LionHeart Adventure Race

Matthew M. Dougherty

Race Report #1 Lionheart 24 Hour Adventure Race

Location: Ohiopyle, PA

This was my second adventure race of the season and looked to be an incredibly hard challenge in the Southern Mountain of Pennsylvania and a race director known for creating courses that kick teams butts… the race was sure to be a challenge.

The race morning actually saw a three hour delay due to a Tornado in the area, the race started the first leg a 30 mile run, with over 7000 ft in elevation gain in a downpour. We ran conservatively for the first 30 miles and finished into TA 1 in second place.

Unfortunately this is where our first error of the day happened, as we were loading into our 2 person whitewater raft. The race officials checking our mandatory gear, one of my teammates states “Dude I forgot the throw rope”. A mandatory piece of safety equipment and something that would cost us a HUGE time penalty later on, forgetting it was understandable as we were packing and setting up our Transition in the midst of a tornado so to say things were crazy is an understatement.

We proceeded onto the paddle where posted the fastest paddle split and toke over the lead going into the ropes and mountain bike section. The final bike section would take us well into the night transitioning to the Orienteering section at 2:00 am. We had been wet and covered in mud for hours already and had to set out into a tough, o-section wet, and hungry.

We finished the race around 8am after suffering through a cold, wet night on the O-Section and a brutal bike leg to bring us home. We finished in the lead of the race, but knew we would be further back in the pack for our costly safety gear violation.

We finished with the fastest paddle section and the fastest mountain bike sections. This was some consolation for our demotion. In the crazy weather and conditions of this race my outstanding equipment kept me in great shape. Unfortunately this race brought an unwanted guest into my life, as Tuesday after the race I began to feel very ill, and a later trip to the Doctors discovered I had picked up a parasite during the white water rafting section. I spent the next four weeks sick and in bed, I lost 12 pounds and have just started training again. Unfortunately it has caused quite a drastic change in my racing as I was set to defend my Double Musselman Triathlon title next week, and can only have a new goal of finishing the race.