I'm Back

I'm back....maybe. I have good intentions of beginning to keep this blog up again so we'll see what happens. Since I've last written I really haven't done any racing and I'm starting to really miss it. Been training a lot though- probably putting in more running miles than I ever have before for this time of year. Been on the bike pretty consistently as well. Lost 10 pounds since the ACC so I'm hoping to keep that weight off and maybe lose a little more. Anything to help me keep up with Dave and Katie on the run sections. Mims is signed up for the Nocturnal Challenge in a couple weeks and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be an interesting race- starts at 1:30 Saturday afternoon and ends by 6:30 Sunday morning. I'm thinking the first couple hours are going to be pretty tough with the heat. Nice thing is we have ropes course/ zip-line to look forward to that night. My brother Ben and I are still planning on doing the Suwanee River Challenge in October so I need to come up with a way to get us in the boat consistently. I may end up meeting him to paddle after Audrey goes around 7:00. That should guarantee us a little cooler weather for the training. That's about it- can't wait to race.

Hey Asher.

Atlantic Coast Conquest

Last weekend Mims the Word was back in action at the ACC in St. Augustine, FL. I had been looking forward to this race for a while and really loved the fact that it was just 30 minutes from home. We went to a brief pre-race meeting Friday night and got our maps. Everything looked pretty straight forward with the only real strategy being in the paddle section dealing with tides. It was good to catch up with Katherine, who was racing with Relentless. They are really cool group of people. Order of disciplines was as follows: Bike or Run (you could start with either), Paddle, Run, Paddle, Bike, Run, Bike. You could get the CP's in any order in each section.
Trek 1:

We chose to start with the run. This was a pretty simple section with 6 CP's approx. 6 miles in length. Aside from one small mistake we hit everything quickly. Highlight of this section was seeing a hog with three legs while running with Eco-choice. We were told we were the first team back from the run.

Bike 1:

The first bike section was mostly on roads in a newly developed area. Apart from turning off too early on a fire break we made it through this section with no issues. (Only thing that slowed us down was Dave checking out a GTO that drove by) We made it back to the TA and headed out on the water right behind Punch Junkies with a couple teams right behind us.

Paddle Out:

The paddle section was an out and back in the inter coastal and consisted of 7 CP's with a trek section at Stokes Landing in the middle. We decided the night before to hit 4 CP's on the way to Stokes and 3 Cp's on the way back that were up creeks in order to make the best use of the tides. Most of the navigation was very easy for this section. The toughest thing about this paddle was the wind and dealing with wake from the many large boats that were out there. On the way down, the boat consistently pulled left and on the way back it pulled right. I felt like I was doing nothing but corrective strokes the entire time. This was both physically and mentally exhausting. We spent this whole section chasing Punch Junkies but were able to work with them for most of the CP's.

Trek 2- Stokes Landing:

The second trek came as a welcome break from paddling. We didn't waste anytime and took off along the eastern shore of the park and quickly found the first CP. The next two CP's were easy enough and then came the first hurdle we would face with nav on this race. What appeared to be any easy CP located at the end of a firebreak off a due south trail gave us and many other teams trouble. What was on the map and what was actually there just didn't match up. We spent about 45 minutes on this point working with Punch Junkies and finally found it by trial and error. We hoofed it back to boat and took off on the long paddle home.

Paddle Back:

No real issues on the last paddle. The wind died down and the paddling became easier. The CP's up the creeks were accessible with the tide in. It was still slow going. We began the paddle out at 10:50 AM and did not arrive back to the TA until 7:30ish. That's a long time sitting on an aluminum seat. We came in about 20 minutes after Punch Junkies and right on the heels of Eco-choice. Shake-a-leg Miami had absolutely smoked the paddle and were way out ahead of all of us.

Bike 2:

After eating some "real food" we made a quick transition to the bike hoping not to let Punch Junkies get too far out. We left the TA with Eco-choice and caught up to Punch Junkies at the first bike CP. We stumbled upon this CP earlier during the first trek so I was able to take us right to it. For the next three hours we continued to knock off CP's bumping into Punch Junkies and Eco-choice on and off as we went. And then there was CP 30....the one that got away. We chose to attack this CP from a trail coming up from the south after getting CP 31. When we arrived to what we thought was Stokes Landing we saw about three team's worth of headlamps bouncing towards the shoreline. We dropped our bikes and soon caught up and joined in the search. After over an hour and a half of searching and seemingly exhausting all our options we, along with all the other teams with us, decided to bail on the point. This is where the wheels came off for us. We were demoralized from having to skip a point and being caught be several teams that we had a good lead on. This navigation seemed to get trickier at this point and we were getting tired. I felt like we basically fumbled around in the woods for 5 hours until the sun came up. We worked with Nature Calls for a couple CP's which was nice and kept us focused for while. They were as frustrated as we were with the maps at that point so working together seemed to help a little. Their were so many trails that were not on the map it was ridiculous. Staying oriented was a real challenge. We picked up momentum as the sun came up made it to the the last trek about 8 AM and found out that only three other teams had found CP 30. After briefly discussing gong back to get it we decided we didn't have enough time.

Trek 3:

The last trek was a very straightforward loop around 8-9 miles. We pushed hard for the first three miles or so and then settled into a solid pace for the rest of it. It took us 2:20:00. I remember yawning constantly the whole time and fighting the urge to close my eyes. We passed the time by talking about what we were going to eat after the race- my favorite part of adventure racing.

Bike 3:

The last bike leg was just a due north dirt road ride to the finish. A short ride that seemed to last forever...

Although we were frustrated with our results we had an awesome time. Dave and Katie are great teammates. The course was laid out nicely. We switched disciplines often enough and most of the CP's seemed to be plotted correctly. Guana WMA is a beautiful area and was a great place for a race. Congratulations to Shake-a-leg Miami on the win. The really owned this race. Can't wait for the next one...

BRMAR Slide Show

Blue Ridge Race Report

Last weekend we headed up to Blue Ridge for the Blue Ridge Mountain AR. This was my fifth time racing and seventh year being up there for this race. I absolutely love this race. The whole city seems to come out to help and watch and the course is always designed well. This year I raced with some good friends that I've been racing with the past year, Dave Collins and Katie Ferrington, as team Mims the Word.

This years race was really cool with tons of options that required a lot of strategy. We plotted 18 cps the night before. CP's 2-7 could be achieved in any order- but the team had to stay together. CP's 8-15 could be be acheived in any order and teams were allowed to split up. CP's 16-19 were gotten in order with the team staying together. 15 minutes before that start we were given the coordinates to plot CP 1 and 6 prologue CP's (ABCDEF) of which we had to obtain 3 of them (ABC or DEF). Total of 22 CP's. The race began with a shotgun blast at Shallowford Bridge at 8:00AM. We headed off to get CP's ABC since I knew the area they were in pretty well (up and over Freeknob on the Benton). After nailing the prologue with no issues we picked up our bikes at Tilly Bend Church on Old Dial Rd. and riad to Rocky Point picking up CP 1 on the way. After meeting our crew at Rocky Point we drooped the bikes and headed out on foot for a loop that contained CP's 2-6 and a ton of elevation. We made in through back to the transition area with no real issues and picked up the canoe. CP's 7-15 were obtained by paddling to points along the lake and portaging our canoe while we sent a runner to get the CP's. This strategy seemed to work well for us as we are stronger runners then bikers. After knocking off CP 15 we continued paddling on Lake Blue Ridge to the dam where we would portage across to the Toccoa River. We then followed the Toccoa to the last transition where we left our canoe with the crew and picked up out bikes for a short 5 mile ride into town. We finished in 8:47:00 with all 22 CP's in 13th place- my best result in Blue Ridge so far.

I was really pleased with our race and my great teammates. What an awesome weekend. It was Audrey's first trip to the mountain and her longest car ride so far and she did awesome. My wife is so cool for supporting me with this stuff. She had a lot to put up with dealing with Audrey and a stressed husband. I couldn't do this stuff with her. My brother Matt and his wife Kristin came up and ran support for us with Shelby. It was so good to have them there.

The Guana 50k

I know this is a little late, but here's my race report for the Guana 50k. This was my first ultra-marathon and it was quite the learning experience. Race day was a little warmer than I had hoped for but at least we had overcast skies. After a brief pre-race meeting from the RD the race started at 7 am. There were about 100 runners doing the event. Some doing the 50k, most doing the 25k relay. I settled in to a good rhythm and was running what I thought would be a sustainable pace for at least the first three laps. (The race consist of 4, 7.5 mile laps) I ended up having some stomach issues during the second lap and by the time I made to the third lap I was showing signs of being dehydrated. I had been feeling pretty sick that week before and had been on antibiotics. I should have done my research before the race because I learned the hard way the antibiotics can lead to dehydration. The last 15 miles were some of the hardest miles I've ever run (well, walked and shuffled mostly). Before heading out on the last lap I got to see Shelby, her mom, and Audrey. That came just at the right time as I was having to fight off the urge to call it. To give you an idea of how bad I was hurting my first lap was 1:20:00 and my last lap was right over 2 hours. I finished in 7:15:00. Good parts of the race were hanging out and talking to the other runners- I tried to glean as much wisdom as I could, seeing Shelby and Audrey, and just plain finishing. I was disappointed with my time but pleased that I didn't give up. I'll be back next year to give it another go- next time more prepared.

Commitment

I finally committed to the Guana 50k and put my money in the mail. No turning back now. I ran this event two years ago as a relay and loved it. This year I feel like I've got the miles in my legs to go for the whole thing. I'm hoping a couple of my buddies will be out there as well. It's a four lap event, each lap being a little over 7.5 miles. That fourth lap is gonna be a bear. I'm planning on starting really slow and trying to conserve as much as possible for the last lap. Honestly- I can't wait for the race. I love running trails and Guana is beautiful. This weekend Shelby and I are heading out to the ranch to hang out for my birthday. Should be a relaxing weekend. I'm gonna take the hiking backpack to put Audrey in and get out on the Florida Trail some. Should get in a good run a ride out there as well. I'll try and take some pictures.