A new chapter - first adventure race

When I inquired with my oldest daughter, Danica, if she’d like to try adventure racing, I had to muster all my self-restraint when she provided an affirmative response. The opportunity to share my passion for the outdoors through adventure racing with my eldest child was within grasp! After several bike rides this spring under her belt, including a 27 mile day to swim lessons where she excitedly recalled all about our previous summer adventures to swim lessons between spotting sandhill cranes, ducks, geese, turkeys, our first dragonflies of the year, deer, and chickens along the way.

Not getting in over our heads

Before we committed to the race, I reached out to the race director to ensure we weren’t getting in over our heads, literally and figuratively. He is an experienced adventure racer and race director, but more importantly, took his family on their first adventure race last year. As a dad, he experienced firsthand the glow of introducing his family to the sport he loves.

With my inexperience paddling, knowing that I’m awful at steering and Danica has never actually paddled a canoe, he worked with us to race but forego the river paddle. As racers put in their canoes at the start of the race, Danica commented it looked doable and I agreed. And that’s when we heard a boat had already tipped. Later, any doubts that we made the right call were erased as we pedaled by the swift currents, rapids, and dam portage.

I had plenty of reservations about the race. Ensuring Danica had a positive experience was paramount and in some regards I put extra pressure on myself to ensure that. I overpacked warm clothes, brought twice as many snacks as we’d need, and wanted to nail the navigation so we didn’t end up wandering lost and cold. Admittedly, I had the luxury of following an extremely experienced navigator every race, never even looking at the maps! However, since my last adventure race the prior summer, I had spent countless hours in the woods honing this skill. Plus, we were racing the shorter 4 hour race (the race also offers a 9 hour race) so it should be beginner-friendly, right? (It was!) In the end, we were both incredibly grateful for the opportunity to get outside our comfort zones in this adventure together. It was a dream come true to have my 8 year old join me for her first adventure race…and love every minute of the Chasin’ the Bone adventure race!

Gearing up

We wore our raincoats for much of the race and we kept toasty warm.

Although the gear list was as basic as it gets, I realized we’d need to invest into athletic gear for Danica. I’m not talking about high end adventure racing gear, she didn’t own a single synthetic long sleeved shirt! Luckily, grandma snagged one free at the latest garage sale the weekend before. The shirt was about two sizes too big and read “Lakeland Nordic”, but I convinced Danica that was a good thing since that means it would fit for Nordic ski season. For much of the race, she sported her pink rain coat, another garage sale find from grandma. I put elastic into the waistband of her tights the night before, since she said every pair of tights she owned were “fall-y down-y”. She didn’t want to bring her favorite fleece top, so she sported one that was a better fit for her younger sister. We threw her rainboots in the car just in case.

Danica’s too small fleece over her too large long sleeve t-shirt averaged to be perfect!

With a high temperature of 42 degrees and rain, I constantly monitored the radar hoping the large band of rain would pass through by the time we started our adventure together. Luckily, Danica is my “hot child” begging regularly to wear shorts to school, even when highs are in the 30s while my other children are layered up. Nonetheless, I wasn’t going to risk letting her get cold and wet leading to a negative first experience. I didn’t mind carrying extra clothes to ensure that, even bringing a spare raincoat.

I also needed to make sure I would stay warm enough at the slower pace. With my Raynaud’s I couldn’t allow my hands to go numb if I was going to navigate and handle maps. I was out of handwarmers, but wore my new waterproof gloves that I (gladly) didn’t use at Barkley. I had told my husband I was going to get use out of all the gear I bought for Barkley, so I sported my 20L pack to hold all the extra clothes and snacks plus the waterproof socks were perfect on the soggy day.

Gear is my weakness, so I was especially nervous if we had any bike mechanical problems. Although I was equipped with a spare tube and pump, I figured I would fumble around until someone was willing to stop, especially since I had never tried stuffing a 26” tube in Danica’s 20” tire (my husband said it was totally doable with a little willpower). Once again, we lucked out…however, this should really be the year I commit to getting proficient in this area.

Following the race, I was proud that I loaded up the two bikes in the trunk of the Honda Civic on my first attempt at bike Tetris. My husband advised that I pay attention to how he loaded them as I unloaded. I tried but forgotten some of the detail (were the pedals positioned in a certain way?) Danica helped guide in the bikes and identify where they were snagged. As I was ready to pull out of the parking lot, I realized Danica and I hadn’t gotten a single photo together…so I snapped a selfie, after passing the final test of the day!

On the clock

Race director and fellow parent, Anthony, proudly awards Danica a dry bag that she held onto the entire car ride home.

I got nervous knowing my inefficiencies may lead to frustration when I learned that maps would be provided on the clock for this race (adventure race formats vary widely). Usually when I navigated on my own, I’d take forever determining my route, then rarely maintained my original plan. Despite many Google searches, I could not find a list for mapping supplies, so I hoped I hadn’t forgotten anything. (See my recommended list at the end of this post here.)

When we arrived, I found out that we’d receive maps section by section on the clock. I tried staying positive focusing on that as an opportunity for some downtime for Danica to eat and drink. Despite my worries, everything came together perfectly. All checkpoints needed to be obtained in order, plus the trekking section was on an orienteering map (where lines were drawn from point to point) so there wasn’t a need to highlight routes or keep track of which checkpoints were obtained.

Balancing everything basically as a soloist (gear, navigation, and punching checkpoints) plus having to ensure the well-being of a child ended up being fine. Navigation was straightforward, so I didn’t need to thumb maps or pace count and our pace on bikes was slow enough that I could reference the clue sheet as needed.

I planned to relinquish my one adventure racing duty, so Danica could experience the thrill of punching checkpoints, but most were too high for her to reach. That was ok since that would give her a chance to drink. The trek was fast paced (nine checkpoints in under three miles which ended up taking us under five minutes per checkpoint). I realized I needed to formulate a game plan on our approach to the next checkpoint as we approached the one before so we wouldn’t lose time not moving (or serve as a more visible checkpoint marker for all the other racers). I soon got in the rhythm and we hammered out the checkpoints nearly flawlessly as we watched other racers scurrying around us. Danica always opted for the more direct bushwhacking route rather than staying on the trails. I was proud of her adventurous spirit, plus it provided me the opportunity to do a bit more navigation and route optimization avoiding steep pitches. Danica confidently scampered down hills, except for the one time I filmed her and fell! (She moved on so fast it was as if nothing had happened.)

Setting out

With the cold and rain, teams were staying warm in their cars before the race. The only other team we saw checking in was another mother-daughter team in their first ever adventure race together! What perfect timing.

We had plenty of flora and fauna to ourselves.

The race director ensured we had a thirty minute window to start, so I triple checked everything ensuring Danica it was ok we were the last team to get to the start. She couldn’t wait to get going, but I needed some time to study the map. She didn’t like there were so many teams ahead of us. We followed the bike path along the river and quickly pedaled past all the paddlers. I didn’t care to be navigating in front of the entire field, so I maintained a conservative pace, stopping for frequent photos enroute to the canoe take out.

Most of the bike route followed the Milwaukee River.

Danica filled with exuberance as we left the final transition area.

After I got my bearings on the next map at the transition area, I realized we’d be biking exactly back the way we came to the two checkpoints we had just passed. As a newbie navigator, this bolstered my confidence not only knowing what direction to head out of the transition area, but also to not have to ride while scrutinizing the map with my makeshift mapcase constructed from a plastic bag and a shoelace, reinforced with packaging tape. I sent Danica ahead as I finished stowing the map and she called out where to make our first turn. I took the lead, but quizzed her as we approached our next turn, then the next and the next. As the one that always follows the navigator, I am typically surprised when the navigator informs me we already were in that area. When the navigator calls out to memorize an area during our first approach for later sections, I struggle to recall turns and features. I was blown away at Danica’s flawless recollection of all our turns when we didn’t even know we’d be returning!

Danica loved biking through the snake grass during our epilogue.

Even with the urban setting, we saw plenty of birds including sandhill cranes, mallards, and cormorants in addition to deer and even a woodchuck frantically running for cover as we approached! We only saw a handful of people the entire race, despite using the local walking trail through the heart of downtown West Bend. I couldn’t help thinking what a wonderful experience we were having when most people probably weren’t going to step outside the entire day with the colder than normal plus dreary forecast for late April. As we rode, I asked Danica if she was liking adventure racing a little or a lot. To my glee, she answered “A lot!”. Later on, I asked what was her favorite part and she responded, “Everything!”

Running Free

We chose our team name “Running Free” to testify to our faith in Jesus freeing our from the weight of our sins while also acknowledging our love to run through the woods. Our team name was fitting as the trek couldn’t have gone better. I didn’t make the mistake of blinding following another team assuming they had to be more experienced than I, who continued past the first checkpoint. I only made a single error – we had spotted a checkpoint and as we beelined towards it we realized we were approaching the wrong checkpoint. I reassessed quickly and we only lost a minute.

The sun even peaked out during the trek. We were moving fast so I jettisoned my rain coat as I began sweating. I asked Danica if she wanted to take hers off since I had to stop to stuff it in my pack. I was surprised she declined, but sure enough literally two minutes later she was ready to take hers off. And that’s the only room for improvement I could find for her first adventure race!

Pushing through

When I noticed my shadow a few steps behind towards the end, I encouraged her that we were almost done and she dug to maintain our aggressive pace. We moved past several teams. Danica glowed in the final transition area. Even as we made our final transition, she continued her resolve to be efficient letting me know that I needed to “Hurry up!” as I reviewed our final map. As we left, we spotted two teams we had been with at the third checkpoint that were still enroute to the final checkpoint, confirming we had pushed well on the trek.

After the race, I asked Danica what the hardest part of the race was. She had to think for awhile and surprisingly answered the last two mile bike. Even though that was the shortest section of the race, that tells me she pushed all the way to the end!

Grabbing a book from the Little Library.

Epilogue

Due to the morning rain, the mountain bike section of the race was cancelled. Since the checkpoints were hung, I wanted to get in more practice navigating. After checking with the race director, Danica was game for biking back to the final transition area to complete the mountain bike section. We enjoyed passing the nine hour racers, with Danica cheering enthusiastically. We stopped for everything we had missed while racing including a photo opp with daffodils and picking up a book at the Little Library. (But I had forgotten money for the garage sale that Danica pointed out all four times we passed!) The highlight of the course was the snake grass. After requesting oodles of photos, Danica had the opportunity to weave through it on the singletrack.

Gratitude

Thank you to every race volunteer for their part in orchestrating the Chasin’ the Bone Adventure Race! I am indebted with gratitude to the race directors that welcomed my daughter into the adventure racing community, even if that meant allowing us to forego the paddle section. Finally, thanks to my husband for watching our two other adventure racers to be, while Danica and I had our first mother-daughter day trip!

I couldn’t be prouder as an adventure race mother of my daughter. Danica gave her best effort the entire race. What surprised me the most was her competitive spirit that never waned. Before awards had started, she already asked when she can do her next race! What candy for my ears! Just pinch me from this dream as we can be Running Free!

Adventure racing pre-race mapping supplies

Permanent highlighters of various colors
Fine tipped permanent markers of various colors
Pencils
Pen
Packaging tape
Scissors
Waterproof paper
Clear ziplock bags
Straight edge
Baseplate compass with a scale
Orienteering map symbols legend
UTM plotter

Related links