2013 Perfect 10 Rogaine

Last year was the inaugural Perfect 10 Rogaine, a 10 hour orienteering race.  Luke, Bob, and I had gone and had a great time, so I was already excited about this year's edition even before a little intra-team bet upped the excitement level.  A rogaine is a great learning/practice opportunity since everyone gets a map, and navigation is a huge weakness for me.  As much as I was anticipating the race, though, I was most of all looking forward to getting to hang out with my teammates.

Since most of our activities are centered around Jeff City, where most of the guys live, I'm used to making the drive on my own, but not this time.  Bob recently moved closer to the St. Louis area, and he'd picked up Casey from the airport, so the three of us made the very cozy trip together in Bob's truck.

Luckily everyone wore deoderant

  We met up with Luke, switched all our gear over to the Virtus van, and headed south (? I think it was south) to Lake of the Ozarks.  We were camping again, so I was not thrilled to see clouds gathering in the sky despite the scant chance of rain in the forecast.  Last year it rained both nights, and the post-race rain had flooded my tent and made for a long, cold night. With temperatures even lower this year (30's overnight), the last thing I wanted was a soggy sleeping bag.

We had time to find a spot to camp (my first non-campground camping trip), get set up, and climb back into the van before the rain started.  I wanted BBQ, so we ended up at Fired Up BBQ.  The parking lot was packed, but the restaurant was largely empty.  Weird. The service wasn't great, but the food was really good and we weren't in any hurry to get back into the rain.  We watched the Cardinals game, talked, and otherwise kept occupied.

It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye...
Actually, Casey hit me right below the eye, and it hurt.

 The rain never did stop, but that was probably a good thing because it forced us to go to bed sooner rather than hanging out around a campfire.  I for one needed the sleep, and thankfully my tent stayed dry and I stayed warm in my borrowed sleeping bag (considerably warmer than my own sleeping bag, thanks Luke!).

We got up around 6, which should have been plenty of time to make the short drive to the race start.  As it turned out, despite taking the time to put on a little makeup after changing, I still wasn't the last one ready.  If Luke hadn't looked at the time around 7:00 (15 minutes after maps had been handed out, oops!) we might still be there.  Heading towards the start, we hit another hiccup when it turned out we weren't as clear on where to go as we'd thought the night before.

Being a little lost on your way to an orienteering race is never a good sign, but eventually we got there and saw the tents pitched at race HQ.  Brilliant idea! Why didn't we think of that?  We got our preplotted maps and then set to route planning.  And by "we", I mean that while Bob and Casey busily discussed potential routes and strategies with each other, I left Luke to deal with our maps while I finished putting my food in my pack, braiding my hair, and pinning our numbers onto our packs and then agreed with the route he thought was best.

Photo credit: BonkHard Racing
"Sure Luke...whatever you think, Luke" 

Michael, who has read our team blog, came up and introduced himself, and I also got a chance to catch up with my friend Melissa, who rocked the course as a solo.

The map shows around 30 square miles.  It's a little hard to see, but all of those red circles and numbers show the location of checkpoints.  For a look at how teams who could potentially clear the course, check out Emily's blog post about the race.   The highlighted section above is what we anticipated covering.

Before we knew it, it was time for the pre-race meeting.  A raffle ticket was drawn for the sweet Kuat bike rack, but sadly I didn't win it.  We barely had time for some pre-race pictures before it was time to start.  In fact, our friend Kelly was still holding the camera as the race began.  That's fitting, because I'm pretty sure he's the guy who once claimed that Team Virtus would probably do twice as well if we didn't spend so much time taking pictures.

There's something funny about this picture (besides the fact that Luke and I are sharing one pair of gloves). Can you guess what it is? 

Since we've both been running a decent amount lately, we planned to try to do as much running as possible during the race.  We're definitely nowhere near Alpine Shop's ability to tear up and down rocky slopes while bushwhacking through thorns, but we could at least jog along roads and trails.  Our first steps, though downhill, were a good reminder of how much harder it is to run while carrying a pack.  Last year, feeling the difference even just a large hydration pack makes helped me to realize how much easier running would be if I dropped some weight;  I came back to Perfect 10 around 15-20 pounds lighter, which had to help.

Our planned route.

If you look closely at the map above, you'll notice that each little circle (marking the location of the checkpoint) has a number next to it. The number both tells you which box on your passport to punch and signifies the points the CP is worth.  (Important information if you read your race info...not naming any names here but there are a couple I could mention :D).  Single digit CPs were worth 100 points, tens were worth 10 points, 20s were worth 20 points, and 30's were worth 30 points.  Strategy is key here in order to maximize your points.  Our route included three hundred pointers.

We ran east out of race HQ along the road and then realized we had no idea which way Bob and Casey had gone.  All day long we wondered where they were, how their day was going, and whether or not they'd beat us.  We basically followed a run 'til Kate got tired/walk/run 'til Kate got tired plan for the road and for smoother trails.  We hit our first few CPs with no problems and made sure to get a picture of the cemetery we came across for Chuck.

Super excited because I've located the cemetery on the map.

I was doing my best to follow along on the map, and I sort of could, but I'd have been in trouble if I was doing the navigating for myself. Well, I probably would have been in trouble, and I most definitely would have been far slower.  I teach struggling learners, and navigating using a topo map always gives me insight into what school must be like for them.  It takes me a lot of thinking to figure out something that would be immediately obvious to a competent navigator.  I've learned a lot following along on the map while my more skilled teammates do the navigating, but it's probably time for me to give it another solo go.

Our first hundred point CP was near the airport boundary.  We'd traveled in this area the previous year, and this had been one of the spots where we tested alternate routes. Bob had discovered that the land near the airport fence was pretty clear.  Armed with this knowledge, we planned to skirt the boundary. The area was level and clear enough that we were able to run a decent amount here.

Hard to tell, but I'm running here.

Since the next CP (number 19) wasn't far off of the airport boundary and the mapped trails, Luke handed off the maps so I could navigate to this one.  Like everything on a map for me, it much more confusing than it should have been.  Follow the airport boundary...which of these fences is the mapped boundary?  Follow the trail...exactly which trail are we on?  Sigh.  We got all turned around and lost some time there before I handed the maps back to Luke and let him sort us out.

Being able to shrug my shoulders and pass off the map makes me appreciate my teammates who do the nav that much more.  I was really focused on following along on the map for the first two thirds of the race, but later when my knee was really hurting and I was hating life a little, I totally checked out and just followed Luke.  No one racing with me has that luxury because I'd have us lost in a heartbeat.  That's one of the reasons that I really do want to get better with navigation.

Anyway, we eventually found our way to 19, running into Kelly Sumner on our way out, and then made our way to CP6, another 100 pointer.  I don't remember much about that one, so it must not have been too remarkable.  Our plan from 6 was to follow the airport boundary to our attack point for CP 29, but the eastern fenceline was nothing like the relatively clear area you see in the picture above.  As we made our way through thickening brush and grass covered rip-rap style rock towards the fenceline, we heard a familiar voice call, "Do NOT come this way!! You can't get through the thorns and brush."  B'rer Rabbit he's not, but neither are we, so we took his good advice.

Eventually Kelly emerged from the thicket he'd lost all kinds of time attempting to pass through, so we had a chance to catch up with him for a while on the trek towards CP 29.  Once we got passed the briars, the boundary cleared out nicely.

Kelly leads the way

Either Kelly moved a lot faster than we did (likely) or we attacked from different points, but we lost track of each other before heading into the trees.  We snagged 29 ("snagged" might imply that it was easier than it was...I don't really remember 29, but it seemed like we had more trouble with the 20-pointers than any other CPs) and headed towards CP18.

With the sun finally out, the chilly day was starting to feel really nice.  We were hiking along the road talking about the race so far and wondering about where Bob and Casey were, how they were doing, and what our chances were of beating them.  I don't think either of us felt super confident, and it was weird to have no idea at all where they were, what route they'd taken, anything.

A partial view of the quarry from last year's race

We were just speculating whether Gary had put a checkpoint in the quarry, one of the cooler spots from last year's race, when we turned off the road towards CP 18 and up to the edge of the quarry.  I guess maybe the clue "rock pile" should have given us a hint.  Of course, the quarry was full of rock piles.  We were having a hard time making our approach match what we were seeing on the map, so we did a little walking back and forth looking for the intersection shown.  "That looks like a likely spot," I told Luke.  He wasn't convinced and started in another direction.

"I feel like it's right," I continued. "I'm just going to go check it out real quick."  I walked over to the rock pile and didn't see anything.  I was about to go follow Luke when I considered how stupid I'd feel (and how much time we'd waste) if my perfunctory glance missed if the checkpoint was actually there, so I walked a little further, looked up, and sure enough saw the flag.  Now, it has to be mentioned that it was purely dumb luck that I found it; I certainly wasn't following the map and probably would have been sure the CP was at whatever checkpoint I first laid eyes on...in this case, though, we were lucky enough to have seen the right one first.  I called out our special secret code to Luke to let him know I had it and waited there savoring the feeling of -- for once -- being the one to find the CP.

We ran into Kelly on our way out of the quarry and attempted to let him know where the CP was, but when we ran into him at the next checkpoint (35) he told us our advice wasn't so helpful. Sorry!  We left that CP at the same time, but he took a slightly sharper angle towards the road or was moving faster than us (or both), and other than catching glimpses of him ahead of us on the road we didn't see him again until the finish line.  We had a long stretch (ok, not particularly long, looking at the map maybe just over 2 miles) of road hiking, which sounds like it should be gloriously fast but wasn't at all.  The race rules required that you walk on the mowed right-of-way next to the highway unless crossing, and trekking along the off-camber side pretty much sucked.

Up to this point, we'd had a pretty smooth day with the exception of my attempt at navigation, but we hit a speed bump or two along highway 42.  First, CP24 was playing hard to get.  Seemed like we hiked a creek forever.  We'd had a few other times when we'd questioned whether we were on the wrong track only to find our CP a little further than we'd expected, but this time, as Luke looked at the map and compass, it because evident (to him) that we weren't in the right place.  We ended up hiking over a spur and finding our CP in the next reentrant over, but we definitely lost some time here.

We hiked out to the road and then attacked CP22 which, despite its proximity to the road, was much harder to get to and steeper than we'd anticipated.  We were both having trouble keeping our footing and feeling a little grumpy.

OK, I don't look grumpy, but trust me, I was.

We took a short break once we got back to the road, grabbing some food, checking the maps, getting the little rocks and junk out of my shoes.  That taken care of, we snagged CP13 and then headed off in search of our final 100-pointer of the day.  The CP required a half-mile hike along a (((ridge))) and then was located off of a hilltop with the ambiguous clue of "slope".

We cut in too soon and did some wandering around in search of our CP, but that ended up being a good thing.  We passed a guy in the woods who was looking for the same checkpoint. Shortly afterwards, Luke spotted it.  "Should we tell him?" Luke asked.

"Yeah," he decided. "We should...hey buddy, it's over here!"

When the other guy got there, he asked if we were Team Virtus.  "I thought you looked familiar!" he told us. It turns out he's a blog reader who's corresponded with Luke about adventure racing.  We were really glad we'd called out to him.  Very cool meeting you out there, Michael.

CP2 was the far point of our trek, and now it was time to head back towards race HQ, picking up checkpoints along the way.  Last year our last CP was off of this same ridge, followed by a 5 mile road trek back to the finish line.  This year's route was much more pleasant, trekking through woods.  Our first CP of the way back, another 20-pointer, seemed to take forever to find as we again wondered have we gone too far? Did we miss it?  In the end, Luke led us straight to it and then we headed for the creek we'd follow to some trails.

At this point in the race, despite a healthy dose of ibuprofen, I was really sore.  In fact, the last 3 or so hours were very painful.  It was weird; the two sides of my body were having very different experiences.  While my right side felt fantastic, my left foot, knee, and hip hurt like crazy.  Getting to the trail was little respite, and it was around this point where I'd pretty much checked out on the map and was just following Luke, limping, wincing, and struggling mightily not to complain because what good would it do.

The trail seemed to take forever, but it was very cool to pass a man backpacking with his little boy.  We passed another family already set up at a backpack camping site on our way to CP26.  Finding 26, we set a fast hike back to the HQ to resupply and decide on our course for the last 1.5 hours.  We'd worked all day to minimize our stops, and we were pretty quick grabbing some extra food and water at the Virtus van before setting off for a 30-pointer a half mile or so away.  We toyed with the idea of going for one more possible CP but decided that we'd be cutting it close enough that getting 20 more points wasn't worth risking more than that with the 10 point per minute penalty for finishing after the cutoff...especially when I wasn't sure I could run.

Decision made, we hiked back uphill from the checkpoint.  Between the steepness of the hill, all the babyheads rolling under our feet, and my sore knee, I was over it.  I kind of wanted to scream...or cry.  "I'm going to use up every single non-complaint on this hill right now!" I told Luke. "This must be how Todd feels when he has hiking madness!"

It took a couple tries to get this without me laughing, but here's my attempt at depicting my feelings about hiking.

Luke was doing better than I was, but he sure wasn't enjoying rolling his ankle with every step.  No hiking madness for him, though; instead he did his best imitation of the thousand mile stare.

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it.

We had plenty of time to get back to the finish line before the cutoff, so we screwed around a little bit taking stupid pictures and then, spirits lifted, headed back the way we'd come....or did we?

"Wouldn't it be funny if we were here laughing and being stupid and then took off the wrong way?" Luke asked.  We both laughed at the thought and then he looked at his compass.  Sure enough, we were hiking in the exact wrong direction.  Crisis averted, we headed back to the finish line, breaking into a fake jog for the cameras.

Photo credit: BonkHard Racing

 We made it back to the finish line with around 45 minutes to spare, so we got to watch a lot of the teams come through.  It was nerve-wracking waiting for Bob and Casey and hoping they missed the cutoff finished well, but if you have to wait nervously to find out if you're going down in flames, I highly suggest doing it with BonkHard's awesome post-race food and good company.

Photo credit: BonkHard Racing
Casey, me, Luke, Kelly, Jason

Casey and Bob did indeed beat the cutoff, but we edged them in points, meaning that at some point they'll be performing a skit written by Luke and me and posted on youtube for their eternal humiliation your viewing pleasure.  I'd have to say that, while we soundly defeated them, Bob went home the big winner when his name was drawn for a sweet package for two to Tan-Tar-A resort.  

We cheered for finishers and winners, hung out long past dark, and just generally enjoyed ourselves until race HQ was taken down around us.  After saying our goodbyes to the few people still remaining, we headed back to our campsite...via a stop in town for the most expensive gas station coffee ever (and yet totally worth it to knock off the chill) and a beer run.  The night before may have seen us huddled in our tents/hammocks against the rain, but race night we had a great fire and a fantastic time hanging out together.

Of course, what happens at the Lake stays at the Lake, but my face was sore from laughing by the time I went to bed, and the funniest exchange had to be between Casey and Bob.  Ridiculous plans were being hatched for tormenting each other, and Casey asked, "What if I trained a bear to do it?"

"There's a couple problems with that," Bob replied, "First, if you find a bear, not cool if you bring it back here!"

Not cool at all. But a weekend hanging out with some awesome teammates? It doesn't get a whole lot cooler than that.