Natchez Trace Adventure Race.
We did it. It was extremely tough, but worth it in a weird way. Satisfying.
We got to the state park at about 7 p.m. on Friday night and checked in for the race and got settled into our cabin. We went out for a pizza dinner and went to bed at 10.
I had misconceptions about what exactly an adventure race is. I knew they gave us checkpoints but I figured that they were just lined along the race course and you just checked them off quickly. That’s not how it works.
At 7 a.m., the beginning of the race, they gave us a map and a list of 29 coordinates. The whole idea of the adventure race is finding the checkpoints, they’re basically hidden in the forest. Even for the biking sections, when we would get close to the checkpoints we would have to get off our bikes and hike hundreds of yards sometimes searching for the points.
At one point, we knew we were within a couple hundred yards of a checkpoint and walked around in circles for an hour and 10 minutes looking for it. We eventually got it but it was mentally frustrating spending so long on one checkpoint.
It took us 11 hours and six minutes to complete the race. But when we got done the race director handed us a list of “bonus checkpoints” and told us we had to be back in 54 minutes.
Ben: Obviously we’re not doing the bonus ones.
Jed: No, we are. Let’s go!
Ben: whoa.
The breakdown went like this:
7 am: Get the coordinates, Jed plots them for 30 minutes.
7:30 am: Start the first trekking section.
7:50 am: Submerge feet in muddy puddle. My feet would be wet the entire race.
8:30-9:40 am: Look for checkpoint three. Frustrating.
10:15 am: Finish trekking section.
10:30 am: Start biking section.
Noon: Pass by a team looking for their lost team member, Chad.
12:30 pm: Find Chad about 1000 meters from his team. Give him help by telling him where his team is. Ask him if he’s had any luck finding checkpoint #9. He lies and tells us to go the wrong way. Costs us 20 minutes.
3 pm: Finish biking section. Pop Tarts and Gatorade back at the transition area.
3:15 pm: Start trekking section #2. Find all 5 checkpoints in an hour an 10 minutes, return to Transition Area.
4:40 pm: Leave for Canoe section 2 hours and 20 minutes before deadline. Pushing it.
5:30 pm: Click in the last checkpoint. Canoe back to the finish.
6:06 pm: Hand in our passport. Done. Except not.
6:07 pm: Plot the bonus points and leave for the extra adventures.
6:30 pm: Find two of the bonus points, try convincing Jed it’s not worth it to try to get more. He says he wants to get one more. Go another 1000 meters looking for it. Never find it. Jog back to transition area with just the two. Done for real. Satisfying.
7 pm: Free buffet. Head back.
These pictures were tumbl’d in reverse order so you can go top to bottom. I didn’t take my camera on the first trekking section so it goes from pre-race to post-trek.
Click the picture so see the full-size image.
