Calvo's Big Chill Adventure Race Report
January 28-29, 2006
Bastrop and Buescher State Parks
Too Cool Racing
The monotony and boredom of winter training finally got to me, as it usually does, forcing me out of my comfort zone. From past experience, that would be challenging, if not dangerous. Witness: a Cyclocross race, two Dirty Duathlons and a New Zealand glacier lake Aquathlon in the past 3 winters.
Well, it was that time of year and time for unbridled attack on something new. I have been intrigued by Adventure Racing for a while, and have been waiting for the urge to strike to proceed.
I ran into Bob Talomini (Adventure Race Coach and personal trainer) at the Houstonian last year and bent his ear about my curiosity over the sport and, while cruising the Runtex event page two months ago, I found The Big Chill Adventure 12/24 Hour Race and decide that that was what I had been looking for. I called Bob, who eagerly lured me out to Bastrop for a day long Orienteering “lab” with map and compass, navigation skills and orientation to this “new” race format.
I contacted Rick Sanders, director of Houston Adventure Racing Team and attended 2 of their Rambo training sessions at Memorial Park and convinced him to put me on a team of newbies, two 4th year Baylor medical students. After grinding through several other folks, and thanks to Rick, we finally found our 4th person, a lady-triathlete, to makeup our 4-person coed team for the big day.
The team officially met in the wee hours of race day at the race start. We organized our transition area and equipment and developed a plan. The race involved running, trekking, kayaking, caving, mountain biking and traversing on a ropes course, all while being required to find some 25 or so “check points” utilizing a USGS map and compass, along with other orienteering skills and clues.
The race started with gear check, perfunctory rules and regs and preliminary list of coordinates to 3 check points to plot on our map where 2 double-digit numbers could be found. These, when combined and unscrambled would make a rational set of two 6- digit UTM coordinates, which, when plotted, would provide the “Northing” and “Easting” coordinates for the site where the race actually would start.
That point was where we picked up our next set of coordinates, our pass- ports with numbers corresponding to each check point, each of which had to punched by a unique punch at each check point, and clues for the run/trek section of the course. There was a short traverse that required climbing harnesses and hard-hats and we had to cross a gulch (not much of a challenge), with some hand-over-hand work to reach the other side.
We sped through that, finding all but one check point during the ensuing 4 hours, leaving it to pick up on our way back to transition, thus avoiding doubling back before the next section of the race. Oh, not to forget the “cave”, we had to locate and enter the so-called “cave”, really a 4 feet wide, 1000 feet long conduit/drainage pipe under the 4 lane freeway, where we found the check point in the pitch black hanging from the inside of the “cave”. We all had head lights but one of the teammates was claustrophobic and the race director had plans to avoid a bailout.
Each of us had an arm band for this section and “all” were required to punch the band with a punch hanging on the check point to assure that we all crawled into the damned pipe. There were a few anxious moments but we made it.
The next phase would be the kayak portion which was carried out on Lake Bastrop. Upon returning the 2 miles to the transition area we checked in and received our lake check point coordinates and ran/trekked 4 miles back to the lake where we boarded our boats and spent the next 3 hours finding the 2 check points on the lake. The tricky devils placed one at the furthest reaches of a finger of the lake and, unbeknownst to us, the topography of the lake had changed due to the 5 feet drop in the lake due to the drought.
We finally noted that there was an extension of that finger behind a land bridge and thicket, which we had to portage our 2-man kayaks over and re-launch to paddle to the “true” end of the lake. There we found the check point hanging high in a tree. That done, we found the second check point up a beautiful quiet creek with fallen trees, under and over which we paddled, laying low in our kayaks to avoid banging heads and other body parts. The way back was, of course, up-wind and in the rain with white caps breaking over the bows; we were cold and wet, now some 7 hours into what was advertised as a 12 hour race.
During these sections hydration and nutrition were of utmost importance and someone had to keep the team alert to this. That was one of my jobs. I am sure they got tired of my commanding them to eat when not hungry and drink when not thirsty. We each carried 100 ounce “Camelbacks” loaded with the electrolyte beverage of choice (mine was Hammer’s Perpetuum) and goodies, from tuna and PB&J sandwiches, to crushed up potato chips, Clif Bars and Snickers. Every chance we had we ate or drank to make sure we had the fluids and calories to do the work.
Next was the mountain bike section and the sun was getting low in the sky. We returned to transition where we changed into dry socks and shirts, whatever, and reloaded the “Camelbacks” and received our next set of coordinates. Off we went on the bikes with powerful lights ready for sundown. Then came the cold, the fog, the muddy power line right-of-ways, the grave yard in the dark, in the fog and in the cold. We trudged on, over fences, stopping to scrape gumbo mud from our tires and feet. At one point my feet looked like catchers mitts with straw attached. One of the team got bad leg-bonk (deficient calories) so the strongest member (young stud) pulled out his tow rope and towed the mate up the tougher hills. It’s called a “team” for a reason. Finally, at 11 PM we stormed (not really) into transition, not knowing if, or what, we faced next, hoping to be finished.
Well, one more set of coordinates was handed out: a night-trek/navigation section with 5 more check points. We decided, “What the hell, we’ve come this far, let’s finish”, and took off one more time into the dark with a goal of 2 hours to finish. The first two check points went as all of the others, right on, first shot. And then, at midnight, our first mistake. A two hour mistake due to a mental (tired brains) mistake that had us trekking a “power line” instead of a “pipe line”, a mile from where we belonged. We misread the map legend. That kind of broke our spirit.
We re-plotted and re-traced and re-orienteered relentlessly looking for the check point until the lights started dimming and, finally, dying. It was 1:30 AM our lights were fading fast we were cold and had resorted to our emergency Mylar space blankets for warmth (that is why they have mandatory gear checks), two of us were totally out of fluids and everyone hurt everywhere. The consensus was to bag the last three points and to go home, 3 hours into our 2 hour goal. The trip back was about another hour of hills that were not welcome at that point and we finished sometime after 2 AM in a respectable 5th place out of 7 teams. Not bad for a couple of tough med students and a pair of triathletes, huh? We hurt in places we did not know that we had, and I am still stiff all over, more than any one place. But we DID IT!
Team HARTTalmo
Dave Calvo
Helena Finley
James Sander
Joey Kuebker
Bastrop and Buescher State Parks
Too Cool Racing
The monotony and boredom of winter training finally got to me, as it usually does, forcing me out of my comfort zone. From past experience, that would be challenging, if not dangerous. Witness: a Cyclocross race, two Dirty Duathlons and a New Zealand glacier lake Aquathlon in the past 3 winters.
Well, it was that time of year and time for unbridled attack on something new. I have been intrigued by Adventure Racing for a while, and have been waiting for the urge to strike to proceed.
I ran into Bob Talomini (Adventure Race Coach and personal trainer) at the Houstonian last year and bent his ear about my curiosity over the sport and, while cruising the Runtex event page two months ago, I found The Big Chill Adventure 12/24 Hour Race and decide that that was what I had been looking for. I called Bob, who eagerly lured me out to Bastrop for a day long Orienteering “lab” with map and compass, navigation skills and orientation to this “new” race format.
I contacted Rick Sanders, director of Houston Adventure Racing Team and attended 2 of their Rambo training sessions at Memorial Park and convinced him to put me on a team of newbies, two 4th year Baylor medical students. After grinding through several other folks, and thanks to Rick, we finally found our 4th person, a lady-triathlete, to makeup our 4-person coed team for the big day.
The team officially met in the wee hours of race day at the race start. We organized our transition area and equipment and developed a plan. The race involved running, trekking, kayaking, caving, mountain biking and traversing on a ropes course, all while being required to find some 25 or so “check points” utilizing a USGS map and compass, along with other orienteering skills and clues.
The race started with gear check, perfunctory rules and regs and preliminary list of coordinates to 3 check points to plot on our map where 2 double-digit numbers could be found. These, when combined and unscrambled would make a rational set of two 6- digit UTM coordinates, which, when plotted, would provide the “Northing” and “Easting” coordinates for the site where the race actually would start.
That point was where we picked up our next set of coordinates, our pass- ports with numbers corresponding to each check point, each of which had to punched by a unique punch at each check point, and clues for the run/trek section of the course. There was a short traverse that required climbing harnesses and hard-hats and we had to cross a gulch (not much of a challenge), with some hand-over-hand work to reach the other side.
We sped through that, finding all but one check point during the ensuing 4 hours, leaving it to pick up on our way back to transition, thus avoiding doubling back before the next section of the race. Oh, not to forget the “cave”, we had to locate and enter the so-called “cave”, really a 4 feet wide, 1000 feet long conduit/drainage pipe under the 4 lane freeway, where we found the check point in the pitch black hanging from the inside of the “cave”. We all had head lights but one of the teammates was claustrophobic and the race director had plans to avoid a bailout.
Each of us had an arm band for this section and “all” were required to punch the band with a punch hanging on the check point to assure that we all crawled into the damned pipe. There were a few anxious moments but we made it.
The next phase would be the kayak portion which was carried out on Lake Bastrop. Upon returning the 2 miles to the transition area we checked in and received our lake check point coordinates and ran/trekked 4 miles back to the lake where we boarded our boats and spent the next 3 hours finding the 2 check points on the lake. The tricky devils placed one at the furthest reaches of a finger of the lake and, unbeknownst to us, the topography of the lake had changed due to the 5 feet drop in the lake due to the drought.
We finally noted that there was an extension of that finger behind a land bridge and thicket, which we had to portage our 2-man kayaks over and re-launch to paddle to the “true” end of the lake. There we found the check point hanging high in a tree. That done, we found the second check point up a beautiful quiet creek with fallen trees, under and over which we paddled, laying low in our kayaks to avoid banging heads and other body parts. The way back was, of course, up-wind and in the rain with white caps breaking over the bows; we were cold and wet, now some 7 hours into what was advertised as a 12 hour race.
During these sections hydration and nutrition were of utmost importance and someone had to keep the team alert to this. That was one of my jobs. I am sure they got tired of my commanding them to eat when not hungry and drink when not thirsty. We each carried 100 ounce “Camelbacks” loaded with the electrolyte beverage of choice (mine was Hammer’s Perpetuum) and goodies, from tuna and PB&J sandwiches, to crushed up potato chips, Clif Bars and Snickers. Every chance we had we ate or drank to make sure we had the fluids and calories to do the work.
Next was the mountain bike section and the sun was getting low in the sky. We returned to transition where we changed into dry socks and shirts, whatever, and reloaded the “Camelbacks” and received our next set of coordinates. Off we went on the bikes with powerful lights ready for sundown. Then came the cold, the fog, the muddy power line right-of-ways, the grave yard in the dark, in the fog and in the cold. We trudged on, over fences, stopping to scrape gumbo mud from our tires and feet. At one point my feet looked like catchers mitts with straw attached. One of the team got bad leg-bonk (deficient calories) so the strongest member (young stud) pulled out his tow rope and towed the mate up the tougher hills. It’s called a “team” for a reason. Finally, at 11 PM we stormed (not really) into transition, not knowing if, or what, we faced next, hoping to be finished.
Well, one more set of coordinates was handed out: a night-trek/navigation section with 5 more check points. We decided, “What the hell, we’ve come this far, let’s finish”, and took off one more time into the dark with a goal of 2 hours to finish. The first two check points went as all of the others, right on, first shot. And then, at midnight, our first mistake. A two hour mistake due to a mental (tired brains) mistake that had us trekking a “power line” instead of a “pipe line”, a mile from where we belonged. We misread the map legend. That kind of broke our spirit.
We re-plotted and re-traced and re-orienteered relentlessly looking for the check point until the lights started dimming and, finally, dying. It was 1:30 AM our lights were fading fast we were cold and had resorted to our emergency Mylar space blankets for warmth (that is why they have mandatory gear checks), two of us were totally out of fluids and everyone hurt everywhere. The consensus was to bag the last three points and to go home, 3 hours into our 2 hour goal. The trip back was about another hour of hills that were not welcome at that point and we finished sometime after 2 AM in a respectable 5th place out of 7 teams. Not bad for a couple of tough med students and a pair of triathletes, huh? We hurt in places we did not know that we had, and I am still stiff all over, more than any one place. But we DID IT!
Team HARTTalmo
Dave Calvo
Helena Finley
James Sander
Joey Kuebker
posted by Sandy and Jennie L. at 4:58 PM
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