After doing something to my left knee in the final miles at GBF Operation Buckwheat the weekend before, I did a lot of resting in the week leading up to the Adventure Addicts 24hr AR.
On Thursday, I did Flow - Day 21 - Curious & Home - Day 15 - Reset Yoga with Adriene.
The early spring foliage was pretty, although pollen season had arrived in NC the week before.
ADRENALINE RUSH 24HR AR
Lots of A's are in the name of the event! I had had my eyes on this event, but it was going to be packraft-centric, and I didn't have a packraft. I was interested in the event because the RDs had organized Nationals in 2024 and did a great job. They design creative courses where strategy plays a big role in the event. I like that, because it's not just a mindless, physical slugfest. Those kinds of events are fine, but you get get that from a normal, more purely physical race. There's certainly strategy and planning involved in running a good road or trail race, but not nearly as much as there is in a sport as complex as adventure racing. The RDs are also meticulous planners and scope things out well. They also do a great job of providing quality maps that you can rely on. When maps are bad in a map and compass-based activity, the race experience goes downhill.
I ended up being able to do the event because someone with a packraft looking to put together an all-female team reached out. Olga wanted a 4-person team, so that 2 tandem packrafts could be used. She already had 2 confirmed, so I would be #3, and she was waiting to hear back on a 4th. After getting on a call to chat about our backgrounds, we decided that it would be a good fit, and I joined Fragile Flowers for this race. Although I typically race with Sisters of Steel / Steel Wolves, this would be a great opportunity to diversify experiences and learn from how others run their teams and execute their races and make some new friends in the process.
I signed up in mid-Jan and had a little over 2 months to get ready. Olga's from NY, and Safiya is from the DC area, so we wouldn't have much of a chance to meet up beforehand, but this was just a 24 hour race (vs something like a 5-day race), so it wasn't a big deal. We had 2 team calls to get to know each other and do a little planning, and we messaged each other with questions and gear plans, too. We did try to find a 4th, but we were unsuccessful in the search. It's not always easy to find someone with a free spot on their calendar, who is also able to physically do the event and is ready gear-wise and finance-wise to jump in.
Day Before:
The day before the event, I made the drive up to VA. Olga had gotten an AirBNB really close to Fairy Stone State Park. I did have an errand to run beforehand, because I was picking up a 6.5CM barrel for my MDT chassis to get ready for Real World Sniper Challenge. The install process was tricky, so I ended up leaving it at the shop for pickup after the event.
Once I got to the AirBNB, though, Olga gave Safiya and I lessons on how to set up the packrafts. Packrafts are essentially inflatable rafts that you can carry on your back when they are in their deflated state. That allows you to have much more flexibility on where you're able to enter and exit bodies of water, since you don't have to put in and let out at manmade docks that are accessible by giant trucks with trailers. They are what allow you to expand the level of strategy involved in the race. You might choose to hike more or paddle more, depending on where you want to go. With our 3-person team, we'd be using one tandem packraft and 1 single packraft. No three-person packrafts have been invented yet. I know that there are 3-person+ inflatable rafts that exist, but they're not designed with the same purpose and function. You could probably still make it work, though, if it was allowed.
The RDs did allow people to use kayaks and canoes (BYO), but they warned us that it would limit your route options if you did so. It turned out that you could still do plenty of the course this way... you just might not be able to take top spots because your routes may not be as efficient and you may cover less ground.
It's actually more involved that you might think, setting up the packraft. There's inflating it with a battery-powered device, optionally stashing gear inside dry bags within special compartments, inserting the combs that provide structure for spray skirts and the opening where you'd sit. There's inflating the seats and backs so that you get enough height in the raft to paddle at a good angle, there's topping off the inflation of the rafts with your lungs blowing into a tube, and installing the rudder (called a "skeg").
We also tried on some waterproof tops and bottoms and a spray skirt, to keep us dry during the cold night. We figured out who would carry what. With Olga as the Navigator, I'd be the mule for the tandem packraft. As a rucker, I was happy to contribute to the team in that way. Olga had the single packraft, and Safiya had the spray skirts and other accessories. We each carried our own 4-piece paddles and PDFs. We wouldn't have to carry all of this the whole time, because we had a paddle bag where we could stage paddle gear at TA2 (the only TA apart from the start/finish TA1). We each had Hyperlite Windrider bags, so we could fit 70L of gear per person. From there, it was all about strategy, determining what you wanted to ruck vs raft vs stash.
Check-in:
They did check-ins in the morning, which started at 7am. You wanted to be there early to have enough time to drop off paddle bags afterwards. We put numbers on our bikes and bags, and Olga and her husband went to drop off the paddle bags at TA2. The bikes would be staged at the start.
Safiya and I read the rules list inside the lodge before it was time for map distribution at 8am.
The race would start at 10am, so we had a good amount of time to plan. The points were pre-plotted, but we transcribed clue content onto the maps next to each point. The first strategic decision we had to make was whether we wanted to bike towards the water first, or do trekking points near the start, first. I'm risk-averse, so I'm all about doing the trek for points last, since that puts us close to the finish. If we were still stuck out on the lake near the end time of the event, we'd be at a greater risk of missing the cutoff time.
On the lake, there was a northern area and a southern area. We decided to go North first, since there were many points up there, but there were multiple options on how to get to those points. There was land on the left with many points but tough terrain, land on the right with few points but flat terrain, and there was a body of water in between. We went back and forth but eventually decided on a plan. We'd tackle the southern portion after that. If we had time, we could go for some foot points after that. We'd cut out the optional biking points at the end, since I'm not a big MTBer, and we already had plenty of points to go after elsewhere.
Washington & Lee University's Mass Communications Department partnered with this race to give students a chance to learn about media creation, which was neat. They took photos and made some videos and did social media updates during the event. That was cool.
Soon, it was time to head outside, take a group photo, and get our punch cards.
It felt like about half of the teams decided to go on foot first, and the other half decided to begin with the bike.
Leg 2: 7 mile Bike
Since we were biking first, we'd save Leg 1, the trek, until the end.
The first bike was pretty straightforward. The RDs essentially wanted to get us to the lake, where most of the fun would be. It was all paved road, which is my kind of bike leg. There were just a couple of points along the way.
At the beginning of the event, there are always more people clustered around. Point 14 was a quick grab.
But by the time we were getting the second point (CP15), we were at the back of the biking group, so we were the only ones around. It was hilly, but at least it was paved. We counted intersecting paths and found where we wanted to be. We felt like we were at the right spot but didn't see the punch until Safiya's good eye spotted it. Onwards!
We made the downhill ride into the dock where TA2 was located.
Once at the TA, we dropped our bikes and started the first round of raft inflation.
Leg 3: 26 Mile Paddle/Trek
Our plan had been to paddle up to CP52 for "rock wall on lake", but the winds were blowing hard, and the water was choppy. We were working very hard to travel a short distance, so we changed plans and went directly to the dock.
It was slightly demoralizing to have to deflate the rafts so soon after inflating them, since each of those processes takes time. We packed it all back up and set off on foot. It at least felt good to be moving forward again.
Navigation on this side of the water would be pretty straightforward. We'd be on roads for most of the journey, with an initial stop to find CP52. We trekked in going up and down some steep terrain with thorny vegetation. We had smartly dropped our packs and only carried the mandatory safety gear with us. After all of that work and searching, though, we discovered that the point was only accessible by boat. We had to abandon it for now and maybe try to get it later on in the day, once we were back in our boats. That ate up a fair amount of time and energy, and we were well into the race, with only 2 points so far. The teams that had gone on the trek first would've banked many more points by now.
It was a long walk up this side of the water, even if it was paved and not super hilly. A little hilly, but not super hilly. It was another long stretch without points, though. It was nice having the option to buy a second set of maps for the team. While Olga was the lead navigator, I could still check and plan and make suggestions or catch things.
We finally go to the far end of this side. We passed by a house with a lady who was curious about what we were doing. She told us we were approaching a dead end, but we had rafts on our backs, so we'd be able to keep going for 24 hours straight.
It was nice to be at some points again. We grabbed one on a little beach (CP19), where we finally saw another team coming in from the water on a tandem packraft.
After that, we walked through the empty campground to get the other point (CP20) under a picnic table. They were both easy to find, but you had to invest time in getting to this side of the water to get them.
(bear)
Now, we had to get to the other side of the water again. It wasn't a long distance. We just needed to cross over. The water seemed less choppy here, too. Since we weren't at an official dock, we had to find a good, not-so-steep part to enter the water, but we found something that worked and went about inflating the rafts for a second time. I had wanted to grab CP21 while we were in the boat, but Olga wanted to minimize time on the water.
We also had to find a good spot to dock our boats. The terrain was steep, but we found the most approachable-looking section and pulled the boats up. We secured the boats, hoped that the paracord would hold, and then began our journey into the woods.
Instead of carrying the boats and making southward progress on this side of the water (which would've been my strategy if I was doing this solo), we decided to dock at various points along the water and do loops on foot to get trekking points.
We went up a reentrant to find CP24, which was at a chimney ruin. It was a good start in our series of land points.
CP23 was exciting because we did good navigation to find it, and it was one of two points that had a bourbon treat, we discovered. It turns out that I like bourbon!
There was a path along this side of the water that we could use as a good thoroughfare and attack point. We continued on to get CP22 at the top of a reentrant.
The path continued for a bit longer, but then it ended, and we used topo to find our way to CP21 at the spur.
We went all the way back down the path until we got CP25 at "large rootstock". It was our last point on this little trekking loop.
We could tell that it was gradually getting later in the day. We found our way back to the boats... with a little detour and re-orienting ourselves to where we were, but that's part of land nav.
We paddled a little further down to get "headstones at treeline" (CP28), followed by "downed tree in ditch" (CP26).
Back to the boats!
We got back on the water to get CP27, but rather than taking the shortest distance approach which would've been steep and hard to find a place to dock for, we went around to an inlet and attacked from there. We did have a little trouble finding our way back to the inlet at first, but we backtracked to find it.
We did a longer paddle to get to CP18 with "Large Rootstock", which was a little further up the inlet than we expected, but still pretty close to the water, compared to the others. At least the paddling wasn't too bad. The waters were much calmer now. As we went along, we'd see some other rafts occasionally. Since the park was closed for the season, it was really only us racers there.
I learned some good paddling techniques from Olga along the way. She's taken classes and paddles weekly. She encouraged me to go at a faster cadence, lighter strokes vs the heavier ones I had been going for at the beginning. Keeping arms straight helps to encourage more torso power. Take the stroke from the toes to the hips.
We paddled on to get CP17, CP16, then CP52 that had eluded us before, before we went to TA2.
They had hotdogs there, which I was excited about. The RD had mentioned that there might be hotdogs there, perhaps as a joke, but a bunch of racers were asking the TA staff about hot dogs, so they went out and got some. I was hungry!
We had to work quickly to change and refit at the TA because it was cold. Sitting around wet would only make it colder. We needed to get moving again.
We worked together to span out and find CP50 on an island. I'm not sure, in retrospect, why we didn't consider going after CP51.
We got CP48 traveling by boat to the other end of the island, before continuing south to the cluster of points there.
One thing I discovered was that it's a bad idea to keep "flick your wrist to turn on the backlight" feature of the Garmin when you're doing an Adventure Race. The paddling motion keeps the backlight on the whole time, and my batteries ended up running out mid-race. It would have made it, had the backlight not been on so much.
It was challenging to get good footage at night. GOPRO Heros are not known for good performance in low light conditions.
Down south, we were very paranoid about not running into the dam, which is a restricted area. There were odd lights in the distance, and we were trying to figure out what they were. It turns out they were part of an empty marina. While we were in there, we decided to go on land to grab some points using the roads up there.
CP46 actually took us a long time to find. It was off of some trails. We were definitely looking in the wrong spot at first, and had to go further down like double the distance and curve around on the trail to find it. I had been ready to give up on it.
The next point felt like a long walk away, but it was very straightforward, once you figured out how to find the trailhead. I ate coffee-infused chocolate for a boost. It does feel odd walking through a place that feels so deserted at night. There are lights on and everything. The only thing missing is people.
We added some air into the boats, especially the single one, and paddled to CP47 around the corner, followed by CP44 closer to the dam. We stopped at CP43 on our way back towards civilization. We also stopped at CP43 on an island right across from the TA, going uphill until we could go uphill no further, to find "top cliff wall view of lake". There's not much of a view at night, though.
Leg 4: 7 Mile Bike
We were excited to get back to TA2 to pack up and make our way back to TA1, where we'd start trekking and racking up points. We did skip all the optional biking points according to plan. It was still dark when we began the last trek
Leg 1: 5 Mile Trek
One of the goals of our team was to be out on the course as long as possible, to maximize points. We weren't going to quit early.
We had been warned that point 1 would get us wet, so teams could either choose to do that first or last. We chose to do that last, so that we could minimize the amount of time we'd have to be wet, especially because it was cold out.
We took the roads the long way around, avoiding no travel zones, to get to CP2, which was off a service road and along a creek.
We went uphill from there to jump onto a path that would take us to point CP3. We saw another team on the path that decided to look in a different area, but we stuck to our guns with where we thought the point would be and found it.
Next, we curved north around the path and found a point (CP4) at the entrance of a mine shaft, which was cool.
Because many teams timed their routes to also maximize time on course, we ran into more teams here.
The next point (CP5) was up in a sink hole. I hadn't been sure exactly what a sink hole was. I pictured quicksand. It's more like a place where an avalanche might've taken place, with steep ground.
CP6 was straightforward, at a trail junction.
We then dropped elevation to get back down to the road that would take us to a creek crossing (that's how you get wet) as a shortcut to point CP1. We didn't actually have to get wet... the crossing was just the shortest route, saving maybe 1.2km. It was like there used to be a bridge there, but it was now covered with water. The goal was to find the parts of structures that still existed, so that you wouldn't have to have water go up as high on you. We all made it without tripping and falling in!
The reward for crossing the little river was that we got to get a point in another mine shaft.
We still had a little bit of time left, so we went south to grab CP13 in a ditch, taking the road to get there (vs the path that the point was closer to).
Then, we squeezed in CP7, a rock wall near a little creek. Based on the terrain, we had to cross back and forth over the creek a couple of times as we went, but it was a straightforward point.
Looking back, we probably could've gotten in CP12 on the way to CP7, but we still managed to squeeze in a good bit. At ARs, the last couple of hours always seems so packed with points!
We headed back to the finish, crossing the line in 23:17, happy with what we had accomplished together.
We managed to get third in the female 3/4-person team division! Not bad, considering the strong field at this specialized race.
I'm always eager to get a video published while the memories are fresh, we're still on our highs, and everyone's still thinking about the race.
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