Mar 21, 2012

Adrenaline Rush race report

Written by Greg
Photos Vladimir Bukalo



Well, this was my first race of the season, the 12 hour Adrenaline Rush out at Shenandoah River State Park near Front Royal Virginia. We brought two teams, 5 members in all; Dima, Val, myself (Calleva1) and Tamir and Alexandra (Calleva2). My trepidation was high since I was running with Dima and Val, two very experienced racers. Tamir and Alex ran as a duo and stayed with us for the start of the race and then joined up again at the end to great effect. There was 73 racers split into 34 teams. The race was laid out as Prologue(short run), O-course, mountain biking, paddling, road biking, and O-course. We had maps to everything but the last orrienteering section which we would get after the 2nd biking section.

The Prologue was a simple kilometer road run up and down a steep-ish hill. The first O-course was about 10km if you cleared all 13 ckeckpoints. Lots of steep ridges and plenty of bushwacking. We lost Tamir and Alex after a few checkpoints. We got on bikes after clearing the O-course and right off the mark encountered one of numerous large hills . I thought my biking was strong with commuting to work once or twice a week but Montgomery county has nothing on these hills. The mountain biking was great. Steep inclines, some of which I had to walk, and descents on wide hardpack through the forest, twisty and real fast. Dima had told me of tales bushwacking through the forest with mountain bikes and indeed we did. It was only about 500 meters but it was well placed and probably saved us 20 minutes. Nice one! This is how it is done.

The paddling section was next and fairly uneventful. We loaded up 3 in a canoe. It was about 12 km flatwater with one short 10 meter portage around a low bridge. We brought kayaking paddles and knocked it out in about an hour and 15 minutes passing one boat. The field of racers had spread out significantly by this point. The potable water resources were not that well placed. We were completely out of water by the end of the paddling. If it had been hotter, we would have been in trouble. Val was drinking out of the Shenandoah river. He didn't seem to suffer for it. There was a bathroom with water not too far from the paddling take-out so we were alright and I filled up another 2.5 liters. We ran back to the bikes about 3km.

At his point we had to make a strategic decision. We had about a 2.5 hr bike ride ahead of us, all on the road, and my hill legs were not that strong. There were only 3 checkpoints to get in this section. The last O-course had 22 ckeckpoints. It was about 3:15pm. We had been running, trekking, biking and paddling for 7 hours. Too tell the truth, I was getting a bit worn out. We decided to skip the 3 road biking checkpoints to give us more time on the final trek. Tamir and Alex were coming along the trail on foot as we were heading back to get the last map. We told them our plan and they caught up with us to do the last O-course together. Dima picked up the final map and noted there were no trails marked on it, unlike the first O-course map in the same area. I give credit for the race organizers for coming up with this little trick. We headed for the obvious first pick of checkpoints. Dima suggested we mark the new checkpoints on the first map. We did. It took about 10-15min but really paid off.

Tamir and Alex showed up at this point and after discussion we all headed out. The next hour and a couple of CPs were a little blurry for me as I was pretty tired and the ridges didn't get out of our way. I ran the flats and downhill and walked the hills keeping my eyes mostly on the trail and whoever's feet were in front of me. We made a direct attack on a non-visible checkpoint down a reentrant and up a steep ridge. When we crested the ridge the flag was sitting on our direct line. It doesn't get better navigating, Dima. We took a brief break to reassess our plan. After some discussion among our team, we came up with what I think was the most efficient laid out course for the next 17 CPs. A brilliant group effort. I got my second wind and was able to act as Val's second as rabbit in taking a few flags. Dima and Tamir both had maps and we made good work of knocking out all the high ground CPs. We descended a steep incline with fortunately no cliffs. A regular WV sleigh ride though I did not give in to such reckless abandon or at least mostly not. With a steady trudge of a jog through the last checkpoints we all arrive at the finish at 10hrs, 50min. Tamir and Alex scored with 41 CPs. Dima, Val and I, 44 CPs.

Michelle Faucher and Andy Bacon, the race directors, put on a pretty good first race. Dima provided some nice constructive criticism to make it better next year. Team Odyssey placed first overall beating us by about 2.5 hrs(if you include the cycling) and clearing all the checkpoints. How the heck! I need some serious training. Still, Calleva1 placed 1st in our division, 8th overall and Calleva2 placed 2nd by division and 12th overall. I consider it a win for both teams, 1st and 2nd is not too bad! Tamir no doubt is wishing he would have taken the time to get one more checkpoint to get 1st in their division. Very close and he was redeemed by Alexandra who won the pushup contest against Vanessa, the gal from the Double Trouble coed 2 person team, who got first. Val's rejoinder to Alex, "just one more", no doubt got her that tube of Zanfel as a consolation prize.
Congratulations to all! Let's do some hill work!

Mar 7, 2012

Soggy Bottom 2012

Writen by Tamir



Team Calleva ventured out into the swamplands of Virginia on the third annual Soggy Bottom Boys Rogaine and Adventure Race Challenge. The team, composed of Vlad, Nick, Steph and Tamir, headed out strong and finished strong. This was the first time several of the team members had raced together but all members clicked, with well placed insults, puns, songs and bad jokes fueling progress. Vlad was asked questions about Russia, how to say things in Russian, what he liked about Russia...until all realized that he is from the Ukraine. (Stupid Americans...we don't even know the name of the King of Canada!) Anyway...Vlad was well humored and was the core strength of our team. As holder of the Passport he made all the final treks to the checkpoints while the rest of us napped. We lost Nick for about 45 minutes when he decided to "check out" something. (We are now all assigned periods of time to watch him and make sure he doesn't wander away.) He redeemed himself though with stellar night orienteering...("just follow the moon"). Steph won the eagle eye award for spotting checkpoints when all of the men were searching in completely the wrong direction. Tamir decided to be a hero and venture into the swamp (inevitably for little to no reason but to ruin several pairs of socks and taunt water mocassins.) Actually, the only snake seen was tiny and cute. Couldn't say the same for the competition though...tiny...some, cute...hardly. Steph had to be held back from throttling several ill tempered competitors (unnamed for now) when they exhibited a lack of humor. In his excitement to see Dima at the transition area Vlad performed a full frontal flip (on his bike) in some form of eastern European braggadoccio - to which Dima showed great delight. Vlad promises to teach all of us how to do the trick. (Nick tried it earlier in the day but it was a disgraceful attempt- no flair.)



All in all a great race day. The team did reasonably well (for a first effort) and finished as the second place coed team and in the top 4 or 5 teams overall. (Depending on the color of your glasses.) Thankfully we all avoided cracked heads...which Tamir's 2000 Jeep Cherokee unfortunately did not. At least we know what a cracked head sounds like now. The Jeep is only $1400 and a return trip to the swamplands away from getting home. The $1400 is probably worth the price though for the introduction of Steph, Nick and Tamir to an incredible southern VA tow truck/repair shop owner, Chase, of Butler's Towing and Recovery. Chase came to our rescue at 10:30 at night, had the Jeep towed to his shop, took us to a hotel 45 minutes away and got one of his mechanics into the shop early on Sunday morning to try to fix the Jeep so we could get home for family commitments. His stories were incredible, mostly not repeatable online for fear of his being arrested, and almost worth the money spent. A full team of N. VA parents, wives, boyfriends, and children were called into action to perform Team Calleva (yellow submarine unit) extraction. Nick's wife ventured into the swamp in the dead of day and rescued us from the Virginia Diner where we spent 5 hours in wait. (And unfortunately drank our 2 beer limit within the first 30 minutes.) Kudos to Nick and Steph for not strangling Tamir.

On to the next adventure!...

Mar 3, 2012

Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon

Written by Dima.


I started preparations for this year Untamed New England Adventure Race. This race is always hard, but this year we will race against reigning AR World Champions of 2011, Thule Adventure Team and some other pro teams. I guess it doesn't make it any easy. So I started my preparations from buying new shoes. Good way to test new shoes is running. Better way to test new shoes is long running. The best way to test new shoes is long running on rough terrain in wet conditions. But what I got today was the best of all possibilities: 48 kilometers of Seneca Creek Greenway Trail Marathon (yes they call 48k the marathon).

I had only one month of trainings, with the longest run of 27 kilometers on the same trail, but in perfect dry conditions. A few days before the race forecast called for a lot of rain and thunder storm. That's why I decided to visit the local REI store for "Minimalist and Barefoot Running Basics" presentation. My new shoes are almost minimalistic, but I had to figure out a way to prepare these shoes for wet conditions. The presenter was real barefoot maniac, and recommended to everyone to purchase zero support shoes and start running on pavement. I wonder how many injures he initialized by his presentation. But good thing, after the presentation he gave me really good advice for wet conditions treatments.

Conditions of the race were terrible: we had rain whole night and this morning. All creeks crossings were underwater, and we had to cross a few dozens of creeks. Most of the trail was covered by mud or was just muddy swamp without any option for detour. And don't forget, Greenway trail always goes up or down, never flat. Waterproof treatment for my feet and socks worked 100%. My goal was under 5 hours. I am almost done this... 5:02, thanks to my new shoes that drove me through this mess.



I ran with light backpack and started the race with 2 liters of water. It gave me an opportunity to skip all, but one aid station. Stephanie also blasted the course, and actually it was her crazy idea to run this race, I just followed. The Greenway Trail Marathon was organized by Montgomery County Road Runners Club and is sponsored by many organizations, including Calleva. This year, despite bad weather, there were more than 200 runners. And by the way, registration fee for this great event is only 20 bucks! Result and more photos will follow...