The X-RAID: (day one)

So if was Friday afternoon in Bend when we got our maps for the Raid. The first stage was going to be 25km with an 1800m climb and the temperature was around 23c and we were paying $0.65 Euros for a litter of petro. I guess the French really had taken over.

At least the check-in and pre-race meeting were short and painless.

Stage One: (Mountaineering/Trekking)

Since Trea wanted to sit out the three mountain bike sections she was joining Chris and I for Stage one of the Raid, which was the long mountaineering/trekking section. As the elite racers pushed towards the start line in antici..(say it)...pation of the start, we hung near the back of the pack. Mount Bachelor ski area lay directly in front of us. Literally, the lift was to our left and the day lodge was behind us.

3...2...1...go, and we were off.

The elite teams were running up the steep hill with their crampons already on. We got to watch their backs for a few minutes. By the time we hit the halfway point of the climb up the mountain, they had already become black specks near the summit. At least we would see them again the next morning after camping.

As we climbed the steep hill, (it sure did not feel that steep when I ski down it) I began to notice that I was not feeling my best. A little over a week before the race I had hopped into the hot tub after a long bike ride. It turns out the human stew of germs decided to attack the stretches I had on my legs.

Well fast forward back to the race and those little scraps had become multiple infections on my legs. Apparently these infections were not happy to have my heart rate raised. So I figure I was running a fever, sweating like crazy, had an upset stomach so I could not eat, and my head was pounding. Now I have felt like crap in a race before, but usually I prefer it takes more than 15 minutes of racing to get there.

Too make things worse, my crampons were not fitting correctly and kept falling off. I guess I should have rechecked them before the race. They worked find last summer, but someone had used them this past winter and changed the size. With crampons in hand we reached the summit and started down the backside, only to get yelled at by a race official to put the crampons back on. I think they made it ten feet down the hill before they fell off again.

The navigation down the south side of the mountain should have been a peace of cake. Stay left of the big knoll and right of the smaller one. All I had to do was take a barring and stick with it. Of course it only works if your brain remembers to take the barring when you can still see the two knolls. Did I mention my brain was not working correctly?

So we end up off course, too far down the hill and had to hike over the smaller knoll. I am sure Chris and Trea were real happy with me on that one. I got back on track and we are heading the right way again. We hit the bottom of the valley and start heading up the next hill. This hill was smaller and there was a road to the top. The problem here was that the CP was marked on the wrong spot on the map; however, the race officials had handed us a note before the race clarifying where the CP really was. On the EAST summit. When walking south, the EAST summit should be the one on the left, not the right. To bad I could not seem to figure that out in the near pucking state I was in as Trea dragged my ass up the hill. Ahh what's and extra five too ten minutes up the wrong hill, again.

So by the time we hit CP4 I was 0 for 2 on navigation. Needless to say Trea and Chris were a little leery when I told them we were heading back into the bush. But we hit the trail right on and started down to the finally CP. As alternated between running and walking we discussed what time the cut off was. I thought it was 12:30, but Trea thought it was 12:00. When we hit the last CP at 12:05 we asked the person staffing it and she thought it was 12:00 as well, but was not sure. Figuring we had missed the cut off to the bike section we continued walking toward the TA. Fifteen minutes later a volunteer on the course informed us we had 13 minutes left to make the cut off. CRAP! We took off running, with me being towed by Chris.

We hit the TA with 5 minutes to spare. Lee, Chris and Trea checked out with 30 seconds left on the clock. I was originally going to do the next section, which was a mountain bike, so Trea could sit out. However, as I sat there pale faced and feeling like crap it was suggested that I sit out and rest up. A wise choice I must say.


Stag Two: (Mountain biking)

I have never done a race where you can sit out a stage. I am not sure how I feel about it, but this particular time it was beneficial because I had the opportunity to rehydrate, eat, and pop some anti infection pills. Ahh the wonders of modern medicine.

I spent the next five hours hanging out with the support crew, Carol and Wren, getting ready for the canoe leg. Mark who was supporting Team WickedAR seemed to have it down as he sat back enjoyed the sun and a nice cold beer. (Micro brew of course, we were in Oregon).

Team WickedAR was one of the last teams paddled away before the start time cut off. In the Raid, if a team does not start a stage by the cut off time, they must skip that stage and go on to the next while taking a time penalty. As team MountainZone rolled in on their bikes five minutes after the cut off we had already packed the van and were ready to go to the next stage.


Stage Three: (Canoeing)

We got to skip this section, but I am sure there are many other teams out there who can relay the horror stories of paddling into the wind and climbing over trees and bushes. If you're going to miss a stage of a race, might as well be the one other team bitched about the most.

Stage Four: (Inline Skate)

The inline skate stage was straight forward. Around twelve miles of slightly uphill skating on a road. No turns, no navigation and no real thought needed. After my rest and second dose of pills I felt good to start the skating.

Since I had to sit out the bike stage and we missed the canoe, our plan of who sat out when was all screwed up. Since Trea had been going all day she needed a rest, which meant Chris was not going to sit out the skating section. It is not that Chris is a bad skater, it is more that his skates were build when Gorge Bush was in office. That's the first Bush.

Needless to say we did not set any land speed records during the section. But we finished and were ready to go trekking.


Stage Five: (Adventure Running)

By the time we got to the start of stage five, Chris had been racing all day. He felt good, but his knee was hurting him. This meant that our team's strongest runner was going to be sitting out the trekking section and I was going to be filling in. Nothing like replacing the sports car with the Pinto to make the running section more fun.

Trea, Lee and I started out running as the sun began to fall behind the Cascades. The beautiful sunset reflected off the glass like Lava Lake as we ran along its shores. We had just enough time to enjoy the view before we tripped over the next fallen tree. But we kept running (ok slow jogging) as the sun disappeared because we wanted to make sure we found a trail junction in the fading light.

We found the trail we wanted and left Lava Lake behind along with the sun. With headlights on we trekked through the night. Many of the upper tear teams that had completed the canoe section were now on the trail running section. Teams Mergeo.com and DART both passed us in a 20-minute span. I know the Raid is timed different and we had skipped a section, but it still feels good to be so far into a race and getting passed by teams you normally only see at the start and finish lines.

Teams would continue to pass us through out our 13-mile trek. We even passed a team back as they sat off the side of the trail messing with their GPS. I figured they were off to go bushwhacking into the night because we never saw them again. On the map the short cut they took looked tempting, but at midnight, a nice trail then road route was the preferable means of travel.

As the trek wore on the miles pilled up, as did the elevation. By the time we hit the highway we were over 6000 feet. A half moon had just risen into the clear sky, blocking out some of the millions of stars. Though the clear nigh sky was spectral, it did little to help us stay warm. By the time we hit the TA/camping spot frost was appearing on almost all stationary objects.

It was a little after 2am by the time we had checked in, eaten, and gotten into our tents and sleeping bags. That 6am start sure sounded close. The 5am wakeup call sounded even closer. O well time for sleep. Day two was not far off...