Written by Lori (in black) with comments by Kirk (in red)
May 23-24, 2009
Location: Camp Eagle (near Rocksprings, TX)
Team: Captain Pie
Team members: Kirk & Lori Zeringue
Results (place/#of teams): 5/6 (2-person coed), 21/30 (overall)
Time: 18 hours 34 minutes
Pre-Race Report Notes
Some things I think the readers should know ahead of time...
Lori and I both did an 18 hour race in Kentucky the weekend before (separately) and it only took about 10 minutes to feel the lingering effects of that race.
Camp Eagle was located in an extremely remote part of Texas and we were totally cut off from the rest of the world.
If you race with Lori, you should know that she will have to go to the bathroom everytime you return to the TA.
At the pre-race meeting, one of the race directors referred to a hill we would ascend and descend multiple times as the "Death Hill!"
When you look at the topo maps below of our tracks, keep in mind that the contour interval is 40ft.
My jacked up ankle (bad sprain a week before the Mission AR...2 weeks before SYW) didn't handle the terrain very well and prevented us from running.
Leg 1 – Tubin Relay (19 mins)
The race began with a tube relay. This was the funnest race start yet! We were to run down to the river with our inner tubes, cross the river with them 4 times, receiving poker chips for each crossing, return to the TA, and exchange our poker chips for next leg’s instructions. We started in the back of the pack knowing we wouldn’t be running all that fast downhill. Our inner tube was one of, if not, the largest out there as some people were only carrying inflated bike tubes. Prior to the race, Kirk was nervous about the water activities and decided he wanted a tube large enough for him to ride (handles and all) if necessary even if I had to tote him around in it. (I adventure race because I don't swim!) I attached a cord to my pfd which could also attach to the tube thinking I would swim while towing the tube behind me. Countdown 5-4-3-2-1 and off we go! (actually, we did 2 countdowns...not sure why) Once there, we assessed the situation and determine the racers making the best progress across the river were those riding their inner tubes and kicking. Water shoes off, flippers on, I jump on the inner tube and off I go. With the flippers I was making great progress with little effort and passed most of the swimmers and people with much smaller tubes. I handed off the inner tube to Kirk who was also making great progress. A couple more exchanges and we had our 4 poker chips. Flippers off, water shoes on, back to the TA. Kirk was very excited about our performance since he was very nervous about having to swim (I was equally excited that I didn't have to actually swim, yet).
Leg 2 – Sweet, Sweet Mountain Bike – CP 1 (1hr, 52 mins)
We took some time in this TA considering we didn’t have any points to plot, but we did have to change shoes and gear up for biking. This leg was following a marked bike course through about 10 miles of single track with CP1 somewhere towards the end of the course. This course was along rocky trails up to the top of a (big) hill and winding down. Ride-push uphill-ride-push-push-up-up-up-windmill-down-ride brake-down-down-ride brake-down-mud-push-squeaky brakes-down-down-down to river rock-CP1!-back to TA. (My brakes weren’t working all that well, so I rode the steepest section with one foot off the pedal in preparation of jumping off the bike)
Leg 3 – Water Sports – CPs 2, 3, 4 (27 mins)
From previous race videos, we’d seen the various water activities thrown at racers during the SYW races, and the recommended gear list for this race included goggles, snorkel, and fins, plus the required inner tube. Kirk had been dreading this part of the race since we signed up and I could sense his anxiety about being in the water each time the subject came up. Not being a swimmer, he’s not entirely comfortable in the water (that tube was comfortable). We changed into our water shoes, put on our pfds, grabbed the fins and goggles and headed out to the start of the water sports with the instructions of punching the passport and each of our wristbands (to ensure that each racer completed the leg) from the top of the iceberg and 2 buoys. From the top of the cliff, we could see other racers swimming and climbing this big inflated iceberg below, and decided no shoes and fins would be best. To begin there was a huge water slide down into the river below (look in the background of the picture in leg 1). Kirk immediately decided that I should go first in case he needed assistance (rescue) at the bottom, which the volunteer monitoring the slide found somewhat amusing. I slid down going much faster than expected and hit the water pretty hard. I quickly move out of the way and start off toward the iceberg knowing Kirk was coming right behind me. Kirk comes shooting out of the slide holding his nose and landed flat on his back. I chuckle and wait to make sure he was OK, which he was, and now we’re both off toward the iceberg (swimming sans tube). This iceberg has handles spaced out for climbing to the stop on 3 sides and 1 smooth side to slide down. There were consistently 5-10 racers climbing up/falling down the iceberg at this point, so I pick a spot to climb. Just as I was about to grab my first handle, some guy comes falling down above me. I was able to move aside just enough and he landed on my shoulder instead of my head, but OUCH! Too many people on this side, I’m moving! Once on a different side I start to climb up, but now I was close to the side with no handles. Kirk joins me on the same side and starts to climb too. I thought it best to let him finish the climb first so he could begin swimming to the next buoy. The guy just above us was now trying to get down without taking me with him. After a quick glance at each other, I told him to try to get his momentum to the slide side and I would push him over once he let go. He did and it thankfully worked as planned or he would’ve knocked me off completely. Kirk reaches the top, punches his wristband and climbs down. I finish the climb and another racer waiting for his teammates was nice enough to punch my wristband and passport for me. I start to climb down and realize I can’t move over enough to the slide side without falling on Dane (of team Light & Momentary Troubles...Dane, Damon, Julie, and Joe)(hopefully they do a race report!). So I climb down just a bit more, warn Joe, who hadn’t started his ascent, to "look out below!" and dropped back into the water. Kirk was just about at the first buoy when I started swimming toward it, really excited to actually use my recently acquired swimming skills. I was passing people! Kirk punched his band and continued to the last one, while I punched mine and the passport. We punched at the last buoy and then off to exit the river. Kirk had been sporting this backward breaststroke technique which seemed to work for him with the assistance of his pfd (I passed 2 people who were swimming freestyle...ok, both had tennis shoes on, but whatever). We climbed the stairs back to the top of the cliff, during which Kirk was in disbelief of how dizzy he was from the swim. We retrieved our fins and shoes and headed back to the TA. Kirk was super excited having completed the water section and admitted he was foolish to be so worried about it (that was the dizziness talking).
Leg 4 – I want to ride my bicycle, bicycle - Bike/Trek – CPs 5, 6, 7, 8 (1 hr 44 mins)
This was the first set of CPs in the race that required plotting, which I started while Kirk put his ankle brace back on. While plotting, we started hearing thunder. Ah man, it’s gonna rain on us again (see pre-race and Mission race report (yet to be published...check back soon!). We determine our route and order for CPs to be 7-5-6-8 and head down a dirt road where 7 and 5 were located. Clue for CP7 was “Bridge” which we should pass along the road. We cross a couple of creeks without seeing CP7 until I think we’ve gone too far. We decide to continue to 5 and once there, a couple of teams were standing on a creek crossing with culverts underneath. The clue for CP5 was “Culvert” so this must be it. The CP was actually located inside of the culvert, and Kirk was kind enough to volunteer to climb in to punch it. No refusal here, I quickly handed him the passport. Back up the road to find 7 and we still don’t see a bridge with the CP. Now what? We continue down the road and see several team members standing on the side appearing to be waiting for other teammates. Kirk notices bike tracks down an opening beside a creek and decides the bridge must be that direction. Along comes a racer running from that direction and seeing our hesitation, recommends riding our bikes down the path toward the bridge. Great! Off we go down the path of rock and soon see an obvious wooden bridge. There it is! The bridge was right off of the gravel road, but was hidden behind trees. CP6 would be on the top of the hill, clue “Overlook”, directly on the other side of the bridge so we cross it. This side of the hill was a straight up sheer cliff so we rode around to find a place we could climb the hill. We started up a trail, quickly realized it would put us on the wrong hill, and reversed direction. We saw another trail going up the correct hill, but it was super steep and rocky. Knowing CP6 would be at the very top, we decide it would be much, much faster to trek to it without our bikes than with them. We drop our bikes in the creek bed, climb to the top and punch CP6. Just then the rain starts along with thunder and lightning so I want to get down ASAP. I coax Kirk into running a bit (<100m) and we decide to continue in the same direction while climbing down toward the creek below where CP8 was located. We can see trails below us so we zigzag down into the creek. A little farther up the creek, being very careful not to slip on the rocks as it was raining much harder now, and we punch CP8. Trek out of the creek and bike back to the TA through a couple sections of flash flooding for the end of this leg with all CPs. The rain would stop just as we stepped out of the TA for the next leg.
Leg 5 – Can you dig it? - Trek – CPs 9, 10, 11 (2 hrs, 46 mins)
There were only 3 CPs for this leg, one consisting of a special test, so plotting was quick. After a change of clothes and gearing up, we decide to tackle them in order and complete the special test first at CP9. We set out just after team LMT who was jogging to CP9. After a couple of minutes we could no longer see them on the road ahead. Where did they go? We were walking so maybe they were running faster than we thought and are beyond the curve in the road? Wait … what’s that noise behind us? There they are. They took a slight detour (polite way of saying wrong turn), but jogged past us down the road. The clue for CP9 was “Dirt Hill” and once passed a curve in the road we see a big hill of dirt to our left with people on top, “There it is!” Kirk and I start towards the hill and realize LMT had disappeared again. They had gone just passed the hill and seemed to be deliberating whether or not this was the where they needed to go. We reach the CP first where each team member had to ride a scooter one at a time down mounds of (now wet) dirt and around a (wet) dirt road back to the top of the hill. I go first, “Wheeeee! This is fun!” Until I get to the bottom and a glob of mud flies in my eye. “Darn it, I really hope I don’t lose my contact.” So I continued with one eye closed for a while. The mud stopped my momentum rather quickly so the next part consisted of running beside the scooter as much as riding it, then running it up the hill. Kirk and I made a switch of scooter for camelbacks and off he went down the hill (I just remembered that I actually ran up the hill with the scooter...yay!). Test complete, punch passport and we’re off again. We continue down the same road and soon turn off onto a trail toward a big hill where CP10 was located. We continued to check our direction and map along the way to ensure we weren’t going out of our way until we come to 2 fences. The clue for this CP was “Hole in fence”. We see fences, but no hole? Luckily these fences were on the map and after determining their direction picked a fence and walked down toward CP10. We discuss strategy for attacking CP11. We wanted to minimize the up and down climbs so our first approach kept us on the same ridge rather than following the other fence up and down a few hills (Plan A). After about 50m towards CP11, we decide it was a bit too thick for the distance and ended up following the other fence for a while instead (Plan B). After going down and up once, we decided to cut in to try to find the draw where CP11 was located rather than go down-up-down again. We easily find the draw after only a few minutes and came upon another team following the draw upwards. They informed us they hadn’t seen the CP in the draw and were continuing up to look for it. This confused us. One of them kept climbing and Kirk and I figured if he was going to look for it up there, we’d wait the few minutes and let him determine if it was there or not. After a few minutes, Kirk was certain it was not that high so we went off down the draw. Sure enough a few minutes later, “There it is!” How did they miss it? (and they had 4 sets of eyes) We continued out of the draw and followed some trails and roads back to the TA with all 3 CPs.
Leg 7 – Bike/Trek – CPs 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (6 hrs, 31 mins)
Due to the weather, leg 6 which included the ropes course was postponed until after leg 7. There were 8 CPs for this leg and after plotting, we knew this would be a pretty long leg for us. CP22 included a special test with a cutoff and was also closest to the TA so we decide it was a good place to start our long loop of CPs. For Amazing Race fans, this special test was like a Road Block. We had to choose between a mental challenge and a physical challenge. The mental challenge was a puzzle solved by rotating rows of letters painted on long blocks of wood to complete a sentence. The physical challenge was to push 2 giant blocks across a field and arrange them to spell CAMP on one side and EAGLE on the other. We thought we should at least attempt the puzzle. After turning the puzzle blocks a few times with nothing jumping out at us, we decide to go for the larger blocks. Together we got both blocks to the other side turning them over-and-over, World Strongest Man style. We maneuvered them to spell CAMP EAGLE, although it took longer than it should have since we both had our own idea of which way we should position them (we were both right). One of the camp volunteers pointed out the camera in my back pocket, “Thanks!” I took a couple of quick pics before moving on.
We took the same jeep trail toward CP21 as we did coming back from CP11 so we were familiar with the area. The clue was “Draw/Fence Intersection”. There was a clear path in the general direction of the CP so we took it on foot until finding the fence and followed it down to CP21.
CP20 was up next and on the other side of the hill. We continued biking/pushing up the jeep trail toward the windmill we had passed on the bike much earlier… or so we thought. We were actually following a different jeep trail (we had no idea at the time), not on the map, which split off of the jeep trail we should have followed. We should’ve realized our mistake, but at this point in the race, we just trusted we were on the trail. We kept on going toward the windmill until we merged into another jeep trail going the direction we expected. We could see the windmill, also in the expected direction and determined we were right where we thought we were. Boy, were we wrong. The windmill was actually an entirely different windmill! There were so many similarities in the trails and windmill location of where we thought and actually were that we never realized (until much later that night) that we were way off. There were 3 other teams out there with us, also looking somewhat confused. (we all agreed where we thought we were) “I guess that makes me feel a little better?” For the next 2 hours, we would be highly doubtful and confused by our every move. Our original plan for this biking section was to stay as close to the top of the hills as possible and trek/climb down/bushwhack to each CP from above (Plan A). We attempted this for CP20. At first, we couldn’t determine where our starting point should be, and after biking back and forth getting distances, we pick a point and go in. We quickly decide it the brush was too thick to keep a bearing (for over 500 meters) and we would surely miss the draw with CP20. Before going in for CP20, we spoke to a team who decided to bike down to the bottom of the hill and enter the draw from below. Yes, we agreed finding the draw from the bottom would be much easier (Plan B), but really didn’t want to climb back up the hills for the other CPs. Oh well, we change our plan and go for the long ride to the bottom, which was actually lots of fun (Weeeeee!). We get to a creek crossing the trail and measure a distance to the draw with CP20 in it. We cross the creek again? Continue for the distance and notice the terrain looks nothing like we expected? What?? Where are we? We review the map and think maybe we were off our mark at the first creek crossing, adjust the distance, and continue. This still doesn’t look right. We must’ve passed it, but where are we? We soon cross another team from the opposite direction who tells us we’re "getting warm" to the draw we were looking for. Great, almost there. We keep going and still never see a draw. Wait a minute, was he referring to the draw with CP20 or CP19? Darn it, I didn’t mention the CP number. Still lost and confused (but thankfully not chafed, yet) we drop our bikes and head across the creek trying to find the draw through the trees in what looked like could be the correct area (convincing huh?). After 15 minutes or so, we are highly discouraged, and probably lost... so we decide to abandon CP20. This meant it was also highly likely we would also miss CP19 which was up another draw past CP20. I’m really nervous of having no idea of where we are and pissed that we have to give up on CP20 and possibly CP19. We bike a bit more and come upon another windmill. “Windmill? Windmills are marked on the map! There we are! SOB!” We hadn’t gone passed CP20 much at all. “We’re going back!” ("OK") We find the draw with no problem, trek through a few hundred meters and, “There it is!” We took pics to remember it.
The next section of biking was the best of the day (totally worth the misery of the previous 1.5 hours) .
The terrain was beautiful and we even saw deer and a (white) mountain goat on the side of a cliff in the distance.
We find the next draw leading us toward CP19 and find it easily after some trekking (my ankle is killing me at this point...every CP in a draw required ascent and descent in boulder type terrain...tearing my ankle to shreds). We were now half way through this leg of CPs, however, the sun is beginning to set as it’s now 7:30pm and we know we are going to end up in the dark, which will slow us down even more.
The trail turned us back up another (big) hill toward the next set of CPs. This climb with the bike was horrific for us with a super steep section at the top. Push-push-sit on rock and eat a snickers-push-push-rest-push-rest-push-finally reach top! Some biking at the top led us toward the draw with CP18. We could see the climb down to CP18 was going to be really tough (uncomfortably steep and rocky). There were discussions of time, darkness coming, Kirk’s ankle, and the climb back up. Despite all of that, I really wanted to get it. After testing out the descent, we both realize it was going to be worse than we thought and have the same discussions over again. We soon hear voices from below and come upon a team climbing back out of the draw. They admitted this was the hardest CP to get thus far (physically not navigationally) and had taken them about 20 minutes for the climb down and back to that point. In that time, I knew we could get it and be back out before it was dark. We carefully climb down and reach the creek with CP18 located down the creek. The climb out took much longer, and many of the rocks were loose and falling as we stepped on them. Kirk almost got me with a bowling ball sized one! (gutter ball) We finally made it out safely, found our bikes and rode toward CP17 with barely any daylight left so we dug out our headlamps. CP17 was easier to climb down to and find than the previous CP. After this CP, continuing to follow the trail in the dark was difficult and at one point we were off of it completely, during which I rode over a rather large cactus. “Darn it, now I’m going to get a flat that we’ll have to change in the dark!” (Luckily my tires held out until after the race.) We made our way toward CP15 until running into a fence. The clue was “Fence (crossing)”, so we follow the fence and spot CP15 on scaffolding set up over the fence for crossing with only enough room for 1 bike at the top. “How do we accomplish this?” Kirk climbed the scaffolding, I passed his bike to him and he carefully lowered his bike down on the other side, gracefully landing it upside-down on the other side. It was rather impressive (I even surprised myself). I handed him mine, climbed over and he handed it back to me below. The last CP of the leg, CP16, was down a creek we knew we could find just off of the creek with CP8. However, getting to it meant passing close to the TA (with 50 meters), tough to do mentally at this point in the race, and then biking in darkness down the rock path and bridge we’d ridden earlier. Neither of us was excited about doing that in the dark and Kirk, who’s ankle was taking a beating from the up and down trekking both with and without the bike, was not interested in hiking through another creek. We thought we had to be one of the only teams still out on the bike, so decided to return to the TA with one missed CP. The best way back to the TA was to climb a little farther up to the windmill again and then coast down a jeep trail leading right to the TA. We were a little nervous about riding the super steep downhill in the dark (we rode earlier in the first bike leg), which the race director referred to as “the death hill”, but it was fine. We reached the TA just before 10:00pm, 6.5 hours after setting off. At least we were right about it taking us a pretty long time.
Leg 6 – Row, row, row and ropes - Paddle & Ropes – CPs 12, 13, 14 (1 hr, 8 mins)
During the previous bike/trek we were looking forward to getting off of our legs for a while, although now it was dark for the paddle and ropes leg. There were only 2 short paddle CPs with the ropes CP, consisting of a 150 ft repel, in between. I was a little nervous about the long repel, but also excited since I’d never done that before. Kirk was hesitant about completing the ropes section, knowing there could be a difficult climb up to begin the repel. I don’t remember at what point the final decision was made, but we decided to skip the ropes. So we paddled to and punched CP12 and turned right back around. CP14 was not far up the river in the opposite direction, but the challenge was crossing a dam (2 dams) by portaging the kayak to the other side (4 times). Kirk was worried about carrying the kayak up and around the dam with his already distressed ankle, but I insisted we paddle at least to the dam to take a look. We did, made a U-turn, and went right back to the TA. (LMT confirmed later that this was a great decision)
Leg 8 – Fi-naly - Trek – CPs 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 (11:02 – 2:49; 3 hrs, 47 mins)
Back in the TA for our last transition, Kirk sat with his foot elevated and read me the final set of coordinates, yawning during each one. “Stop yawning and read me the CPs please (!!!).” (I almost pulled a muscle in my face trying not to yawn after she barked at me...easier said than done) After plotting the final 6 CPs, we changed into dry clothes and headed out for our final leg. We started with CP23 which was on our way back up to the windmill. The steep climb was tough on Kirk’s ankle (again), so we took it slow. We reached a point where we climbed down into a draw toward the CP with the clue of “Above draw in labyrinth”. “What? Isn’t a labyrinth a maze? We have to find a CP in a maze of what? Trees?” We hoped we’d recognize whatever it was even in the dark. During the climb down, we saw another 2-person team coming toward us. We asked them if they had any luck finding the CP down there, but they weren’t forthcoming with any info. “Oh-well, whatever.” Yet they asked us about the difficulty of the climb out of the draw and the quickest way to the trail. We muttered some response. After a few more minutes of bushwhacking down through the draw, we came upon an obvious, actual maze made of trees and fabric with CP23 hidden within it (Cool!). We climbed under the fabric to start and then each went different directions at each split until Kirk spotted the CP after a few minutes of dead ends. “That was fun!” Outside of the maze there was a trail that we hoped could lead us back out, but since it wasn’t quite leading us in the right direction, we decided to start over, climb and bushwhack out of the draw. Once back on the trail, we rewarded ourselves with 2 starbursts each mmmmm! (actually, I had 3...hee hee...don't tell Lori) We continued up to the windmill, then a short pace count down another trail before Kirk shot a bearing and we pace counted toward the “Point”. We were able to continue along an open area by zigzagging slightly until we easily came upon CP24, just a little farther than expected. In the dark, we had trouble following our path out, but we were able to follow Kirk’s bearing back to the trail. Another 2 starbursts each mmmmm! (3 for me!) The next 3 CPs (25, 26, 27) were much farther down the trail away from the TA. There was a metal grate at the windmill (perfect bench), so we sat and rested for a while. Now what? We knew we could make it out there, but the way back would be a long way, and each CP was in a draw of course. CP28 was back towards the TA, but still some distance down a road and creek we’d travelled earlier. It was just before 2:00am and we decided we should head back to the TA (wise decision). I was disappointed in not going for them, especially since we’d already skipped 3 CPs, but on the way back I was convinced we’d made the right decision. There were some steep hills, and Kirk had to rest his ankle a few times going downhill. “Who rests going downhill?”
(it felt like my tibia was going to just slide off the top of my foot) He was limping pretty badly. He’d forgotten his trekking poles, which may have helped a bit, and I offered my shoulder to lean on, but he declined. We made it to the TA for the last time at 2:49am... a total time of 18 hours and 34 minutes. The best part about coming in early was having time to take showers and get in a few hours of sleep before breakfast.
Wrap-up – Total time 18 hrs, 34 mins
Although we didn’t get all of the CPs, we found every CP we looked for and believe we could’ve found the others if we’d went for them. More lessons were learned. The terrain was exciting and challenging. The special tests and water activities were great surprises to the race. I was very pleased in our performance considering we’d done an 18 hour race the week prior. We went at our own enjoyable pace, stopping occasionally to appreciate the moment. I had a great time. (I had a great time too! Huge thanks to Lori for being so patient because I knew it was killing her that we weren't able to run. There was some pretty good suffering for me, which surprisingly correlates with some of my favorite moments in the race.)
The next day, we decided to stop in San Antonio so Lori could see the Alamo for the first time (my 3rd). We took a nice (aching) stroll along the river walk as well, followed by some great barbeque.
Back at home...thanks for the use of your tandem kayak Paul!
