Gilmore Adventure Race, Prescott, Arizona, September 17, 2005

As soon as we started unloading our gear we were greeted by an energetic team of Army ROTC Cadets from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University who offered to help unload gear.  They cheerfully carried the Big Red Rabbit (Jim’s canoe) to the TA and back to the truck after the race.  Gerry sends a big “Airborne” to the cadets for helping us and all the racers with the heavy gear.

 

The Gilmore ‘05 race represented Team Ruination’s one year anniversary.  Gilmore ‘04 was our first adventure race.  With Gilmore ‘05 we began our second year of racing, and we donned our very sexy Ruination IPA gargoyle racing jerseys for the first time ever.

 

At the pre-race briefing, the Race Director, Dave Sewell, told everyone that there were 37 teams in the race.  This was a great turnout for what was clearly going to be an excellent and challenging race.  The best teams in Arizona were there to see what Dave had up his sleeve for ‘05.  Even Adventure Racing Concepts was there, but only to watch, cheer everyone, and support AR in Arizona.  Darn.  We’re always looking for an opportunity to try and beat them. 

 

After the pre-race briefing, the navigators were invited into the map Ramada to transcribe Check Point (CP) data from a master source.  Jane  went to gather the CP information for Ruination.  She returned to the Ruination TA armed with map and data, and briefed Jim and Gerry.  The order of march was to be trail run, paddle, trek, and bike.  Somewhere along the way would be four special tasks designed to frustrate us and a “sizable rappel.” 

Race Director, Dave Sewell, starts the race.

The first leg of the race was the trail run along the edge of the lake out to a single CP and back to the TA..  Teams were to pick up the punch card needed for verifying CPs at the trail run CP.  The race began precisely at 8:00 AM with a stampeding herd of racers, thrashing elbows and arms everywhere as they fought for advantage heading to CP1.  The fast teams quickly moved to the front and put some comfortable distance between themselves and the stampede. 

 

Ruination’s goal was to stay far enough forward to keep the sprinters in sight.  To do this, Jane towed Jim for the first half of the run (out to CP1) while Gerry huffed and puffed along behind.  She towed/dragged Gerry on the return trip back to the TA.  About 200 yards from the TA, Gerry managed to trip over his own shoelace and nose dive onto the rocky footpath.  With a little hoist from Jim, Gerry was up and moving almost as quickly as he went down.  If you ever wonder why Gerry wears bike gloves for the entire race – they are landing gear.

Upon returning to the TA the team grabbed the Rabbit, and headed for the lake.  Once on the water Jim asked Gerry to give a heading for CP2 (the first CP on the lake).  Gerry puzzled desperately over the map and finally announced that there was no CP2 on the map.  This was not good.  Jim thought that there should be a CP2.  For lack of a better idea the team headed for CP2a.  After punching the card at CP2a, we headed back out into the fray.  By now teams were heading in all directions, all over the lake.  Jim felt something was wrong – there had to be a CP2 on the map.  While he and Jane double checked the map, Gerry asked if perhaps there was no CP2.  Jim checked the punch card and confirmed that there was a CP2, and that we were supposed to plot the location for CP2, and (worse yet) we were to go to CP2 before any other water CPs.  We drifted silently in the water while Jim plotted the location of CP2.  Jane confirmed the plot and the Rabbit was moving once again.  By now, many boats were converging on the narrow cove hiding CP2.  It looked like the battle of Trafalgar in miniature.  The nose of the Rabbit clipped the tail end of Butch Nelson’s kayak and spun him sideways, like a take-out in one of those police car chase videos.  He hit another boat and both were stopped, bogged down in the water weeds growing thick in the cove.  We rammed Butch again later on in the paddle, both times were accidental -- really they were.   Anyway, after punching CP2, Ruination took off to punch the other five water CPs with a return trip to do a second punch at CP2a.  Rick Eastman and Sierra Adventure Sports, in their good ship the Titanic, were dogging us all around that lake.  Try as we did, we couldn’t shake them, which added to the frustration of already losing time earlier in the paddle.  Finally, after a long, frustrating paddle we were back on dry land dragging the Rabbit up the hill to the TA where the first of four dreadful special tasks waited to torment us.

 

The task master explained that we had to take three metal washers about three inches in diameter and toss them about 15 feet into a box with a tiny hole that couldn’t be more than 3.5 inches in diameter.  We were taking turns tossing those washers everywhere but near that little hole.  After many tries taking turns, it was obvious that Jim was hitting closest to the hole, so he became chief washer-tosser for team Ruination.  Jane and Gerry took turns retrieving the washers after each

   The Rabbit takes to the water.

Ruination at the frustrating washer toss

throw.  One!  Finally, he got one in the hole!  Now Rick and his SAS crew were at the other end of the washer-toss event and his team mate Carter started dropping washers in the hole like it’s something he did all the time.  Frustration, frustration.  In very short order, Rick and the SAS crew were off to the trek (ahead of Ruination – this was serious).  Jane and Gerry were wearing themselves out chasing washers.  Then, suddenly, two at a time – Jim sank them – nothing but net!  Ruination was off to chase SAS and whoever else might be out there.  At this point we could only guess who might be ahead of us – all of the Monster Energy people for sure, probably Josh and Jack from Ascent AR, and SAS because we saw them leave the washer toss.

 

Once in trek mode, Ruination quickly overtook SAS and knocked off the first two trek CPs. We arrived at the third trek CP in time to watch Butch descending the 130 foot rappel.  The firefighters running the rappel safety checked our gear and sent us scrambling up the rocks to the top of the rappel.  At the top, Jim asked Gerry if he had remembered to take his heart pills – this drew a startled look from one of the overseers (We get to have some fun too you know).

 

After the rappel we trotted off to find the final trek CP.  It proved to be the most challenging part of the trek.  We let the scale of the map get the better of us and were scouring the rocks to the east of the actual location.  At one point Gerry stood on the rocks just above the CP and turned back the other direction.  We ended up retreating back to a known location and starting from there.  A fresh course plot took us right to the CP just in time to join a line of teams punching their cards at the CP.  Once punched, we took off behind/after the other teams.  They appeared to be returning to the TA by the same route they took to get to the CP.  Jim diverted us down a drainage overgrown with thick brush, scrambled over some rocks, and popped us out near the first trek CP where we jumped on the trail and ran back to the TA before most of the small group who had been ahead of us. 

The first bike CP (CP4) was a culvert which funneled all teams safely under a road.  It was manned by volunteers, so we asked them how many teams had been through.  When they told us seven teams had been through we knew we were behind a serious power curve.  From CP4 we were directed to follow an off-trail route marked with colored flagging to a dirt road where the volunteer told us we could choose to go any direction.  At the dirt road we went left, followed the road around a big curve, scooted by a ball park, pushed/rode up a drainage to another culvert, and under yet another highway. This was CP5.  From there it was a quick dash to CP6 and the third special task – the bike joust. 

 

Each of us had to ride our bike while holding a long plastic jousting lance thing and spear a small plastic ring suspended in the air from a stand.  Once the ring had been secured on the lance we had to turn the bike in the slippery, narrow, gravel drive and ride back to the start.  Jane went first and promptly skewered the little ring, but fell off her bike trying to turn around.  Her second try was successful.  Gerry followed with his turn at the joust successfully securing the little ring.  Jim missed the ring on his first try, but got it the second time around.  

 

With the joust in the books, we checked the map and Captain Jim decided that we would gather the remaining CPs in a more or less counter clockwise manner.  We took off heading north and heard one of the volunteers call out with some concern in his voice, “Hey, where are you guys going?”  We knew, at that moment, that the other teams all elected to chase the CPs in a clockwise manner. 

 

CP6d was the northeast corner of the bike leg and our first target.  We got lucky and found it without too much trouble.  The next target, CP6b, represented the northwest corner and was easy to locate, however it required some difficult riding to reach.  On the way, we passed Dave, Windy and Vicky of Team Monster Energy riding hard coming from the other direction (clockwise).  Actually, Team Monster Energy passed us riding hard coming up the hill from the other direction.  Technically, we weren’t exactly riding at the time. 

 

From CP6b we headed south to punch in at CP6c.  Unfortunately, Gerry mistakenly sent the team heading west down the wrong side of the highway.  By the time we noticed the error, regrouped, and got back in motion we lost probably another 30 minutes.  We pushed hard and reached CP6c quickly once we got on the correct side of the highway.  CP6c was the home of the easiest special task on the range – cow roping.  Each team member had to lasso a simulated cow, bull, whatever.  After a few test tosses, Jim showed his incompetence at roping and Jane took over.  She showed remarkable form in the art of simulated cow roping.  Jim and Gerry then followed suit, using Jane’s unique roping approach.  The nice volunteers at CP6c gave us water and sent us on our merry way. 

 

Based on the map, our next stop, CP6f was about  3/10ths of a mile south of us and 200 feet below us in a drainage.  We headed back down the road about a tenth of a mile to a fence line coming up the hillside.  We could see a steep trail paralleling the fence line.  As we descended, we met two or three teams  pushing their bikes up the trail toward us.  We shared the location of CP6c with them and they shared a description of CP6f with us.  CP6f was the southwest corner of the bike leg.  After punching 6f, we turned east to hit the last three CPs on the route back to the TA.  Having chosen to go counter clockwise, we were now meeting a lot of teams coming from the other direction.  We were sharing CP locations/directions with some teams as we met them.   This noble calling chews time off the clock, but that’s adventure racing, besides, we get our share of help too. 

 

After nabbing CP6a, CP6e marked the final CP in the “6” series.  We punched our card at 6e and were barreling downhill along some narrow single track twisting through a brushy forest of shrubs and small trees.  Gerry was leading the descent standing on his tiptoes so as to better see down trail – keeping watch for riders coming up the trail.  He rounded a large bush and right in front of him were two riders.  He slammed on his brakes.  All Jim and Jane could see was his rear wheel cycling through the air above the intervening shrubs – never a good sign.  When they arrived they found Gerry on the ground right in front of the other two riders.  Fortunately, he landed on his head and the bike landed on top of him so both were unharmed.  After apologies and assurances that everyone was okay, we were back on the trail headed for the culvert at CP7 in preparation for the final dash to the finish line.

 

At CP7 the volunteer advised us that only three teams had punched through ahead of Ruination and one of them was only minutes ahead.  Only minutes ahead – the race/chase was on.  On the other side of the culvert we met more teams starting out on the bike leg.  These mostly appeared to be scout teams.  Again, we stopped to answer questions for those who asked.  Jim and Gerry stopped to talk to a group of three female riders (at this point Jane was a short distance behind around the bend in the road).  After giving them some route finding guidance, Jim proceeded on up the road.  Gerry did not notice that Jane passed them by while he and Jim were talking to the scouts so he waited and continued answering questions.  Finally, he rhetorically questioned, “What’s keeping Jane?”  One of the female riders advised, “She rode by a minute ago.”  Now, Gerry was rushing to catch Jim and Jane.  With all three members once again moving in the correct direction, Ruination pressed on toward the finish.  The off-trail section, previously marked with flagging, was now an easy-to-ride trail.

Riding through the last culvert at what was CP4 on the way out, Gerry wondered if the team had done four special tasks.  Jim and Jane confirmed that all four special tasks were completed.  We sighed a collective sigh of relief.  With all four special tasks completed the dreaded ten-foot wall from ‘04 surely would not be part of this race.  As we arrived at the TA we were directed to the south end of the TA; then someone told us to drop our bikes in the TA and run around the TA to the finish line.  As we rounded the corner of the TA, there it was – the wall.  It was back.  Groan. 

 

At the wall we quickly boosted Jane over and then tossed our packs to her.  Jane tossed an end of the rope back over from her side.  Jim boosted Gerry up the wall while he used the rope to pull himself up to the edge.  Once on top of the wall, Gerry gave a hand down to Jim to assist him as he pulled himself up with the rope.  As we were clearing the wall, team Anodyne Therapy started its first person over the wall.  We spent so much of the day meeting teams coming from the other direction that we almost forgot there were teams hot on our heels behind us.  We grabbed our packs and ran to the finish line.  We were the fourth team

to cross the line.  Later we learned that the team that crossed minutes ahead of us had to absorb a time penalty which moved us to second place in the coed division and third place overall. 

 

It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun, but in the case of Gilmore ‘05 it certainly was fun.  We ran hard, paddled hard, rode hard and had a wonderful, wonderful time doing it.

 

We hope to see everyone in October at Desert Rage III.