nuun - Feed the Machine races at the 2009 USARA National Championships

Written by Ryan Van Gorder
Created Date: Wednesday, 28 October 2009 14:06

Summed up in a few words...good race, bad results. The team, comprised of Mari Chandler, Glenn Rogers and Ryan VanGorder worked well together and had a great pace when they were able to do work. Fitness was never an issue, we were fast and could pick it up when we needed to but in the end mechanical issues and rookie mistakes got us. We did not deserve to win this one... GraniteAR raced a good race and are the new National Champs, well done guys!

Wednesday and Thursday before the race it rained 5" in Pilot Point, Texas and basically sunk the playing field. Water lines expanded, trails turned into mud bogs and the race management went through 4 iterations of what was to be the final course. I did have some flashbacks to the last nationals that I raced in Florida and crossed my fingers that the mucky floodwaters would not infect everyone with Leptospirosis.

Here are the high level cliff notes from our race:

  • Hammered out to lead on bike
  • Got flat tire
  • Hammered back to peleton
  • Got flat, found torn tire in tread (Not sidewall). Used a bar wrapper and duct tape to fix.
  • Hammered on Canoe, forgot to get CP 5 when we paddled past it.
  • Portaged 2 miles in kick ass recovery move with canoe, finished 15 minutes out of first
  • Bike, run, bike, flat, run, 2 Flats (Mari and RVG), switch RVG rear tire with Mari's front tire, problem solved.
  • Mud bog on bikes
  • RVG birthday celebration begins at midnight
  • Realized we did not bring second map, poop pants, then wait for team to follow on a large out and back section.
  • RVG got attacked by an armadillo on his bike. Almost decapitated critter with rear spokes.
  • Swam to an underwater earthen dam at 3:30am. RVG finds large snake in water under control flag, mostly likely poisonous type that likes the south. Glenn Tells RVG to throw a stick at it an get going
  • Crawled, bushwhacked in swamp and thorns for 2 hours, nearly found the CP and started over again. Glenn finds snake in another bog and runs away the wrong direction while RVG suggestes that Glenn just throw a stick at it a press on.
  • Hammered the mud bog.
  • Finish, eat, sleep, eat waffle house, sleep, last team at party since our room was next door.
  • Road trip after party to Gainseville with CPZero for Ice Cream.