There is an ancient warrior adage that states, "the sharpest edge is always forged in the hottest of fires." For the inaugural Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) Adventure Race, this statement is absolute. But instead of a birth by fire, it was a birth by freezing cold, rain, snow, sleet and ice! An adventure race is not necessarily a journey to venture out and explore a wilderness, but a journey within to explore the boundaries in your core of resolve. Even for the most experienced of adventure racers, this race was a true test of their inner strength just to finish!
The first annual NOC Adventure Race was held March 12-13. Forty coed teams of three racers each took the challenge. To give you a true feeling of what these racers went through, the following is a firsthand account of the events that took place...
0700 Hours
The temperature at the start of the race was hovering just five degrees below the freezing mark. Teams meandering around for the 8 a.m. gun were heavily clothed from head to toe in hi-tech, space-age Gortex and smart wool. The course was set out with three disciplines which had to be navigated with a map, compass and grid squares. a two-mile run was followed by a rafting and canoeing leg of 18 to 20 miles, a mountain bike leg of 25 miles and a trek of 20 miles. All in all, with navigational errors and tight contour lines, it was roughly an 85 mile race.
0800 hours
The start of the race was a real sight. Racers were complaining that they needed to start moving because they had shed the arctic survival parkas and the temperature was falling almost as fast as the baseball size snowflakes. The two-mile run from the start to the rafts was more like a fast moving circus parade storming through town. Gear was dropped, picked up and shoved down a pack. Teams were losing each other through the shuffle. As teams climbed into rafts, the snow turned from flurried to torrential. Teams negotiated through several Class II and Class III rapids, getting soaked from the spillage along the way. The water was so cold that if it wasn't moving, it would have been ice. Fingers, toes and noses were quickly getting numb from hypothermia. Due to the combination of very cold and very wet conditions, the race was turning from competitive to seriously desperate. Many teams coming into the first transition of rafts to canoes were almost pulled from the race because their bodies were shaking uncontrollably and starting to shut down from hypothermic shock.
“We were so cold and so wet coming out of the rafts that race management said that we either get warm or we would be disqualified. So, I looked at my teammate, Suleski, for an acknowledgment and I couldn't tell if he was nodding 'yes,' or just shaking but his face was going blue. I made the call and we ran sopping wet to the gear store to get dry suits and then to the restaurant to get warm. Race management would not let us continue until they were sure we were okay. We sat there for at least 45 minutes with about 10 other teams just trying to get warm. We were so miserable...," says Jeanne Ward of Team Body Tech II.
The canoe section saw a lot of wreckage. Teams were flipping on every rapid and had to dump their boat afterward so they could continue. The weather was unrelenting. The gentle falling snowballs turned to biting, slicing sleet and the wind caused even the most experienced paddlers a zig-zag problem, blowing the bow of boats all over the river. The Nantahala River dumps into Lake Fontana and that is were the beginning of the miserable monotony took place.
"Because the wind and the freezing rain really whipped up on the lake, we were wet and unshielded from it. I mean there was absolutely nowhere to hide from it, especially sitting in an open canoe. And the bottom of the canoe was filled with sloshing water... and I started to think to myself, are we surviving to race or racing to survive?!!" says Chamblee Abernathy of Team Charybdus.
On a personal note, I must add that covering this race was on my top five most miserable list. On the "wet" portion of the race, I was in a self-bailing Fun-yak (a heavy, rubberized kayak) that I christened the "Concrete Pig." On the lake, I was tipped over by a speed boat. When I hit the water, it was so cold that it shocked all the heat out of my body. I had to swim 100 yards to the nearest shore. Then, blue and shaking uncontrollably, I had to strip down butt naked to try to put on dry pants on the side of the river. Then, I had to make one of the most difficult decisions to get back into the yak and somehow push on down the river. Looking back on it now, I close my eyes and shake my head in complete disbelief. It was one of the worst environments imaginable.
1400 hours
Most of the racers that I talked with said the toughest transition was the boat to bike transitions area (T.A.). After paddling 18-20 miles, getting out of the boat was bitterly painful.
The most time a team should spend in a T.A. is 10-20 minutes. It's like an Indy pitstop. You get your essential gear for the next leg, your fuel (food), check your map and you're off! Teams in this race, however, were in T.A.'s for one to two hours, if not longer.
The bike leg was tough from the start - deep wet, cold snow and mud. Twelve miles into the bike leg, one of the team's front wheels just collapsed. You would think that would have been it, but one guy took the others pack, wearing 20 pounds in front and 20 pounds in back, and switched with a third person when needed. The broken bike was slung over the back and carried the final mountainous 13 miles to the next T.A.
One team I had been keenly interested in was a team I had trained, -Team Eatzi's comprised of Greg Pent, Shauna Knotts and Bob Sauban. It blew my mind that Bob was 50 and doing this type of race. For being a 50-year-old, 90-hour a week lawyer, this guy could run circles around any 18-year-old wannabe. And I never would have believed Greg would have done as well as he did. When we trained, he was so casual and relaxed. I was dead set that this guy just didn't have the intensity or the drive for such grueling event like this. But I was wrong. I really don't know what got him through, but he did it! And then there was Ms "Schwanczi" -Shauna Knotts. When I met first met her, I thought, "What does is she doing here; she looks and acts like absolutely the wrong person to be doing an adventure race." But through the hairy, scary training I put her through - and I made it as tough as I could - she never gave up and complained only when training wasn't long or hard enough. She is amazing.
Team Eatzi's came into the final T.A. about 10:30 to 11 p.m. Shauna literally rode in and fell off her bike. She was in really bad shape. Bob and Greg were not much better. But, the awesome Body Tech trauma team of Aura and Adair did their thing so that she could continue.
When morning broke, teams were coming into the finish. Jeanne and Steve came in, Team Odyssey had arrive, but Eatzi's was still out there in the woods. They were the last complete team on the course. On Sunday at 2 p.m., the course closed and the race was over. There is an acronym that is used in the adventure racing vernacular - DNF. To a racer, to have a DNF on your race resume is dreadful. Steve kept telling Jeanne, "No matter what, I just don't want to be a DNF."
Team Eatzi's was forced from the race not because they quit, but because time was against them. But, they are proud of their effort - as they should be; as all racers who attempted this tough race should be.
I want to thank Norm and Tracin for allowing me free reign of the race course and allowing me to freeze my butt off in the yak they provided. Setting up and running a race is as difficult as racing the course and they pulled it off remarkably well for their first time. Plans and ideas are under way for the next NOC Adventure Race. Also, NOC has a great adventure racing school where just about every discipline is taught. It's a great way to determine if you have an interest in this most extreme of endurance sports. For more information, call the NOC Adventure Racing Academy and 1-888-1662, ext. 600.
Break out of your comfort zone and go for it!
