[This is James’
personal recount of his race with Team Adventure Medical Kits at the 2016 Cameco
Cowboy Tough Adventure Race. For a full 3-video recap of Team AMK’s race,
please see the Team Adventure Medical Kits Facebook page].
About a year before the 2016 Cowboy Tough Adventure Race, I
had approached Kyle Peter, the captain of Team Adventure Medical Kits (AMK), about
the possibility of racing with their team. Having been an adventure racer for
over 12 years, I have slowly honed my AR skills and worked my way up to racing
with stronger and faster teams. Feeling as though I am getting into my best AR
racing years, I wanted to see if there was an opportunity for me to test and
push the limits of my skillset by racing with the top North American team (and
also one of the best AR teams in the world). When Kyle approached me about
racing the 2016 Cowboy Tough AR, I was game.
My preparation for this race was anything but usual. There
were a number of mitigating circumstances (as I think there are for just about
every adventure racer) that made things challenging in the final moth leading
up to the race: Work commitments that took me out of the country for a few
weeks and limited my capacity to train, an illness in the family that shifted the
remaining free weekends into road trips to help care for the family member, and
trying to recover properly from my first 120km ultra a little over a month
before Cowboy Tough. But considering these and other circumstances, I went into
the race feeling strong and ready for the challenges that lay ahead.
Oh, and this was the first time in the 3+ years since my
girlfriend (and regular teammate) Nathalie and I started dating that we would
be racing head-to-head in an adventure race ;-)
ARRIVAL IN CASPER
I was the first on my team to arrive in Casper, Wyoming for
the race. I was greeted at the airport by Ted – the father of our “host” family.
I’ve never been “hosted” for a race before, and this turned out to be an
amazing experience for my team and I. Ted and his family were incredible hosts
and went far above and beyond simple hospitality. They became instant fans of
AR and of our team – going as far as making posters and meeting us out at
various points on the course to cheer us on.
Pre-race organization was, as usual, nearly as challenging
as parts of the race. It’s such an exhausting mental exercise to think through
the entire race and make sure that you have the right amount of food, clothing,
batteries, lights, equipment, and personal items you need for every section of
the race – and then to make sure they all end up in the right gear bin (since
you will not see them all in every transition area). THEN try to organize these
things in the absolute most efficient and minimalistic way possible so that as
little time as possible time is wasted in transitions! I knew that racing with
AMK was going to be a step up in speed and efficiency for me, so I wanted to
make extra sure that I was dialled in and wouldn’t lag behind in the TAs.
RACE DAY
I woke up at around 4am on race morning feeling a little
short on sleep (not surprising or unusual), but excited to get to racing.
Finally it was time to put all the preparation to the test. We knew our team
would have some stiff competition for this race – no less than 6 teams had a
legitimate shot at a podium finish – and because the race was relatively short
by expedition racing standards (winning team expected to finish in under 3
days), we also knew that we would have to race it more like a sprint than an
expedition race.
One of my favourite moments in adventure racing is the few
minutes just before race start. The nervous tension, contrasted with the
excitement and anticipation, make for such an incredible feeling; you can’t
wait to take on the challenge ahead, knowing full-well (and ever-so-slightly
dreading) the amount of physical effort and sheer willpower that will be
required to achieve both personal and team goals.
THE RACE IS ON!
I was very happy that the race started with a 7 mile
controlled (escorted) lead-out on the bike. This gave me a chance to get my
legs warmed up and to just ease into race mode (as opposed to the usual
hammer-dropping at the start of most races, no matter how long they are). We
started near the middle of the pack and slowly worked our way up near the front
before we were set free and the racing started.
We finished the first 50km bike with I believe 4 or 5 other
teams all in the lead pack. Our transition was the quickest and put us on the
water first – only to take what turned out to be a slower channel right near
the start that allowed a couple teams to get ahead of us. The paddling turned
out to be quite a challenge for our team; we couldn’t quite keep pace with the
leaders (although we weren’t losing major time) no matter what we tried. We
attempted to tow early on, but didn’t find much success mainly due to the
currents and occasional rapids that made it difficult to keep the boats in-line.
I actually ended up paddling in the bow and stern of each of our two boats at
one point or another in the paddling sections as we tried to find the best
configuration. it’s extremely hard to get in proper nutrition
and hydration when you are in the “chase” boat – the minute you stop for 1 or 2
strokes, you are too far behind to catch back up.
Mid-way through the paddle, I
knew we would be getting out of the boats soon for a short trekking section, so
I decided to push hard to try and minimize the gap between us and the lead
teams. I suffered quite a bit on the ensuing trek, as it was mainly climbing
and running (so again not much time to take in food or water), but was luckily
able to recover on the next paddle when I swapped into the faster boat. The
next 1/2 hour was probably the most I’ve ever eaten or drank in a 30-minute
period on a paddle in a race! It felt good to feel the energy slowly return to
my body…
My first low point in the race came from pushing a little too
hard in one section to try and stay in the draft of our other boat. As Kyle
aptly pointed out at one point in the paddle:
Our next bike was a nighttime singletrack ride. This was a
highlight of the race for me, as it’s rare that we get nice singletrack riding
in an adventure race, I don’t often get the chance to ride singletrack at night
(but I really enjoy it), and all 4 of us were quite strong technical riders. So
it was a fun, fast ride for the most part (with the occasional bike pushing
sections) and a nice way to break up the long paddling sections.
After a little
bit of time for a sleep due to a dark zone just before the dawn of Day 2, we
hit the water with 3 other teams for an early morning re-start on the paddle.
This was an uneventful paddle on a beautiful morning… that is, until Garrett
and I managed to send ourselves for a little swim on the only really
threatening rapid of the race. Technically we made it through the rapid, but we
had taken on so much water that we eventually did the “slow roll” into the
water. As we floated down the river, Garrett and I were slightly comforted by
the sight of other teams ahead of us salvaging their own overturned boats.
Nevertheless, it took a fair bit of time and energy to get ourselves to shore –
we were however very lucky that when we overturned, everything in our boat got
“vacuum-sealed” under the boat and stayed with us until we could flip the boat
back over on the shoreline. As luck would have it, the next section of the
river consisted mainly of high canyon walls that blocked out the morning sun –
and any heat that it could have provided us. So we shivered away for a while
until we could finally take advantage of the day’s increasing heat.
Once off the paddle, we hopped on the bikes for about 70
kilometres of riding, mainly gravel and paved roads. Early on we worked with
the Swedish Armed Forces team to try to catch up with Tecnu (who were in the
lead), but eventually we pulled away from them and proceeded on our own. I was
struggling a little during this bike section. I just felt like my energy output
was more than it should be, just to keep pace with my teammates. Something
didn’t feel right, but I was unable to identify it at the time. My nutrition
and hydration felt fine and my output was steady, but I just felt like I was
working harder than I should be. I pushed on, trying to be cautious of not
red-lining, while at the same time making sure I wasn’t slowing the team down.
Our first “real” trek of the race was next – a section that
started out with a nice clear trail which eventually disappeared and then
seemingly randomly (and momentarily) reappeared - but always on the opposite
side of a stream that we were following. Needless to say, we did a lot of
stream-hopping – which turned out to be my worst discipline of the race! I
think I slipped off rocks and stumbled into the stream more times than I
successfully crossed it – A great way to make wet feet an issue in a
desert-like region!
THE CRUX
Next up could be described as the “crux” of the race – in general
for its difficulty for all teams in the middle of the race, but particularly
for its role as a turning point in our team’s race. This climb up to Laramie
Peak - the highest point of the racecourse (above 10,000 feet) – and back,
started out with Tecnu in the lead, about 25 minutes ahead of us. The section
was also billed as a “King of the Mountain” section with the team boasting the
fastest time from the TA to the summit and back to the TA winning the KOM title
and $250. It became apparent to me very early on in this section that our team
felt it was time for us to make a move. We held a pretty steady pace on the
roads leading up to the trailhead. I then mistakenly assumed that since we
would be steadily climbing from the start of the trail to the peak, that we
would not likely be doing much running from that point on… Boy was I wrong! Not
only did we run anything that was relatively flat, but I found out later that
Garrett was encouraging Kyle at the front to run a few extra strides every time
the trail dictated that it was time to start walking again.
Mentally I had to
work to get re-focused to push a little harder than anticipated to get to the
peak, but I managed to hang on. I was expecting that as we got closer to the
top we would see Tecnu on their way back down from the peak and this would give
us an idea of the time gap. But about 2/3 of the way up, we spotted them ahead
of us on the trail, also on their way up. As you can imagine, this gave me (and
the entire team) a much needed boost of energy. After catching and chatting
with Tecnu for a little bit, we pushed on to the peak while they gave chase and
held on. Both teams arrived at the summit together – a great feeling to reach
the top of such a tough and fast climb, and to have caught the lead team!
We
quickly started back down the mountain, trying to get as close to the end of
the trail as possible before we would run out of daylight. My renewed energy
and enjoyment of technical downhill running made this section quite fun, albeit
still quite challenging. There were plenty of loose rocks to make things dicey
at high speed. As it turned out, we
were able to put another 15 minutes on Tecnu on the way down the mountain.
The ensuing bike leg into the night was another low point
for me. I was still finding myself working a little too hard for my liking just
to keep up. The nighttime riding on long straight-ish roads also caused me to
lose focus a bit and revert to a pattern of falling off the pace for a bit and
then catching back up, which I think was concerning my team mates a bit. Mari
asked me a few times if I was alright, which I took as a polite hint that I
needed to get re-focused and get my butt back into the formation or ask for
help ;-). Also, I was developing some lower back pain that would force me to
try and stretch often as I rode along, again causing me to slow down and then
catch back up. I think we were all (as a team) a little unfocused on this
section and we didn’t move as efficiently on this ride as we could have. But
this isn’t unusual for the second night of an expedition race with little sleep…
After the bike we started into another trek section. As we
expected to arrive at the ropes before the dark zone would be lifted (at
5:20am), we opted to do this looped section of checkpoints in a way that would
have us ending at the ropes (as these CPs could be gotten in any order). We
struggled for about 30 minutes longer than we should have on one CP early in
this section which was really our only navigational bobble in the race. But we
made some smart decisions in difficult terrain and Kyle quickly got us back on
track. We arrived at the ropes about 40 minutes before they were to open,
allowing us to get a little more sleep off the clock… You know you are on a
team that means business when your captain goes to sleep wearing his harness so
that he can be on the ropes less than 5 minutes after being woken up! Once we’d
all ascended and rappelled down the ropes, we completed the trek and hopped
back on the bikes.
Shortly after staring this bike section, I FINALLY figured
out why I had been feeling like I was working so hard (on top of the fact that
my teammates are very fast!)… my seat was a fair bit lower than it should be. I felt
like a bit of an idiot for not having figured out the problem much earlier in
the race, but once I fixed it, I felt SOOOOO much better and stronger… It’s
amazing how much difference a few millimetres can make on a bike! While this
bike section (and the next) were by no means easy, I felt so much better as my
output matched that of my teammates much more closely. This renewed my energy
levels for the next relatively short trek in a large, wide-open area strewn
with tons of small brush to trip us up.
We were able to move quite well in this
terrain and it felt good to be keeping a solid pace later in the race. Back on
the bike again for more long gravel road riding and headwind-fighting, we were
beginning to feel the heat of the day catching up to us. We didn’t quite
calculate our water needs correctly on this bike section and it caused us to suffer
a little on the way up to Muddy Mountain.
But we finally made it and shifted our focus to the last orienteering
section of the race. Kyle made quick work of the navigation on this section and
we continued to move at a good pace as our thoughts started shifting to getting
ourselves across the finish line. The final ride down Muddy Mountain was a
little sketchy with plenty of loose gravel, and the ride up and over Casper
Mountain was full of anticipation.
As we headed up Casper Mountain, we were
very surprised to see Tecnu coming toward us down the hill. Confusion gave way
to empathy as we figured out that they had climbed the wrong mountain first
(likely due to a race map that originally had the last TA plotted on Casper
Mountain, but for which teams were notified in the briefing of the change).
Knowing how hard all the teams (including ourselves) are pushing in any
adventure race, it’s easy to imagine (or remember!) the frustration that comes
with making a big navigation error and the extra effort that’s needed to
correct it – particularly when it involves going up and down two mountains…
THE FINISH
The ride down from Casper Mountain and into the city was generally
relaxed. It was nice to not have to race all the way to the finish line and
even better to be finishing in daylight! We crossed the line just before 8pm (a
little over 2.5 days of racing) and congratulated each other for a great effort
on a tough race course against some strong teams. All in all I think we raced a
clean, efficient, and fast race. I was not at the top of my game at certain
points in the race, but I felt like I did the right things to get myself back
on track when needed, and I knew I had the help and support of my teammates
available at all times if I needed it. It was a real pleasure to race with such
a dialed-in team that does all the little things to be the best they can be.
What impressed me most is the attitude and actions of each team member to
establish the team as a single unit at all times. There was this constant
vigilance within the team about staying close and connected, and doing things
together as much as possible. Having studied sport psychology/team
dynamics and having been a part of many sports teams over the years, it was great to see the difference this makes both from a performance
and personal/psychological standpoint. 
I felt like I was able to fit in well with the team’s mix of
passion, dedication and abilities, along with their calm-but-driven attitude.
At the same time, I learned some great lessons about how to be a more efficient
and effective racer. I have come away with a clearer picture of what it takes
to race at the highest level in AR and I am even more determined to keep
getting stronger and smarter in my racing. Without revealing any secrets ;-), I hope to bring back
some of this wisdom to my teammates on Team Canada AR when we race at the 2016
AR World Championships in Australia in November.
