Double Down @ Dillon TR

“This past weekend I competed, well, I wouldn't call it “competed; I participated in my first adventure race. Having been to some of Birch's races and done support for a few of them it has always been something I've always wanted to do. I just wasn't fit enough to do them. But after 10 months of dieting, losing 70 pounds and 4 months of working out I felt I was ready to dip my toe in the water. Ohio is petty active in the adventure racing scene and there is a race somewhere in the state just about every month. I picked The Double Down at Dillon 6-hour race as my first race.

I knew the shorter races would be more sprint than endurance but felt a shorter one would give me a better baseline on my abilities. I never really even worried about not finishing but I had no idea where I'd finish. In my mind I figured we'd start with paddling, then get out and do some orienteering and then jump on bikes. And being a short race where there might be a lot of beginners the O-course would be a bit easier (UPLover confirmed this for me). Oh how wrong I was!

10:00 am And They're Off! (their rockers!)

The start of the race was 10:00 am sharp. There were a few late arrivers who showed up, missed the race briefing and just packed up and went home. SWEET! At least I won't be dead last! We began by doing a 1-1.5 mile sprint to a check point, punching our passports and then running back to the boats. I hate running because of my knees so I it's something I don't do a lot of. I did however do the whole run.

10:20 am Avast ye matey!

We jumped in the kayaks and were off for the first portion of paddling. I was so pumped up and having so much fun! I kept thinking, “This is the funnest thing I've ever done!”. We had five Cps to punch on the water with one optional paddle CP. I did really well on the paddle and was keeping up with the two man teams. The Cps weren't hard to find at all early in the race because everyone is relatively bunched up. After hitting the paddle Cps we were off to CP 7 which is where we dropped the boats and started the orienteering course. At this point there was a decision to be made because there was a CP 13 that was up the feeder river that could be punched by paddle or by foot. I planned on playing to my strengths so, being stronger at paddling than orienteering I decided to hit it by water. I was the only one who headed that way. I was having that sinking feeling like I was making a horrible noobie mistake. I got up the shallow river and found CP 13. I never would have found it by foot.

11:00 am Terra Firma!

Back to CP 7 and dry (it has begun to rain now) land and I'm stoked for my first crack at orienteering. Have I said how bad the maps sucked for the O-course? Yeah, big time. They gave us satellite pictures with the CPs marked on them. It would prove to be much harder than a topo, but hey, these are the conditions laid out for us, so I just went with it. I learned so much from this O-course. #1...don't worry so much about hitting every single CP. #2...don't spend too much time on one single CP. #3...always, I repeat, ALWAYS wear long pants.

The first CP I went for was #8. They even had hints for each CP. #8 was on the edge of a swamp. Long story short; I spent 45 trying to find it, gave up and went on to #9. Then I had to do about a km of bushwhacking to get to the forest road that would lead me to #10 and #11. I was very frustrated about not hitting #8 and judging from the time there was no way I was getting #12 which was a couple of km away with a river swim. Frustrated, wet and ripped to shreds from the swamp grass I just kept pushing. I even managed to jog a good portion of the road walk. I was wanting to get back to HQ by 2pm to allow 2 hours for the mountain biking section. So I ran back to CP 7 and got back in my kayak and did the quick 20 minute paddle back to HQ. I was really feeling my upper arms I had used while paddling earlier and with the rain came some thunder. Nice! The volunteers at CP 7 did tell me no one had gotten all the O-course Cps and I was but one of few who even got #13 so that lifted my spirits.

2:30 pm The fine art of cussing!

I got back to HQ and jumped on my mountain bike. I wasn't too worried about the mountain biking section because it was a discipline I had trained the hardest on. But I have never been on wet trails. The trails at Dillon are rough when dry so this ended up being a very frustrating section for me. The trails were so fast and muddy I spent about half my time either running the bike or hunched over the bars trying to keep it under control...of course the whole time I'm letting fly a whole long string of four letter words that'd make a French sailor blush. I must work on my cussing if I'm to keep doing races. I became somewhat repetitive, with my favorite word being the F-bomb. So sad...

My big lesson on this section was I have got to get shoes and peddles before my next try. My feet slipped off a few times and raked my already shredded shins. In the end I was able to get half of the 6 Cps on the bike section which disappointed me but there it is nonetheless.

4:05 pm

I got back to HQ nine minutes late but punched in anyway or my points wouldn't count. I was so whipped and my legs burned so bad and I was very disappointed with the bike section. Kelly and I ate some lunch and waited for the final tally. At the start of the race we all got one playing card and at the end we got a second for a game of 21. I pulled an 18 and won a $20 bottle of energy gel and a squeeze bottle. In the end the winner came in with a total of 19 points. I came in with 12 which put me at 22nd out of 29. For my first race I was very pleased with the results because I had learned so many things for the next race and it gives me a place to start from and improve upon.

I can't wait for the next race!



Ready and rarin' to go!



Run Nigal! Run!



Ready to paddle.



The big finish.



Cut to ribbons!”

“Congrats.

Who's that dude in the first photo?”

“It's Charlie Brown.”

“I watched Mall Cop over the weekend. How do you like not being Kevin James anymore? You used to say that you were a living episode of whatever show that was, hot wife, fat dude.”

“That's cool, Nigal. Congrats. Sounds like an exciting entree into adventure racing. I've always wanted to try it and it looks to be challenging.”

“N - change the date on your camera”

“Looks like fun - 20 years ago.”

“I know, I tell my wife every time to disable the damn date stamp. I hate those with a passion. We aren't taking frickin' crime scene photos here!”

“How do you like not being Kevin James anymore? You used to say that you were a living episode of whatever show that was, hot wife, fat dude.

I have at least closed the gap a bit. LOL!

”