To all my loyal readers and fanatics following Team LBF in the world of AR and generally epic adventures,
I am sorry for the delay in my Untamed report. To get right to the point we had a very good Untamed NE a couple weeks ago. It was a good race and some great untamed competition. Team Summit Achievement was the Untamed NE winner and Running Free, one of the top Canadian teams, took an untamed 2nd while a very untamed Team LBF took an untamed 3rd.
For 59 untamed hours and 34 untamed minutes we biked, trekked and paddled through some of the most untamed wilderness New England has to offer. I also want to express my gratitude to Grant and the hole Untamed Adventure Team for bringing such a great event to our untamed region most widely known as The North Country. It was great to have such an untamed event up here to compete in and it's about freaking untamed time that someone came along who is untamed enough to bring us Untamed NE (
http://www.untamedne.com/). I'm sure that Untamed Virginia in September will be very very...dare I say...Unforgettable?
Race HQ, Start and Finish was at the Franconia Inn on Easton Rd. We made a quick loop on a couple ski trails and through a huge mud puddle in the first 3 minutes (Thanks Grant!). Then off to The Rocks Estate for "Conservation" AKA: Stacking Wood, AKA: doing Chucky D's job for him! Next it was to Remich Park in Littleton and an O-Course that lead us over Parker Mountain. The trail system was so confusing in that section that we almost didn't make it out!...who am I kidding? I put the map away until we got to Waterford, VT...We had a 15 minute lead going into the paddle and were in 3rd by 2 minutes when we got off the water. One reason was the three person teams had one boat with 3 paddles, exactly 1/3 more horse power than our boats, the other reason is we suck at paddling. To our defense it's mainly because we never paddle for training just try and survive the paddle sections in our races...probably should get on the water more.
The Victory Bog section...yes I said Bog...was a quick very hilly bike ride away. We arrived at the VB Section around 8:30 PM and headed into the swamp and mucked about for 5 hours. It was a flash from the past but in Patagonia the bogs were moss with beaver dams that we walked around and over. Grant, I guess, decided that Patagonia was too easy so he sent us straight through the beaver ponds!
An absolutely frozen Team LBF rode into TA 6 at 3:30 AM in Lancaster. We drank these self heating cups of coffee Jamie found at the store and packed up for another 20 hours of racing. We rode to the Mountain View Grand with a quick jog to the top of Prospect mountain (Blah) where we saw the Wicked Pissah gang grunting up on our way down. After the MVG we had a near "CheckPoint 18" (see: http://teamlittletonbikeandfitness.blogspot.com/2007/06/nears-vt-12-hour-ar-huh.html) In my state of weakened condition at the last TA I "thought" I put some maps in the bin instead of my pack...so we had a moment of terror and improvisation brain storming on how we could finish the race without the maps I didn't realize I actually had in my pack. We ran with that for about 20 minutes till Jenny told me "Why don't you just empty your bag and see cuz I don't really want to ride back to Lancaster." That settled we started to race again.
We blew through the first O-Course in a crappy time but nevertheless had fun. The next bike section was nothing short of HELL! Cherry Mountain Rd from Rt 2 in Randolph to Bretton Woods (Stop: Eat Pizza and Cake), Mt Washington Base road to Jefferson Notch Road, over Jefferson Puke road to valley road to where we started! The only good part of that was the Pizza and cross eyed paranoid delusions I had while riding up Jefferson Notch Road!
The second O-Course we nailed and cleaned in a very respectable time. the best part of that was climbing the mt to CP1 and seeing a billboard...I know what you're thinking, hallucination right? That's what Jamie said until he saw the billboard too! Then it got even better. Sam Brown's head popped out from behind the billboard! This was a secret CP that was fully stocked with our teammates husband, baked beans, coke, sandwiches and hugs! The best uplift we could have had. Secretly before the secret CP I wasn't sure we would make it through that big O-Course before the cut off, but Dave Lamb gave me a little pep talk and the energy level was great after that. Remember we had not slept in 40 hours. The nav went super smooth on the next section and we hit every CP right on the first time and very quick...
The long paddle was after our 45 Min nap in a field and was a total blur. All I remember is finding a box of donuts and egg sandwiches under a bridge and eating 4 and 2 of each respectfully! From Lancaster to Moore Dam was about 3 1/2 hours and the weather could not have been nicer.
We rode from Perkins to the back side of the Rocks Estate for more of Charles' unfinished work and then down into Franconia and up three mile hill to Artist Bluff for our ropes section and a silly kayak around Echo. Now, I know that it was done for exposure purpose but, I am an athlete and I train really hard to do what I do. In this case "what I do" was stay up for 3 days and race over 150 miles on foot, bikes and paddling. So, I did feel like a bit of a chump when a guy sitting on the beach at Echo lake said "Hey are you in that Adventure Racing thing? looks like it's pretty tough, do you all have to paddle all the way around the lake (in a sarcastic tone)?" Little did he know I actually was seeing two of him from the lack of sleep and that limp I had was closely related to the 30 miles of trekking I did the night before.
We ended the race with a trek up to Greenleaf hut then down to Lafayette Place, back up Cannon and down three mile hill on foot to a merry finish of the full pro course in 3rd place 26 minutes before the midnight cut off. We were one of 3 teams to get all the Check Points and that means we ROCK!
They had 23 pizzas waiting for us when we got there and I started eating until someone said I had had enough (9 pieces or 1.145 pizzas later). Jamie had a beer and nursed it till Rob almost hit the moose. Jenny fell asleep waiting for Sam who was on top of Kinsman With Dave H and Hailey. Mel tried her hardest to convince me she was ok to drive home after being awake for 66 hours but was glad Darlene was on the left side of the car when she saw the three little pig's chasing a wolf down main street Franconia.
Killer Race and we are pumped to have such a good event near home!
Yacky Out-
(the breaks were from napping in bed) and the fact that after being so exausted from figuring out which route to take I nearly passed out on the way up a flight of stairs. We took an inventory of our bodies at 9 am and realized that we and consumed a gross volume of 3 liters of liquid and 250 calories (Net after vomiting 1 liter and 14 calories) and we were weak enough to call the hump from the room to the can a grunt.
