Ozark Greenways Adventure Race, May 31, 2008

By Jim Schmid

Mid Rivers Adventure: Jim, Christina, Louis, Cherie

The Tail of OGAR

The race to the race was crazy. I want to apologize to a few people of poor administrative skills. We had people drop due to schedule conflict, surgery, and family commitments. All things we must deal with in life just as in adventure racing. Friday morning we finally had a full team. Louis, Christina, Cherie, and Jim. Louis, Jim, and Christina arrived about 5:30 PM Friday night, ate dinner, and discussed meeting time for the morning and headed out. I call Cherie to let her know the times.

Saturday was a nice 66 degree with clear skies. Quick stop at Mobile for the Caffeine gear up then to Gasconade Hills Resort/HQ. Christine, Louis, and I parked next to the TA and stage our area. One small problem, we did not know what Cherie look liked, we finally got together and square everything. We receive our race packet. Run, Canoe, Bike, Orienteer, Run, Bike, Bike. We planned our strategy and headed for the start line. We were treated by a singing of the Star Spangle Banner, and Fireworks for the start of the race.

The Run

We started off the race with a up hill run, of course. We had 7.5 miles of rolling hills in an uneventful run. We got to the river transition and pass a couple of teams. However Jim decided to mix Electrolyte tabs and Ibuprofen. Mental note never take at the same time. Within 15 minutes I was foaming the mouth. I felt seasick and was coughing up foam. After 5 minutes I was better. It was the crazy. PHRASE OF THE DAY, I asked Louis how he was doing; answer "A little better then GREAT". I nearly fell out of the canoe laughing. We repeated the phase all day. We passed several teams and got to the bike transition. Once again we passed a team with a quick TA. We headed out on the bikes and across the river for five miles then a quick turn into a power cut to single track. We started to overtake teams and it was a traffic jam on the trail. While on the trail I noticed several top teams on the trail do their orienteering course. It pays to remember these things.

We get to the 2nd TA, checkpoints 3,4,5,6. We checked in, got our orienteering map. We got water and change shoes. We will get our checkpoints in ABC order. We hiked up a power cut to get A, then shoot a heading into the woods with another team. We then work the area for 10 minutes and we found it. Then off to B. We get a little help from another team. Hike back to the power cut, then to a road and shoot in by the fire truck simple enough. However there was about 15 to 20 team looking for checkpoint B. We found it about 15 minutes later. Now we are an hour into the course, great 30 more minutes and we are done. NOOOOOOO, we followed like lemmings to the Checkpoint C. We wasted time and energy 45 minutes. Finally I realize we are short and need to go to the next Creek. With another team we proceeded to backtrack to the creek and follow in further. We came upon the bike trail we rode into the transition area. This is where we saw Alpine shop earlier in the day. We found the checkpoint and moved on. Yeah HAA, Tech Run 20 minutes back on the bikes.

Tech ride 8.8 miles.

This was a slow go due the hills, roots, rocks, creek beds and nasty descents. We came along another team fixing a broken chain. They did not have a chain tool. In the spirit of adventure racing we help out this team. This set us back about 20 minutes. We finish up the single track and start down a gravel road to a river crossing. We cross the river with bikes in hand. Normally we would be able to ride the bikes across. No this time, waist deep water, a great way to cool off. Side note Christina had a new powder blue 29'er Gary Fischer and it rolled over some big trees, rocks, and roots.

We topped off water and headed home, Once again we passed teams in the TA. We passed several teams with flats. We peddled hard up and down the hills of the Ozarks. We turned on to blacktop and really started to make time. I then saw one of the teams gaining on us and us starting drafting. Christine was none to happy about the close quarters, but as a competitor she only went harder. We had one last big down hill to the resort. We drop our bikes and ran to the finish line. Another finish for Mid Rivers Adventure Racing Team.

I am real proud of my fellow's teammates as we worked well as a team and our goals were met. We had fun and we finished. Kudos to all.