With the requisite strains of dueling banjos wafting through our collective conscience, the Silly Rabbits boarded a big old jet airliner last week for the heartland of America - St. Louis, Missouri. Unlike the many folks who travel around this region for game hunting and other vacation-like activities (it's the canoe capitol of the country), the Rabbits were on a business trip. Our business: adventure racing. And we had a meeting with one Mighty Mo, a 250-mile expedition style race through the Ozark Mountains.
We would be facing some big challenges to successfully complete our business, namely one Team Nike, the vaunted powerhouse adventure racing team that's won every major competition there is to win. There were a few other adventure companies in the form of Team Dart, the Mighty Dogs, Gerber Blades, and Dynamic Earth, vying to win the favor of Mighty Mo.
But the Silly Rabbits, America's Adventure Racing Team, are now in upper management positions in our field, so when it came time to begin pitching our business, the Rabbits got right down to it...espite going into our "meeting" completely blind.
We went into our crew situation blind as well, and lucked out like a Powerball lottery winner with two jovial Missouri natives who we had found through the race's website. They turned out to be so valuable to our efforts that they quickly became our fifth teammate.
When the gun went off, we'd have to run nearly a mile to get some clue as to what we were in for. No maps and no guidance were handed out prior to the starting gun. After acquiring our maps while literally on the run, The Rabbits gathered up a few belongings and headed for the first paddling section.
The Rabbits hopped into a four-person whitewater raft with race-provided rafting paddles for a 15-mile down river paddle. We got into the water in about 3rd and got out in about 4th, and in between there was lots of jockeying for position among Nike, the Mighty Dogs, DART, and Dynamic Earth - teams that would vie for the lead much of the race.
From the rafts it was onto an 85-mile mountain bike section. The first 30 miles took about 2 hours as we literally screamed down long fire roads en route to the Ozarks YMCA where we would engage in a high ropes course. Aaron, one of our stellar crew men, is an accomplished orienteering athlete and was able to plot nearly all of our maps. Because of this kind of help, The Rabbits left on the bikes in first place. However, we were caught by the Team Nike freight train that includes three world-class bikers and the man touted as the Worldâ??s Greatest Adventure Racer.
The high ropes caused some problems for Rick who drew the short straw and was charged with the most difficult task - free climbing a series of free swinging vertically placed logs. Five minutes after completing the high ropes, Rick was flopping on the ground like a fish out of water with severe hamstring cramps due to the odd muscle usage from the climbing. Thankfully, Rick recovered soon, and the Rabbits were off to chase Nike over the next several hours and into the first night of the race.
The cramps were just the beginning of Rick's wild ride. A few hours later in the darkness, he would break his chain and then less than an hour after that, he would rip off his rear derailleur after getting a branch stuck in his wheel.
Captain Jason and Rick mishmashed the bike into a makeshift single speed (taking off the broken derailleur and connecting the chain loosely over one particular gear) and the team proceeded out of the forests and onto a road for the final miles to the transitionâ?¦ somehow still clinging to 2nd place even after a 20-minute slowdown to find a checkpoint.
From the bikes, it was onto our feet for an 18-20-some odd mile trek through the woods that included a wealth of bush-and-stream-whacking to find some checkpoints.
The lead teams started accordion-ing together and apart on this section with the Mighty Dogs (a tough bunch of ruffians from Georgia) and our friendly rivals Team Dart (from the Northwest) creating a lead pack along with ourselves and Nike. At one point, we were passed by Nike no less than four times in the space of 2 hours.
Daylight broke as we made our way through the underbrush and across a few more hillsides before finding a dirt road that would lead us to the next transition. We found ourselves in third place as we straggled in to meet our crew. At this point, all teams were informed that the next section - a 40-mile mountain bike leg - was being excised from the course to keep the lead teams on a projected Saturday morning finish. The race began on Thursday morning.
So, in a brief respite from racing, all teams would hop into their crew vehicles to be transported several miles up the road to the next river section. We scarfed down some food and looked over our maps as we went (and yes, even nodded off). This next section would find us in some slow inflatable kayaks for another downriver paddle.
This time, the four teammates would split up to paddle in 2 separate boats. This 30-ish mile paddle would be interrupted by a roughly 8-10 mile trek/run which would include another ropes section. Burdened with our climbing gear, a wealth of mandatory gear, food for several hours, and Jason's sprained ankle from a trail run less than two weeks earlier, we hobbled out of the kayaks at the trek/run/ropes take out. We were in 2nd place.
Team Nike had forgotten some gear and took a little nap as their crew went back to retrieve it. Team Dart was out in a solid lead, looking strong. We outpaddled the Mighty Dogs to the take out, but were quickly overtaken on a few miles of road.
The ropes would include a river traverse via pulleys (hand over hand pulling) and another river crossing via cable. The real cream of the ropes course - a rappel -- was unfortunately sabotaged by some locals and had to be bypassed.
Team Nike caught us on this trekking section, and we found ourselves a bit unhappy to be in fourth place. We tried to rally as we got back into our kayaks for the remainder of the paddle. The part prior to this run had found us giddily dropping into big class III rapids and spinning out of control as we got doused with water in the hot afternoon sun. The second part would eventually find us slightly terrified as the sun sank, leaving us negotiating some rapids in the darkness. With trees and branches stuck into the river at odd angles, and only our tiny headlamps to guide us, we honestly thought about pulling off the river for the night...but, we're crazy so we didn't!!
The next transition found most teams taking their time to warm back up and refuel before heading out onto the final bike leg. The top four teams were within an hour of each other and it was the dead of night. A kind crew man from Team Nike had helped jerry rig Rickâ??s bike back together to allow Rick to ride the rest of the course.
The Rabbits left into the night in fourth place. If there was anything left in our tanks, now would be the time to find it. We busted a move through a few sleepy towns en route to yet another trailhead for the Ozark Trail, which we had already spent the better part of the last 150 miles on. At the trailhead, we came upon the ghostly visages of Team Dart. Looking haggard and spent, they had taken a circuitous route after mis-reading their maps slightly.
With a little burst of motivation, we sped away from Dart onto the trail. And for the next 6 hours, we wouldn't see a soul. Jason kept us on the straight and narrow and made up for his running with some absolutely ace navigation.
We squirted out the far end of this section of forest as light dawned on the third full day of racing. As we scrambled to find a final checkpoint before the end of the leg, Rick saw a man standing in the road waving at the passing traffic. He was warning folks of a car accident up the road. As Jason and John biked from the checkpoint to catch back up, Rick made a major decision to stop Jason - an E.R. doctor outside of adventure racing - and inform him of the accident. Jason quickly decided to go check it out to see if his services were needed.
Even in the heat of competition, with the finish line almost in sight, we were all comfortable with the decision because there are so many bigger things in life. Thankfully, the man who had flipped his car going around a sharp bend was okay, but we waited nearly an hour for an ambulance to show up.
Somehow, as we rode into the last transition, we were in 2nd place! Team Nike had barreled through in relative short order, and somewhere along the way we had passed the Mighty Dogs! Bolstered by one last shot of adrenalin, we changed into our running gear for a final 15-mile run to the finish line. Yes, this one we actually ran. It was a rather straightforward run down some country roads and onto a highway (yes, an actual highway) and then into the town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. In the middle of the run, we stopped for a 'special test' which found Jason and Rick doing their best Robin Hood imitations as they shot arrows at a target.
With the Mighty Dogs smelling blood because they knew about Jason's bad ankle, it was literally a foot race to the finish. We got word that Team Nike had crossed the finish line a few hours earlier. Now, The Mighty Dogs were coming hard for second place. And all that stood in their way was a bunch of silly rabbits, I mean, Silly Rabbits!
Huffing and puffing, we eeked across the finish line about 20 minutes ahead of the Mighty Dogs and collapsed, exhausted after nearly 54 hours of racing without any sleep.
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