A DNF is never satisfying, but the DNF that ended our Odyssey One Day race this past weekend doesn't feel as terrible as it sounds. We had a lot of fun, saw some beautiful wilderness, and got a great work out. We raced for 22 hours or so and can now chuckle at the navigation mistakes, the nutrition issues, the blisters, and all the lessons that come from a race like this.
We did well for the first third of the race, racing around 6th place and our 4 racers in 2-person canoes even out-paddled a team in kayaks! We knew the trekking leg would be the crux of the race and it proved to be our downfall. I still don't know how we got so mixed up on the way to the 2nd optional trekking point, but it shook my confidence and I started questioning my every nav decision from that point on. We determined way too late that pace counting was the only reliable tactic for sorting out the web of trails (some mapped, many unmapped). Teammates had developed some nasty blisters that made running impossible, so recovering a strong finish on the full pro course seemed unlikely even though we got the o-points necessary to qualify; our focus became just finishing the race.
To finish, however, would require fuel and part of the team was having trouble eating without getting sick. We had sufficient water, and we could always purify more water, but we ran out of food that they could eat. We were approaching a long bike leg that wouldn't offer any bail out points if the situation got worse, and it was mostly hike-a-bike so I estimated we had several hours still to race. Tim spoke up, as the voice of reason, before we got too far on the hike-a-bike section, "We're digging a deep hole here," he observed.
It's never an easy decision, but we returned to a manned checkpiont from earlier in the race and waited for the cavalry to pick us up.
Everyone is OK and we had some pizza and laughs hours later, so no permanent damage done; I did have my doubts when Eric had to pull the car over to vomit on the drive back to race HQ -- I knew it was bad when, instead of saying something funny like, "a DNF makes me physically ill," Eric struggled back in the car and mumbled, "keep driving, get to the doctor at HQ". Eric is fine, I'm glad to report, and had we remembered more eletroyltes or Heed for the long leg of the race he might have been perfectly fine.
It was a very fun weekend and good to see some of our friends again -- this time I could actually race along side them! Thanks to Mario for being our great support crew and saving us around noon on Sunday morning! I'm glad I have only a couple weeks until
I can race again . . .