Greenhorn Update

Somehow Megan convinced me to sign up with her to do Greenhorn. It might have been more 'PromiseLand avoidance' than anything, but I've wanted to try out an Adventure race for some time now, so I agreed. Snakes on Terrain would ride again!

The course this year was at Rocky Gap state park, rather than Prince William park. I was promised the mountain biking portion last year was on forest roads, nothing too technical. The weather forecast was a little alarming, with predictions of thunderstorms, but during the drive up, a lot of the road was socked in by heavy fog.

Gillian came along as our 'team manager' and hoped to get some hiking out of it. We checked in, then sorted out our gear, and picked up our map and started planning. Running a trail race is easy - point A to point B. The adventure race was challenging, because the rules required you to grab the numbered checkpoints in order, but you could pick up 'colored' checkpoints whenever, except the 'water' one, which you basically had to tube or swim to pick up. So you had to strategically think when would be the fastest time to grab a checkpoint, whether running or biking. And the sneak-attack rule was you couldn't drop your bike and go off-trail a quarter mile, if you were biking, you had to keep your bike with you, even up a steep off-trail incline.
The topography and names of some of the trails (e.g., Rocky, Twisty trail. Steep Ravine filled with Shark Rocks trail. Death to Bikes Trail.) led me to question whether a trail would be suitable for biking. Because I am not a good mountain biker. I am filled with terror by anything other than a smooth flat surface, and particularly by steep downhills covered in rocks. These trails sounded suspiciously technical.

Megan suggested we ask a staff member for some details as to the technicality of the routes, so I fluttered my lashes and got some crucial info, which I think helped us strategically.

They sent us off with a mass start, beginning with the canoe portion. Megan & I did rock/paper/scissors because we each had practiced steering once. In our lives. Megan "won." Canoes were careening around and one even capsized, but Megan did an excellent job of keeping us in a straight path toward the opposite shore, where we punched in, then ran off down the trail.

We cut through the woods and shaved some time and distance on the running portion, except when we went up what turned out to be the most brambly, and completely wrong, side of the dam to grab checkpoint green. We got a couple other checkpoints, then did the ridiculous tubing/paddling thing because we thought the water would cool us off between running and biking - and best to get it over with.

We then went through the transition area and grabbed our bikes and were off - straight into a hike-a-bike up the side of the hill, then back down a 'trail' that had been cut like, the day before. Then I went over a scary concrete thing on my bike, so I guess I might be bad-a$$ but I blocked it from my memory.

After getting our final checkpoint, we were on the road to the finish. There was a lady who seemed to be by herself, or with a group of guys, but definately more than the 100 ft from her teammate that the rules require. We leapfrogged with her a bit on the road. I rode into the finish line first but couldn't figure out where to punch in, and by the time the race officals told me, she was already in the box, with another female --- WARGOED!

Well, 4th place is pretty awesome anyway, and we are proud of how we rocked the course. We beat the cut-offs by far, we beat the thunderstorms, and Megan & I got to experience something we've never had at an ultra... hot pizza!!!