Off Road Fixation bucked the odds just to get to starting line at the 08 Berryman Challenge and went one step further and crossed the finish line with our coed team after four years trying on the Midwest's most treacherous 36 hour monster.
The hurdles were plenty. Ryan Netz cancelled on us this year due to work commitments. I was battling Mono and was unable to train till about two weeks before the race and Michelle had surgery on her shin for a brown recluse spider bite that got infected. We decided as a team to toe the line anyway and just do what we could. We started as a three person coed without Netz, Michelle sporting a hole the size of a quarter that went clear to the bone on her shin. Talk about guts.
The race started just before midnight on Friday night. Plotting was on the clock and we had to wade across the Current River before we reached our first CP. Ugh. Cold and wet right off the bat.
We couldn't run during the 20+ mile trek but power walked to save as much time as possible. Our nav was spot on thanks to John Clausen's great work. We could tell Michelle was in deep pain during the trek so John and I both assumed she might call it quits at the end of the trek but she decided to give the canoe a try when we got to the transition.
Since we did three person, we only had one canoe, which allowed the person in the center to catch a few Zzzz during the 32 miles section. This allowed us to stay focused later in the race. We held our own during the paddle but didn't set any records here. The paddle ended at the Start/Finish/TA and again we thought Michelle might give up the race in exchange for a cozy sleeping bag after a long night and day of pain and suffering. This girl is tuff as nails and decided to hit the bikes.
We continued to navigate well on bike and Michelle was stronger on the bike than she was on foot. We made a bad choice to bike whack a couple of times and paid a heavy time penalty. The clock was running down on us and we finally decided to skip the last two CP's on bike and head straight to the finish. We followed what looked like a well established jeep trail down into a ravine and thus began the worst bike whack I have ever experienced. We couldn't turn around and each step further seemed to bring thicker and thicker brush. I was never so happy to see pavement as when we stepped out the other side of the ravine just miles from the finish line.
We cruised in to the finish with five minutes to spare. Yup, that's right; 35 hours and 55 minutes into a 36 hour race. It would have been fine to have finished the race without all the hardship but finishing with everything stacked against us just made it that much sweeter. Well done team. I was proud to race with each one of you.
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