Training Log Archive: Rainbow Unicorn

Bike to/from school.

This was the final O-section before heading back on our bikes to the finish. Unfortunately, I decided to botch one of the controls, having us go around in circles in thoroughly dense, gnarly, and prickly veg that certainly limited sight, causing us to lose about 30 minutes to most other teams. We saw Granite AR on this trek beforehand (they were finding the 3rd/final CP, whereas we were finding our first) and they warned us about the thick veg. Pretty crazy for us to spend 4 hours on a 3-mile straightline trek, even if it was in the middle of the night.... Definitely bummed to drop from 3rd place to 4th here.

Bike back to Lantana Lodge/finish after the final O-section. Came into the line at ~6:40am, racing time of 23:40 for 4th place of 67 teams.
Good race for us overall, but a few CP placements, thick veg, and tough paddle took it's toll. Awesome to see a lot of other teams out there throughout the race, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances for either of us at any given time. Congrats to Granite AR for rocking the course.
Would have been fun to see what the course would have been like without the 5-inches of rain two days before the start - definitely heavy on road biking with a total of 108 miles for us. Trekking sections were what I would call, "less than enjoyable" due to the gnarly conditions. Decent race overall though considering the conditions.

WEDALI will be looking forward to a bit of time off for the next month or so....

Event: US Individual Champs 2009
 

USARA National Championships 2009

The race started with a 200m LeMans run to our bikes, then a road ride around the reservoir from Lantana Lodge to Ray Roberts Lake State Park. Lots of pace riding and a little bit of tire rubbing. Someone apparently dislocated their shoulder less than 1/4 mile from the start - that's a bad way to start a race.....

This was a tough open water paddle on the reservoir. A fair bit of wind created a white-capped lake, We bypassed CP5 with Nuun and Bushwhacker, and got it on the way back (after doing a 1.5 mile portage, getting CP4, and another 1.5 mile portage). Steering the boat in these conditions was especially taxing. We brought my double bladed kayak, but I only ended up using half for 90% of the paddle just to keep us going in the right direction. We didn't lose too many spots, but I was a little worried about the portage earlier on. In hind-site it saved us a lot of paddling, which was probably better in the long run.

After the paddle, we biked around a finger of the reservoir to complete a short trekking section.

Orienteering section on a peninsula in Ray Roberts SP. We made some pretty good time on this section, and caught back up with the leaders.

Another road bike to a short O-section.

Another short O-section on a private property ranch. There was a barbed wire fence through a portion of the ranch that threw me off for a few minutes, but other than that a pretty clean run.

Road ride from O-section to one CP Trek section.

One trek CP to some ruins on a peninsula. It got dark on this leg and so we took our bike lights with so as to not have to break out the emergency headlamps.

Hammered the ride home in the dark back to Lantana Lodge (the start/finish/TA).

Mix of mostly two-track and horse trails from Lantana Lodge to the southern part of Ray Roberts SP and the dam for the reservoir. Biked south along the outlet to I-380 and back, getting on and off the bike for a few CPs (too much on/off the bike to split out, especially without specific times/distances).

Event: USARA Nationals
 

Travel to Dallas & Fort Worth area.

Bike to/from school.