Florida Coast to Coast Adventure Race
Report from Team Lost in Florida
Gerrad Delatte / 29.05.2008
Our team consisted of Herbert Head, Channing Reeder (both from Kentucky), Ellen Kurland (from D.C), Chris Felix (from California), Scott Hayes and me - Gerrad Delatte (both from Louisiana). You might ask..... why from all over the country? Most of us met at the Odyssey Adventure Racing Academy last year and decided to come together for this race. Since none of us has done anything longer than a 24-30hr race, we felt the relay division was our ticket. Besides, it was easier to find racers than the support crew....so .....we acted as our own support crew in addition to racing. What a neat idea. We started strong on the beach run...the only one ahead of us was a solo racer. As I looked over my shoulder, the rest of the field was quite a ways back and I thought to myself...OK...we must be doing something wrong from the get go. We were on the water first and in the lead....only temporary. The other teams caught us and blew by. The biking section was uneventful except the fact we entered TA3 from the forest instead of the highway....not sure what happened....something about Christmas. We re-fueled and started the trek section. The storm blew in and really caused some issues with finding the checkpoints. Heard a loud crashing noise and thought it might be a bear coming straight for us....but was only a falling tree / limb? Made it to the next TA and decided to sleep for a couple of hours. Another bike section was next but a third way through it we were re-routed to another T/A. We were now on a shortened course with most of the other teams. On to another biking section. Locating MP4 was an adventure. I thought a jeep trail would take us there but we decided to take a bike trail. It was hard to judge distance with the switchbacks and I knew we went too far due to our backstop...the powerline. We met up with team Humdinger at this point.We gathered some re-con and made it to MP-4 with the whole gang waiting for us. Dennis gave us good news about the orienteering section section being deleted and had cold water, gatorade, and watermelon for us. Somone asked me what was the favorite CP or MP so for......I said....of course...this one. We continued on.The one thing I will remember is the looooong road next to the 4-wheeler trails that beat me up. I have a hardtail bike and the ripples or washboard terrain made my bike act as a pogo-stick. My teammates on the suspension bikes were in heaven compared to me. Enough of the complaining. We made it to the T/A via paved roads in lieu of the "bug paradise" trail. It was Saturday night and we all new we had 2 paddles, trek, and bike sections left. Time was not on our side. We knew we had to skip a section....but which one? We decided to "sleep on it"...and sleep we did...... I think for most of the night. Woke up Sunday morning with the news that the last paddle section was eliminated. See All Event Posts
