Cold Spring, NY ~ NYARA Longest Day Adventure Race
June 10, 2006.
The morning started with a shock to the system all night long we listened to huge thunderstorms roll through wondering what the weather would leave for tomorrow’s race. When we wok up and drove to the race start we saw the HUGE swells on the Hudson River and knew it would be a rough day. We had no idea how rough….
This fifteen hour adventure race was supposed to start with a long paddle on the Hudson River, normally a fairly easy task but the race started in rough conditions with white caps over two and three feet tall. Most teams struggled to keep their boats upright before the race even started. My team made it safely through the wind and to the first CP in Second place and feeling confident about the paddle. Behind us lay the shattered fragments of the rest of the racers boats over turned, spread all over the river. Nearly half way home and things turned for the worst for our team.
The swells started getting big really big capping at over 6ft at times, controlling the boat was nearly impossible and paddling forward was something totally different. The waves were hitting us from behind so we had no idea when the next huge rouge wave would come. Unfortunately one of our teammates rolled his kayak, and we rescued him, got him to shore and somehow got the boats out on the water again… it did not end though the waves got bigger and our teammate rolled his boat again three more times…. Even for an experienced paddler I struggled mightily in the waves. Our team ended up having to abandon one of the kayaks on course and received a penalty. Yet we remained one of the few teams to finish the paddle.
We toke off on the second section of the race and quickly regained our top position. Flying through most of the bike and being glad we were back on solid ground and no longer in the horrible Hudson. The bike flew by and a few short hours we found ourselves transitioning for the trek… But we had a new problem… one of our teammates was sick. He attempted to continue but was unable to weak and lethargic we were not sure what was wrong with him. Was it the hundreds of gallons of water ingested in the Hudson during the paddle? Who knew but it was obvious he could not go on anymore.
Jim and I continued on as an unofficial unranked teams cleaning the final trek section and having some fun along the way. Opting twice to wade through ponds versus hike through the dense brush which was great idea except for the leeches …ewww
We came into the finish of the trek section, unofficially ranked but as one of the top teams. We loaded up on newspaper for the cold ride back to the finish (an old roadie trick of throwing newspaper in your jersey to keep you warm in the cold). … Although we did not officially get ranked we had a great time … and were recognized at the awards ceremony for being the only team to lose a member and still finish the race.
I guess this race can be chalked up to lessons learned in Adventure Racing…
I have to say I was very pleased with all of my new sponsored gear this race. The Recover – Ease has made a notable difference in my racing and training allowing to race and train harder and recover faster, sweat deal! Racing in tough races back to back and feeling great is something I can only attest to as the power of Recover Ease. I am also totally happy with all my Rudy Project gear the glasses were superb in all the conditions. I loved my CW-X pro top it regulated my temperature oh so well; it worked great as my base layer for the race. I also loved racing in the Brooks Cascadia Shoe it added just enough kick to help and it was super light weight my favorite thing in any piece of gear!
Full Results and information can be found at http://www.nyara.org/
Please visit my blog while I continue to update it with racing information… and bear with me as I just started it one month ago J
http://mattydracing.blogspot.com/
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