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The BEAR (Beach Extreme Adventure Race) August
12, 2000
By: Renee Johnson
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Our final race of 2000 was a real bear. Literally,
I'm not kidding! |
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It was called the Beach
Extreme Adventure Race
(BEAR) and it was held in Jacksonville,
FL on Saturday,
August 12. My teammates were Derek Kozlowski and Katie Malone
(an
SRC member), who you'll remember I raced with in GA in the June Hi-Tec
race.
The race involved about 6 miles of
trail running, 12-15 miles of mountain biking
on single-track trails, and about 1 1/2 miles kayaking - part of that in
the ocean.
Also, there was a short orienteering course too, and a bunch of
"mystery events"
along the way. We started with a short run on the beach, and we quickly
hit
the trails on foot. We made good time on this leg of the race
- a steady pace, even
if it's slow, is better than tearing through the woods at breakneck speed,
then
walking because you're tired. We encountered two mystery events while on
the
run - we had to name 4 oceans (we went with Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and
the
North Sea), and we had to carry one team member back to the transition
area
(TA). At this second mystery event, the instruction sheet said that each
team
had to have a 2 x 4 board, but it didn't say that we had to have the team
member
on the board. Therefore, I jumped on Derek's back and Katie grabbed
the
board and off we went. We passed a number of teams on the boardwalk
access
to the beach, and we also passed one of the race
directors as he observed
from the boardwalk railing. I could tell by the look on his face that he
was
proud of us for reading the directions thoroughly, and paying attention to
what
they did and didn't say. We were the first team to use this carrying
method, and
after us, a whole bunch of other teams followed our lead. We transitioned
to the
kayak part of the race. We had done
well on the run, and we were the 3rd team
to put our kayaks in the ocean. However, this is where we encountered an
insurmountable
wall - of water, one after the other! The race
had started about 30
minutes late, and this is where we paid for it because the tide was coming
in strong.
Katie was having trouble getting her 1-person kayak out past the waves,
and
Derek and I were having trouble with the 2-person boat. We had the wrong
kind
of boats - the kind that you sit in, not on top of. The sit-in boats were
getting swamped
with every wave! Finally, Derek helped Katie get out, and then he and
I
decided that I should swim out, and he'd bring the boat (I had been trying
to paddle
the boat through the waves, and kept getting dumped). I had prepared
for
swimming by taking lessons at the Spartanburg Athletic Club, but out there
I couldn't
make any progress doing the crawl or the breast stroke. I ended up
flipping
over on my back and doing a modified version of the back stroke. This
was
difficult because I was wearing my trail running shoes, but it was doable
because
I was wearing my lifejacket, which was mandatory for the kayak leg of
the
race, and I'm sure it saved my life
more than once that day. Once out past the
waves, Katie and Derek lined up the boats and anchored them together by
each
holding onto both paddles, and helped me into the 2-person boat. We only
had
to paddle about 400 meters before a race
official on the shore signaled us to come
in. On the way in to the shore, we were unable to catch a wave, so we got
dumped
and the kayak got swamped. We portaged in to a small lake and
paddled
around the perimeter of it. Before exiting the lake, we had to beach the
boats
and climb up and over a 30-35 foot tall rope wall. We portaged back to the
ocean,
and used the method that finally worked for us the first time - I swam the
back
stroke and Katie and Derek brought the boats. Back at the TA, we ditched
the
boats (which by this time we hated) and left on our bikes. After a short
ride on the
beach, we had to go up to a parking lot and start on the bike course. We
noticed
that there was a nice, smooth boardwalk that went right to the parking
lot, and
we used it to pass a number of teams that were trudging and pushing their
bikes
through deep sand! Nothing in the instructions said to stay off the
boardwalk!
We started on the bike course too fast for me, and I was nervous and
shaking
- that's not good when you're holding onto a bike's handlebars! I had to
insist
that we slow down the pace so that I could calm down and hopefully not
crash
any more than I already had. We did get passed by a few teams because
of
this. Another mystery event - we came upon a dirty brown pond with a rope
strung
across it, tied to a tree on each side. We had to momentarily ditch the
bikes
and get in the pond, using a hand-over-hand technique on the rope to pull
ourselves
across the pond. I was very warm at this time, and the cool water was
a
refreshing break! Since we had to do the bike loop twice, we also had to
cross
the pond twice. Later, we were told that there were probably alligators in
the pond.
Back on the bikes. There were two plywood walls on the course - one
near
the entrance to the TA and one near the start of the bike course. Each
time we
encountered one of these walls, we had to go over it; even if we had our
bikes
with us. In fact, the bikes had to go over too. Derek would climb to the
top and
sit, and I would hand the bikes to him, one by one. Katie was on the other
side
taking the bikes and laying them down. After we got the bikes over, we had
to
go over. One at a time, Katie and I would get a running start, run up the
ramp, and
hang on to the top of the wall. Derek would push us up (via the butt) so
that we
could swing one leg over, and we'd take care of ourselves on the way down.
This
was the cause of a huge bruise and many scratches on the back of my right
thigh,
because it was always my right leg that went over the wall first. After
biking,
we transitioned to the orienteering course. On this leg of the race,
we had to
keep track of our pace count to measure how far we'd traveled, and stop at
certain
points to take compass readings. We did some bushwhacking and
crossed
a semi-dried up creek (it was still kind of wet and had enough sucking
capability
to almost take off Katie's shoe), saw some huge spiders in the woods,
and
Derek ran into a web that actually pushed him backwards, it was so strong!
A
couple of mystery events we encountered on the orienteering course: we had
to
negotiate a children's jungle gym without touching the ground (a
board-and- chain
bridge, monkey bars, a handle that slid from one platform to another), we
had
to name all of the states that border the Atlantic Ocean, from south to
north, and
we had to fill a large plastic water jug with ocean water, then run around
on the
sandy dunes with the jug upside-down on one teammate's hand - trying not
to lose
any water of course - and return the jug (now empty) to the race
official in charge
of the event. Needless to say, Derek carried the heavy water jug for us!
After
that, just a short run on the beach and we were finished! It took us 6 1/2
hours
to complete this race, and I cried like
a baby because I couldn't believe that it
was over and we hadn't quit (especially considering the tough time we had
in the
ocean). The ocean kayaking was hands down the scariest experience of my
life.
The whole thing was totally out of my hands; you just can't control the
waves.
I'm sure you don't need to be told that we're going back next year! Of
course
we are! We will bring the right kind of kayaks and we'll do better than we
did
this year. Also, I'm working on my biking, so next year I won't have to
ask for a
slower pace. This was our last race of
the year, but that doesn't mean I'm taking
it easy now. No way - I'm lifting weights, running, and biking to prepare
for next
year!
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