This past Saturday was the Eco Lonestar Adventure Race put on by Terra Firma Racing. I’ve done quite a few 12 hr races but this is only my second with Terra Firma. I usually do most of their summer sprint series AR races. I was racing with Werewolves of Houston (Austin Texas Austin Houston
We were supposed to meet Doug at the Ranch since he had a three person tent, all we had were our mats and sleeping bags. We drove around all the tent sites a couple of times and did not see Doug’s car or tent. We tried calling him w/ no answer and texted him but we got no response. We found out the following morning he had a campsite reserved at Inks Lake
So Doug calls us around to see where we are at. We tell him so he can park next to us and start getting ready. I was in no hurry thinking boat drop was right at TA. Doug tells us that boat drop is 11 miles away and I’m thinking: crap that is a long ways a way and we need 2 people to offload the thing. So Doug and I left TA around to head towards boat drop, race started at . Ash stayed back to get ready but most of her stuff was in the car. I had yet to do much of anything to prepare for the race. I hadn’t packed my food, camelback, or changed up to this point. We got back to TA at and I had 10 mins to get ready for a 12 hr race. I managed it quite well and thankfully Ash let me borrow her rain jacket. I didn’t pack any cold weather clothes, as I was trying to travel lightly with car pooling. So the race started off with a 5k run. It was a nice run but I think I was still asleep because I don’t remember much of it. We were the first 12 hr team right in front of iMOAT and knew this was going to be a close race all day.
Next leg was a short bike to a Nav leg - this is where the teammates could split up to get 4 cps. I was sent to the windmill while Ash and Doug got the other three, I made it back fairly soon and waited around till they got back. We lost some time on this leg but nothing that would hurt us. The next leg was the 11 mile bike (all road) to boat drop, we knew the route because we had just driven it a couple of hrs ago. I felt really strong on the bike and did my best to pull most of the way for the team. Once we got to the boat drop we had 3 cps to get on the paddle.
We knew the paddle was going to be very difficult because of the wind and we didn’t have the best boat for the conditions. Kayaks are the weapons of choice for windy conditions, 3 out of the top 4 teams coed teams all had canoes along with us. So we did our best to paddle to the first cp, portaging across a cove. From the cove, we walked the shoreline until we finally reached the 1st cp. I walked in ankle deep water the entire way with the boat attached to my camelback, this was actually faster than paddling. iMOAT was the first team to first cp on the paddle and we saw them punch it and start heading back to boat drop. The other two cps are a long way away and we are thinking they just took themselves out of the race. No top teams usually skip checkpoints 3 hrs into a race especially with no hard cutoffs. The Masters of the Universe, fellow HFAR members Scott, Gabe, and Helena
Once we got back to boat drop, we had one cp to get on foot. Doug found it quickly and we headed back for the 11 mile road ride back to TA. The next leg was a long nav leg and such legs (most of the time) determine the winners of the longer races. Doug was a man on a mission on this leg. I have never seen anyone get so focused on naving when it comes to navigation. He gets dialed in and we went to all of the cps without a hitch. The next closest team to our nav leg was 28 mins slower for this leg. Freaking Awesome Doug… As we were headed back to TA we saw iMOAT going out on a trek and we started worrying about how many cps were on the last trek. As we came into TA we had a 9 mile bike and I asked how many cps were on the last leg. Of course there were 3 cps and if they happened to get all 3 and beat us back to TA they would win the race due to the remaining amount of time for race cut-off. We couldn’t do anything about it at this point. We road the 9 mile technical bike and we were gassed, Doug took a hard spill and toughed it out.
When we got back to TA we had 45 mins to get 3 cps on the last nav trek. One cp plotted real close to TA so our plan was to go get it and hopefully beat iMOAT back into TA. The other 2 cps were way out and we couldn’t have gotten them in the allotted time. We got in the area of the cp but we couldn’t find it, a team comes a couple of minutes later and goes straight to it. We eventually find the cp, we headed back to TA to stop the clock and find out it was iMOAT afterall who came in just 3 mins in front of us with the last cp. iMOAT was declared the winner of the race, even though our team and other competitors disagreed completely. Here are my reasons on why iMOAT shouldn’t have won the race, this is not personal but for the integrity of the sport.
· They managed to skip one of the major 3 disciplines of an adventure race, the PADDLE (well….majority of the paddle).
· It took the fastest team 3 hrs to get the 3 cps on the paddle, it took iMOAT 2 hrs and 14 mins to get 3 cps on the last trek. They made up 45 mins on this leg alone (by skipping the paddle).
· Its unheard of winners of Adventure Races not clearing the course and still able to make up those cps later in a race to place ahead of other teams. You clear the course as each leg progresses; you don’t bank that you will make it up later in a race.
· I feel like Werewolves of Houston (Austin
In adventure racing, you never know what to expect when it all shakes out in the end – good or bad.
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| Werewolves |
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