Maine Summer Adventure Race and the Endless River
June 16, 2018
Adventure Racing. Welcome to the dark side, they said.
This was my fifth AR, 3rd 24h+ race, 3rd consecutive appearance at the Maine Summer AR. First solo, first race report.
Interestingly, going solo was not as difficult as I thought, at least mentally. It was more of a logistical challenge that I didn’t anticipate - There was no time to get all maps marked with the route, had no one to “divide and conquer” the course with and no time to stop for pictures!
The race started 10 am Saturday on father’s day with a fast foot-o section around the Hidden Valley Nature Center. I’m not good in these sections — it takes me time to “warm up” while all others are sprinting to the Checkpoints (CPs). I figured running after the leading pack is good idea but after 5 minutes they all disappeared. So I ended with 6/8 checkpoints but mostly following others and not really knowing what’s going on.
8 Minutes in the Transition Area (TA) and out on the bike. Was happy to break away from pack and start my real solo adventure with 2 hours of biking. Easy 2 mandatory CPs and off to stage 3 which was TERRIBLE.
I spent 3 hours in this foot section, for 3/14 CPs. Easily finding the first one, I was too confident and continued to likely the hardest one. Bush-bashing my way to the second checkpoint I run out of water and started to make mistakes. One hour and 5000 mosquitos later (note to self - DEET doesn’t work) I realized I’m lost and decided to follow the distant sound of cars passing by to get to the main road.
Lucky me I ended up only 200 feet away from where we started this section, where the TA was located.
“…I just came back to get some water…” (Yeah. Right.) and off to get another one. 3 hours, 3 checkpoints and one dehydrated mosquito-lunch racer.
Quick chat with the wife and was happy to get on the bike again, the wind peeled off the mosquitos and cooled me down. I knew I had a rough mountain bike leg ahead of me but again had no water. After a serious hill climb I found an open golf club (yay!) and bought 6 bottles to fill up reserves. Thinking over a cold pepsi, decided to skip the optional CPs and head straight to Augusta, which was the right decision apparently. The climb up from the river downtown Augusta to the TA was impossible but made it to TA3.
10 minutes in TA3 and out at 7:16 pm for a MTB loop. What started as a fun technical ride to get checkpoints at unknown locations throughout the 7 miles loop, turned into a too dark too confusing trail network. Got my 2 mandatory CPs out of 4 and bailed out after an hour.
23 minutes in the TA to eat and a motivation call from my older brother (or as our AR team likes to call him — the crazy one), started another bike ride on the Kennebec River Rail Trail. Biked so fast I realized I missed mandatory CP M4 so had to go back and get it. Started to get cold (finally!) and dark. Somewhere in this trail I found myself biking in a small town where everyone was out celebrating. Had some hard time getting back to the trail due to road maintenance but made it to TA4 after 1h and 14 minutes.
TA4 was an easy going foot orienteering in the lovely town of Gardiner. Got my 5/5 checkpoints in less than an hour. One of the best CPs of the race was to stamp the bartender in a local bar.
Took me 35 minutes to eat and get my Kayak equipped and ready to go, including my waterproof Bluetooth speaker ready to rock! (You’re welcome everyone). And off we go to the long paddling section at 11:22PM.
One “Dark Side of the Moon” and the full “The Wall” album later, still paddling. Started strong, got tired after 2 hours. The Endless River (Pink Floyd last album, thanks for asking) was indeed ENDLESS. And dark. And endless !!!. The two checkpoints along the route were with no real reference point so all I had to do was to “hug the bank” (thanks Cliff). No way I missing that CP and going back. No f%@$king way.
Spotted the gigantic bridge which indicated the end of this nightmare from miles away but the damn bridge was not getting any closer. After a very long 4 hours and 36 minutes of paddling, I made it to TA5. Just to realize I have to paddle again to swan island. Turning around towards the island revealed a beautiful orange-sunrise and marked the end of the long night.
I figured I have ~5 hours left, let’s take it easy. Started the swan island foot orienteering phase at a slow pace, learning from my other foot-o mistakes and getting some easy ones first to warm up. And I literally started to warm up. Very early I decided to skip the optional kayak leg so all I had left after this stage is a bike ride home. Easy !
A few checkpoints later, I crossed paths with Jeremy, another solo racer which I’ve chatted with a few times throughout the race. We were both exhausted after the long paddle and decided to join forces to the end. The collaboration was very productive and we were getting many CPs, 9/18 CPs overall in this section. Actually we were enjoying it too much and not paying attention to the time. At around 7:20 am we started running back to the kayak drop area. We RUN for 30 minutes, walking the hills and running the rest. Although I had no water (again), I could feel the weight of the backpack in every step. Shoulders were killing me.
We quickly pushed the kayaks to the water and paddled to the TA where the bikes were waiting for us. Less than 10 minutes after, we were out biking for the last section.
* Rookie mistake #1- with the pressure of time, I didn’t fill up my bladder.
* Rookie mistake #2 - The last bike section was the only section wasn’t marked on my map so I had no idea where we’re going. I was too tired for the map to make sense and no time to spend on figuring this out.
I trusted Jeremy (“I’m going blind here!”, “don’t worry I got you!”) and we started pedaling like it was the tour de France. I had no idea where I’m going but I knew I had to keep up with Jeremy and others who were leading the pack. I had no time for water breaks, no water in my bladder and already dehydrated from the island run. Knowing it’s a 15 miles stage, I realized this is not going to be easy but I kept pushing.
We took the optional and mandatory CPs along the way and kept pedaling like maniacs. 9:40 am we took a left turn where the sign said “Hidden Valley Nature Center”. They weren’t kidding about the hidden part. Jeremy was long gone but I know this long stretch is the end of it. Looking at the clock, 9:45 am. I’m on fumes but I AM NOT MISSING THE CUTOFF. Not stopping.
Finally, spotted a few cars and felt some tears of joy. What a ride.
Official Check In time? 9:57 am. Only 3 Minutes to spare.
During the winners announcements and celebrations I was busy hugging the table, feeling dizzy and confused. I was sitting but my heart rate was flying. Good friends helped with water and salt but it didn’t help. I was so tired but had a feeling that if I’m closing my eyes it’s not going to end up good. Tried to keep chatting with a few folks and keep calm but felt like I’m losing it. Cliff helped me get back to my car and the A/C helped getting my temperature down. Was back to myself again. That was close.
I Finished 16 out of 27 teams, 5th out of the 7 solos. Better than I expected.
Total Distance: ~150 km. 87 km on the bike (per the odometer), 19 km on the Kayak and I-have-no-idea-how-many on foot. My watch says 66,000 steps so I’m guessing 40–50 km.
I sat down and wrote this race report two days after. Something in me didn’t want to forget this race but I was also thinking about my family and hoping my daughters will read this someday (to justify why I’m not at home on father’s day?). It’s just too difficult to explain all you go through in 24 hours.
It was the toughest challenge I ever had. I wanted it to end 12 hours into the race and I wanted to do another one 12 hours after. Adventure racing is crazy. It’s simply a microcosm of life or the business world — Plan your strategy, plan your route but know how to react to obstacles and roadblocks. Always be light, always be fast. Keep calm even when you get lost.
Thank you Kate & Cliff for a great adventure, See you next year.
One exhausted Silver Gecko, out.