TEAM SPIRIT FMIJ

July 22, 2005

We had a tough start. I put a stick through my hand about 15 minutes in to the race. We lead at the beginning only to get pushed right at the first marsh bit. Grabbing the northern trail we had to take a long route back around to get back on course. We fought back up to 2nd place by the time of the 1st CP. Wendy started getting sick and continued to be so for the next few hours. We stopped racing and concentrated on just getting efficiently to the next TA where we would get a chance to evaluate our options better. Wendy is tough, but she was also holding nothing down (from both ends) - so we were slowed to a walking pace.

At TA1 - Wendy went to medical. Medical staff was more interested in having her remain in the TA and rest than getting her fit for racing - so she was having nothing to do with that:-). She finally got her first bit of fluids back in her and was on the road to recovery. I think we only spent about 20minutes in the TA as it was.

Now we were generating some momentum and getting back into the race - only we were about 9th and 1.5 hours back of the leaders at this stage. The one thing we noted about a FMIJ race is we have no idea as to how much race remains, so it is difficult to add some strategy to your plan (such as where to be at when night falls, when to push hard, etc.). So we just internalized - something we're good at - and raced our own race. Trying to maintain a solid effort.

The rafting went well for us (I had a previous career as a rafting guide) and we moved up 4 or so spots. Our TA2 was a quick transition and then we spent a comical moment at the ropes:-). Looking forward to getting some of those photos...

The next bike section was as awful for us as I've heard other people describe it. About 1/2 way through, I realized the bike around route was the better option (I hadn't even noticed this). I became somewhat deflated thinking everyone figured this out and had gone that way. Navigation was pretty straightforward even though the trail was now a big road (for a bit) and we did some bikewhacking at the end. We emerged to see Brian at the remote CP. He informed us we were in 3rd (all male team ahead of us), which was a lot different from the 17th I was expecting. Two other teams pretty much met us at this CP. So we were getting back into the thick of things.

The remaining bike was straightforward and it was nice to just cover some ground.

In TA3 we were told nobody had left yet. So now we had a bunch of teams in 1st.

To take the advanced section or not? Five minutes of team dialogue went kinda like this:

"It will be close - I think we need 14 hours to pull it off"

"How much time do we have right now?"

"If we leave now, we have about 14 hours."

"Well we have no option - if there is a chance, we need to go for it"

One other team joined us on the advanced section. They left a little ahead of us, but had difficulty finding the trail out of the campground so we basically left together. We passed them and biked alone for the rest of the race.

This next bike section was quite nice to start with. It was a beautiful area and, because we had already been on the bikes for a good stretch previously, we kept a steady (not aggressive) pace. I wanted to cover as much ground as possible before it got dark. Well it did get dark and we had numerous stream crossings. The trail, I'm sure was quite visible during daylight, but it was ridiculous trying to stay with it at night. Partially bike whacking, partially pushing bikes up the creek bed, we finally got to a main trail. Not confident of where we were exactly on it we went to wrong way back to the river. Once there, I realized where we were at and we returned and got the flag at an intersection with another trail.

We were already leaving when we heard someone call out. Turns out this was a manned CP and we didn't see the tent in the dark off on the other trail. It was a nice visit with some friendly volunteers. Kudos to them for being where they were in these conditions. Oh, yes of course, it was raining - a lot. I had dumped during one of the stream crossing and was soaked and cold.

The next bike portion was mostly hike-a-bike again. We tried to ride when we could but this was really only 20m sections at a time. We grumped and I shivered badly. Had to keep moving. This section went on forever - and was my low point. No problems with navigation until right near the end where we did note the intersection and went the wrong way for a bit before back tracking. I had made a "space blanket" outfit by stuffing one into all my clothes - but it helped very little.

We arrived at 4:50am or so at TA4. I needed to warm up, so I was stripped down and placed in the back of the truck with the heat on and some stinky dog blankets all over me:-). Everyone kept checking on me and I started to recover. It turns out there was a cutoff for the next section at 5:00 am that I wasn't aware of. I already knew we had a tough time constraint but now we had to fly. On the radio, Brian said we could continue if we left by 5:30 (in 10 minutes). I flew to get ready and we were good to go.

But I then figured we would be way past the 12:00 cutoff. Estimating the next section would take us 9 hours. Brian said 8. I conversed with Brian about our options - asking if we could take a shortened route or such. In the end, this became our finish line.

In hindsight, we could have just continued to the finish line and on to victory. I didn't know about time penalties for missing CP's. I'd just assumed you were DQ'd. Big mistake on my part.

But we were not upset. We knew what we had accomplished - and had fun doing it.

A big congratulations to anybody out there on this course. It was tough. And I hate to admit it, but it is the first 36 hour race Wendy and I have never finished. I know that wasn't the plan by FMIJ, but that is the "adventure" part of our sport. At no time did I feel the safety net was not available if we needed it, even though the conditions were difficult.

A big thanks to all who helped put on this event - especially the volunteers. We don't often get enough time to thank you when we're pushing through.

It was also great to meet new racers that we hadn't crossed paths before. Hope to see you out there again.