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.
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!
1 comment:
When we missed the shortcut that HBP told us about on the way to one of those last checkpoints but we caught the trail on the way back.
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