361 Adventures Unbridled Series #2 The Frog 12hr – A lucky day with some paddling

The past weekend was the stage #2 of the unbridled series organized by our friends Shawn and Dallas from 361 Adventures. A 12hr race at the big lake of Green River State Park in Kentucky nearby Campbellsville trail town. For once we decided to stay the all weekend and having my wife Vivian and friends joining us at the end of the race to enjoy the after race all together. This is the first race with our new racing kits from our sponsor Moziatex sport wear who created a great design with top quality technical fabrics.

Check-in at 7am to get the 2 pre-plotted maps showing the big picture of the day…tons of paddling. Easy staging and race instruction for this one, open style with free choice of order and way to get all the CPs. All gears staged at the start/finish area and 2 mandatory TAs on both extremity of the lac, we guessed to be sure everyone will enjoy hours of paddling.

At 9am racers were set free, we decided with Marc to go to the northern part of the lac first as the orienteering and terrain were more challenging so better be done fresh and not too warm. The first 5 Cps went pretty fast and cleared in less than 1hr30 with a pretty good pace on the canoe. Only issue so far was my canoe seat getting off the holding rails and putting me almost on the bottom of the canoe making the paddling not efficient. Several attempts to fix it turned to be unlucky.

First mistake looking for CP#8 for which a lack of focus on the map made us jumped in the wrong re-entrant. A bit of time lost but we figured out the mistake and went to collect CP#8 running before jumping back on the boat.

CP#9 will be what we will call the lucky factor of the day….First we finally found a log big enough to work a permanent fix to the canoe seat. Then arriving to the CP after looking around missing a re-entrant split, Marc looked at me with a weird face showing that our punch card went off of the hanger we were using. Two solutions at that time, paddling back to the start to get another punch card and re-doing all the race or looking the path we took from the canoe to CP#9 trying to find it. Slow back and fork, up and down the re-entrant, nothing!!! We finally tried to re-do the bushwhack we did before finding CP#9 the first time…and then the magic happened, when we were giving up I heard Marc yelling “It’s here, I got it”. Unbelievable, in the most unlikely spot to comeback, the punch card was laying on the ground and we were now back in the race!!!! Basically switching from almost giving up to a feeling of nothing can happen to us today we jumped back in racing mode pushing the pace to head back to the canoe.

Good navigation and pace to the first mandatory TA and CP#11 and we started to head back south collecting CPs on the shore on our way back. With the time spend on the mistake at CP#8 and on the punch card, it became clear that we won’t probably have time to do much biking at the end of the race and decided to stop at the staging area to put all the drinks we had from the buckets to the canoe to be sure to finish with enough water.

The heat or the time spent on the water (I’m clearly not a boating person) put me in a pretty bad down time. As always Marc as the perfect teammate keep me in the race, moving to our buckets where after 10 minutes  and a “warm” coke we went back up in the race.

Heading now south, we landed in a creek to collect CP#14, 15 and 16 and then canoed to the 2nd mandatory CPs where we spent a bit of time looking for the flag as I had a hard time matching the map with the terrain. Well we discussed with some half-drunk swimmer enjoying the day.  Once found, we cleared CP#17, 18, 19 and 20 jogging/running for most of the time.

Decision was made to drop CP#34 which was too far out south. After clearing #32 and #33, we were on our way back to the finish with 1h30min to go. That was enough time to add CPs that were on or near the bike trail but also accessible by the water. Looking at the map after race clearly made all those CPs better from the water, another call that I would put on the luck of the day. This decision was probably a result changer for the end of the race, and after a last push to CP#25 with a fun sprint back to the canoe and an all-out paddling, we finished the race after 11hr53 collecting 30 Cps out of the 36.

At our surprise, we finished  1st in 2-4male division and 2nd overall  just one CP behind Team Kuat, and 1 CP ahead our friends of Topo Adventure, and realized that the race went rough for all the teams.

In resume, that was a challenging day with lot of paddling and one of those day where the race mood and strategy changed several times. Finish could have been better but certainly worst with the punch card adventure and we still feel really lucky to go back in the race and not DNF.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to set-up the course and created a great challenging race and to 361 Adventure to keep putting great events in the area.

Next for us, will be Topo East fork Challenge 12hr (solo or 2 Male team), then National Co-Ed with Brooke and the last stage of the 361 unbridled series, the classic “The Fig” in the Red river gorge area.

#roadtousara #moziatexbikewear #moziatex #teammoziatex #TJ79 #jovent79 #triatlojovent79

Good start for TJ79 Team Moziatex at the 361 Unbridled AR Series opener "The Bluff 8hr"

The 2018 361 Unbridled AR series is on, with the first race "The Bluff" last Saturday. The Unbridled is a series of 3 adventure races organized by the "361 Adventures" 's brothers Shawn and Dallas in partnership with the Kentucky state parks.

"The Bluff" was a 8hr format happening in Jenny Wiley state park near Prestonsbourg, KY, which included the amazing Sugarcamp MTB trail system. We  will race the series with Marc as a 2 male team under the name TJ79 Team Moziatex, our sponsor. Moziatex is a company founded in 1991 but with previous experience in the field since 1975. Manufacture under Mozia Brand that design, cut and craft confection every step of the production to create unique customized elite professional sportswear like ours. Thanks Roser and Mozia for your support in this Adventure. 
The new kits are coming and we are really excited to use them in our second race from this 361 series in August.

From the time we woke up we understood that the hope of a dry race was over and the rain will be on and off during all the day,  not a bad thing for staying cool. 

After dropping the MTBs and the canoe at the 2 different transition area locations, we got the maps (all checkpoint at 1:24000 and MTB trail system CPs at 1:10000) at the check-in at the state park convention center. In one hour our strategy was set-up, with most of the time spent deciding how to deal with the CPs on the MTB trails, choosing to keep 3 CPs for the way back to the finish. The race had a first trek leg to the TA1 where were stages MTBs, and from here it was a MTB-paddle-trek leg with open choices for the team to get those CPs.

After the pre-race speech interrupted by a energy outage (Marc actually saw the sparkles on the power line when we were getting ready before the meeting), we all lined up for the mass start. 

At 10am the racers were set free starting on feet. As always we made a little push at the start to try to take the lead and hitting the first trail leading to CP1 in front.

Cutting by a bridge and small stairs heading to the main road put us in front of the pack and we started to climb the trail at a good pace, slowing down to not burn too much energy. We found CP1 after a steep climb followed by couple of other teams and then decided to go down to follow the trail to attack CP2...well that would have been perfect but the trail became quickly a messy bushwhack and we realized when back on it that we definitely went to far than the expected attack point. After a short climb, we saw other teams including Topo Adventure coming from the ridge and the CP2 where they found a nice fire road. 

CP2 found, it was time to chase the teams in front of us, bushwhack down to the main road to hit a trail, climbing to get the other 4 CPs in direction of TA1. As we realized that all the climbs are pretty steep the call was to not cut bushwhacking and to stick to the ridges and trails to attack the remaining CPs (3-4-6-5-7). That worked pretty well and we arrive first at TA1. 

After a quick transition, we headed down the trail system, choosing the technical short downhill over the long easy switchbacks to reach CP25. A great choice, even if slippery this trail was a lot of technical fun..We passed the rocky sections staying on the bike which reminded me my rides in south France. The rest of the MTB ride went as predicted, staying first on the ridge then on the north side of the trail system to collect 20-21-22-18-17 and 19, keeping the 3 last CPs on the south of the ridge as they were on the direction to the finish line.

After CP19, we jumped on the main road at the end of Lizzie's path to a fast ride to TA2 to jump in the canoe. 

We got CP11 first and then clear the 3 hike CPs, going CP10, 9 and 8. The climb to CP10 and 9 was "something" but once we were running down to CP8, we were glad we went in this order :P. Back in the canoe after collecting CP8 to clear the remaining lake CPs 12-13-14 and 15. We got bunch of head wind on the way back that gave us the feeling of not moving...we stopped quickly as another team found my compass fallen at CP14...but the compass never made it to our canoe and is laying now at the bottom of the lake hahaha!!

On the way back, we crossed Topo adventures near the TA and realized that they were closed to us, which gave us a boost to jump on the bike heading to the Arrowhead point trail-head to get back on the trails to clear CP16, 23 and 24 before going down back to the road for a last fast 3km in a pace line relay to the finish. 

We were happy to learn that we were the first team to clear the course with an official time of 5hr43min. The day went pretty well with no major orienteering or strategy mistake for a first win for TJ79 Team Moziatex in an Adventure Race. 

As always, Shawn and Dallas delivered a great race set-up, challenging and fun with some pure mountain biking and steep hills. Fun dinner with the AR friends, talking about the day and for a first watch of a Kentucky derby before heading back to Cincy.

A big thanks to all the volunteers to help setting up such fun and great race!!!

Conquer The Cross Roads 2018 - 12hrs Rogaine...An awesome day and a first win for TJ79 Team Moziatex

The plan was from quite a bit of time to go for a long event solo to work on navigation skills. The race of the day should have been The Breakdown 18hr AR from 361Adventures but this race got canceled. Lucky enough on the same Saturday, Indianna CrossRoads Orienteering (ICO) was organizing their annual Rogain so without much thinking I jumped on the occasion to navigate solo in the 12hrs race.

This year they put on 3 different race lenghts, 6-12 and 24hr in the same area than POCAR 2018. The 12hr was not hard choice as the weather is still really cold and I didn't want to be in the same hypothermia as POCAR during the night. 

After getting the maps, the area was as described by the organizers "huge" because of the 24hr race. A wise strategic choice of route was to be made as it was obviously impossible to cover the entire CPs in 12hrs. The area was basically divided in 2 different areas. North part with high value CPs dispersed in a gigantic bushwack and south numerous lower value CPs with more trails and roads for fast pace but obviously more miles to cover. 

My choice was made for the south part for 3 main reasons :

1- The total value of CPs at the south was higher than the one at the north even if more CPs were to be found with more distance to cover.

2- With just one year of orienteering, it is still easier for me to follow my position and find attack points for remote CPs from the paths and surroundings features 

3- I can maintain a good easy pace on trail for quite a long time and I have to work on mileage for El Cruce stage race in Chili at the end of the year.

In 1hr the big loop plan was designed going by the most valuable CPs dropping much of the lowest value ones with the plan for the end to a quick visit of a high value CPs at the north for a double punch CPs (210points in a really short distance), and a quick last push for couple of CPs near roads if time was left. 

Race started at 9:01am, I took the lead of the pack to get out of the HQ area, which is useless to mention as everyone was going a different planned route, but it gives me an idea of the pace of other teams. 

For 7hrs the weather was nice, just 2 layers in a pretty sunny day....then the wind and the rain came. As stubborn as I can be, I decided that it should not last for long till I found myself totally wet and cold. Quick top layer change and rain jacket on after finding a CPs which I got lucky to find as it was not at the right spot. Only one long sleeve dry in the bag so I was a bit cold, which turn to be not that bad as I was entering the last part planned to be mostly flat but long connections on roads between CPs. Because of the chill temperature I could maintain a better pace without overheating in the rain jacket. 

The most valuable part of the plan, the quick 210 points were done in 20 minutes as expected with almost 2hrs left to get on a long road stretch to get 3 CPs. It turned out that I could get just 2 as the 2nd was misplaced and I lost way too much time trying to find it to visit the last planned CP.

The last 50min were basically a hard push starving and in hypoglycemia as I  had no quick sugar rush food left, trying to get back on time to HQ...I returned the punch card after 11hr52min and 74km total with to be honest a bit of stress that I would not make it on time.

The after race warm meal and drinks were more than welcome waiting the results. The race turned out pretty well with a first win for TJ79 Team Moziatex in orienteering event. The plan of covering lot of distance and collect the CPs from the south part turned to be a good decision. 

The big lessons from previous mistakes in other races start to positively impact the navigation. The big improvements were to measure distances to find attack points or CPs and pace count more often, taking more exact bearings and checking the compass more often while keeping eyes on the map and matching the surrounding features. Just 2 small mistakes, one passing a hilltop CPs and not realizing that I was already going down and another looking at the planned route instead of the real path I was following after a strategic change. 

The choice of routes can be improved, as I was alone and wanted to get elevation I didn't bother much about steep hills or going up and down instead of around.