Race: Island Quest 12 hour AR
Team Name:
YERT White MillWill
Team Members:
Darren Steinbach
Jaime White
Laura Miller
Shawn Wilson
Time to finish:
11 Hours 30 Minutes
Favorite parts of the race
Island quest was a very fun very fast race on San Juan Island. The checkpoints in each segment were arranged in such a way that there were a LOT of route choices, it really fun to see the choices other teams were making and the consequences of those choices. Making decisions on the fly based on the terrain was also a lot of fun, the route I marked on the map before the race was a lot different from the route we took. May of the decision changes were based on the type of single track on the bike legs, because the trails were very technical and rocky it was almost always faster to go out and grab a checkpoint and backtrack to the double track rather than continue on down the trail. The views were also really amazing, we got up on several high points overlooking the ocean. I tried to take my eyes off the map and look out over the water as often as I could.
Where we suffered
The format for this race was trek/bike/trek/bike/paddle/orienteering trek. The second bike leg had a lot of checkpoints and there wasn’t a very efficient way to get them all, but we pushed really hard to get through them and only missed one on our way out (so frustrating) so that we could get to the kayak before the time cut off. After pushing that hard on the bikes and trek sections then sitting in rental sea kayaks for an hour everyone was very stiff for the last trek. It was a big effort to get all eight hips and legs working enough to collect checkpoints for the last hour of our race.
Lessons
It’s a lesson I am reminded of every race, but this race it was very obvious that each team should race their own race. It doesn’t matter which position you think you are in, other teams are making different decisions and different mistakes. During our race there were so many different route choices that you couldn’t really tell if someone was in front of you. A team could have taken a different path that put them physically ahead but they might still need to go back to an area you’ve already been. Because of how complex the second bike course was I think several teams skipped bike checkpoints to get to the kayak earlier but there were only six checkpoints on the kayak leg and some of them were very far away. A team could have got back to the kayak ahead of us and even finished the race before us but still be behind us in checkpoints.
Gear
This race didn’t seem as gear intense as many of the other races I’ve done this year. We were lucky that the weather was really nice and there wasn’t much bushwacking or bikewacking. I was however very grateful that all of my layers were very light, my Montane shell only weighs a few ounces and packs into a small pouch so I hardly notice it is in my pack. Along with my shell, my Montane jacket, and Ibex light base layer I was able to bring enough gear to keep me nice and warm without worrying about it taking up a lot of space and adding extra weight to my pack after it got warm in the morning.