Multisport Night Race

October 10^th, 2003

We left Pasadena Friday afternoon and headed into the traffic. It wasn’t so bad and we arrived at the farm around 6 pm. It was still daylight so I looked around some. The haunted forest people were all around setting up. Soon others started to arrive. We met a Marcy, her husband Steve and their friend Keith. We also talked to another guy, I didn’t catch his name. Mike arrived around 7:30 or so and we started the check in. We got our maps and started plotting our Orienteering controls. My UTM plotter worked great. I showed the guy from earlier how to use it and let him borrow it to plot his controls.

We finally got started at 10:00 pm. We had decided to do the advanced orienteering first then the zip line and finally the 12 mile advanced bike leg. We followed the bikes to the power line, crossed the creek and headed into the woods. We followed the creek up on the small ridge until we thought we were getting close. We then went down hill to the creek and followed it until Lisa found the control. We started back as we saw another team coming our way. We went back to the power line, this time on the other side of the creek and headed back towards the barn. We got on the road and followed that to the field where the next control was. After finding a catching feature and walking a bearing off that, we found the second control. Next we headed for a dirt road that took us right to our third control. It was located by an old cemetery and it was pretty spooky cool going through it around midnight. After that we headed down a draw to the power line and tried a bearing to the last control which was on a small knoll. We missed it the first time and had to back track to the power line and try it again. This time we found it and we headed back to the barn to transition. There were a few people looking for that knoll control. It was pretty hard to find. We took the power line back to the TA barn and got an idea of what the bike was going to be like. Hard is one word for it.

Back at the barn, we got our sit harnesses on and headed to the zip line. I went first. It was very cool. You go flying and spinning and at the end it looks like you are going to hit a tree and you get stopped just in time. After that trip, we went back to the TA and transitioned to the bikes.

Now the real fun began. We got back to the power line, crossed the creek and started up the hill. Of course we had to walk the bikes. Up a ways, we got back on and rode until the next steep part. I had a goal each lap to get to three rocks laying in a row in the path. It was quite a trial to get there each time. After three rocks, it was walk again until the incline lessened some, then back on the bike to the check in truck where Mike was waiting to hear our number and write down our lap time. I would usually take a breather there and talk to Mike a little. Then it was onwards to the next time we had to walk for a bit. So we had to walk the bikes three times each uphill ½ mile. Next we turned around and headed down a ways on the power line and then into the woods. This downhill was crazy. Lots of rocks and roots and trees and nasty darkness. The first time down I got too close to a tree and it caught my handlebars and I went sprawling. There was a root that would slid you towards the tree, so you had to be extra careful each time you came by. There was a short steep part that after the first time down I knew I would be walking it from now on. Near the end is a bridge over the creek. I made it over it, but it narrows at the end and I almost fell. Lisa was not so lucky. She did fall off the bridge and scraped her chin, cut her finger and hurt her ankle some. What a fun first lap, and we only had 11 to go.

So onwards we went, cursing the rocks and roots and hills and doing what we could to get it done. On and on, lap after lap until Lisa had a little puking episode and I was starting to get real sloppy.

By now, its getting on towards 4:00 am and we are almost done. The last lap we didn’t have to do the top of the hill and we were so happy. Back to the barn we went where there were only two people. One was a solo that had just finished a while ago and the other a volunteer that checked us in. Total time was 6 hours and 22 minutes.

It was good training and we had fun in our pain.

After awhile another team came in and there was one more out in the woods somewhere lost.

We went to our truck and crawled in the back for a few hours rest before returning home.

It was a very fun time. I can’t wait until the next one.

Joe

Team Not Dead Yet