Buff Betty Women's Adventure Race

[bradhunt]

The adventure weekend actually started out on Saturday afternoon at Lake Hope State Park in southern Ohio with about 20 women who showed up for the skills clinics to learn more about paddling, mountain bike repair and navigation. The rain held off until the end of the clinics and all in attendance enjoyed some delicious hamburgers under the shelter while wondering what the next day's weather would bring.

Amazingly enough, Sunday dawned clear, cool and bright with perfectly beautiful weather for the race. The Buff Betty began with a footrace to the boat dock where racers put out onto Lake Hope and headed for the four CPs on the water, surprising more than a few fishermen on this normally quiet lake. After approximately 3 miles of paddling, Noelle Bartlam, racing as a solo, was the first off the water and soon the rest were back to the START/FINISH for their bikes and off to ride 10 miles of the best mountain bike trails in the state. Riders were constrained to a specific set of trail by the presence of special mystery CPs, and a few teams became so engrossed in riding that they blew right on by and ended up adding a few more miles to their route. Holtzapple/Duval dominated on the bike and picked up a sizeable lead on Bartlam and the rest of the pack. They finished the bike leg in a little over an hour, and within another hour, most of the rest were once again back to the START/FINISH for the "rogaine-style" finish.

The "rogaine-style finish is designed so that all teams finish at or about the same time; in this case 16:00. The way it works is that teams complete the first part of the course (paddling & biking), and then have as much time as remains in the race to visit, in any order, and by any route they choose, a series of checkpoints throughout the forest. The team that visits the most checkpoints in the shortest elapsed race time wins the race. Ties are decided by finish time. Loss of points for a late return keep people from being too ambitious, although we have never had as many "lates" as we did at this race.

This is the element that separates the women from the girls, and like at almost all Ambush races, navigational ability is the key to a good finish. Noelle put the hammer down, was the only one to visit ALL of the orienteering CPs, and ran into the finish with nearly a half-hour to spare to win the 2005 Buff Betty Women's Adventure Race. Kathryn Connolly led first-time adventure racers Amy Glover and Jennifer Szostek to second place, and Heidi Schilling, running as a solo placed third.

No matter what the finish order, there were a lot of smiles and excited talk at the post-race picnic. Congratulations to all who came out to try their first adventure race - we hope to see you in 2006 when the Buff Betty will expand into a 6 race national women's adventure racing series.

CORRECTION: It turns out that the team of Holtzapple/Duval visited 5 orienteering CPs, however one of them was punched very faintly, and it was only after this story was published that the mistake was noticed. The addition of another point puts H/D into second place and knocks a couple of the lead teams back a notch. Sorry for the oversight.

In other late breaking news...
It turns out that Mimi Ruwe (one of the original Buff Bettys) has a broken bone and some soft tissue damage sustained when she turned her ankle on a rock on the way to the finish. She is OK, but doesn't expect to be racing much until late, late in the summer. Best wishes for a complete recovery.

For complete results visit: http://ambushadventuresports.com/BB05/BB05results.php

[mcarterlowe]

The Buff Betty started for my teammate Ginny and I on Friday as we departed Middle Tennessee for the 8 hour plus drive to Ohio. As one of the few all women teams in our area, we thought an all women's race would be fun. Most of our races are in East TN so we were looking for a break and some flatter terrain. We turned off I-71 and began a series of backroads to Lake Hope State Park. The closer we got, the more often we looked at each other and said, "that ain't flat!" Okay, so Ohio isn't completely flat. We had all night to come to terms with this fact since the tent site we reserved had a "gentle slope".

We headed for the skills clinic at the boat house on Saturday. We had decided to do the paddle and bike classes. While waiting for things to start, I overhear someone introducing themselves as Deanne from Clarksville, TN. Hey, great, a home girl from Middle TN! Then a trigger went off in my head. I had remembered replying to a message post on the nashville adventure racers website written by a female from Clarksville wanting to get into AR. I asked if that was her and she said yes. We had corresponded by email a few times but never met in person. Funny that our first meeting was all the way in the southeast corner of Ohio.

Deanne was looking to do her first AR and came to the Buff Betty without a team. She had hoped to find a team during the skills clinic. As we were headed to the paddle class, Ginny asked if i would be okay with her racing with us. We all must have been on the same page because Deanne asked if we would be interested in a third. So Team Valkyries took on a new teammate the day before the race. We used the paddle class as a chance to work out how we would paddle with our new teammate as well as work on strokes that our instructor was teaching to us. The class helped tremendously!

Deanne went to the navigation class while Ginny and I went to the bike class. I probably already knew most of the stuff covered in the class, but I still picked up some useful information. Thanks Ambush! Now I must add SRAM chains and master links to my ever-growing want list of AR gear.

The race on Sunday started off with a short run to the boat house. I am not a runner but sucked it up for the short distance. We grabbed our rental boat and quickly headed out of the dock. We hit the CPs in a somewhat reverse order (4, 3, 1, 2). I think our strategy paid off as most teams hit them in order and appeared to be in a big traffic jam. The wind was a little strong and we tried to stay close to land for some windblock. It is hard to say for sure, but we only saw one canoe and a couple of kayaks on the beach. It appeared that we were in the top 5 after the canoe!

The transition to our bikes went smoothly, and we were off for some singletrack. I take the lead since I love singletrack and tend to be a little aggressive. Ginny was keeping up pretty good, but Deanne seemed to be struggling a bit. Over the next 45 minutes, we were passed by quite a few teams. Deanne, however, must have fought off some first-race jitters because she started coming on much stronger. I was especially impressed by some of the climbs she did. As the singletrack went on, I found the hills a little harder to climb. The navigation on the bike was easy except for needing to pay particular attention to some trail and road interesections about halfway through the bike leg. We had no problems. I was thankful that Ginny had made a map case for my bike the night before we left. It cost less than four dollars to make. It must have paid off as we met several teams that had passed us earlier going back for missed check points.

The trail was muddy in places from all the rain from the past couple days, but it drained well and didn't cause too many problems. Well, except for that one spill I took on sidewinder coming down a hill. I was trying to get into position to hit the mud pit at the bottom of the hill when "swoosh" and "thud", my front wheel slipped to the side and I went over the handle bars and landed on my left shoulder. Ginny, having seen me go over the handlebars more than once, rated this an average fall compared to others I've taken. It was still grimace-worthy from our newly acquired teammate who was not used to my mountain bike acrobatics.

We finished the bike and had about 2 hours for the orienteering section. I turned the map over the Ginny, and she immediately took a bearing and charged like the buff betty she is to CP A. Once again I was reminded that Ohio is not flat. We then took the road most of the way before dropping down to D. We were off a little having mistaken some boulders for the cliffs. We headed to C. At this point I was just following Ginny and had no idea where we were. We knew we were close but still couldn't find it. Deanne and I got about 100 feet either side of Ginny and we just started sweeping the woods while descending down the hill. I spotted C at the edge of the streambed. Ginny later realized she was using a 1:25000 ruler instead of a 1:24000. She also said something to the affect of "I need that $100 compass I've had my eye on so this doesn't happen again".

At this point we knew we were going to be pushing it to get back to the finish line by 1600. We had wanted to get B on the way back, as it appeared to only be a short distance on a side trail. We decided to sacrifice B and try to get back on time. Getting back on time was going to be a struggle in itself. As I mentioned earlier, I am not a runner. I knew that running would be required to get back in time so I dug in and ran as much as I could. Ginny let me grab on to her backpack every now and then. Deanne quietly ran behind us. Ginnny not so quietly reminded us every now and then that we didn't have much time.

On the gravel road up to the shelter, we grabbed Deanne and came across the finish all together. We made it in time. Ginny's watch said we had 20 seconds to spare. Our official time said we had 3 minutes (probably enough to have gotten CP B, but still glad we did not risk it). We came in 15th after all penalties for being late were assessed.

The race was very well organized. The course was great! I highly recommend this to anyone. It is especially good for women looking for their first race, or for experienced women wanting to try and do a solo event. Ginny and I have decided that the Ambush events with rogaine finishes are well worth the drive for us, and plan to do more of them, including Buff Betty next year.

[mruwe]

My teammate and I won this one last year but were not initially planning on competing this year due to training for Infiterra's Coast to Coast race. A couple of weeks before the race we couldn't resist and sent in our entry. Besides, the Buff Bettys should do the Buff Betty race!

We drove up Saturday morning and crashed in on the clinics. Even though we've been racing for years, we've never done a clinic that we didn't learn something. We went to the paddling clinic and learned that our paddle strokes were too long. Then we went to the navigation clinic and learned some handy tricks for missing checkpoints on purpose so you knew where you were when you hit a trail. Saturday night we spent in a cozy Lake Hope cabin that had a fire place.

Sunday morning dawned with better weather than Saturday. We organized our gear at the TA and discussed route planning. Neither of us had done any single track biking or trail running recently. We've been doing all fast-packing and dirt road riding to train for our June race so we knew out biggest hope to do well was our navigational and paddling skills.

We scoped out a slight short-cut to the paddle put-in and it seems another person found it also. Once they took it, everyone else in front of us took it as well. Bummer. We opted to get the furthest paddle point first to go against the wind and current while we were freshest. Somehow we had a headwind both ways. We were battling with a soloist and several teams that three people in a one canoe. We came off the paddle in third place with a few teams close behind.

Our transition to the bike went quickly and we were off onto the single track in the top five. The Lake Hope single track is the best I've ridden in Ohio so we looked forward to some fun. The trails were a bit slick and snotty with lots of pine tree roots which caused me to crash twice in the first mile and a half. After that, the roots thinned out and I only crashed once more on the bike. We were passed by several teams on this leg as my biking skills, quite frankly, really suck. Plus I had to stop to stretch out my lower back which I had slightly injured the weekend before. By the end of the bike, we were at the very back of the front pack of racers.

We quickly transitioned putting on our trekking pants and shoes and started off on our planned route. We tried to run at this point but my legs were a bit tired from the single track riding. So we opted for walking the uphills and running the downhills. We attacked the controls in this order: B - A - C -D - E - F - G - H. There was only one control that we had any trouble with and since we preset a time limit to find control G, we didn't get it. We did get 7 out 8 controls which we thought was pretty good but also thought we'd have to get all the controls to win. Oh, well. We had to start back or we would be over our 6-hour time limit and loose one of the controls we had gotten. On the way back, we started running most of the time and faster than I'm used to. About a mile out from the finish, I stepped on a big, buried rock with my left foot and rolled my ankle. I didn't roll it just a bit... I rolled it all the way. I rolled it so far that it broke off my inside ankle bone. SOB! A mile from the finish and not only have I taken my team out of this race, I've taken myself out of the Infiterra C2C race. Now that really sucks.

All in all, I really enjoyed this race. Lake Hope is a great venue for adventure racing with the great topography and wonderful single track. Brad's organization was good and, once again, the hash house afterwards was tasty. I hear that Ambush is going to take the Buff Betty race to different parts of the country which I think is awesome. There's no better way for women to get started in this sport than through an all women's race.

Good Job Ambush!

Mimi Ruwe
The Buff Bettys

[nbartlam]

The Buff Betty was my first adventure race as a solo. My usual race motto being, if I get lost at least I have company =). But, I decided if I was going to try it solo, what better race than the Buff as the race atmosphere of last year’s race was very positive and encouraging.

As usual for me, the race jitters began early in the week and hit their peak once I entered the park. Thankfully I had my boyfriend there to help calm me down, oh and point out that that was his bike helmet I was getting ready to place in my transition, not mine.

After a good pre-race briefing, we were ready to start. A short run down to the beach and into the canoes. All the runners ahead of me ran the road into the beach. I knew of a trail and ran down that instead, which allowed me to be first in my boat. Well, that is after I tried to dump myself over as I got in it. Did I mention I was nervous?

Off to the canoe checkpoints. Avoiding the potential log jam, I opted to paddle straight out to 4, then go to 3, back to 2 and then 1. 1 being the checkpoint closest to the beach. To my great surprise, I was the first boat back to the beach. A short run back to the start-finish to check in and go out on the mountain bike.

The mountain bike was my weakest leg, but I did my best to hang in there and not lose too many positions. No good falls to speak of, just lots of time spent in low gear. The added feature of the mountain bike was we weren’t sure where we’d encounter our checkpoints. They weren’t marked on the map, but we were told if we followed the correct trails, we’d find them. And, since our checkpoints were people, there was no need to look for the orange/white o-marker. However, I think the hikers I came across were a bit confused when I asked them if they were a checkpoint….they weren’t.

After what seemed like a long time, probably because it was, I was finally able to get off the mountain bike and go on to the orienteering *yea*.

I had planned my orienteering route to hit the farthest checkpoints first and then work my way back. I ran the previously mountain-biked trail out and then bushwacked my way up to H, bypassing B even though it was on the way to H. From there, it was a matter of running roads/trails and then bushwacking in to get the checkpoint. After I got checkpoint C, I was very glad that I decided to bypass B. C was on a serious slope. I approached it from the high side, dropping down on it. I was then able to hop onto a trail and run that down to the trail I took out to H. This trail took me back to B and then back to the start/finish area where I dropped my pack and scurried up to find my last checkpoint, A. When I got near A, there was another racer looking for the same checkpoint. Not knowing if this was her last checkpoint too, I hurriedly punched my card and then took off running back down the hill.

When I came into the start/finish area, people were cheering (very cool). I handed my card to the guy (Adam, who was also a canoe checkpoint person that day) and saw that he had already marked in 2 other teams. It did not even occur to me that the other teams had not gotten all the checkpoints. At that point, I just thought I was the first solo to finish. It wasn’t until Brad told me that I had won did I believe it.

The Buff Betty was a step up from last year’s race. I felt the foot-navigation was more challenging. As usual, the other racers were great!! Great job to all who competed!! Many thanks to all those who volunteered and also to those who were there to provide encouragement to the racers.

[Flyin Squirrel]

Having read the other posts regarding the Buff Betty Women's Adventure Race, I don't see there's much I could add about the race itself. It was very well done. Lake Hope SP is an outstanding venue for adventure racing and we were blessed with gorgeous weather.

I would, however, like to say a few words about my teammate and how she made this one of the most enjoyable race experiences I've had. I'll also add in some photos that were taken of the two of us in transition (if for no other reason than to make sense of the subject line). Having been in adventure racing for about three years now, I responded to Brad's call for some old hens willing to team up with the spring chickens and show them around the coop. Frankly, I was a little nervous about the prospect of teaming up with someone I'd never met, much less trained with. Still, I figured it was a way for me to give a little back to the sport, and to support Ambush Adventure Sports, which I'm always pleased to do.

Little did I know how much I would be getting out of the pairing. I was introduced to Jane the afternoon before the race, following the mountain bike, paddling and navigation clinics. Jane endeared herself to me immediately when she asked right off the bat, "You don't want to win, right?" This was her first race and her goal was to have a good time.

She explained that she is under medical restrictions that preclude her from running - as a child, she had rods placed in her back to correct her scoliosis. So, it was understood from the start that we were going to keep a reasonable pace and enjoy ourselves. And that we did.

As the other women rushed off to the beach, Jane and I embarked on our adventure with a pace only slightly more aggressive than leisurely. As the race wore on, she would assume "mall-walker pace." For now, though, it was sunny and scenic, and we had our life stories to tell, after all. Jane was wearing the most glamorous pair of adventure racing glasses I've ever seen. Big and round and black, they reminded me of something Jackie Kennedy might have worn. Jane in her Jackie O's:



Just before settling into our boats, I realized that I'd left our maps back at the transition area. Lesson No. 1: don't get so wrapped up in chit-chatting with your teammates that you forget to take your stuff with you. It didn't matter. We both had looked at the map extensively in our planning phase before the race start. Besides, the lake just isn't that big.

So, we hop in our boats (after I falsely accuse another racer of taking Jane's kayak - gee, I'm still really sorry about that) and set off for a very pleasant paddle. Jane has a genuinely happy and enthusiastic greeting for every other person on the water - anglers, racers, everybody. We're bound to win the good spirit award, if nothing else.

We saved the two floating, "manned" checkpoints for last (one of the nice things about this women's adventure race is that the checkpoints are all "manned," literally - it's great to see husbands and boyfriends and sons coming out to support the race). Aaron - who had taught the paddling clinic the day before and was now serving as a floating checkpoint - had parked his kayak near a beaver lodge on the bank and had taken up the practice of pointing this out to every racer who approached. He was quite pleased with his find. Adam looked so relaxed in his kayak that we feared he might doze off and flip into the water.

After the paddling leg, Jane traded her long-sleeved shirt for a short-sleeved one. It was at this point that she remarked again that she had forgotten to put on deodorant that morning. I'll note that I never noticed any odor emanating from Jane all day, but she was closer to the source, apparently. I had offered for her to use my deodorant, which was in my toiletries kit in the car. I had also warned her, however, that she would be taunted mercilessly if Aaron saw her retrieving deodorant from the car in the middle of the race. She astutely declined the offer and went on stinking. Lesson No. 2: put one of those little travel-sized deodorant sticks in your transition area box - it's pretty effective at stopping chafing, too, I've found (and a lot cheaper than BodyGlide).

We took off on our bikes. Well, correction. I took off on my bike. Jane attached a water bottle to her dinosaur and called it a bike. No shocks whatsoever and still the thing weighed a ton. I was impressed, to say the least, at what a strong pace she kept on the bike. She advised me that she spends a lot of time outdoors with her boyfriend, Nick, hiking, biking, paddling, etc. She also advised me that she might be a bit skittish near one section of the Sidewinder Trail where she had once taken a hard fall on her bike and cracked a rib. I'm liking her more and more.

We were pretty far back in the pack coming into the paddle to bike transition, but managed to pass several teams on the bike. Familiarity with the park and the trails was helpful here. Though not overly tricky, there was a trailhead or two that could have been easily passed by if you didn't have your thumb on the map. We located the two roving checkpoints on the bike course - Jason Walsh and Joe Smindak - thanks guys! Hey, a photo of Joe Smindak after his big win at the Ambush Otter Creek Adventure Challenge in Louisville on April 23rd:



Our philosophy on the bike leg was to keep a steady, safe pace. We knew the trails would have some slick spots, especially from wet roots, and were more concerned about finishing the race uninjured than about our placement. Still, with me goading her to "pedal, pedal, pedal," Jane took on some challenging obstacles with poise and determination. I began to look forward to hearing her exclaim "I did it!!" after successfully negotiating a deep ditch or rough creek crossing. Only occasionally would I hear the apologetic "I'm walkin' it." Even then, she'd very quickly make up the seconds lost. She plans to buy a new mountain bike soon, and she'll be great on it. After training on a dinosaur, she'll fly on a horse.



After the bike, we refueled and had a quick look at our orienteering map. We had decided on a plan of attack prior to the race start, and we stuck with it. It turned out to be a pretty good plan. Starting with CP B, we would head north to collect the 4 northwesternmost checkpoints; check our time at CP E and assess whether to head east or return south to pick up CP A (by the cemetery) before dropping down into the finish line at the picnic shelter. Jane had a good grasp on topo map-reading and land navigation. She had attended Brad's orienteering clinic the day before, and had no difficulty reading contour lines to determine what sort of terrain we should be seeing at any given point. We collaborated on navigation decisions and her familiarity with the park was, again, a benefit. I've raced at Lake Hope a few times, but being from nearby Athens, Jane had spent much more time there than I.

We had no real difficulties finding CPs B through E, but found ourselves with just under 30 minutes to get back to the finish from there. It was a long walk back the gravel road and we knew it was going to be nip-and-tuck for us to beat the 6-hour deadline. Anxious, Jane would occasionally blurt out, "Okay, let's jog a little bit." Unfortunately, she would quickly begin to suffer from the impact. She was frustrated, I knew, but she kept a great attitude and was satisfied, I think, that I was having a great time and not in the least concerned about the runners passing us on the road. Considering that rods in her back force a walking pace, I hope Jane was thrilled to see our final standings (9th - "Girls in the Mist"). Our 5 points were reduced to 4 because we were tardy on the return, but we were just minutes behind a top 4 finish.

The wonderful thing about walking is that it gives you time to soak up your surroundings and you're able to talk and get to know your teammates. Jane and I talked about everything from career changes to boyfriends to body image to bikes to landscapes conducive to sound mental health. We noticed the wildflowers and took 45 second breaks to talk to people on the trail and relaxed in the transition area with no eye whatsoever on the time.

If you're a Type A personality who thinks it isn't a race unless you're going all-out and all-out suffering, I strongly suggest you devote at least one race this year to slowing down and enjoying the moment, the people, the place. Pick a venue you love and race for the fun of it. I realized in this race how much I miss in other races with my single-mindedness. And that's fine most of the time - it's what works for me. But I wouldn't trade my experience in this race for a first place finish anywhere else. Thanks, Jane.