Endeavor 2014 Final day

Final day events Battle Drill finish line Stats Battle Drill Battle Drill is the only event that can be specifically trained for. We were told of Kayaking, swimming, buddy carry. We knew about the weighted sled pull. We knew we would have to lift heavy rocks. We knew there was to be a 3 mile wighted run. We trained. We accepted. We were mentally ready. If only our knees and feet would comply... Within a minute of crossing the Final Run finish line, we were directed to the kayak portion. "grab a life jacket. TIme starts when you touch your kayak. GO" I randomly picked the kayak with the most leg room for me, as I remember being cramped last year. My bad. I should have thought of Jack first... That dang kayak kept want to turn right. We leaned left. we pulled harder on the right, we pulled easier on the left, we cheated our blades 2-3 inches more to the right. That kayak just hung to the right I guess. We made it down the length of Alpine in fairly good time, we made the right hand turn and headed back. Into the wind. Evidently there was No Wind only :15 - :20 minutes earlier. dang. We raced back, thinking we might catch a team or two on the return trip. They were too far ahead. We were the third overall fastest kayak on the day though. The others must have gotten a straight kayak. (not that theres anything wrong with that..) or they paddled in the calm winds... We beached the boat and ran up to the scorer. "leave your life jackets on, run along the shore, follow the ribbon, swim around the buoy and carry your buddy up the hill" "GO" We ran. We swam. We made it to the shore and before we stepped out of the water I had Jack on my shoulder. I don't know if Jack weighs more or less than a creosote soaked railroad tie, but he is no lightweight. I made it about 20-30 yards, a third of the way up the bank to the final drop. I had to set him down. He turned and grabbed my wrist and threw me over his shoulder and ran the rest of the way up the hill. He is strong! I think I weigh about the same as said RXR tie...88. We made it to the Rock Lift test. Ten different sized rocks, numbered according to their weight. We had :90 seconds to put the heaviest rock possible on top of the stump. We chose to get 'some' points and threw the #8 rock up with no problem. We dumped it off and went for #10. It was heavy, but it had edges. Edges are good for lifting heavy things because it gives you a solid lifting grip. We tilted, we gripped, we hoisted, we set it down and slid it to center. We made it with seconds to spare.. we were one of only 6 teams to lift the heavy stone. Once we gathered up our gear, our camel backs and shirts, we set off for weighted run. Remember those bricks we carried at Crucible Run. So did we. They were still right there where we dropped them 24 hours earlier. We were given a sack and told grab 6 of the lightest bricks and bring them back down to town. (the Start / Finish line). Hint: there are no light bricks. they all weigh a ton. Or at least 4-5 lbs apiece as Google informed us later... I settled the sack of bricks on my shoulders and headed West. Follow the yellow ribbons. No local knowledge short cuts. Just stay on the same trail we've been up and over a number of times already this weekend. This is where our toughness came in to play. (read toughness as 'old age'). Jacks awesome display of quad strength carrying me and the RXR tie came at a cost of less support for his knees after over 55 miles of travel. He was barely able to hobble down rocks and steep hills with his own weight, never mind balancing a sack of bricks on his shoulders. He made good headway on the flats and uphills, I shared the flats and did most of the downhills. I had found out earlier, 8-10 miles ago, that it hurt my feet less if I ran / jogged rather than walked. We wogged / jalked?? as much as we could. Jack found a staff to help ease him down the steeps. We made it down, now we just needed to make a good show across the finish. Jack ditched the crutch. I grabbed the bricks. We set out at a jog toward the finish. My friend Tim Toth, owner and trainer at Murphys CrossFit, was there, on the road taking some pics. He started yelling and cheering us to make a strong finish. His yelling got even more encouraging as we neared the final approach. Evidently my friend Brett was putting on an even greater show for the finish line. He sprinted past me like I was standing still, still carrying his sack o bricks, Overall it didn't matter because he started his run about :15 minutes after we did, but it hurt a little on the inside to not be able to find any more speed when I needed it. But he did finish in 7th overall. We were 2nd.overall :-) Final stats. 1st Team 21 Pierson and Walker 2nd Team 33 Bear team(me n Jack) 3rd Team 1 Last years winners 4th Team 5 Stanford guys I was later told there was only 2 points separating 1st and 2nd place. :-) that felt good. A point or two more at Night Nav had my feet not failed me, or a place or two more at Final Run if we had trained better. just sayin. watch out next year... Our SPOT3 tracker had us going 59.2 miles. We did not wear itwhile running the 1.5 miles of Obstacle Course, Mountaineering, TRC, or Strength Event. It had us moving 17 hours and at rest 13 hours. We had about 2 hours of sleep during our 3 hours after Night Nav and before Final Run. With gathering 'extra' daytime orienteering points and maximizing night time nav points we figure the top four teams anyway, covered over 60 miles each. According to the Stanford medical team there, testing for kidney function in endurance athletes, I lost about 5 pounds during this event. I / we did much better at carrying a lighter load this year. Our biggest 'extra' weight was food last year. It was again this year, but we only had a few handfuls of trail mix and a few packets of jerky left over. I could still stand to lose a few lbs, both in my pack and on my bod. But as a Boy Scout and Coastie, I'd rather be hurting with extra 'stuff', than lost and hurting without it... Thank you for your support. Congrats to Pierson and Walker for an outstanding 2nd day run and finish. We'll see you again next year.

Endeavor 2014 Final Day

Final Day events. Final Run / Battle Drill I tired of climbing back up the mattress to where my pillow remained. The mattress was my flattened dry sack and the second 10x10 tarp. My pillow was my dirty, stinky, well loved New Balance 1210's, Leadville specials. (someday...but that's another story, another year). I climbed back up the slope one more time, found my head lamp and commenced to make some breakfast. I had beef stew MRE, Jack found a Chicken Pesto Pasta. We heated up the entrees as best we could as we cleaned up camp, dismantled out lean too, switched the SPOT3 tracker over to our water bladder pack, and generally made ready for The Final Run. This year the final run was to be uphill for the most part. That did not worry us. What worried us, (by us I mean me. For the most part Jack does not worry...he just 'does') was the quality and capability of my feet. I checked my moleskin and duct tape. I doubled up on my Balega socks. I laced up my pillows. I relished in the fact we would not be carrying our backpacks, although they weighed a heck of a lot less this morning. We gathered at the staging area with all the remaining teams. They gave the Final Run briefing, follow the yellow ribbons, cross the single rope bridge at Utica, continue up to Alpine. 14 miles +/-. We would leave in :10 minutes. "Oh yeah, here is the team standings as of the end of Night Nav." We pretended the standing didn't mean anything to us. Jack did not make a move toward the truck, where the results were taped. I sort of eased my way over. When the crowd shifted just right, I was able to glance over a guys shoulder and saw EDNEY at the top of the list. Inside I did a fist pump and grinned SUPER big. Outside I just nodded and looked over at Jack and pointed one finger at him. After the first rush of people eased up, Jack went down to take a look. When Jack takes a look at a chart with numbers on it he starts adding things up. He can look at it once and mostly remember what he saw. He did some quick math and realized we were in pretty good shape, point wise, against our nearest realized competitors, team 1 (last years winners), and the Stanford guys. He / we didn't look too much further down the list. I saw my friend Brett, last years 3rd place team, was in 7th. Holding to the common belief that no 'new' team would come in and win, we felt we were sitting in a pretty good position. All we had to do was finish in top 8-10 place in the Final Run, and do well in Battle Drill and we would probably stay in #1 position. Probably.....Common belief be damned.... We set out at our most efficient (ie. pain free) pace. A bit slower than the Crucible pace, but then we didn't have a pack on, or bricks. But then we didn't have over 43 miles on our knees and blistered soles yesterday... We let the racers go. We let the plodders go. We let everyone that wanted to, go. We eased on down the road. The first 3-4 miles were relatively flat. We figured we would catch anybody we could on the hill. (a 10 mile hill). Team 1 passed us about 1.5 miles out. They were walking. They have a fast walk. They swing their arms. We remembered to swing our arms. It helps. We guessed where the Stanford guys would be about now. We figured they were crossing the rope bridge at Utica. We were wrong. They passed us a minute or two later. They said they were stating off slowly this morning. Took a while to warm up. Yeah, us too. We were yo-yoing with a couple of other teams along the road to Utica. They beat us to the single rope bridge. When we saw the single rope bridge and saw the other teams starting to disrobe and unlace their shoes for the crossing, we splashed right on past them and commenced to get wet. The Single rope bridge was a 5/8 inch rope draped across about 80 feet of water. No way to stay dry. Plus my feet didn't hurt when they were floating across the lake... We passed 2-3 teams. We were wet but were were going to get wet again. Two more streams to cross. If they tried to stay dry at each of those crossings also, we wouldn't be seeing them again. soon. We pressed on. We Endeavored. Only one or two teams passed us the rest of the run. We caught and passed 3 or more teams on the hill, they took off too fast. To quote Micah True, El Caballo Blanco, "Start slow and see what happens.." We made it to Lake Alpine, in 9th position. Not exactly where we wanted to be but better than 10th.... Thus endeth the Final Run. Now let the fun begin at the Battle Drill. Another 'strength' event. Team 1 finished Final Run third Stanford guys finished second Unbeknownst to us unknown team 21 finished in first. (That made a difference...) they rocked it!

Endeavor 2014 Night time

Night time events, Sleep? Night Time Orienteering Another change from last years program, we were going to do our Night Navigation from the staging area downhill toward Spicer Reservoir. This was another good change. This presented the ETC staff with fewer transportation logistics. A minor change that affected us, was the addition of one of the daytime time orientation targets along with as many of the 10 possible night time targets. We would have to go back over the day time target area to find one of ten predetermined targets before heading down toward Spicer. We received #9, one very close to Alpine Reservoir, over 2 miles away, up hill. But the good news was, it was one we had been to just an hour prior, we knew where and how to get there. As we headed out on the shoulder of Hwy 4 I started feeling a minor burning in the soul of my right foot. I had felt the same in my left foot shortly after exiting the swim at Bear Valley Lake hours earlier, but I had shaken it off as gravel in my insole or sock. I had changed socks, cleaned the inside of my shoe, and patched the pain with mole skin. It felt pretty good. now I was starting to feel the same issue on my right foot. No problem, I will take a look at it after Night Nav. We had about 12-14 miles to go, surely the gravel would move away and give me peace soon. We sang a short song as we scampered down the SlickRock Trail at every other team we passed. We told them not to worry about us passing them on the rocks because "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack just be jumping the forest sticks..." We had fun. We found targets, we knew where we were, and where we were going. The only minor issue was the gravel in my shoe and some of the targets solar powered lights must not have received enough sunlight throughout the day. It was like looking for targets in the dark. Ok the dark, with high powered flashlights and a full moon. Oh yeah we used that full moon to its full potential. On a few targets we found without anyone observing us, we were able to hold our position as teams passed us and escape from the area undetected using only the moon light and our stealth. True, it was a little underhanded, and sneaky, but we weren't sure if these were close competition or who. Plus I had been warned about assisting other teams already, (by Jack.) See, he's the competitive one, not me. After coming out on Spicer Reservoir Rd, we made the choice to travel up it about a mile to grab marker #15. As a mile turned into a mile and half, Jack outpaced me as I was really starting to feel the 'gravel' in my shoe as we ran on the smooth pavement. I was more comfortable on the uneven rock and dirt roads in the woods. Jack had found the target, sans solar light, and we were heading back down the road around 1:30 in the morning and I was cringing at every step. As we approached the Utica/ Union road turnoff I made the call to stop so I could check / fix my foot before we carried on to get any more targets. I elevated my foot for a while. I took off my shoe and sock and had Jack do some minor moleskin and duct tape surgery. As he flinched when he looked at and described what he saw on my foot I knew I needed more attention on my 'good' foot. We would have to skip running the extra 3-4 miles to get any more targets and just hobble down to the Night Nav finish location for medical attention and rest before heading out in a couple hours for Final Run. We were the first team in with our 6 acquired Night targets. That put us in 6th for that event. After a quick weight check (I was down to 85.5) and blood test, and more minor moleskin and duct tape repair. The 'gravel' turned out to be a silver dollar sized blister under the balls of the toes on each foot. We grabbed some grub, built our lean-to, unrolled our bags and settled in for a good winters nap. We needed to be ready for Final Run and Battle Drill in 2 and half hours.

Endeavor 2014 Daytime Challenges

The Challenges Daytime Orienteering, Mountaineering, Weight Event, Obstacle Course, Team Reaction Challenge Day O This year a change was made to Daytime orienteering. It was a clogging spot on the course last year. Last year teams had 2 hours to find at least 1 of 8 marked targets before advancing to the next challenge. This year ETC made another improvement and located the entrance to Day O on the route back to Bear Valley Village and the remaining challenges. They issued one target number to each team to find, which was on their way regardless of the route they took. There were 10 target options so teams could not just follow the lead team. If a team found their target quickly that enabled them to have time at the other end of the challenge field to search for more targets. (which was key to the winning and lead teams getting 'bonus' points). Our target was fairly near the mountaineering area, so we hustled our packs down the hill to find our target, and make it to Mountaineering Challenge in good time. We rested for a few minutes at the entrance to Mountaineering, grabbed a bit of food and cool drink and headed up to the ropes. Jack and I both opted for a 'medium' climb. These climbs were on a pass / fail basis. We had :08 minutes to ascend our 40 - 60 foot, 5.7 rated climb. They separated us, so we could not support each other, ( we did notice some of the other , later teams were coaching and supporting each other) . We both succeeded in making our climb in the allotted time. Again we realized that rock climbing is a real thrill. We need to do this more than once a year, for this race. We continued up the hill to the Tyrolean Traverse. My friends Aaron and Seth had rigged this set up again, so I had no qualms on the safety and efficiency of this 'bridge'. There were 2 sets of ropes set up to race across. This was to be a timed event, the fastest team across to earn the highest amount of points. Jack and I had a side bet on to see which of the two of would be fastest. I owe Jack a beer. My 88 kilos betrayed me again. The rope I was on was tested by a 180lb rider the day before. Since then I believe, the rope had sat out in the baking (ok heating) sun for a half a day and as its first rider had to sustain a 195 lb rider across its 300 foot length. I sagged that rope like nobodies business. My last 8 - 10 pulls across were literally 2 handed pull ups, as the slope up to the landing rock was that steep. I finally made it close enough to touch rock, but had to hang on with hands and legs for what felt like another minute or two, but may have been :45 seconds, as the receiving team rigged a sling to reach out for me to help drag me up and over the landing rock. Nothing serious enough to write home about but with the weight event coming up I was hoping to still have most if not all of my strength about me. After a brief, easy rappel, we made our way back down the canyon to the Mountaineering check in area and found our main support crew waiting and cheering for us. Laura, Mom, Dad and Keith were there to help us through the remainder of the Challenge events. Or so we thought...As we recovered from our climbs, scrambles and rappels, we made plans to meet the family over at the Weight Event in :15 - :20 minutes. A legend is born Jack and I drank some recovery mix, ate a handful of food and wandered across the road to the Weight Event. We were the 3rd team to arrive. We waited around for a few minutes, ok maybe 10, for the sound of Keiths F350 and our support team to arrive. Other teams were starting to show up, we wanted to get this done so we could have time at the end of the day to eat, rest and go search for more Day O targets. We signed in and were given our instructions. We took one last look for our support team. Nothing. We had to go. We were to Transport these 6 items up into the granite rocks, about 50 - 60 away, (up and away), and return them to their starting position in the shortest amount of time. The items were, two 5 gallon buckets of water (if the buckets came back with less than 4 gallons of water, tape mark, you received a 5 minute penalty), two 8 foot long wooden posts, a 24" x 24" x 24' plywood box, and an 8' long creosote soaked railroad tie. The first two teams to arrive and start on the load carrying were the ultra runner teams. They had started while we were waiting for our fan / support team. WE donned our gloves, got our final directions and said "go" to the starter. Jack grabbed the 2 posts, I grabbed the 2 buckets of water. We headed up into the rocks searching for the easiest route from our start location. Basically we just headed straight up. We set our loads down at the turnaround spot and raced back down for our next load. Jack and I had discussed previously about saving a few precious minutes by only one of us carrying the RXR tie up and the other carrying it down. Jack grabbed the tie, I grabbed the box and we headed up. When we got to the turn around the judge was looking at Jack oggle eyed. I raced up to set down the box for the tie to rest on when the judge said "just need to be behind the line, don't need to set them down" Jack did a quick 180 and headed back down. I had to really hustle to beat him down to give the RXR tie a place to rest. We raced back up, grabbed the buckets and posts and were done in a record 6:24 . We were mostly recovered when the ultra runner teams finally dragged the rest of their loads back down to the finish. We tried to hold in our smiles...We did good. The only problem, as far as we know, No photo evidence. We haven't found a picture to prove Jack is that friggin strong. All we have is the handful of witnesses judging the event and the stunned look of our competitors on the course at the time. But they will remain with us for a long time. Time to head to the Obstacle Course, where we could already hear the cowbells of our family and fan crew.. O and TRC courses The obstacle course was pretty much the same as last year. There were 6 specially designed obstacles to overcome, a 1/2 mile run up to the lake, a 50 meter (ish) swim the length of Bear Valley Lake dam, then (new this year) a 1/2 to 3/4 mile run back down the the start / finish line, with another 10' wall to climb and span. We were comfortable on the obstacles again this year. We basically used the buddy system on all the obstacles this year, earned a few bangs and bruises along the way and finished in the top 4 overall. The Team Reaction Challenge was not going to beat us this year. We had honed our math skills, remembered our reading glasses, practiced our knots and lashes. It turns out we would not need hardly any of those skills this year. The TRC turns out to be two of our our top 5 major skills. Fire starting and cooking. We had to traverse a couple of small obstacles carrying our wood, pan of Jiffy POP popcorn, three matches and measuring cups. Our goal was to split enough wood to start a fire to make enough heat to pop 2 cups of popcorn. Remembering my Boy Scout days I immediately took charge, splitting enough wood for Jack to start whittling us some good fire tinder. We assembled a log cabin style base, inserted as much pine wood shavings as we could, used my bandana as a wind break and started the fire on the first attempt. Once we read and then re-read the instructions on the top of the Jiffy POP, we realized we needed to remove the cardboard top so the foil would have somewhere to expand. We built up the fire, had a good base going and started cooking. At the first pop, Jack started shaking vigorously, per instructions. In few minutes the foil was at maximum stretch. But kernels were still popping. We waited a few anxious minutes more and chose to open the foil and fill the cups. Luckily we waited just enough time. I guess it take only a few kernels to pop the foil, definitely not 2 cups worth. I appears I had wasted needless time splitting extra wood, as we had as much left over as we had used. OH Well. That's the Boy Scout / Coastie in me. Be prepared. At 22:24 we were again in the top 4 finishers overall. It was just 4:00 in the afternoon. We had finished all the Challenges and had plenty of time to eat, get our blisters tended to and head out to find more Daytime Orienteering targets. We figure we traveled another 5-6 miles to recover another 7 targets. We had noticed the ultra teams, we figure our main competition, had set out immediately after TRC to find the remaining targets. Jack had a couple blisters that needed caring for, We both had stomaches that needed filling. We figured an hour of eating and recovering would leave us 2 hours to find as many targets as possible. We had a plan. We followed it. We found 7 more targets, 8 in all, out of 10. We were happy. We got back in time for a short rest before we had Nightime Orientation briefing.

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!

EndeavorTeamChallenge, Keep on keepin on, continued

Yes, We felt good.
  We completed our rappel, scrambled back down to our kayak, on the way manging to pass another team.  We raced across the lake, pretending that time meant anything.  We just wanted to look like we knew what we were doing.  We hit shore, grabbed our gear and ran up to the finish line.  Yes. We were done.  In the last 3 hours we ran 11-12 miles (including our mis-cue), paddled 2 miles and rappelled down a 80' cliff.  We were glad to be done.  The teams ahead of us managed to make a little space under the pop up shelter to get us out of the sun for a minute.  we grabbed a luke warm bottle of water and gatorade and tried to savor the moment.
  As we were sitting there Jack noticed a new sign posted just in front of us.  It annouunced the team results as of the OPT challenge.  We were still in second place, but Team 7 had jumped ahead to 1st place and Team 1 had dropped to third place.  They must have known that.  That  must have been why team 7 was in our shadow the entire run.  If they could stay even with us they stood a chance of remaining in 1st place.  Oh well.  They didn't stay with us on the paddle.  That meant new standings...We'll find out at the awards ceremony later this afternoon....
  After a few more teams finished, they announced that a the bus would be departing the lake shortly and we would be transported back to the competitor area dn Bear Valley.  As we loaded up we noticed that there were 6 of the seven women in the race on board the bus.  One all woman team and 4 of the 5 co-ed teams finished and finished in the top ten on Sunday.  That shows some amazing woman power.
Upon our return to Bear Valley village we were greeted by the missing cowbells.  All of Bear Team supporters and another handful of recruited othr fans were lining the intersection waiting for and cheering for us!  Ross, our diver, noticed Nancy running out of the crowd with fresh icy cold coors lights for us.  Yes! just what the doctor ordered.  That felt soo good going down.  A nice reward for a race well run.
As we all limped off the us and gathered out stuff, we congratulated each other on our accomplishment.  The forty year old Team 7 guys spoke highly of us saying, they wanted to be like us when they got old.  That felt good.  Jack and I headed over to the rented condo for a shwer and another beer.  YES.  The BBQ was in full swing when we arrived.  BBQed turkey legs, corn on ght cob, potato salads, fresh fruit and veggies, burgers, chicken.  The town of Bear Valley came together for our grand finale.  Thank You very much.
  As the race directors, Greg and Kent were recognizing and congratulating each team we felt we were being ignored. ..... In fifth place team 37, in a tie for third place, Team 46 and Team 7, and in second place Team 8, the Bear Team, Jack and Dave Edney.  In first place Team 1.
  I was to find out a week or so later how close this entire race was and how close Jack and I were to finishing in the top spot.  As it turned out Team 1 and us were in a virtual tie at the conclussion of the event. In the race directory they had decided that if two teams were tied at the end of the final event the team placing highest in that event would be winner.  Sounds fair.  The thing was if we had earned one more point somewhere along the way. If we had found one more target, grabbed one more brick, say brick #2 that we passed once we discovered I had led us off the right trail we would have won.  If we had found brick target #2 I would been made aware of this alternate route than my 'normal' route and we wouldn't have lost 3-4 places in the final run.  Oh well Say La Vive as they say somewhere...We had fun, we still kicked ass (sorry mom, but we did).  We did well for 'old guys', we did well for 'common citizens'.  we are happy.
 
This is the best story I could come up with, 2-3 weeks after the fact.  As most people know about me I never let the facts get in the way of a good story, but these are mostly the facts as I saw them.  Jack probably saw things a little different and I am sure all other teams saw things their own way.   am also sure all of them are right, as right as I am.
  Forthose of you ready to take my 'man card' for being honest and relating my feelings, you might want to skip this part.  I was intimidated upon seeing the teams checking in for this race.  I thought I may be in over my head.  ButI thought, what the heck, we'll have fun, maybe finish top 10 if every team shows, maybe top 25%.  We did way better than that.  We were way more inexperienced than most.  We had way more fun than most, if not every team.  We were still laughing and talking to one and other at the end.  We both want to do this again.  My kids both want to do this.  I think they would make fine 24 hour plus adventure racers.  It suites us Edneys.  I can foresee Caleb and Nathan teaming up and winning this.  I try to convince myself I am not that competetive.  I still try to convince myself I was only doing this for fun.  When I read these blogs back I find my self competing with everyone.  Maybe I am a little competetive.  No ones likes to lose.  But I think we won, I know I won.  I learned I am as tough as I want to be. I could have been a Navy SEAL if I had wanted to.  I could have bee an Army Ranger, if I had wanted to.  I can compete with the best this country has.  I have no reason to hang my head as being inferior to anybody.  At least physicaly.  When it comes to being a good parent and provider I still have issues but then what good parent doesn't...

Thank you for bearing with me.  I enjoyed doing this and writing this.  Lets all hope for more...

dave Edney  Endeavor Team Challenge, Competitor.

EndeavorTeamChallenge, Final Run, Keep on Keepin' on...

We were BEAT.  We were beat an hour ago.  We were pretty tired 5 hours ago.  In the past 20 hours we had wogged, (just learned that word from my cousin...walk / jogged) actually speed wogged for 18.5 miles with a 30 pound pack, completed a military obstacle course, climbed rocks, rappelled, crossed a Tyrolean Traverse, moved 400 - 500 pounds of cumbersome equipment 200 yards, discovered the joy and agony of Orienteering in a 30 pound pack, doubled our pleasure during nightime Orienteering, still in our packs.  We'd swam across 2 alpine lakes, challenged our minds, eaten MRE's, and lastly but not leastly, spent :52 minutes testing our physical limits in an Optimum Physical Test at 3:00 in the morning.  We were ready for a little down time.
  The Race Operations Officer, Nate, directed us to the competitor rest area.  We set up a quick leanto so  the early morning breeze wouldn't chill us out.  I unpacked my sleeping bag, Jack unfolded his couple of felt blankets as we each grabbed a quick drink before tucking ourselves in for a restless night on hard, bumpy ground.  I heard Jack shivering.  I heard a few of the other teams set up their sleeping arrangements, but didn't bother to look around.  Laying down with feet slightly elevated was my position of choice.  I think I heard a few quick snores from Jack around 0500, but I don't think I slept during that time.  But then Jack didn't think he slept at all either....
  At 0600 I started getting restless again.  My legs wouldn't be still.  They wanted to get up and get moving.  I sort of rolled in to a sitting position and started looking throug my food stash for something nutritious to eat.  Patriotic Sugar Cookies, Apple turnover, imitation cheese spread, Creamy cheddar potato soup, imitation beef stick, Clif bars, Power Bars, peanut butter in a tube, mixed fruit jam in a tube, tortillas...  I made PB&J on tortillas, and opened a Clif Bar.  Jack was just  sitting up and had started heating his Spaghetti and Meatball MRE.  I used the remains of his heat pouch to heat up the potato soup (more like cheese soup with a few potaoes...).  As the soup was heating I walked over to use the Sanitary Facilities, washed up a bit, and then filled our water bottles.  Time for a recovery drink mix and more electrolytes.  I noticed the race directors rejoining us from where ever they had spent the night.  In my mind they had a cozy bed in a warm hotel room. In actuallity they were back at Race Headquarters tabulating race results, confirming race grievences, making sure the course was set up for the Final Run, drinking warmed up leftover coffee.
  At 0700 they announced, over a loudspeaker, that this was the :20 minute warning. the Final Run would commence at 0720.  The teams that had fallen asleep woke up.  The teams that chose to lay around until last minute were scrambling to eat and dress.  We would not be carrying our packs for this Final Run.  Yea!  We did need to carry at least one water bottle each.  I carried a water bottle, Jack opted for his shoulder strapped camel back.  Mostly this was because they (The race directors) wanted one of us to continue to carry the SPOT 2 tracking device.  ( I had a feeling we were in the running for a top 10 finish and they wanted to show off the technology to our fans...)
   At 0715 Greg got back on the loudspeaker and began announcing the race results as of the end of Night Orienteering.  "...in third place, team 7 (the 40 year olds), in second place, team 8 (us), in first place team 1 (young kids from Vermont or Palo Alto or New York or something...)...  What?  What?  we were in second place.  All we had to do was finish this run and we'd be happy campers...
  As we headed to the start line for the run we were all handed a map of the Final Run course.  We were told it was well marked by pink and yellow flags every 50 - 200 meters.  I pocketed my map as I knew this trail and road.  We had just 'wogged' up it last night during Night Orienteering.  No problem.  Just finish baby.
Three, Two, One,  we were off.  It seemed that nobody wanted to take the lead.  Each of the top 4-5 teams were happy if one of the others took the lead, set the pace.  I on the other hand was waiting for someone to show me where we were supposed to pick up the trail.  I didn't want to be the one to check his map within sight of the start line...  WE all crowded on to the trail at the correct spot, I could tell it was correct because it said EndeavorTeamChallenge  --->  plus it had 5 pink and yellow marker flags.. No problem, if the trail was marked this well I had no worries.
  We switched from the Bear Valley - Alpine Lake trail to Emigrant trail to Slick Rock road with no problems.  Team 1, the runner kids, were still occasionally in sight on long straight aways.  There were 3-4 other teams hanging around us in the follow group.  When we got to the easy running, downhill, portion of Slick Rock trail we managed to put a little distance on most of them.  Team 7 was hanging with us. Along the way we ate gu's, drank electrolytes, disrobed, (shed our long sleeve shirts..), and put more distance on all but team 7.  Team 1 was no longer in sight.  No sweat.  We were chatting with our new friends and breathing easy. I knew where we were and where we were going.  Or so I thought.
  When we got to the bottom of the Slick Rock section of Slick Rock trail, we crossed the river right where we were supposed to.  I immediately started looking for the route up the opposite rocks, the same as I always do. Jack and Team 7 were right with me.  I was local, I knew my way.  Once up the rocks, we headed through the make shift 4x4 camping area. I knew where to go.  Jack even asked "Are you sure this is the way?"  I was sure.   We climbed a little more, and encountered my friend Lukas and aid station #1 right where the map said they would be. We said hello, They said we were in first place.  I said "What?. Team 1 is ahead of us"  They hadn't passed there yet.  OH well.  maybe they took a wrong turn.  We set off at a jog up the hill. Within about a half mile here comes team 1, passing us like we were walking.  We were.  They must have been right behind us at the aid station.  When they caught us I asked "What, you guys take a wrong turn?" although I couldn't imagine where as there were no turn offs that I knew about.  . Their answer was "No. You did" My confused looked answered for me.  "Ask the aid station guys, we checked".
  I stopped, I felt my pocket. The map was still there. I opened it, I checked . Yep, we screwed up. I took full responsiblity.  I screwed up.  The others all said "no sweat" "we all messed up", "we didn't pay attention", "we all had maps of our own...."  Little consolation, but they meant it.  I screwed up.  By rule we must return the way we came, re-join the trail where we left it.  That was good because running back the 'correct' way was longer.  We ran back to the creek, about a half a mile, found the turnoff right where the map said it would be, well marked in pink ribbons.  Off we went on the correct trail.  Another half mile up this trail we noticed an orange marked set on a stake.  Marker #2 that we chose to not collect last night.  Right on the trail.  Dang.  An easy peasy one.  We shoulda come out for it.  Another point or two gained.  Oh well spilt milk.  Ever onward and upward.  Cross the creek, up more hill, back to the aid station We caught 2 teams at the creek crossing, another team walking up the hill.  At the aid station they said we were 15 -20.  I said "What? 15or 20 teams back?  or people?"
"Oh, No.  15 or 20 minutes lost".  I didn't care about time, I wanted to know how many teams were ahead of us.
He said "oh about 5 more teams"
"lets go then..."
  We ran, no more wogging for us.  Team 7 was still right with us. We couldn't understand why.  They were nice guys but who were we?  Nobodies..
  We ran up hills we would have walked before, we only walked in oder to open and eat a chomp or two.  Jack used the bathroom at Utica Lake.  He would catch us up. He was getting tired again. I went back to a jog.  We still had 4 or more miles ahead of us.  It was all downhill, but it was also downhill for the teams ahead of us..
We finally saw Spicer Reservoir off in the distance.  A Kayak crossing it. We hoped it was Team 1 just setting out across.  We were greeted by cheers and yells. No Cowbells. Uh Oh were we that far back?  Team 7, right beside us, admitted they had minimal paddling experience.  Jack and I have been paddling for more than 35 years.  We picked a kayak, we loaded up, we shoved off.  Team 7 finally started arguing, still on shore.  They got left behind.  As we crossed the lake we noticed Team 1 on their return trip, paddling smoothly.  I yelled a thank you to them for notifying us about our mistake.  They acknowledged.  Good guys.  They didn't have to tell us.  They could have petioned it later...
We continued on across the lake in our small tandem kayak.  We hit shore, dismounted, and scrambled up to the 80 foot rappel sight.  On our climb up we encountered the other 3-4 teams ahead of us.  giving the same "we screwed up, missed a turn" answer to their questioning looks.  We met my friend Mattley at the top of the rappel, he snapped a fantastic picture of us. Two teammates, brothers, friends.  We felt happy.  We were among the top 5-6 teams in the race, some of the best teams, (Navy SEAL teams, Ranger teams, Military and law enforcement teams...) in the country. Just two guys, fighting old age,  two brothers competing with the best.  Yes we felt good.