From 4LPH41337.com

Contents 1 Midnight Rush Pictures 2 Midnight Rush Videos 3 Midnight Rush Info 4 Midnight Rush Maps 5 Midnight Rush Website 6 Midnight Rush Results 7 Midnight Rush Reviews 7.1 Josh's Take 7.2 Jordan's Take 7.3 Enid's Take 7.4 Joanna's Take 7.5 Laura's Take 7.6 Michael's Take

Midnight Rush Pictures

Pictures
4LPH4 1337 Teams	4LPH4 1337 - Lime	Prerace Meeting	Prerace Prep
Showdown	Josh Race Ready	Starting Line	Michael & Jordan Start
Michael Prologue Finish	Adjustments on the Go	Jordan & Enid Portaging	Joanna Laura Michael Portaging
Transition	Field Repairs	Laura Biking In	Biking out of TA
Jordan Rappel	Enid Rappel	Josh Rappel	Trekking out of TA

Midnight Rush Videos

Midnight Rush Info

• Date: Sept 13th
• Location: Talullah Gorge Area (Clayton/Lake Russell, GA)
• Event Points Category: USARA Nationals Qualifier. Listed on USARA as "One Day"
• Teams Registered:
  • 4LPH4 1337 - Lime (Joanna, Laura, Michael)
  • 4LPH4 1337 - Tequila (Jordan, Enid, Josh)

Format:

• ~14 hour modified rogaine including mandatory/optional CPs within defined legs:
  • paddling/portaging (3 portages, 2 paddling stages)
  • mountain biking/bike whacking
  • rappelling
  • trekking
• enforced cutoff time with 1CP penalty per 5 minutes after cutoff

Midnight Rush Maps

Midnight Rush Website

Midnight Rush Adventure Race

Midnight Rush Results

Results|Results By Category

Midnight Rush Reviews

We fielded two teams:

• 4LPH4 1337 - Lime (Joanna, Laura, Michael)
• 4LPH4 1337 - Tequila (Jordan, Enid, Josh)

Josh's Take

I was initially going to support team Tequila, but though a chain of events, I ended up racing it with Jordan and Enid. We were fielding the same team we had raced in Western Carolina AR, so we would see if we learned from our mistakes that time around. Our mistakes at that race were based rushing while plotting points on the clock and me focusing on navigation, not getting enough nutrition and bonking. While we did not repeat the former (because there were no points to plot on the clock), we unfortunately did repeat the latter.

We were a bit upset going into the race as two teams to see that the first leg was a paddle. On face value, it appeared with the fastest of our three boats and better paddles, we'd come off the paddle ahead. We were surprised and delighted to find 4LPH4 1337 - Lime with us after the paddle leg was over.

I'm gonna coin the term AR tunnel vision now, as I've been a victim of it three times now (first at the 2007 Overmountain Extreme, then at Checkpoint Zero earlier this year), and most recently at this race).

AR Tunnel Vision:
AR tunnel vision, is where one is so focused on the pre-race
strategy (based off of the map's often-flawed depiction of 
the terrain) that he or she doesn't adapt and re-strategize 
in a timely manner when encountering an instance where the 
actual terrain does not match the map's depiction.  

The bike leg for Tequila was a classic case of AR tunnel vision. Both Tequila and Lime had decided before the race that the southeast route from WP1 would be the safest bet, assuming that he gorge would hinder any travel bushwhacking to CP4. So we opted for the up and over push-a-bike longer route. The path to WP1 was relatively straightforward, and I made the correct decision to follow the flat grassy double-track rather than the single track along the hill. Coming upon WP1, we saw 2-3 of the race leaders had done the same. The path, however, ended at a gnarly road which landed itself into a stream. We heard before the race that Greg said that the path from WP1 to CP4 would not be a bikewhack, so what did we do? Well, instead of re-strategizing and investigating the other option of going northwest through the gorge to CP4, we figured the trail head must just be hard to find or we may not know exactly where we are. While this might have been the case, it was not. If we had adapted to the map-terrain discrepancies, we'd have chosen to take another look at our route options, not just focusing on our path options. However, we did not. We sought out a trail on the other side of the stream that would carry us in the right direction. Then, realizing that that wouldn't happen, we sought out a hiking trail up the hill on the side of the stream from which we came shooting off of the gnarly rode. A washed out trail existed, but that was it. Backtracking, we scouted along the hill side back in the grassy area from which we came. At this point, we had spent 30+ minutes searching for the path and lost our top 5 status and were now soundly in the middle of the pack. 4LPH4 1337 - Lime, unfortunately, had made the same mistake and was searching, as we had done, for the path. We compared notes and Joanna pointed out a turnoff that might have been the northwestern pass to CP4--a road not on the map. All of the sudden, I could see things in the periphery again. It was time to re-route ourselves to CP4. We did so, and found forest service roads nicely leading to CP4.

Rewind.

Hitting the FSRs, we encountered some nice downhill with some mild whoop-ti-dos. I say mild because I've gone over much worse. Apparently my bike disagreed, because I went over one and my rear triangle cracked on one side. Instantly my tire was rubbing the frame on the same side and I realized there was a problem. At first I thought it was a flat or something, then I realized it was something more insidious. Finding the crack, we realized we couldn't do much to help it, so got back on an peddled through the tire rub, hoping the other side of the fork would last through the long bike leg to come, or it would most certainly put us on the mandatory-only track. Then came the chain slip. Apparently, the diagonal angle at which the wheel was at didn't agree with the chain/chain ring contact, as every other pedal resulted in chainslip. I was walking many of the uphills and coasting the downhills (avoiding all possible bumps as best as I could). We made it to CP4, with 4LPH4 1337 Limes rejoining us. At that CP, we took 15 or so minutes to do field repairs. After a suggestion to fix it, Michael and Jordan went to work with a tire lever and duct tape. They formed a sort of splint around the broken frame, which resulted in fixing the majority of the chain slip issues, but the tire rub remained. Encouraged by this, we shot off on the bikes, opting at this point to skip the optional bike points, hoping to make it up on the trek.

The hill up from CP7. Dang. That's where my nutritional depletion started.

Then came the next debacle. Yes, the highway that wasn't on the map on the way to CP8, because the map was datum 1983 and the road was built in 1990. Comparing notes with the Lime, we eventually figured it out, after an hour and a half. Surprisingly, us figuring it out so quickly gave us a 15 minute lead on the collection of teams gathered at an intersection 800m from the highway. On the other hand, teams that knew the area crossed the road instantaneously, giving them a 90 minute advantage on us in a 12 hour race...

Going into TA3, we deferred food intake until after the rappel, wanted to get ahead of any bottleneck that might form behind us. This was a good decision because a bottleneck did form behind us, but was a bad decision because with all the navigation, I wasn't spending a lot of time drinking. The hike up Currahee mountain with our bikes (we figured the ride down would be worth the push up) pushed me other the edge. By the time I got up the mountain, I was bonked. We were the 2nd team up, but it literally took 10 minutes to put my climbing harness on, with the help of Jordan and Greg telling me what I needed to do. I was hoping the repel would give me an adrenaline boost like it did at SOAR last year, but no such luck. I was numb to it. Climbing back up from the rappel, we said our hellos to Lime (the 3rd team up), grabbed the bikes and coasted down the hill, avoiding people sweating their way up the brutal climb.

I rode into the transition, bounced a few times on my bike, and finished the job. The rear triangle was destroyed.

Off on the trek, with dinner and drink in hand, I was actively trying to get back in the game. It was a slow but steady acceleration on the trek leg. An hour later of nausea, I threw up, and felt much better. Kept drinking to replenish fluids, which eventually happened as nightfall brought the cool weather, it was an easier fight to get my body back into shape. Jordan had taken over navigation, and I was doing my best to assist. After taking a while to get OT1, and given the state I was in, we opted to skip OT2. After vomiting, the acceleration was much quicker, however. We continued on, but were anxious about the time we had left. We skipped OT3 as well, pressing on towards CP15. At this point, while I was back to full health, Enid seemed to be wavering. We convinced her to go uphill to get OT4, and then we bushwhacked down the hill back to the road. We ran back what seemed like a never ending road (off the map) to the finish.

Throughout the race, we encountered many obstacles, which we overcame by luck and perseverance. We found out later that it paid off--we had a 3rd place finish in the midst of a tough field.

There wouldn't be any sleep for the team though; we held out for Lime's finish--3rd team to rappel, we knew that something was holding them up on the trekking section as many teams finished ahead of them. Around 1am, we were able to contact them via phone. They were safe and sound, but had overshot CP12 and spent 3 hours looking for it. They managed to get the rest of the mandatory CPs on the way in, but had unfortunately overshot the cutoff. We were happy to see them in high spirits, despite the tough break on the course.

Jordan's Take

Enid's Take

Joanna's Take

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous and excited about this race in advance. It was going to be the first time since I had joined 4LPH4 1337 that I would be racing without Josh and the first time in over a year since I had last practiced my navigation. Even though I was a little nervous about this, I was looking forward to the experience of racing with a new group within the team and to test out my nav skills.

We received the maps the night before the race which already had the CPs plotted, but had no race instructions included. We had to wait until we arrived at the start the next morning to receive the course outline. The race format consisted of 3 primary sections: canoe, bike, and trek. Within each discipline, there were mandatory and optional CPs - it was each team's responsibility to determine which optional CPs they could obtain within the allotted time frame.

The race began with the canoeing section. In order to separate the teams out and prevent a bottleneck, each team was required to select one member to run through trails which would take him/her over the dam, jump into the water, swim, and run back to the start. Once the teammate returned, the team could begin the race. Mike graciously volunteered to accept this role, and soon returned at the head of the pack with a huge smile on his face because he was already having a blast. As soon as we saw him, we grabbed our canoe and began the portage over the dam and to the initial canoeing section.

Since we had anticipated team Lime's strengths to be on the paddle and the trek, we opted to go for all of the OPs on these sections and skip the ones on the biking portion. We made pretty good time on the initial paddling section, with Laura doing an excellent job on the nav, remaining side by side with team Tequila most of the way. We portaged back to the start, skipped TA1 and immediately began the 2nd portion of the paddle. Once again, we made good time, and were only diverted by CP2 which some drunken hillbilly had decided to run off with and add to his trophy collection. We exited the water for the second portage with team Tequila still with us.

TA3 took a little bit longer than we had anticipated since we decided to help our support with the canoe. We also took our time at this TA in order to make sure we had adequate nutrition & hydration for the bike leg. We took off in quick pursuit of Team Tequila, who had left the TA about 10 minutes before us. We soon discovered that the nav was going to be tricky when the path I had mapped out to CP4 ended in an open field. The trail on the map which I had chosen for us to take would have been bearing uphill and to the east, but the only trail available was on the southern side of the hill, headed south. Fortunately, we were saved from wasting our time scouting this trail by team Tequila who came barreling back down it while we were considering our options. After some backtracking and deliberation, we decided to take a previous trail we had seen which wasn't on the map, but headed northwest towards another potential route to CP4.

This trail did indeed lead us to CP4, after which we split up from Tequila in order to stop for nutrition. Things were pretty uneventful up to CP7, which we got to via crazy fun dirt bike trails. From CP7, we were required to bush whack with our bikes to WP2. The forest was pretty thick, and Mike found a small stream bed which we decided to follow. While it wasn't as thick as the surrounding area, it was still pretty rocky and overgrown, so the going was tough. We emerged into a nice, open area of the woods and found the trail we thought we were looking for. It was a very steep, gravel uphill which we grudgingly began pushing our bikes up. About halfway up, Laura pointed out a trail to the west which had come into view, which I soon came to realize was the trail we should have been on. We took our bikes back down and over to this next trail. I didn't think it could be possible, but this next trail was even steeper than the last, so I very slowly began pushing my bike up. At this point, Mike offered to take my bike for me, and two seconds after I said I'd try to get to the top on my own, I changed my mind and handed my bike over to him. He hoisted my bike and his up into the air, one on each shoulder, and proceeded to the top faster than I was climbing with no bike at all. He then set the bikes down, and returned down the hill to take Laura's bike up too. After we had caught our breath, we meandered along the trail until we came out at what seemed to be someone's driveway. From here, we exited to the main road and headed in the direction I had indicated on the map. Within a minute, we were at the top of a hill, staring down at a major highway. Since the map was old and so many of the trails and roads indicated on it had already been off, I began second guessing where we were and decided that this highway must be 17, so we turned around in order to follow the road and figure out where we were. Once again, team Tequila saved us the trouble as they came barreling toward us. Josh had figured out that this highway was not 17, but 365 - we had been told that, except for crossing, 365 was off limits, but we had been unable to find 365 on the course map. Turns out, it wasn't on the course map at all! We crossed 365 and continued towards CP8 which turned out to be booby trapped with a yellow jacket's nest. On the way to CP9/TA3, I realized I had a flat, so team Lime once again said goodbye to Tequila.

At TA3, we decided to change into our hiking shoes and ride our bikes to the peak of the mountain. Riding my pedals up a killer hill without cleats was a little bit harder than I expected, so once again Mike graciously offered to take my bike while I crawled up the hill. The climb turned out to be very rewarding when we reached a graffiti-covered rock which offered an amazing panoramic view of the area. At the very top, we put on our climbing gear and proceeded downhill to the rappel. The rappel was a nice change in the pace, but we not only had to climb back up to the start of the rappel, but we had to climb back up to CP10 as well. The ride back down the mountain was pretty fun, but it was also pretty tough keeping my cleatless shoes on the pedals. Back at TA3, support hand fed me peanut butter & apples while I prepared for the final leg of the race. We left TA3 for the trek feeling really strong and confident. We were pretty sure that if our nav was correct, we could hit every optional and mandatory CP and make the new 12:30 cutoff with no problem.

Little did we know........................................................

We headed directly for OT1 which we eventually found after turning too soon, returning to the trail, and bush whacking through the thicket. It had just gotten dark by the time we found it, but since my nav had been pretty decent so far, my confidence was still pretty high. We continued on the trail towards CP12, and at every turn we checked our bearing and land features in order to make sure we were on the right trail. I never doubted that we were, so when we reached a water crossing, we were pretty sure we were where we should be. I very quickly realized the creek we were following wasn't the one it should have been when it soon dried up and ended, but we quickly found a large creek nearby which had the correct bearing of the one we were looking for.

We decided we had cut off the trail too soon, but were now in the right place and began our search along the side for CP12. I was a little nervous that I didn't hear any other teams in the area, but after a fruitless search and looking at the map, we decided we may have hit the creek too far north and that we should continue south. At this point, bushwhacking next to the creek had become very tedious, so we decided to just get our feet wet and walk in the creek. After another half hour with no results, we decided we were most definitely not where we thought we were, even though the creek still had the correct bearing, so we turned around and proceeded north up the creek until we returned to the trail.

At this point, we had already spent well over an hour, possibly more, searching for CP12. Mike suggested we continue following the trail we had come from in order to determine where we were. After comparing the bearing and elevations changes to all the trails we thought we could be on, I realized that we were nowhere near any of them. Instead, we had gone further south than we had thought, towards the Frady trail head, and had actually hit the creek south of the CP, so the whole time we had been looking for it, we had been heading away from it and that's why we never hit any of the features I had identified to tell us we had gone too far south. Once we knew for sure where we were, we booked it to the actual location of CP12, which we found in no time at all. At this point, we had spent 3 hours playing in the creek, and we realized there was no way we could get the optionals, and very possibly no way we could make the cut off, so we just proceeded full speed ahead in order to make it back so no one would worry about us. Since all of the remaining mandatory CPs were on the way back, we decided we would at least complete the course, even if we were going to end up DNF. The way back was pretty straight forward, but my confidence was completely shattered and my nav was quickly deteriorating, so I handed the map over to Mike who seemed to be doing really well with figuring the trails out. At 12:30, we still had a ways to go, so I pulled out my cellphone and tried calling the race director and members of team Tequila to tell them not to worry about us, but the reception at Lake Russell was pretty spotty, so no one answered. I decided to leave the phone on in case anyone thought to call us, and we just continued forward as fast as our soggy feet would let us. At some point, Jordan called and we let him know we were still alive and well and would be finishing soon. We ended up finishing 16 hours after the race had started and told everyone we were having so much fun that we decided to get our money's worth and pick up a few extra CPs of our own.

Needless to say, the outcome of the race was disappointing, but I still had a fantastic time. It was a great race with a great format, and I couldn't have asked for better teammates to be out there with. Whereas some people might have gotten really discouraged and given up when in our situation, we accepted things as they were and didn't let it ruin our fun. We pulled ourselves together, worked as a team, and found our way back. Plus, it was really fun having team Tequila there to help us out and drive us forward.

Lessons Learned
- The map is not always right, but the compass is.
- Even if there are multiple factors indicating you're where you think you are, if there are multiple factors indicating you're not where you think you are, take the time to verify where you are before continuing on.
- Don't think about how much time you've already invested in searching for a CP, but think about how much time you're going to lose if you're not where you think you are - if you think you might need to retrace your steps, retrace your steps!
- Sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice your pride and let your teammates take your load for you.
- A team does not consist of multiple people working individually, a team is an entity in and of itself and can only function properly when all team members are communicating, listening, and assisting one another.
- It's okay to second guess your teammate - the purpose of having more than one person there is to have multiple brains taking multiple angles on the same problem.
- Be aware and accepting of your teammate's strengths and weaknesses so that you know when you need to help them and when they can help you.
- Be aware and accepting of your own strengths and weaknesses. Make sure your teammates are aware of them too, so they know when they can expect to help you and when they can expect to be helped by you.
- Duck tape and tire levers have multiple uses.
- Make sure your spare tube isn't a flat.
- 1 temporary tattoo + 3 hours direct sun - 0 sunscreen = 4LPH41337 branded shoulder
- The number one goal is to have fun, doing well is just a bonus.

Laura's Take

Michael's Take

Discuss This Article