Mad Dash Splash (Part 3) (We got Ice Cream)

Cortny lead us through the Metro trek with relative ease. We saw a couple other teams on this short section but due to our deciding to swim a previous section (being two check points behind) and one of the questions we had to answer along our metro trek, in what year was the Chocolate Shoppe established? A couple of teams managed to pass us during this section. Two of them while we were standing in line waiting for our ice cream. Now let me take a moment and say; normally we would not be stopping for ice cream in a 10-12 hour race, but considering how our day had gone thus far I may have possibly quit right there if we didn’t. It made the rest of that section breeze by and to be honest the rest of the race as well.

After our metro trek we were given our mystery event, this being a Sudoku puzzle. Now personally I’ve never done one of these puzzles and if I’m correct neither had Chad or Cortny. Again Cortny dove right in (like my swimming reference?) and was making short work of the puzzle, with minor assistance from Chad and myself thrown in here and there. I think it was the high from the ice cream if you ask me. Once complete, we hit the bikes again for a course around Lake Monona.
At our next check point we handed over our puzzle and Cortny had been spot on…again I’d like the thank Cortny for completing most of that puzzle (it was the ice cream). We raced back to where we had started, managing to finish ahead of two other teams (not officially because we weren’t really suppose to swim that one little section or drown our passport book).
After the finish, we had a great meal…I believe it was ice cream and something else (I could be wrong here, but its what I remember) anyway it was really good. I think we’d all say that it was sure an adventure and not at all the one we had in mind. We will be back next year (should we buy wet suits before then?). And I must say I have a six-pack waiting for two fishermen from Madison if I ever manage to see them again under drier circumstances.

Mad Dash Splash (Part 2)

I'll take the story over from here from Cortny...

Cortny on the floor and me on my knees definately made paddling better. Oddly, the only pictures we have so far were taken on the calmest part of the lakes (a bay), and make it look like an easy paddle. I wish we had some pictures of the white water splashing up into Code's face in Lake Monona...and then puddling in the back of the canoe under my weight.

If you look at the picture though, you can see I am on my knees, and I still make that canoe look small....and the oars short. That was our biggest problem.

We were eventually told that some teams refused to do the second part of the paddling, and they portaged the canoe instead for almost a mile.

Anyway, out of the canoes we went and on to bikes. The fun really began. We started passing teams now, and that was cool. It really gets you energized to pass teams. I think we had a bout 20 miles of biking done when we came to the Orienteering section....and we had put about 4 teams behind us on the way to it.

The O-course was great. It seemed to have control points for every level. CP's 1 and 2 were as easy as it could get, yet some (like 8) were a search. Still, we rocked the course and put another couple teams behind us in the process. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to complete it.

The next bike section was good, but I could tell this was where the "Natives" to Madison would be outshining us. We were still stopping to check maps, but the next 2-3 CP's were in well-known Madison locations. It was difficult to keep up and still navigate. The "Natives" knew where they were going.

Additionally, I had mis-plotted a CP and took us 4 blocks out of way. Luckily the passport with the coordinates was still readable for us to fix my mistake (This would not be true later. Our "passport" was mostly trashed.)

We then arrived at the "Metro-Trek" section of the race, on the U of W campus, right on the shore of Lake Mendota.

I'll leave the rest of the story for Code to tell...

Mad Dash Pictures!

Mad Dash Splash!

Well, despite my reservations, we survived the Madison Mad Dash. Let's just say it's been a long, lazy winter, but we began training again early this spring and it paid off. We finished the Mad Dash, our first race of the season, in eleven hours. It was a twelve hour cutoff, and the best team finished in about 6 1/2 hours. Obviously, we knew that was out of the question for us, but we aimed to finish. And finish we did, despite all the odds.

Team check-in - 4:45 to 5:30 AM. Start time - 6:00AM.
We arrived at Olin Park, along the shores of Lake Monona, around 5:00 to a chilly temperature of about 45 degrees. Thankfully, we had all dressed in layers and knew that it was supposed to eventually warm up to about 70 sometime during the race, but at 5:00 in the morning, 45 is pretty cold. Anyway, after team unpacking and double-checking of gear, start time was upon us. Shortly before 6:00, all 23 teams huddled around Leo for last minute rules and instructions to suddenly be given the starting gun, and everyone ran off in different directions. Since it was a three person, co-ed race, there were three marked points around the start with a different map at each point. Each team member was to run to one of these locations to retrieve a map and regather at the starting line. Chad ran the shortest distance to retrieve our large, topo map of the Madison area, Code ran the farthest (thanks again Code!) to retrieve our more detailed map of the city with all of the bikeways mapped out (this proved a necessity, seeing how Madison has over 100 miles of bike paths), and I ran a short sprint to retrieve our passport down by the lakeshore. Our passport had our UTM coordinates for all of the checkpoints, so once I got back to Chad, we started plotting the points on the topo map he had. After Code returned from his 2-3 mile run to the bike map, we were pretty much on our way. Unfortunately, we were at the back of the pack at this time - second to last!

From the start, we had a three mile run/hike with all of our paddling gear to CP 1, where we were to retrieve our canoe. We reached the CP at the same time as the final team, but we got off into the water first and headed out onto Lake Wingra in what I still believe was the wobbliest canoe on the face of the Earth. Lake Wingra is a fairly small lake, and we could see the path that the teams ahead of us were taking to CP 2 and then CP 3 around the lake. It was a pretty windy day, though, and the only direction we could seem to paddle in was to the dead center of the lake. One of the optional gear items was a third seat for the canoe, so we brought along our trusy stool that works great as a third seat. About 1 1/2 minutes into our paddle, though, I think we all realized what a bad idea this was. The height I was sitting at in the canoe totally threw off our balance, and Chad's 6'4" height in the back was only making matters worse. Our canoe was a freaking weeble-wobble. After about 5 minutes of sea sickness, Chad says, "Cort, I think you might want to get off your seat and just kneel on the floor." I reply, "No, I'm fine!" but in reality, I'm thinking, "Yeah, that might be a good idea." Thirty seconds later, Chad readjusts in the back, which sends me off kilter on my stool, and the next thing I remember thinking is "Oh my God! We are NOT going in the lake!!!" SPLASH! After a Wisconsin spring thaw, the temperature of lake water is slightly above freezing. We hit the water, and instantly none of us could talk. Our teeth were chattering, we were freaking out, and our canoe was sinking. We had finally put the adventure into our adventure racing. The final team was right behind us, and when they reached us they were totally friendly. They asked if we wanted them to call for help, but our stubborn heads say "No, we should be OK." STUPID! After attempting to swim a good 100-200 yards with a sinking canoe, two fisherman came and rescued us. They tied our canoe to their boat and towed us in. All I remember of this is Code laughing hysterically. I swear, he's got one sick sense of humor. After getting back to shore and becoming nearly hypotermic, two race volunteers generously offered us a towel and dry shirts. Thanks again! That's the only thing that got me back into that boat. After about ten miserable minutes on land (temperature about 50 degrees) and me thinking that my teammates were NEVER getting me back into the boat from hell, we were paddling to CP 4. I have to say, though, without our third seat, which is now sitting at the bottom of Lake Wingra, we had much better balance, and the rest of the paddling section was a piece of cake.