Dino CIA 12hr AR...Back at it, the right and fun way

 After almost one year without Adventure Race together the TJ79s were finally back as a 3 male team for the 2020 edition of the DINO CIA 12hr in Lafayette, Indiana (http://www.dinoseries.com/central-indiana-adventure/)

Marc and Matt got Chris to join them for his first AR knowing that he will handle it like it was nothing...and they were right. 

For once, the full team was ready and all packed for the race the night before at 10:30pm, which gave them enough time for a nice night. Lots of new racers were here which is really exiting for the development of Adventure Racing.

As a first, the all team was ready 5min before the start and without map but on kick scooters or long board. At the start bell and as usual, the pink and blue went for a full speed start crossing some patches off grass before jumping on their wheeled vehicles to rush down the main park road direction  the visitor center to finally get the race map along the coordinate of the first 2 CPs.

After a quick but not the fastest plotting among the field, they punched the first CP in 3rd position...first little mistake from Matt who missed a turn to head to the next CP. The mistake was resolved quickly and once back on the right track the TJ79s were in middle of the pack...They climbed back to the top 5 during the next 12km of wheeled fun and finally arrived at the CP2 which was a transition to a canoe leg.

The plotting went faster this time and they started their progression in the canoe....2min after starting paddling Marc noticed that something was wrong, impossible to turn the canoe.....and he was right as the team boarded the canoe in the wrong way. The mistake got corrected pretty quickly as for the first time ever the team flipped the canoe and were wet and cold and would stay this way for the rest of the canoe leg.

What should have been the strength of the team today with 2 international rowers on the boat became a slow progression in the shallow stream. Clearly not a good day for 3 dudes in the boat, the low level of the stream and the weight of our 3 TJ79s led to the need of jumping out of the canoe too many times and dragging it too often. 

The first 2 CPs of this leg were cleared quickly, and after removing the water from the canoe the team continued their slow progression in company of RIB team. 

Landing for the 2 next CPs at almost the end of the legs, 3 boats were in front and the team was apparently  still in the top 5. Back to the boat, RIB were right in front and landed to the TA for the first trek 2min ahead. 

Quick plotting and decision on the way for the next 3CPs, and the boys were now on their legs. After the first CP on the river shore, they passed RIB on the road on the way to the next CPs. The extra map that was given at the end of the canoe leg was used to reach on the top of Prophet Rock. They kept their lead reaching the next CP using the trail system depicted on the extra map, a statue in Battlefied and arrived back at the race start passing 2 other teams before plotting and jumping on the bike for the next leg. 

The estimation was that 1 or 2 team(s) were in front, good!!!! The decision was made to go to the north of the map first before heading on the way back for a MTB trail section. The choice was made as the CPs on the MTB trail were plotted on a separate map and right on the trail so no risk other than finding the trail head. This would make the way back easier just focusing on having a nice pace. It also allowed to clear CP12 which had an obvious access from the park, at least more obvious than going the other way. 

A bit of hesitation for CP13 as Matt didn’t realize that the county boarder on the map was right on the road going to this CP...after some slowing down and thinking, Matt finally got it and CP13 was cleared. RIB was arriving when TJ79 was living this CP and the lead built during the previous leg was evaporating.

The lead would totally disappear because of a mistake in the scout camp where they went for the wrong archery range. Finally reaching the right one, RIB was already leaving the camp and TJ79 had now to clear an archery challenge. Let’s make it clear, without Chris, Marc and Matt will probably still be shooting arrows all over the archery range at this time. Well Chris made most of the job in less than 10minutes and after getting a last CP just next to the archery range, the team was now heading to the MTB trail. On the way they punched CP16 before some gravel fun going south.

The MTB trail was a blast for the all team, flowy and fast trail with 3 CPs. Back on the road, the TJ79 were on their way to transition again in 4th position for what will be the last leg of the race, a long trek in the Prophetstwon state park. 

RIB were leaving when TJ79 arrived and DINO team was plotting....the team realized quickly that the 7 last CPs were already plotted on an extra map they got at the end of the canoe leg and skipped the plotting to save a bit of time. They left the last TA in 3rd position, it was time for a last battle as RIB was approximatively 10min ahead and DINO just left. 

The choice was made to head for 3CPs at the east first as the longest distance will need to be covered and as more orienteering was needed, so better doing it when the tanks were not empty. First CP26 then 27 where they caught up with RIB as they had some difficulty to find the CP. 

After punching CP27 and seeing RIB getting on their way back to the west by the same trail they came here, the TJ79s went up to the road to try another strategy....it didn’t work, RIB jumped in front of them close to CP25.,,no gain, no loss.

Matt made a right call and aimed almost directly to CP25 exactly when RIB was punching it....one good call for a bad one, as Matt didn’t see the trail going right from CP25 to the west in direction of CP24...Instead the boys were now bushwhacking in a swampy area to get back on another trail..well RIB was still in front and the TJ79s were pushing to keep up and try to catch them.

Almost caught up at CP24 and now the 2 teams were in direction of the 3 west last CPs, 2 minutes of each other. 

Once reaching the road, RIB disappeared, clearly they made a different choice for getting those last 3 CPs. It was not the time to worry about it and the team decided to aim for the furthest and obvious  CP22 to then punched on their way back CP23 which was also along a trail keeping. From CP23, the TJ79s went down a slope to follow the edge of a cornfield heading to the east end as CP21 was indicated at the extremity of the cornfield...and it was, well 20/30feet from the end but no time was lost looking for it as it was also indicated at the edge of vegetation and meadow.

Back on the top of the slop on the direction to the visitor center, Marc noticed a team running back on the track from the furthest CP....It was RIB also heading to the finish line, but TJ79 was now just a little bit closer to the end and were leading on the west side with no idea where DINO was. 

The last 2km were done pushing to keep some distance with RIB and finally finishing the course and clearing it in 10hr54min....but wait, DINO team was not here neither.....Yes!!!! The TJ79s were first, not even 2min after  RIB also crossed the finish line...unbelievable to all finish so close after almost 11hr and a full day passing each other. DINO arrived 15min after and the top3 teams  (top4 to be exact as Mike Garrison raced as solo along RIB) were done.(http://www.dinoseries.com/storage/results/2020/cia/CIA-12-Results.html)

Big shout out to Brian, the organizer, for again coming up with new ideas and setting up a nice race in an area which doesn’t look like the easiest place for AR. 

As always a big thanks to all the volunteers helping and giving some of their time to let us have so much fun. 

This course was a first on many points:

- First race for Chris who handled it like a champ....but we had no doubt about it 

- First canoe flip....and obviously on a cold day and in cold water 

- First scooter/long board leg.....as always Brian the organizer found a new idea to spice up his race

- First time finishing with such a small gap between the first 3/4 teams....it made the whole day intense and fun 

- First time clearing a DINO course...one last thing on the bucket list :P

The qualification for USARA National 2021 is done and so the objective was achieved with some extra bonus taking the first place

Topo Trail Marathon to finish a rough year on a good note

After being stuck 8 weeks in Taiwan waiting for Visa after their wedding, Matt and Vivian were back in US....just right on time for the Topo Trail Marathon. On time yes, but only 2 days before the race with a 24hrs trip and 13hrs jet lag. 

Better being out there in the woods than unsuccessfully trying to sleep, so Matt signed up last minute the night before the 2019 Topo Trail Marathon. 

As expected, short night and Matt woke up at 3am, plenty of time for breakfast and preparing the bottles and drink for the 42km ahead. 

Beautiful sunny day with temperature around 8degC which allowed for short sleeve outfit and not too much worry about hydratation. 

At 9am the 50 runners of the full marathon were set free 15min before the half marathon runners and 20min before the 10k group. 

Matt and Billy took the lead of the pack, chitchatting getting into the pace on the paved part of the race. First turn left and first (and only) mistake, taking the first trail on the right which turned out to be the end of the loop :P

Back on the road, pushing a bit to take the lead again before hitting  the right trail this time half a mile later.

Matt kept a comfortable pace accompanied by Billy and without noticing it they started to create a little gap...they will keep all along the race as no runners will catch them for the next 40k. On the last couple of miles the track was running closed to another part of the race and Matt and Billy could see runners from the 10km race pushing their way on the trail.

Finishing the first of the 4th laps together after 58min and some muddy and sometime overgrown fun trails, Matt slowed down after changing his hand bottle. 

The decision was made to keep it easy and not following Billy who took the lead, first as the lack of sleep was really present and second to make sure to finish the race strong and trying to avoid to hit the wall. With all the 500+ runners already on the loop, the trails became more and more slippery and muddy. A bit of stomachache in this lap which was cleared after a quick stop outside the trail :P 

Second lap finished and Matt was 2mins behind Billy feeling quite sleepy but with good legs. After grabbing a new bottle and starting a new lap, it was time to get a caffeine pillto shake the sleepiness out and getting ready for the second half of the race. Half an hour later, the caffeine kicked, the legs were still moving good and the stomachache was gone allowing to keep on the energy intake strategy. 

Reaching miles 22, it was time for Matt to start pushing to finish on a strong note. Around mile 23 Matt saw Billy right ahead of him giving him motivation to keep pushing an try to catch up.

Few minutes after, Matt passed Billy that went down on the trail around mile 20 and had to slow down his way to the finish.The 2 last miles went good with still some energy left for Matt to create a little gap and finishing the 4th and last lap in 1st position just 3min ahead of Billy.

The race went pretty good, pace and energy intake where spot on and well adapted for the lack of sleep. Brian did a really good job changing the race loop last minute because of the rain and still hit pretty much an exact marathon distance.

A good way to finish the 2019 season which had been a bit rough for the TJ79 US members with injuries and life events keeping them to train and race together as much as they wanted....now it is time to recover and think about 2020. The rest of the year will be a mix of orienteering events and short trail races used as tempo run training. 

SEE YOU ALL IN 2020 FOR NEW ADVENTURES!!!!!! 

Long silence period...but we are back and here some updates!!!

This year and season has been challenging at different levels, travels, injuries....even some weddings for what I heard 😁.

Despite all the life events happening, TJ79 US were  still at it and raced here and there.

First big race was at the end of 2018 in Chile, were Marc and Matt met our friends from TJ79 Barcelona for ElCruce stage trail run race. 

3 stages for a total of 100km and more than 3000m of elevation in central Chile. Marc and Matt raced in the duo category and despite not being well prepared for mountain climbs they took a final 4th place in the male duo division. An unexpected results and a race that will have some long impact on 2019 season.

Back in mid December, it was time to rest and recover from this race....high time. Not long after, Marc started to have issue in is lower back and it will take him the all season to get this injury fixed and started training again....

Not much group ride this season as spring turned to be a rainy mess and lot of work during weekend and family life added on the crappy weather. 

Matt participated to different short orienteering meeting to work on navigation skills for bigger event and finally race the 361 Frigid 4hr Rogain where he took 1st overall finishing just seconds ahead of the Minto Father and Son team. 

Matt the raced in 12hr Conquer the cross road Roagain in Indianna. The race went extremely well and after 68k and 1800m D+ of navigation Matt took first overall for the second year in a raw.

As Marc was still injured Matt teamed up with other great AR racers from No Complaints, Doug and Jim, to win the 12hr NO Sleep AR in early June. A nice result with a competitive field but with the beginning of pain in left legs that would last for month.

After taking first in the Topo summer series trail race at Big Bone leek stat park, Matt went to Europe for work and stopped in France for some mountain time where with an old friend Arthur. They spent time mountain-biking in the Alps with not much run to spare Matt's left legs.

Back to US, Matt started to work on clearing his leg issue with the help of Iain Hughues who will get this issue fixed in couple of physical therapy session.

To add to the left leg injury, Matt crashed pretty bad during the Red Kite round 200k gravel race. After DNF, Matt was brought back to finish line by Doug who also dropped the race to help (less than poor organisation on this race with nothing set-up to pick up racer in case of issue).

 Lot of wounds and scratches with a pretty bad right hip cut that will take more than one month to completely hill.

At the same time Matt teamed up with Doug again. 2 weeks after the crash, to race the 361 Dead Fred 9hr AR where they took first overall. A great day with a perfect strategic navigation from Doug put them in a serious lead by the middle of the race.

By the end of Spetember, Matt left leg was finally good and the serious run training would restart with the objective to run the Ultra Maokong 50Km trail race in Taiwan where Matt will stay for his traditional weeding with Vivian.

Before that Matt joined Bill Fletcher from OutlawDonkey at teh Dino CIA 12hr AE Race along with a young new female teammate, Mackenzie, to help Bill for a last minute qualification for USARA National. Race went pretty well for this new trio and they took a nice 3rd overall and 2nd Co-Ed team places after 11hr27min. Job done!!!


To continue to work on long endurance and navigation, Matt put a last race before going to Taiwan during the Topo East Fork 12hr Challenge, and after a really entertaining race design with couple of lack crossing swimming, Matt got a 1st overall finish. 

Couple of orienteering meeting, some trail run but obviously not enough hills after and Matt was on the starting line of the UMK50 at 4am after only 2hr of sleep and a capricious stomach. After 9hr01min, 50km and 3500m D+ on wet technical and steep hills of Taiwan, Matt crossed the finish line 3rd Ex-aequo. The race went better than expected with the short sleep and stomachache for most of the race who led to a difficult food intake. 

Right after the UMK50, David and Arthur joined Matt in Taiwan for a 5 days bike trip on the Taiwan east cost before Matt wedding.

During this time Marc went to Barcelona couple of time and work on his back issue with ElMago and he is know recovering and getting back on training. 

Clearly the 2019 season has been a difficult one but with some good results and podium in almost every races and always tons of fun and friendship all around the world!!

2019 is officially launched...Topo trail series#3 at MFF and 361 Adventures Frigid 4hr Rogaine

Holidays time is over and was well spent recovering with family, friends and lot (maybe too much) food. The motivation is finally back to restart pushing while racing and getting back on a more structured training despite some leftover pain from El Cruce. 

The past weekend was perfect to test the legs with 2 races on the schedule, Topo 10miles Trail running at MMF park on Saturday and 361 Adventures Frigid 4hr Orienteering rogaine on Sunday.

The Saturday trail run was a perfect warm up race for the Sunday event that I was planning to race strongly. Perfect weather at 10am when all the trail runners were set free for the 5 or 10 miles course. The MTB trails at MFF being still wet, Brian designed an alternative course with minimal usage of road and still with some good short climbs. 

I decided to stay with regular runners in the leading 10 miles pack, well we will be quickly just 2 with the first runner way faster than us and another pack getting distanced little by little. We stayed together for 3 laps and then I backed up a bit at the beginning of the 4th and last lap as my right leg was a bit painful and to save as much as possible for the next day. Finally finishing 3rd at 20-30secondes from the 2nd and far behind (probably 4min) after the winner. Really happy with the feeling for the first 3/4 of the race, then the pain in right leg woke up again but it hold more than anticipated so it is a good sign.

Early wake up on Sunday, to arrive quite early at registration after the one hour drive to General Butler park to get the map and having a good amount of time to plan the first part of the race. The main race had 19CPs that would need to be all punched before returning to the start to get 5 additional CPs. Lot of strong racers and navigators made the travel but it was also nice to see lot of new faces as the day before 361 Adventures organized an Adventure Race/Orienteering clinic which motivated new person to try to race the next day.

At 10am the racers were launched in a spring like weather to collect the 19 first CPs. My strategy was to get the far out CPs first as probably most of the new racers and person/team thinking to not clear the course would go on the other side of the park where lot of CPs were packed in a smaller area. As planned, CP18 was found really fast down in a re-entrant 300m from the start. Then it was time to find CP17 that was right in a re-entrant down the road at the bottom of CP18. Well, that was looking so easy on the map that I didn't read the clue and spent 5minutes wondering in the right re-entrant not finding the flag...and I could have spent all the time looking for it as the clue said pipeline.....PUNCH ONLY...so no flag, just a punch on the pipeline that I passed multiple time looking for a flag :P. 

Well that totally put me in race mood pushing the pace on the road/path along the lack to catch couple of racers before CP16. More push collecting CP15 on the way to CP14 that required to jump over a fence as I took the road to approach my attack point. As expected I found the trail attacking just before the small hill from the road and got CP14 right in the next re-entrant. I finally caught up with the lead racer on this side of the course in the big climb going to CP12 near a pound. CP13, 11 and 9 were all found pretty easily going up and down some steep hills. Another big climb to CP10 and then I decided to go to CP8 first, then CP10 on the way to CP7 down a re-entrant and backtrack up to collect CP3. From there I took a way downhill to CP4 collecting CP6 on the way down a re-entrant

. Then back up the road to get CP5. From here, I was on my way back to the start by CP2 on a bushy spur where I cut my face and hands but with the strong runners on the course no time to be to concern about avoiding all the bushes. After collecting CP19 on the way up-hill to the start, I found Minto father and son "A Large Orange hedge" Team, just in front of me on the road and we arrived at the same time (1hr23min) to copy the 5 extra CPs on our race map. I copied the CPs as fast as I can and went back on race first pushing on the road to CPA while the 3 person arrived to get the new CPs. Definitely no comfortable lead at this point so I would kept pushing, running strong down CPA to CPE....which I missed by 5meters not seeing it on my left while going into the re-entrant near the road. The 2nd and 3 racers caught me back and we all finally found it at the same time. Well one only thing to do, being smart keeping up the pace. CPD was close to CP14 so I applied the same strategy running on the road attacking this time after the hill on the side of the road, and reach directly the right re-entrant first. As after CP14, I made the choice to climb up to reach the trail stay on the top to move in direction of CPB and went down a steep downhill before taking the trail that was going right to the re-entrant were I found CPB. Back down on the trail to run to CPC which I decided to attack from the top of the spur. Once punched, the finish was at less than 1.5km from the finish and as planned it was all on the road...so sprint time as I crossed just after CPB Minto Father and son and knew they were really closed to finish too taking another route. Last push on the stairs to the finish and even before I had time to give my punch card, the second team arrived...after 2h18min and 24CPs we finished at 10 secondes from each other after finishing exactly at the same time the first 19CPs!!! Incredible tight finish!!!

As always. post race analysis and strategy discussion with the finisher before the awards ceremony and heading back home with a first overall win in 2019, finger crossed it will continue on a good note the all season.

Definitely a fun weekend, and big thank to Topo and 361 and all the volunteers to allow us to enjoy those winter days.
Results : http://361adventures.com/Results/Frigid_2019.pdf
Details of the route on Strava : https://www.strava.com/activities/2060957114

  

361 Adventures Unbridled Series Finale The FIG 12hr – A perfect finish for the 2018 AR season

It is finally the end of the AR season for Marc and I with the last race of the 361 Adventures Unbridled Series, the classic The FIG. Around 125 racers registered among the 54 teams that will adventure in the Red River Gorge Area.

For once we were right on time with no misadventure to arrive at the bike drop off but as always the pre-race unexpected happened. While tightening my seatpost to drop the bike at the TA before check-in, the screw of the clamp broke off right in middle and all the shop around were about to close. One hour later we found a solution using a CP screw that Dallas gave us at the check-in. After some struggle to remove the broken screw from the tread with Doug’s plier, we were finally able to drop the bikes and gears for tomorrow and just missed 10minutes of the pre-race meeting.

After getting the race instruction and the 3 maps (1:24000), we plotted and strategized our route for next day 12hr fun. While plotting we realized that the race will be not too hard for navigation so being fast will be key.

Quick breakfast and canoe set-up before the last meeting and start. At 7am the herd of racers was set free, and we all rush on foot downhill from the start towards the paddling section. We gave up on the idea to cross the camping area to cut a bit of distance, and went up on the dam just on the other side of the camping and then down the same dam to reach TA1 where our canoe was waiting for the fun paddle ahead.

The lake is pretty small, but as always the 361 crew found an interesting and fun way to keep us a bit more on the water. Basically they set up a moving boat CP that we had to visit after punching each boat leg CPs. That was a lot of fun and required a bit of thinking to avoid traffic jam at the CPs and near the moving flag boat.

After 45min we were down, avoiding all the boat traffic and reached the TA2 first before taking off for the first trek of the day.
We got into a nice easy pace, found CP5 near an arch and crossed No Complaints and Deviate on our way down from the CP at 5-7min behind us.

Then the stupid mistake of every race happened. I lost focus being too confident on the easy navigation and stayed on a road 3km more than what we should missing a trailhead. That costed us 17min and we were no more at the lead of the race.

We arrived to the TA in 4^th, after No Complaints and just right after Deviate and Topo. It was time to be smart and to push to try to catch up.

Instead of going up by powder mill single track as the other teams in front of us did, we went up by an ATV road and that will turn to be a game changer. Even if half the way to the far out northern CP9 was really muddy we managed to stay on our bike for most of the time and avoid too much pushing. Teams that decided to go reverse way would have to struggle with all the mud on the way down and that always cost time. We collected CP10 on our way to CP9. We were then on a really nice double track and were able to collect CP8 quite fast.

We started the last 20k long trek of the day being back at the lead of the race. The call was to collect CP13, 14, 16, 17 and 18 before deciding on the way back to go or not to CP15 that was far off the other CPs. We crossed Deviate on our way back from CP18 and 2 min behind them we crossed No Complaints. We estimated that we had 30min gap on them.

After thinking 2min about playing safe as we didn’t think other teams would have time to go to CP15, we decided anyway to go and tried to clear the course are we were only at 8hr30 in the course. The way to CP15 was a big push with Marc putting the watts in the climb to give a fast pace. This went faster than expected. We then headed back to TA5 in way less time than anticipated as Marc was still pushing hard to keep us in a fast pace.

We were actually able to jump on the bike for the last 18km leg to the finish still in front of Deviate and No Complaints realizing that the CP15 detour didn’t cost us much time (around 20min more than avoiding it).

In 50min we were done after collecting the 2 last CPs with Marc in beast mode (after an energy gel) pulling us till the finish line, almost sprinting in the last climb to the Nature center. We learned later that we were the only team to clear the course.

That was the best end of the season possible for TJ79 Team Moziatex as we won for the first time the FIG and for the 2^nd time in a row the Unbridled AR series. The first long bike leg definitely played in our favor after the dumb mistake I made on the first trek leg. As always Marc as the best teammate possible kept us on a good pace to make up for my mistake and did a fantastic work pushing us all the way from CP15 to the finish despite a bad lower back pain.

Another year full of new and old friends, learnings out of mistakes and great times in the wild. Thanks to Moziatex Bikewear for their support and perfect outfits that kept us moving in the best conditions through all the conditions we encountered. Thanks to all the AR community for creating such a friendly and great environment and making this sport so fun.

The 2018 AR season is over for TJ79 Team Moziatex, next stop will be in Chilie for El Cruce trail running stage Race and then a good Christmas break.

See you all next year with big smiles and for tons of adventure.

USARA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 2018....2 derailler hangers close to our 2018 season goal

Team Moziatex and Team Silent Chasers first met online, when team members were unable to make the championship race held at Four Winds Resort and Marina.  We agreed to unify and do our best.



After arriving, on Thursday afternoon, meeting each other, checking in, getting our cool swag that we promptly split up, we headed to the pre-race brief meeting that would hopefully answer last minute questions and give us a better idea of the still secret course layout.



We would not get our maps until 6:30 am Friday; we also learned there would be plotting on the course and race strategy would be important.  After finishing the meeting, we headed back to room to finish last minute packing and catch as much sleep as we could, 5:45 am would come too quickly.

We were up, and feeling good about the day.  We gathered our gear, readied ourselves, and went to get our maps.   We had less than thirty minutes before the 7 am start, to quickly review things, and execute a hastily formulated plan drawing from our cumulative team experience. We would start with a foggy paddle.

The ‘gun’ went off and the field sprinted towards the canoes 400 meters away.  The eerie foggy morning calm of the lake reservoir, was shattered by the clanging of fierce paddlers, shouting directions, trying not to ram each other, and find their way.  We had found our canoe that we would need to be-friend, and we hopped into her, got started paddling, and finally settled into her.  I should mention that when we started, visibility across the strangely calm water was less than 50 meters; we were guided by Matt’s ‘more left, ok…straight, more right’.  It was nerve-racking not being able to readily see landmarks, and distances.   Although it seemed as though we were alone much of the time, if one was to imaginatively lift the fog, we would see that we were with a pack of boats; they just were not visible…yet. 

 

Our first stop would be a checkpoint where we would receive coordinates for the next 7 checkpoints on the course.  Throughout this course, a team could chose to strategically skip and do any checkpoints in any order; cool- my kind of race, the kind that allows for creative solutions and strategy.  Matt masterfully guided our HMS canoe to her first stop.  Generally, paddling navigation is simpler and straight forward navigation; today Matt’s skills were severely tested immediately.  We were the ninth boat ashore, in a fast lead pack.  We went to checkpoint (CP) 1, and proceeded to get to work plotting; we did it quickly, and a brand new AR team was bonding, making me smile inside; someone observing would not have known this was our first race as a team.  We made quick work and were off with Matt on the maps.  

The next few points were not to far away in the foggy terrain, and Matt guided us flawlessly to each one and back to the boats with only six boats that had left before us.  The fog was beginning to thin, but still ever present, and we hopped back into HMS canoe, and headed to a second set of trekking CPs  further up the reservoir. 

 

By the time we arrived, the fog was barely noticeable.  Again, we communicated and executed our canoe dismount and matt guided us flawlessly to the next CP.  Then, what had to be a funny (or maybe humorously annoying??) conversation from Marc’s point of view occurred where Matt was unselfishly wanting to not do all the navigation, and wanting to share.  My philosophy was if you are on a heater (a roll), keep it going; no reason to risk stopping a good thing.  Matt insisted I do the next one, and I wanted him to keep it going.  I took over the navigation for the next two points, with full intention of being relieved soon at some point.  After initially making a three minute ‘oops’ while getting my mind focused on navigation, we knocked out the next two points, smoothly.  Back to the boats, and we were headed to the transition area where we would switch to bikes. 

We had spied and decided on a portage that shortened our paddle by 3.5-4 km.   We had arrived in 7th position to the course area affectionally named Triple Triple.  This are had a total of nine CPs that could be done in any order, by any means of transport (bike, foot), and in this section the teams were allowed to split up as they saw fit to acquire the points.  We were issued three separate maps, and we quickly split the work load with Matt taking the furthest four CPs since he was the fastest on bike.  Our team had elected to use bikes as much as possible to get each point, which seemed to be the best strategy for us.  Matt took off, whilst Marc and I did our final briefs and went about our CP tasks.   Marc was back to the meeting point first, and I showed up next. 

 

 We had fun chatting a few min with race personnel and talking about how we met and formed our team.   We took advantage of our time waiting for Matt, looking at the rest of the course, eating and situating bikes, and gear.  Matt arrived 15 to 20 minutes later, and he was ready to go. We submitted our completed CP punches to race course personnel, and were informed only 5 teams were ahead of us…great news, we had moved up one more spot! I situated the bike map on the map board one final time and we were off.



I continued to navigate and we had agreed, that strategically we should initially skip the large majority of the initial bike points, in favor of getting to a key orienteering section called the Dog bone orienteering section, in order to maximize our time orienteering during the daylight.   We peddled and collected two CPs on the way to the Dog bone orienteering section.  We arrived as the first team but we understood that other teams had elected to collect bike section CPs and were simply completing a different order of CPs.

We moved out and began to get to work, I handed Matt the maps for this section and said that he was the right person for this section;  he cleverly played hot potato with it, for which he won, and I was still on the maps; again I wondered if Marc was thinking ‘would someone just navigate!’.   This section was large and a pivotal point of the race, I try to reason that rested eyes would do better; I still lost.  Our team was fantastic.  We had built an estimated one to one and a half hour of lead on the closest all-male division team racing.  We had about two and a half hours of daylight, and this area at night, would punish even minor mistakes.  We (I) made one of these procedural mistakes, punching one of the ‘dog bones’ in the wrong order, forcing us to redo that particular leg in order to stay official.  Although this cost us an estimated 30-40 minutes by our estimations, and some sunset light, it was far from a disastrous error.  Our team was one; no one ever complained, we only moved on, although I did apologize incessantly for a bit. Our physical navigation was virtually flawless, with one exception of not finding a trail and having to back track 150 meters to locate it. We pushed fairly hard, had some great laughs, and worked together spying and calling out landmarks and CPs.   We humorously called the CPs Jean-Claude, saying ‘oohh lala, Jean-Claude is looking nice tonight!’  whenever we spotted them, making me chuckle every time.  We completed it in roughly 5 hours and 50 minutes, only 15 minutes behind the next team that elected to do a similar strategy, as they were still in the transition area when we arrived.  This marked approximately the two thirds completed portion of the course.

We transitioned and reset for the final third of the course; food, filled water bottles, map folding, and extra clothing layer since it was now the cool late night, early morning temperatures.  Left was a bike, paddle back to the transition at the finish line, and a final trek to complete the course. At that point, we had just over 12 and a half hours to complete this course. We were in great spirits, in great position, and theoretically, had plenty of time if all goes well.  Collectively, our agreed upon route choice was selected, and we moved out.   Then it happened.

About forty minutes later, whilst on the ‘lolipop’ stick portion of a single track loop, Marc had an unlucky event.  I heard some loud commenting and Matt, saying in his awesome french accent…’oyyhh’; that could not be good.  Marc’s derailleur had taken blow from a stick, that broke the derailleur hanger clean off.   Marc and Matt were prepared and fortunately packed a spare derailleur hanger.  Our team assessed the damage and we started to look at how to repair it.  Marc and Matt got to work and handled it.  I decided to look at maps, and eventually take a seat, shining my head lamp on their work space; those two were on it, and I would only be in the way.  One coed team did pass us about 35 min later, however we were on our way to collect more CPs with-in 40 minutes.  We ran across great adventure racer ‘OG’ Carrie Sona, had a quick chat and continued around the loop portion of the trail, collecting two more CPs on the way. Marc stated that he would hear a creaking but his bike was working relatively fine, and he was doing his best to be gentle on it. Once we were heading towards more CPs further on the course, about 40 minutes after the first incident, this time I heard a clear ‘thwack!’ followed by I think some choice words by Marc.  Matt who went to him first, was saying ‘oh my, that’s it’, and I quickly saw why.  Another stick had gone into Marc’s rear tire spokes, gone around striking his carbon frame, cracking the frame, smashing his derailleur into several pieces, and braking the derailleur hanger off, all in a lickety split-second.  Unlucky, was not the word to describe this;  the odds of a completely separate incident causing similar and even further damage again, on the same bike have to be insanely high.   We did not have a second derailleur hanger for that bike and the derailleur was completely inoperable.   We looked at the damage, and we came up with ideas, and elected that we should try to make the bike a single speed bike by removing the derailleur from it.   Marc and Matt went to work, and Matt’s chain breaker broke while working on the chain…what?!  The earlier team soon went past us again, no sure how that happened, along with two more teams. We were able to borrow a team’s chain breaker, and complete the process of converting Marc’s bike into a single speed bike.   We were still in the fight, and likely dropped one possibly two overall race positions.  Then the discovery happened.

After getting rolling for the second time, Marc’s chain would not stay on the bike.  We had discovered that Marc’s front crank ring, was a special Oval-shaped ring.  This caused the non-stretchable chain to be to tight, then to loosen as Marc pedaled his two wheeled steed.   This caused the chain to either drop off, or go up and be too tight on the other rear gears causing the tire to ‘seize up’ and stop turning.  This required brief removal of the rear tire to allow it to turn again, and re-positioning of the chain.   In 30 minutes, we had barely made it 2 km, with 30 plus km minimum, including skipping CPs to shorten the bike leg in order to complete the course.  In this competitive field, this would cause our overall ranking to plummet to bottom of the field….if we even were able to make it back to the canoes, and final trek.   Our team was completed gutted.  Our goal of a top five overall finish, and first place in the all-male division, was over.  Each of us understood this was not sustainable, and after a post-race inspection, unsafe.  The carbon frame was compromised and would have likely completely failed at some point, along with we would likely not make the time cut-off (getting the rest of the CPs), even under full bike tow.   We agreed to return to the previous transition and with a heart-breaking decision to drop out of the race; it was quiet for the first time whilst we travelled.

After returning to the hotel, none of us regretted this decision, nor the effort we had placed into this race.  We had given 100% and there was not another decision to make for our team.  Marc, Matt, and I were a team.  

Thank you to all our families, Moziatex, the friendly brotherhood of adventure racers and volunteers, is not enough, for the allowing the possibility of us racers to do what we do. 

By Phil Nicholas...

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!!!