Dec

December Chill

Looking for a race to keep me motivated, I signed up for the December Chill – an adventure race run by Infiterra Sports out of Michigan. The race was run in a state park in Brighton, Michigan, and was as much fun as advertised. The day started out in the low 20′s and snowing, and it didn’t get above freezing all day. I had a great race, although I took two good spills on the bike when I hit patches of ice. Bruises only, and I was able to get right back on and keep going, although a bit more carefully. The kayak section was along a river, so there was no navigation involved – after the put-in all I had to do was keep paddling until the end. The cold made things interesting though – there were icicles forming off of my paddle’s drip rings, and the foredeck of the kayak was covered with a sheet of ice by the time I finished. The last part of the race went great until I realized that I had missed a checkpoint and had to backtrack almost 2 miles. There was a good base of snow before the race started, and it snowed all day, so at that point we were running in several inches of fresh snow. I was already tired, so I wasn’t too happy about having to add those miles That is one of the great things about adventure racing though – it is not always the strongest and fastest who wins. Often it is the smartest. I wasn’t the smartest or the fastest, but I did do OK – I finished ninth overall and third solo out of 116 teams.