Team CooCoo Challenged

On August 19^th I received an email telling about the VentureQuest in Virginia. Went to the web site and thought it was really cool.

Starting seriously thinking about putting a team together the next day and talked about it with Lisa and sent the link to Adrianne.

On September 3^rd Lisa and I decided that we really wanted to do it and we sent an email to Age asking her if she wanted to try it. I went out of town until Friday and during that time Age called and left a message that she wanted to go for it.

On September 6^th we sent in the entry form.

I started gathering all the information I could about the race and I even went and checked out Fountainhead Regional Park and took a little walk and jog in the woods on September 11^th.

On September 12^th I received the acceptance letter telling us we were registered and giving us some additional information.

The excitement level is high.

I am thinking now on what we need to take with us to VA. What to carry, what to leave with the bikes and all that. What kind of first aid kit should I carry. Oh this is going to be so much fun.

It is now October 8^th. Two days ago, Lisa, Age and myself did the race. It was a total blast. And we finished!!!!!

For a while there, it looked like we weren’t going to make it. It took us over nine hours to finish, but finish we did!

The excitement and nervousness was mounting as we pulled out of our driveway on Saturday. The truck was full and the bikes were on the rack. We headed out a little after 1pm.

All was well until we got our first challenge. As we were moving in traffic on Route 66, I heard a pop and the engine started running real rough. We stopped and opened the hood. At first we couldn’t tell what was wrong, but then I saw the sparkplug hanging. It had come loose and popped out of the cylinder. It was very hot, as was the engine, so I put on my biking gloves and got the wrench out and screwed the bugger back in. Started the baby up and we continued on our way.

We got to Hemlock and checked in. There was no one around. We found a place and set up our camp.

We had the meeting and dinner and went to the short classes on orienteering and mountain biking.

We got little sleep as we tossed and turned. A truck came through the field and a helicopter flew over in the middle of the night. I got up at 5:30 am and started getting ready.

We had oatmeal and bagels for breakfast. Broke camp and headed over to Fountainhead.

I dropped the girls, bikes and transition gear and brought the truck back. I quickly caught a shuttle back to Fountainhead and we were ready to go.

At 9:00 am we started. We hung back at the back as the racers spread out. After a loop around to the marina and back we headed into the woods. We ran for about 3.5 miles to the canoe put in. There were a couple of teams behind us at that point. We took our canoes to the checkpoint, got stamped and headed South back to Fountainhead. We had to portage the canoes up the hill and do an obstacle of passing the canoe over some strings while we had to go under them.

We finished that and headed to the bikes. The road biking was easy. We headed to the first challenge at the end of the road. We had to cut a nylon strap with only sticks a rope and various other junk. We failed and had to sit a 3-minute time penalty. (The rope was supposed to be used to cut the strap with friction)

We headed back down the hill and on to the mountain bike course. This is where we slowed down a lot. There were a lot of the fast racers lapping us and Age had no experience to go on with this one. About three hours later we headed out of the woods, done with the bikes. Lisa’s derailleur decided to fall off near the end. Luckily it was near the end.

We trotted down the road to challenge #2. An archery test where your time was suspended as you waited your turn. We got 13 points.

We trotted back down the road to the canoes, through the obstacle and down to the water again. This time we went north first checked with the checkpoint and then headed south to the pull out.

Back to running. Off we go into the woods. I was amazed at Lisa’s stamina. She kept trudging along. Age was keeping up pretty good too. We were cruising and hoping to catch the team in front of us who were about 10 to 15 minutes ahead.

About an hour and a half into it, we had spread out pretty far and Lisa and I heard a scream from Age’s direction. She had fallen and hurt her leg. Her calf swelled up to the size of a baseball. We wrapped it with an ace bandage, got her a walking stick and continued on.

We got to Bull Run Marina around 4:27. Here we had to do a challenge of answering 5 questions. For everyone we got wrong, we had to do 50 pushups. The questions were about the Make-a-Wish foundation.

We got 3 of 5 right and had to do 100 pushups. I did at least 65, Lisa did 25 and age did at least 15. We did more than we had to. At this time we heard that there was a 5:00 pm cutoff at the next challenge area, the orienteering. They didn’t know how far it was, but we had 4.5 miles left in the race.

I started running to the next challenge to beat the cutoff and the girls followed as they could.

I got to the challenge area at 4:49pm and they said you made it. They gave me the map, compass and answer sheet and I started studying it as I waited for the girls. Lisa arrived at 4:56 and Age got there right about 5:00. We headed out after a short rest to do the orienteering.

At this point I thought we were so close to getting cut off so I did all the map and compass work. We headed into the woods, following the trail for a while. I saw a shortcut on the map and we took it to cut off some time. We got close to the first orienteering point and headed into the woods off the trail. Lisa spotted the first marker. We got the number and followed a gully back to a trail. We followed the trail along a creek until the trail turned. We continued to follow the creek and at another north heading gully I saw the second marker. At this time we heard other racers in the woods. We weren’t all alone out here. I got the number off the second marker and we headed north again to find the trail. We got on it and saw the other team and some rescue workers. We were walking on the trail when Lisa spotted the third marker. All this time Age was keeping up as best she could. We would go awhile and wait. We got this number and I saw we had to down a pretty steep ravine to get back to the blue trail and then we were going to have to go up another steep hill to find marker 4 and another challenge. I went to the blue trail and called up to Lisa to turn right when she hit the trail. I went north on the trail some and saw where I needed to head up hill again. I went up a ways and waited to see Lisa. When I did, I called for her to follow up the little trail and then turn left and go up the steep hill. Up we all went and we got to the challenge area before the whole other team got there.

The challenge was to get all three of us over a 9-foot wall that had a rope attached in 3 minutes. We just said give us the time penalty because there was no way Age was going over that wall. I climbed it to see if I could and Lisa tried. We got some more water and headed out to the next orienteering point. We had to go down a real steep trail on a power line. I went first, then Lisa, then Age. The other team was behind her and couldn’t get by her. I took off to the next point, which was at a dam along the creek and path. I got there and got the number and thought I signaled Lisa to follow the path behind me to the sixth point, which was on an island in the creek. I ran along and saw another lost team looking into the creek for the island. I told them it was up stream a ways and ran on. I got there and got the number and went back to the path to wait for the girls. The other team waited there while one person went to the marker. Lisa and Age came up and we had one more check point to get to. I took a bearing up the hill and decided to go that way. They decided to take the trail. It was hard moving, but I was full of adrenaline still and I waited a few minutes for the girls. We finished the orienteering challenge successfully and headed for the finish line.

They told us to take the path and pass the pond to the finish line, which cut off some, but they said they wanted us to finish fast. So we did take the path. The other team behind us.

We got there after racing 9 hours 36 minutes and 33 seconds. FINISHED. (Our official time was 9 hours 2 minutes and 12 seconds after they took off the stop time from the second challenge and the points we received for our bull’s-eyes. That was 71^st place out of a total of 95 teams registered. Five didn’t show for the race and 19 got DQ’ed.)

All the checkpoints were good. We got a ribbon. Yeah!

We waited around, because they said there was pizza coming and we wanted some real food.

We got some pizza and headed to Fountainhead for the bikes. It was now dark and our bikes were the last ones there. We packed them up and headed home.

We got home and collapsed. Esther fussed over us and we felt great.

We were pretty sore the next day, but not too bad. Lisa only had one little blister. I had none. Our shoulders hurt from the canoe portage and every muscle of our legs. My arms and ribs and just about everywhere else was a little sore.

Today, Tuesday, I’m still a little sore, but I was able to play volleyball and I moved well after getting started.

This was an amazing adventure. I loved it and now I think I’m hooked. I’m already looking for some mountain biking trails in the area to practice on for the next race.

Bye.