Midwest Monster Adventure Challenge Sept. 15, 2007

(Marvin) I knew of this race for about two years that is held in Quincy, IL and have always been intrigued by it. In the first 3 years of its 5 years existence it has always been a 4 person team challenge with a minimum one person being a female. Last year and this year they opened it up to a two person division. Dave and I had talked about it last year, and the next thing I know at the last minute we signed up for this years challenge. I really didn't know what to expect and how to prepare for it. They have required equipment list "too numerous to list" which you can view and learn more at their web site http://www.monsteradventure.com/ . The most important thing you need to finish this race is nutrition and hydration; otherwise you'll bonk out towards the end. We were lucky enough for a cold morning in the mid 30's and a cool afternoon in mid 60's. That helped out with my hydration; otherwise if it was warmer I'm sure that I would've run out of liquid, and be hurting bad. The race was different this year than previous years by breaking up the biking and running. The outline of the course was start at South Park, grab egg, bike to wilderness, run in the woods, orienteering in woods "map & compass", bike on trail in woods, run on road, bike back to town, run through a park, ride bike to Mississippi, ride on the river with hands down challenge "human wheel barrel", bike to Indian Mounds for pool challenge, bike to South Park, 40lb sandbag carry, do obstacle in any order, and finish with cross country run to the finish line. With this being our first time the change from previous years race didn't hurt us except that we ride our bikes with clip on shoes and you had to change into running shoes for the non biking events. The problem was coming up with a make shift way to haul the shoes on the bike. I used two bungee straps to secure my shoes to the handle bars. It held fairly well, but I did have to stop and make some adjustments. I was worried about the orienteering but it was dumbed down. They gave the bearing and how many meters it was, so it was fairly easy to find the check points plus when all the teams caught up everyone was running together telling where each point was. Whenever it was time to run I had no problem doing it. After all running is my strong point. What I found neat about the race is that you had a passport which is a piece of paper that you would have to stop at various check points to get stamped. On one of our bike rides we had to back track to find one. This was frustrating because we would make up a lot of ground on the bike and then would have to backtrack or stop to check the map. At one point we were playing leap frog with another two man team -very friendly but competitive team- and they passed us while we were checking our map. We followed them and the next thing we know is that we all made a wrong turn. We stop together to consult the map and saw where we needed to be. We tried a street that looked like it was going to connect to our course, but ended up being a dead end. At this point we split up. Dave and I rode some more until we came to a clearing that looked down to the road that we needed to be on with the river ride being right there. Against better judgement we ride back to an area that looks like we can go down the hill to get to the road. The problem was the hill was grown up with thick bushes and vines growing through them. I took lead and dragged my bike downhill trying to make a path. I received numerous cuts on my legs, and it felt like forever to make it down. This would have been a good challenge for them to add to the race. When we got back on course we ran into our other team competitors who took the railroad tracks to make it over to the road. Doing the ride on the river took more out of me than I would thought. It is almost impossible to paddle an inner tube, so I swam the tube across with paddle sitting on top. Anytime I wanted to take a break the current would take me fast down stream. It took sometime but I finally made it. The other event that wore me out was the 40lb sandbag carry. I went to the chiropractor the day before and carrying the sandbag was sorely painfully. We carried it for about 2 miles through wood, hills, creeks and roads. There were 10 obstacles which we did fairly well; You can see most of the challenges here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7933784@N03/sets/72157602061560712/ Dave should go into more detail than me. Finally we finished the race with a 2 mile cross country run with a finishing time of 8:53:57 taking 2nd in age and 2nd/11 overall in the two person teams. We never thought that our finish would be that good. We were shooting for finishing in the middle somewhere. I will probably do this race again and as far as adventure racing, I'm hooked. Sorry Jenn... I would also like to thank my wife Jenn for going and being our support team. It was a long day and not a whole lot for her to do, but she was a trooper about it. That's one way I know she still loves me.




(David) I am not sure what Marvin is going to write about the “Midwest Monster Adventure Race” since I am writing this offline. I will probably repeat a lot of what he writes so, sorry. This may get boring. The whole experience started the night before at the prerace meeting. It seemed kind of unorganized and got a little confusing. The worst was when we were told that each team had to carry an egg with them the whole race, yes, a raw egg. We were given a Ziploc bag with cotton balls, tongue depressers, pipe cleaners, and some other stuff and were supposed to make a contraption that would fit in the Ziploc bag to hold the egg. Ya, anyway we didn’t. We also found out that the bike ride was not a continuous 30 mile but broken up by short runs, orienteering, and other events. When I first heard this I was not happy but after finishing the race I was glad they did it that way. One thing I had done while packing my clothes was to individually bag clothes for each event. I had shoes and long pants for the orienteering, running clothes for the run, different clothes for the sandbag carry, etc. This new rule changed all that. But, like I said, after the race I didn’t care about it. During the meeting they gave attendance prizes and we won a gift certificate for Road I.D. That night we stayed at a Super 8 motel. I had a horrible night's sleep.

The day of the race started at 5:15 when we woke up. The race started at 7:30 and we got to South Park, where the race started, around 6:15. Marvin and I ran as a two-man team for the long course. About 7:30 the short course contestants took off. We lined up with our bikes and then were told we had to run down a hill to get a tag, run back up the hill, turn in the tag, get our egg, secure the egg and then take off. All we did was put the egg in the bag, put that in a Gatorade bottle which we had cut the top off, duct tape it shut, and put it in my water bottle cage. We rode about five miles to the “wilderness area.” We ran over two miles on trails. It wasn’t too bad but we had to run through a couple creeks, so my socks were wet the entire day. Also, we had to have at least 70 ounces of water on us, so I wore my Camelbak Mule the whole day. I am not used to doing this. After the run we did the orienteering. Before the race I was really nervous about this part of the race because we have not really done any orienteering. However, we didn’t have to worry too much. We were given a piece of paper telling us where to start and then given a degrees and distance in meters to walk. There were four points we had to find. We thought we would be given a map and told to find the points, but I think this was easier. There were quite a few other teams doing this the same time and they still seemed quicker than us. Marvin saved the day when we couldn’t find the sign for the next point, he said the directions said we should write down the electric tower number. All the other teams were looking for the sign, we did tell one team what to do and the other teams figured it out or heard us. We got back on our bikes and did offroad riding. One spot we had to ride over a teeter totter. We had never tried this before. I was nervous, but once I did it I wanted to do it again. Also, during the entire race we carried around a “passport” and had to get it punched at different times. The passport was a laminated paper and had 20 or so spots that we had to get punched saying we completed an event or passed a certain point. We rode about 6.5 miles, ran 4.2, rode about 5.5, ran over a mile, rode about six and then got lost. Another two man team had passed us so we followed them. They turned a corner and we followed. About a mile down the road we new we had taken a wrong turn. We went down a couple roads trying to get down to the road that ran along the river but couldn’t find the right way. We figured the fastest way down was a straight line. Marvin led the way down a very steep hill filled with dense underbrush of small trees and some kind of crazy vines. The vines were wrapped all around my bike and when I pulled them off I broke the wire on my cyclocomputer. Marvin got all scratched up and I got scratched up a little too. We made it to the bottom of the hill more or less in one piece and rode to the “ride on the Mississippi.” This was also the first transition area so I got rid of some of my clothes that I had started off with, it was 39 degrees when we woke up. The first thing we did here was the human wheelbarrow. It’s when one guy is the wheelbarrow and the other guy holds onto his leg and they walk 70 yards, switch positions and go back to start. It was tough for me and I had to rest, Marvin made it back quickly. Next was the “Ride on the River.” Marvin went first. Using an innertube and paddle he had to swim out to a boat 60 to 80 yards away, hang our team number on a board, and swim back. I then swam out, got the number, and swam back. It was o.k., the water wasn’t too cold. I did kind of screw up by not thinking about the current, so it took me a little longer to get to the boat. We then rode our bikes another couple miles to a public swimming pool. There Marvin waded in to find two plastic Easter eggs, one with our team name and one with our team number. Inside the eggs were numbers which we would use later. After this we headed back to the original start. The whole bike trip was between 32 and 36 miles.

Back at South Park we started the sandbag carry. Of course since this is an adventure race they did not have the sand prebagged. We had to bag the sand, weigh it, remove excess sand, and weigh it again. My bag ended up being about 44 pounds and Marvin’s was 46. We then had to walk about two miles with the sandbags. Other racers had backpacks to carry the sandbags. We weren’t sure if that was legal so we didn’t have backpacks. I think we did o.k. anyway. We did pass another two man team which we had been switching positions with. It was also the team that got us lost before the ride on the river.

We started the obstacle course after this. There were ten obstacles we had to do. We did not have to do them in any particular order so we just looked for the one with no waiting line. We don’t know the names of all the obstacles because we had to turn in the sheet. The first obstacle was throwing small bags of sand into an empty bucket hanging 15 feet in a tree. The bucket was connected to a weighted bucket that was on the ground. We had to throw enough bags into the bucket to counterweigh the heavy bucket. We got pretty excited because the first couple bags made it into the bucket, then we couldn’t make a shot. We eventually got the empty bucket to fall, got our sheet signed off and went to the next obstacle, “the water carry.” Here each carried a 5-gallon bucket down to a creek, filled them with water, carried them up a long hill and then poured the water into a large plastic garbage can. There was a line marked in the can that we had to fill up to. We had to make two trips. After we finished this event the volunteer told Marvin we had been going to different place to get the water than the other competitors. We went the shortest route to get the water, but it was also the toughest. We had to climb down a steep 15 foot to 20 foot bank to get the water. The other teams went a more convenient way. Third was the “tight rope.” This is where they have a strap stretched tight between two trees that you have to walk along. There is also a guide rope about five feet above the strap that you hang onto. Fourth was the “6x6 beam walk.” Volunteers had laid a bunch of 6x6 beams on the grounds in a zig-zag pattern. Each beam was connected to the end of another beam. The teams carried a pvc pipe which was the same length as a beam. Once you held the pipe you could not change it to your other hand. One teammate walked on the first beam to the end and then the other teammate got on the beam. The teams had to walk along each beam until they got to the other end of the zig-zag course. This sounded pretty easy at first until Marvin started walking and he about pulled me off the beam. I had to walk back in order for him to go forward. The whole zig-zag course was like this. There were times when I would have to go backward for Marvin to go forward and vice versa. Most of these obstacles were like this, not too hard, just really time consuming. Fifth was the “milk crate walk.” The team had three milk crates. Using the milk crates the team had to use them to walk about 80 yards around a stake and then back without letting their feet touch the ground. I would put a milk crate down stand on it. Marvin would stand on the crate I had stepped off of and then give me the crate he had just stepped off of. Again, it was just time consuming. Also, after all we had already done, this was not good on one’s back. Sixth was "bucket of sand teeter totter.” On one end of the teeter totter was a bucket with sand in it. On the other end was an empty bucket. The teams had to run about 100 yards to a pile of sand and carry handfuls of sand to the empty bucket and counterweigh the other bucket. The team could only use their hands to carry the sand, no shirts, hats, packs or anything. This was tough and very dirty. While carrying the sand back it would be sifting through your hands and falling in your shoes or on you or all over the ground. Seventh was the “2x4 ski boards.” We had two 2x4 boards. Each four foot board had a seven foot rope attached from one end to the other. The two people would have their left feet on one board and right feet on the other. The team had to “ski” around four pylons to finish the course. When we started there were two other teams doing the obstacle. Marvin and I got in a rhythm and passed the other people. I felt really good about this one. We went a lot faster than other groups. Eighth was the “ladder carry.” We started out at a tree on the farthest end of the obstacle course area. From there we had to run several hundred yards to the other end, get a ladder, carry it back to the tree, I climbed the ladder, grabbed a tag for our team that was on the tree, carry the ladder back to where we got it, run back to the tree and get our sheet signed off. This was hard just because of all the running, again. Ninth was the “5 gallon bucket obstacle course.” This was the toughest obstacle for me. We had a bucket with sand in it. There was a rope running through the handle of the bucket. You picked up the bucket, using the rope, with one hand. Once you picked it up you could not switch hands until a pole got in the way. The team had to guide the bucket around, over, and under obstacles that were set along a chute. The chute was roped off so you could not get too close to the obstacles, but you could lean against the rope. Also, the bucket could not touch the ground. We had to start this obstacle over once. It was really tough for me because by this time my upper body strength was about gone plus the guy who designed the obstacle was right there and apparently he was a real stickler for the rules. Once, I was leaning in, pushing on the rope, and I could tell he wanted to say something to me, but technically I was not doing anything wrong. At the end of the obstacle they had milk crates stacked up in columns. It appeared that they wanted you to go around each column but Marvin said, “Let’s just carry it over the crates.” I said I didn’t think that is what we were supposed to do, but when we did it the guy watching us didn’t say anything. So I guess it was o.k. The last obstacle was the “lock box.” During the whole race we had collected six codes at various times. This obstacle had a box with two locks on it. The codes we collected said things like “lock A 24.” So we had three numbers for lock A and three for lock B. We used these numbers to open the combinations on the locks. We didn’t know which lock was A or B. We sat down and tried it. Just like with Marvin finding our eggs so quickly in the wading pool, luck was with me on this one. I got my lock open on the first try. I went ahead and opened the other lock on the third try. This completed our entire obstacle course. I think we did very well on it. I made up the names of the obstacles. The coordinators had other names written on the sheet, but I don’t remember them. Also, some of these obstacles may be confusing. One can look at our pictures for further explanation or go to http://mnstr-advntr.snapfish.com/snapfish for their pictures. The last thing to do was a run. It was one or two miles.

We finished with a time of 8:53:57. You can see the results at http://monsteradventure.com/index.php. This is one of those races that after it is over you don’t want to do it again because you are so exhausted and wore out. Then a few days or weeks later wish it was next year so you could try it again. This race was on Saturday. I think it was about Tuesday or Wednesday before I wasn’t sore all over. I am happy with our time and our finish. There were a lot of good teams there. I liked the way teams were polite and helpful. There was a four person team that we sat with at the prerace meeting and then ran into numerous times at the race. They always had a kind word and positive attitude. Even the two man team that helped get us lost was always upbeat and nice. All the volunteers were nice too. They should be commended for being out there the whole day and helping us out. Overall it was a good, but tiring, experience. We hope to go back next year. I just hope there’s no egg.