Launching of The New TJ79 Team Moziatex at 361 Adventures LBL 18Hr Race

Time to step up the game and to finally jump into the main Adventure Race category “Co-Ed”. Brooke joined Marc and I to create under the sponsorship of Moziatex, the new Trialo Jovent 79 official Adventure race team “TJ79 Team Moziatex”. Moziatex, sport wears personalizing company from Barcelona agreed to provide racing kits for the team in our pink and blue favorite colors. A big thanks to them for keeping us shiny and comfy in top notch technical sport clothes.

All the team met in a lodge at Kenlake state resort park after a “quick”
5hrs dive. 

All of us got hyper active setting-up gears and food for the next morning for the 18hr of race ahead.

Lot of rain and flooding had Matt and Shawn from 361 to re-shape at last minute the course and to cancel the paddling leg.

We realized just before heading to the checking that the direction changes a last time, after 30min drive we staged our bikes and bucket full of goods near the check-in.

After Dallas gave the pre-race details we plotted the 27 CPS plus 4 bike drops we will visit during the race which turn to be a gigantic trek with bike ride connections in between.

At 10:30 am all racers are launched in the wild to compete for the next 18hrs in a beautiful weather. We started at a good pace the first trek clearing the first 3 CPS easily. A too early turn south cost us lot of time and for the first time we found ourself totally lost. We finally cleared CP4 and went back on track.

The rest of the first legs went well and we reached TA1 after 3h30min to jump on the bike to connect to the next trek 7/8km further. Navigation and pace was good, Brooke started to have pain in her right leg after going through a waist high creek crossing, but she is really tough and without complaining kept going even whenwe had to take a long detour because of an too deep river. We reached the 3 trek, after 10/12k ride and got the first CP just before night. Full of confidence, we followed the wrong stream and it took us more than 1hr to find what should have been an easy CP. The rest of this Trek went good after being back in track. A bit of hesitation and confusion on the next ride made me realize that it was time for a caffeine pill as my mind was no more focus on the map.

The quick 2 CPs on the Trek 4 which seems to have other teams struggling, went really fast and flawless.

After 14k ride to reach the last trek, we cleared it after a serious dense bushwhacking to reach the last CP of the race. We left the bike drop in overall 4^rd position just before Roar 4 male team, trying to find a small trail to shortcut the way back. We did find the un-rideable trail and finally decided to take the long road way to the finish.

Finally, we finished in 15hr26min in 5th (overall) and 2^nd in Co-Ed division. A really fun day learning to race with Brooke. Couple of mistakes cost us maybe a better finish but the main goals of enjoyable time in the woods and qualifying for USARA national are reached.

Welcoming the new year 2018

As always on the first day of the year the Jovent79 does the traditional swim welcoming the new year.
With this short swim with the whole team we claim the best for the starting year.
Amazing day feeling the warm of the hugs and love for each other
So lucky for being part of this sport family

361 Adventures : The FIG 12Hr Adventure Race....end of AR season and rest needed

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.