Arriving to Bridgeport
Team arrived to Bridgeport on Tuesday afternoon. Acclimation to thin air was done at South Lake Tahoe as well as all race food shopping in Carson City's Wal-Mart. The evening was used for gear checking and preparations for the upcoming race.
On Wednesday we did the skill and gear tests and met our volunteer crew Jack Styer. We were told that he's the man in his job. Indeed we did notice it many times during the race. We wanted the best, we got the best!
Prologue was held on Wednesday afternoon and our tactic was to put everything in it. It brought the third place and bad problems for breathing which we solved by making a homemade sauna to bathroom by keeping the hot water running. Temperature wasn't as in normal Finnish sauna but moisture was high enough to help the lungs to recover.
Maps were published during Wednesday night after many lotteries. Reijo and Janne started to copy checkpoints from master maps, Heikki plan the route and Outi read and cover the route book etc. Finally when all were sorted out we got asleep at 11.30 pm.
Section 1: run, bike, packrafting, hike (9 hours)
Race started with a small run through the Bridgeport town and headed by bikes to Twin Lakes where we had packrafting across the lake before a long hike. Section began well and we took a place in a leading group with Nuun. To CP4 we had a totally different route but at the CP we were together again.
After CP4 Nuun had a little better speed while we had ran out of water in dry mountains. They were able to leave us and in addition we made a small navigation mistake when trying to avoid bushwhacking. That wasn't possible and after a jungle of spikes we got company from Technu and hiked towards ACP1 together.
Section 2: bike (18 hours)
The beginning of the section showed what would be the name of the game: up and down all the time. Janne had some problems with food and had to throw up three times. For that reason bike wasn't moving like it should have been.
We were making our way all by ourselves and had no help from other teams in navigation. Before CP8 we missed one trail and ended up a bit too far where we thought to be. We started just pushing our bikes up to hill and after a long and sweaty couple of hours found us from a top of a peak, not from the ridge.
On the whole the CP8 was difficult and we spend a lot of time to find it. After that the route to ACP2 was though going up and down all the time. The price for that was a huge downhill from Sonora pass. Extremely steep (26 % at max) road gave a speed of approximately 80 km/h.
At ACP2 we were in the fifth position because of bad navigation before CP8. We decided to sleep for one hour and lost three more positions.
Section 3: hike and ropes (17 hours)
After a good sleep and Jack's wonderful meal we were back in game. Leading group was 2,5 hours ahead and we started to catch up. During first two hours we had passed four teams and were in fourth place. Eagle peak was a fantastic checkpoint and ropes started to come closer.
Just before the ropes we were 1,5 hours behind the leading three teams. Two airy rappels and two challenging jumaring's were one of the best parts of the race but somehow we couldn't do it as fast as in trainings. Outi was a little frightened because the rope she was rappelling was almost broken. She had to open the only carbine between the rope and harnesses to dismount the figure eight and jumar up to change a rope.
After the ropes we even managed to do a stupid mistake in navigation while not using the compass enough. We followed a wrong trail from CP13 to CP13A and lost almost one hour. Leaders had escaped decisively. At ACP3 we slept for two hours.
Section 4: bike (17 hours)
Beforehand a long bike section four was determined to be the key for winning the race. Our plan was to collect all mandatory as well as the optional checkpoints and it started well. Janne had found his legs and the whole team was in good shape.
After first optional checkpoint CP16A Reijo's back tire ripped and caused extra problems. The rip was too big for Stan's No Flats liquid to fix. Therefore we had to put the inner tube (with liquid) on it but apparently the big rip on the outer tire caused rather quickly small hole also for the inner tube. The liquid though kept the air in for about hour of drive and then new refill by pump.
Some routes were a bit challenging and we couldn't avoid bushwhacking at this time either. In addition the further we drove the harder started the navigation to be. And when the dark time began we had problems even to follow the Italian Bar Road, the only proper road in the area. We decided not to take three optional CP's and headed to paddling. CP17 was rewarding while offering pizza and Pepsi, the best surprise in the race. At ACP4 we took a half an hour nap.
Section 5: paddling (9 hours)
Paddling with sit-on-tops was quite challenging for Heikki and Janne who were falling asleep all the time. Luckily it didn't cause any swimming's and we tried to stay awake for example by singing Finnish songs.
We got two optional CP's and would probably have had time to pick up the third one but Heikki had a very tight flight schedule and we had to finish a little earlier. That might have cost us one position but on the other hand with better navigation we could have collected more CP's by bike to confirm the fourth place.
After the race
We crossed the finish line 11.45 am and 2,5 hour later were already driving towards San Francisco everything packed to flights. Heikki flied to Finland at 6.55 pm and rest of us at 6.00 am. Unfortunately we missed the after race party and had no time to chat with other competitors and organizers but this was the only chance to us to participate.
We'd like to thank Adrian, Earring-Doug, Mark and every other who had made a hard work for this race. Route was amazing and really worth of traveling. Also we'd like to thank other racers who made this contest. It was nice to have good time with you on the route. Most of all we'd like to thank our very best crew Jack who made an unbelievable work to support us through the race.
"Hirvimettällä, hirvimettällä, me kuljemme pitkin soita,
hirvimettällä, hirvimettällä, Jack keittää jo perunoita"
Janne & Team
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti