LBL Challenge 24 hour race report..finally!
Grand Rivers, Kentucky
April 4-5
Friday night events: Friday night we had dinner at Cracker Barrel, attended the pre-race meeting, and then I packed my bags & got my stuff ready while the guys plotted the coordinates for each checkpoint. Lights were out finally by 1:45am. I hit the hay on a 1-inch mat on the floor.
Saturday morning: I was awaked by the sound of a 12-hour team in the room below. Their race started an hour earlier than ours so unfortunately I didn’t get to sleep in until 6am like the rest of my team. So I got about 3 hours of sleep!
Breakfast: I ate a delicious Bread Company pumpkin muffin and revved up my heart rate with a Starbuck’s Frappuccino mocha drink.
Ready to race: We were first instructed to drop our bikes and biking gear off at the North Welcome Station about a 5 minute drive away. Then we drove to the start. I was packed and ready to go so there really wasn’t anything to do except wait. I looked around at the other teams, sizing up the women on the co-ed teams. Some looked like elite athletes, but others looked just like me. Many teams had matching race clothing and packs. I was most surprised by the fact that many teams had very small packs. I don’t even know how they were able to fit the required gear in them. That was puzzling to me. Our packs looked 4x their size. Was this a good or bad thing?
START: We started at 8:00am on Kentucky Lake Scenic Drive, near the Canal.
RUN / TREK 1 (CP1 - CP2): We started off with a conservative 2.5-3 mile jog to our bikes at the North Welcome Station. We only had to locate one checkpoint along the way (CP1). The North Welcome Station was CP2. We got both checkpoints.
MOUNTAIN BIKING LEG 1 (CP2 – CP7): At the North Welcome Station we got our bikes and started a 27-28 mile mountain biking leg on some sweet single track trails at Land Between the Lakes. We started on the Canal Loop trail in a counter-clockwise direction. The trails were smooth, hard-packed and very fast and fun. It was a little congested because teams hadn’t spread out this early in the race. We passed several teams on this leg of the race. We also saw some gear spread out all over the course so someone must have forgotten to zip their pack. We also saw leading teams coming directly toward us so it was apparent that the navigation would bring us right back on the same trail going clockwise. After getting one checkpoint on the Canal Loop trail (CP3), we went back to Race Headquarters (CP4). From Race H.Q., we rode a series of roads and trails (eventually getting on the North / South trail), to Star Camp Wayside Area (CP6). From Star Camp, we continued on mostly gravel roads to the next Transition Area at Cravens Bay Lake Access. This leg of the race was a lot of fun and fairly easy even though there were several hills along the gravel roads. It was fun seeing the other teams (and passing several). I was probably enjoying it so much that I forgot to stay hydrated. We got all 5 checkpoints.
RUN / TREKKING LEG 2 (CP8 - CP12): After dropping off our bikes and biking gear at Cravens Bay Access (CP8) we continued the race on foot. This was approximately 7 miles. I remember the terrain was pretty easy. Unfortunately, this is when it came to light I hadn’t been drinking enough. While the guys had stopped about 10 times to go to the bathroom I had only stopped twice. I was all of the sudden out of energy and sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to eat and nothing sounded good. I spoke up and the guys let me stop to take care of my stomach problem. Diarrhea, fun! Bill urged me to drink one of his Ensure’s slowly to replenish my system and I drank water about every 5 mintues. The guys carried my pack while I recovered. I don’t remember it taking too long to feel better. From there on out I drank water more frequently. We looked for 3 checkpoints along the way (CPs 9-11). These checkpoints looked easy on the map, but the terrain didn’t offer a lot of prominent features so we did head down the wrong road and had to retrace our steps to find the right road. We did, however, find these 5 checkpoints.
PADDLING LEG (CP12 - CP15): I think we arrived at Demumbers Access around 6:00pm or maybe sooner…where the canoes were waiting for us. We knew it would get a little cooler on the lake so we added a layer. Luckily, we still had good weather so I was able to endure sitting while having wet legs and feet the entire paddling leg. We had to paddle a total of 15 miles on Lake Barkley, against a small current. What complicated matters was the fact that we had a diagonal head wind that created 2-foot waves, which ended up crashing into the canoe and onto my legs. This created more resistance and made it feel as if we’d tip. That was quite stressful considering we had to paddle for 5 hrs. ¾ of the paddle leg was in the dark, which added another element of challenge.
At 7:01pm Mike and I both recognized that we both had beat our longest fitness endeavor. My 200-mile bike race and his Ironman were both around 11 hours.
As much as possible, we stayed fairly close to the shore for safety reasons in case we tipped. We did have to find a couple of checkpoints along the way. One of the stops ended up being a gear check. We had to rummage through our bags and find 4-5 items that I can’t recall anymore (emergency blanket, whistle, waterproof something, etc.). We ended up taking an hour to transition, for some reason. They had a campfire, but Bill and Matt instructed us not to go near it or we wouldn’t want to leave. So at least twice on the course there was an inviting fire but we managed to ignore it. The hardest part about this leg was sitting in a canoe with no back support. I was in a lot of discomfort and pain and only found some relief when I leaned back on my pack against the metal rail. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much help to Mike since I don’t have a lot of upper body power. We got all the checkpoints that were required.
BIKING LEG 2 (CP15 - CP17): We made it back to Cravens Bay where we had dropped our bikes off earlier. At this point I was shivering in my wet clothes so another gear change was required. I think this was the 3rd time I changed my socks but it didn’t seem to do me much good in any case. We started a 10-mile biking leg on mostly gravel and jeep roads, heading towards Hematite Lake. What I remember most about this section is riding through the creeks at night. One particular crossing looked challenging because it was wide and seemed to have lots of loose rock on the bottom as I watched others cross. I knew I had to power through & pick the right line, but unfortunately, half way through a rock stopped me so I had to put my foot down. Wet again. There were a couple guys waiting by the shore and didn’t seem to want to cross. I think they finally did. This biking leg was peaceful at night and easy enough. But I did see the race take its toll on one team. A 2-man team member came out of the woods after finding a checkpoint and he looked terrible. He was staring ahead, losing his balance, and apparently out of energy. I’m pretty sure they were a DNF. Again, we successfully located the required checkpoints.
TREKKING LEG 3 (CP18 - CP33): According to the race director, this was the bread and butter of the race. They admitted this would be difficult for most teams. It was a rogaine-style orienteering leg (which means you can get the checkpoints in any order you wish and as many as you want). Matt started to feel bad on this leg. His head was hot, but his body was chilled and most likely was dealing with dehydration. Mike stopped to take care of some chafing issue so Matt took a break while Bill and I laid along the road looking up at the stars while chatting about the adventure. It’s probably 4:00 in the morning and we’re all sprawled out on a highway. Around the bend we could hear a truck coming our way…and FAST! He didn’t even slow down. We barely had enough time to kick our stuff into the grass. The estimated distance on this leg was 13 - 14 miles. The checkpoints we found on this section include: 20, 21, 23, 26, 29, 33. We started this leg in the dark, but also got to see the sunrise during this time. After the race we found out that many teams just skipped this section altogether or only tried to find a couple. Giving ourselves only 30 minutes to spare, we finally returned to Hematite Lake before the 8:00am cutoff.
BIKING LEG 3 (CP33 - FINISH): With 4 hours left we thought we had enough time to find some checkpoint (I don’t even know what we were looking for actually). But we weren’t sure how many miles we had to bike to the finish. We had a flat, made some navigational errors and muddy trails to trudge through. We knowingly & immediately admitted using a forbidden road to get to the finish before noon and should have been DQ’d but the Director still has us placing 10th among 16 finishing 4-person teams. 5 additional teams DNF’d.
This was the most difficult leg of the race on an emotional level. The long transitions, minor errors, and recent breakdown in team communication all came to a head during these critical moments. It was disappointing, but I had to find the silver lining in it all. It was bittersweet. I felt accomplished to have endured the time, distance, elements, and challenges with my team for 28 hours.
There were no teams at the finish and the scene was desolate. There were some slightly warm baked potatoes left and a couple of smiling faces from the race organizers. The clouds rolled in, bringing rain.
We went straight from the finish to a nearby campground for a shower. Mike and I drove through Taco Bell drive-thru and continued west toward STL. We ran into some traffic and soon both of us had heavy eyelids so we pulled over for a 30 minute cat nap. I didn’t go to sleep until 11:00pm Sunday night so I was awake for a total of 42-1/2 hours.
