Tyler, Nikki, and I went up to Omaha for the inaugural Wild Hares 12hr last Saturday (aug. 8th) for a brutal pounding in the heat. With temps in the triple digits and nothing but sun, all the teams struggled to keep down their cheerios during the race.
We, of course, came up the night before for meeting, maps, etc. Doing the ritual plotting exercise that has become second nature (Nikki's first time), we strategized our best route and approximate distances. All this while being documented by Tyler.
Next morning (4am) we awoke, dressed and dropped bikes at their designated location before ariving at the percieved starting line, Hitchcock Nature Park. It seems to be a common theme this season to bus racers to another starting point to throw them off. It happened again.
We began the race on foot at Dodge State Park along the Missouri River. It was an seven point orienteering section that was about 10 miles. We started in first, but were gradually overtaken by the Proformance teams. A second guess later (& poor map reading) had us finish this section as last on the water.
Believe it or not, we made up a lot of time on the water. The canoe seat and kayak paddles made a huge difference! After catching 6 or 7 teams on the 10 mile float down the Muddy MO, we transitions fairly quickly to the urban orienteering section. These CPs were easy and designed as such, but still 100 degrees in the city is even hotter. We stopped at the host hotel for fluids (mmm...Pepsi). We caught up with several more teams during this leg and were making up time on the deep field.
The rest of the race was to be on bike. We headed up the levee and under the highway via drain pipes. This is when we stumbled upon the first of several sick teams. But, the RD was waiting on the other side of the highway with icewater! We quickly made our way to Lewis and Clark State Park. By the way, we were in Iowa at this point!
L&C was the trails section. And given fresh legs and cooler temps, it would have been a blast. They were fast, windy, hilly trails and before the end we needed a break to cool down. We stopped at and overlook in the shade and took in the view and breeze. When we had finished this section, we had overcome another 3 or 4 teams, but we didn't know how much longer we could make it in the heat. After a half hour cool down, we headed on making our route decision point-to-point. Things got rough between CP 21 and CP22 and we almost turned for the finish line, but through positive interaction with another team and an awesome local (who provide us cold bottled water), we pushed on. We crossed the finish line sans CP24 (the one furthest out of the way) in 12 hours and forty minutes. 1st place 3 person coed! (6th overall)
Munchies, awards, hose showers, and a 3 hour drive back to KC followed.
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