Buff Betty Adventure Race

OK, it's a bit late, but I am finally getting around to writing a race report!

The Buff Betty Adventure Race is an all-women adventure race. A first for me, but not my first adventure race - I've done several others ranging from 6 to 10 hours in length. This one was a 6 hour race. (A sprint in adventure racing terms!)

For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, adventure races consist of some combination of trekking, paddling, mountain biking, orienteering, and 'special challenges', which vary by race. Each section has checkpoints that you have to reach. Most races include some form of ropes course (zip line, tyrolean traverse, etc.), although this one did not (apparently they couldn't work out the logistics for it at this race site). The length of each section varies by race, as does the order that the events are run in.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a women's adventure race. I figured it would be easier, since one of the purposes of the race was to introduce new women to the sport. It turned out to be technically a bit easier (no real navigation required on the paddling, potentially confusing intersections marked on the mountain biking, orienteering clues written out instead of using the symbols), but from an endurance perspective it was every bit as challenging as any of the other races I've done. 36 teams of 2-4 women competed in the race - definitely more than I expected, as there aren't usually too many women's teams at adventure races.

Our team, The Foxy Ladies, consisted of me, my friend Lynnette (my partner in crime in last year's adventure race), and Lynnette's friend Rhonda, a newcomer to the sport. Lynnette surprised us all with matching team jerseys with the Fox racing logo on them, so we were definitely the best dressed team out there. (I think we intimidated the competition, at least until the race started, anyway!) Lynnette and Rhonda live in Grand Rapids, so we all stayed at my house the night before the race.



Race start was 9am, which felt like sleeping in compared to other races. (Last summer's race started at 6am!). We got there in time to get checked in, and lay out our stuff in our transition area, and get ready for the start of the race. Weather forecast for the day called for temps in the low to mid 50's and a 40% chance of rain/thunderstorms starting around noon. We figured that meant there was a 60% chance of no rain, right? (Um, the correct answer there is WRONG!)

They race organizer expained how the race was going to work at a pre-race talk at 8:30am. First event was a short trail run, followed by the paddling (canoeing), another run (back to transition), then the mountain biking, and finally the orienteering. At 9am, we were off! Our team seemed to run pretty comfortably at the same pace, which was nice. The run was probably a bit less than a mile - just enough to spread the group out and reduce some of the congestion on the river for the paddling.

We returned to the start area and picked up our rental canoe. Lynnette and Rhonda had their own PFD's; I used the rental PFD. Since there were 3 of us, we used one canoe with me in the front, Lynnette in the back, and Rhonda in the middle. We didn't think to have Rhonda take a paddle, since we figured that the clashing paddles would probably be more annoying than useful. Besides, in most of our canoeing experiences, the person in the middle is the one in charge of the beer cooler, not paddling! But then again, most of our canoeing experiences involve paddling for a short while, then tying up to some other canoes and floating down the river drinking beer and attacking other passing canoes with monster squirt guns. That didn't seem like a very competitive race strategy, so Lynnette and I paddled.

The paddling required us to canoe up stream, across a lake to the dam on the other side, then paddle a little ways back to the park in downtown Milford where we would take out. I was sure the paddling section was 2.5 miles (I don't know if I read it on something or if it was just my exceptional map reading skills that led me to that conclusion), and DAMN!, it was the longest 2.5 miles of my life! I thought the paddling would never end. Of course, it turns out the paddling was really 4 miles and not 2.5, and with our incredible skills at paddling the canoe in a straight line (can you say bumper canoes?), it was probably more like 5 miles by the time we were done. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm not in the best shape, so it was all I could do to keep my arms moving til the end, and we were definitely wishing Rhonda had a paddle!

We got the canoe out of the water, and then we had to make our way back to Proud Lake and our transition area. (I'd say it was 2.5 miles back, but who knows! I think it took us about 35 minutes.) I was happy now about my decision to go with the rental PFD for the canoeing, since I was able to leave it with the canoe and didn't have to wear it for the run back. We could get there any way we wanted, and we had looked at the map before we started, so we knew how we were going to get back. We alternated running and walking back, mostly on dirt roads. This section was pretty uneventful, although we did see a couple of the lead teams starting out on the mountain biking section before we got back.

Next up was the mountain biking. I had gotten pretty warm on the run back to the transition area, so I decided to go with just shorts and a short sleeve shirt for the biking. (Insert foreshadowing here!) We got all our stuff together and headed out on our bikes. I got to the first spot where I wanted to shift gears (maybe 100 yards from the start?) only to find out that my bike did not want to shift gears at all. Here's a lesson for everyone: if you have your bike in a state of disassembly the day before the race, and you put it back together in a hurry, a short test ride to make sure that you actually put it back together correctly is highly recommended. (OK, so I know you don't need that lesson, because nobody but me is dumb enough to do that!) I couldn't immediately figure out what the problem was, so I said let's just ride - I have three gears (small, middle, large chain ring), that'll do!

The mountain biking section consisted of 4 loops. You had to ride each loop, and there was a check point at an unspecified location on each loop to make sure you actually rode all of them. We rode out to the first section, and after a few stops to make sure we were actually going where I thought we were going (more of my stellar map reading skills), we were riding on the trail. My lack of gear shifting ability was noticeable, but the gear was manageable, so I just grunted up the hills and cruised comfortably on the flats. We stopped in an open area to regroup, and while were were there we sorted out the issue with my shifting (disconnected cable) and reconnected it. I still couldn't use all of my gears, but I had a few, and that was good enough. Unfortunately, while we were stopped, we felt the first rain drops. It pretty much rained steadily for the rest of the bike section. No thunderstorms, though - I guess that's the bright side.

The rain made the trail pretty slick, and there were lots of logs across the trail that interrupted your momentum, so the biking was slower than I expected. I don't know how many miles the course was, but it took us about two and a half hours. I was happy to see the end of the course, since with the rain and the temp in the 50's, I was getting mighty chilly in my shorts and short sleeve shirt. We got back, checked in for the end of the bike course, and then went to change into something dry. Hmmm.... dry. Well, there was pretty much none of that, since it had rained all over our stuff for the past couple of hours. So I put on the stuff that was less wet, and put my jacket on, and we were off!

By this time we only had about an hour and a half left for the orienteering. There were 12 checkpoints on the orienteering course, and we knew we would not be able to get them all, so we figured out which checkpoints we thought we could get and headed out for those. One checkpoint in the woods, one checkpoint on the edge of a marsh, one checkpoint on the edge of a clearing, and one on a small island in a lake. We got the 4 checkpoints we thought we could get, and then headed back to the finish. We did a combination of light jogging and walking on the way back to make sure we made it back in time, and then we ran it in to the finish (not for time, but because it looked cooler!). And we made it - finishing time 5:56, which with 4 of 12 checkpoints on the orienteering, was good for 16th place out of 36 teams. (The winning team got 11 checkpoints, second got 8, and the rest of the teams had 6 or fewer.)

We stuck around post-race for the food, awards and raffle (I won a jug of Hammergel!), but we were all pretty cold, so I was happy when that was over and we could pack up and head home (with the car heater on high!). Despite the rain and the cold, it was a fun day. Can't wait for the next one!