Buff Betty Women's Adventure Race

I couldn't find any teammates for this race so I headed out to Cunningham Falls State Park to race solo. It was a blast! The race had 2 phases... here is the report:

Phase 1:
Prologue run 1/2 mi around parking lot to spread out the field
Trek to beach where the boats were (1/2 mi)
Paddle to 2 checkpoints (CPs) on lake then back to beach
Trek back to transition area (our vehicles)
Transition to bike
Bike to 2 CPs (gravelly service road and paved road)
Drop bike at top of big ass hill and navigate to 2 CPs and back (1.5 mi trekking)
Bike back to transition area
Trek back to beach
Paddle across lake and dock boat
Trek to Cat Rock hitting a CP on the way (5ish mi roundtrip) then back to boat
Paddle back to beach
Portage boat
Trek back to transition area to get map for Phase 2

There were only a few other solo racers and maybe 40-50 teams of 2 or 3. Seemed like 80-100 people at the start. I tried to get up front in the prologue run because I didn’t want to be in a mass of canoes veering everywhere. I succeeded and was probably the 4th or 5th boat on the water. Did pretty well with the paddle though I really tired myself out trying to paddle hard! I had borrowed Lorrin’s (very cool) boat and this was my second time in this boat, probably my third time ever in a kayak. But I guess I had developed some skills canoeing with Paul during the summer.

Got back to the bike and decided not to switch to my biking shoes (my pedals have little platforms so it was OK). Sure, it would have been easier to bike with them but I didn’t want to do the off trail navigation that was in the middle of the bike course, in my biking shoes, or waste time changing shoes twice. So, out of the parking lot to a CP then up the service road. Missed a turn and had to hike my bike up a steep pitch to get back on the road. Then hit the pavement, and headed up the big ass hill. There was no one around me at all, so I was sort of worried I was going the wrong way, but I was OK. Got to the top, there were only 6 other bikes there. Drop my bike, and started to make my way off trail to the CPs and started to see lots of others out there close behind me. Got CPs and back on my bike. Hit 30 mph even w/ my knobby tires on the way down the big ass hill. That was fun and scary.

Dropped the bike and took off back to the boats, taking a ClifShot on the way. The other solo chick who I had followed down the hill was changing her shoes so I got ahead of her. As I was getting in my boat the volunteers were cheering and telling me I was in 3rd place overall, first of the solos (though everyone, team or solo, competed in the same “category” for this race). Nothing like a little pressure to not let people pass me. Paddled in a nice straight line to the boat dock, portaged to a parking lot and promptly took off in the wrong direction. Quickly corrected and then ran over (off trail) to the CP. Checked in then up to the CP at Cat Rock.

I was feeling the pain as I hiked up as fast as I could and tried to run as much as I could. It also occurred to me that I needed to start drinking some water- it was getting kinda warm. Got to the top of Cat Rock and saw the 2 teams in front of me on their way down- everyone was super friendly and supportive. Volunteer at Cat told me I was 6 mins behind 2nd and 11 mins behind 3rd. I was pretty sure I couldn’t catch them even with my mad trail running skills (ha). I channeled Michelle and Lorrin’s downhill-running-bad-ass-ness and tried to fly back down. I’m seeing everyone coming up and am trying not to careen out of control into them. I see my competition is really only 5-10 minutes back. [Later, I noted there was a power line cut I could have taken back down but it didn’t appear to shorten the run that much].

Back to the boat, paddle across the lake, do my portage- managed to get the boat up on my head amidst a bunch of guys who seemed a little worried I was going to hurt myself (they were calling it the team challenge but I really think they just wanted us to get the boats off the beach ;) ). Run to transition where I get my map for the orienteering course.

Phase 2:
Orienteering course with 20 CPs you could get in any order but had to be back by 4:00pm or else you start losing points. Distance- probably 8 miles running/hiking. If more than one team gets all 20, whoever does it fastest wins, etc.

I knew I had a lot of time to do this and should be able to get them all, but also knew that I could easily make a mistake and lose time. I’m immediately overwhelmed because there are points all over this map, and I’m physically exhausted, arms shaking, out of breath, etc. And now I’m expected to think intelligently. It appeared that I was going to have to do a fair amount of back tracking anyway so I just pick a direction and start collecting points, sort of hitting the outliers first and making a plan as I go along. This was a lot of fun, and I ran into very few people til I got back much closer to the start. And you have no idea how you are doing relative to other teams so I just kept pushing myself to run as hard and as much as I could. I only bushwhacked for 4 or 5 points and didn’t need to use the compass much, only a few times to check myself. There wasn’t a huge advantage to going off trail as the terrain was rocky and steep (and there could be snakes lurking!) so it was easier and faster to stay on trails for the most part. I also routed myself up that big ass hill I had biked up earlier- that was pretty evil!

Some of the CPs were tricky and you had to really pay attention to the map features and descriptions or it was hard to find the darn things. I finally got all the points, and think I made good choices with the order I got them, and then checked in at the finish! I was 3rd overall (final time was 4:40) and was thrilled and amazed- this was my third adventure race ever! First and second place were the same ones who were in front of me the whole time. I met some cool people and chatted some with the winners, and other volunteers, etc. I do think these races are more fun on a team rather than solo though! This sport is really cool though I know I need to develop some more bike skills and get better at navigation on tougher courses too. The organizers did a great job w/ the race making it fun, challenging, and very interesting. Cunningham Falls State Park was gorgeous this time of year.