3 Days

I've been gone almost a week. I left last Tuesday for Houston at 3pm. Was supposed to leave houston at 4pm. We didn't end up leaving until 9pm. Team MOAT calls that the Shaun factor. We drive, we rest, we eat. For almost a day it was. We arrived at West Virginia late Wednesday night. We sleep for about 5 hours, and this is when the fun begins.
We have to be checked in by noon. So we get stuff ready. Getting stuff ready for something you don't know what you're going to do with is very difficult. So I made sure I had plenty of dry socks. A couple of shirts, shoes, and a few shorts.
We show up, get the maps, and checked in. Of course we are the last team to do this. And of course everything we need is in the RV, not the van. We have about an hour to get things ready before a race meeting. The maps are 1:52000, instead of what we're used to, 1:24000. So things were a bit different!

So race start, is around 6 oclock. We worked all day getting ready, franticly, and we're prepared for the upcoming days of racing.

The start is a white water raft. Where they lottery drew who was going into which boat. Most boats had 2 teams of 4(8 people max). Our boat had our 4 person team, 1 two person team, and two soloists. Then, one person from each team had to do a short run, and swim to the raft. Lucky us. Instead of waiting on 2 people, we waited on 4! We started last, but made a pass in whitewater to come out in 3rd of our wave of boats.
A short paddle in a canoe.
Then almost nighttime, we start portaging. True to MOATs tradition, we started off bad. Went the wrong way, with other teams, and ended up losing 30 minutes easy. A couple miles of this and we were done, and off to a long nighttime ride on the bike.
We get to some points easy, then hit CP 5. We look, and again, with another team, we thought we just screwed up. So we went off solo, and tried to find out what went wrong. This is at 11pm. We go back, look around, look for roads, and even backtrack on a highway. We figure that we were right, just didn't go far enough. We go deep into the woods. Now a couple of hours later, all the teams are buzzing around here and there. It seems they can't find it either. Dave and I walk....I mean, crawl, hop, duck and maneuver to the creek. It's not there. It's been 4 hours, and we know we're in the right spot....so we bail...it's not there.
We come to TA and find some teams found it, and Dave has some words with Ronny, the race director. Later we find out that it WAS wrong....but this is after we think the race is lost(as some teams got it, and we WASTED 4 hours)
We do some walking, and hit the next day with a rappell. It was high....very high. I can't repeat the words that came out of my mouth, but everyone around me seemed to laugh at me....either my demeanor, or just the brown stuff in my pants.
The next day or so is all jumbled together....we did some more riding, walked some more, and did an O course the next night. MOAT trekked so gosh darn fast, that I literitly sucked at walking by the end. I'd either have to run, or slowly walk.
We took a nap here or there, when we would all get zombied, and hit a long 20min nap that second night, just enough time for daylight to wake us and find a point that would've been harder to find at night.
Then we get to the next bike leg. It's supposed to be 85 miles, but I'm VERY baddly chafed, and hurting. My legs feel good, but to ride just sucks. We decide to make the first CP, then decide what we will do(call it short and go to the finish).
Leslie and Dave start to argue, and I'm just in a tight spot. As Leslie wanted to get the points, and Dave was supporting me and going to call it a day.
We get to the point, and head home, tension was high, but we finally go to the last trail(3miles). Almost done! Well, except every tree on that peice of land was fallen over, and all the thorn bushes grew up. And we could find NO trail. So we walked, and walked, and rode the bike here or there. A couple of hours later, we get to TA!
We find out we're in the lead now(but we skipped CP's), and Leslie was glad, as the lead team was 8 hours ahead, and still wasn't in TA!!!
The last leg, the paddle/trek-nav, was easy. We paddled to the first point, climbed the mountain, got the CP, then trekked over to the next mountain, and found a CP, then down and up another mountain to find a 3rd CP. It just took 2 hours to find these....and we had 3 more. It was close to our third night, and wanted to get as much daylight as possible.
We noticed some canoes parked next to ours, and figured the lead team was a few hours behind.
We paddle on. Find the next CP, and its in a water fall. I'm leading the group, and a few showers graced us. Luckily the rocks were like ice climbing up, and after reaching the top of the first shallow waterfall only 13 feet long at around a 70 degree slope, I slip. The small ridges made my booty go bump bump bump and I land in fridgid water. It hurt. So I ask Dave, since we're not 'racing' anymore and just out training if it's worth getting hurt over....he said, lets get this and we can paddle on. Whatever you want Dr Dave!
So Shaun leads now, taking a different approach-the side of the cliffs. Hes about 25 feet up in the dirt, and is almost to the rocks. Then he slips. A 5 foot slide on the steep ground, then he has a 20 foot freefall to the rock bottom.
MOAT gasps, and luckily he's fine. Dave says "Shaun, what to you say we skip this one, it's not worth getting hurt!"
So we paddle on. And on. Sleep starts creeping in. So we pull up boat to boat and chat with each other, and Dave is cracking me up! This was a good moment as we were relaxing and racing, having a good time.
We finish the paddle right before dark, and I find out that we have a 10mile trek ahead, finishing it off with a river crossing. THATS IT!!! i'm almost done.
10 miles later, I get to the river, cross it. Then find out I have 4 miles of uphill to get to the finish. Mentally, I'm blown. I should be done by now. I sulk and creep up the hill. 1hour and 30minutes later, I'm at the lodge, the last CP. We did it.
While waiting on badass rookie support crew, Jeff, Leslie, Dave and Shaun Almighty took a nap in the hall. We got picked up, took a shower, ate, talked a bit, and hit the hay for a short night....waking up early and starting driving home.
We were the first to finish, but because we didn't hit all the CP's, we shouldn't win this race....we COULD"VE won this race, and was definitly the fastest team out there, as our bike/trek/paddle was above the other teams....but one 4 hour mistake that wasn't our fault made it for a good training day....days.