Team Shackleton which consists of me (Kier), Rafael, Julie,
and Walt ventured down to North Miami in late January to take part in
Adventurous Concepts first Undercover race.
The premise of this race series is different from other standard
Adventure Races. In standard races
the race directors give you all the maps and instructions to complete the entire
course prior to the beginning of the race.
This allows the racers to plot out race strategy and sort out what gear
they would need prior to setting out. The
Undercover series only gives the racers enough information to make it to the
next checkpoint, so we had no idea when we would be biking or kayaking or
running.
The team drove down Friday night, Jan 25, and had rented a
cabin at the race site in Oleta River State Park so that we could get familiar
with the park on Saturday and do some site seeing. Oleta has some really nice single-track Mountain Biking
paths. Not what you would expect
from a flat area like Miami. Some
of us even tried our hand at the big hill that dropped 30 feet and brought you
up over two medium hills allowing you to get some major air. I actually got worse the more I did it so decided to quit
after about 6 tries not wanting to risk a face-plant over the top of my
handle-bars.
After grabbing some lunch we headed down to south-beach for
some sight-seeing and hanging out. As
it turned out, we were also informally scouting the race course.
We had gotten back so late that we barely succeeded in finding a Target
store to get some last minute supplies.
The Undercover race was scheduled to be a 12-hour race.
All that means is that most teams should finish by that point.
Twelve hours is the shortest of the long-course type races.
Long-course races go from 12 to 72 hours of non-stop racing.
Everything more than that is considered Expedition racing and everything
less than that is considered Sprint racing.
We rolled out of bed, packed up our things and took the
short ride over to the starting line and got there at 6am, one hour before start
time. That one hour before race
time is very hectic. Preparing
gear, filling water bladders, chatting with friends from previous races, filling
out forms. The race briefing was at
6:45, which because of the race format, consisted of them telling us that the
first section is going to be running, and that there are no maps. OK, map case goes back onto the stack of gear I won’t need.
I was the only person wearing long pants, which surprised me since the
last time I was trekking in one of these races it was through the most God-awful
wilderness that Florida has to offer at Jonathan Dickinson park during the Howl
at the Moon race in late October 2001. I
learned in that race not to change race-strategy at the last minute so I left my
railriders on. They’re light as a
feather and breathable too so no big risk.
The start of the race went off on time at 7 am and we took
off into the woods running on some of the technical mountain bike sections.
After about three miles we came to the first obstacle, a cargo-net strung
up between two trees. Because only
two people can go over at a time we had a minute of rest before we had to go
over. Instead of trying to get my
one leg over the top and then swinging the rest of my body I climbed up high
enough that I could drape the top half of my body over and did a psuedo-somersault
over the top. It worked out really
well.
They handed the team captains a map on the other side of
the net and told us to proceed back to our transition area to get into our
kayaks. We were running and reading
and I determined that we were going to paddle from the park, which is at 163rd
Street all the way down to South Beach Miami at 21st Street.
It was only about 7:40am when Rafael and I put our kayak in the water and
pushed off. Julie wanted to change
out of something that she had on so she and Walt put in a little after we did.
The kayak portion was actually kind of nice.
The water was smooth and we just followed everyone else. I guess if the first boat took a wrong turn then everyone
else was going with them. We had a
chance to chat with some of the other teams that we were close too, but Julie
and Walt were nowhere in sight. This
worried us. After losing Rafael in
the Howl race we were extremely conscious of not wanting our teammates to be out
of our sight. We were technically
racing as two separate 2-person teams (Shackleton I & II) but were really
racing as one unit. Rafael and I
were planning how to best utilize the extra time that we would have at the boat
take-out until Julie and Walt arrived when who sneaks up behind us but our
intrepid teammates. Apparently when
they realized how far back they were they started utilizing an interval-type of
approach to paddling. Go fast 2
minutes, go normal 3 minutes. We
will definitely have to explore this more because they made up some major
ground. We spent a total of two
hours during this paddling section. The
bad news is that we knew we would have to pick them back up later and paddle
back another two hours.
We pulled the boats out of the water, checked in, and got
our next map which directed us to cross from the west side of Miami Beach to the
east side and run down the beach to the Rock Jetties that are below 1st
Street. Before we set out I decided
that this was the best place to ditch my long pants since we were about to hit
the urban jungle of Miami Beach; no chance of bushwhacking here.
To keep people from cheating and running on the roads they told us that
we had to count the lifeguard stations from 15th Street to the
checkpoint. This was one of the
most interesting sections of the race. Imagine
the scene: People are leisurely
walking up and down the main drags in Miami, window shopping, having some
breakfast in one of the many sidewalk cafés, inspecting art work in the outdoor
arts & crafts fair that was going on when along comes a hoard of people
wearing bike shorts, synthetic shirts, back packs with water tubes hanging out
of them, and gloves. We were
leaping over dogs, maneuvering around waiters, and generally trying not to run
anyone over who wasn’t paying attention.
Meanwhile trying to eat something while we had the chance and get some
water into us. I didn’t drink an
ounce of water on the paddle over and I don’t think anyone else did either.
When we got to the beach we slowed down a little and to
keep a sustainable pace decided to run between one set up lifeguard stations
then walk between the next set until we got to the checkpoint.
That worked out pretty well but we got passed by a few teams.
When we got to the checkpoint at the Jetties we were
instructed to cross over the Macarthur Causeway into downtown Miami, pivot
around the Miami Herald building and come back across the Venetian Causeway to
where our kayaks were.
This trekking section caused us the most problems.
Rafael and I were in front and were using the approach we ran between one
set of palms and then walked between the next set.
This was the fastest sustainable pace we could keep up.
The weather in Miami that day was very sunny and the temperatures were in
the low-80’s so we were trying to be conscious of our water intake. I had also started handing out electrolyte capsules to keep
everyone running, but it was a little late for Walt. Once we started crossing the Macarthur Causeway Walt’s
calves started cramping up on him. Julie
hung back with him and they tried to move as fast as they could.
I have experienced calf-cramping and spasming during the Jacksonville
Marathon in 1997 and know that you can hardly walk much less run with this
condition. The only cure is to get
some salt into you, which presented a problem since there were no stores or
restaurants on our route until we got back to the kayaks.
We were also running against the clock.
We knew that there was a 3pm cut-off to get on our bikes back at the
park. That meant if we weren’t
checked-in and transitioning to the bike section by 3pm you would not be allowed
to continue. We knew that it took
us 2 hours to paddle down so if we weren’t in our kayaks and on our way back
by 1pm then we were in big trouble.
We got back to our boats around 12:30pm, but we were almost
completely out of water. I ran
across the street and asked a gentleman where I could get some and luckily there
was a Publix Supermarket two blocks away. Since
I was in the best shape at this point I ran down there and after some language
translation difficulties was able to get a couple gallons and get back by
12:45pm. We filled up and were in
by 1pm.
One thing that we did not anticipate was that since it was
such a nice day, everybody who owned a pleasure boat in Miami was out using it,
and they weren’t the small ones. We
were constantly maneuvering around the wakes generated by these boats and in
some instances had to cross directly across boat traffic lanes.
We were just hoping that they were paying attention.
At one point we got caught up in some really shallow water.
The grass that was growing underneath was definitely making it harder to
paddle. I don’t know if the tide
went out or if we just managed to bypass this section before.
Once we cleared that section and got to the last causeway we were not
exactly sure where the park was and how to get to where we put in before.
We crossed a major boat traffic lane to get to the other side of Biscayne
Bay and went into a small inlet at about 3pm, the cut-off time.
I hopped out off the kayak and ran up into this area were there were a
lot of families cooking out and partying. I
managed to flag down a ranger who said that we were indeed at the park and we
had to follow the inlet to get to where the put-in/take-out was.
In the mean time Julie and Walt came by and took a different path saying
they knew how to get there. Where
to go???? Another kayaker pulled into the inlet and said this was the
correct way so we followed him. We
got to the take-out at 3:15pm and the race director said that they extended the
cut-off and we should get going. Julie
and Walt arrived 5 minutes later. Everyone
was spent from exerting everything they had trying not to miss the cutoff that
here we were, back in the race with not much energy left.
Julie was especially hard hit. We
were eating everything we had. Bananas,
pears, nuts, Pringles, and candy. We
also had to do the necessities such as filling water bottles and bladders, and
packing for the next section. Forty
miles of biking.
We didn’t leave the transition area until quarter to
four. The first five miles was pure
technical mountain biking. Some of
the stuff we went over would be considered dangerous even if we were fresh.
Now after 9 hours of continuous exertion it was impossible.
We had to lug our bikes up and over several of the hills.
There was no sense in risking injury this far into the race.
Once we completed the technical sections it was back to Miami Beach.
The instructions said to leave the park and take A1A all
the way back down to the Rock Jetties. Thank
God Miami is flat!!! The riding was
pretty steady until we reached North Miami Beach, around 80th Street,
then it started to get congested with pedestrians.
We tried several different routes but couldn’t find any that was both
safe and fast. We ended up doing a
combination of road and sidewalk riding. If
we had to be careful about trying not to run into the pedestrians during the
running sections then we had to be REALLY careful while going through there on
bikes. I don’t know if it was
luck or skill but no animals or people were harmed by having a bike run over
them.
We got to the Rock Jetties and they instructed us to again
cross the Macarthur and Venetian Causeways then head back to the park.
There was one catch though. We
had to have a four-line poem ready for the checkpoint after the Macarthur
Causeway. I forgot all about it and
when they asked me for mine I was at a total loss.
I was trying to remember what that man from Nantucket did but no go.
I finally was able to string along something about racing that was
passable. At this point it was
getting dark and, not thinking that we would be out after dark, only had about
half of our lighting gear working. Nobody
brought along extra batteries. The
lady at the Macarthur checkpoint kept telling Walt to turn on his front light,
but Walt feigned deafness knowing that there were no batteries in his light.
He did have his headlamp though. I
had my headlamp too and I had only a couple hours of light out of my front bike
light and my read red light was completely obscured by the rack that I had put
on the back. We were a hodge-podge
of working lights. This only meant
extra danger through the wild streets of Miami.
The checkpoint lady said the safest way to go back was up
Alton Road until in connected to A1A so that’s the way we went.
We just tuned everything out and just kept pushing those pedals.
Mile after mile, watching those street numbers tick off.
We knew we had to get to 163rd so it was just a matter of
time. As we were getting close
Julie came up behind me, and Walt and Rafael hung together. We hit 159th and I was keeping my eye out but the
next street I saw was 169th. Where
was 163?? Rafael pulled up and said
that Walt had crossed the road back a block or two.
Luckily at this time a cop pulled up right next to us.
I got him to roll down his window and he confirmed that 163 was in fact
Road 826 which was only two blocks behind us.
Cool!! Now where the heck is
Walt? We crossed the road and while
Rafael and Julie waited I backtracked about a half-mile.
He wasn’t anywhere so I just had to assume that we went directly to the
park. I came back around and
Rafael, Julie & I proceeded to the park. The people who were still there gave us a nice round of
applause, honked their horns and generally congratulated us. We checked in and luckily Walt was there waiting for us.
He thought we just went up to the next 826 ramp which would take us to
the same place.
All in all we did 13 miles of trekking, 17 miles of
paddling, and 40 miles of biking (Total of 70 miles) in 12 hours and 40 minutes.
Team Shackleton and I would like to thank Michael Moore of
Blue Water Outfitters for the paddling training that he gave us prior to the
race and also letting borrow his tandem kayak for additional practice.
It truly did make the difference between finishing and not finishing.
We would also like to thank Andy and the guys from Caloi
Bikes for their ongoing support.
Kier O’Neil
