E-Fix 2010 --Not your soloist's race! Part 1.

One person can not read 3 pages of instructions, plot 50 CPs, measure all distances and draw a possible course on the map in two and half hours. It's nearly impossible for one person to defeat the crazy current, while trying to paddle upstream in a canoe loaded with a bike and gear. It takes much longer for the solo racer to find 4 almost illegible headstones let alone the entire cemetery in the middle of a thick forest at night. Too many scary movies come to mind when you are alone in an old cemetery at night trying to figure out "What was the year Ms. Meadows died?" And finally your backpack is heavier when you are alone, because no one can share the mandatory gear you have to carry through the race. Combining all this, with the fact that this race had no support and no transition bins-that's right-50 hours of food and gear on my back at all times, I had a moment of panic looking at two 3x4 feet maps that I got at the check-in. Dozen of other race papers were scattered on my plotting table and I managed to work out only the first half of the race before the briefing.

The race started from Ronny Angel's style prologue: technical loop on bike, including deep mud and some water, followed by a 1 mile and 600 feet elevation gain roller coaster. I was between the leaders back to the start area and ready for the first relatively short (about 30 k) run. The leading teams were leaving together and I joined EMS. They helped me to set the pace and I have always wanted to see this team in action. The guys are amazing and very friendly, accepted me like a teammate. I kept their pace all the way to CP3, and finished the run 10 minutes after the leaders. Did I mention the heavy snow that started around CP1? Next stage was a long portage downhill to the lake and here my McGyver skills gave me some advantage.

Before the race I built and tested the system that allowed me to attach my canoe onto portage wheels and then to my bike. It takes less than minute to put it on and off, requires no tools and weights about a pound. Ronny even came out to see my contraption in action. The entire portage took me just a couple of minutes of very fast downhill to Blue Stone Lake. Before hitting the water I gave a short shout out for youtube and hit
my first big problem.

Blue Stone is normally a lake, but recent flooding forced the dam to open and the lake now had a current. And what current! I disheartenly realized that if I don't paddle at full power, I moved backwards. It took me until sunset to get to the first transition, where we were graciously allowed to leave all our biking gear before continuing to paddle upstream. From the take out point to transition was about quarter mile of knee deep mud. Here I made my first mistake--rolling my bike through this mud. I spent next 5 minutes cleaning my drivetrain and brakes. The temperature at night was well below freezing and I didn't want my bike to get frozen with this mud. I left the bike and was back in the water in total darkness. The current was crazy and I made it only to Dickenson creek (2008 E-Fix transition) to continue on foot to mandatory CP5. That was easy and I planned to take a couple of optional CPs of this leg. The easiest and closest one was CP6 on the "hill side". I was reminded of one of Odyssey's trademarks--no well defined attack point--and I changed my mind. I didn't want to search this quarter mile long area all by myself. The lights of two or three teams were scattered around the slope and I decided to skip optional CPs of this leg. I went back to my canoe and in 20 minutes made it back to transition. I spent only 2 hours paddling in the opposite direction. How fast was the current?


From this moment in the race I was first, no other racers in transition areas, no footprints, no blinking lights in front of me. Navigation was not difficult and the hardest part was to maintain the fastest possible pace. I solved this problem by removing one layer of clothes. Now I was cold at rest and had to work hard to stay warm. I made it to the transition in Pipestem State Park one hour before the sunrise. I decided to do the loop counterclockwise and approached CP22 with the first light. The trail was very technical downhill and a few hundred feet before the CP I was surrounded by very dense fog. It was so bad that I couldn't see my own legs and didn't move for 5 minutes. For the next 30 minutes to the CP and all the way back uphill, I crawled from tree to tree by feel, until the sun killed the fog. I made the loop with all optional CPs and was back to the transition for the next bike leg, followed by paddling and another very long biking section. The weather was much better than previous day: clear sky and light breeze. At the second sunset I left the part of the preplotted map and had to stop at most intersections to check directions. West Virginia rollercoaster continued into the second night. The hardest part of the race was in front of me...