TRIOBA 24 REVIEW

DATE: SEPT. 19TH 2009
LOCATION: PLAIN, WA

Like most adventure races, the actual race starts the day before in a mad dash to account for all of the gear that you assume you need. For a 24 hour race that would potentially take you up to an elevation of 7G' the possibility of snow loomed in the back of our minds. So you pack heavy and then decide just before the race what you need. Tiff and I met at Jeff's house around 2pm on Friday afternoon, where we transferred all of our gear onto his stout off-road mini van. We headed out and made great time over the pass and arrived at race HQ just before 5pm. We checked in, did our mandatory gear check with Ryan Van Gorder, which I must say was extremely minimal, creating the opportunity for the racers to determine what was needed. We were to use one bin for a remote TA and one for the kayak TA which we would be seeing early in the race, which meant that we would be paddling at night.

Once checked in, we had a decision to make, try to catch some zzzzz's or organize our gear and prep our packs for the first 1/2 of the race. We opted for the organization, which judging from the other teams was the common practice. The volunteers threw a great pasta dinner and then at 8pm the pre-race meeting talked over the course. The order of disciplines would be... bike-paddle-bike-trek-bike. After a detailed description of each of the different disciplines that may have scared a few racers off, the maps were distributed, 5 of them! It was now time for Tiff and I to get into GO mode and start plotting coordinates. This is always a fun adventure, due to the mental challenge that it adds to the experience. To make it even more challenging, teams discovered that the USGS maps that we were issued were slightly off, a minor detail, that would prove to create extra time actually finding the CP's.

With a midnight start looming in a couple of hours, we quickly plotted the controls, highlighted our preferred course and then dropped the boat off at LWSP. The race started with the new tradition of singing "God Bless America" and with the final chorus, we were off. A quick run around the lake there at the campsite spread out the field enough to allow the top teams seperation and a clear lane to the road for their bikes. Tiff and I quickly found our grove as we cruised towards CP1, using other teams to pull us along trying no to go out to hard to early. This strategy paid off as we were only a few minutes behind the leaders at CP1 and feeling really good. From there is back down the gravel road to the highway TA1.

The paddle was a counterclockwise direction of travel that provided some challenging navigation as there were a couple of hidden lakes that we had to travel through to get there. Though we don't get out to paddle as much as we'd like too, we are generally a strong paddling team, go figure. However, when you get high ended due to excessive mud, it slows down even the fastest of teams. I ended up having to get out of the kayak and trudge through knee high muck and slime, pushing the boat forward to get to deeper water. Fortunately, once back into the deep, we were able to regain the spots we lost and hit the beach (TA), in 6th overall. A big thank to JT$ and SeaKayakShop for sponsoring us with great paddling equipment. At the TA there was a fire, hot cocoa and noodle soup. We took only a few minutes at this TA, before heading back out on the course and in doing so jumped back into 4th. There is some strategy involved in transitioning quickly as you can gain a quick jump on the competition and minimize getting too cold, this is something that over the years we have learned and improved on.

Back onto the bikes we go, for a grueling climb up to Maverick Saddle and then we were able to hit some single track. The view was amazing on the way up and it started to sink that we had already been racing for 9 hours, the entire duration of the earlier Trioba Sprint race that we did just 4 months earlier. As the sun came up Tiff and I were both reminded of the amazing God that created everything that we were experiencing. It amazes us how you can experience God's beauty and masterpiece and yet not acknowledge that He is, who He is. A surge of energy, mainly from our Hammer Nutrition product (Perpeteum) catapolted us to the next TA/CP11, where we ran into a familiar face. Jeff had been stationed at this TA and seeing him was a great encourager as I was beginning to feel the affects of the terrain we were up against. A somewhat quick pit stop (11 minutes) according to Aaron Rinn, member of DART, got us out of the TA and onto the long awaited Trekking leg.

The Trek was an estimated 25+ miles in length, just shy of a marathon and was expected to take anywhere from 7-12 hours. While planning the course we felt that we would be through the Trek in about 8.5 hours giving us some light to work with before the journey home. This section proved to be, in my opinion the most taxing as I experienced a number of happenings unlike ever before. Here is a short list: 1- sleep walking to CP's 12 & 13 before catching my second wind, 2- wondering if Tiff and I had forgot what a Saddle was, 3- following trails that weren't there... come to find out, that was a trail 50 years ago and it actually did meet up where it was suppose to, 4- seeing a sailboat, animal carvings, a girl waving a paddle and other hallucinations that just seemed too real. I was able to get cell reception from the top of one of the peaks we summitted and took advantage to call Annalisa, just hearing her voice was good for a couple of hours of energy. Night had fallen and with it the temperature and Tiff being the master planner that he is opted against bringing his headlamp and warm clothing as to stay light. Fortunately for him I happen to have an extra jacket in my heavy pack and we were able to rally finishing the trek just before 9 pm, still only a few hours behind the lead group (nuun/FTM). We sat down at the fire that Jeff and Aaron had been stoking all day in 7th place, unsure of how much light batteries we had and knowing that we were still a solid 6 hours from HQ. Despite being sleepy and cold we regrouped for the final MTBing leg which was being hyped up as EPIC. it is a good thing that we have Specialized Epics or we might have been up to the task at hand.

We cruised north climbing up the Mad River Trail that all of the sudden was closed. Looking at eachother dumbfounded for a short while, we decided to go around the signs and take it anyway as it seemed to us that the Race Directors would have mentioned if we weren't supposed to be on any specific trail. Apparently, other teams faced this same dilemma and were told by forest workers that the trail closed sign doesn't apply to them. This would have been nice to know.

The next 3 hours where filled with some amazing singletrack, and it definitely has the potential to be labeled the best in the NW. We bombed down the Chikamin Ridge trail, which seemed like would never end. Unfortunately, we began to have our doubts that we were on the right trail

and with our lights starting to fail, knew that we wouldn't be able to complete all of the controls tonight.

So, upon arriving at CP19, we made the tough but right decision to ride the road back to HQ and finish the race w/o accumulating the final 7 cp's. Doing so well throughout the race this was a disappointing way to finish, however we are glad we chose the safer route that will garuantee us another opportunity in the future versus gambling and then running out of light on the single track, leaving us to wonder, "what do we do now?"

All in all it was a great race, very scenic, the nav wasn't overly difficult however did present a few challenges along the way. Thanks Trioba for another fun weekend!! Here are some of the numbers for you data freaks like me..

Elevation Gain = 13,000'

Elevation Loss = 13,000'

Elevation TTL = 26,000'

MTB = 75+ miles

Paddle = 15 miles

Trek = 25+ miles

I will post more pictures when I get my camera back from Glenn, I forgot it at the awards ceremony. I guess I was kind of tired.