Adventure Racing

SOGGY BOTTOM BOYS

FALL URBAN O-MEET

Nov 5, 2011

            “Richmond ASR: Raging Burritos” traveled to Virginia Beach on an overcast windy morning.  This time it was just me and Daniel Rodriguez since most of the team was busily setting up and running the 18-Hour Mountain Bike race at Brady Saunders camp in Goochland.  By the way, we did show up to help clean up Sunday morning just so you don’t think we skipped our duties. 

            We started at Chicho’s Bar at 29^th and Pacific.  There were 70 potential checkpoints and the idea was to get as many as possible in the time allowed…otherwise known as rogaine-style orienteering.  We had to do at least 2 hours on foot before we could get on the bikes and luckily there was a nice southerly loop that included about 17 points.  We started running that direction at about 10:25 knowing we had to be back in no less than two hours.  Now remember that Daniel runs marathons somewhere in the high 2-hour range so he’s fast!  Phil is not so fast, but we covered about 10 miles and the 17 checkpoints in the two hours.  We found murals on walls, how many pay phones were at the 7-11, statues in front yards, hours of operation for laundromats, the number of boat ramps at Owl Creek, and numerous other fun things.  The wind was blowing hard out of the north and there were a few times on the return that it almost stopped us dead in our tracks.  This allowed me a little rest so it wasn’t all bad!  We were back to Chicho’s with 5 minutes to transition and out again by about 12:30PM. 

            We decided on taking a big loop north up the beachfront, into a couple of neighborhoods, and then First Landing Park.  The weather was getting sunny but the wind was still blowing hard.  We were definitely leaning hard a couple of times in order not to get blown sideways!  The cool thing about this part of the race was that we discovered all kinds of cool trails that I’d not known about before.  The trail along the waterfront in the park was cool; the bike trail alongside Shore Drive was cool.  We found mailboxes, telephone poles, a few O-flags, walked our bikes down the beach, read plaques on benches, and found huge boats in tiny canals.   Time was starting to get a little tight as we started south along Great Neck Road and First Colonial.  We realized we’d have to skip the points off Mill Dam Road and around the Cavalier Golf Course (which were probably beautiful places too) and head east along Laskin as fast as we could go.  The head wind didn’t help much.  Our last stop was Blue Ridge Mountain Sports where we punched our passport but didn’t have time for a Gatorade.  We made it back to Chicho’s with one minute to spare!  Turns out that last stop at Blue Ridge was key; we won by 10 points (out of 3080…so it was tight!).  We want to thank Mark Montague for a great course and look forward to next year.  What a great way to spend a Saturday!

Hello former SBB Rogaine Racers,

Well another race season is just about in the bag for most of you. We hope you had a great season and look fwd to seeing most of you at our 2012 SBB events. On that note, we wanted to share info for your 2012 race planning season and how to grab hold of big discounts for the upcoming Feb Rogaine. Attached is the Flyer for the Feb race you can use with most basic info in it and share with any other fellow racers.

This year all three courses (3, 6 & 12 hr) will be almost exclusively in wooded Private Property areas and NOT near any small towns or housing (ie old-school Orienteering Rogaine). So dust off the bikes, lube up the chains, lace up your shoes and Register early to save up to $20. FYI, in 2012 we will also add a Paddle-O Race in the spring and a 8 & 18 hr Adventure Race in June to our schedules.

See you all in Feb!

Mark Montague

Founder - SBB Racing

www.sbbracing.com

POSTING: SBB Urban-O is in less than 2 weeks! We have all new accurate maps this year and over 100 hrs of race preparation to get the race ready for you.  Secure Online Registration closes in just 5 days on Fri Oct 28th at www.sbbracing.com (Use Registration Tab). Please register in next couple days if you are coming so we can insure to have enough maps and food for you and others.

STORM THE EASTERN SHORE

ADVENTURE RACE

Kiptopeke State Park, VA

Sept 24-25, 2011

GPS Track: http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/86718

            The Friday drive from Richmond was a mess!  There were flash flood warnings; there was driving rain so hard you couldn’t see the white lines; there were flooded parts of the road that required driving directly over the yellow line so as to stay away from the curb….and there was traffic!  With a little help from traffic-enabled GPS, Google maps, and some local knowledge, we made it to 226 Tazewell St in Cape Charles just in time for dinner – lovingly cooked by Wendy Cone.  The rest of the evening consisted of the usual low-grade panic of packing and planning, but we were in bed at a reasonable hour.

                      

            “Richmond ASR: Raging Burritos” included the usual suspects of Eric, Daniel, and me with the addition of my brother Robin who had flown down from Boston.  He raced with us before at the ill-fated Rev3 AR back in April, where it had rained incessantly.  The weather didn’t bode well for this race either and we were wondering if inviting him caused all the awful rain.  Race weather proved to be much nicer than the drive from Richmond, so we’ll probably give him another chance.

            Saturday was overcast with predictions of rain, but it was dry for the 9AM start.  We were ready for the first trail section, complete with paddles and PFDs strapped to our backs.  We took off south en mass, picking up a couple of easy checkpoints on the way to the kayak put-in at the Wise Point Boat Ramp.  Then the race really began.  We put-in about 10AM and wouldn’t be done with this section of paddling until 6PM!

            We started northeast up the Virginia Inside Passage heading towards CP4 on the southern tip of Mockhorn Island, and then due east to small creek opening.  We navigated pretty well to this point but it took a while to find the creek and the pink markers that Chris had planted in the marsh.  It was very shallow everywhere and finally Eric spotted something that looked like a current coming out of the marsh.  Then it was a task of navigating by satellite map, passing a couple more pink markers, and beaching the boats at CP5.  We called Chris on the cell phone as instructed and began the out and back run southwest to CP7.  We passed some teams coming back from CP7 and figured we were in about 6^th position.  Upon returning to CP5, just for giggles, Chris made us portage the boats northeast up the beach to CP8.  I think the original idea had been a put-in at CP8, but the tide was out and we had to portage back to 5 and put-in there.  A short trip to CP9 to see how many windows were on the northwest side of a house began our endless paddle up to Oyster Boat Ramp and CP10.  This was a tough ordeal and led to our only “team grumble” as we had too many navigators with too many opinions.  There was a rather quiet 15 minute cooling off period after that, but then we quickly started working together.  Luckily the currents and winds were not too bad and we hit the ramp exhausted and with backs aching.  http://richmondasr.com/_blog/Adventure_Racing   A forty minute transition involving fueling, plotting, and changing had us on our bikes and heading north by 6PM.  We had caught Rob Dinterman who was doing the race solo, so he joined us for the remainder.  A light rain that had been falling most of the kayak paddle thankfully held off during transition so the maps stayed dry!

            

            We started a pace line and maintained a good 18 mph.  A couple of checkpoints got found but then we overshot a left hand turn in Bridgetown and went about 2 miles too far before realizing our mistake.  As you probably know, places may have names but often there is nothing there.  This is especially true of the Eastern Shore.  Bridgetown didn’t actually exist.  We realized our mistake quickly and backtracked to the turn, turned right this time and headed to the first night-orienteering course.  Bill Swann was there to greet us. http://richmondasr.com/_blog/Adventure_Racing

            It didn’t take long to realize that this was the same area that we had trekked three years ago!  I recognized the land bridge and Eric remembered the horse trails like it was yesterday.  This probably gave us a distinct advantage and we quickly found 12 of the 14 CPs.  We only had to find 8 but had delusions of clearing the course.  The only two points in unfamiliar territory proved to be our downfall.  We found one, but CP27 remained elusive and somewhere on the other side of a nasty marsh.  We gave up, collected our egos (and 13 out of 14 points!) and remounted the bikes.  It was now about midnight. 

            Chris had given us two optional CPs on the bike course, so we took a vote and went for the first one to make up for the missed CP27.  It was an easy ride but added about 11 miles to the course.  Maybe it was the caffeine tablet I took, but I think the team’s spirit was back up and we pedaled on to the next O-course.  Just south of Exmore, my back tire went flat.  Luckily we were at an all-night gas station with real food.  I quickly changed the tube, ran the tire for any sharp things, and was back in business while we feasted on chicken tenders, potato wedges, and Mountain Dew…so nutritious!  Then it was a short ride to the next trek. 

            We arrived at the Maplewood Gardens Nature Trails and were given the promised “treasure map.”  It had no scale and fairly rudimentary markings.  The hard part was figuring out where we were on the map.  We stumbled around a bit but then figured we’d head for the power line and dirt road on the western edge.   This got us going and we found 7 of the 8 checkpoints (4 were mandatory) fairly easily.  The trails were really non-existent but we were able to use the stream and occasional bridge to keep us oriented.  We learned from our CP27 experience and gave up on CP35.  We were back at the bikes by about 6AM.

            We then had a LONG bike south along Route 600; but the weather was still good and the sun even started poking through the clouds.  After a short stop at mosquito-infested Webb’s Island and CP42 we had to make a decision about the next optional bike CP.  It would add about 13 miles to the ride and we were pretty tired.  We were still doing a pace line, but there was some towing going on and we were much slower.  As soon as we made the decision to bypass the optional point, my tire went flat again.  I hate “mechanicals,” but it was as if fate told us not to go for the extra point.   I was out of 26-inch tubes, so we stuffed a 29-inch tube in my tire, prayed as we re-inflated it, thanked the Lord that it held, and pedaled on to Check point B and then the bike-to-paddle transition in Cape Charles.  Daniel’s parents and Eric’s family were there to greet us.  It was about 9AM as we jumped in the boats for the last leg south to Kiptopeke Park and the finish line. 

            It was an easy paddle, but we’d been up for 24 hours and I swear I was dreaming as I paddled.  We were just going through the motions.  Eric said he woke with a start a couple of times as his kayak was about to go over.  We covered the 12K paddle in about 90 minutes, took out at the boat ramp, and portaged the last 400 meters up the hill to the finish.  Family was again there to greet us, there was the customary unceremonious smattering of claps the cheers, and we were done.  We were about 4^th or 5^th or 6^th overall…we’re still not sure, but felt good about our race.  We’d gotten all the points except for 3 and were done in 25 hours and 43 minutes.  

 It was fun racing with Rob, and Robin had a really good time.  We quickly downed countless hamburgers and hotdogs, gathered the gear, and headed back to Cape Charles for showers.  Everyone decided to skip the awards ceremony and headed home quickly.  Robin and I had a short nap and then headed home too.  Not too shabby for a weekend’s worth of fun.

                                    Phil Dawson

Below are some videos of Phil, Eric, Daniel and Robin. Last I saw them was at the bike to O TA; they came out of there with all but one point and in 4th place overall and 1st place 4-Person-Men. Good job, guys! I'll post Phil's photos and race report soon!

Hello race fans. Soggy Bottom Boys Racing is offering all of you an Early Bird Discount on your Secure Registration for the upcoming Fall Urban-O Meet. We know many missed it last year due to being out at Moab for the AR Nationals. Sign up early now to lock in your spot at <http://sbbracing.com/?page_id=497> The date is set (Sat Nov 5th,2011) and we already have many signed up in our first 2 weeks of Registration. There are over 70+ all newly designed possible CP locations pre-plotted on new maps for you to go out and find in the 3-hr race or 6-hr race. A $5 discount off the $30 or $40 Registration is available for Early Bird Registration from now up to Sept 28th, 2011. Share this attached flyer with friends, family and colleagues and encourage them to come out with you. If you bring a new racer with you on race day you'll receive an additional $5 back! See you on the 5th!

Hello race fans. Soggy Bottom Boys Racing is excited to announce our online Secure Registration is now open for our Fall Urban-O Meet. The date is set (Sat Nov 5th, 2011) and we already have 5 signed up on our first day of Registration. There are over 70+ all newly designed possible CP locations pre-plotted on new maps for you to go out and find in the 3-hr race or 6-hr race. A $5 discount is available for Early Bird Registration from now up to Sept 21st, 2011. Share this attached flyer with friends, neighbors and work colleagues and encourage them to come on out and have some fun. You'll finish the race with the same great home-made food SBB has become famous for. Any questions contact mark@sbbracing.com .

 

See you on the 5th!

“TIDEWATER TRAVERSE” 18-HOUR AR

JULY 30-31, 2011

WEST POINT, VA

            It was hot!  The weeks before had been awful with days regularly in the 100’s.   July 30^th topped out in the upper 90’s and it was still close to that by the 6PM start.   We made sure we were stocked up with plenty of fluids for each leg, but we still drained our water bladders and bike bottles repeatedly.  Chris had plenty of water out on the course and luckily everyone stayed safe.

            “Richmond ASR: Raging Burritos” contained the normal cast of nefarious characters (Phil Dawson, Daniel Rodriguez, and Eric Cone) and one new addition...  
Lisa Kopecko, one of Eric’s officemates, was new to the sport and easily proved to be up to the task.   She was not a stranger to endurance events, but this whole running around in the dark was all new.  A cloudless, moonless night with a visible Milky Way and plenty of shooting stars probably made that a little easier to handle. 

            Rainbow Acres Campground in King and Queen County was once again the start location for the Traverse.  Twenty-three teams showed up to toe the line.  The prologue consisted of a short run to the campsite entrance where we got further instructions, a quick decision to be made about running or biking the next section, a run back to our bikes, a short bike out to the intersection with Route 631 where we picked up passports, and a ride back to the start.  Then the race really began.  Everyone piled into boats and we all headed upstream to find two points along the Mattaponi River before transitioning to the first trek section.  We estimated we had 17 kilometers of paddling to do against a moderate out-going tide before getting to the trek. 

            Did I mention it was hot!  There was plenty of water flying about from the paddles, but I think there was just as much sweat flying around.  We had burned through our fluids by the end of this paddle.   “The Mother Ship” Chesapeake Light Craft triple kayak once again proved to be fast as we steadily passed most teams.  Eric had borrowed Jeremy’s kayak and we towed him along behind so we could stay together.  We think he actually did some paddling.  At the farthest checkpoint on the river we determined we were now about 6^th place and feeling OK.  A quick paddle back downstream brought us to the take-out at Sandy Point State Forest, Tim Gilbert’s familiar voice, new maps, a Gatorade, some cookies, and nightfall.  We slathered on bug spray, studied the map, formed a plan, and headed out. 

            We could get any 10 of the 15 checkpoints before 2AM to still be in the race and we planned a counter-clockwise approach.  Chris had said there weren’t too many briars, but we managed to find plenty as we stumbled around looking for CP 3.  We gave up after a while and decided to come back to it after finding CP4.  CP4 was easy and finding CP3 on the way back was also easy.  There was plenty of second-guessing our abilities after that, but we picked our egos up off the floor and kept going.  We mainly traveled the fire roads, bush-wacked plenty of reentrants, skipped the points way off to the south and seriously off-trail, and returned to Tim’s TA by about 1AM.  We transitioned back to the boats for the 7K paddle back to Rainbow Acres.  It was still hot on the river and we once again worked up a sweat.  Navigation wasn’t too hard but it’s a little unnerving when there’s no moon, very few house lights, and using headlamps just ruins your night vision.  Luckily we didn’t plow into any riverbanks and took out where we had started the race.  We spent a little time hydrating, changing, eating; then headed out for a long night bike section at about 3:30AM.

            We had seven checkpoints to find along a circuitous route that took us a long way north, then east, then back south.  The next transition was to be a trekking relay, but we had to get through the night before that.  Navigation was not hard but the estimated 55 kilometers did take some time.  There was some bike towing involved, and as the sky lightened with the approaching day most of us didn’t get that usual burst of energy you get as the night starts to fade.  I think the heat and humidity had taken its toll.  We were all hydrated and I hadn’t had any serious cramping attacks as often happens, but we were tired. 

            Transition Area 3 (checkpoint 27 and 28) showed up about 7AM.  The area had recently had a significant fire and “wasteland” definitely described the vista.  We de-biked, changed into our still-muddy running shoes, had a few of Dan Hamilton’s delicious pancakes, and figured out who would do which leg and in what order.  This section was pretty cool.  Each teammate had to find a couple of points solo and I think Lisa had been worrying about this section the whole race.   There were four different legs varying in both distance and navigation difficulty.  Daniel took off for the “long-easy navigation” leg first since he’s the best runner.  I did the “medium-harder navigation” section followed by Eric doing the “long-harder navigation” leg.  We sent Lisa off last for the “short-easy navigation” section.   Only then did she realize that one of the points was in a nasty pond requiring thigh-deep wading.  The whole concept of wading through nasty water was not on Lisa’s radar screen before this race.  It is now.  She took a deep breath, decided to take her shoes off before wading in, and came back triumphant!

            We had come through the course well and now had a short ride to TA4 for the final trekking section.  Originally, the cut-off for leaving TA4 had been 10:30AM.  The race was proving to be more difficult than Chris had anticipated, so he moved the cut-off back to 11AM and altered the route from there to the finish.  Lisa looked a little confused.   She originally thought we were now essentially done and just had a ride back to the finish.  Finding out we had ANOTHER trekking section hit her hard, but she rallied amazingly and off we went.

            Pat gave us our next map at TA4.  The goal was to find any 5 of 13 checkpoints to stay “legal” for the race.  We also had to stay within a defined area to avoid trespassing.  This cut out the use of some handy roads to the east and forced some knarly swamp crossings.  We got CP42 quickly but then got really lost for a short time.  Somehow, we got turned around and ended up looping around to CP42 again.  I think I was reading the compass 180 degrees wrong for awhile and the overcast sky eliminated using the sun for direction.  That’s the only way I can explain it and I’ve never done that before.  Hopefully, I’ll never do it again.  After re-grouping, we headed west, found a very handy beaver dam across a swamp, trekked north along a fire road for CP39, headed back south into a reentrant for CP41, and then headed south again for CP31.  We couldn’t find it!  Time was running out so we had to cut and run.  Turns out we had used a fire road that wasn’t on the map as our “fence.”  We hadn’t gone far enough.  Now there was no choice but to cross a swamp to find CP30 and get to the TA before 11AM.  The swamp was no fun and saw grass cuts your knees up really nicely.  We scrambled up the opposite bank, found CP31, and ran to the TA getting there with about 3 minutes to spare.  Teams started streaming in, many after 11AM and some from the road which seemed odd since it was off-limits, as we changed shoes and hit the road for the last bike section.  We had an hour.

            A pace line seemed the right thing to do after racing for 17 hours.  Daniel headed the line for most of the ride, I was next with Lisa on tow, and Eric helped spell Daniel occasionally.  “Team Punishment” (I think) drafted off our efforts and we probably averaged about 18 mph.   The finish line showed up at 11:35AM.  There was the customary smattering of clapping and cheers as we dismounted and slowly collapsed.  We rallied a little later to do the short obstacle course then headed for the showers. 

            This was a hard, challenging, good race.  Chris really tested everyone and once again had laid out a great course.  Scott Pleban reported cleared the course and Andy from “I’m On Point” came very close to doing the same.  They’re amazing racers and should be seriously commended.  The drive home, though Red Bull aided, was uneventful.  I think we all slept well despite all the briar scratches. 

                                                                                    Phil Dawson

Hello Soggy Bottom Boys Racers,

 

            Mark Montague, Race Director here. Wow, Spring flew right by us didn't it and Summer's almost over too? With this ACL tear, it's all I can do to keep from getting out there with you at the local races. However, I want to be healed 100% so I'm following my Ortho's protocol and limiting my outdoor "stuff" till Fall. Great seeing many of you at the OAR One Day or the HRA TT races. Hope to see many of you at the HRA STORM as well.

            Well after a disastrous spring/summer with 2 of our SBB races cancelled due to City or State permits, we are all back for 2011/2012 race season with at least 5 races (plus classes) for you. Attached is a brief event schedule update for your planning. The SBB webpage has been updated as well with all these events and by Sept 1st, we'll have the Secure Online Registration page up and running for these as well.

            Coming up Sat Nov 5th will be our second annual SBB Fall Urban-O race with over 60+ possible CPs to go find on your feet and on bikes. Go to

http://sbbracing.com/?page_id=9 for complete details on both our Fall races and hope to see you all out there this Fall.

 

Later Gators,

 

Mark M