Myakka to the Gulf

(24 to 36 hour adventure race)

On Friday afternoon, Ben and I drove down from Clearwater to the Comfort Inn hotel, where the Friday night pre-race meeting was to be held. We arrived a little after five p.m., and tried to check in. However, for some reason they had us down for the following night, and they had no vacancies. Luckily, the Ramada next door had a couple of rooms left, so we were able to get in there. We had to show all of our climbing and safety equipment to the race directors (climbing harness, runners, locking carabineers, helmet, first aid kit, etc.) Jon showed up a few minutes later and did the same thing. They didn't give us the map or passport, though, so we didn't have much to do until 7pm except unload some of our equipment.

At 7 p.m., we had the pre-race meeting, where we went over some of the logistics and details of the race. We also received our maps and passports. We quickly headed out to dinner as soon as the meeting was over with Jon's teammate, Tom. We were lucky enough to find a Carrabbas Italian Grill that had some outdoor tables which were first come first serve, so we avoided an hour wait. We started going through the map and passport, determining our course and where the various checkpoints would be. We ate a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we were able to do our final packing and organization, since we now knew the basics of the course. There would be a drop box at checkpoint 3, which we determined we would reach sometime before dusk, so we packed it with our night clothes and food. (Food and clothes were all we were allowed to put in the box.) We also packed all of our other equipment that we would need for the entire race (rain gear, climbing gear, safety gear, food, etc.). We had a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lots of bars and goo, some trail mix, etc. We finally got to bed a little after 11 p.m.

We awoke at 5 a.m. and loaded up the cars. We drove to Myakka park, which was about 10 miles from the hotel, where we unloaded our kayaks and bikes, and did last minute preparations. The race was to start at 7 a.m., and we all lined up at what we thought was the starting line. The race directors went over a few last minute things, and then had us walk through the woods and over a narrow dam. They wanted us to get spread out before we actually started, because it would have been a mass bike start. Once we started, all the racers had to scramble across the dam and run back to our bikes. This certainly helped spread us all out!

We knew going in that the journey to CP1 would be very long. It included what looked to be a 6 or 8 mile mountain bike section, followed by a 2 mile run, followed by a 14 or 15 mile kayak. The park officials did not want everyone on the lakes and river all together, and having us bike and then run would certainly spread us out. Ben and I got to our bikes at the boat ramp, jumped on, and started pedaling south along a paved road towards the dirt road under the power lines (Power Line Road). When we got there, we headed west. We had actually ridden this a couple of weeks before, and knew what to expect -- lots and lots of sand! We wanted to get towards the front to avoid the conditions that would be left by a bunch of riders going ahead of us.

It was very foggy so the visibility was limited. We passed a couple of roads where groups of riders were checking their maps. Since we had recently ridden this area, we thought we knew exactly where to turn. When we got to that point, we made the turn north and rode on. A few minutes later, we realized we had gone too far west on Power Line Road, and missed the turn we should have taken! We decided to ride on, however, as we thought it would be longer going back. We skirted the northwest border of the park, where we finally got to the far north border. There, we could have taken more of the border road, which would have been all sand, or jumped the fence and ridden on a paved road. We decided to jump the fence and try to get back in the race. We headed west to the north entrance of the park, turned in south, and soon reached the bike drop area. There were many bikes already here since we had gone five or six miles out of the way. However, several teams came in after us because they had also gone the wrong way.

We dropped the bikes, dug our running shoes out of our packs, put them on (leaving our bikes shoes with our bikes, thank goodness! – bike shoes are very heavy!), and started running southwest along the paved road back towards the boat ramp start. Ben was wearing his new Salomon RaidSport shoes, but the arch in one of them was giving him some problems, so we ended up walking some of this. The run was a little over 2 miles. (This is a good time to re-iterate that racing in new shoes is NEVER a good idea!  My shoes were just two weeks old, which is not really enough time for break-in, but they didn’t give me any problems luckily.)

We got to the boats, threw our packs in, and put the boat in the water at the ramp. We were in Upper Lake Myakka, and headed west towards the dam. We got there, pulled the boat over the dam, and started heading south-south west along the Myakka river. This section is about 3 or 4 miles in a straight line on the map, but there were many winding turns, so it was much longer -- perhaps 6 miles in total. We finally reached the Lower Myakka Lake, and started heading through that. There was a tower on the SW side that we were supposed to head towards, as that is where the river picks up again. There was a fairly strong head wind that we had to power through. Right at the start of this lake, I ventured a guess that it was about 1000 paddle strokes across. Ben started counting, and counted the entire way. Somehow, I was almost right - it was a few strokes over 1000 across!

We got to the end of the lake, and had to walk the boat a few hundred yards due to the low water conditions. When the water was deep enough again, we got back in and began paddling. In this area, we saw tons and tons of gators, both on the shore and floating in the water where you could just make out their eyes and snouts. We were in a very wide boat, which was super stable, and had nothing to worry about as far as tipping. (I should note here that this boat was very slow! We had borrowed it from Jon to save some money (instead of renting). A few faster kayaks passed us, but we did pass one or two canoes! )

At the end of this area, we got back into the Myakka River and continued heading south-southwest. This section of the river is a little over 3 miles in a straight line, but with all the curves is probably closer to 5 miles. The water was very low, so we had to get out often and portage the boat. There were also some very swampy sections with lots of water lily type plants that we had to power through, as well as another dam we had to cross. We were looking for a "rocky ford" which is where CP1 would be.  It was a long time coming, but we finally made it there at 1:57 p.m.  We had already been racing 7 hours – this was the longest distance between checkpoints in any race we’ve ever done!

From CP1 to CP2 looked to be about a 9 or 10 mile trek. We were now in Carlton Reserve, which is south of Myakka, and we had to head north and eventually east, to CP2. I took time to change into some dry shorts and we put on our running shoes, filled up on water, and took off. I also called Kelly on my cell phone to tell her what was going on and that we were still alive. We headed north along  Old Fence Line Road (dirt), running a little and walking some. We passed a couple of teams here. We had been told at CP1 that there were 7 teams behind us, so we were making up some ground! We eventually reached a park border road and headed west for a mile, and then turned north. Along this road, we caught up and passed two more teams. We were mostly walking, with a few short runs here and there. We eventually made our way north east, passing the south side of Lower Myakka Lake, and headed mostly east on Cabin Lane road. Ben's hip was hurting a bit, so I gave him some Motrin.

We reached a gate, jumped it, and headed east along state road 72 about a mile. We then turned northeast onto a Pine Level Road (dirt) back into Myakka Park. CP2 was about a mile north of there. We reached CP2 at 4:57 p.m. time, refilled on water, and headed on. We followed Pine Level road northeast for a few miles (passed another team) and picked up Bee Island Road. We eventually made our way north onto Fox High Road for another couple of miles, on to CP3. We started to see a few teams on bikes here heading out to CP4, including Jon and Tom.

We finally reached CP3 at 6:31 p.m. after about a 5 mile trek from CP2. CP3 was where our drop box was, and we took the time to change clothes, open a can of tuna and make sandwiches, etc. We probably spent 25 to 30 minutes here. When we finally left, we guesstimated that Jon and Tom were a good 45 minutes ahead of us.

We headed south from CP3 along Fox High Road, back the way we had come. CP4 was at Oak Grove camp site (about 7 or 8 miles from CP3), which we knew was south and east of us. We turned east on Hoose road and rode that until the northwest border of the park, where we headed south. The park border road cut east, so we followed that.  We were using the map and Ben's computer to guesstimate how far it would be before our next turn. We had gone further than we thought we should have when we came upon a big group of riders trying to figure out where to go. Ben and I finally went back one road -- the one we would have turned on if one team hadn't just come out of it saying they hadn't found CP4. We took this, but it split right away. We took the left turn, and road it through an "oak grove." We were pretty sure we were in the right area, but we did not see CP4 anywhere!

We eventually came to an east west road, but weren't sure what to do. We started east, and just then Jon and Tom and a few other riders came up. They had somehow gone way south and had taken power line road to this point. They had left CP3 a good 45 minutes in front of us, but now we were all at the same point. They were going west, and we started out with them. Ben and I quickly decided that direction was not right and turned around, but Jon, Tom, and the others headed on. We got back to the road we had come out on, and went back to the split. This time we took the right turn, and we soon saw a campfire. We headed in, and found CP4. It was now 9:06 p.m. time. We felt really bad about Jon and Tom going in the wrong direction, but there was nothing we could really do except hope they had quickly turned around.

We headed out of CP4 and would have taken the south rode, but a group of riders came up and said they had just come from there and couldn't find Power Line Road (the same road from the beginning of the race, though we were now much further east than we had come in the morning). This was the same group we had come upon just before CP4. It turns out we would see them over and over, as they would pass us riding quite strongly, but then apparently take a wrong turn, because they would come up behind us again a little while later! We'll call this group the Navigationally Challenged from now on! ;-)

Since they said they couldn't find Power Line Road, which is what we needed to get to CP5, we went back the way we had come to where we met Jon and Tom, because they said they had come from Power Line Road. We rode that, and soon Navigationally Challenged came riding by. We eventually got to the road, and headed west. Since we had ridden this a few weeks prior, we knew what to expect -- lots and lots sand! :-( We rode this 4 to 5 miles west, to Pine Level road, and headed southwest about 1.5 miles on that. This was the same road we had taken northeast from CP2, because CP5 was at the same location as CP2. We got there around 10:43 p.m.

We had to change batteries, so we took a bit of time here. We found we had been making up a ton of time, because we were now in the middle of the pack. Not getting lost is what did it, because we certainly weren't riding that fast! One team got to CP5 right behind us, and one of the guys was having some problems -- probably salt deficiency. He was from New Jersey and had not been able to train in the heat. It was here that we first heard several teams had already dropped out.

We headed SW towards highway 72 (about a mile), and then took that west towards CP6 (which appeared to be about 3 miles further on). A few minutes later, Navigationally Challenged came flying by. We jumped in line so we could draft, but soon they all stopped at a gate, and threw their bikes over to start riding down that road. I took the time to get out my passport and map, to double check where we were. The passport said the CP would be at the intersection of 72 and Windy Grass Trail, but there was no CP here. I also saw that we should have passed under some power lines, which we had not yet done. So we all got back on 72, with Navigationally Challenged leading. I called Ben back to tell him I didn't want too ride close to them or we might get lost as well!

A few minutes later, we came to CP6 (it was 11:34 p.m.)  We took time to fill up on water and eat a little. I also called Kelly on my cell phone to let her know we were still alive.  We headed south-southwest along Windy Sawgrass Trail. This trail was very sandy and we had to push our bikes often. We had to make a couple of turns here and there, and get on Venice Arcadia road. (I should note here that none of these trails or roads are marked with their names!!!) We followed the road south-southwest for quite some time. We had been going a very long time, mostly pushing the bikes because the sand was so thick, when we finally came upon another team. They thought they were lost, but I showed them where on the map I thought we were, and they seemed to be hopeful. We followed the road another mile or so, and finally came to CP7. It was now 1:34 a.m.  (We had gone 5 or 6 miles through super thick sand from CP6.

Ben was pretty worn out at this point, and I wasn't sure if he wanted to continue. The folks at CP7 were real encouraging and told us the road from CP7 to CP8 was packed dirt and that it would be much easier than what we had been on. We took time to rest, and we ate some chocolate covered coffee beans! Yummy. About this time, Navigationally Challenged came flying in. They had again taken a few wrong turns!  They headed out before us.

Eventually, we headed northeast along Well Field Road. It was packed dirt, though it did have ripples so it was bumpy in some places.  It was approximately 5 or 6 miles and we made pretty good time, though we did have to do some battery replacements. The road eventually turned east, and a few minutes later, Navigationally Challenged came flying by again! I have no idea where they could have turned off.

We eventually came to the water plant. The passport said there would be a trail south of the water plant with little white signs that said "water main." Navigationally Challenged was right in front of us, and they took the first trail. Ben and I took the time to look for the signs, but we couldn't find them.  I rode south about a half a mile looking for another trail, but never found anything.  When I got back, Ben was talking to two riders who had just come from where we needed to go, so we took the trail they pointed to.  A few seconds later, we saw Navigationally Challenged come back from where they had been, and get on the trail we were now on.

We road this packed grass and dirt trail at a pretty fast clip.  A few minutes later, Navigationally Challenged passed us yet again.  A minute later, Ben pulled over to stop, and said he wasn't feeling well. It sounded like blood pressure drop -- nausea, cold sweat, etc.  We sat there for a little while, until Ben was ready to continue. We pushed our bikes at a slow walk to CP8. We got there at 3:41 a.m.  At this point, I wasn't sure Ben wanted to continue.  We rested some more, and he was falling asleep on me.  Eventually I talked him in to walking north to CP9, which appeared to be about 2 miles away.  CP9 was the same as CP1, where we had left our kayaks many hours earlier.  From CP9 to CP10 was a kayak leg that looked to be about 2 or 3 miles. I told Ben that if we got to CP9, he could sleep in the kayak and I would paddle back to CP10, and then we would see how he felt. We figured the sun would be coming up by then, and that that might be a big emotional lift.  The body, even without sleep, seems to do much better in the daylight, and I was hoping his would.

We took the two mile walk north quite slow. We eventually came to a team heading back towards us, thinking they had gone the wrong way.  I showed them where on the map that I thought we were, so we continued walking north together.  We came to a spot where it looked like the trail ended at a water point.  We looked closely, and it seemed like some teams had gone through the water, but one of the guys on the other team found a path around the water, so we took that. We walked that a little while longer, and eventually found the westerly trail to CP9. We took that and reached CP9 at 4:57 p.m.

A few minutes later, Navigationally Challenged came walking up behind us -- even though they had left CP8 at least 15 or 20 minutes before we did!!! Ben and I were the 1st team in the water from the several teams that were arrived about the same time.  He propped his feet up and laid his head back, and was asleep in just a few minutes.  I began paddling south along the Myakka River.  We were told there was a lantern shining at CP10 where we should get off the river (this was the same CP as CP8).  I was guessing from the map that it would be about an hour south at most.  I started to worry that if the lantern had burned out and the race volunteers were not aware, we would totally miss it and go way south.  However, we did finally come to the light, where we pulled the boat out of the water. Ben had slept about 45 minutes to an hour.  When we pulled the boat out of the river, the passport said to portage it back to our bikes (CP10 was the same as CP8). We decided to walk around a bit to find where this was, so we wouldn't have to carry the boat far. We eventually found it, and pulled the boat up a little hill, through some palmettos, and out to CP10.  We reached that at 5:30 a.m.  (A note here on the times – these are the times the race volunteers put in their logs, but I think this one is early by about 30 minutes – I think we got in around 6 a.m. which fits in better with the time from CP9 to CP10 – and the sky was just starting to get lighter.)

It was starting to get light out, and Ben did feel better.  I took time to change out of my wet bike shorts into my RailRider weather pants. We ate a little trail mix, and soon headed out towards CP11.  We went east along the same road we had come in on earlier, and then southeast.  We eventually reached a gate and were unsure what to do. I thought we would have reached a trail that headed east, though it seemed much too early.  There was a paved road on the other side of the gate, and I figured that was outside of the park.   It appeared that the teams in front of us that had come this way had jumped the fence.  But even if we did that, I was not sure what we would do -- head north or south along the paved road... We eventually saw that we did not have to jump the fence, because there was a small wood gate we could walk through.  Ben went through to the other side of the paved road and saw that the trail continued. Apparently, this road went through the middle of the reserve.

As we were crossing the road, I saw another team circling around to the north on the paved road. They saw us and quickly headed our way. Turns out they had been lost for about 45 minutes. We discussed where we were and agreed to pick up the trail on the other side of the road.   We also found out that this team had the problem I feared on the way from CP9 to CP10 -- that the lantern would have burned out and the volunteers would not notice. They had lost over an hour going way south on the river because of this! These two turned out to be stronger riders than Ben and me, so they were soon well ahead of us.  We followed the trail southeast, and eventually east, along Tuckers Camp trail.  We came to CP11 at 7:46 a.m.  (We had ridden about 4 or 5 miles from CP10.)   Here we found out that we were the 15th team to check in, so not getting lost all night had gained us a lot in the standings.  We were also told that many teams had dropped out during the night.

We headed out of CP11 east along South Side trail. We used the map to guesstimate about 4 or 5 miles until the trial would turn north. We had to cross "Deer Prairie Slough," a small creek, and then headed north. About a mile later we reached CP12, which was on a bridge over the slough. It was now 8:36 a.m.  This CP had no water left -- just some ice.  So we filled up on that as best we could. (A lesson both learned and applied during this race is to measure distance on the map and stick to it via bike computer or pace count whenever possible. Many wrong turns can be costly mistakes losing time and precious energy.)

From CP 12, we headed east along the power line road for about 3 miles, and then north for another couple. (Note this power line road is not the same as the one from earlier.  That one was in Myakka State Park, and we were now in Carlton Reserve.) We eventually came to CP13, which was unmanned.  We punched in, and headed north.  We took the first fork, but soon decided that was not right, so we headed back to CP13.  We had only lost about 10 minutes or so.  We then went further north, and then west, to an area on the map marked "tree lined area."  The passport told us to go through the tree lined area, and that the trail would be faint and hard to find.  We saw no trail, so we hugged the west side of the tree line, as the passport told us to do.  This was rough going -- it was basically swamp grass, though the ground was dry, but the grass was high.  We had to push through this for well over a half mile, and by now the sun was out in full force.

We eventually found the trail again on the northwest side of the tree lined area, just as the passport said. We pushed on a bit, but decided to rest in the shade for 15 minutes or so.  We had been going pretty hard for quite some time and it had become quite hot with the sun beating down hard, and we both needed the rest.  I called Kelly and told her I thought we could be home by 5 or 6 p.m., because it looked like we had about 5 or 6 miles of biking to CP14.  At CP14 was an orienteering section, a traverse, and then a 5 mile ride down the same packed dirt road we had ridden the night before, and then the final 10 mile kayak. I figured we could get all that done in just a few hours.

After our rest, we headed west until we reached a T in the road. At that point, we had to decide if we should head north or south -- the distance to where we needed to be appeared to be about the same either way. If we headed north, we knew we would hit some of the same really thick sand we had been on from CP6 to CP7 the night before. However, there were tracks on the road that went both directions, so we weren't sure what to do. We went just a bit north, but then decided to head south instead.

We had to push through thick sand much of the way, and we never came to the turn that we thought we should have. So, it appeared we were not where we thought we were (I guess that means we were lost. :-( ).  We kept heading south, and at one point found a trail that went west. We followed that hoping it would get us out where we needed to be, but unfortunately it started north a few minutes later, and we had to return to where we were and continue south. We pushed on and on.  We finally got to some sections that we could ride on the side of the dirt road. By now, we knew we had gone too far and were not sure at all where we were. We eventually came out all the way back south at the power lines, where CP12 was!!!

From CP12, we could head west on power line road, and then north to CP14.  We later found that we could have backtracked from CP13 to CP12, and then moved on to 14, though the passport explicitly stated that we were to move north from CP13. We were about to head off to CP14 when we saw Jon and Tom come up from Deer Prairie Slough to CP12.  They were just checking in, as they had gotten lost in the morning.  The checked in and the race officials told them they could skip CP13 and head straight to CP14, but Jon wanted to go on to CP13 anyway.

Ben and I headed out west to go on to CP14.   We rode west for a little over 2 miles, and then headed north about a mile and finally arrived at CP14 at 12:51 p.m.  A few minutes later Jon and Tom pulled up, because the race officials decided it was too late for them to try to go to  CP13. After a few minutes of changing out of bike shoes, and filling up on water, we headed out into the orienteering section. We followed degrees on the compass and pace counts to find various orienteering flags.  The course was quite easy, but it had been designed to be done at night, not in broad daylight.  It would have been much much more difficult at night!  Many of the controls were in the trees, and we were required to punch in at each stop, so we did have to climb some.

We eventually made it through all of the orienteering controls to CP15 at 1:49 pm.. This was where the traverse was, so we had to put on our climbing harnesses and helmets, and climb up a hanging ladder using an ascender for safety. At the top, a race official used our locking carabineers and connected us to pulleys, and then attached those to two ropes (one for safety).  From there, we got off the platform and had a controlled descent to about the midway point, where we had to start pulling ourselves up to the far side.  I had no idea how tired I was until this point.  Usually my upper body strength combined with my light weight makes such tasks easy, but it took me a long time, with several long rests, to make it to the top.  When I finally got there, I felt a bit nauseated and had to lie down.  It took only about two minutes or so to recover, and then I climbed down.  Ben and Tom finished a minute later (Jon had finished about the same time I did). We walked back to the start, took off our climbing gear, and headed towards CP16 which was the same as CP14. 

At CP16, we changed back into bike shoes, repacked, and peddled west along Well Field Road. This was the packed dirt road so it was fairly quick moving.  Jon and Tom had taken off a few minutes before us, so Ben and I rode fast to try to catch them.  We reached the south side of the water plant just as we caught Tom and Jon.  We had to drop our bikes there where a u-haul was loading them up to take them to the finish line. We started the two mile walk west towards the kayaks for the final leg. It was now about 3:30 p.m. I called Kelly and told her that we were going to be much later than what I had told her the last time I called, but that I still thought we would get home at a decent time. They were about to go to the grocery store to get dinner, so I told Kelly that Ben and I would each want 16 oz. salmon filets! Ben called Allison and found that she had been trying to get from Orlando to Tampa since 10a.m., but I-4 was shut down due to "muck" fires and all other routes were gridlocked.

We reached the boats, pulled them down to the water, and got in. We started making our way south. I kept the map on my lap and followed every turn, so I knew right where we were. The passport told us that we were looking for a creek and that it could be very difficult to find. After about 3 miles, we found it, and began heading west.  There were many shallow spots, and we had to get out and portage the kayak often. The passport told us the creek was 8 miles long, but after an hour and a half, I knew we had been going longer than that.  We saw a few people on bridges and in their yards, and we kept asking how far to the bay because the passport told us the creek would empty into a bay.  They weren't sure, but they kept telling us they thought it was still a long way off.   :-(

We finally reached the bay around 7pm or so.  Jon and Tom and gotten ahead of us on the creek, but we caught up to them here.  We started making our way through the bay in the dark, and ran into shallow water, and then oyster beds.  At one point, someone on the shore yelled out to us to stay far right and that we'd be able to paddle through.  He told us we were on the right track, and to stick to the right, go under the railroad bridge, then go under the Highway 41 Bridge, and then head north towards the finish line.  We did so, but kept running into oyster beds and other blocks in the water.  We finally made it under the highway bridge, but now we were not sure where to go.  The passport told us to go NW and follow the inter-coastal, but there seemed to be many water inlets there.

We were looking for the inter-coastal, and the finish line was supposed to be a mile north of the inlet and across from Gulf Harbor Marina. We tried one inlet, and found a yacht club. Ben and I paddled to an anchored sailboat where we saw a person and asked him, and he pointed us towards a flashing red light that marked the opening to the inter-coastal.  Once there, there were a few more options, and we still weren't sure what to do. We paddled up to a police boat and asked him, and he pointed us off towards another inlet.  Jon and Tom had not come with us, and we tried to signal to them to follow, but we weren't sure if they saw us.

We headed in the direction the cop had pointed, but soon came to a split where we had to decide again which way to go.  We saw headlights in the middle of the split, and they flashed at us, so we thought that might be the finish line.  We paddled up to it, but that wasn't it either. There was a man there and we asked him, and he asked if we were going to where all the mountain bikes were. We said we were and he pointed in the direction we were to follow.  So we then paddled that way. We finally passed the Marina and soon after saw the finish line on the west bank. We pulled our boats up at 8:15 p.m.  We had finally finished after 37 hours of racing!!!

Jon and Tom pulled in just a few minutes later.  Karen and Jon's parents were there, and Karen had champagne (though I didn't care for any at that point). We also saw two members from "Navigationally Clueless!"  They had apparently passed us when we were lost between CP13 and CP14.  Jon's mom and dad drove me, Tom, Jon, and Karen the 20 minutes to Myakka Park so we could get the cars. When I returned, Ben had taken the time to organize/cleanup the gear and kayaks.  We loaded the gear into the cars, and put the kayaks on top of Jon's car.

Ben and I then headed back to Clearwater.  It was at this point that I finally started to feel really exhausted.  Not sleeping for over 40 hours, and racing for 37 of those hours, was taking its toll.  I made Ben stay awake to make sure I stayed awake.  He was scheduled to fly out to Kansas at 6 am in the morning, but he called to change those plans!  I knew I was tremendously tired because I saw some strange things on the way home.  First, roads I have traveled many times all felt different -- not sure if I can put it into words but they seemed larger and like I wasn't really there.  Also, at one point, I thought I saw a big blow up fish flapping around, but it turns out it was just the leaves of a palm tree blowing in the wind. Very odd...

We finally got home around 11:45, and were met by Kelly and Allison.  Brent and Allison Kessler (Kelly's college roommate) were also there -- they had been visiting over the weekend.  They had our dinner waiting -- big salmon filets, asparagus, corn, beer, etc.  We told them about the race as we ate.  Ben and Allison had to head out for Orlando so we loaded up their car and they took off.  I showered, and finally got to bed a little after 1 a.m.  I had been up for 45 hours, and I slept until about noon the next day!

It was really a brutal race in many ways. The sand on the bike legs was awful, the kayaks and foot sections were very long, and many many teams got very lost at various points.  There was well over a 50% drop out rate (15 out of 43 teams finished), and Ben and I were the last official finishers (the last racers that made it to all check points).  The winning teams came in around 29 hours, so we were about 8 hours later than them. But we did finish it!

We also learned a few things (as always): use the map to guesstimate mileage before heading out from each checkpoint, and mentally note landmarks.  In Florida, there aren't many, but they include power lines, fences, etc.  Also, I will carry less next time.  I had rain pants and a rain jacket, but I think I will just carry an emergency poncho from now on. I also had some fluorescent nightsticks that I really didn't need, etc. It seems like the faster teams always pack lighter.  Finally, I will also bring more "treats" to eat.  Bars and goo got really old, and that was all we had left for Sunday.  We had carried two PB&J sandwiches each and made tuna sandwiches at CP3, but we could have used some more real food on Sunday.  "Treats" would be good too.  I had carried chocolate covered coffee beans, and they definitely gave us a lift.  I would have liked a few other sweets -- for example, at one point, I was really craving sour patch kids.

All in all a great experience, and I am really proud that we finished such a long, tough race.