Race Day - Part Deux

After Gary read yesterday's post, he reminded me that I had overlooked the fact that our team had to cross a calf-deep stream with our bikes, less than a half mile into the race. The stream crossing was easy and unremarkable, for the most part. The down side to the crossing is the fact that your bike shoes get soaked, increasing the chance of hot spots (blisters), early in a very long race. Fortunately, that never became an issue for us, and that certainly would not be the last time our feet got wet during the hours to come. As we made our way down the ridge with checkpoint 2 in our sights, Gary limping and Steve bleeding, the realization of how difficult this race would be began to sink in for all of us. We paused briefly so I could tape Gary's ankle and clean Steve's shin digger. After picking up checkpoint 2 at 4 p.m., we were off on a winding, single track, downhill descent toward the small town of New Castle. At this point, we had all pretty much depleted our personal water supplies and the creeks near the bottom of the descent were looking very refreshing. A quick stop to filter and refill a couple bottles and we were off for the short trip into town, where we found a small convenience store. We all downed Coca Colas and water, and scarfed down Fig Newtons, Slim Jims and bags of chips. For anyone reading this who may be appalled by our junk food intake, trust me, nutrition goes out the window when your body is burning up calories like that. The sugar in the Coke and salt in the Slim Jims and chips was just what the Doctor ordered for us at that point. We also carried an assortment of Pro Bars, Clif Bars, etc., but the immediate satisfaction from the junk food was pure wind in our proverbial sails. While at the little store, we also purchased 4 gallons of water and topped off our reservoirs and bottles for the long haul to checkpoint 3. Just as we left town, another quick pit stop was in order to repair a flat on Gary's bike. Luckily, that would be the only mechanical issue we would face for the entire race. Once back on the bikes, we began the long grind on secondary and gravel roads toward checkpoint 3. In order to get to 3, we had to pass through checkpoint 4 on the way, finally arriving there around 10:30 p.m. Checkpoint 4 was one of a couple manned checkpoints and the volunteers there advised us to filter water, if we needed it, because it would be a long, tough haul to 3 before turning around and returning before the 2 a.m. cut off. Since we were all still good on water, we headed off toward checkpoint 3, up a steep Jeep trail that climbed relentlessly to the ridge. Of the 4 miles or so up to checkpoint 3, we probably pushed our bikes for 3 1/2 of them. At 12:25 a.m. I punched our passport at checkpoint 3 and we turned around to head back to 4. We arrived back at checkpoint 4 at 1:35 a.m., the last team to make it by the official 2 a.m. cutoff, feeling exhausted and a little weary. Over 12 hours spent on the bike saddle was starting to take it's toll on all of us, and we were eager to transition to the trekking phase of the race, until we realized that we had approximately 26 miles on foot ahead of us, before reaching the transition to the canoes. Decision time. To be continued.......again. "Thrive Outside"