Endeavor 2014 Getting there...

Getting there, this year ETC Preparation, Crucible Hike All my well laid plans for training for this years event. My CrossFit training, my interval training, my long run training, my mental fortitude training... Everything went well except for that middle part. My extra interval and long distance running training. There's always something... I was fairly regular about getting out for a run of some sort 4-5 times a week. Most runs ranged from :45 to :90. I did manage a few 2-3 hour runs. But I did not get any of the 3-4 hour, 14+ mile runs in or any of the track work to improve (find) some speed, that I wished. But all that is behind me now. So is the RACE... No excuses. The weeks I was planning to make the transition to long runs, As a volunteer fireman for Bear Valley FD, I was asked to be part of a Strike Team to go work the fires in Northern California. I went. I spent 2 weeks working and learning how the Federal Forest system managed fires in the Wilderness Areas. There was not a lot of free time for long runs. There was not a lot of time period. Minutes ran into hours, hours ran into days. The most common question overheard each morning at chow in the fire camps was, "what day is it today?" Not that it made a whole lot of difference which day it was, just meant that it was one day longer away from family, and 'real' work. Maybe they just wanted to remember what they would have been doing if not there. Maybe they wanted to know what their loved ones were doing... Maybe that was all they wanted to know, "what day is it?" Back from the fires it was time to refocus on training. enough time to set my focus on CrossFit workouts at Murphys CrossFit. Mornings not spent at the box were spent running the trails at 4000' out my front door. At least once a week I went out for the run with my backpack and or a head lamp. One needs to be comfortable in the dark and under a load. I had spent a bit of time building / re-building the PAR course up in the town of Bear Valley this summer. I added a climbing rope and a cargo net. I built and installed an unbalanced set of monkey bars. The box jumps were there, the sit up and push up station in working order. I added a TRX rope to a tree and set up a Thrusters station. With a few added 'natural' obstacles I had a pretty decent training lap. On a few afternoons and a few mornings I would jog a few laps doing my wilderness workout at 7000'. Once the Battle Drill options were posted I assembled a weighted sled, and filled a jerry can with 40 lbs of water and started training with them as well. Flipping a heavy tire has always been my routine. Paddling and swimming in alpine lakes is my spare time. A week until race day, I was as ready as I was going to be. After assembling my gear from last year and picking up a few new and improved items, (shirts, a new CRKT knife, trail mix, gu Chomps, etc) I was ready to tackle the gaiter issue. Last year we had used full size snow gaiters. They worked fine on the trails. They were less than fine for swimming in. My friend Steve, an avid hiker and trail runner, swears by his Gam Ultra Gaiters. I was a bit late in ordering new ones, but he offered up a couple pair of them for us to borrow. They were colorful, flame striped and stars and striped, low, effective and durable. The test was in the running. We would find out shortly. My gear was packed. My spare gear was packed, my spare gear for Jack was packed. (Yes I am / was a Boy Scout and Coast Guardsman, Semper Paratus, be prepared and all that...). Jack was on his way up. The condo was rented. Endeavor Team had been in town for a couple weeks finalizing the course, fine tuning the course. Jack and I made it to registration on time, purchased our MRE's, reacquainted ourselves with Endeavor staffers and friends, took our team picture, got weighed (I weighed 88, Jack was 82 I think) and went back to the condo for pasta and re-packing. Jack did not forget his belt, nor his reading glasses. He had his pants, (I had his zip on legs). His Batman watch had stopped. I dug out my spare Timex with the broken band. We divvied up the trail mix, jerky and drink mix baggies. Jack had a grand idea that I will incorporate in future events, A second spare shirt that had back pockets for the final run or just to stay warm in, a cycling shirt, and arm warmers. Thank you Laura for the spaghetti dinner. It was 10:00. It was bed time. It was GO time. Crucible Hike We were up at the crack of dawn. Actually dawn was still an hour or more away. With the breakfast burritos in the micro and Laura heating up some steak and eggs, Jack taking a quick shower, we would be ready before 0500. Or Not. Well thats ok, this is Endeavor. They were always a little behind schedule last year. We were still dressing as we hustled out the door at a minute or two after 5. tucking in our shirts, strapping on our belts, we speed walked around the corner to see the spot lights shining, the crowds gathered, the bullhorn blaring the battle song... We also heard Kent or Mark or Nate, yelling out roll call, right on time. He was on team number 27. When he got to team 32, we were still 100 yards away. "Team 33" he asked. "HERE" we bellowed back from the other end of the parking lot. What an entrance. A non entrance entrance. Yep the old guys from last year were present and accounted for. After the roll was completed, 48 teams at the start line, they started the spiel about how difficult and trying this event is. After completing the event last year we knew how difficult and dangerous the course could be. We paid attention as did all the new teams. Bears, cliffs, hypothermia, water crossings, exposure, trip hazards night travel.... Yep, yep, yep, yep... they are out there. At the end of the welcoming / warning / informational speech we were informed of one last item. There was a stack of bricks left over from last years event. As a special bonus each team was required to carry six of them during the Crucible hike. Oh yeah, the Crucible hike is an undisclosed distance hike / run / journey every team needs to make to 'get to' the Competitor Field. Mostly our packs weighed in at anywhere from 15 - 30 lbs. The ultra lighters packs barely larger than an average CamelBack. Some of the active or former active servicemen (women) had full blown ALICE packs. Adding 12-15 more pounds either doubled the weight or made a noticeable difference. This was going to be a fun yet challenging Crucible Hike. At the horn we took off. Some at a run, some at a jog, some at a walk... Word had gotten around that 30 hours is a long event and there were not as many fast runners off ahead of us. There appeared to be three or four team in the lead pack just ahead of Jack and me. We figured we would start off at a jog, same as last year. As long as we could chat conversationally with each other or the other passing teams we would be at a safe heart rate and not overexerting ourselves. We jogged where we could and speed walked the hills. We ended up 'just' walking the steep hills. We were 5th team up to the top of Bear Top. with only one team passing us on the down hill we were still in 5th place. ?? Oh yeah who was that guy looking for his partner. Teams were supposed to be together, stay within sight of each other, during the event, hike. The trailing member of this team had evidently missed a turn. Her partner was on his way back up the hill to try to recover her. Lesson learned? (One team we labeled Heinz 57. One partner was an uphill speed hiker the other a down hill runner. One was always trying to Ketchup to the other...) We maintained the 4th or 5th position throughout the Crucible hike for the most part. The trail we were on was the same as last year. So Far. When we came down Bee Canyon, off Mt Reba, we found the yellow ribbons leading us off the established trail and over the trees stumps and through the woods to Inspiration Point. Inspiration Point is truly inspirational. But getting there, especially the way Endeavor Team took us there was less than inspirational. A mountain goat would have had a hard time climbing that slate and crag trail. We did it with our extra heavy packs and 88 Kilos at the end of a 15mile slog. Yet that was only half of it. We had to descend that same slope in order to get to the lake crossing. Yep I still had knees below my quads. They were letting me know exactly how many miles we had already come... After overcoming the 'missing yellow ribbon' section of trail, we made it to the swim section of the Crucible. The other 4-5 teams that had made it to this jumping point started extracting their black tarps to make their pack rafts. We said "Excuse me while I whip this out" as we unsnapped out personal dry bags from the side of our bags and commenced to ease our packs and shoes in. I had a little trepidation as to how well our bags would float with an extra 12-15lbs of bricks in them. I had been drinking solely from my in pack bladder for the last hour and had blown it as full of air as I could manage, with the weight of the bricks sitting on it. It turned out I had nothing to worry about. The bag floated as high and dry as the USCGC Glacier in Long Beach in the summer of 1979. (OK the Glacier was in dry dock for 3 months that summer...) We swam the 200 meters across the low laying lake and scrambled up the rocks on the north side. It was just as cold as we remembered. After dumping our packs, we rerolled our dry sacks and continued along following the yellow ribbons. WIthin a short hike of the edge of the lake we reached our dream location. The END of the Crucible Hike. We could dump our bricks and continue on to Daytime Orientation with a relatively empty pack. Yahoo!