Huntville Hammer 2010

Wow. What a great weekend in Huntsville State Park just south of Huntsville, Texas.

I has been about 6 months since my last 'real' Adventure Race. It seems like most of the Race Companies slow it down for the hot months and then crank the races back up again when the weather starts to cool down.

I'd been itching to race for a while as having a target race keeps me focused on my training. In the last few weeks I'd been spending time at a couple of Orienteering Meets to improve my navigation skills as I wanted to serve at the 'bus driver' for our next big race. The Huntsville Hammer was my first 'big' race as full time navigator.

My friend and Texas State Ski Team member Jordan had been asking me about doing a race since the spring so I convinced him and my regular training partner Ross that we should do the Huntsville Hammer...the long course. All 12 hours of it. For some reason they agreed. Sweet.

Ross and I drove down to Huntsville the night before the race and Jordan and his girlfriend Stacey met up with us early the next morning. Ross was just 2 weeks off of an amazing performance in the 24 hours of Rocky Hill where he rode 16 laps...for 24 hours straight. Ross had been so focused on training for that race that he could tell me exactly how many miles he had ran in the last 5 months. 2.25. Not 225 miles. 2.25 total miles. This was going to be interesting for sure.

To hedge his possible lack of performace, he wanted to try and set our expectations low by saying things like "I won't be fast" or "I'll run but it will be ugly." Never mind that a slow mile for Ross is a fast mile for me. And, well any miles that Jordan would run with us would be like going for a light jog for him.

Anyway, we met up in the morning, set up TA and got ready for the big day. They started us off on a 3.5k run on a trail through the forest to spread the teams out a bit. We all hung together on the run and tried not to go too hard too soon since we knew it was going to be a long day.

Above: Flying along on the first bike leg

Back at TA we picked up our first set of clues and set off on a marked bike course around the lake in the State Park. This ride was really just a matter of staying on your bike and trying to keep the pace with the groups in front of you AND getting out of the way of anyone that wanted to pass you. For a while we had a pretty large group riding together. One of the all female teams consisted of 3 women who were essentially professional mountain bikers. Ross told me this after the fact...of course. And I kept wondering why during that 7 mile loop that I felt like I was pushing it kind of hard. Little did I know I was following 3 pros. Sweet Jesus we were flying. We only had to pick up 2 checkpoints on this ride and it was back to TA. Man it was a fast ride though.

Once in we received our next set of instructions we set off on a trek for 4 checkpoints. We traveled some with Caroline and Raymond's team as well as Eric and Frank. All of these guys are from Houston and have raced with Ross many times. We picked up a couple of checkpoints together and traveled with them for a while. After one of the checkpoints, I couldn't figure out why the other teams were heading back up the same draw we just came down when the next checkpoint was in the other direction. Seeing this as an opportunity, I took the guys a different route and we nabbed the next checkpoint way ahead of the other teams and started heading back. We felt like we were moving pretty quickly but soon enough Eric and Frank caught up with us and we later saw Caroline and her team slide by us on another trail. Oh well. Guess we should have been a little faster.

Above: Coming in from the paddle section

Back at TA, we were surprised to see that both Eric and Caroline's teams were already out on the paddle. Believe me, it wasn't like we were just lolly gagging around out there and I couldn't figure out how they were putting so much distance between the teams. We hoped in the canoe and started hauling ass to catch up. At one point we pulled on shore next to them as Ross and Jordan ran inland to get a checkpoint. I think Jordan tried to kill Ross by running him in to the ground with his Ninja like speed. They were back in a hurry and we made up some serious time here. We paddled like crazy back to TA and got our instructions for what would prove to be the longest leg of the day....a Bike/Trek combo.

The initial part of the ride was out near I-45 where we were sent to a random checkpoint and then off to the Sam Houston Monument on 45. If you've never driven by this thing, it's huge. 77 feet tall to be exact. Anyway, Stacey had been sitting at TA all day long and Jordan's parents wanted to see what this Adventure Racing thing was all about so knowing we were going there, they decided to meet up with us at the visitors center. Adventure Racing isn't the most spectator friendly activity in the world so it's kind of nice to get a little cheer or boost along the way. After a quick hello and goodbye we were back into the forest for more checkpoints. On this leg we caught up with Eric and Frank again and we just stuck together this time as a group of 5. It was really fun racing with these guys. Good sense of humor about the sport and a lot of fun to travel with.

Above: Inside the Visitor's Center at the Sam Houston Memorial Statue

After a few more checkpoints we put our bikes down in the middle of the forest at the bike drop location and set off on the trekking portion of the leg. We found out later that the trek was about 8.5 miles. There were only 5 points on this leg and I experienced my first real navigation mistake of the day. On CP 3 the clue was "Fence" and on the map the fence was up a road that ran along a pipeline route. In the real world the "road" that was most traveled continued along with the pipeline whereas the road where the CP was bent off to the right slightly about mid-way along the road. We weren't the only team to make this mistake and after we pulled our hair out for 15 minutes, Ross looked at the map and said...we may be here....not here. Sure enough, we bushwhacked through along this fence line to the "road" where the CP was sitting bright as day. Wow. Thanks to Ross for saving us on that one. As we made our way down the road, it was easy to see how me missed the split. The road we needed to take was so offset and behind the treeline that you would have almost had to have stumbled upon it accidentally to know it was there.

Above: The bike drop in the middle of the forest

As the leg was wearing on, everyone was starting to get a little tired. On a trek or a run, my feet start to hurt about mile 7 or so and today was no exception. All I wanted to do was get back on the bike and get back to TA because my feet were taking a pounding. I took us on a couple of "short cuts" on the way back and while I think I saved us some time, it's tough to know for sure. I know Frank and Eric were happy about it because they had planned to go back a different route and my route choice was certainly shorter than what they were going to do. It took us a bit to get our lights on and get back on the bikes but once we did, we made good time back to TA.

This next leg proved to be our last leg. It was a simple 3 CP bike leg but it was already dark outside and it's tough to ride in an unfamiliar place with just a headlamp. We spun along pretty quickly for the first bit and had a little trouble finding CP1. Once we found that one we moved right along to CP2 which was right on the trail. It took a little longer for me to get us in the right spot for CP 3 on this leg because...well...navigating in the dark when you can't really see any terrain features is a bitch. The clue for this checkpoint was "Run Ridge" and we ran along a ridge....until it became obvious I had us on the wrong ridge. Back to the bikes and we ride over to the next ridge. Bingo. There we have it. At this point we knew we were getting short on time so I hopped on the bike and started setting a pretty good pace. Ross and Jordan didn't mind so much but remember we were also traveling with Eric and Frank at this point. I think Frank told me to slow down at one point. It was either that or he was telling someone to pass him. All I knew was that we had just seen Caroline and Raymond on the last leg and I really wanted to beat those guys back.

I felt like we moved pretty quickly and we rolled back in to TA at 11:34 into our race. I was hopeful that we would get the clues for our next leg and one of the CPs would be close enough to go get it but after I took a quick look at them and plotted them, it was obvious we were done for the day. I turned in our passport and that was it. A great end to a great day.

Above: Back at TA realizing we have time to go out on one more leg

A little while later, the awards were handed out. While there weren't any awards given for 3 person all male teams, there was an award for the 2 person male teams. Our traveling partners for the better half of the day Eric and Frank took down 1st place in that division. I wish I could take some credit for that but those guys helped us as much as we helped them.

And, as it turns out, we took 1st place in our division as well and 8th overall! As for me hauling ass on the bike ride back to TA on that final bike leg. Well, that paid off as well. We finished 2 minutes ahead of Caroline and her team.

Last but not least, I wanted to thank my teammates Ross and Jordan. Jordan made us faster than we would have been without him which helped our weak points and we helped him be better than he would have been on the bike and in the boat. Even though it was his first race, he did extremely well, and if he sticks with us on this, we might actually get faster! And a special thanks to Ross for catching my nav mistake and getting us to that checkpoint sooner rather than later.

Above: Team "All Day" (Frank and Eric) along with us Team "Occasionally Lost" at the Finish

I also wanted to give a special thanks to Frank, Eric and Caroline and her team. Ross has always said nothing but good things about these guys and spending the better part of the day running around the forest with them proved that you can find great people that love to do the same crazy stuff that you love to do just about anywhere. Hope you all had as much fun as I did. Until next time guys....race on.