I threw in with Nancy Day and Ryan Slebos of Inertia for a new race this year called the Milford Lake Challenge. Set in a large lake near Junction City, Kansas, we didn't know what to expect from this first time race directors efforts. We were pleasantly surprised.
Billed as an eight hour course that would require one teammate to follow along in a kayak while the other two or three cruised along on bike and foot. Thankfully, this format did not occur as the winds on the lake were expected to pick up and the boat of choice was a cheap inflatable two-person kayak. It would have been impossible to make the eight mile paddling sections required. Thankfully the director recognized this and modified the course the week before.
The full team kayaked about four miles together on the lake, out and back up a small creek branch. Several teams had flats in the boats and some even had multiple flats. Not fun. We were lucky enough to get out front and didn't have any leaking problems. We had two boats with Ryan and I in the lead and Nancy tethered in the back solo. Some teams were all over the place in the boats but I think the tethered boat in the rear helped keep us running true and fast. Nancy said she felt like a water skier at one point. We ended up coming off the water in first place and headed into a bike section.
This was the last time we would see the TA as the rest of the race was made up of bike drops and orienteering sections. We made it to the first bike drop and took out on foot to nail the second and third CPs with no problems. The nav here was simple.
Jumping back on the bike, we hammered down a highway and into a small town. We were supposed to take a small road straight out of town but this is where our game plan fell apart as we ended up on the wrong road. We scrambled around looking for some signs of where we might have gone wrong and had finally given up and were headed back into town to try again when Ryan noticed a road that pinpointed our location just north of the actual road we were supposed to be on. We headed back out on our original road and ran right into the CP not 300 yards farther down from where we turned around. I also got a flat during this same period so we were sitting about one hour back from our lead we had as we headed into town. Argh!
Having raced with Inertia before, I knew what came next.....got to make up for lost time. I still wasn't back up to full speed with my training so trying to keep up with Ryan and Nancy was just brutal for me on foot. It was actually pretty hot for October and the heat took it's toll on me during the trekking sections. Ryan had me in tow and we would run the flats and down hills and walk the steep hills. Each time we transitioned from a hill to a flat, Ryan would just say "OK" and we'd begin to run again. I started to consciously wish for just one more minute before he spoke those ominous letters. Nothing doin. He'd bark and off we'd go. One CP was at the edge of the lake and I took a precious few seconds to jump in and bring my core temp down a bit. This was my saving grace. It was a whole new ball game for me after that dip.
The beautiful thing about this race was that every CP was a manned CP. They must have had 20 volunteers. This allowed us to check on how far back we were from the leaders at each one. We gained about five to ten each CP and ended up finishing 30 minutes ahead of the second place Team Greenhorn.
The post race party included free food at a local bar. We got back, showered up and ate a pre-party meal at the same bar and finished with their free pizza buffet. I loved this race.
I really had a great time racing with Nancy and Ryan again. It was eye opening for me how far I've fallen off my training in the last year and I've since kicked it into high gear on that front. Thank you both for pulling me through.
Picture to follow.
