On my way in to Zurich this morning I started thinking of the whirl-wind I've been on this summer. I haven't given just due to the
Untamed Virginia Adventure Race we ran back in June; in fact, the website still shows the race in progress content . . . one more thing for me to work on when I find the time. By "just due" I mean reflecting on the stories from Untamed Virginia, and there were many great ones.
Possibly the most stirring memory for me will be the duo Crash and Splash at the transition area before the final trekking leg. The sun was peaking through the trees and scattering away the early morning mist, but there was still a chill in the air. From this point, teams had about a 10 mile trekking loop and then a 20 mile bike ride and then they were done; the end was nearly in sight! Instead of brimming with excitement, Crash and Splash, the two-person male team who I had gotten to know through our races and some training over the last year, were hanging by a thread. You see, they had been racing very well and had extremely high expectations of themselves, but the race had started to get the better of them. This was the longest race they had ever done and it showed. To complicate matters, Crash and Splash had volunteered to have
Marshall Ulrich embed with them for the second half of the race; since 6 PM the previous day, Marshall had accompanied these guys while they biked, trekked, and orienteered around the central Virginia piedmont.
Marshall is easy going and very friendly, but having an endurance sport legend like Marshall looking over your shoulder can't be easy. When I saw Crash and Splash, along with Marshall, at checkpoints prior to then they were always in good spirits. That's why we were so surprised by the looks on the guys' faces when they came back from the trekking loop. Their time seemed really quick for the loop -- they had only been gone for two hours or so -- they were blowing the trekking leg away! I think the converse, however, was more true:
the trekking leg was blowing them away. I think Crash and Splash headed out on this leg in 8th or 10th place out of 40+ teams, maybe even better, but by their facial expressions I knew something wasn't right.
I approached the guys with a smile and said something like, "Way to go guys, can I see your race passport?" I thought I had to verify their punches for the trekking leg before clearing them for the final bike leg. Crash (or was it Splash?) just shook his head. I looked at Splash (or was it Crash) and he took a deep breath and struggled to make eye contact with me. Now, I know these guys. I consider these guys my friends, and I love having friends on my race courses because that's the best of both worlds: your buddies get to enjoy your race creation. It's why I started organizing races in the first place! But these guys were struggling to even speak to me, visibly sagging around the fire at the transition area.
"What's up guys?" I asked, concerned, curious, and a bit sleep-deprived. Crash (or was it Splash?) held up the map and said:
"This map . . . the roads in there and trails . . . nothing is right. We can't find anything. We spent hours roaming through this area of the map -- no, wait, it might have been over here -- but I just can't make sense of it. We only got one of the four trekking checkpoints."
My first reaction was relief that nobody was physically injured. After that, however, I recognized the signs. The race for Crash and Splash was circling the drain -- that is, they were prepared to throw in the towel right then and there. Splash (or was it Crash?) held out their race passport in defeat and I just looked at it. I said something like, "Hey, I know it's hard in there. Dense veg, nearly all bushwhacking, and the maps show terrain but not really much more." A side note: this is the sort of trekking leg I
love and labour to include in any race I'm involved with: a
bushwhacking bravado buster. Now, Crash and Splash didn't need to hear that at the time; they didn't need to hear how many hours were invested in designing this trekking leg to be really
really tough. Instead, I encouraged them to go put their feet up and catch their breath before calling an end to their race. They were, after all, still on the full pro course and racing around 12th place at the time. They had hours and hours until the next course cut-off. They were still doing great, but their expecations were so high that they were disappointed with themselves.
As if on cue, Marshall Ulrich said something wise like "let's take these packs off and think it over. 30 minutes will make a big difference on our outlook. Let's just head over to our support vehicle and stay in the race while we recuperate." Marshall, a competitor in every eco-challenge and ultra-running phenom, was intent on helping these two guys -- total strangers until the day before -- stick it out and finish the race.
Crash and Splash silently nodded and shuffled behind Marshall as he found their support crew and car. I lost track of those guys while they rested, and I don't recall exactly when they headed back out on that trekking leg but
they did return to the trekking leg. And they finished that trekking leg. And they finished the full pro course of the Untamed Virginia adventure race. They went from the lowest of lows . . . nearly withdrawing from the race . . . to the finish line and 16th place overall.
Those 5 minutes with Crash and Splash around the transition area camp fire, with their hollow expressions and them on the brink of ending their race, stays with me. Maybe it was my lack of sleep . . . or the fact that these were two of my friends struggling on a course of my creation . . . or just their downtrodden condition . . . but Defeat was looming large at that campfire and those guys put Defeat behind them. It wasn't pretty or graceful, but the good stuff in life isn't always packaged for Hollywood. But this was good stuff. I'm proud to have witnessed it, to have played a very minor part in it, and am a better person because of it.
Everyone has their moments confronting Defeat, and I have many of my own strategies for avoiding it, but now I have the Tale of Crash and Splash to add to my arsenal for when I find myself circling the drain. If I remember nothing else from Untamed Va 07, it will be that sunrise conversation with Crash and Splash and Marshall.