Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Endeavor Team Challenge : how to get there.

Endeavor Team Challenge.
What a title.
Perseverance, endurance, battling the odds, battling the elements, battling yourself.
Partnership, trust, faith, togetherness, belief
Testing yourself, testing your limits, believing in yourself

  All of these synonyms / comparisons I have had hard times believing in, in myself.  I have self esteem issues. I often don't think I am a good as the guy next to me.  I sometimes find fault in others to make myself feel better.  I had hopes this event would help prove to me that I am a competent athlete, that I can hold my head up against other athletes, that 53 is not that old.  I think it did that.

  I first heard that there was going to be an adventure race of some sort at Bear Valley this past spring.  I was excited to see it come and hopefully be a part of it.  I had never done an actual adventure race, but I had participated in many races and many adventures, some planned, others not so much.  I heard this was to be a 2 person team event and began my search for a partner.  I looked up and down the highway 4 corridor for someone that shared my excitement for this race.  I asked an endurance racer, but he was to start school in Montana in August. I asked a former Navy Seal, but he said he could not get fit enough in the 4 months until the event. I asked a CrossFit Games competitor, but he had no desire for endurance events. My plan to compete in this event and bring the news and knowledge to my family for future events was failing. My wife had a better idea.
  My wife and best friend, Nancy, asked me what was keeping me from asking one of my younger brothers. My idea was to participate in this race, then bring the knowledge to my brothers and kids for them to participate in future events.  I know my son, Nathan, would have run with me if he was not currently going through family issues. (I Love You Nate and Marley, you will love this. next year.)  Audrey would have been game to come up and race with me.  She has done 2 Tough Mudders with me and loves testing herself and getting dirty. But being "dad" I didn't want to drag my little girl into the unknown.
  I have three brothers. Any one of them could have and would have come and done this race with me if I had asked them. The only issue I had was which one to ask. I could ask Bud.  Bud would have had to come out from Massachusetts, and all his kids are in school and school sports now.  I don't want to mess up family time. Or ask Keith.  Keith would have come, if I could convince Heather I wouldn't let him get hurt, or hurt him. But I have already spent time in close proximity with Keith for 10 - 12 hours, on a tandem bike pedaling up Mauna Kea, and again doing a 24 hour Mt. Bike event with him.  I love Keith dearly but I don't want him, or me, to go through that again unless we HAVE to. So Jack it was.
   Jack and I are more alike and more different than any of my other brothers. We look more alike than my twin sister and I do. We both love challenging ourselves. Jack is a more natural athlete than I. Jack is much smarter than I.  I have spent more time in the great outdoors than Jack, and I am older than Jack.  We would make a fine team, if he agreed.  I spent most of a weekend scheming and planning a dare or challenge to get Jack to agree to train and come race with me.  I began with, "there is this adventure race coming to Bear Valley and..". I was cut off.  He said "Oh, I've been thinking of finding an adventure race,when is it?".  I had my partner. He had a month and a half to train for this.  Luckily Jack is never far from being 'in shape'. He just needed to learn to run with a pack on and how to climb a rope and read a map and compass.  We Can Do This!

Fast forward to Race Day.  (cause I know that is what everybody wants to hear about....)

  Nancy, my crew chief, (it is in our wedding vows) was driving Jack up from Pleasanton to Bear Valley on Friday evening. Traffic was bad. I was nervous. They were late. Audrey was already here, trying to calm me down.  We were watching Brave. (such a cute movie, don't tell me the ending, I haven't finished it yet..)  We finally got to check in 3 hours after registration opened. That was ok.  There was a LOT of testosterone wafting around in the registration room earlier.  I was a bit intimidated.  But by 8:30 when we were checking in it was pretty mellow. Just us and a couple of staff members to help us.
   We were to be issued a 6' x 10 tarp each, a Spot2 tracking device, and some food. As they were issuing our food rations for the weekend, MRE's, we each received a pouch labelled Imitation Vegetarian Rattatouie.  We are both not vegetarian. We eat meat and other hardy stuff.  Our downcast looks must have softened up the quartermaster as he went behind a counter, opened another box of MRE's and handed us Imitation Boneless Ribs and Chicken Pesto Pasta.  Boy were we relieved... We were ready to Race!

We spent the remainder of the night checking and re-checking, packing and re-packing. Would we need an extra light? No I had extra batteries.  Did I need that many Clif Bars  and Gu chomps? No, but I took them anyway. (No one wants to be near a hungry Dave) Should we bring our Hawaiian shirts or wear them?  We wore them at the race start, and changed shirts as the challenges and heat allowed. Should I carry an extra knife?  Can't have too many knives, I only carried two.  What should Jack use for glasses to see the map?  (he had broken his during the drive up..?)  I lent him my middle prescription amber glasses, that were plenty strong enough for reading.  I hoped and planned not to lose my trifocals during the event. ( I didn't) (It sometimes sucks getting old...)
It was close to 10:00, time for a relaxing shower and a comfy bed.  Well we got a shower anyway, and a firm mattress.  At least we weren't sleeping on the ground. Yet.
  0430 came an hour or two early on Saturday morning. Our nerves were not allowing us much sleep.  Everyone that was supposed to be up was up and getting ready before anyones alarm went off.  Audrey had signed up to volunteer for this event.  She was very excited that she was allowed to be course sweeper for the first half of the Crucible Footmarch. She was to run / hike behind the last competitors for first 10 miles.  She was excited to be at the starting line with us at 0500.  Jack was up and looking for his web belt.  It got left laying over the back of the couch in Pleasanton, right beside his watch.  I had a piece of line that would work for a belt.  I was looking for the microwave to heat my breakfast burritos.  MMMmm MMmm . Nancy was rolling over and trying to get more sleep. As crew chief she delegated breakfast chores to Laura.
  We made it to the start line right on time, or maybe a few minutes late.  There was already a long line at the porta potties.  Thats ok. I knew where the real bathroom was.  Being local pays off!  We wandered around through the other competitors, checking their gear, their footwear, their attitude. We saw plenty of packs smaller than the recommended 35 - 40 liter size. Some were barely larger than your average CamelBak. Some were full on ALICE packs issued from the Army or Marine Corps. We were right in the middle, but ours felt heavier than theirs looked.  We noticed the serious competitors, the glarers, the hard focused ones. The "get every bit of rest" ones, sleeping on their packs, or at least pretending to sleep.  No one else had on Hawaiian shirts. There were plenty of CrossFit shirts, advertising which CrossFit gym they were KING (or queen) at. (there were 7 women, one all women team and 5 couples teams entered).  There were military shirts, advertising which team or unit they belonged to. There were a few adventure race shirts, advertising which other race they had been in.  Not many other had matching trousers and hats and packs. Not many others were smiling, looking forward to what the day would bring.  These were some serious, athletic, competitors.  Bring it on. Let the games begin! We were going to have fun playing with them whether they wanted us to or not...

  The race started off with an uphill hike / slog for about 4-5 miles.  I like uphill starts.  It separates the wheat from the chaff pretty fast.  You could tell the "too fasters" from the "better watch outers" by watching their face and hands.  Sweat dripping down their jowls and clenched hands 15 minutes in was a sure sign they weren't quite ready for this yet.  A relaxed look, a bit of a smile, and smoothly swinging arms let you know they knew how long 30 hours was to be on ones feet. The Crucible hike was beautiful, entertaining,  yet uneventful.  We traveled fairly fast, caught the staff at the Challenge events by surprise when they learned we were to be arriving back at the competitor field an hour earlier than they had anticipated. We arrived at Lake Alpine and had to waterproof and swim our packs across the lake.  After about 14 miles of fast hiking up and running down both the ski resort mountain (Bear Top), and Mt Reba, we were ready for a little swim. I was pleased that they required us to wear life jackets (PFDs) for this crossing.  10 minutes in this water and maybe a bit dehydrated, my muscles didn't want to work too well for  me. We may have passed or been passed by a couple teams during this portion but we were still in the top 10 group. We were still smiling!
  After wringing out our socks and munching a little fuel we finally warmed up enough to manage a little shuffle for the final 3-4 miles of downhill to get to the competitor challenge fields.  When we checked in there we found ourselves in the top 6 teams.  Boy were we still smiling!  Next stop Mountaineering!

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