Thunder Rolls 24 Hour Adventure Race

It has been too long since we created a new race report...  too much time racing and not enough time blogging.  We need to keep up with these items or we will forget how much fun we had with the Fat Otter 72 hour Raid, Planet Adventure 36 hour Old School AR, or Paula's first race as the Director of 180 Adventure's Stubborn Mule.  Wow, that is a lot of racing.  So, let's start it up again with the Thunder Rolls 24 Hour Adventure.

We raced down in Illinois at Thunder Rolls two years ago and had a great time.  We put this race on the "to do" list early in the year.  After all, we were all out of Boetje's Mustard.  A free jar per member makes the trip down to this event worth the hours and dollars.  It doesn't hurt that the race is top quality with a lot of twists.  One not so fond memory of the race two years ago was the pack rafting.  We had three racers in a raft built for two, meaning a small adult and a child...  Rafts were on the gear list again.  Surely it would be easier if we only have two people in the raft.  A new entry on the gear list...  walkie talkies.  How are they going to be incorporated???

Paula, ready to unveil the magic bike!

Wow, this race is big.  38 teams representing some of the best the midwest has to put forward.  A team is even present from Georgia.  38 teams....  wow.  Our biggest race since the USARA National Champs in 2008.

Clark and Pete met Paula at the parking lot.  The place was filling up fast, but the buzz was all about Paula's sweet new ride.  No, she didn't get a new car.  I still have to stare at the awful dent I put in it when I dropped a canoe on the front fender.  Nope, Paula had a new rocket, a 2009 Trek Elite 9.9.  I think the 9.9 must represent the weight of the bike.  Pure sweetness.  How are Clark and Pete going to keep up?

The race meeting over, we plot our control points (CP's) and formulate a plan for the race.  Order of events:

Pete and Paula plot CP

• Run
• Portage
• Canoe
• Bike
• Radi-O
• Bike
• Pack Raft
• Orienteer
• Ropes
• Orienteer
• Pizza!!!

Following a stirring National Anthem, we counted down to the midnight start and took off on a run with PFD's and paddles at the ready.  Two miles later, we enter the parking lot where the boats are stored and start our assessment.  Seats present and working (check), handles present and attached (check), no body damage (check), and we set off on the one mile portage.  Paula with the map and paddles, Pete and Clark with the nice heavy canoe.  Paula isn't the biggest fan of running.  She is even more adamant that races aren't won in the first five minutes.  She has been subjected too our jack rabbit starts in the past.  So, out of the 38 teams in the 24 hour event, we were about 25 back coming in to the canoe selection.  As other teams fumbled, we left the staging area passing about 15 teams with no plan.  Paula may not run much, but she can march fast enough to make you jog.  Into the woods we go with Paula shouting "on your left" and Pete and Clark straining to keep the canoe from ripping their arms off as they struggle to keep up.  As we reached the 2nd control, we had picked off another five teams, but they weren't far back.  We readied our gear, and headed straight through the woods to the water.  Open river in front of us.  A firefly family gathering of headlamps to our right.

Thunder Rolls AR 2010 Paddle





We now find ourselves on a swollen river, heading upstream, no idea of our race position, but in the element of Paula Waite.  We head upstream, hugging the left bank, and making progress.  We spot chemlights a distance upstream.  Paula says we have to pass them by the next control, so we dig deep.  We pass them with about a quarter of a mile to spare and punch the control.  We had only seen three boats headed back downstream, but there were a lot of islands, we must have missed a couple.  How could we be in 4th place?  What followed was a fast 14 mile downstream paddle.  Water smooth as glass, fast flow, full moon, shooting stars and good chit chat.  Clark only asked "how much further a couple times."  Things were going well.  We arrived at the TA (transition area) ready to bike, four hours and thirty minutes after the start.  

All smiles on the first bike leg

We focused on a fast transition and things were proceeding well until Pete took off his PFD.  That extra insulation was all that was keeping him warm.  Pete was in the front seat of the canoe and caught all the water coming off of Paula and Clarks paddles.  The canoe was tight enough that Paula's paddle was often riding down Pete's shoulders.  Pete was shaking so badly that everything became both difficult and comical.  A little time wasted, but the team eventually started off on a 25 mile bike leg that had some good rolling hills, some gravel, four CP's and the John Deere Historic Site.  The bike ended at the Nachusa grasslands.  This site is a prairie restoration project with all types of native prairie grasses.

Thunder Rolls AR 2010 Bike Leg #1

Pete in the grasslands

We transitioned to our orienteering clothes as quickly as possible and apprehensively pulled out the radios.  We had agreed that Paula would provide the directions while Pete and Clark ran the course.  We were all picturing the ornamental grasses that have become so popular in landscapes.  What we got was thick tall grass with all sorts of ankle grabbers and raspberry bushes thrown in.  We started out a little rough.  We couldn't have been more than 20 yards away from the control at one point, but were quickly well away from the target area.  Paula asked, "Can you see the barn?"  Our reply was we can barely see each other...   Every step was in to a cloud of pollen as the heads of the grass were perched at eye level.  Eventually, Pete and Paula decided to reset by going to a nearby hill.  Pete ran in to the control on the way.  Bingo.  More luck than skill.  Paula called out the next distance and direction as Clark and Pete agreed on the direction of travel and picked out a valley between two knolls, one of which had to be the feature.  Off we slogged, with Paula asking if we were there yet about 25% of the way to the control.  This was going to be a long exercise.  Every control, all 12 of them, got a little easier as we worked out a system.  This was going to be havoc on teams without a lot of navigation experience.  In to the maze in 4th, out of the maze in 3rd!!!  We had made a pass mid course!

Thunder Rolls AR 2010 Radi-O and 2nd Bike Leg

Back to the bikes.  We head out and go a couple of miles when Clark begins to cramp.  It was hot out in the grass, we kept up with water and electrolytes, but must have skimped a little.  Pete put Clark on tow as he tried to slowly peddle through the pain.  There were a few larger hills in this section, but for the most part, just rollers and a new wind to deal with.  After 24.5 miles, Clark was recouped, we had visited Chief Blackhawks statue overlooking the Rock River, and were ready to transition to the packraft.

Packrafting..... no fun.  The last time we did this it was three to a raft in a slow moving slough off of the Mississippi.  This year is was the swollen Rock, with it's full on current.  We had three pumps, so raft inflation went fast.  We hiked the boats to the river, taking one minor detour.  Oops, and set the boats in the water.  Clark and Pete took the large raft, Paula took the smaller.  We tied them up tight, Paula in back, bow to stern.  A long boat is faster than a short boat, we were hoping that Paula's boat would get the equivalent of a draft off of our tail.  We headed out and moved as quickly as possible to the other side of the river.  Now for some upstream effort.  Stroke, stroke, stroke.... have we gone anywhere?  This is twice the work of the canoe and we aren't moving.  Let's try the other side of the river...  no better.  Maybe the middle....  no better.

Thunder Rolls AR 2010 Pack Raft

On top of the sandstone cliffs

 The fisherman off to the side think we are idiots.  Not far off.  maybe the two boat arrangement is hindering vs. helping?  Lets unhook...  I don't know that anything we tried made a difference.  It was just slow hard work.  An easy spot was 200 meters in five minutes.  A tough spot was 20 meters in 5 minutes.  It seemed like the river was full of the tough spots.  Sixty five minutes for 1.2 miles....  dry ground.  We punched the control on the bank and ran to the top of the sandstone cliffs and punched the next control.  Back to the rafts to return from where we came.  We were spent.  No more paddle in our bones, thankfully, the return trip took 20 minutes with just some steering and a little effort.  **  We later learned that some teams didn't make it past the initial put in.  they got in the rafts, were swept backwards, and couldn't make enough headway to return to the put in.  They ended up dragging their boats along the shore and skipped the section. **

O section with spotty GPS track

Now for the fun stuff, a long O section through the woods with a zipline and ascent at the mid-point.  The packraft cost us a position, back in 4th, but we saw the team to catch as we came back in to the transition area.  A quick transition and we are off on a YYY control O section.  We had a map depicting the control locations with contours, and another that depicted the trail locations with no features whatsoever.  Different scales requiring a lot of interpretation.  We chose a bushwhack route to the first control, and bushwhack we did.  A lot of thorns later we dumped out on to one of the trails.  Pete stated, "We are..." as Clark called out, "There it is."  A little more clarity on the maps revealed, we know where the current trail is with respect to the control.  We head out in the direction of the second control with Pete checking off control features.  The path crossed the stream we were using as a handrail.  It was either bushwhack a long way, or follow the trail to a point where we felt comfortable jumping off of it.  A few hundred meters and Pete says, "If we are where I think we are, control 35 should be off to our right in the next reentrant."  And there it was, but we were looking for 34.  Nice direct straight north route from here.  Up the hill, skirt the field, into the reentrant, and there is the control.  We backtrack to 35 and follow the same map-trail correlation through the next three controls and found ourselves at the zip line.  

Trail Map for the O Section

We gear up and jump out off of the 100' cliff for a 50 yard ride.  Unclip, back to the cliff and use ascenders to get back to our start point.  Clark did really well on the ascent.  Super fast and it was his first time.  Really well considering he touched the rope on the zip line and got a nice burn on a couple of his fingers.  We take a conservative route back to the start and refill water, do a nature break, dump off the climbing gear and head back out for the longer half of the O section.  The first control was a bit tricky, but we found it without too many issues.  We hit a trail and are about half way tot he next control when Clark states he isn't feeling well.  Time for "Pete the Motivational Speaker"...  "well Clark, atleast you only have two more hours to not feel well."  Paula smirks and we walk on, until Clark starts his Monty Python imitation of Mr. Creosote.  Hmmmm.. this doesn't bode well.  Paula goes about 50 meters down path to collect herself.  Pete stands back a safe distance.  After 5-10 minutes Clark gives the "game on" signal and we are on our way.  We spot the next control and Pete takes the punch from Clark and runs a bit ahead as Paula and Clark continue to walk up.  Pete comes back with the card, hands it to Clark who declares Pete incompetent and runs to the control to punch it in the correct location.  Ok, the game really is on.

Paula and Pete contemplate the route to the last CP

The rest of the course went really well.  The controls were easy to spot, something we attributed to the lighting as the sun was starting to set.   We made one parallel error, but the rest was dead on.  Just for fun, and much to Paula's chagrin, we finished the event off with a 2.5 mile jog.  Finish the way you start!!   We arrived back with just a little bit of sunlight remaining.  19 hours and 56 minutes after we started.  A solid race with a 4th place finish.  Two hours and 30 minutes separated us from the winners with fair margins between the top 4 teams.  Fifth place went to the last team to sweep the course with a time of twenty three hours and thirty minutes.

What a great event; new memories to smile about, new skills to work on, a piece of pizza (or ten) and a jar of mustard!