(Marvin) Second time that Team Dumb competed in this race on the 2 man long course. Last year we came in second, and this year we came in first place! If you were to ask us during the race if we would win we would have said no way. A lot of errors were made, but as adventure racing goes I imagine that other teams made their own amount of errors.
For me this year the race was a better layout than last year. The disciplines were broken down over the course instead of all in one area. There was more trail running than road, and more mountain biking this year. The race starts off in South Park 7:35 am for the long course, and like last year everyone is on there bikes, then the announcement is made to dismount and run down a large hill to the ball diamond, and find a tag with the teams number, and secret code word. (Last year when we did this it was to retrieve a code word and to get an egg to baby sit, but no egg this year.) Next it was to run back up the hill to the bikes about 1/4 mile total. Dave and I were almost the last ones to leave the park, but we knew it was a long day ahead, so we were pacing ourselves. We received our map that morning at check-in that showed the route. We didn't have to follow this route, but it was suggested because there are various check points that need to be punched on the *passport. (*Passport is a list of check points that need to be punched at key locations that the team needs to go. Failure to miss a punch is a time penalty added to the teams time.) We bought bicycle seat post racks to transport our running shoes. (lesson learned from last year). I had a bungee strap, and Dave had a bungee net. When I went over some railroad tracks the bump knocked out my shoes! *@#@!! is all I could say. We were catching up to some of the bikers. Next Dave hit a bump, and knocked his shoes out. I didn't feel so bad then that mine came out. We were worried about our shoes but we just double tightened down the bungees and they held for the rest of the race.
The first area we arrived at was Moorman Park. There were three disciplines, Tandem Board Walk (Two people, Two 2x4's, walking together on the same boards like snow shoes in unison), Water Carry (Barrel with mark height that must be filled with various buckets of water retrieved from a nearby lake), Ladder Crawl ( ladder that is extended between two saw horses. Must crawl on the underneath side without touching ground.) The only one we had trouble with was the Tandem Board. Last year we were able to go fairly quick, but this year it was slower. The other two disciplines gave us no trouble. Next came kayaking; we had to run to the other side of the lake to put the kayak in. This was a one person discipline and Dave did it. (Dave will go more indept on the kayak. I just stood on the bank eating and drinking) After that back on the bikes.
Terstriep Tree Farm run was the next stop. This is where Dave was getting aggravated. I wasn't for sure where the tree farm was and I was looking for a sign that would say Terstriep Tree Farm. There was never a sign and I knew if we hit another road we went to far. Well we hit the other road. Bad thing was we just went down a rather large hill, so we turned around, and started climbing back up. We went about 1.25 mile round trip out of our way. What made matters worse was there was a lady sitting in a chair at the tree farm (that looked like a normal house out in the country) that waved at us as we went by. Dave pointed this out to me when we went by, but I discarded it. I thought for sure it was further up the road. I know this bone head move frustrated Dave. Once at the farm we ran on the outside of large Christmas tree field looking for a check point. It took awhile, but we found it without incident.
Next we rode out to Maas road. Last year we ran on the road for about 5 miles. This year however it was a creek run! The creek is usually dry this time of year consisting of gravel and sand, but Quincy had lots of rain the past week and the creek was filled with water. The deepest the water was about thigh high with sink holes all about. The trick was to run on the sand banks and wade through the water. I felt that we made good time in the creek, catching about four other teams. The distance was about 1.75 miles in the creek. At the end we sat down to empty out all the sand in our shoes. The sand was so packed in my left foot that it was killing my big toe because it kept pushing my toe back. I don't think Dave was very excited to do the creek, but for me it was my favorite part of the race. Once back on hard ground we hooked up a bungee strap between us to finish the run. This helped to equal out our pace. The total run came to about 4 miles.
Goehl's Farm aka "The Wilderness" This is a private 300 acre farm that is opened for the Crime Stoppers Adventure Race. Out here there are numerous check points with trail running, trail riding and orienteering. When we arrived at the transition we received our orienteering coordinates, and was told that anytime we could do orienteering. The starting points for orienteering were these large power line towers that were nowhere near the transition area. We decided to do the run first hoping the trail would take us near one of the towers. We never did come near to our tower on the run, so onto the bikes. Trail riding at this point in the day was becoming challenging for me. I fell off of my bike several times, but didn't get hurt. As we rode we wondered if we would ever find our tower for orienteering, especially since we were off the trail and back riding on the road. It turned out however that the road circled us around to a dirt road that took us to the towers. There we found our tower and a 3 person team the Mudslinger Misfits. This is a team that we met last year at the race, and this year also. We even joked at the beginning of the race to wait for us at the orienteering, and there they were which made it very funny. Our two teams had the same start points so we made a pact to find the points together. It didn't take long for the orienteering, and then it was back onto the bike trail riding. We circled back to the transition area, and had our orienteering checked out. It turned out that our 2nd answer was wrong. It's not that we didn't go to the right point, but that we wrote down the wrong number. They called in the person in charge of the orienteering and he was generous to give the stamp and send us on our way. He came to the conclusion that if we went to the wrong point we wouldn't have been able to finish the orienteering. After we got our stamp it was off to South Park.
At South Park we had to start off with the 40lb sandbag carry for two miles. I came up with the idea of putting the sandbags in a duffel bag and insert a pole between the strap for Dave and me to carry together. Good idea on paper, but didn't work out to well in the end. Half ways through we ditched the duffel bag and carried the sandbags individually. After that we had three disciplines left to do. Fetch The Ladder (Running to one end of the park to be told to go to the other end of park and bring back a ladder. Then climb a tree and find the code word that matches the code word we received that morning. Next take the ladder back, and finally return to have passport stamped.) Walk The Tight Rope. (Two ropes strung between two trees. One high and one low. Walk across the bottom rope while holding the top rope without falling.) Lower The Bucket (One weighted bucket on ground with rope attached to empty bucket hanging from a tree on a pulley. Throw various weighted sandbags into empty bucket until it touches ground and hoists other bucket into the air.) This one was easier this year because they lowered the height on it, and I'm 6'5 so I didn't have to jump very high to get the weights in.
Finally to finish with a 1 mile run around the park. When we turned the corner to the finish we saw that they put up a ribbon for us to run through for being the first two man long course team. Tough ribbon though. Couldn't break it. I was very thrilled and excited. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. We each received a 1st place medal, completion ribbon, and a picture of the two of us at check-in. We also were reimbursed the $200.00 we spent to race.
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(David) Last year was our first attempt at The Monster Adventure Challenge. We learned some lessons and thought we had other problems solved. This year we learned some more lessons and hopefully we will solve other problems. To me the first part of the race was not good, but the second half turned out well.
The event started the night before at the pre-race meeting. This year the meeting seemed more organized. Also, we got to it with plenty of time to spare. We sat at a table with a team we met last year, the “Mudslinger Misfits”. It worked out good because once we got the maps and passports we all worked together to try and figure out where we would go. They did not give us the actual map, just a generic city map. Overall, it gave us a rough idea of what to expect. After looking at the information, I got the idea that we would probably travel a greater distance but have fewer obstacles to perform. I think this was true.
That night we stayed at a hotel. Just like last year I had a horrible night’s sleep. I think I slept three to four hours, about an hour at a time. I don’t know what my problem was. I didn’t feel real anxious or nervous about the race. Anyway, I think my lack of sleep carried into the race.
After waking up Saturday morning things seemed to go smoothly. We got our stuff packed up and made it to South Park ok. We got checked in and organized what we needed. As time got closer I started getting nervous and didn’t think we would be ready. The short course left at 7:30 and the long course at 7:35. We did the long course. Just like last year they had us run down a hill to get a tag. When we got back to our bikes we were the last team out. This didn’t bother me because I knew it was going to be a long day. However, once the race did start I was in a bad mood. This continued for most of the morning. Also, within the first 20 minutes I was already worried we missed the first checkpoint, we didn’t. Later Marvin’s running shoes fell off his bike rack. This did not make me happy. Then my shoes fell off my rack. This made me more mad because I knew I couldn’t be mad at Marvin, so I was even more mad at myself.
We made it to Moorman Park where we had three obstacles and the kayak. Two of the obstacles were the same as last year. The new one was the “Ladder Crawl”. It was pretty easy. The “Tandem Board Walk” was not so easy. Last year when we did this we passed up people. This year something was off and it was a struggle. The “Water Carry” was easy. I think the coordinators were assuming a team would use one bucket each. There were a few buckets sitting there so we both used two and filled the can in one try. The kayak portion was not too tough. We were both kind of worried about it before the race. The goal of this discipline was to punch your passport using four different kinds of hole punches: heart, diamond, butterfly and star. There were eight stakes positioned throughout a pond. Some called it a lake but I don’t think it was big enough to be called that. Each stake held a punch. Only four punches had the right shapes, the other four were circles. The kayaker would paddle to a stake, see if it was a right shape, and punch the passport or go on. It turned out every other stake had a correct shape. It wasn’t too tough. It would have been better on a lake or on the river. It did get a little crowded out there. I think it would have been better if there was a way to incorporate the rest of the team. Maybe how they did the inner tube last year. After this I felt I was in a little bit better mood.
Next we headed to the Christmas tree farm. We totally missed it. It was as much my fault as it was Marvin’s. I should have looked at the map better. I did this last year too. I would get a general idea of what we were doing but not read all the directions. It wouldn’t have been so bad but when we turned around we had to up a big hill. I think we lost 15 minutes or so. Once we got to the tree farm I found out I had lost my pocket knife and pen. This upset me. It was a cheap knife, but I have been carrying it around almost everyday for 10 years or so. I didn’t know where I had lost it. I assumed it fell out of my pocket while riding the bike. I think it was the next day when Marvin said I may have lost it on the “Ladder Crawl”. I didn’t even think of that. That makes the most sense, since I was upside down at the time. I called the race director and no one had turned it in. Oh well, what are you going to do? At the tree farm we had to follow a trail through the farm. It wasn’t too bad. We caught up to another team. We went straight once when we should have turned left. The other team went the right way which looped around back to where we were. We asked if there was a check area there and they said no. I felt kind of bad that we didn’t go that way and the other team ran farther. Later that same team went left when they should have gone right. We hollered at them that they turned the wrong way and they turned around. This made me feel better because who knows how long they would have been running if we didn’t stop them.
We rode to Maas Rd. where we did a run. First it was along a road and then we had to run in a creek. Before the run I said something to Marvin about taking off our regular shorts and just wearing our tri-shorts. He said the water was supposed to be about thigh high. Well, the water may have been that deep but you sunk into the sand another foot or so. I had water get up to my hips. This whole experience was pretty rough. I had sand packed in my shoes that hurt my toes. Also the sand rubbing in my socks was scratching my ankles. It was not pleasant. I do believe it was a moral victory for us because we never gave up or slowed down. We caught up to and passed other teams. This made me feel better. Once back on the hard road we hooked a bungie strap from Marvin to me. I think this really helped because it made me go faster and slowed Marvin down a bit.
Next, onto “The Wilderness Area”. This is the part of the race that I think we really made up some time. It seemed after we were done here we were ahead of quite a few teams. The first part we did was the run. It was not too bad, more trails, and a little more sand. After that we did the biking. This was tough with the hills and the recent rains. Also, we thought we were lost when we got to the public road. I think there was some confusion with the coordinators about this. I don’t know if they didn’t mark it right, didn’t map it right, or what. Anyway, we made it to the orienteering part where we ran into our buddies “The Mudslinger Misfits”. We had joked that they should wait for us at this point and there they were. We were also lucky that they had the same starting point as us so we worked together. As soon as I looked at the orienteering directions I suddenly realized I had forgotten how to do this. I was a little nervous but once I settled down it came back to me. It also made me feel better that Marvin and I found three out of the four points needed. After that is was back on the bikes. Again it was rough going. Some hills we had to walk up. We missed one of our turns but only lost five minutes or so. When we checked in they said we had missed one of the points on the orienteering. We thought this was impossible since it was the third one and we got all the others right. We appealed and they called in someone who agreed with us. We had written down a tower number wrong. It should have been 768 but we wrote 769. When we made it to that tower it was only me and one guy from the other team. The sun was in my eyes, plus I don’t see too well, so when he said 768 I thought, “yea, that look’s right”. Anyway, when we checked in I knew what we had done wrong. If they didn’t let us pass I was going to have them let us do it all again and once we got the sheet back I was simply going to write the correct number down and turn it back in. I’m glad they let us go. Next part: going down to “South Park”.
Once we got here we did the “sandbag carry”. We had the idea of putting the sandbags in a bag and carrying the bag with a long pole. This is one of those things we should have tried at home before we went to the race. It did not work out well. I felt like I was carrying about two hundred pounds. It was not fun. About halfway through we gave the bag and pole to Jenn and carried the sandbags. I put mine on my shoulders and it felt like I was running. Also, about this time, I started getting more energy. Maybe it was that I sensed the end of the race or maybe it was the gel pack with two times the caffeine that I had taken. When this was over we had three more obstacles. “Fetch the ladder” is annoying because after running and biking all day we had to run up a hill to get a ladder, run down to get a card out of a tree, run the ladder back up a hill to give it back, and then run back down the hill to get our passport stamped. I’m not sure what the total distance was for this, but it felt like it was over a mile. “Walk the tightrope” was not too bad. “Lower the bucket” seemed easier this year. The bucket seemed lower. After all this we did the mile run to the finish. I’m not sure what we ran it in but I think after a very long day we still did it around seven minutes 30 seconds, which I think is pretty good. Finishing was pretty cool. We thought we had it won, in the two man team division, and when we saw the tape across the finish I told Marvin to hold up his hands when we crossed. It was pretty cool.
Overall, it was a good race. Our final time was seven hours and 49 minutes. We got first in the two man long course. We guess that we probably rode, ran, and walked over 50 miles. I figured I went through about 90 ounces of water, 80 ounces of Gatorade, six gel packs and one energy bar. I tend not to eat a lot when I do stuff like this. It was all pretty exciting. The second place team finished 11 minutes behind us. Some of the teams we were worried about finished quite a bit behind us. I still think the “Wilderness Area” was where we made up a lot of time. Go to http://monsteradventure.com/index.php for more information and results. I wish someone would have been taking pictures like last year. It’s a good feeling knowing that all your hard work of running and riding can pay off in a challenging race against very strong teams.
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