Finally, it is time for the last race of the 361 Adventures Unbridled series, The classic Kentucky "The Fig".
This year is a 12hr race in the southern part of Red River Gorge. Marc and I loaded the car on Friday, everything fitted well, the car is validated.
After a 2h30min drive, we arrived at Natural Bridge state park, where Dallas from 361 Adventures gave the pre-race meeting speach and we got the gigantic map for Saturday.
27 points to plot with UTM coordinate, the race is on against the clock as we want to get all the plotting and race routing done before sleeping.
It took us more than expected or at least wanted and we turned off the light at midnight, not sleeping well for the past 2 nights I knew it will be rough for the race.
Alarm rang at 5am, quick breakfast and final gears check up and we jumped in the bus to the start at 6am. After a 40min power nap in the bus, we are on the starting line for the prologue on foot, just one CP west to the town post office before heading east on road to start the first leg on canoe.
We started at a good pace, taking the lead with Bill from Outlaw Donkey staying with us. We jumped in the canoe at the same time of Bill and another racer, Kayaks seem faster to get in water. Bill struggled to get into his kayak so we took the lead as the other racer decide to skip CP2 on the east part of the paddling leg. We got back from CP2 on the way to the rest of the paddling after 1hr, exactly as expected. We cleared the paddling in 2hr50min, 10min faster than our prediction. The canoe is definitely the big satisfaction of the day, navigating straight with no issue and with a pace way better than the canoe we used to rent.
On the way to TA1, we crossed Brian and Drake from Topo Adventure which are 10min behind us and the only other team trying to clear the course.
We cleared a short Urban orienteering in which we had to answer questions and we learn than it is not confederate war but civil war and that a corner stone is well at the corner of the wall :P...but we got the credit of CP5 anyway as we are not citizen and struggled sometimes with English.
We are still ahead of Topo Adventure and jumped on bike at TA2....as expected I'm feeling tired, and I understood right away that we won't be able to have our regular pace on the bike, the first real climb confirmed my thought. Marc is in the same struggle as he trained mostly for rowing this year and I'm not feeling I could really pull us on the bike today. Well there is day with and day without but we realized that clearing the course won't be possible.
Arriving at TA3 at 6hr in the race, I made a poor choice on the way to CP11 that cost us 20min. The rest of the trek went well, at a slow pace for us as we are now saving what can be saved to finish the race.
We decided to go another way on the last bike leg to reach CP19, well we won't never see CP19 and 20 finally as being tired and not really in race mood I just followed a group of racer on bike on their way to TA5.
The mistake gave us more time for the last trek, but as we already pretty much giving up the idea of a good ranking for this race, we just lost to much focus and took only one CP from the 4 around.
Finishing on bike after 11h30 and 5 missing CPs, we placed 2nd in 2 male division and 6th overall. Doug, Jim and Eric won with 2 missing CPs...The masters are still beating the Padawan.
No big regret as we were burned from the beginning, maybe just a bit more focus and motivation on last trek would have put us in a better position but it is what it is. We still had a great time outdoor with fabulous people on a challenging course....and so much fun climbing in muddy slopes to reach beautiful area!!!!
Despite this result, we won the 2 male division series and the overall series, with a tight score with Lauren and Drake from Topo Adventure, the call for the win being made as they don't race the Fig.
Motivated for the next season with hopefully a 3rd teammates.
This year is a 12hr race in the southern part of Red River Gorge. Marc and I loaded the car on Friday, everything fitted well, the car is validated.
It took us more than expected or at least wanted and we turned off the light at midnight, not sleeping well for the past 2 nights I knew it will be rough for the race.Alarm rang at 5am, quick breakfast and final gears check up and we jumped in the bus to the start at 6am. After a 40min power nap in the bus, we are on the starting line for the prologue on foot, just one CP west to the town post office before heading east on road to start the first leg on canoe.
We started at a good pace, taking the lead with Bill from Outlaw Donkey staying with us. We jumped in the canoe at the same time of Bill and another racer, Kayaks seem faster to get in water. Bill struggled to get into his kayak so we took the lead as the other racer decide to skip CP2 on the east part of the paddling leg. We got back from CP2 on the way to the rest of the paddling after 1hr, exactly as expected. We cleared the paddling in 2hr50min, 10min faster than our prediction. The canoe is definitely the big satisfaction of the day, navigating straight with no issue and with a pace way better than the canoe we used to rent.
On the way to TA1, we crossed Brian and Drake from Topo Adventure which are 10min behind us and the only other team trying to clear the course.
We cleared a short Urban orienteering in which we had to answer questions and we learn than it is not confederate war but civil war and that a corner stone is well at the corner of the wall :P...but we got the credit of CP5 anyway as we are not citizen and struggled sometimes with English.
We are still ahead of Topo Adventure and jumped on bike at TA2....as expected I'm feeling tired, and I understood right away that we won't be able to have our regular pace on the bike, the first real climb confirmed my thought. Marc is in the same struggle as he trained mostly for rowing this year and I'm not feeling I could really pull us on the bike today. Well there is day with and day without but we realized that clearing the course won't be possible.
Arriving at TA3 at 6hr in the race, I made a poor choice on the way to CP11 that cost us 20min. The rest of the trek went well, at a slow pace for us as we are now saving what can be saved to finish the race.
We decided to go another way on the last bike leg to reach CP19, well we won't never see CP19 and 20 finally as being tired and not really in race mood I just followed a group of racer on bike on their way to TA5.
The mistake gave us more time for the last trek, but as we already pretty much giving up the idea of a good ranking for this race, we just lost to much focus and took only one CP from the 4 around.
Finishing on bike after 11h30 and 5 missing CPs, we placed 2nd in 2 male division and 6th overall. Doug, Jim and Eric won with 2 missing CPs...The masters are still beating the Padawan.
No big regret as we were burned from the beginning, maybe just a bit more focus and motivation on last trek would have put us in a better position but it is what it is. We still had a great time outdoor with fabulous people on a challenging course....and so much fun climbing in muddy slopes to reach beautiful area!!!!
Despite this result, we won the 2 male division series and the overall series, with a tight score with Lauren and Drake from Topo Adventure, the call for the win being made as they don't race the Fig.
Motivated for the next season with hopefully a 3rd teammates.
