It’s been two years since Team Green Paw raced an event put on by Odyssey Adventure Racing, and hopefully next time it won’t be as long between Odyssey races.  Anna, Jason, JJ, and I all raced the Odyssey One-Day Adventure Race back in 2009, and were back this past weekend to do the same race, now in it’s 22nd year.  In 2009, we finished the race in 2nd place overall behind team WEDALI.  This year the extreme temperatures would test every team up to the finish.

        We all arrived at the host location of Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing (about an hour from Roanoke) on Friday afternoon, and checked in around 5pm to get our maps and instructions for the race.  After several hours of plotting points, determining our route, and measuring distances, we got to bed around midnight with our alarm clocks set for 3:45am, as the race would start at 4:30am.

        The race started on bikes, and we quickly climbed over 2,300 vertical feet to reach the first couple CPs.  The bike up this mountain was long and steep, but the sunrise we saw from the top of the ridge made it all worth it.  After hours of climbing we were in third place.  With long climbs up come fast downhills, and we topped out at 60km/hour on our bikes as we descended some steep hills en route to our next transition area. 

        At the first TA we dropped off our bikes and proceeded on foot through the woods for roughly 15km to the canoes with a checkpoint in-between.  There were no roads or trails marked on the maps for much of this section, and we probably lost some time here bushwacking through the woods, as a few teams caught up to us around CP5.  Once we got to a marked road, we picked up the pace and ran it in to the canoes, where we quickly transitioned to the boats, now in 2nd place.  It was a welcome sight to see Jason’s fiancé Lea-Ann here at this transition area and throughout the course cheering us on and taking pictures of the team.  More of her pictures from this race can be viewed on this website HERE.

        The paddle was about 20 miles downstream on the James River.  Although the water was low, there were still some fun sections of class 1 and 2 rapids.  About halfway through the paddle we pulled up on shore with the canoes and took a quick swim in the river to cool us down.  Although the forecast for the day was over 100 degrees, it was luckily overcast and we did our best to stay hydrated. 

        It was just starting to thunder and lightning as we pulled up to the boat take out at CP7.  We transitioned quickly as it started to rain and we ran the 5k up to CP8/22 to start the long orienteering section.  This section was the highlight of the course for us, as it featured 13 remote orienteering points that could be obtained in any order on foot and required advanced navigation skills (see map below). 

We chose to attack the points in a general counter-clockwise direction (21, 17, 15, 14, 11, 19, 10, 9, 20, 16, 12, 18, 13, 22), and our only hiccup was going one ridge past 21 on the first point.  After that we ran right to the other points, which were all placed accurately and took us through some amazing terrain.  Anna kept great track of both the pace count and the elevation so we knew right where we were throughout this section, and she helped keep my navigating on track.  Jason was really starting to feel the effects of the 100+ degree heat during this long foot section, and JJ really lent a hand by carrying most of the gear that Jason had in his backpack.  JJ’s pack must have been 4 times heavier than the rest of ours!  Some highlights of this section were CP10, which was under a land bridge formed by large rocks near the river, and CP9, which was located just inside a huge cave.  It felt about 30 degrees cooler in the cave and there was mist steaming out of the entrance!  We managed to get to CP20 before we needed to put our Light and Motion headlamps on to light the way.  Around CP16 Jason noticed something on the ridge, and as we went to check it out, it was a graveyard with tombstones dating back to the 1800’s.  It was honestly kind of spooky to come across this in the middle of nowhere in the dark...  later we heard some strange noises, and JJ suggested it was coming from the graveyard :)  CP16 to CP12 was a good navigational challenge, so we took our time here to make sure we nailed it on the first attempt.  This was a top-notch adventure racing orienteering section that required you to keep track of your pace count, be mindful of the elevation (we use an altimeter watch), and have a keen ability to read and interpret contours (in two interval sets: 20ft on the south half and 40ft on the north half).  We worked well as a team and when we exited this section, we were told that we were the first team to clear it and were now in first place.  We found out later that we were the only team to get all the CPs on this section.

        From there, we hopped back on our bikes, which they had transported there for us, and rode about 40k back to the pavilion where we started, getting an optional CP along the way.  By the time we got back it was around 2:30am and we had one final foot orienteering section with 6 CPs.  This section was deceptively hard, as we had both a trail map and a topo map, but not much similarity between the two to cross-reference.  Some of the points were on trails, while others were off any marked trail, on contour features.  What also made for quite a challenge was that one trail marked on the map (green) was not actually out there anymore, as was later confirmed by Ronny, the race director.  We spent much more time on this section than we would have liked to, including my sitting on the ground in agony for a couple minutes waiting for the burn to fade from a patch of stinging nettles I had walked through, but did end up getting all the CPs and being the only team to clear the course in a total time of 26 hour and 26 minutes.  It is our second out-of-state win of season, and we’re now getting excited for Nationals in October.

        We would like to thank Odyssey Adventure Racing and all of the volunteers for putting on an excellent race.  We will definitely be back in the future to do more Odyssey events.  We would also like to thank our sponsors, including Light and Motion, Numa Sport Optics, Intrepid Map Board, Power Grips, and Treasure Coast Cycle Werks.  You can find out more about these companies and there products on our SPONSOR page.

        We would also like to let you know that Green Paw Adventure Sports is putting on a 13-18 hour adventure-length nighttime adventure race in South Florida on October 8th that will be part of the Checkpoint Tracker Series.  The Green Paw Growl race is 2 weeks before CPT Nationals, and is one of your last chances to earn series points before the North American Championship.

        Lastly, thanks as always to my teammates.  I’m so lucky to get to spend days at a time in the woods with my wife and two of my best friends.  Can’t wait for the next one!

See you outdoors! - Tim