Someone talked to someone, someone else said something about having a cold beer in the fridge for them, someone else had some frequent flyer miles, and someone knew where to meet in Washington, DC. So, that took care of the first part. After that, it was up to Google and friends, to provide a race in the vicinity. It only took three clicks to end up on the EX2 adventure webpage, and to find out about the VENTURE QUEST.
VENTURE QUEST - maybe the ultimate in adventure racing - at least for the novices that we were. Having completed this adventure race one no longer feels like novices though. We could sit here and write about the mandatory equipment (compas, headlight, map case, space blanket, nutrition gear, "food"), and we could also talk about the map and its nine checkpoints + the five colored unmanned checkpoints, but maybe we should start at the beginning?
Meeting at the white house was actually a pretty cool idea. One for the prestige of the location, and also for the ease of finding each other thanks to cell phones and lots of open space: "I'm over here in the middle of the lawn - do you see me waving my arms?"
No time was wasted to get to the compulsory (look it up! it means mandatory) pre-race meeting at 5:00 pm at the respective race location. Once we were thoroughly confused what else would we decide on but to get on our bikes and check out the mountain bike trail. Once we were deep into it we faintly realize that we are still wearing street shoes and had left the helmets at the car. Only the feet slipping of the peddles now and then slowed us down though...what a beautiful place it was then. Up and down single trail. Roots and rocks and lake and water and creek and literally endless up and down - pretty damn good.
Now that we had worked up an appetite, where to find a T-Bone Steak? Leave it up to the GPS (>>Find Restaurants near current location) to point us to three different locations which did lead us to success eventually: The Polo Grill Restaurant and Tap Room in Lorton, VA. Good food and good service at a fair price topped us of nicely for the day....back to the Hotel to get some sleep before the 6:00 am wake-up call.
Once we get there in the morning the air is already filled with the wonderful pre-race ambiance. People hustling around getting gear and body ready for the race. Maps are handed out and one starts wondering if North is North and whether we are going to P2 or P3 as part of the Prologue??? At 8:00 am sharp the clock starts running and we are off to a nice little jog along the road and into the woods. Peep! The electronic key is entered into the first of many checkpoints and we are off to get back to where we left the gear and the bicycles. No time is wasted to get on the bikes and start blasting down the mountain bike trial. My dad notices to his surprise that the brakes are working even less than the day before - but what the hell. It's a race - no braking allowed during a race anyway....We complete the first 8 miles on the bike quite nicely, having passed a boat load of people. Very few bikes had returned as we were leaving to start trail chasing up to the marina. Three colored checkpoints had to be found, along with two regular checkpoints, and one challenge area.
At this point it still made sense to be running, so we didn't waste too much time thinking about it. Everything went pretty well. We found all three colored checkpoints without much delay. The challenge consisted of pulling yourself on a tube along a line across a narrow section of the river - not bad. Pablo made a big splash as he threw himself onto the tube. Once we got to the end we picked up our canoe and started heading downstream. We couldn't have asked for better weather. 80 degrees Fahrenheit and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect! Constant paddling, the only challenge being how many strokes my dad could get in before he needed to steer again - I think he said he made it up to 21 strokes one time before having to redirect the boat. Pretty awesome paddling for the first time Duo.
Then the bitch! After getting out of the boat we kept looking for the rocks or whatever that someone surely must have put into the boat...none were to be found...but it was quite treacherous to get that damn thing back to where we had to drop it off. And now, back on the bikes and on the trail again. Still in pretty good spirits - the donut my dad wanted to eat at the bike pick-up had been completely forgotten in all the excitement still going on.
We get to the point where we leave the bikes one last time to go and find two more colored checkpoints. The first one is found quite easily and then it is bolting down the hill to get to the last one. Well, where is it?
?
?
?
To make mattes worse, some five other people show up, that are even more clueless. One solo guy still wearing his helmet gets Pablo completely of the page when he starts talking about Pizza. Next thing my dad knows he has the map in his hands and Pablo is basically saying: "I think you better figure this one out"!!! ... Someone get me out of here!... By now, quite a few other racers have come and gone, but still no Red Checkpoint to be found. Leave it up to three guys who came up with "A theory". In their words the map is quickly dissected into coves, water, trails and twists and bends. A few last words of how loud we are going to scream or whistle if we should ever get to this last and lost Checkpoint and the "Theory Folk" prefer to trail along the shore line, while Dad and Pablo decide to finally take a more direct approach to the problem. As more and more landmarks from the map start jumping out in reality - one last and final beep is heard before one drags himself back to the bike again. One hour and six minutes to find this last checkpoint - the previously promising placement amongst the other racers has vanished and left them a bit disillusioned.
To make matters worse my dad has finally gotten to the end of his resources. Downhills are still taken at neck-breaking speeds, but uphills are taken slowly, and breaks are needed to catch one's breath and give the legs a rest. Even a: "Where did we loose the Raoul I know" didn't dig deep enough to find another one and last treasure of hidden resource. The power had been drained. But still enough mental power left to grin and smile and halt one last minute before blasting up to the finish line crowd. The clock now marks 7 hours 55 minutes!
It's over. Finished. Done. Kaputt! The first (and hopefully not last) Adventure Race was complete.
Once we had refreshed ourselves a little bit and endured the awards ceremony, the words that we had spoken so often during the race came out loud and rang true again: "No ha sido una Mariconada, tio". No, it definitely had not been a lame joke at all! This adventure had been the real thing. What a find Google had provided once again. And how great had it been that my dad had to pick up Pablo in Washington to begin with! Things could not have turned out better. And what the hell, if we would have found that Red checkpoint right away - the story would have only been half as good!
All the details can be found here (Team Number 140):
http://www.ex2adventures.com/vq-results.php
Check you later, buddy!
