Rev3 – Wyoming Cowboy Tough 4 day Expedition stage race – Pre-Race Meeting…..

 

“If any team can get every optional point and finish this race, well… I don’t think it can be done,” said the race organizers. Really….

 

Team Tecnu – we all look at each other knowing that the gauntlet had been thrown.  Wyoming Cowboy Tough was going to be unique, not in the sense of adventure - - there would still be long hours of running, biking, paddling, navigation, sweating, teamwork and adventure – BUT with a TWIST.  

 

Here’s how it goes – 

 

Confused?  We were a little as well.  But the one thing we knew was if we just got all the points things would be much simplified.

 

DAY 1 – 

A 5 a.m., 3 hour bus ride to the starting line.  The first 4 points were to be collected on foot and all were optional and placed throughout the park among tall grass, rocks, hills, trees and plenty of cactus.  The Governor of Wyoming shot the start gun from atop horseback, and teams are off  for four days of adventure. From the start teams went in all directions because there was no specified order to collecting the points.  

 

Next up we grabbed bikes for the next five optional points also collected in any order.  It seemed like we were the first team to the bikes, but with all these points being optional there were teams and bikes everywhere.  We knew that DART-Nuun, Yoga Slackers and the REV3 teams would all be fast.

 

We got through the bikes with only a small explosion,  Garret’s tire blew right off the rim.  The tubeless sealant was everywhere and a temporary let down for the team till we pulled together to add a tube.  At that point Bob wasn’t sure we’d taken the best route, it might have been a little longer on the single track but at least we were riding our bikes.  We passed a number of teams hiking their bikes up the trail we were now riding down.  Less hiking, save energy, it would pay off later.  

 

We finished the optional points and headed out onto what seemed like it would be the “real” course with much great distance between points.  Some crazy, rocky and technical single-track welcomed us.  We quickly gapped the teams who were ahead of us and we all powered through the technical parts riding when many teams were walking.  Until Garret managed a nice endo – face-plant (caught on video!)  He was fine, dusted himself off and kept moving.  I was glad to see his face wasn’t bloody from the fall.  

 

We were making good progress, moving well as a team, eating, drinking and sweating in the 100+ degree dry heat at nearly 7,000 ft.  Then, the unthinkable --- Bob yells out.  We look at each other questioningly - - WTF?  Cramps. Bob’s legs are cramping whenever he puts power to the pedals.  Three hours into this 4 day race and Bob’s legs are cramping – uh oh, bad news.  We slow to a manageable pace for Bob, we make sure he’s got food, water, electrolytes – but he’s not getting better.  He continues on, being Cowboy Tough, gritting his teeth and hollering a swear word or two every now and then like he’s got Tourette’s.  Slowly we stop reacting and just let him work it out. 

 

We’re moving at a pretty easy pace when up ahead on the road we spot DART.  We fight the urge to push harder and catch them.  And then comes the afternoon monsoon – thunder, lightning and rain!  The rain is a great relief from the heat and we continue after DART towards Laramie, home of the University of Wyoming.  We stop quickly at a house to fill up our bottles with their hose and we’re greeted by a husband and wife who want to help us out.  They offer us food, water, shower, rest…we just take water for our bottles and continue on, from there we have a 100k road ride on our mountain bikes.

 

One more flat tire on the road as Kyle sees sealant leaking out of my rear tire, we can’t get it to seal and Kyle adds a tube quickly and the rain continues to pummel us.  The pavement made the kilometers move by quickly but the spray of water from each rear wheel made it tough to stay in a tight paceline.

 

At the end of 100k we caught the 2-man team Untamed New England  and found that DART was the only other team to have arrived.  From here there were 4 optional points to find.  DART was already out looking for them.  Four points and we can sleep, the faster we find these points the more we can sleep.  DART beat us in by around 20 minutes, but we were well ahead of the other teams.  Not sure exactly how much but we sure didn’t want to stay awake to find out.  We ate, drank, prepared for the a.m. and laid our sleeping bags in the dirt willing ourselves to relax and sleep before the 5:15 a.m. wake up call to ensure we were ready to leave at 6:00 a.m. for day 2.

 

DAY 2 – Starts with another bike ride.  All the top teams leave together and we jockey to hang in the pack and let the other teams do the work in the front of the peloton.  We survive the ride and head to the section I’ve been dreading the most - - a nearly 20k run on a straight gravel road – a test of mental torture.  The 2 man UTNE Team breaks away with a solid running pace.  We watch DART struggling to stay together.  Some team members running, some walking.  We fight the boredom by counting steps, keeping a run/walk/run/walk pace going and we gain valuable time on DART.  We shuffle onto the canoe leg knowing that an early arrival is going to keep us out of the headwinds.  DART is just a silhouette behind us and we continue to gain ground.  Now onto the longest optional section of the race.  Here’s where we feel the need to move quickly, navigate spot on and race for the End of the Day finish line.

 

First thing out of Bob’s mouth is a shortcut!  Sweet!  I love shortcuts! We jump back into the lake to cross a cove with a 200m swim instead of a 5k run.  TWO BIG BENEFITS: Cool our core temps and gain time.  Soon we catch UTNE and throughout this section we sometimes work together, sometimes separate and always end up back together - - UNTIL - - Garrett’s had enough… the heat is getting to him and soon we have a team stop to let him chill (and puke) and regroup.  What a trooper, 10 minutes max and he’s back on his feet and making forward progress.  

 

Bob is spot on with the navigation and we rarely take more than 10 steps in the wrong direction.  Our spare time is spent finding water since many of the creeks that we hoped had water were dry.  

 

The final checkpoint of the night and we’re home free.  If we can swim the river we’ll save 3k of running.  The river is cold and as Bob tests his footing in the middle of the river it’s rushing harder than we are comfortable walking across.  After two attempts we give into the run, our icy legs feeling much better after the natural ice bath.  

 

We arrive to the End of Day finish by 1:30 a.m. just 10 minutes behind UTNE.  DART and Yoga Slackers are nowhere in sight.  Ah another night of jubilant sleep (only interrupted by a small rain storm that sent us moving our sleeping spots to under the Race Semi-Truck in the middle of the night).

 

DAY 3 -  At 5:58 a.m. we are the only team waiting for the clock to strike 6:00 a.m. so we can head out for the final long day.  We ride our bikes out of the transition area as DART is just walking in…must have been a long night – no sleep for them.  

 

Fifteen minutes on the road and Kyle notices that Garrett has left his race jersey behind. After a short discussion of going back for it, we turn around rather than risk a penalty.  On our way back we pass the Yoga Slackers, UTNE and a couple of other teams who wonder where the heck we are going.  We grab the jersey and head back on the road.  Lots of road riding and some optional points ahead.  We catch the Yoga Slackers and UTNE.  Now a 50k road ride out and back to the optional “Hand Cart” section.  

 

We work together with UTNE and get to the carts together.  The carts are bigger than I imagined, life size wagon wheels, something that should be pulled by Oxen rather than adventure racers.  Two people to a cart.  Pull the carts to a parking area, leave them – find a few checkpoints, pick up the carts again and pull them to another parking area – find a few checkpoints.  Okay not so bad – but now we’ve got to get the “REAL FEEL” of pulling these carts just like the Mormons who pulled these carts 1700 miles as they travelled west.  So through the river, up the sand hill, over rocks.. .hard work in 100 degree heat.  We finished the 5 mile loop with the carts only to hop back on our bikes to return the same 50k to Lake Alcova.  One more task, 7 optional checkpoints and we’d be done with the bulk of the race (the final day had no optional checkpoints).  We were ahead of our best time estimates and actually found the first three checkpoints in daylight.  Not without a cold river swim that nearly swept us past the point we were aiming for.  

 

The final point – hmmm… swim across another 200m inlet of the lake or run 7k around.  Team Tecnu says SWIM!  We look across the inlet and the rocks on the other side look steep, we wonder if we can climb up and out of the water if we swim.  We ask a couple of families of campers how it looked in the daylight.  They are unsure if we can get up.  Oh well, we’re going for it.  The families look at us like we are crazy.  We put our packs in dry-bags, we jump in and swim… as we get closer it’s totally doable.  We climb up the rocks and shine our lights back at our friends still on the beach.  There are cheers when they realize that we made it across.  So just one more point and sleep, sleep, sleep!   Bob nails it.  We are sleeping by midnight!

 

Day 4 – Begins at 4 a.m.  Easy!  20k on the bikes…Team Tecnu leads the peloton.  40k on canoes downriver, the sun’s coming up and it’s a beautiful paddle.  Then time for the fun.  River-boarding in the Casper white-water park, it’s all fun now!  We hoot and holler from start to finish knowing there’s just a 2k run from the takeout to the finish.

 

The finish line is sweet – we captured the gauntlet.  We cleared the course and won the 4 person elite co-ed division by more than 6 hours. We Feel good about our effort, and about where the team is at this point in the season heading towards the World Championships in December.  We are starting to really click as a team, and are working well together as a unit. By the time the World Championships comes around, we feel good about our chances to give the podium a real shot.

 

We want to thank Epic paddles for helping us paddle fast. For Champion systems for making us look fast in our racing kits. For Headsweats for protecting us with their performance hats. For Darn tough for protecting our feet with their blister free socks, and Brooks for making killer Cascadia and Pure Grit shoes that help us travel fast and light. To Julbo USA for making killer Trail and Pipelines that protect our eyes, and Accel, Endurox R-4, and 2nd Surge gels for great nutrition and recovery fuel. To  AMK/SOL for making great adventure racing first aid kits, and breathable escape bivvys.  To Tecnu for protecting us from poisin sumac, and Kinesys for making awesome greaseless sunscreen,  and 2XU for making amazing compression gear. Thank you also to Light and Motion for lighting up the night helping us to go fast with our Seca and Stellas. See you in a few weeks at the Wilderness traverse in Canada.