THE THUNDER ROLLS ADVENTURE RACE, Illinois City, Illinois, September 6, 2008
Race headquarters for the Thunder Rolls was in Illinois City, a tiny crossroads about 30 minutes west of Moline, Illinois. Yep, we blinked, and had to backtrack a hundred feet to turn into a mown grassy field where we would end up pitching tents for the night. It was next to an old Grange Hall, which provided a comfy setting (running water in the bathrooms) for the pre-race meeting Friday night. Race Director Gerry went over the typical info, then passed out maps and clue sheets so we could start plotting the points. The 24-hour teams had to rush a bit, since they were starting at midnight, but Nathan and I were able to enjoy a more leisurely pace.
After working up a strategy to get through the check points in order, we focused on packing a 35-gallon tub with everything we'd need at the remote transition area. This amounted to a ground tarp, water, Gatorade, food, trekking shoes, extra clothes, and bug spray. The race would start with a bike leg. We shuttled the tub, along with the inflatable raft, PFD's, and paddles, to the remote TA about 6 miles away at a riverside campground in the Loud Thunder Forest Preserve. In hindsight, we should have also put our climbing gear in the tub and only put it in our packs for the leg of the race that needed it. Instead, we got a little more of a workout and carried it the whole race!
It was a quick drive back to the tents, where we finished loading our backpacks and prepared for a short sleep. I was going over the different course legs in my mind, which didn't help me close my eyes any sooner: bike to TA, paddle in raft (return to TA), trekking loop in Illinois, canoe to the Iowa side, do a trekking loop there (including the ropes section), canoe back to the TA, then do a lot more biking to the finish line. Our checkpoint list was a subset of the ones that the 24-hour racers would be finding. So we'd have to be careful when punching the passport, because our order was going to be 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, etc.
The trusty watch alarm woke me up, and it was race day! Eating breakfast in the dark, we mentally prepared ourselves for what lay ahead. At the starting line Gerry explained that with so many bikes he was going to give us a rolling start. After a half mile or so, his truck pulled away and we kicked the pedals into gear, so to speak. Nathan and I were pumped up and decided to do these 6 miles fast. We pulled into the TA (CP1) in about 3rd place and went to work inflating the raft. We had a bellows style manual pump and were filling a Sevylor U281 3-man raft, so it took almost 15 minutes. But we used the time wisely, because whoever wasn't pumping was able to change shoes and get his PFD on. Getting on the water was no easy task: the bank consisted of thick shoe-sucking mud and we had to take care not to tip the raft. Once floating, though, things went smoother. The decision to put two men in a 3-man raft paid off when we started paddling, because it gave the guy in the back some room to maneuver without bumping into the front guy. With kayak paddles we got into a rhythm of putting opposite blades in the water at the same time. This worked well, and we didn't spin too much. Checkpoints 2 and 3 were easy to spot along the edge of a narrow island in the Mississippi River. One of the teams we passed had their front guy leaning over on his belly and paddling with one hand. His other hand was apparently holding onto a patch they had applied to stop a leak! Nathan and I crossed our fingers, avoided any sharp branches, and made it safely back to the TA (CP5).
The next section was about 5 miles of trekking. Wristbands were given out, and they had to be punched along with the passport to prove that all team members stayed together. CP6 was an easy scurry up a reentrant, and we thought finding the creek mouth at CP7 would be no problem. That creek turned out to be quite tough for a number of teams, based on how many of us were looking up and down the Mississippi riverbank! It was finally found, and we moved on to the easier spur at CP8. Upon approaching, though, I noticed the passport was missing from my map case. "Not again!" I said out loud, among other words. Sure enough, I had dropped it at CP7 and another team had thankfully shuttled it forward for us. We didn't lose too much time backtracking to that team. A suggestion for the future: get two waterproof cases so one person can fiddle with the maps and another can secure the passport and clue sheet! The rest of the trek was around Lake George, and we opted to follow the shoreline from point to point. A 2-foot long brown spotted snake (rat snake maybe?) was lying in our path leading to CP11, but it took another team to point it out to us. They asked me, "Did you see the big snake you jumped over?" I had not. (gulp) CP12 and CP13 were relatively easy to get, and then it was a quick jog back to the TA (CP17).
It was finally time for a more civilized way of navigating the river: by canoe. Backpacks were stocked up for what we estimated would be 8 miles of trekking on the Iowa side, not to mention the 4 or 5 miles each way on water. Checkpoint 18 was an easy find, hanging from a tree on a tiny island in the slough side of the river. Then we headed north past some massive duck blinds which were thankfully not being used this late in the morning. Getting mistaken for a goose was not part of our game plan! Crossing the main channel was uneventful, especially since that barge heading our way was well upriver. At the canoe take-out point (CP20) the volunteers were offering some hot baked beans, but we passed in favor of some food we knew our stomachs would agree with: our own.
There were several teams moving at a similar pace as ours throughout the race, and it was no different as we went out on foot. We headed down the road with another team, at a jog, and after a couple miles we finally out-distanced them. It felt good to be moving solo, with some stealth on our side. The backdoor entrance to Wildcat Den State Park was easy to spot, and we punched CP21. Lo and behold, there was a passport lying on the grass below the control punch, and it belonged to a 24-hour team. We had no sooner secured it in a pocket, intending to carry it forward to the team or a volunteer, when a runner from the team came back down the trail. She looked as relieved as we did earlier! CP22 started the off-trail navigation as we headed down a stream bed. We followed it (easy enough), but distance became difficult to judge since we were climbing over and under fallen trees. Getting to the correct reentrant for CP23 was our most challenging task of the whole race, in my opinion, and I'm pretty sure it cost us the most time searching. A fence line really threw us for a loop at first, because it made us think we had gone too far north. We met up with a 3-person team who was having similar difficulty. Finally we decided to press on and go further down the stream, and that was about the time we met up with Bill and Matt on their 24-hour adventure. We punched CP23 together, but then our courses split, since Nathan and I got to fast-forward a few points.
Park roads and trails weren't marked accurately on the maps (typical), but we still managed to follow our noses to CP27 in a cave. Just a little crawling took us a few yards in, not dark enough for headlamps. Yes, both of us got to experience the cramped quarters since we were once again wearing the "honesty" wristbands to be punched. More trail running brought us to an overlook and CP28. A quick downhill run brought us to the very picturesque mill where the ropes course was set up. This is apparently a popular landmark in the state park, because a wedding party chose to have the photos taken there that day. Nathan and I might be in a shot with a couple little flower girls who were crossing the bridge the same time we were.
At CP31 our wristbands were verified and we were free to head back to Illinois. The canoe almost knew the way as we retraced our path to the main TA and CP33. It was here that we learned our fate with respect to the clock. Even though we had more than an hour before the 6pm cutoff, we were instructed to go directly to the finish line. In hindsight, the cumulative time losses while navigating off trail had caught up with us. Our biking, jogging, and paddling times were better than par. Slightly dejected, we hopped on the bikes and took the road back to Illinois City. Along the way we saw a couple deer who decided to cross the road just in front of me. Wow, were they fast, and I'm glad I wasn't hit! I was grinding away in low gear, climbing a hill, head down, and wouldn't have even seen them if Nathan hadn't called out.
Even though it was the "short course", we succeeded at this race with an overall time of 11:29. And Gerry was there at the finish line to present us each with a bottle of Amber Ale. It went great with that home-baked pizza!