"Jet Lagged" at the Rocky Gap Adventure Race

Rocky Gap Adventure Race is described as a “pint sized version of Venture Quest” which is the longer adventure race that we finally finished last fall. RG is supposed to be 3-6 hours, and roughly 18-24 miles of various disciplines (running, mountain biking, paddling, bushwacking, tubing, swimming….). We thought RG would be a great early-season race (because we’re not in very good shape right now!) and a lot of fun. It turned out that Paul would be on a 10 day work trip to China, coming back the night before the race. “Luckily” he didn’t really sleep much while over there, so he never really adjusted to China time. Team “Jet Lagged” was ready to race on Sunday morning. Thankfully, the hot weather that the Promise Land runners faced had moved out, and we had a nice overcast day in the 60s. I can say with assurance that had it been 85 and sunny, I would not have been able to finish. We met up with Joe and John (“The Team”) on Sunday morning at the race site and they told us they were “out for a promenade”. We agreed with that sentiment and just wanted to finish, have fun, and not require medical attention.

We got our maps and the order of events was laid out as follows: run, paddle, bike, paddle, run, and bike. And at some point you had to get a ‘water checkpoint’ in the middle of the lake. You could swim or paddle your team on 2 tubes/1 paddle. We thought swimming was the fastest option, but probably the dumbest.

The day started off well, and it was quickly evident it was going to be a muddy, wet day. We ran for about 30 minutes before we started the paddling leg, which took us about 15 minutes. We transitioned to the bikes and started our muddy journey around the lake. We made the first of a few bad route-finding decisions at this point, and it took us about an hour to hit the next few CPs and get around the lake. We switched back to running gear and then got back in the boats. After about 20 mins of paddling, we had a long trekking section ahead of us with a daunting climb. We needed to get 3 CPs and we opted to get them by going up the ridge the steep way (1000’ climb) and hoping the gentler downhill would be runnable and we could make up time. The uphill was exhausting and difficult- no switchbacks, just straight up 1000’ in a mile, on a gas pipeline clearing (not a real trail). After we got to the top, we were happily able to cruise the downhill, do a bit of bushwacking (Paul took us over a boulder field) back to the lake, and a few miles back around to the transition area.

We decided to get the ‘water checkpoint’ now, and thought (stupidly?) that swimming would be faster. Swimming likely was faster, but was exhausting, and cold. It’s hard to swim in a lifejacket (though I may have drowned without one…), but we made it to the boat, checked in, and headed back. I tried to zone out on my way back and just backstroke my way in. The current somehow spun me around and I ended up heading back to the boat. Luckily I heard screaming and realized what was going on…and figured breaststroke was the safer option. Paul almost cramped up on the way in (and realized why he doesn’t do triathlons… he thought this was the hardest 20 minutes of the race!).

We were now back on the bike for 2 more colored CPs, then back around the lake, and to the finish line! We probably chose poorly at this point too, and ended up bushwacking our bikes up a steep hill, before hitting some nice singletrack (we could have taken this trail up but didn’t realize it- it wasn’t on the map. Grr.) For the next CP, we had a little biking on some nice trail followed by a very steep slope (cliff face, basically) we carried our bikes down, followed by a very long, steep, relentless uphill. My legs were absolutely trashed and I couldn’t imagine that I still had 4 muddy miles to go around the lake, after all this climbing. The rest of the lake loop was uneventful, except I was having some bike rage on a team of pink-shirted b*^@*!$ who eventually got past us. Of course now I’m a little annoyed that they beat us by a few minutes but I was so tired I really didn’t care who passed us at that point!

We hit the last CP, then cruised the last bit of singletrack into the finish area. We were covered in mud, soaking wet, and VERY happy to have finished. We chowed down some pizza and collected our pint glasses for our 4th place finish (race time of 5 hours, 52 minutes) in the co-ed duo division. So much for Rocky Gap being VQ’s “little” brother!