Lapine Loop Adventure Race

 I woke up on race morning after an understandably fitful night of sleep.  On the ground the snow from the day before had crystalized more as the temperatures dipped into the low 10's.  I opened the door to feel the temperature and immediately heared the sound of the wind.  A way the can can sound and I only hear when it's cold and dark.  Everything about this morning would indicate that I should question the decision I made to do this race.  But I continued to pack and make decisions on what gear to bring to stay warm and what to leave behind to save on weight. 

After parking at the race start the temperature was a balmy 18 degrees.  As I stood outside with my warmest winter jacket and hat on, I could immediately feel my hands getting so cold they couldn't handle movement easily.  With an hour and a half to the actual start of the race I layered my legs in running pants, covered by my ski under layers and a pair of denim pants.  It kept the frost off.  It was hard to commit to taking those layers off at the start of the race and to trust the movement would be enough to keep me warm.   I headed out with two layers on my legs, mostly to be able to strip one off on water crossings.  An upper thermal layer, wool sweater and amazing wind layer.  The wind layer was a great add and unexpected addition as I had ordered it thinking it was a ski coat with thermal layers. I was surprised to get a solid waterproof coat, which I also needed and therefore kept.  Sometimes accidental purchases really work out.  

The race started with a sprint for one racer on each team.  As the first runners came in the group behind me made a comment about the crazy ultra runners who were rocking that part. In my head I was going to give Adam a hard time for not being in the top 5, given his competitive nature and running speed.  But before I could even finish the thought in my head he rounded the corner in fifth place.  We grabbed our packs and we headed out on the prologue which was a short orienteering course in the woods.  We gathered 4 out of the 6 points (they were all optional) before heading off on the main course.  While we were very effective in finding the points I was amazed to see how many pro teams got all 6 points in the time we got 4.  The main course quickly got us to the decision point of water crossing on bridge.  With a balmy 18 degree temperature the initial river crossing worried me a lot but by the time we got there I took off my shoes, socks and top layer of pants and we crossed the river with very little impact.  I mean, it was hella cold, but it was manageable.  After the river crossing we set about navigating all over the park finding all the checkpoints, including 2 out of 3 pro points before heading towards the river section.  

After pumping up our gear,  packing up the items and loading the boat we headed off into the river.  The transition was flawless.  Adam ate and got his gear readyas I pumped, I ate and got ready as Adam took over pumping.  We got down the hill smooth and jumped into the river.  We had practiced our paddle style which looked just like the pro teams in The Worlds Toughest Race.  Once we put that into practice in the river, it looked much less like the pro teams as we found ourselves constanly getting spun around in a circle.  It logically made no sense, and I can only figure that it was the weight distribution in the boat.  Once we figured out a new plan we managed.  We didn't thrive but we got down the river successfully.  Of course the unexpected challenge here was that the water in the boat quickly got into my shoes and I was already regretting not having an extra pair of shoes with my bike gear.  After a few miles down the river I got dropped off for a hike to the bridge that I had to rappel off of.  Adam actually had the boat right under the rope so my feet never got wet, however to get the boat there he was standing in the water.  In hindsight, that may have been one of our weak points.  After taking off my gear we headed further down the river to one of the check points.  An easy find and I hopped out and ran down the very muddy path.  One of those paths where you sink in past your calves on each step.  As soon as I saw the actual checkpoint I knew I was in trouble.  I could see three grown men crawling through the mud trying  so hard to get ahead with no luck.  I had been here before, and dread set in.  The idea of getting stuck out there alone wasn't my idea of fun so I yelled back to Adam to come be there in case I sank too far down.  He had a vision of getting to it from the other side but after sinking in to his kidneys in the near frozen water we realized that wasn't panning out.  He tackled it again using a giant log to get closer to the check point and off we were again.  Both muddy but Adam for sure caked in mud and cold from the water, we hopped back in the boat to go downstream.  Realizing it was a pro-point, and therefore not required we realized after the fact that skipping this step may have been a smarter move.  But the story and picture value was pretty high! 

At some point the cold air really started to bother my lungs and astma started to set in which meant it was hard to get full breaths and consistent deep coughs as I continued to persevere through the terrain. 

The last two checkpoints on the water were easy to find and after that we got to haul the boat two miles down the road. Here is where communication is so important because Adam asked "where are we headed? To the bikes?".  In my understanding that answer was yes, while passing any checkpoints.  Well, we made it to the bikes efficiently but missed the check points.  We quickly ran back for one after packing up the boat and had a plan for the other one on the bike.  

At this point my only dry shoes were my keens so I put on dry socks and keens in hopes of keeping my feet warm.  I'll admit now that while I had hope, my feet never got warm again.  The bike stretch was fairly easy, although it was still hard to breathe at times.  We got all checkpoints and made it to the waterfall.  Most teams had biked to the other side of the river where the swim input was but we were on the side of the next checkpoint.  After stripping most layers we crossed the river and dread really started to set in as the intense cold on my legs made me realize how incredibly cold it was going to be to get submerged into the water and climb up the waterfall.  Adam was the first one to the waterfall entry and as I was taking off my coat, near tears, he yelled back that only one person had to go.  That moment I couldn't tell which emotion was stronger, guilt for being slow to get there and therefore not the one to get in the water or relief that I did not have to get to that level of cold.  Adam got to the checkpoint spot with no problem and as he got back to me I immediately started helping him get layers on.  He was shivering like crazy and we quickly crossed the river to get back to our bikes.  I knew things weren't great when Adam just shoved the backpack into my hands and asked me to carry it across.  It's not like him at all.  I started to worry when I needed to help him put on socks, tie shoes and close zippers.  

The realization that I may need to figure out how to keep a hypothermic person safe in the woods wasn't exactly appealing so there was gratitude in every pedal stroke I saw in front of me.  At this point the last two check points were quickly passed with no punch in the passport just to keep the blood flowing.  We ended the race right at the time limit but with the two final punches not marked, we will remain unranked in the field.  I still consider this a huge win for our team.  We did awesome in most of the segments and team work was solid, we just made kayaking look more like syncronized kayaking with several spins in the water.  

Adam quickly crawled into the car and covered himself with blankets while blasting the heater while I packed up the gear and got some food from Adventure Eats.  As always, warm food after a cold even really hits the spot!