Odyssey Adventure racing has long been known for putting on some of the toughest races on the east coast, and the recently run Odyssey One Day Adventure Race was no exception. Checkpoint Zero / Inov-8 sent two squads to this classic race and came away beaten, battered and deep fried. Or was that the shrimp we had for dinner? I forget. Our first squad consisted of some of the usual suspects, Michele Hobson, Hunter Orvis, Allen Mc Adams, and Tim Abbott. The second squad consisted of myself and 3 hired guns, Paul Humphreys, Julia Radmann, and Daniel Jesse. Our plan was to race as an 8 headed monster, as we were all about the same speed.

The race started off with a prologue run that had the racers guessing at how long it would actually take. We had been given a hand drawn map of Camp Bethel, but there was nothing to indicate the scale or trail lengths. More surprisingly, once we started, we noticed it was devoid of all contour lines, and didn't clue us into the straight up and down trails we were to run on. It turned out to be a relatively short, just enough to spike those heart rates before we got on our bikes.

Once on the bike we started the long arduous climb out of the valley up towards the Blue Ridge Parkway. We weren't supposed to see the parkway, but we missed a fairly non descript trail that split off from the main trail and we rode an extra kilometer or so to the top. Realizing our mistake, we rode back down, passing at least 3-4 other teams that were making the same mistake, but hadn't realized it yet. This put us behind a bunch of teams, which we then had to squeeze by on the narrow single track leading us to the town of Buchanan, VA.

By the time we reached Buchanan, we had rode through the hottest part of the day, and had drank everything our Inov-8 packs could hold. Luckily, just before the transition to the paddle, we came across a small gas station well stocked with many cold beverages. We split up and had several of us filling our bladders from the spigot outside, while a couple of us ran inside to stock upon some Powerade and 2 liter bottles of Coke. With bottles in our arms, we trotted across the street and clamored into our boats, downing most of what we had just bought in a matter of minutes. Our paddle along the James river was largely uneventful. There were a few class II rapids we encountered, but the mostly flat water mad for a senic paddle. Or plan to carrying our own kayak paddles probably bought us a little time on this section, but as we would later experience, I'm not so sure it was worth it as the race director made us carry them the entire race from start to finish.

As we pulled off the river, the sun was beginning to set, and we had enough time to bushwack 800' straight up to reach our first trekking checkpoint. As we reached the top, we were treated to the sun setting in the beautiful Virginia mountains. It was also here that Allen started to feel a little ill.

As the trek progressed, Allen felt worse and worse. We finally decided that it would be best to split our two teams apart, so Paul, Julia, Daniel and I proceeded onward, leaving the others to follow behind at a much slower pace. By now it was the middle of the night, and we were getting close to the end of the trek when Julia stopped suddenly and shouted out "SNAKE!". If she didn't say that, it was something close to that, I was in a bit of a fog at the time as the sleep monsters were knocking on my door. What prompted her cry was that she had come dangerously close to stepping on a 4' long rattle snake!

A little bit shaken, we made it into the next TA where we found out we had closed the gap to the leaders by 20 minutes from our last time check, although we were still about an hour behind. This bit of good news energized us, until we found out that my bike had a flat tire. Jeez, how does a bike tire go flat just sitting there? A quick tube change later and we were rolling back towards Buchanan. When we got there, we were delighted to find out that the same store we stopped at earlier was still open, and we ducked in for some more cold beverages. As we stepped back outside the store, we came across a duo that had obviously seen better times. We spoke with them for a few minutes and found out this was their first long race, they had made it this far, but they had called it a night and were waiting for a ride back to the start finish line. Paul somehow got on the topic of food and calories, and mentioned he had probably consumed about 15000 during the race so far. When asked what they had eaten, they said a couple of Gatorades and a bar or two. Before we took off we mentioned that they should try to eat significantly more next time and they would easily make it to the finish line.

As we climbed out of town back towards the single track that would take us to the start, and to the final leg of the race, we were all in good spirits, and ready chase down the leaders. Little did we know what the trail had in store for us. During the first climb on the single track, a tiny, thinner than a pencil, little stick got kicked up into my derailleur and decided to rip it right off. I couldn't believe it. Of all the things to happen, this was the last straw (or so I thought). Having tried to make a single speed out of my bike before and not being able to get it to work because of the suspension design, I was consigned to pushing my bike along for the next 15 miles or so. It wasn't so bad on the up hills, as everyone else was pushing, but on the flats I was much slower. The downhills, however, were coastable and I was determined to make the most of my momentum and take some pretty aggressive lines to conserve speed. I'm sure you can imagine where this is headed.

I can't quite remember exactly how it happened, but I do know this, somehow my front wheel was forced off the trail. What ensued was a short trip over the handle bars, followed by a somersault in the air, ending in a face plant in the leaves. As I took a moment to check for broken bits, I felt a sharp pain at the end of my finger, and realized I had just pissed off a bunch of yellow jackets and they were out for blood. I think I managed to get away with only a couple stings, but man, it hurt. I suppose the upside was that the pain kept me awake. I wish I could say the remainder of the ride back was uneventful, but I managed to perform the same maneuver again about a mile down the trail and managed to rip my tire off my rim. On the bright side, at least I didn't get stung again.

By the time we got back to the final TA, it was just starting to get light. The last section was a large orienteering course, over which we could get up to 20 additional check points. Knowing we were down one bike, we decided we would set out on foot, grab the points closest to the finish. We ended up getting 11 of the points and decided it was enough. Trying to bushwack through the underbrush with our paddles still strapped to our backs was not the easiest thing to do and there was no way we could realistically get many more points without a lot more effort. We acknowledged we were giving up any hope for a first or second place, but after all we had been through we lost our motivation and were just ready to go home.

As it turns out, the we managed 3rd place in the coed division, and 4th overall. Not bad considering what we had to overcome. The other squad was not so lucky. By the time they finished the trekking section and got to their bikes, Allen hadn't gotten any better and they decided it would be best if they stopped racing to avoid any serious issues. While it is never fun to have to pull out of a race, sometimes it is the best thing to do.

After all is said and done, we had a great time out there and thank Odyssey for putting on another fun and challenging race. Of course we wouldn't be there without the help from our generous sponsors Inov-8, Numa, and nuun. Next up for us will be the Moab Xstream Expedition. Can't wait to head west again!