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| Nashvar Presents the
March 20, 2004 Race
Report By
Captain Yak
Leg 1 was a run over the spine of the Narrows of the Harpeth Leg 2 was an upstream paddle and portage across the Narrows of the Harpeth Leg 3 was a 5 mile float Leg 4 consisted of a bike ride to the second transition area, TA2 Leg 5 was a trek to a cliff for an 80-100 ft rappel then bushwhacking back to the TA2 Leg 6 was back on the bikes for lots of riding then back to the starting line.
The total race distance was about 35 miles. We figured the breakdown was roughly: 5 miles on the water 10 miles on foot 20
miles on bikes Our
race started off two days prior with one of our yak-mates, Yak Daddy, phoning a
report of a 101°
fever. By
race day however he stated he felt “much better.”
So we started with high hopes as the puzzle (which was the first map!) was being assembled.
We completed the first leg over to the canoes in fine form.
We hauled our boat up the mud slick and portaged over to the put-in of
the long float without mishap.
We missed one checkpoint along the river but quickly recovered and
paddled upstream a little to get it. We finished the canoeing around seventeenth
place according one of the volunteers, my lovely wife. So far so good. We
ran back and got on our trusty bikes, one old and borrowed, one new and rented,
and mine, new to me and never tested in a race.
The
first real snag came under the bridge as I attempted to ride across the giant
rocks and, doing a fairly spectacular endo, fell to my death.
OK, maybe not MY death, but my back rim’s death.
Yep, that baby folded like a bad poker hand.
Out of commiseration, Yak Daddy piled up right behind me. I hauled my
bike over to a picnic table and took off the back wheel.
As my fellow yak-mates and I considered our plight and began the process
of trying to get the thing straight enough to clear the brakes, we waved to the
teams passing us and wished them well.
Having never bent the crap out of a rim and them tried to continue
riding, I was fairly amazed how straight we were able to get it.
So, we were off again!
We
finished that leg and got back on our bikes just in time for the toranadic
monsoons to hit.
We would rather NOT have been riding the spines of the ridges on our
metal lightening rods, but you don’t always get to choose.
Finally we descended into the lowlands and felt much better.
More great scenery and another hellish hill to climb/drag bikes up.
Then just as we were heading for the last checkpoint we met an angel of mercy who said that we should look at, and On
the last leg as we were going down one of the many rocky trails one of our team,
Yakety Yak, made the statement, “Hey, I have a flat front tire!”
Not to worry, we all have spare tubes… Schrader tubes… rental
bike…Presta rims…DOH! Since it
was still pouring rain at this point we rode a while and then decided to try to
repair it with our handy repair kit. Again,
the same angel of mercy appeared to offer help and show me how to reverse my
pump to handle the skinny valve. Who
was that masked man? Now, I have
changed and repaired many a flat, and if you read the instructions the word
“dry” comes up quite a bit. I
patched the hole in the driving rain as we assured several of the teams passing
us that we had it under control. We replaced the wheel and we were off with a Check out the official Nashvar DDD page for Team Retching Yaks Yippee--- The video is
here....
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