Moving on to the race itself... I'll try break it down by section.
Section 1 - Trek. The course started out with a trek section that included a long road-run out-and-back that took teams up and out of the river valley area, and then back to the Seven Oaks Resort ski area. The guys were nice enough to load me up with an extra pack for the most of the road-running section so I could get some extra run training in. ;)
Section 2 - Bike. Single-track, technical mountain biking. Not the most difficult I've ever seen, but not the easiest. And although I've been known to threaten to throw my bike off of cliffs while struggling to stay upright on winding, greasy single-track trails, I think I did all right. My teammates are much better bikers, but were patient and encouraging throughout the section and we were able to maintain a lead on the competition despite having to fix a flat tire at the very end of the section. Oh and at the very end, we got to bomb down a legit ski hill on our bikes. Super fun!
Section 3 - Bike. Road biking, mostly gravel and hilly. When you think of Iowa, you think of flat farmland. That was not the case with this race. There were plenty of hills, and lots of gravel. Flat tire number 2 happened on this leg, and someone (not involved with the race) stole one of the checkpoints from it's location, but other than that, a pretty uneventful section.
Section 4 - Trek. We pulled into this section essentially tied with two other teams (Wild Hares and Inspire), but Biz's magical ability to sniff out checkpoints, along with our teams good fitness, allowed us to separate from the field throughout the tough bushwhacking section.
Section 5 - Paddle. We ended the trek back by our bikes, but instead of hopping on our wheels, we packed our bikes into the canoes and took off down the river. The water levels were decent and the flow was good, so even though we were bucking a serious headwind, we were able to knock out the approximately 9 mile paddle section in under 2 hours.
Section 6 - Trek. We unloaded our bikes from the boats, but before we hopped back on the saddle, we had a quick trek loop, mostly on roads. The day was heating up by now, and running on the open cement recreation trail was taking its toll on everyone. We were running low on fluids and looking forward to wrapping this section and getting back to our bikes (with water bottles).
Section 7 - Bike. We came back to the transition area, hopped on our bikes, and PSSSSST...flat tire number three. The dudes fixed it lickety-split and we were back on the road, until PSSSST...flat tire number four. Replacement number two in place, when PSSSST...flat tire number five! All on the same bike, same tire. The guys worked as fast as they could to change each tire, but it was hot, we were now almost completely out of liquid, and we could see other teams starting to catch up. Finally after three changes, we got back on the road. Now we just had to pray for no more flats because we were out of spare tires (and had been when we had flat #5, fortunately one of our competitors, the Gnome Hunters, were in transition at the same time as us and offered up one of their spare tubes).
Section 8 & 9 - Bike. Section 8 was supposed to be a trek, which I needed. I had been holding my own pretty well all day on the bike (especially considering I hadn't biked all winter long), but the day's efforts were starting to wear on me and I could have used a trek section (my strength). But because the race was taking longer than expected, the race director informed us that we could bike section 8 instead of trek it. Makes for a much faster effort, but my bike legs felt like jelly. We picked up all of the section 8 points, and now it was just a long ride (picking up a few points along the way) back to the finish. For the last 30 minutes or so I relied on my teammates to help me mentally and physically power through to the finish.
When we finally arrived back at the start/finish location, we were the first 12-hour team to arrive, and we had cleared the course (found all checkpoints). It took 11 hours for us to finish, and it wouldn't have been possible without some excellent teamwork, navigation and perseverance. I feel extremely lucky to have found a place on the GearJunkie/WEDALI roster.
Kudos to race directors, Jerrett Fried and Steve Oberbroeckling, and all of their wonderful volunteers who put on a first-rate show.
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