Stealing Wi-Fi

I know I owe y'all some pictures, but bear with me...

After HBP left the boats, I stuck around to see if teams would miss the 3pm cut-off, and yes they did!  It was hard to watch as the race folks informed them that they would be penalized 1 cp for every minute they were late.  In other words, the teams who more than five minutes late were now back down to 0 checkpoints!  Ouch!  It was hard to watch so I left. 

I got lost on my way to the next bike drop because I lost my map (good thing I'm not racing!).  I stumbled across a team on bikes so I just followed them in to the bike drop.  As I pulled up, there were the pink jerseys (and yes, HBP is the only team here with pink jerseys).  They looked a lot warmer and happier now as you can see in the picture.  They picked up 2 more CP's along the way and are now headed off on a relatively short trek.

Oh yeah, I'm without cell phone recption right now but have managed to find a wi-fi signal  coming from "Big John's House" out here in the middle of nowhere...no sign of any civilization....hmmm?  Thanks Big John, wherever you are!

HBP off the water!

HBP is off the water and had a great paddle. They look like the wind got the best of them, but still smiling. They are in no worse than 24th place. There is still 22 boats on the water.

3pm cutoff!

No sign of HBP at canoe take-out yet. Wind is pretty brutal. A lot of teams skipped paddle CP's just to get off the water. Teams must be off the water by 3pm... gonna be tight!

HBP clears paddle CPs

I just spotted HBP shortly after punching CP4. They're still smiling and have finished all the paddle checkpoints. Now the long paddle back to their bikes. BTW they are ahead of Vignette! Pictures soon to come!

lunch

eating lunch at Betty's Cafe which is completely decorated in Lucille Ball stuff/junk/artwork.

update #4

HBP was the 35th team (out of 67) to take off in the canoe. They looked great... all smiles.

Update #3 - Race start

Sorry for the delay, hectic morning...
Woke up around 4am.  Temps in low 40's and breezy.  Teams received maps and all UTMs at 5am.  They plotted points til about 6:15 am.  They were instructed to bring their bikes to the end of the road so the race could begin with a short sprint to to their bikes.  Last few details were announced just before 7am.  Race actually started 7:07am with a cannon boom (very loud).  Here's a shot just before the start.

HBP's plan was to stay near the back of the pack to avoid the stampede.   They safely mounted their bikes and headed off without incident.  Here's a shot of the galloping headlamps.

A couple of teams weren't so lucky and crashes ensued.  The girl on Team #44 appeared to have the worst crash when another biker clipped her handlebars.  The medics were tending to her a mere half mile from the start.  Here shoulder/arm was obviously in severe pain.

The pack headed off on a 25 mile bike to CP1 and the canoe put-in.

National Championships update #2 - Pre-Race meeting

Pre-race meeting is over.  There was a great vibe in the room...full of energy.  I admit, I really wish I was racing tomorrow.  Lori was pretty excited after the meeting because Robin Benincasa (adventure racing icon) gave her some Starbuck's coffee packets.  Below is a picture of Robin talking to the field. 

Hefner Bunny Pie (referred to as HBP from here on out) is now making some gear adjustments based on some of the info revealed at the meeting along with a final gear check.  They appear to be pretty excited and a touch nervous.  The race directors have been making numerous last minute course changes today because of the 5 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  The weather has passed and the next 2 days should be perfect race weather...well, maybe a little windy.  Here's a shot of tonight's sunset.

Maps and checkpoint coordinates will be handed out at 5am tomorrow (Friday).  Cgeck back then!

National Championships update #1 - Mystery event #1 ????

They're all checked in and ready to race.  The pre-race meeting starts at 7pm.  More later...

Lori wins 2009 Fontainebleau Adventure Duathlon!

This past weekend Lori and I headed to Mandeville to participate in this year's edition of the Fontainbleau Adventure Duathlon.  This race was part of the Greater New Orleans Northshore Adventure Weekend.  There were five different events to choose from on Saturday and Sunday.  We chose to race in the duathlon on Saturday morning.  The course was in perfect condition for an offroad race...wet, muddy, and cold!  Lori tore up the course and won the female division (she also finshed 7th overall...male and female).  Paul finished 6th overall and 3rd in the "guys named Paul" division.  I also had what I consider to be a succesfull race and finished a little more towards the front of the middle of the pack than usual.  Congrats to Lori and Paul!  Here's a post race picture:

After the race, Lori and I stuck around to volunteer for the Kids Adventure Challenge Experience.  We hasd a great time watching the all the kids do events like paddling, scavenger hunts, fun run, trail ride, inflatable obstacle course, mystery events, and a rockwall.  We both highly recommend the KACE...it is a wonderful event for families.

Lake Charles Adventure Race (8/29/09)

I know this post is a little overdue, but better late than never, right. Actually, I was planning on just putting a link to one of my teammate’s (Scarlett Pourciau) blog since she wrote the race report, but I felt the need to make some corrections/commentary to her post and add some pictures. So, the words below are hers and my comments are in red.

August 29th, 2009
Team: Light & Momentary Troubles
members: Damon & Scarlett Pourciau, Kirk Zeringue
Results (place/#of teams): 9/24 (co-ed), 25/66 (overall)
Time: 3 hours 11 minutes 46 seconds

With "No Sweat" out of the way, we set our sites on Lake Charles, part of Gulf Coast Adventure's "Racing to N'Awlins" Series. This time our team was comprised of Damon, Kirk, and me. Jamie tagged along and was sweet enough to watch Stella during the race. The Sharbono family was there, with multiple generations racing and cheering. Nathan's dad was trying his hand at adventure racing for the first time, Nathan had an all-male team, and the cutest Sharbonos were our cheerleaders and Stella's playmates for the day. Hefner Bunny Pie was also there to dominate everyone, of course. We left later than we wanted to Friday night and caught a few hours of rest at a nearby hotel before heading to Sam Houston Jones State Park. (Lori, Matt, and I camped Friday and Saturday night)

The first leg of the race was a trail run, and Damon sprinted out in front with the passport (despite our previous conversation minutes before the start). Kirk and I followed at a nice pace. (probably around 9 minute miles) Back at the TA, we caught our first glimpse of Damon since the starting line when we all jumped on our bikes.

The first bike was on very congested single track, and we were stuck behind many inexperienced cyclists. Seems our "nice" pace had put us in the back of the pack behind folks who needed to stay on the pavement. They literally were hopping off their bikes for every obstacle, and Damon and I were getting irritated when we realized that Kirk was not with us. Damon, the almighty holder of the passport, instructed me to slow down and wait for Kirk while he fought on ahead and grabbed the checkpoints. I did, and discovered that Kirk had become roadkill not once but twice when rude cyclists tried to pass him and instead just mowed him down, bike and all. (Actually, the first time I was stopped at a pile-up in front of me when another biker plowed into my back…that hurt. The second time, a biker tried to pass me on singletrack without letting me know and our handlebars got tangled leading to a nasty spill…that hurt more! I calmly expressed my displeasure to him…yeah right, I chewed him out…then his teammates tore into him too!) We reunited and easily road the rest of the trail thinking that we would meet up with Damon at the end. Kirk, the almighty holder of the map, navigated with ease. When we got to the end of the trail the race director snapped our photo, and was polite enough not to inquire about the location of our third teammate. Perhaps he realized we were racing with Damon and knew that this was just par for the course. Anyway, when we arrived at the end of the trail and the first mystery event, Damon was nowhere to be seen (for at least 12 minutes). Turns out he had followed another team that took a wrong turn and rode about an extra mile through the forest.

where's damon?

there he is!

Reunited (and it feels so good) we completed the mystery event which was a bike and hike. This is where two team members run and one bikes. I let the boys bike since I knew they would soon be paddling and I would not.


After collecting the rest of our bikes, we headed to the canoe put-in. My two boat motors did an excellent job on the paddle, even if they did almost come to blows over Damon's ridiculous resistance to Kirk's plan to refill his water bottle at the boat drop (I got a little irate about this…justifiably so, fresh off the heals of a race where I cramped for 12 hours straight).


After navigating the rough waters of disagreement, we were back on the bikes for more single track, then back to the TA for our second mystery event. (this mystery event actually took place about an hour earlier after the first bike leg) Normally, I am great at mystery events, especially the ones that require balance. This one did not require balance and in my opinion, it sucked. We had to use a bucket with three ropes attached to it with loops on the end and touching only the loops fill a larger bucket with water from the nearby lake. I did not take the time to read the instructions, depending on my teammates to keep me up to speed and this resulted in me touching the rope, us losing an entire bucket of water, and me getting yelled at (by Damon, not me…I touched the rope too). Whatever (ditto).

After that was over, we set out for the final run. We found the checkpoints easily, only really going out of our way once on accident (not sure when this happened). We finished in a little over 3 hours, and were able to spend time visiting with friends back at the TA.

Hefner Bunny Pie collecting their winnings for 1st place!

2009 No Sweat Adventure Race

A couple of weekends ago Lori and I headed west with our respective teams (HBP & LMT) to participate in the 2009 edition of the No Sweat 24 Hour Adventure Race. Here's a link to a race report written by one of my teammates, Scarlett... http://astreetcarnamedstella.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-sweat-race-report.html

Here's some quick stats:

Date: August 22-23, 2009
Location: in and around Lake Travis (near Austin, TX)
Team: Light & Momentary Troubles
Team members: Kirk Zeringue, Dane Welch, Damon & Scarlett Pourciau
Results (place/#of teams): 12/15 (overall)
Time: 23 hours 13 minutes
Trekking: 32km (20 miles)
Mountaing Biking: 50km (31 miles)
Swimming: 1km
Kayaking: 22km (13.5 miles)

Here's some pictures:

finished setting up the TA

normally Lake Travis...now just the Colorado River

open your mouth, it makes you look like you're having fun!

Awww!

Team Light and Momentary Troubles (LMT)

Team Hefner Bunny Pie (HBP)

"No, we're right here Damon!"

it's getting hot!

I obviously haven't started my 12 hours of cramping yet! Actually, according to the map, we are walking on water in this picture.

TA 2

The best Checkpoint in the race. I'll never forget you CP 10!

We were in Texas.

20 hours into the race.

Geaux Tigers!

Janie (Lori's cousin) just sent another adorable picture of my Godson Luke and I got all excited about the upcoming LSU football season. I took some liberties and doctored the picture a little bit (sorry Janie...and whatever professional photographer took the picture). Anyway, Luke and I say "GEAUX TIGERS!!!!"

Lori finishes 3rd overall in Rocketchix!

Lori and I drove up to Woodworth, LA this past weekend where Lori participated in a duathlon at Indian Creek Recreation Area. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and I went for about a 7 mile trail run while Lori set up the tent and studied. We then drove into Alexandria to pick up some supper and headed back to the park. For the first time in months (maybe years) we were both ready to got to sleep by 10pm! The only problem was that it was still 86 degrees outside with a heat index in the 90's. Needless to say we were hot and sticky even though we were practically naked in that tent. We jockeyed for position near the little fan with and occasional "don't touch me!" thrown in. It was pretty miserable. It eventually cooled off enough so we were able to fall asleep...but we both woke up a lot during the night. Alarms went off at 6am on Sunday morning. The race was staged within walking distance from our tent so that made things very convenient. As we walked up to the TA, we heard the announcement that the swim portion of the triathlon was canceled and the race was now going to be a run-bike-run duathlon. Apparently, someone had drowned the night before in the lake after their boat sank and they had not yet found the body. Out of respect for the saerch and rescue operations, the race director decided to cancel the swim. Of course, the racers were dissappointed but obviously understanding.

The race was pretty exciting. There was a professional triathlete there so she obviously spanked the rest of the field, but lori was in a battle the entire race with about 6 others for a top 5 finish. In the end, Lori finshed 3rd overall and 1st in her age group. We were both pretty excited. Here's some pictures from the race:






After the race, we drove down to Chicot State Park near Ville Platte to do some kayaing and mountain biking. After the kayaking, the weather turned bad pretty quickly so decided to scratch the biking and start the 2 and half hour drive home. All in all, a great weekend.

Catch-Up Post #3 - All Shook Up Set Construction

ALL SHOOK UP Set Construction
July 26th, 2009

I spent most of my free time this summer spearheading the construction of the set for St. John Theatre's summer musical - ALL SHOOK UP! Last night was closing night of the show so I thought I would add some photos that show off the Darryl Clement designed set. Some of the highlights were:

• 2-story set
• light boxes, arch, and walls that change colors
• a 20' fireman's pole
• the orchestra (12 piece...I think) was on the second story of the set behind the records

Thanks to all my fellow volunteers who helped make Darryl's vision become a reality!

Catch-Up Post #2 - BRUAR

Baton Rouge Urban Adventure Race
July 25, 2009

At the end of last season, I vowed to not participate in any more urban adventure races. I'm pretty miserable the entire time in the urban races because my teammates are faster than me on the run, so it takes everything I have just to keep up. I now know that if I have to race for that long with that amount of intensity, then I'm probably not having much fun. So, no more urban races for me, right. I kept my vow through exactly one race...Mobile Urban AR.

My dad expressed some interest in trying out adventure racing at the end of last season and we all thought it was a great idea. So, we encouraged him to start training. After 6 months of training and hard work, he was ready to give it a go. I thought it was best he attempted an urban race first, which means I had to break my own vow. I was pretty confident, however, that there would be no sprinting involved. We need a third person...my sister. Well, that was the plan, but she was having some knee troubles in the week leading up to the race. So she decided to not race rather than risk further injury. In the end, it was the just the two of us...father and son...58 and 32...Team Meringue with a "Z".

That morning, my dad was obviously a little nervous because he wasn't talking nearly as much as usual. My mom (the nurse) was probably the most nervous. I assured her he would be fine because I knew he had trainined appropriately. The race started with a running section. We hung towards the back so all of the srinters could get out of our way. We arrived at CP1 where there were still a ton of teams confused over whether or not it was CP1 (mislabeled). We just punched it and headed to CP2 near the Quad. Shortly after punching CP2, Hefner Bunny Pie (eventual winners) came running by. We were amazed...could it be? Yes, we were ahead of HBP through 2 check points! We made it back to the TA and transitioned to the bikes. Surprisingly (to me), my dad was able to run the entire first leg of the race! His training was obviously paying off.

The 2nd leg of the race was a bike leg. We way would ride our bikes from LSU to dowtown Baton Rouge collecting CP's along the way. Once again, my dad was quite impressive...faster than I expected. In fact, I had to hold him back a little on the bikes because I knew there was still a lot of race left. We got all the CP's without any trouble and made it to the bike drop. Leg 3 was a run around downtown to the YMCA, USS Kidd, fountains, and Arsenal Museum. Here's a picture of us doing the mystery challenge at the YMCA. My dad ran most of this leg as well...wow!

Leg 4 was a bike back to LSU and the TA with a few more checkpoints along the way. My dad was equally as strong on this bike leg as the first. We then had to run (with intermittent walking...the heat was starting to take it's toll) to BR Beach to the canoe put-in. We ran into HBP along the way and they snapped this picture.

The canoe was also quite impressive on my dad's part (common theme). We collected the 3 CP's and even passed a couple of teams on the water. We ran back toward the TA on our way to CP18 where we were faced with a mystery challenge. We basically had to climb up, over, and through a huge spider web (working on getting pictures of this). Anyway, once again, and to the amazement of onlookers (sister, mom, HBP, etc.) my dad had no trouble with the web. We hustled back to the finish line. I was a little overcome with pride and gave my dad a big hug and told him how great he did. Man was I proud, and still am! He's already talking about his next race!

Catch-Up Post #1 - Beach Volleyball Birthday!

I apologize to my readers for the infrequent blog posts lately but I haven't had enough "Free Time" to update kirksfreetime.blogspot.com. So, I'll be playing catch up over the next week or so.


Beach Volleyball Birthday!
July 15th, 2009

Today was my 32nd birthday...wow....hmmmmm....I'll leave it at that. Anyway, I had a pretty good day with plenty of B-day wishes. Thanks to all of you! The day capped off with a great evening of volleyball at Coconut Beach (we play every Wednesday night) with my teammates from PHAZZE 6. Lori surprised me (somewhat, she always does something like this on my Birthday to make me feel special...and a little embarrassed) with party hats and 2 trays of chocolate chip cookies from subway.

We all wore our party hats during the game and our referree even joined in on the festivities. Even though we lost our game that night, I couldn't have been happier because I got to spend another birthday with great friends. Thanks again!

Scouting for CACAR

I spent yesterday at Clear Springs doing some course scouting and putting out some checkpoints. I started the day paddling the Middle Fork of the Homochitto River and it was a struggle. The Middle Fork is normally pretty shallow requiring frequent pull sections, but I thought with the amount of rain they had up there the previous 48 hours that it would be a lot more conducive to paddling. Well it was certainly deeper in most areas, but the current was also a lot stronger. The result was a brutal mere 1 mile paddle (half mile downstream/half mile back upstream) in about a hour and a half! So I'm now re-thinking the paddle section of CACAR whick means it will be flatwater paddling (~9 miles) instead of river paddling.

After paddling/pulling, I spent about 4 hours biking/trekking though the National Forest around Clear Springs. A few observations to note for CACAR...

• The heat and the terrain make for a dangerous combination making dehydration a real possibility if you're not careful.
• I highly recommend using gaiters for the trekking sections (or high socks at the very least)
• the roads/trails are drastically different when wet

July 5th Celebration - Mentos and Diet Coke

CACAR FAQs

Q. How do we register?
A. Send me an e-mail at kirkzeringue@gmail.com with your team name, team members, and which course (short or long...6hr or 18hr).

Q. Is there a waiver?
Click here for more...