Fall BEAST 2007
The Mirai/Mergeo Team Race Report By Murray Maitland
“You can’t get frostbite when the temperature is above zero degrees” Pēteris stated with conviction. Nevertheless, my feet were senseless up to the ankle joints and felt like pieces of wood pushing down on my mountain bike pedals. What could Dave and Jenny, our team-mates, be thinking about their first adventure race?
Mirai Transportation Planning and Engineering may be a relatively small number of people but they are a very active group. They participate in many activities throughout the year, including the Mountains to Sound Relay Race. Adventure racing was something a little different. Two people from Mirai, Dave Enger and Jenny Pearson, both experienced orienteerers, teamed up with Pēteris Lediņš and me from the Mergeo team, for their first adventure race.
The technical difficulty of the first mountain bike section was very reasonable for Dave and Jenny, being new to mountain biking as well, but the weather conditions were extreme. Rivers of ice water and slush flowed down the trails. New-fallen snow formed little dams that kept the frigid water and mud channeled on the pathway. It seemed like my legs would just start to warm up, only to be immersed over and over again. I was pleased with my forethought to put on a rear fender before the race. At one point the fender went out of alignment and I could feel the cold water chilling my back. Since I didn’t have a front fender, slush and mud would come up on my chest and into my face. Riding downhill, I would lean as far as I could to the side so my face and eyes weren’t bombarded with the fountain of mud that spewed from my front tire. Navigation was easy, although that didn’t stop us from going by one checkpoint and having to go back for it.
One loop was enough for Dave, because of the cold, but Jenny changed her socks and pushed onto the second mountain bike section. Almost immediately, the rain showers stopped and there were warmer breezes. Pushing bikes up a few hills also got the blood circulating. Pēteris and I were being goofy at times, ostensibly to entertain ourselves and motivate Jenny. On the other hand, she was motivating me because of her determination and effort. “Adventure racing is a sport of attrition” I tried to tell her. “Just keep going as others drop out, and we’ll do great.” We stopped to adjust brakes, but otherwise we just motored along at a steady pace. Pēteris bailed me out of a navigation error, and we made our way back to the transition area.
My feet took very kindly to dry mountain running shoes and dry socks. Immediately my whole body felt better.
Throughout the entire race we were following in the snowy tracks of the leading teams until we decided to bushwhack directly to trekking CP 3. There wasn’t a single footprint. Jenny didn’t say a thing when we joked about being rugged individualists or sheep. We climbed over snow-covered logs for a couple of minutes and quickly found the checkpoint. Pēteris left the checkpoint along the trodden route of the leaders, but I stopped him in a few feet and we both agreed to bushwhack directly out by a different way. Again, there wasn’t a single footprint.
After checkpoint 3, Pēteris asked about taking Jenny’s pack and later, after checkpoint 9 he insisted on towing her. I was worried that she misinterpreted his motives. She had said that she was loosing steam, and it was easy to see the cold slog over the first three quarters of the race had taken a small toll. The Fall BEAST was her first adventure race so she probably thought it was a sign of weakness to be towed or our competitiveness making us want to drag her along. Not so! Normally in adventure racing, it is a team sport. So everybody gets their pack carried or gets towed at some point. My experience has been that even a short respite from the full effort gives an amazing rejuvenation.
The breeze was almost warm as we came towards the finish line. As a grand finale, I slipped in the mud and fell on my butt. My lack of grace was enough to give the team a laugh before we crossed the field to a round of applause from the waiting people. Out of 41 starting teams the Mirai/Mergeo team was 13th overall, and one of ten that had no time penalties. Good going Jenny!
See more pictures: here.
Or even some videos: Matt Hart's blog