13th Place at USARA Nationals!

Posted Sat, November 8, 2008 - 7:33 PM
advracing, orienteering, navigation, travel, georgia

The title says it all!

We didn't find out the results until the banquet at the equestrian center. Our perserverance earned us 13th place out of 81 teams, 61 official finishers.

Also congrats to Wedali for finishing 4th-5th, Midwest for 23rd place, and 24Seven who got one more CP than we did but unfortunately lost a lot of points for being late.

Race report and maps below the fold.

Took the train to the start on the banks of the Tocoee River. The prologue was a quick loop up onto the hills to get three CPs before wading across the river to the canoes.

Paddle down the river through McCaysville to the takeout above the dam impoundment. Upper section was shallow, rocky, and reminded me of the Cannon River. Lower section was silty and slow moving. The two section were separated by a lowhead dam we had to portage around. At least one team went over it, although the flow was too low to present any hydraulic dangers.

Portage canoe on foot trail and doubletrack to the gate on 64/74 for pickup.

Trail run through the Ocoee rec area to the bike drop at Thunder Rock. Punched CP 3 and continued onto the long bike section. Passed several teams on the run, left TA in about 16th place as it started to rain.

Bike up singletrack to CP4, then a long doubletrack ride to CP5 just off the road on an unmapped trail. Rode a little farther until we had to turn off on a footpath to get CP6-7 on top of the ridge. From then on it was mostly hike-a-bike to CP8. Val got two flats during this section, and both of them turned out to be the same kind of cut on the tube in a similar place, but we couldn't find anything wrong with the tire. Since we had to hike to bikes anyway, we left her tire flat through CP 7-8 and ran the bikes downhill.

Dropped bikes at CP 8 and did 9-12 (in order) on foot. Bobbled 10 and 11. saw Wedali just after 9 and again before 12. The rain had stopped but it was windy and cool, and we had to add layers on Mule Top. Went most of the way around the loop with a black lab who decided to follow us - no idea who he belonged to.

Changed the tube on Val's bike again, continued on to the next bike drop. Lost MM but picked up 24-7 on the way out. Up the ridge, got a third flat and after a more thorough examination of the tire, found it had worn through to expose a slit near the inner bead. Patched the inside surface of the tire with duct tape and put on the last extra tube we had. Got passed by several teams during the mechanical issues. Went through Watson Gap where the EMTs were waiting to make sure people were OK, then down through the construction area to Jacks River CG.

Got 15-16 along the South Fork Trail. Still saw a lot of teams on the trail, both in front of us and behind us. A bit tired to run, so did a lot of power walking.

Back to Jacks River, where we decided to skip the dogleg to #17 and continue onto the next bike-O section. Got 19 on Flat Top, then hike-a-bike down the "obliterate" trail to 20, then a drop and dogleg to #23 on Hickorynut Mountain, followed by a fast ride down to #24 and about 5 minutes in front of the fire near dawn. Skipped 21-22 as they would have required an 1100-foot vertical dogleg.

More hike-a-bike along an overgrown trail to get to the creek near 25. Ran into Wedali along and did the ridge walk together, crossed the creek and decided to go for #25. Found it pretty easily and rode back down the gravel to nab #27 on a trail just off the road. Then took the trail (again, mostly hike-a-bike) intending to meet the gravel road along the side of the ridge. The trail didn't cooperate and continued south into an unmapped section. It was going the right direction, however, to we followed it as I counted reentrants and checked off features. It ended up going right to #26 at Hudson Gap, then we simply rode back down the gravel road for the home stretch.

Down gravel to the pavement, then up Boardtown Road to pick up #28 at the fire station. My brake pads finally gave out on the way down and I had to forgo bombing the hill and be creative about how to stop myself. Val's were misadjusted too and she had similar troubles, so we were a lot slower than we could have been on this section. Also, I biffed it on the edge of the asphalt (2 inch drop hidden by leaves) just past #28 and got a nice black and blue mark on the back of my left hip.

Arrived at the railroad track into town around 10:45 and rode it to the four-lane highway underpass. I rode about half the distance in the middle, after softening the full suspension all the way. It wasn't too bad. Wedali caught up and passed us with about 2 miles to go, but that was OK. Since all the teams finishing around that time had widely varying numbers of checkpoints completed, there was no way to tell who you might have been competing against (if anyone). So the ride in was mellow and folks were in a conversational mood.

Crossed the finish line at 11:30 AM with 26 of 29 CPs.