7am and off we went first on a short and I mean short paddle prologue around Ian Adamson off the shore of the beach. Once we got back to the beach we started the race with a trekking leg in Lake Barkley Park. This leg had 3 points we could get in any order, followed by a trek back to the beach for the start of the first paddle. The trek took about an hour and soon we were in our boat for a short 5 mile paddle across the lake. We took out about an hour later at CP 5 and had a brief trek to CP 6 and the start of an epic orienteering section. There were almost 30 points on this O course spread out over 30k. All teams had 10 hours to complete the course and get as many points as we could in any order. We got our plan of attack together for the course and headed out around 10am for what would be a long, hard but very fun day of running around in the woods. Dima did an excellent job of navigating and after 10 full hours we hit all but 4 points on the course. The O course was one of the best I have ever done and I know many other racers felt the same way. Darkness moved in and we made our way back to the boats for a beautiful night paddle under a sky full of stars. There is something special about paddling out in a remote area in the dark with nothing but a few lights in the distance and a quietness that is hard to find anywhere else. Definitely a highlight of the race. By 10:30pm we had landed at the paddle takeout after getting two points on the water. We then made our way by foot to the TA where we got the rest of our race course which was primarily one big bike leg. We transitioned from foot to bike and after plotting the points and our route we were off for what would be about 10 hours of awesome mountain biking including some of the best single track in an adventure race I have ever done. The highlight of the race for me. By the end of the bike leg we were cutting it close for time after deciding that we were getting all the points on that leg, a decision that many teams did not make. But we never never stopped moving and we made it back to the boat put in for the last paddle of the race to the finish. We got on the water at 11:45am and had till 1pm to get to the finish. We were not sure we were going to make it and time got even tighter when we discovered we did not punch the passport at the put in. We had to turn around, paddle back and punch the point before heading out on the paddle for good. From there it was a paddle sprint to the finish and the beach of Lake Barkley State Park came into our sites with 20 minutes left on the clock. We paddled hard and hit the beach and finish line with 10 minutes to spare!! We were one of the last teams to finish due to our decision to clear the bike leg of the race. Many teams except for the top contenders skipped most of the bike section and we knew because of that we either had 1st or 2nd depending on how team Orion did. Well as we found out later they cleared the O Course and finished a few hours ahead of us. Kudos to them for running a great race!!! So we came in 2nd in our division but 1st for the year overall. Overall it was an awesome race with a well thought out and challenging course.
The year has come to an end for us and I would like to say a special thanks to Calleva for making it all possible this year. They have been great sponsors and it has been a privilege racing for them this year. We hope you enjoyed following us this year as much as we enjoyed racing. Dima, thanks for being an awesome teammate. I had a great time at all of our races and could not ask for a better teammate.
Until next year.........
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