I Did the Big Blue 12hour Lake Tahoe race with budding future avocado Sharon Houck and her friend and local lake tahoe resident Timothy Pfafman. Somehow i talked Sharon into writing the race report. Here it is.

Halfway through the two and a half hour orienteering section on CP8, I figured it was time to break out the first aid kit and staunch the flow of blood from my left shin. The Manzanita bushes were in wicked form and there was still much scrambling to be done to get the flags high on the nearby peaks. Tim and DP were in shouting range, if not visual, and after tending to my wound, I bouldered over a nice class IV section (if you fall, you may seriously injure yourself…) and found them impatient to sprint to the final hill. Where do they get the energy?

We were in second place in the co-ed three person division and had had a very straightforward race thus far. After the mass start and requisite one mile jog to the kayaks, we’d launched our double and single into the semi-choppy waters of Tahoe and pointed generally toward Tahoe City, about mid-pack. DP, being the skilled paddler he is, immediately invoked the well-known adage that the more creatively you swear at the rudder, the more likely it is to cooperate. At times, I wondered who would win that battle, but fortunately we only nearly capsized once and after about 1:45 found ourselves on the beach, sprinting to the TA.

Now allow me to point out that we girls get vast hassle for the time it takes to look beeeeaaaautiful, but after a full clothing change, stop at the restroom, and reload of the backpack, I’m standing around tapping my foot and watching the clock while “my boys” get their sh*t together. Hair look good? Check. Bike shorts non-binding? Check. Is my backpack on straight? Yeesh. How do these guys ever get out of the house?

Okay, enough harassment. I may have won the TA times, but thank goodness for the bicycle tow package and the leg strength of Tim and DP or I’d still be out there trying to get up that last 1000 foot climb.

From the TA, we bike to CP3 for the first orienteering section and nabbed three of four points with no problem and almost perfect bushwhacking. The difficult one cost us 20 minutes of thrashing around (we overshot in a major way), but fortunately, everyone else was having the same issue.

The bike to CP4 was the longest scheduled climb (more on the unscheduled stuff later…) and we opted for the scenic single track route rather than the pedestrian fire roads. Now, I say “opted” as if we made a conscious choice rather than a wrong turn, but, ahem, we did arrive at our appointed destination in good form. DP introduced me to bike towing (I’m no longer a tow virgin) during this climb and even got me to the advanced level of downhill single track tow. Whoo hoo! Definitely sporty at times.

Biking to CP5 nearly caused a team divorce. Now, regarding the “teams must stay within 100 yards of each other” rule, the guys were switching the tow package to Tim’s bike and I went on towards the CP, getting about “100 yards” away, which involved one left turn. Bad, bad teammate. Of course, the guys turned right instead, and while I victoriously got the CP, they burned their legs chasing a phantom. When we finally reconnected (they came back), I was appropriately chewed up and spit out while meekly pointing out that we could continue on without any loss of time. Sorry guys.

CPs 6 & 7 were pretty much non-events and we biked to CP8, thinking that there’d be the usual smattering of teams still working through the orienteering section. When we arrived at the staging area, to our surprise and dismay, virtually ALL of the teams were still there. A few had come and gone, but it was clear that this was going to be a long section. In fact, it took so much time that the race organizers had decided to eliminate CP9. When we plotted the (only) three points, we found that they had been strategically placed at the tops of the three nearest, highest “hills”, which were spread out over a couple of miles. Trails were pretty much nonexistent for most of the course and woe to you if you weren’t wearing long pants. Tim and DP’s great nav got us to the three points directly, but even with awesome trekking, it still took us two and a half hours to finish.

Now, playing the grand crescendo music, all we had to do was Get To The Finish Line! How hard could it be? Downhill and to the left ‘til you hit water. At this point, we’d joined up with another team who had done the race the year before and assured us that they knew the route home. And what does Rule #8 on Ken White’s Guide to Good Nav say? Never, ever trust another team’s nav. At one point during the supersonic downhill, the fateful words, “oh, it’s just another 10 minutes to the finish” were uttered and our fate was sealed.

The long version of the story requires beer, but the short version has us perched on our bikes at a bit above lake level, maps in hand, realizing that we are far far to the west of our desired destination and with about 1000 feet of climbing between us and there. After a bunch of heavy sighing (at least on my part), we pointed the bikes back uphill and pressed on, with Tim towing me and DP pacing us. On the plus side, we passed a few teams and eventually got back on track. Thanks to a little nav assistance from three guys in a garage with Buds in their hands, we found the fence leading to Tahoe Vista Park, and from there it was the final victory lap to the finish line.

10:17, high-fives all around, 4th in the division, 17th overall, and wow, did that shower feel good.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 7:23 am and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [Permalink]