Adventure Race at Douglas State Forest

September 22, 2007
Adventure Race at Douglas State Forest
1st place all male team: Kyle and Rick
1st place coed team: Mike and Jill

Ok, this time I wanted to sign up for the advanced course and Michael wanted to do the open course. So we chose advanced and yet again switched back to open at the last minute. The Pachaug course was pretty tough and Michael was thinking about that long kayaking stretch from the last race and the fact that we could also team up with Rick and Kyle and work together which is allowed and encouraged. We went to the 8am meeting and found out this time we would be mountain biking first then the running/trekking and kayaking last. So we reviewed the map and planned our route. The 4 of us had done reconnaissance about 3 weeks ago at Douglas on bike and we had a pretty strong grasp of the trail system and we were feeling confident. Again the teams scattered at the start and the 4 of us ended up riding with about 3 other all male elite teams and this group was the first to get to cp1 and this group stayed together through checkpoint 4 when the elite teams broke off to get their advanced checkpoint. The four of us screamed back to the transition area and got our 5th cp. Kyle and Rick were quicker out of the transition area for the trek, Michael and I were about 30 yards behind them. Again we hooked up with the same guys from before because they got their advanced bike cp and caught up with us toward the end of the bike segment. Kyle and I ran up to the first trek cp – forgot to put on trail pants (should have reread my previous story before this race!) and just ignored all the branches that were scraping all the skin off my legs. Kyle and Rick were about 50 yards ahead for the first mile and I didn’t think we would catch them but we slowly closed the gap and arrived at cp3 at the same time. Back to the transition area was on the paved forest entrance so all that running around my neighborhood and on the treadmill over the past month kicked in and we started cruising and put about a 30 second gap between us and Kyle and Rick. Michael kept reminding me that we weren’t racing against Kyle and Rick but that competitive spirit grabbed me like it usually does during a race and I kept pushing. We got to the kayaks with Kyle and Rick right behind us. The cp was in a cool little cove, we punched the card and headed back toward the kayak start point, dropped off the kayak and hoofed it back to the transition area to be the first competitors to cross the finish line in 2 hours 10 minutes. 3 minutes later Kyle and Rick followed us in, they were the first to finish in the all male category. I’d have to say that everything went right for us in this race, no cramping, no missed cp’s, and we had Kyle and Rick to motivate us. I was really impressed with Kyle and Rick, especially on the trekking section because they ran the whole way. It was great to work with another team because if they didn’t stop, you didn’t stop. All in all a pretty successful day for Nerac Earth and I think Kyle and Rick are hooked and we’ll all be heading to New York in October for the next race. To do the advanced course! -Jill