On May 9 a friend from work and I participated in the 2nd annual Jubilee Park Adventure Orienteering Race. This race is an extension of regular orienteering, which I've written about before (here and here), that throws the map and compass reading and trail running together with some mountain biking and other odd events with the intent of getting the teams of two intrepid explorers lost in the woods, exhausted and twitching on the trail, frustrated and shouting at each other, or some combination of all three. Mike and I competed in the longer of the two events against 25 or so other teams (I don't know how many of the 50 registered teams did the short course). The long course was supposed to take from three to six hours with two segments each of biking and orienteering and two short 'mystery events' thrown in for variety. Happily we got neither lost nor frustrated with each other, but we were starting to twitch a bit as we crossed the finish line almost exactly five hours after we started. We finished in second place.
I snapped a picture of Mike with my phone before the start of the race:
Andrea happened to stop by just as we were passing through the parking lot. We're not too muddy at this point. Nor are we moving too fast. Slow and steady, slow and steady...
The course ended up being about two hours longer than intended, it was muddy, hilly, and difficult, but it was well organized and fun and I'm excited to try it again next year!
Then last weekend, on May 16, I packed up the road bike and wetsuit and we headed up to north-western IL for another shot at the Galena Triathlon. This year I went with a few more miles in the bike seat but a lot fewer laps in the pool under my belt. The morning was sunny but chilly, the water a brisk 63 degrees with a rough chop that didn't help my lack of swim fitness at all as I struggled through the 660 yard swim looking more like a bobbing cork than a corking porpoise. I finished the swim about two minutes slower than last year - kind of frustrating, but kind of expected as well. But it was the wind that really stood up and took a bow this year, and it was brutal. The bike course goes east then north then east then south and then east again, and can you guess which direction the wind was coming from? Anyway, I was glad that I'd been on my bike a bit this spring and at the end of the 18 miles I actually felt pretty good. The run course was much different this year and much better. Still just over 4 miles and still hilly, but absent the demoralizing, mile-long ascent at the beginning and the knee-bending descent to the finish line. I finished the run with a faster average pace than I've ever been able to run at Galena, and finished the race in the best position that I've ever been in - number 400 out of 799 competitors. Not too bad.
I also found out that I have more of a pre-race ritual than I realized, and that when it gets interrupted I'm more of a head case than I ever wanted to acknowledge. About ten minutes before the race started I realized that I'd forgotten to eat the PowerBar that I'd so carefully packed in my bag. Unfortunately, the bag was with Andrea, on its way to the finish line, oblivious to my plight. No PowerBar! What am I going to to? Well, nothing I guess, just forget about it. But I couldn't, and half way through the swim I found myself obsessing about my lack of fuel, certain that my limbs were weak and heavy because I'd already burned through my pitiful breakfast. Oh good grief! Stop thinking about that stupid PowerBar and swim!
I was finally able to stop thinking about it and did just fine.
We also found out that Andrea needs some more practice with action photography. She got a couple shots of my back as I trudged past and one of me putting on my shoes before finally getting in position to catch the finish.
I'm just kidding honey! I really do appreciate your support and encouragement, and that means more to me than all the pictures in the world. I couldn't do it without you.
Next weekend I'm staying home.
