Bear 10 Hour Adventure Race
Ever have one of those races where you go in with no expectations, except for the goal of having fun. Well, that’s exactly what this little story is all about. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it.
My husband and I haven’t raced together in 15+ years. Between injury and kids, it just never worked out, so we’ve been taking turns racing for years. I watch the kids, or he does. We decided that we wanted to do something together again. Our original plan was the Blankets Creek 6 hour race, however, my husband misread our overly-chaotic family calendar and we were overbooked that weekend. Instead, we ‘donated’ funds to the Blankets race and decided to do the 10 hour Bear Adventure Race instead. Our last race together was the Blue Ridge Adventure Race in 2006.
An adventure race is an orienteering race where you paddle, trek, or bike to find checkpoints (CP) by map and compass. Get as many CPs as you can and cross the finish line before the cut off, or lose points. You sign up knowing the general location and time cap, but unlike a typical trail race, you do NOT know the course. At sign in you are given a set of topo maps with the checkpoints to find, a simple clue for each point, such as creek, saddle, or hilltop, and your mode of travel for each “section”. You determine the best route to the checkpoints and find as many as you can in the time allowed. Some CPs are easy, like on a gate along the road, some are definitely not, like at the bottom of a ravine in a thicket of rhododendron. You record your progress with a paper “passport”. Each CP has a unique hole punch to prove you found it. The most checkpoints in the least amount of time wins.
Prep
We’re all used to bike race prep, but ARs also have additional gear requirements: compass, first aid kit, trail shoes, map holders, paddles, dry bags, non-GPS bike computer, and enough food/water to get through each section (transition areas are usually equipped with typical race food and water). You also have to consider how much weight you are willing and able to carry and how to organize all of this stuff so that it’s accessible when you need it.
Race Day
At 3:45 AM the alarm went off. It was time to get moving in order to be at check-in by 6 AM. Our sitter arrived at 4:15 AM (what a trooper she was - I made sure to make a GIANT pot of coffee so there would be plenty left for her). All the packing and prepping was done before, so all we really needed to do was get dressed, load the car, and be certain to fuel ourselves with a good, energizing, long-lasting breakfast.
At 6 AM in the dark of the parking lot with only our headlamps for light, we got our race maps, plotted our course, decked out and turned in our bikes (the race staff would drop them somewhere along the course at a bike transition area), and planned how we thought we’d attack the day.
Working on map prep in the car
The plan was to simply enjoy the day as we had a hard NO RUN rule due to my past knee injuries. At 8 AM with the sound of the gun, everyone took off on foot for the muddy beach where the canoes and kayaks were waiting. We lagged behind (not running) and were one of the last boats into the water. If walking meant coming in dead last, then so be it (NOT an easy thing to mentally commit to). We watched several people sink into the thick mud. One lady even lost both of her shoes and had to search for them in the deep mud. We learned later that they had dropped the lake level, so the start was shallow, and full of rocks, mud, and sandbars that had to be navigated.
The first leg of the race was a long paddle; somewhere around 9 or 10 miles in distance with a few stops for checkpoints and a couple of cross-land canoe portages. The morning was very foggy so visibility was no more than 100’ or so which made the paddle feel a bit mysterious, but also helped with the intensity of the sun. We really clicked on the paddle (surprising since we hadn’t done a race together in about 15 years) and quickly found ourselves up at the front. Excited by that revelation, we zipped past the first checkpoint and had to double back to get it – dang it, lost a little time! CP2 was another 20 or so minutes of steady paddling and a quick jaunt up an inlet – we were still in the top 8 boats! CPs 3 and 4 were both near peninsulas, where the best tactic was to beach our boat, travel on foot to the CP, and then drag the canoe over a narrow strip of land instead of paddling around (a challenging portage, but it saved about 10 minutes of paddling each time.
After about 2.5 hrs of paddling, we beached our canoe at the first transition area. Here we turned in all our paddle gear and headed out on foot to find the next several checkpoint flags. The brush was thick in areas and there were many briars. I was thankful for my knee socks that saved at least some of my skin from the razor sharp thorns. We covered about 4 miles here collecting all the checkpoints and then headed over to the bike transition area.
The first bike leg was pretty much entirely uphill climbing from the lake up to the ridge north of Blairsville. I would estimate that we climbed about 2000 ft in about 13 miles carrying our heavy packs. This ended up being a positive thing for our team. My husband had the map on his handlebars and I watched the distance on the old style bike computer to help us estimate where we needed to stop, dismount, and trek into the woods to find the CPs. This section ended with a very fast, dicey and deep, loose gravel descent. Unfortunately, we found out later that 2 individuals suffered some pretty unfortunate crashes on this section and required medical intervention.
Next up was the 2nd trekking section. This one was a lot longer and more difficult than the first. I think we ended up covering about 8 or 10 miles with a lot of it being through thick brush and on heavily sloped terrain. The CP flags were well cached and farther apart. We had to slog through several streams, climb up and down steep ravines, and make route choices based on which topography could get you to the most CPs in the least amount of time. One team said they nearly stepped on a large rattlesnake – we probably all walked right by it! Ultimately on this section we left one CP unattempted. After looking at the contour lines on our topo map, we decided that the risk factor was too great for my knee and time was better spent going after other CPs. This ended up being the only flag we didn’t clear on the whole course.
Changing shoes between legs and grabbing the pack
The 5th and final segment of the race was another bike leg back to the finish line. We had 1:45 left until cut off and the race director recommended 1:15, so we felt pretty good. Looking around, most of the bikes were gone, meaning most teams were ahead of us – not surprising given how long the last trekking section was and our strict no running policy. Also, the race staff at the transition point said it was taking teams longer than planned to get back to the finish. We were very thankful to be back on the bike, our strongest discipline, but still… it was time to buckle down. We refilled our hydration packs, changed back into our bike shoes, and took off in search of the next CP. We quickly caught and passed a few teams while getting the remaining CPs. A fast decent off the ridge and we were in the mix with 3-4 other teams. Onto the main road and a 3 mile stretch back into town. My husband told me to tuck in behind and we dropped into TT mode, quickly dropping the other teams. The hardest part of ARs can be urban areas, because the maps don’t have street names. Good race prep means making sure you know what streets to turn on. We hit our turns as planned and made our way through some old streets, around the college campus, and onto the park trails which lead underneath Hwy 76 (crossing over the highway was strictly forbidden for the race). We rolled through the finish line at 9:35, with 25 minutes to spare. Whew!
Time for fresh clothes, DRY shoes (hello Chacos), food and drink! We met some great new people and hung out for a bit before getting back to the kids. We were busy chatting away with our new friends when the awards time came around (we had not planned to stay). We sat and watched and listened, clapping for the overall winner, two 10 year olds that completed the race, and some 60+ masters winners. Then to our total surprise, when then the coed teams came up our names were announced for 2nd place!
Takeaways
Adventure racing is a different type of racing. You have to trust your own navigation, never assume others know the way, and never assume the teams ahead on the trail are really ahead. You can finish last on time, never going faster than a brisk walk during the treks, but still be on the podium by getting the more CPs. Going into a race with no expectations and coming out with a podium, now that’s a good day, and even better doing it with my husband! Better than any “typical” date night