Albert Einstein supposedly defined insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."   I have competed in the "Big Chill" four times now with four different teams and I still haven't completed this race.   I'm not sure but I think I now fit Einstein's definition.  

As in years past the race would be held in and around Bastrop and Buescher state parks, and Rocky Hills Ranch.   My teammates for this years try were; Debbie Richardson - Team Captain, Garrett Lewis - Lead navigator, Eric Lachney - Backup navigator.   Debbie, Garrett, and Eric have all raced together for years, I was the new guy.  

The pre-race setup went very smoothly considering you had to stage both the boats and the bikes at different locations.   Deciding what to pack and what to stash with the boats/bikes was nerve wracking though.   This race has a notoriously long first section, having taken some teams more than sixteen hours to complete.   Figuring out how to pack lightly for something like that can drive you crazy, and a lot of people have said that that's a pretty short drive for me anyways.  

We were ready in plenty of time so I took the opportunity to pester Art and Robyn for illegal race clues.   They both smiled indulgently at my feeble attempt at humor and remained silent.   Robyn then gave me a hug and told me that we'd finish this race with no problems.   She and Art had designed a "Kinder and Gentler" coarse this year that even I was sure to finish.   Basking in the glow of this knowledge I turned around and ambled happily back to my teammates to spread the news.   If I had been listening more closely I probably would have heard the chuckling going on behind me.  

The race meeting started pretty much on time.   Lots of familiar faces and lots of new ones too.   Art and Robyn went through the usual rules, "Don't break laws", "No outside maps", "Don't drown", the basics.   We were then told be be loaded on the school buses that had just pulled into a nearby parking lot by 9:45am.   I think somebody asked about the first leg and Art said to be prepared for at least ten hours away from the TA.  

We were all pretty much packed up so we headed over to the buses and hung around.   The morning was still cold and foggy, but the prediction was for clear cloudless skies and temps in the sixty's.   As more teams started showing up we hopped on and tried to score some seats near the heater.   The buses filled up and we were off.   Last year they had blindfolded us and taken us twenty miles out of town, this year there were no blindfolds and we actually went into town.  

After disembarking, the team captains were given a Bastrop City map and a sealed pastel colored envelope.   Robyn then announced the official race start time of 10:03am and said "Go!"   We tore into our envelope like everybody else and started reading.   The first section of the first leg was an homage to the show "The Amazing Race."   Were were going to be zooming around town using clues to find CP's.   Each CP would then have the clues for the next CP.  

While we were still reading the rules a couple of teams headed south towards the center of town.   We succumbed to the herd instinct and finished reading while moving off in the same direction at a light jog.   My first thought was that this was a good decision because the clue said something about downtown.   My second thought was, who said anything about jogging.   I don't like jogging, nobody I know really likes jogging, so what were we doing jogging thirty seconds into a twenty-four hour race?   Yes, this is heavy handed foreshadowing here.  

The first set of clues gave a list of famous authors and asked us where we might find these people.   A library seemed the logical place, but there was no library marked on the map.   Luckily Debbie knows Bastrop pretty well and was fairly sure where the library was.   On the way there Eric noticed an add for the town library on the fringe of the map that confirmed Debbies address.  

The second clue was in yet another pastel colored envelope.   There was a kind of Easter Egg color scheme at work here.   The clue was an anagram which Garrett quickly turned into "Main" and "Austin."   Eric found where Main street and Austin street intersected and we were off.   We were almost to the next CP when we ran into Lauri and Josh of Team Phat Free.   "Good Lucks" were exchanged and then we had to figure out our next clue.  

We had been given the local newspaper and told to figure out the rest.   We each took a section of the paper and started scanning the articles and adds.   Several other teams were moving off like they had already figured out the clue, so we followed as we read.   I don't remember what section I had, but on about the fourth page or so there was a small add for Too Cool Racing.   It gave the name of a local park, Eric found the park on the map and off we went.  

At the park we were given a choice.   You could run all the way to the courthouse and get a name of a baron, or you could buy a can of food and bring it back.   The nearest grocery store was only a couple of blocks away, but you had to have some form of money.   Since this was not our teams first race we had plenty of cash, I believe Debbie even loaned some to a couple of other teams.   The cans of food were going to donated to the local food bank, kind of cool when you think about it.  

The next clue said something about a bank downtown so off we went back to main street.   We got held up by a couple of traffic lights, but eventually found the bank and our next set of clues.   This one said to go across the river and find a "Sweet" shop.   Being a chocoholic, I got rather excited about this one.  

Since there were already thirty or so racers crowded around it the "Sugar Shack" wasn't too hard to find.   We walked up and Robyn asked for just one person to step forward for a special challenge.   For some reason I was quickly shoved forward.   Being the "Kinder and Gentler" race, I imagined I'd be blindfolded and asked to differentiate between dark and milk chocolate or something.   Who was I kidding?  

We were led passed a Willy Wonka wonderland of mouthwatering sweets out the back of the shop to a picnic table covered with zip-loc bags.   Each bag had a handful of dead insects in them.   Don't get me wrong, they were cooked and seasoned, but they were still bugs.   I think I saw some melee worms and grasshoppers before I made myself stop looking and upend the bag into my mouth.   I had one last hopeful thought that they were really well disguised Gummi insects or something but again, who was I kidding?   Whatever they were, they were dry and dusty and crunchy and really really spicy.  

After I'd shown off my empty mouth to a understanding race volunteer we were given our topo-map and the coordinates for the rest of the first leg.   We took the time to plot all of the next section here in the relative peace and comfort of the Sugar Shack.   There was a set of four by eight sheets of plywood the store used for Christmas decorations that were being lain on the ground and used as tables.   We asked to share half with another team and they were great about making room.  

Eric called out the coordinates to Garrett while I tried to rinse down the last of the bugs with some Sweet Leaf Tea that had been provided.   I love Sweet Leaf Tea so this went a long way to assuaging the desire to find Art and Robyn and smack them on the back of the head.   After I got most of the bug dust washed down, I took over calling out the CP's from Eric.   Garrett is very quick and methodical at plotting and didn't make a single mistake the entire race.  

The rest of this leg of the race was more along the lines of what you expect.   It started with a hike out to the boats.   The most direct route was to hike the railroad tracks to the river then follow the river to the boats.   We started off walking on the tracks, but after being passed by four or five teams we had to run too.   Somewhere along the tracks I tried to get the team to join me in singing a couple of show tunes, but it made them run away from me faster.   At the river we followed some roads and trails until we found our boats.   The teams that had passed us were almost all still there so we hadn't lost too much time.  

The paddling leg was going to be interesting to say the least.   We had two of the fastest boats out there that day, but I had absolutely no training in them.   Luckily everybody got into a rythm pretty quickly and soon we were catching up to team after team.  

Right in the middle of having a great time in the boats we had to get out and find another trekking CP.   The clue sheet said "Pecan Tree."   We found the boat drop, got out, and stumbled over the riverbank into a Pecan Grove.   Makes the clue "Pecan Tree" kind of useless doesn't it?   Art and Robyn are so funny.  

We took a bearing and started jogging again.   There were several teams coming back along the same line so we figured we were headed in the right direction.   In the nicely manicured grove you could see the flag from a mile off.   I ran up and punched our passport, and yes, they let me take charge of the passport.  

Being the bearer of the passport is a lot like being the extra point kicker on a football team.   If you do it right it's no big deal and nobody really cares.   If however, you loose the passport or screw up the numbers or something your going to be killed.   You can usually tell who has the passport on a team.   They are the ones that make obsessive furtive checks of a particular pocket or a lanyard securely fastened around their necks.   But enough about me.  

Back in the boats we quickly re-established our rhythm.   We passed a couple more teams, including Werewolves of Austin.   They were not having as much fun on this section.   Paul's boat, which is a sleek and super fast sea kayak, was towing a much shorter and wider fishing style kayak.   Despite their best efforts, the boat being towed was fishtailing from side to side dragging Paul's boat around with it.   Twenty miles of this must have driven them crazy.  

We passed them and then immediately made some bad river navigation choices right in front of them.   I for one stopped thinking superior thoughts and hoped karma was done with me for a while.  

The paddle ended all too soon at a boat drop down river from Smithville.   Eric and I ferried the boats while Debbie and Garrett started getting ready for the trek to Rocky Hills Ranch and our bikes.   Debbie had thought to bring industrial sized zip-loc bags in the boats with us to store our packs and shoes.   I opened mine to nice warm dry socks and shoes, she opened hers to some kind of smelly soup.   Her water bladder had leaked and most of a liter of water was all over her stuff.   She didn't complain, she just squished into her backpack and hung some clothes off of it to dry as we walked.  

This is a part where things get a little tricky.   We took what we thought was the quickest legal way out to the bikes, basically two big highways.   We were having a great time, thinking we were pretty far ahead of the teams we'd passed because nobody was in sight behind us.   However, about half a mile before we got to RHR, three or four teams that had been behind us popped up off a road ahead of us.   A road that we had assumed would be out of bounds.   Making assumptions in an adventure race can kill you, and this one got us good.  

It was somewhere around in here that I took Debbie's nice fleece jacket, threw it on the ground and ran away.   Okay I actually just dropped it while we were jogging, but it amounts to the same thing.   We got to RHR and there was no jacket.   Once again Debbie didn't complain, she just mentioned that it was her favorite jacket that she wore everywhere and loved dearly.  

We climbed on our bikes to get the biking points for this section and headed out.   This section also contained the climbing CP for the race.   We decided to get that one as soon as possible just in case there was a crowd later.   The first ascent up into the hills almost killed me and I knew I was in trouble.   My legs were jelly, my lungs were burning, my head was spinning, and we'd just started.   I ate some more food and tried not to complain too much.  

I think the climbing CP was next, but I can't be sure, like I said I was pretty out of it.   We dropped the bikes and walked towards the happy sounds people invariably make at a ropes sections.   This was a simple traverse on two ropes, one low one that you walked on, one high one that you reached up to use for balance.   I think Eric went first, I couldn't focus enough to get my harness on so I wasn't paying much attention.   Then I think it was Debbie's turn.   She had some trouble because the ropes were almost too far apart from each other for her to reach, but she made it.  

I clipped in next and tried to balance on the lower rope.   I made it about three steps and my legs gave out and I fell off.   Don't worry, I didn't fall to my death, I was still clipped into the top rope.   There was nothing the matter with my arms so I just pulled myself across to the other side.   Bryan, who had driven down from Dallas to volunteer and take pictures, said it was the fastest anybody had gone across so far.   He was taking pictures of somebody else at the time or I'd show you one here.  

The rest of RHR is pretty much a blur.   There was mud, but not much.   My new bike worked wonderfully and I didn't fall off.   It got dark and everybody turned on their headlamps.   Garrett and Eric kept us on track and headed in the right direction.   We made a few slight mistakes, but Garrett is really good about realizing his mistakes and fixing them.   As a navigator it's easy to convince yourself that your going the right way even when the terrain looks a bit off, Garret doesn't fall for that one.  

We hit all the CP's and headed back to the ranch entrance.   It was probably around 10pm by then and getting colder all the time.   We switched out some gear, refilled our camelbacks from the bladders we'd staged here and headed for home.   There were two CP's to get on the way back.   One was right next to the park road and looked pretty straight forward.   The other was way off in the middle of nowhere and looked really tricky.  

The ride from RHR to Buescher Park isn't long or hilly or really hard, it's just scary.   It's a pretty narrow road and the cars and trucks zooming by you at sixty miles an hour make you wish you had more lighting.   We made it to the Buescher turn off with no incidents, but I was almost dead.   The pace had been too fast for me even though I was at the end of the line and I was close to throwing up the last few hours of Gu's and Cliff bars.  

Everybody has highs and lows during a race and this was a pretty deep low for me.   I told the team that I couldn't keep that pace and that I would drop out if they wanted me too.   They told me to shut up, we would take a slower pace and nobody was being dropped.   I wasn't sure if this was kindness or sadism.  

We found the first CP right off the road where it was supposed to be and headed on towards Bastrop and the next one.   The plan was to find a fence line that crossed the road.   Easy enough in the daylight, but a bit tricky at night.   While we were peddling along we came to a group of bikes dropped next to a sign for a park trail.   There were at least two teams using this trail as an attack point for this CP.   Trying not to succumb to the herd mentality we continued on with our own plan.  

A mile or so later we came upon the same kind of scene.   Another trail heading in the right direction and another group of dropped bikes.   I don't think we even slowed down for this one, in for a penny, in for a pound you might say.  

We missed the fence line in the dark but quickly realized it and turned around.   We followed the fence line for a pretty good ways.   The going was tough and the fence kept disappearing on us.   Eventually we got to what Garrett thought was the right attack point.   We took a bearing, fanned out a little and started off looking for the last CP on this section.   Our bearing and pace count were right on and we walked right up to the CP.   It's fun when things work out like that, especially in the dark.  

Now all we had to do was make it back to the TA along the park road.   I think it was about eight to ten more miles.   There are no flat spots on Park Road 1C.   We were either puffing and sweating up one hill or freezing and flying down another.   The team was keeping a slower pace so I was able to keep up without passing out.  

Eventually we climbed the last hill, turned left and saw the lights of the TA, it was beautiful.   It was somewhere around midnight, the first leg had taken us fourteen hours.   We stumbled up to the TA Queen and showed her our passport.   Instead of handing us our next set of coordinates she had us choose a jigsaw puzzle.   The coordinates were written on the back of the puzzle.  

Special test are always fun in Adventure Racing, but maybe not when it's thirty degrees or so.   I grabbed a nice fleece hat and a fleece coat and started working on the puzzle.   It was then I started noticing all the people that were around our TA.   There were half a dozen people bringing us hot chocolate, cookies, Cowboy Soup, and everything else you could want.   I've never had so much help, it was like our own little AAR family.  

I remember Ed was there, and Jill, and Bryan, and I think Doug and Cynthia, and whoever it was who kept bringing that wonderful soup.   I know there were others, but to tell the truth I was pretty out of it.   Thank you to everybody, it made a ton of difference.  

Time passed and we got the puzzle together on the wrinkly map case we had used as a base and copied down the numbers underneath.   They didn't make sense as coordinates, they were too short.   We took the completed puzzle to the TA Queen and she handed us the instruction for the next leg.   It was a trekking section and there was only one point.   The instructions had the other half of the coordinates we'd just copied down.   Now it all made sense.  

What was even better was that we knew exactly where the next CP was.   It was an old rusted car that Too Cool had used in the very first Big Chill.   There was a trail that took you almost right too it.   Everybody geared up for the short hike and we took off.  

This was a very enjoyable section for me.   I had been feeling pretty weak and useless since the boats but this section helped recharge my reserves.   The old rusted car was right were it was supposed to be and the CP was hung inside.   We punched it and started heading back.   Along the way we saw a team coming out from behind a large water tower that's on the park road.   This gave us a pretty good hint as to where we might be going on our next leg.  

Sure enough, the next leg had just one CP and it was at that water tower.   This leg was going to be a ride and tie, which means two people ride while two people jog.   They call it a "Tie" because it's legal to tow the jogger behind the bike, sometimes using a tow line that is tied to the joggers waste.  

We decided to use Debbie's and my bikes.   Since Eric and Garrett were in the best shape they did the lions share of the jogging.   We bagged the CP pretty quickly and headed back.  

The next section was tough.   It was five or six biking points that didn't look to hard to find, but were pretty far away.   Several of them were along Gotier Trace Rd, otherwise known as the road from hell.   A couple of years ago Too Cool had sent us up this same road and it had about killed several teams.   It's a normal dirt/clay road when it's dry, but it turns into a bike eating fiend when it's wet, and it was wet.   Luckily for us it wasn't as wet as it had been the last time and it was actually a pretty nice ride, I was just too tired to enjoy it.  

I remember most of the CP's pretty well.   There was the one in the woods along the power lines.   Another under a bridge on a steep embankment that I almost rolled down.   One at the cemetery that at three in the morning is just creepy.   Probably another one I'm forgetting and then the one that tried to strangle me.  

The last one was easy to find, but slippery and hard to get to.   I was having trouble punching it because my eyes were getting tired and I couldn't read the numbers on the passport very well.   As I was trying to see what I was doing I slipped down the creek bank the CP was on and the passport lanyard got hung up on something.   I was now being strangled by my own passport.   I couldn't get my footing on the slippery bank and I started to panic a bit.  

Again, don't worry, I didn't die.   I finally wiggled around enough to get on my stomach and dig my feet into the bank.   I punched the CP and we headed out, trying to stay ahead of a team that was just coming down the road at us.  

The ride back was pretty harsh.   I was out of energy and several teams were breathing down our necks.   I think we were passed by at least three teams in the last mile to the TA.   When the last team passed us Debbie decided that she'd had enough and gave chase.   As usual I was having trouble keeping up.  

It was somewhere in here that my light decided to go into power saver mode, which meant it was about to run out of juice.   I'd had it on for about twelve hours so it was overdue, but still it was bad timing.   At one point I was too far behind everybody to see any one else's lights so I was pretty much in the dark.   It's an eerie feeling flying down a steep hill at thirty miles an hour with only the moonlight showing you were the road is.   It was so cold I couldn't feel my fingers or toes, I had tears streaming out of my eyes and snot pouring out my nose, it was beautiful man, beautiful.  

I almost caught back up to my team, but the last hill got me and I had to get off to walk.   It's been a long time since I couldn't make my body do what I wanted it to do.   This race had definitely pointed out my training shortcomings.  

My team was waiting at the top of that last hill.   We regrouped and road in together.   I didn't really dismount my bike as fall off when we pulled into the TA.   It was somewhere around 6am.  

We showed off our passport and received the coordinates for the final leg.   It was a trekking leg with eight or so points.   We plotted all the points but decided to only do five of them.   Time was running out and we were getting nervous about making the time cutoff.  

We had a quick transition and headed out.   I had switched batteries, but wouldn't need them for much longer.  

The first CP was at the top of a hill near a campsite, no problem, just a big steep hill to climb.   The second CP was up a draw on the other side of the park road off a major trail, again no problem.   The third was in a draw close to a pond, bingo, we were cruising.   The fourth was kind of close to that water tower we'd been to before, we had a bit of trouble, but not much.  

The last one tricked us all and almost killed me.   It was in yet another draw near the western edge of the park where there are nothing but draws.   Eric thought he had a good plan of attack and took the lead.   Debbie and I were contouring around a hill when she leaned on a good sized pine tree for balance.   The tree started to fall and would have done some serious damage if she hadn't called out to me.   In my sleep deprived stupor all I could do was stop and look up at her in confusion, but it was enough.   The tree came crashing down right at the tips of my shoes.   We were not so fortunate in locating the CP, it was nowhere to be found.   It seemed almost cruel to get down to the last CP of the race and be denied.  

After a bit of talking, re-figuring, and a temper fit by me, we tried the next draw down and found it.   We had over an hour left in the race.   The desire to find just one more CP was almost too much for us, but in the end we played it safe and headed back.  

We used some of the golf coarse cart trails to make it easier on ourselves on the way back.   Went up that damn hill before the TA one last time, turned in our passport and we were done!   We were currently in fourth place, but any team that came in before the cut-off that had more CP's would beat us.  

I spent the time cleaning up and packing, trying not to think of those last three CP's that we'd skipped.   In the end two more teams came in with more CP's than us.   Werewolves of Austin had gotten them all, and Outcasts had only missed two.  

All in all it was a tough race for me personally.   I was out of shape and hurting most of the time, and didn't contribute very much.   My teammates were very understanding and compassionate, but they shouldn't have needed to be.  

The race itself was great.   The weather was the best you could hope for in January in Texas.   Clear blue skies after the fog burned off, temps that ranged from sixty to thirty and NO RAIN or gail force winds.   I'm still not sure were the "Kinder and Gentler" part came in, but who cares, it was a great race.   Too Cool even transported the boats back to Bastrop for us, although there was some mix-up with gear that might taint that effort.  

What sticks out most from this race are the people.   Most everybody was friendly and cheerful, or at least civil.   Cheerful might be a bit much to ask in the middle of the night, freezing your butt off, grinding up a giant hill on a muddy bike.   My teammates were especially understanding and supportive.   Garrett is a confident and efficient navigator.   Eric is very strong and also an excellent navigator.   Debbie is one of the most competitive racers I've ever been around.   They are all great and make a really cohesive team.  

So thanks to everybody who helped put on this race.   It was an experience that I'll try and learn from.   Thanks to everybody who helped us in our TA.   Debbie has drawn together a wonderful group of racers around the AAR banner and it was fun to see so many familiar faces out there.   And yes, I'll probably be back again next year to try for the fifth time to finish this race.   Who cares what Albert Einstein thinks.  

Curt Slaten
Austin Adventure Racers


I forgot to mention that Doug Mammoser provided his route-mapper services again this race.   He also managed to win the 12 hour race.