http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/552673578The Long Bike
We had chosen what I thought was a clever route - we would go east, then take 17 from the east on a flat route that saved some 250' of climb for just one more flat rollin' mile. Perfect for a team that is not strong on bike climbs (more so the men than the woman who pedaled up most stuff).
Except...USGS had an extra little road segment..and our navigation team didn't check compass bearings after the turn....not noticing that WNW is a lot different then NNE....
So by Accident we ended up in Accident, MD, which we discovered when we checked the front of the post office.
This put us on the same line as many other teams, just with an extra ~four miles. And then we had to do the same wicked climb out of Beaver Creek as most teams - a climb that had words on it, I kid you not, like "Suffering".
With that resolved, we did things as best we could until we got back on plan.
Took 18 first, elected to go for 20 next, then 17 as an out and back, then 19, and onward to the next set. Lots of teams in an around at this point.
Did well at 21, 22 no problem. Elected to think road was faster, but now given our climbing ability, maybe we should have back tracked on the trail rather than descending on the powerline to the road. Power line descent undid Michelle's skewer, but she heard her wheel squeak and we fixed it, phew.
We paid for our road ride climbing back up to 23. We dropped bikes and hiked in figuring we'd be pushing them anyway. That worked out okay. Map adjustment under an awning at a small store just below 23.
I'm not entirely sure what we did to get to 24...it involved pretending paint on trees were blazes for the two track we thought we were taking. And I swear T and I both checked compasses, but somehow we were not on the right trail once we bikewhacked to that system, but the park markers got us sorted and we got 24 via orange and purple, then 25 via the green trail, and then exited the area via the higher trail through the cabin area.
26 saw the most frightening moment of the race. T and I were pulling up to stop for the reentrant and we heard a bike crash noise. We turned around expecting the worst for Michelle but she was standing on the side of the road and her bike was laying in the middle. Whuh?
She had fallen asleep. And managed to unclip and walk out of the crash while asleep. Other racers gave her some high caffeine gel.
Long bike to the TA....