SCAR Elite Race Report

We headed up north of Orlando to Wekiva Lower for the second Elite race for the team and my first (excluding 3hour Xmas in Xmas races).  After the good experience at Atomic, our spirits were cautiously optimistic.  Our other six hour Elite race experience, Myakka, resulted in an OT and has been recounted on numerous occasions, especially when discussing Elite race registrations.

Little did we know what a race was in store for us.  We soon learned that this years race, compared to last year's SCAR, would be more difficult to complete the course.  And how!  

To get everyone started, a small prologue race was needed to unclog the teams during the canoe deploying.  We ran to several checkpoints around the parking lot area.  Our particular order was A,C,E,D,B.

Cow Canoe Tipping Dwarfs

Canoe Tipping Dwarfs might have been a more appropriate team name after some humorous balance issues and poor choice of locations for boat exits/entries.  Our boat section was longer than many of our Sport races, and we were discouraged as we prepared to transition to trek.

Most checkpoints were straightforward and in reverse numerical order, and the ones labeled as "along secondary channel" gave us the most issues.  We initially took the wrong secondary looking for CP 3 and lost 5-10 minutes thinking it might be deeper in.  Unfortunately we may have caused other teams into group thinking and probably cost them some time too.  But the biggest confusion revolved around CP 1 and 2, and group think may have caused us time here.

Through thick -- or thin

Our entire line of thinking led us to believe we were on the "A" branch when in fact we were on "B".  The 'thick' black dotted line on the topo map made us think that this was the wider creek.  As we paddled downstream, we passed team after team coming from further downstream, leading us to believe we hadn't gone far enough, and of course the map features didn't match our expectations.  We ended up too far north and...

Uncharacteristically, we decided to give up on both checkpoints and start the long trip back, already at about the 2 hr mark.  But on the way back we lucked onto the secondary containing CP 1... which was odd because we were expecting CP 2 on this branch.  Once we hit CP 1 though we got our bearings straight and were able to regroup to find CP 2.  Then it was back to the Main TA.

But we lost our punchcard on the way back and had to start punching our map on the return trip.  After attempting to locate the card, punching points going back, and calculating the remaining time for both the Trek and Bike portions, team morale was suffering but we determined to complete what we could and see this race through.  We had already slugged off some of the frustration as both boats fought to be the first to shore, a recurring source of inner team rivalry.

Trek

After some refueling and reloading our camelbacks, we were off to the trek portion.  

Just a few moments on the trail made it clear it was going to be sandy for bike, and dry.  None of the rain in the area the day before would wet these trails and make them manageable.

Our plan was CP's 10, 9, 11, 13, 14 and 12.  From there we would blaze north to the return trail.  Overall the trek was fairly easy.  We spent a few minutes trying to find CP 10 in the deep thicket of palmettos.  This stuff is sharp, and can easily cause you to lose your balance.  We actually loitered about a moment, not even sure where to break into it.  Seriously. Deep. Thicket.  

The approach to CP 10

For CP 14, we went too far south and overshot, ending up on the orange trail instead of the yellow (we did not know which color was which on the map, something we'll need to remember for next year.)

The heat kept us from an all out run, and we took frequent breaks to maintain temperatures and hydrate.

just... one... more... cp

Bike/Trek

At this point, it was clear that we would not have enough time to finish up the course, and would have to drastically cut out CP's.  Since the grouping of CP's way up in the northeast corner would take us up to 20-30 minutes just to get there, we cut them out and planned to hit what ever we could in the closer areas.  We would monitor our time closely and ensure we could make it back without incurring any time penalties.
The overcast sky now was a great help.  We made it to CP's 21 quickly.  CP 19 was a bit trickier, difficulty figuring where the second mentioned marsh was to locate the small pine tree.  Once again it was deep into the bush to grab the punch!  Next year, we add a machete to our gear.

Tiring, and running low on time, we followed up with CP's 18, 17, 20.  

Fearlessly leading on-the-fly

Much to credit to Ben, our Navigator, with his excellent improvisational navigation skills that gave us as many CP's we could get with time to return.

Post Race

A quick jump the the river, and a sudden downpour of rain cooled of the teams.  Unique to this race was the numerous penalty points awarded.  Since we typically clear courses in our Sport events, we didn't know what to expect, and were satisfied in the effort we put in.  We were pleasantly surprised that we did as well as we did, and enthused over our 4th place finish.