Sea and Sand 2006

For those of you reading, this is my blog so it certainly comes from a first person experience. "Living in the world of blogging."

True to his word, Grant Killian of HRadventure served up a good deal of Sea and Sand at this aptly named race. After missing a cutoff time during the bonus section in the Storm race while thinking we were in the lead, we dusted off our humiliation and set about training for the Sea and Sand.
During that time, I came down with a nasty case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and nearly considered hanging things up for awhile. After much consideration, I realized I likely got the tick bite at my house in Maryland, or at least that's what I kept telling everyone since everyone was making reference to not being surprised with all "those races in the woods." However, my last race before getting sick was The Storm, and frankly, ticks don't swim. You would have had to be at that race to understand that. Luckily, I placed myself on antibiotics for lyme disease just in case and luckily the two bugs are treated with the same antibiotic. I luckily missed not having to end up in the ICU or the morgue like the last two cases of Rocky Mtn in Maryland. My infectious disease doctor couldn't comprehend the training and racing I was doing, and he recommended taking a month off of training and racing on Oct 31. It was 10am, so I figured, by November 1st I was officially cleared. Race on!!
During this time, our team of Dima, Sasha, and Dave got together for two separate training sessions. Dave was squeezing this race in two days before a hernia operation. Yes, we are all crazy. In one epic training session, we got stranded after a 4 mile paddle into gnarly and increasing head winds and building seas. Deciding not to risk being stranded in the offshore winds, we ended up getting practice portaging boats a long distance while Dave's wife Kata bailed us out and picked us up after we ran part way home. Little did we know it would be perfect practice for the upcoming S and S. During this time, we enlisted Chesapeake Light Craft as a sponsor and received a beautiful varnished and fast tandem from them. We really did our homework and practiced with teammates in different boats and crunched data on speeds between the boats. We also practiced transitioning in and out of the boats and using portage wheels. We even did some beach running. I guess you can say we came to this race prepared. Also, we were learning to deal with each others personalities. Or should I say, they were learning to deal with me.
A week before the race, I started to feel better physically after having lingering aches and headaches from the rocky mtn fever. The time away from training was actually quite helpful for all the accumulated mileage over the last few years. I was also mentally refreshed. When I told my wife I was going ahead with the Nov 11 race despite the doctors warnings, she said at least we knew my life insurance premium was paid up since we actually called the company when I was sick. She is at least very supportive of my endeavors....
As usual, travel down to the race was fraught with heavy logistics, working late thursday night, and traffic delays going down. What should have been a 3+ hr drive took 6+ hrs. Once again the car was loaded with gear, boats, and paddles, and my Mom and son were along for the trip since little Jake is super at handing Daddy a gatorade in transition. We had also planned on doing the Sunday o-course with both of them and my mom at the age of 66 was considering the 5 mile beach trail run, but she couldn't find her running shoes at our house. She picked up some payless shoes in Virginia Beach, but apparently they didn't cut the mustard for a trail run. She was also worried since she was down to running only a few days a week. So, if ya think I'm nut, you should meet my mom.
As all things go, Friday ended up being another day of logistical confusion. I have grown to accept that. Sasha must of called us a few dozen times to check on our arrival time since at every tunnel and city, we were experiencing another delay causing all of us undo angst. Dave and I finally arrived in time for checkin. At least we all knew other teams were likely experiencing the same hassles. Since the checkin time was spread out, we didn't see familiar faces until the 8pm race meeting which took place with the Atlantic Ocean surf in the background.
We received partial map/instructions at 8pm and went to dinner where my Mom had already ordered me some pasta. She was experienced at this and one of the best supports we could ever have. She knows how hectic it gets once plotting starts. Somehow I thought I would end up spending the night plotting, but after dinner and 30 minutes of plotting, cp 1-9's were plotted. Somehow I was forgetting this wasn't a 24hr+ race. We had only a short team brief because the race appeared so straight forward. We also knew the race would be mostly paddling and biking. Dave and I fell right asleep in our hotel room with a grin on our face. Our bargain $59 hotel room even had a first row view of the Ocean, life couldn't be better.
Saturday morning started with that ugly 4:00am wakeup alarm which was later followed by Sasha running into our room and jumping around and turning all the lights on. I think she was already dressed and ready to go. If there was a sign that she was on for this race, I think that was it. After cheap hotel coffee, oatmeal raisin powerbar, and a shower, I was ready to go. I actually got in two REM cycles of sleep. That's nirvana in adventure racing.
The 30 minute drive to the mystery location brought us to a beach side parking lot where we quickly setup camp with tent, gear, and our Chesapeake Light Craft banner. While the team setup gear and bikes, I worked on final map things and set up the plotting table since we knew mid race plotting was on the agenda. We were starting well as a team.
At a little past 6am, Grant gave a quick race address, and we all shouldered our boats for the first portage to the beach. Dima had run down to the beach and already explored our options. Facing East, we saw the first gimpses of the morning glow which slowly illuminated our first obstacle, the oncoming surf. This was the same view we had when going to sleep, and we were full of anticipation and possibly fear since afterall, it was November. We had all mentally rehearsed entering the boats quickly and picking our lanes through the surf. But, as usual, Grant was thinking and had everyone carefully enter the surf and allowed the race to start only after teams took their time getting through the surf break. Nonetheless, alot of good video was taken of boats being swamped and turtled in the surf. We waited for our window and then paddled our arses off during a flat wave set. However, mother nature would of course add one random wave to the otherwise even count of waves, and we had to take one nice cresting wave head on. Our ruahine tandem had a low volume bow which actually pierced right through the wave only to allow my body to take the full weight of the force and breaking some of the impact for Sasha in the back. Once we came out the otherside, I looked back and saw Sasha still intact and in the boat. It was all quite refreshing being November. Dave and Dima apparently made it through cleanly, but we couldn't tell because of the size of the waves, and we nervously waited to see their bow crest that last wave set. We finally caught sight of them and they were intact. We then waited and pumped bilges till the start. We all gave each other a high five and thumbs up as we readied for the start.
As the sun slowly crested the horizon, the volunteers eventually gave up on the boats having trouble with the surf, and the race was off. We quickly hammered into a lead position with our wing paddles, training, and good boats. I estimated 45 min of paddling knowing our estimated boat speed, and after the estimated 45 min and 8km, we spotted the widened beach and two possible volunteers on the beach. I was a little leery of getting this wrong since we would likely be confined to a portage since the surf was larger now. There was no cp flag, just a group of campers on the beach and two separate folks who looked like they didn't belong. Dave and Dima had headed in. We waited to make sure they survived the surfzone. It was like, "why don't you guys go first." Once they jumped out, we then headed straight in shore and reentered the surfzone. It was all quite exciting, especially given that Sasha and I were having rudder trouble the last few minutes of the paddle. We actually caught a wave some 100 m offshore and sprinted onto the face and got a beautiful ride nearly to the beach when the cresting wave sent our low volume bow deep underwater with a ton of water entering the cockpit. We had a quick pirouette broach and some screaming by me to Sasha to paddle for her dear life as a 5 ft cresting wave was heading right toward us. Luckily, that girl can paddle, and we made it to shore completely intact. Dave and Dima were right there and helped us out of the boats, and we exited without a hitch and quickly portaged up the beach to cp1 like a bunch of wet dogs. Good teamwork so far. We saw Grant during the portage, and he commented that there was awesome carnage going on right behind us. We felt good about our luck so far.
We had proceeded to attach the portage wheels only to find that they didn't work very well in 6 inches of sand. @#$%#@ I had the fast moving firm surface portage wheels which only weighed a pound and were great if you had to bail and carry instead of tow. They just don't work well on loose sandy surface, but what does. After 100m of carrying the boats which seemed like miles, we found firm surface and reattached the wheels and were off running at a good pace. I remember telling everyone that the portage could be "the race" since it was over 2km, and the difference between a slow portage and running could be alot of time. Dave and Dima split the load of the work and allowed me to nav ahead and read the trail signs. So, once we hit the paddle/trek transition, the trek was planned and knowingly straightforward. I know the portage was tough, but we are truly lucky HRA allows us to race in kayaks.
We decided to hit cp's 3-5 in reverse order since we had located the area and could use the first distance as a warm up and see where other teams were sitting. Heading into the trailnetwork, we passed ATP and Too Many Kids who were right on our tails on the portage. The short trek was straightforward. Sort of surprising comparing Grant's previous races. Even though he commented the cp's would be on trails and manmade features, his previous races proved otherwise. Wow, we actually got to run and open up the pace some this race. We saw ATP on the way to cp5 when they came thru the woods and we were on the longer trail, but they overran the cp. Knowing our lead could soon diminish on a run against two males, we kept looking over our shoulders and were surprised to see how much time they lost around cp5. Everyone was looking strong, and we were able to answer the pace being set by ATP behind when we finally saw them emerge onto the long trail behind. However, at every cp they gained because punching bracelets added more time. I still love the bracelet thing. Very clever cp backup idea. But, all was going well for us. By the time we finished cp3, we arrived to cp6 with ATP but no others teams were in sight. ATP transitioned very quickly to the paddle, but we soon caught them after 1km on the paddle to cp7. From here on, we could see we had a nice lead on the following coed teams and settled into a comfortable pace, as we had been paddling very hard for the first part of race. The second paddle was inland on the Bay side in relatively calm water and little tidal current. We got to paddle around duck blinds, lingering crab pots, and around small islands then headed back North to cp8 and then the transition at cp9. By now we were all fairly warm and still surprised it was actually November and close to 80 degrees. Amazing weather!! It was a day for sunglasses and sunscreen. Sasha and I occasionally got antsy in the boat and wanted to hammer, but we kept remembering to save our energy for later. That girl can paddle!
We entered the next transition after a quick portage up trail from the water to the parking lot. I noted the time since we had one last section to go, and I was mentally converting to safety mode (no mistakes). Sasha and I ran with our boat the short distance into transition but Dave and Dima were held up with water in their boat from the shallow cresting waves that filled their boat. We waited for what seemed like a long time, so Sasha ran back to help while I quickly changed clothes and set up the map area to save time. Everyone was going to be waiting on me at this transition. The pressure was starting to build since we were more than halfway into the race with a lead. In AR, it sometimes alot easier racing behind and going all out in the last section. Alot less pressure, but since we started with paddling, that's how things transpired.
Once we got the maps and new instructions, it was quickly apparent the race was about to begin. We were about to hit one cp along the way into Back Bay Reserve. Up till now, Grant was running a perfect race, but too straightforward for The OverKillian. I kept thinking he had something waiting for us, and we found it on the mandatory beach route back into the False Cape Land Park. There was a smartly placed cp along the way to keep teams within the confines of the park road and mandatory route, although one team somehow ended up astray. We entered the beach after a nice boardwalk cruise. Being November, we saw only a few fishermen and a scattered backpackers here and there. All the fishermen gave us that strange look. It looked like they at least were having a good time catching rock fish and watching us suffer along that stretch. We quickly found that the high tide left little to no beach to ride on. We likely spent 70% of the time on the beach pushing and running with the bikes and the other attempting to ride. All of us kept lowering our tire pressure. I was starting to suffer and entered a temporary bonk along the way, but was somehow still enjoying the fact that we were on a beach actually doing a race. How cool is that! Dima noticed that my tires were still not low enough, but I was happy just to be spinning finally. Dima is the resident bike guru. At the next deep sand section, I lowered the pressure a 3rd time which helped some. Team ATP had managed to notch back some time on us after a very quick transition at cp9 as they were only a short distance behind on the beach in hot pursuit. As soon as we found the trail back into False Cape Land Park, we were able to ride again and Team ATP was out of sight as we searched our packs for some food.
The new race was on since we were entering a section of high uncertainty. I knew our lead with chasing teams could be lost with one wrong trail. The cp's were plotted on a "naked" topo map with only a few features and little trails. The actual newer trail network was fairly inaccurate and partly nonexistent on the available trail map and transposition between the two was difficult in certain sections. Grant warned us of this. We made short order and attacked cp11 easily. The confusing trail network near cp12 and cp13 had little clues so I counted trails and approximate distance from each trail until I could mentally map the unmapped trail network in my head. As a naviguess, we went toward cp13, assuming it was only 200 m off the main trail but in 2 minutes I had a change of heart and decided to play it conservative. We still weren't 100% certain we had found the main trail. I knew cp13 was in the vicinity, but there was some uncertainity and the back of my head kept saying to play it conservative. So, we proceeded to cp12 instead which was easy because of trail signs. This luckily confirmed the correct trail to cp13 so all we had to do was head to cp14 and return to cp13 which I was now certain of. Only problem was we entered a featureless area with 4 trail choices all heading Southerly in the vicinity of cp14. No problem, but it took unwanted time as we missed it on our first search. The largest trail kept Easterly and seemed correct on the topo map, but the trail then veered more East toward the Ocean. Gulp! I quickly ascended a nearby hill and confirmed this feature on the map and could see the next hill feature and North Carolina line up near cp14. We were only a short distance away, however the vegetation was too thick to bushwack straight out, so we played "pick a trail" till we found cp14. Unfortunately, as we left the intersection coming from cp14, we telegraphed our route to the following teams. So be the joys of leading the race. If I had hindsight, we should of gone directly to cp14 and learned the trails and terrain along the way, although then we would of telegraphed the location to cp12 and cp13 as teams came through. The love of AR, making choices. As I folded maps back for cp13 and noted the distance, I lost the clip on my mapboard and had to stop to retrieve the little bugger. Team Polaris/CLC was now in high race mode after seeing the following teams so I was chasing down my teammates through sand and hikeabike while having to hold the maps in my teeth and fumbling with a gu. Oh the joys of being navigator. If only I had another mouth or hand to eat and drink. cp13 was indeed where we expected, and we only had to make it back to cp15 and the finish.
By now, we knew the trails by memory so I wrestled with putting the maps away so I could hammer. For a second I needed another teammate or another set of hands to hold the maps or stuff food in my face to get me going, but when I looked up they were leaving me in the dust. The tribulations of navigator. At least I never had to say "let's get going." Our team was now running scared after seeing the other teams. I pounded down two gu's, my only nutrition in the last few hrs, and felt the glucose pulse through my system like a lightening bolt. I realized by now that after being sick for several weeks, my usual late race stamina was still on a holiday back on the beach somewhere. Luckily a little good ole gu helps alleviate that.
We high tailed it back onto the beach and found that the tide was receding, and what was an absolute sufferfest on the way down, was actually a beautiful ride back to the boardwalk. Amazing how pleasing that was just being able to spin. I kept looking back and didn't see any following teams. Sasha was able to continue to float across the sand and make the guys suffer while we tryed to live up to our egos in the face of female domination. Let me tell ya, never race a female on sand. They can float across the surface. When we hit the road, the adrenaline was working like high octane, and we managed to form a draft line at 22mph into the wind. I sucked down into a time trial position up front while Dave, Sasha, and Dima formed a tight pace line. For some reason I find pace lines so much fun when your working together as a team. I guess our overall strategy worked, since we had something in the bank allowing us to hammer our way home across the finish line.
After doing so many races and in so many places, I have come to realize that 12 hr races have a toughness of their own but the joy is so bittersweet at the end since you have time to sit back and savor the experiences with other racers and teammates while soaking our bodies with food and beer, while still having time to regroup on Sunday before heading back to work on Monday. Our new team has honestly come a very long way together in a short time, and I can only imagine what things are possible if we keep at it.
Grant and HRA provided the perfect setting for the postrace party back on the beach front. Again Grant lived up to his growing reputation of putting on a great adventure race in it's purist form, and somehow he managed to do that within the confines of the terrain of Virginia Beach. Amazing! The nav was alot more straightforward this time, maybe because Grant didn't want to go down as being remembered as The OverKillian. Don't worry, we will never forget who he truly is.
For my mother, and my 6 yr old son, the adventure had only started to warm up during the race. After enjoying breakfast with my family and seeing Dave off at 6am in the morning, we started back to Maryland but chose the Eastern Shore since my mother hadn't driven that route. We noticed that the wind was getting stronger and there was approaching rain. When we were driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I realized how lucky HRA was to have the weather we had on Saturday. On Sunday, the Bay was mean and ugly with large swells and high winds. As we crossed the bridge, we got hit with a large burst of wind from the side which popped the CLC boat off the thule carrier and nearly sent us in the Bay. At our speed of 45-50mph, the boat went off the side of the car but remained tethered by it's front tie down line and rear roof rack but ended up hitting the side railing on the bridge causing impressive forces within the car. Swerving left I got the bow away from the railing and slowed to a stop. Searching the car for my rain/race shell, I went out into the wind and rain to survey the damage and quickly tasted the salt spray from the angry Bay below. The kayak being attached so securely had torn the tear roof rack completely off the car leaving holes in the roof. Amazingly, even with that impact, the CLC was mostly intact, only missing a chunk of section from the bow. I'm sure my carbon/kevlar/glass ruahine would of been smashed to pieces. After 20 minutes of jury rigging the rack and tying the boat back down numerous times, we limped back home as the wind continued to howl. Unfortunately, the resultant damage to the car, boat, and my wallet, left me with the most expensive/difficult race to date. So goes my luck. At least we got some good prizes and gear thanks to HRA and their wonderful sponsor of Blue Ridge Mtn Sports.
Our total mileage for the race was approximately 20km of paddling, 7km of trekking not including the extensive hikeabiking and portaging, and up close to 50km of biking, although it felt longer.
This apparently was the last HRA series race to be put on by Grant Killian. Although HRA is a large organization full of wonderful people, I can't help feeling emotional about the experiences that Grant and his wife have given us. He has singlehandedly proven that AR racing is alive and healthy in the Midatlantic area when a race is put on right. As much as I can remember, all the races sell out, are very affordable, experience untouched terrain, have challenging nav or some other insurmountable feature, and provide enough challenge to bring newbies into the sport while completely satisfying the demands of the experienced. (Scott Pleban and I discussed this very thing on Saturday night. We have both traveled around the country and are very opinionated. We both agree we would travel farther to HRA races if we had to). All I can say with emotion is thanks for the ever lasting memories and showing us what AR truly is!!! I am sure Untamed Virginia 30hr race will surpass all our previous experiences.

Many thanks to Chesapeake Light Craft for providing us with a beautiful and fast boat, Capital Bicycle for our new gear and awesome Specialized bikes, and Quest Sports Science for elevating our athletic ability and providing expert nutritional guidance.