ARWC 2017 Cowboy tough- 23rd

They say one of the hardest things to do in adventure racing is to get 4 people to the start line of a race. This race would prove that statement true. After months of searching, finally securing a 3^rd team mate, almost securing a 4^th team mate, losing the 3^rd team mate, finding a replacement 3^rd team mate (Chad Spence), and sending out countless emails to almost all of the Canadian and international racers we know (and many we don’t know personally), Nathalie and I (James) found ourselves literally hours away from cancelling our trip to the Adventure Racing World Championships two weeks before the race. But with a little luck, we were finally able to secure a 4^th team mate – Ben Brewer - a newcomer to expedition racing, but an experienced navigator and strong racer at shorter distances.

This was not only a new team configuration, each of us was walking into the race with our own challenges and unknowns: Ben was racing his first race beyond 36 hours, Chad was facing his longest expedition race to date and the challenge of navigating at a World Championship, Nathalie was in the best shape of her life and ready to challenge herself to be a leader in pushing the team forward on the course, and I was dealing with a knee injury sustained in a mountain bike crash 5 weeks before the race. So we knew going in that the race ahead of us would really be a test for each of us as individuals, and as a team.

Our race preparations went relatively smoothly, despite the usual difficulties of gear bin logistics and the opening ceremony went well with lots of little fun challenges.

 

 

 

        

 

 But we got everything organized relatively quickly and had the evening before the race start to relax, unwind, and get to know each other a little better. We got the maps as we stepped onto our busses at 5:30am on August 10^th for a 5 hour bus ride to start of the race in Jackson Hole, WY. Once arrived, it wasn’t long until the race was underway.

We started with an orienteering course prologue on the side of the ski hill, followed by a 12km run (Leg 1) on a paved trail. As usual, our team agreed that we would not start out too fast and burn ourselves out in the first legs of the race… and as usual we completely ignored this agreement and ran like idiots trying to keep up with all the other teams in the mid-day heat! 

We arrived at the transition to pack rafts about mid-pack, ready to start Leg 3 of the race. This was a nice, rather uneventful paddle down a moving river as we prepared ourselves for the major hiking and biking that lay ahead.

Leg 4 was our first step into the long, challenging middle portion of the race course. This 62km hiking leg featured over 10,000ft of climbing, with no checkpoints. While this leg was mainly on trails, one concern was the lack of access to water on the trail and the possible need to come down off the ridge early to gain access to water sources below. While we were not as quick as we would have liked to be, we managed to maintain a steady pace and manage our water supply enough to avoid having to come down early from the ridge. The trek offered many stunning views as we trekked on into the first night.  

Leg 5 featured our first bike section – a 133km ride mainly on roads. The challenge here was to move as quickly as possible on the good road surfaces and keep a hard, steady pace moving forward. Early in this section we tried to work with a few teams to move more quickly together, but had to eventually slow our pace down to avoid burning anyone out.

Leg 6 of the race was an even longer trek than the previous one with about two thirds of the elevation. This trek generally followed the continental divide – an imaginary line through the mountains that separates East and West flowing rivers. For the most part there was an actual trail along the continental divide, but at points it disappeared and made for some challenging navigation. One of the most difficult off-trail navigation sections was on this leg as well and consisted of a hilly area littered with fallen trees, which made travel very slow and difficult. Most teams struggled here, including us, losing about 5 hours looking for CP9.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning that our sleep strategy was fairly poorly executed in this race. We opted to not sleep on the first night and only sleep 45 minutes on the second night. The sleep details after day 2 are pretty blurry to all of us, with many random stops for a short rest and too much wandering along while mostly asleep. This is an area where we certainly needed to be more proactive, as the lack of sleep really caught up to us late in the race.

After completing the two major treks in the race, it was time to turn our focus to the massive bike leg(s) ahead – a 58km ride followed by a mind-boggling 264km more of biking, with a short trek and ropes/caving section in between the two. Leg 7 had a bunch of gravel road and paved roads, but ended with a spectacular cliff-edge trail that we rode in the middle of the night, followed be an excellent single track section to get us down the mountain. We quickly got transitioned and off to the caving section and then up to the ropes. There was about an hour backup at the ropes so we were able to get a little bit of rest here. After the rappel in the dark, we headed back to the TA and opted for a little bit of sleep before heading off on the big bike ride. 

The 264km bike leg was all about covering terrain to get ourselves all the way back to the Casper area and near the finish line. As we were progressing on the mammoth bike leg a pretty big storm was brewing just behind us which kept us motivated to move forward.

We did most of the ride in the daytime and then had another quick sleep the following night before heading into a sandy section of trail (“The Dunes”). We had heard a few teams pass us while we slept so when we woke up, we pushed to catch back up to them.  We traveled with them for a while until they appeared to head in a direction we weren’t sure we wanted to go to get to the next checkpoint. We spend the next couple hours trying to figure out where we were at on the confusing network of trails, only to discover that earlier we had passed right by the checkpoint we were looking for. So we had to backtrack quite a ways to find the CP. We then tried unsuccessfully a few times to find a way out of the area that was less sandy, which cost us even more time.

We finally got ourselves to the back-to-back packraft legs of the race. The first of these (Leg 10) was a flat water paddle on a reservoir after a 10km hike from the TA. This was a rather uneventful paddle, until we set out to cross the dam to begin the whitewater portion of the paddling. Just as we were crossing the dam, a storm blew in very quickly. We were lucky enough to be able to use the buildings at the dam to shelter ourselves from the strong winds and pounding rain. We waited out the storm for about 20 minutes and then headed down to the bottom of the dam as soon as we felt it was safe. We put our packrafts in the water and paddled another 15 minutes before a second, even larger storm blew in. This time we didn’t have the luxury of any buildings nearby to protect ourselves, so we pulled over to the shore and created a lean-to shelter with our 2 rafts to protect ourselves from the storm. We all huddled under our makeshift shelter while observing the massive thunder, lightning, high winds, and heavy rain all around us. The tension was relieved by the sound of Chad frequently trying to slurp up the rainwater that was leaking overhead directly into the hood of his zipped up rain jacket and right past his mouth.

Once the storm passed, we finally got back onto the river and into the canyon portion of the rapids. This would be the most challenging whitewater section of the race. We were greeted at the biggest rapid by a rescue person (Brad – a fellow Canadian volunteering at the race) who informed us of our options: River right was less of a drop but required a tight turn mid-way through, while river left had a steep drop and water pushing up against a rock wall at the bottom of the rapid. We all agreed that river right would be the best/safest way to go. Chad and Nat took the lead and headed down the rapid, just out of sight from where Ben and I waited. Once we got the signal from Brad that they were through, I steered our packraft toward the rapid but could not see the river right option that Brad had described… So down the steep left side we went, luckily without incident.  The remainder of the rapids seemed much more tame and we thought we were relatively home free for the whitewater section. However as Chad and Nat passed through what seemed like an innocuous rapid, their boat was punctured and sank very quickly. We could hear Nat screaming something (which we found out soon after was that her paddle was floating away) as she and Chad tried to gather themselves and their gear in the rapids. We got pulled into the flow as well and as we approached, Chad warned us about a sharp rock in the rapid that had popped their boat. I identified what looked like the sharp rock and proceeded to work around it (and them) to head off to retrieve Nat’s paddle. I quickly found out that the rock I identified was not the right one! So there we were, 4 people, 2 punctured boats, gear floating away everywhere, and everyone scrambling to minimize the carnage. (Sidenote – we discovered later that this sharp rock had been identified by the organizers in our race notes, but because of the heavy rains from the storms just before we got there, this rock was now underwater when we got there and appeared to just be another smooth boulder in the rapid). We managed to get everyone to shore and gather our wits as we figured out what to do. Just then we spotted a photographer just below the next rapid on the shoreline and what appeared to be a reasonable climb out of the canyon. So we each grabbed a handful of gear and swam the next rapid then quickly got to the shore and worked our way up the steep canyon wall and out to the road above. This took a considerable amount of time and during the climb Chad slipped while trying to move some of the heavier gear up the canyon wall and fell quite painfully on his hip and knee.

Once we got to the road, we were soon met by a medic and a race referee (they must have been tracking us!). This was very fortunate for us because with the race referee present, we were able to get minimal help from the medic without breaking any rules about assistance, and the referee was able to inform us of our options for moving forward in order to stay ranked in the race. We were able to work out 2 possible options: borrow packrafts from a team who had finished the paddling section but were still in the race, or take a time penalty for taking roads instead of paddling a particular section that was ahead (where the rules stated that we needed to stay in the riverbed). The referee offered to help facilitate trying to get other packrafts for us, for which we were very grateful. As such, we were able to trek (as planned) along the road and a set of rafts were lent (thank you Journey Racing!!!!) and delivered to us before the next paddling section. This allowed us to continue the race (with a 4-hour penalty) and get to the finish line. We set off in our new boats and paddled into the late night. Everyone was getting very sleepy and cold, so when we got to another dam, we decided to sleep in a washroom at the campground just below the dam. We all huddled in there and tried our best to keep warm and get some rest. When we got up in the morning, we discovered that the lone dry bag (mainly full of wet clothes) we had left outside while we slept was gone. We looked everywhere for it but couldn’t find it. It was never recovered but we figure it was either stolen by someone at the campground, or taken by an animal who could smell the remnants of food on/in the bag.

The morning was cold an windy and we were struggling to stay warm after a cold night and no dry clothes. Luckily the sun was shining bright and helped to warm us up somewhat. Nat still struggled to get warm as we worked our way through the remaining 20km of paddling. At one point she was getting dangerously cold in her wet clothes. I was able to dry my clothes just from the inside from the warmth I was creating while paddling, while Chad and Ben were just barely keeping warm enough. But none of us had any extra clothes to offer Nat. Since I was feeling warm enough at that point (and the day was beginning to warm up), I had us pull over onto the shore and proceeded to swap upper body clothes with Nat. I gave her my dry fleece and dry rain jacket and put on her wet fleece. It was a bit of a tight fit for me in her little tiny fleece, but we made it work and it got us to the end of the paddling section.

The final bike section was basically a very long climb to the top of Casper Mountain. At this point I think we all felt that we would be able to make it to the finish line even though it would be a struggle to do all the remaining climbing. The views were incredible and we were very lucky to have the clay roads dry enough for us to bike without all the clay sticking to our tires (which was not the case for many teams ahead and behind us). The final reward was a 10km paved road descent down Casper Mountain and into the finish. But of course we had one last hurdle to clear before getting there – a fitting conclusion to our race. We got to within about 500m of the finish line when another massive storm hit, forcing us to take shelter for 15 minutes under a bridge while we waited out the heavy rain and winds and took shelter from the lightning. After sitting there frozen, waiting for the storm to pass, we finally were able to get ourselves to the finish line – cold, wet, but happy that we were able to overcome all of the hurdles we faced as a team

Looking back at all of the challenges we faced coming into the race, as well as the unforeseen mishaps we faced during the race, I would say that we managed pretty well. Ben faced a major challenge in racing more than 3 times longer than he’d ever raced before. While he certainly struggled at times, he also persevered and kept a positive attitude, accepted help from his team mates, and every time he felt strong was ready to help out where he could, including helping Chad with the navigation. Chad did a great job of leading the navigation in his first ARWC. At times he felt like he was making too many mistakes, but looking back at our track, it’s clear that many other teams (including top teams) struggled in many of the same places. Nat pushed her limits by putting herself at the front of the paceline whenever she was feeling strong, and even doing some towing during the race. I went into the race unsure if my knee injury would slow me down. I had a few scares during the race, but overall I felt like my body (and mind) adequately met the challenges as they surfaced. And overall, considering that Nat and I had only ever raced against Chad and none of us had ever even met Ben before the race, I would say that we all worked well together and managed to have a good time as well. It appears we finished 23^rd after incurring the 4 hour penalty, which we feel is a quite respectable placing. It was a pleasure to see Cowboy Tough host the AR World Championships and they pulled it off flawlessly. And as always, it was great to see so many familiar faces and a bunch of new ones as well at the race. Now on to making plans for 2018!

   

Cowboy Tough ARWC Qualifier 2016-3,5 days AR- Jason's report

2016 Cameco Cowboy Tough Adventure Race, Casper, WY

Team Canada AR Race Report

With James on loan to Adventure Medical Kits for this race we recruited Charles Triponez and Matt Hayes to join us for the race. Both would be solid additions to the squad with a ton of racing experience to draw from.

Race check-in began Wednesday at 11:00am with the typical forms to hand in, rappel check, mandatory gear check, map handout and racer weigh in.

 

 

Jason was not happy to find out he was the heavyweight on the team for this race. We spent the remainder of the afternoon going over the maps with optional points to plot and routes to find and then a final pack of the gear bins just before handing them in at 8:30pm.

 

 

1:50:00, 49 km.

The race would start as a group ride along a bike path out of town following an ATV with a rolling road closure at the intersections.

 

Once we hit the road the pace amped up a little but it wasn’t too bad until we started onto the gentle climbs where the initial team selection was made with AMK, Tecnu, Yogaslackers, Swedish Armed Forces, Team North Face and us making the cut. We hammer along and put about 5 minutes into the remaining peleton before reaching the first transition area. This was exactly what we hoped would happen as we had a small cushion for the transition to paddling, avoiding a massive hurricane for the most part.

2:20:00, 28 km.

We put on the North Platte River for what would be over 100 miles of paddling with a few stops mixed in. We were just ahead of Team North Face but they took a better line through the first small ripples and passed us. We ended up following them all the way to the Water Challenge at an abandoned fort, passing Journey Racing along the way.

0:10:00, 1.0 km.

The Water Challenge involved a take-out at a small landing where each team needed to haul 4 buckets of water up to a cistern in the old fort in teams of two being careful not to lose too much water out of the bucket or you’d have to make a second trip.

 

 

 

AMK and Tecnu were both one bucket trip ahead of us at this point.

1:45:00 21.0 km.

Once the challenge was complete it was back into the boats for an uneventful paddle to the town of Douglas.

0:45:00 7.0 km.

In Douglas there was a canoe drop for a short urban o-course with points at a WWII Internment Camp, a stop at the College Inn for a shot of whiskey and in a train car museum.

 

 

We took the opportunity to fill up our bladders for the next long paddle leg just before putting back in.

3:00:00 36 km.

Back on the river the current was still flowing well and we continued to make solid progress in the Mad River 16’ bananas through the afternoon. This section seemed long however as we did not see another team the entire way.

2:00:00 8.0 km.

Midway through this leg there were 5 optional points to pick up just prior to the

reservoir. The 5 points were up on a plateau and split by a large reentrant in the middle. Charles saw his first bald eagle just before the take-out. There were multiple strategies used by teams to get the points with a majority landing at the reentrant and doing two out-and- backs to get them all including us.

5:40:00 35.0 km.

The 5 optional points provided a nice break from paddling but it there was still more to go so we got back into the boats for the remaining portion of leg 3 paddle.

 

Unfortunately it was in the Glendo Reservoir and the current was no longer providing help. In addition, a solid wind had picked

up straight across the water right into our teeth as night fell. We never had water over the bow but I am sure it was very close a few times. A number of teams behind us took shelter as the winds continued to build through the night. We paddled the entire reservoir with the two-person team of Nordic Adventure

hot on our sterns. I’m sure they were happy to have another team near-by in case they had an issue.

Later in the race we heard of another 2-person team that spent over an hour waiting for a rescue after their boat sank.

6:00:00 49.0 km.

At the take-out we portaged the canoes to the TA and transitioned to biking. There were a number of optional bike points to pick up in the challenging Glendo Bike Trail system. There was an impressive amount of work done to make these trails, cut straight into the canyon walls and along the tops of the nearby hills with giant slabs of rock as the trail bed. Most of the trails were rideable but there was still a fair amount of bike pushing required, mostly anytime we went up-hill. Somewhere along the way I dinged my derailleur and it would act up for the remainder of the race. It’s surprising more people didn’t knock them off on rocks completely here.

5:20:00 39.0 km.

We made it back to the TA in time to score 11 minutes of time credit since the paddle 4 dark zone didn’t lift until 5:30am. We filled up bladders and then portaged down to the river on the other side of the reservoir dam.

It wasn’t easy starting back up paddling given the distance we had paddled in the 20 hours before but that quickly changed when we say the first set of rapids coming up.

We made it through with a solid line without scouting but a number of the earlier teams had at least one boat capsize here. There was a number of smaller rapids along this last leg which made this paddle go by relatively quickly.

Just prior to entering the Wendover Canyon there was another set of rapids to negotiate which everyone was keen to clear without swimming. They were set up in an S turn so that there was not one clear side to stay on and required traversing from river right to left in the middle of the S. Fortunately both of our boats negotiated them without an issue.

Once clear of the remaining river obstacles we set our sights on catching Journey Racing who were again ahead of us. We caught them just prior to entering the Guernsey Reservoir with a number of pick-ups originally intended to wake up a few of the sleepy paddlers on the team. For some reason there was a new take-out location and we wasting a little time heading to the mapped version before figuring it out.

I guess the lady jumping up and down and pointing should have been a clue we picked up on sooner.

We packed up our paddle gear and wished it a fond farewell, hoping to never see it again then transitioned to biking.

4:40:00 73.0 km.

The bike leg consisted of a few early controls to reward those not taking the bike Fast Forward option prior to Paddle 4. We rode to those with Journey Racing but they put some tome on us when we stopped at a well for water. The next portion of the leg was on a busy road but we had a great tailwind and it made for some fast traveling. In the distance we could see the mountains we were riding to and as we slowly got closer to them the climbing increased. The last 10k was mostly all uphill granny gear climbing.

6:05:00 21.0 km.

We rolled into the TA looking forward to the first real trekking and it didn’t disappoint.

 

There were no controls mid-route to keep you on track, just solid navigation. Fortunately we had the aid of daylight and a tone of scenery to use for handrails and we could see Laramie Peak in the distance.

 

 

Matt did a great job of locating the South Branch and we made a good call to exit the canyon towards the end before getting boxed in. We cleared the saddle just as the sun set and then descended down to the next TA and our gear bins.

AMK arrived from the Laramie Peak climb as we were transitioning and had taken the lead from Tecnu on the climb up. We finished our TA then tried to get an hour of sleep prior to the KOM climb.

Unfortunately the TA was too noisy and only Matt and Nathalie got any sleep.

4:50:00 20.0 km.

We set off for the climb with a gravel road run to the trailhead. There must have been 150 switchbacks on the climb to the top. Once there we glanced around at the view quickly, punched and then set off on the descent. I think I tripped over every rock in my sleep-deprived state on the way down.

6:35:00 57.0 km.

Back at the TA we transitioned to biking and then attempted another hour of sleep.

With the aid of some earplugs we were all successful in finally sleeping and I felt significantly better once awaking.

The next bike leg had some great downhills with 5-8 km stretches of coasting at 35 kph and we made solid time while heading towards the next o-course.

4:00:00 13.0 km.

The next o-course contained an ascent and a rappel which we went to first, then on to the remaining points.
 

photo credit Chris Radcliff

 

It was a cool area for orienteering with some big features to locate controls on (lots of climbing). Around this time we started looking at our schedule and we were about 4 hours

behind. There was still some slack time before the race finish but the urgency needed to stay high to ensure we clear the course.

6:20:00 71.0 km.

Much to our disappointment the Wyoming Winds picked up and we had a tough

sidewind to contend with on the next biking leg along with some considerable granny gear climbing.

 

photo credit Chris Radcliff

 

Halfway through the leg we turned straight into to it which slowed our pace to a crawl (12-15 kph).

Eventually as the sun went down the wind did as well making the last few km to the TA much easier.

1:40:00 10.0 km.

The next o-course was basically a small valley in the middle of a cattle farm. We

picked up 5 easy points here and I’m not really sure what the purpose of this stop was other than a prescribed chance to get off your bike in the middle of a 150 km ride which was appreciated.

6:54:00 70.0 km.

As we left on to Bike 6 we had a great view of an approaching thunderstorm. Our route took us straight into the heart of it but we made it through without incident most-likely due to Nathalie keeping her head ducked down lower than everyone else’s on the team as we rode past.

While under the storm the air was completely still. Once we made it past we were instantly greeted with a cold front and the temps dropped to the mid-40’s. Just after punching the only control on the ride we decided to get 30 minutes of sleep.

Once barely awake again we set out on the long 2000 ft climb up to the Muddy Mtn TA. It was a granny gear climb all the way to the top.

3:00:00 17.0 km.

As we were transitioning to for the last o-course we noticed that Team North Face was still there and sleeping. They heard us arrive and set out just ahead of us.

Unfortunately we struggled with the first point on the ridge and lost and chance of passing them for 5 th place. The remaining controls went smoothly and we headed back to our last TA of the race.

3:16:00 25.0 km.

There were a number of teams in the TA. By this time they were mostly the teams on the bike tour option, those who were skipping all of the o-course controls to stay on schedule to reach the finish before it closed. It was a nice ride down Muddy Mtn to the base of Casper Mtn despite our difficulties in sitting on our bike seats. The road turned to pavement making the climb to the top easier.

Once at the top it was a 3000 ft. descent to the bottom and the finish in Casper where we arrived in 6th place, the last team to clear the course.

 

 

Jason

Cowboy Tough 3,5 days Expedition race 2015-7th overall (1st of the Adventure class)

Jason, James and I decided to do Cowboy Tough a few months ago but we didn't have a 4th.
We needed a 4th but most of all we needed a navigator so Jason wouldn't be on his own for the entire race.
That's when the race director put us in touch with Fritz (racer of Rev3).
We didn't know Fritz before and Unfortunately didn't have time to do a race all together prior the expedition.
We all flew to Wyoming on the Tuesday, Jason, James and I meeting up in Denver and then driving up to Casper while Fritz was supposed to meet us up there at about the same time.
After taking possession of what must be the pick up with the roughest suspension on earth, we started our drive and stopped on the way to do our groceries.
Fritz got delayed and delayed again and finally made it to the hotel past midnight...without one of his bags (that he got the next day on time for the race).
Wednesday was the check in and gear check, then race briefing and packing the boxes.
We managed to have a decent night of sleep before the race which is always a bonus in those races.
On Thursday morning we took the bus up to Buffalo where the race started.

 

Day1:
The race started with a small Orienteering course in town with different challenges: a shot of whiskey, punching a CP at the bottom of a 10-12 feet deep pool, collecting a telegram and a bullet casing. The orienteering was on foot and as soon as we were done we ran back to the TA (start), took our bikes and left for a couple of hours on the bike.
The first CP on the bike was a challenge. We got to a corral and were told that one of us needed to get in there and pick up a ribbon from a cow's tail (they were babies).
I heard a start of conversation in the team to know who was going and decided we didnt have time for that, so I jumped in...and then realized that I'm scared of cows :S but hey, I was in there, so I did my best and ended up getting one without getting hurt :)

Jumped back on bikes to get to the paddle.

There were two kind of canoes laying there and we picked the first one we saw that looked ok...big mistake. We ended up being passed by everybody who had the other kind of canoes. We thought they were about the same but there was actually 15 and 17 feet long canoes (if i'm correct).
Anyway the paddle was kind of painful because of the CPs not being exactly where they were supposed to be and one was not in place at all, which made us turn around for a while.
We saw the Yogas, Nuun, and Swiss Army turning around but we decided to try a little more to find it...without success.
By the time we came back, those teams were gone on the bike and we met them back up at the next challenge. In that one we had to guess a 3 letter word by flag signals. One or two persons were running to a far away field and were doing flag signals to make us guess a word.

We did relatively ok at it and were back on the bike quickly.
A couple of hours more and we were in TA ready to tackle the first big Trek that would take us up to 10 000 feet.
We started the trek with the Yoga and left them behind as we were climbing (one of their team mate wasn't feeling great). We had a great climb, passing a few teams on the way. Jason's navigation was awesome and we got all the CPs without any troubles up to CP 18. On the way down from CP16 we met Dart Nuun going up, which meant we had passed them somewhere on the way. We were moving well. On the way to CP18 Fritz started to have feet problems so we stopped for him to fix them. As we kept on going he started not feeling very well with GI issues that went on for the whole night. CP19 ended up being the race breaker for us.
The trail disappeared and we turned around and around for 4 to 5 hours. We were by then at 10 000 feet or close. I was feeling sicky from the altitude and just wanted to get back down. I really wanted to find that CP quickly. Fritz wasn't feeling any better at this point, so he couldn't help Jason which didn't simplify the situation.
After finally finding the CP we made another mistake going to CP20 that cost us another 2h+...the race was kind of over...we had missed a cut off.
The morale of the team went down and by the time we got to transition we didn't know if we would be allowed to keep on racing or not.

Day2:
They decided to put us on an "adventure class" course, which only meant that you had missed a cut off and were not forced to get mandatory points from there on but could get any CPs (mandatory or optional).
We decided to go for it and get as many CPs as we could, like if we were still on course.
After a sluggish 1h45 transition, we left on the bikes. We reached the rappel CP pretty quickly and decided to go for more CPs instead of just riding to the End of day transition. So we kept on going on the regular route and picking up CPs. One of the CP was on the top of a mountain. It was so windy.
We decided to go to the end of day after CP32 (I didnt want to but got outvoted). That ride was ssssooooo long and boring. We did it all at night and it was just a repetitive gravel road with not much to keep you awake. That was our second night awake and we rode all night until early morning (we actually stopped for a 15min nap on the side of the road).
Day3:
We got to TA and decided to go for some Optional CPs since we still had a bit of time. We hit two of them pretty quickly and messed up one in a creek that cost us a bit of time.
We got back to TA just on time to leave for Day3..on the bike again.
We rode a part of that bike ride with the Yoga. I guess we were kind of just following but we had to stop after a while and then we didn't know where we were. After turning around for a while we finally made it back on track...for 10 minutes before my first flat.
My tire was pretty new but had so many little cuts it was unbelievable.
The rocks were sharp I guess. We changed the tube just to get a second flat 2 min later.
James decided to cut open a punctured tube to make a protective layer for the new tube inside the tire...it worked.
We got to a CP at the canyon that was really pretty and even got burgers thanks to NYARA :)

Leaving there was again pretty hard (as every transition or stops we did) but we managed to get back on the road and picked up more optional CPs.

 

We struggled for a while and ended up not finding a CP at a well and decided to go to TA.
We got to TA end of day 3 after 63 hours of racing or so...and no sleep. We agreed on having a 2h stop which would include getting changed eating and sleeping. Alarm was set for 2am and we were supposed to leave for the orienteering course at 2:15am sharp....After barely 1h15 of sleep I was awake, looking at the map to see which CPs we would have time to get. By 2am I had a plan and was ready to wake the guys up.
That last TA was a nightmare to leave, and we ended up not getting out of the transition until 2:45am. But Hey at least we went...We picked up the first 3 Cps easily and decided to go for a couple more...problem is we went way too far and ended up picking up a CP we didn't plan to pick and missed the two others that we wanted to take closer to us...it was a bit of a rush to get back in the TA right on time to not be cut off and jump on our bikes.
Day4:
The bike was a 70 mile bike ride back to Casper with some elevation, especially at the start. We managed a good pace and within half the bike ride we had passed many teams.

The second half of the ride was my favorite.
We rode in an echelon formation with Nordic adventure racing team for a while and that was very cool. After a while we decided to go just our team and we took off. It felt fast and great.
By the time we reached town we had reached and passed a lot of teams. We got to the last TA where we took our packrafts and ran to the put in 3 miles upstream. We picked up our last CP and went down river in no time thanks to the current.

Arriving at the finish line, Jason and Fritz decided to race James and I to cross the line first :)

In summary a lot of fun but very disappointed to not have stayed on the full course. We were fit and fast and I am more than sure that we could have done great if only we could have helped Jason with the nav a little more when he needed it. This is the second race that Jason, James and I have done together and once again I loved racing with them and would do it all over again anytime.
I didn't mention it too much but I did spend my time freezing my butt (I really thought it would be a warm race) and when i wasn't freezing I sunburnt real good :/
On a super positive side I loved my Altra Lonepeaks to bits. I didn't have any feet pain which is really rare for me and my 2XU and Pearl Izumi clothing and equipment worked really well. We rode 392km in 3,5 days and I didn't get a rash. First time ever and I only used cream once prior to the race...I am stoked!!!

Frenchie

Photo credits: Michael Sero and Randy Eriksen, two kick ass photographers