and were heading to the next. It didn’t make sense because that meant that they were 10 minutes ahead of us on a 2-mile run??? Did they cut through the private property?? We spend the rest of the land nav. making up lost ground and by the time we got to the paddling portion we were only 3 minutes behind them and making up time. We paddled hard for about an hour, had to dock and get 2 controls that were deep into the woods, bushwhack out and get another CP on the water and get to TA1. When we got there we were the new leaders. We raced off on our bikes for a road segment, now having a commanding lead. We had to drop our bikes at a gate and get two CP’s on foot…well, we got the first one and went to get the second one when I went to get the passport to get punched and realized it wasn’t there. I freaked out, was instantly nauseous, and just real shaky. I was in charge of the passport and had lost it. The only choice we had was to retrace our steps and search for it. We had gone a considerable distance through all kinds of terrain, and not exactly sure of our exact steps (we didn’t image that we would have had to remember them), there were a lot of really tall grasses it could have been in. Well, we got back to CP1 and I was able to locate it. However, I was still really shaken and felt like I had been responsible for a considerable blow to the team, the loss of our lead and time. They reassured me to put it behind me and focus on the next half of the race. We had to get back on bike, still on the road, and go to Illinois City to get our next CP. The ride was extremely hilly and I began feeling it. After we got the checkpoint we were heading back to Loud Thunder for single track riding. We had to get two CP’s, do a traverse and then continue on single track. We got to the traverse, put on our harnesses, prayed for the integrity of our equipment (2-1ft. runners, 2 opposing locking carabineers), and ran off a spur being connected to a rope that went over a stream. It only got you halfway over the stream and then you had to hand-over-hand to the end, throw your legs around the rope so that you could get your carabineers off so that your next teammate could go. I got an awful Charlie horse when I was trying to get my carabineers off. It was the beginning of miles of them… We got back on our bikes and did single track for about 8-9 miles, up and down…I hit the wall here. Thankfully Jamey came back to life after feeling like crap in the morning from the flu. They just kept encouraging me and at the big climbs they would carry my bike up. I was bonking big time and didn’t know if I could get out of it. All they knew is that we had to keep moving because the other team was still catchable and somehow we were still making up time on them. I had 3 electrolyte capsules, a Laffy Taffy (new favorite race food), and was starting to feel a little better when I took a hard fall. We were supposed to being doing a full loop on the trails, but the team in first got the last control and turned around heading out the other way because it was shorter. I was steering to the side so that they could pass by when my bike changed gears and locked up, it stopped, and I kept going. I was on the ground having bit my knee into the handlebars. It killed. It was a mental battle for me on the rest of the single track. But we finished. Now all we had left was 6 miles on foot getting the last 2 controls and heading to the finish. Jamey hooked me up to a tow system and we took off, but I came back to life. I started to feel very good. I took off the tow and felt fresh. It was awesome! Too bad it didn’t come a little earlier. At this point we knew that we had a huge lead on the 3rd place team, we thought that the first place team had too much of a lead, so we weren’t gut busting it. We got our controls, got to the finish and found out that the first place team had come in only 4 minutes ahead of us–without adding on the times from the day before. It ended up that we missed first place by 51 seconds. AHHHHH!!! If we had only known… It goes to show that you just need to push it no matter what because you don’t know what happened to other teams in the woods. We could have won awesome new packs, but instead we won Princeton headlamps–pretty nice! We found out that the team that had beaten us had an Olympic and Tour De France Cyclist on it. Wow. What a great experience.. – Julie