2010 Bitter Pill Adventure Race Recap

Here's my recap of how things went for the Passing Grade team in the 2010 Bitter Pill. I put together a loose representation of the course in google maps.

During check-in at the Town & Country Resort at Stowe we were told that we had to be ready for 3:45 am on race day. A little earlier than usual and Darren moved up his wake-up time to 2:15. I'll admit I was dreading that time - especially as we were still awake around 10, but in the end it gave me plenty of time to get fully awake.

On our way to the restaurant where we were to gather we saw the three buses pulling into the parking lot. Once all the teams had gathered we piled onto the buses. There was a lot of speculation as to where we were going and it turned out to be a 45 minute drive as we drove into Waterbury, took a left onto Route 2 and eventually found our way to the Crosset Brook Middle School in Waterbury. Chris gave the instructions, then handed out maps. This year when they allowed us to open the maps the race would be started - no chance to scope things out ahead of time. Things went quicker than expected and we ended up waiting for 5 to come around for the race to start. Needless to say it was a little chilly and I felt the need to do a little warming dance while waiting for the start.

Finally, the start was announced. I cracked open the map, set the declination on my compass, considered trying to figure out where we were and where we needed to go, then just said let's jog. So we jogged after the other teams. In hind sight, this wasn't horrible, but we did follow through some pricker bushes and wet grass. Taking a moment to follow the road back out might have been the smarter move, but alas - I'm still trying to improve my brain at the start of the race.

After a bit of a jog we made it to the canoes. We already had our paddles which they gave out at the start, so we grabbed a canoe and got in. Darren was up front, Adrienne in the middle, with me left to steer. The water was low enough in certain areas and we didn't pay attention well enough that we found ourselves bottoming out a couple times along the river. After about 4 miles we reached the portage.

There were two landing spots for getting out of the water. We nicely chose the one with the steeper slope. As we were pulling in the team in front of us flipped their canoe. Darren jumped out to help and quickly realized the water was up to his chest. After helping them get their canoe sorted out, we were able to get ours out of the water and start the portage. The portage was nothing compared to last years, but it did involve going over a small hill. So after about a 1/4 mile we were able to put our canoe back in the water.

Next we had three check points to get along the water with a mile or so of canoeing between each. We also decided to switch positions in the canoe and put Adrienne up front and Darren in the middle. Darren's height made it easy for him to lay back, but still get an effective paddle on, which seemed to be a good choice. The first two check points were simple - the only issue being trying not to cause a collision with the other canoes going for it. The last check point we made the mistake of letting Adrienne off at one end of the island when we bottomed out again and agreed to pick her up at the other end. 1) We split up; 2) the island was covered with some pretty thick growth which made moving from the far end difficult; 3) Adrienne found out later that she got some poison ivy. Fortunately, she did get the check point and we got back in the boat. Just a little further and we got to drop the canoe off and get on the bike.

We took time to look at the maps, rearrange our gear, and get a nice photo before mounting up. We went East on Cochran Road to Duxbury Road to Honey Hollow Road. During this leg it seemed that Darren was having trouble keeping up, so I pulled up after turning on to Honey Hollow Road to make sure everything was okay. Turns out both Darren and Adrienne's derailleurs were messed up. Adrienne couldn't get to her upper gears and Darren was limited to only four. With Darren's hip not being 100%, this ended up giving him a lot of trouble through the day. That, combined with the how steep the road was we did a lot of walking up Honey Hollow Road. (I still don't think Adrienne believes me that top teams will bike most if not all of that.)

Finally, after getting to the top of the trail (after Honey Hollow Road was done) we were at TA3. We had a great transition time here, though we used most of it to wander off into the woods and pee. While walking up the hill we'd already conferred and decided we'd Northern CPs and work our way South with the hope that the trail we could see on our maps leading towards CP9, would give us an easy walk back to TA4. (Sadly, I found out later that going South was the better choice.) While we had some doubt going to CP6 we didn't have too much trouble. CP4 wasn't any more difficult, though we did slide East some to try avoiding what looked like a steeper slope. We made our way toward CP5, but tried finding it on the first ravine we came to. I missed on the map that there were a couple of ravines before the one we wanted. After a while of not finding CP5 we opted to continue on for CP8. Sadly, in hindsight the third stream we reached was the one we needed and if we'd gone further up it we would've found it. Finding CP8 wasn't an issue - though we did find a HUGE patch of nettles that we went through on the way. From there we set off for CP7. We found the stream easy enough and went up it quite a bit, but as the terrain started getting steeper we began doubting and thinking we missed it. So we made the choice to double back. About 20 minutes later we found CP9 and realized we must have been very close to it. We burned too much time and made the choice to continue back to TA4.

After a brief rest and a little whining about the missed points we got back on our bikes for a short ride before getting on the Catamount Trail where we had to walk (and lift over some fallen trees) our bikes. As we followed the trail through the gap there were two optional points on the peak to the North, but the cut off for the swimming portion was 4 o'clock and we weren't going to make it if we didn't keep moving. After CP10, we took a series of improving roads down into Huntington for a stop at Beaudry's to buy a toy frog for a $1. (Jim, the race designer, had mentioned this place a couple times and now I know where it is!)

Next we took Bridge Road to Pond Road to get to TA5. We had to leave our bikes by the road and make our way down a steep slope to water. Let me tell you, this was some fine water. Think Lake Tahoe. Maybe the Caribbean. A beautiful blue and so crystal clear you can see 10 feet down. Got that in you mind? Great, now think the exact opposite. There you go. Murky water, with a great alge green tinge, and lots of seaweed. Did I mention the leeches? Adrienne had the pleasure of seeing one swimming on the water. The check points were simple, but we had some fun on the way. Darren picked up some trash floating in the water and notice that it was a passport. As we got to CP12 the team there was searching around for it. Darren the hero again. I had some fun with my left arm and leg cramping up - thankfully at different times. I didn't think I was doing bad up till this point, but the swim got my muscles good and tired.

Then it was back onto the bikes for what seemed like a short bit North to Cochran Road to Duxbury Road to Honey Hollow Road. As we came down the final hill and saw a bus, Darren made the comment that he'd never been so happy to see a school bus before.

Overall, we were in the woods for 11 and 1/2 hours. We loved the course and recognized that it beat us up. Adrienne got her first taste of adventure racing and wants more. In previous years I'd had issues keeping myself fueled since I had no easy way to get to my food during the race. The purchase of shoulder strap pouch helped me have some gel and a bar available for when I didn't want to take the time to get my pack off. I was disappointed about not getting all of the nav points, especially when we were in the area for them. Unfortunately, we had started feeling the press of time (and possibly disappointment) so we didn't take as much time to think about it as we probably should have. Also, I learned some subtle benefits to the order CPs are approached. If we had gone South for CP9 first we would've known that we needed to keep going for CP7. Additionally, the trek from CP8 to CP5 would've been shorter, which would've left CP6 as the possibly trickier nav given the other streams we encountered. Next year is definitely in the plans for me (I'm pretty certain there will be enough Passing Grade alumni pushing me to race even if I wasn't :) ) and I hope to improve the navigation part of my game and get them all for next year. (Uh...to any GMARA course designers reading this - no, that isn't a challenge to make it the hardest nav ever.)