Bend Racing TEC #1

Bend Racing is well known in the adventure racing world. Famous for hosting epic adventures in the rugged Pacific Northwest close to their home in central Oregon, I was eager to dive in further into the adventure racing world.

Having followed a few Facebook groups, volunteering at a race was considered a great first step to get the lay of the land. After a successful shoot in October at Lapine Loop, I was invited to cover the TEC #1 race held at Crooked River National Grassland near Madras on Dec 6. Unsure at first about heading a few hours away for a shoot, I was eventually invited to join an ultramarathoner from Seattle who had participated in Lapine Loop and wanted to race the TEC and was looking for someone to race with. (Thanks to a Facebook group for our initial connection.)

After a few attempts to add others to the team, we finalized with my 19-year-old son Gabe (home from college in Indiana on break) and Jamaica, a bike mechanic from northern CA, who was by far the most experienced of our group and adept at navigation skills.

at race start, time staggered by those going for pro points vs those who were not (we were aiming for some pro points)

from L to R: Jamaica, Nicole and myself (Gabe off camera)

As this was my first adventure race, I had some homework to do in the weeks leading up to the race. Namely, I had no idea how to use a compass and not much understanding of those squiggly lines on a contour map. I crowdsourced on Facebook and discovered two friends who were adventure race fans and athletes. My friend Dave in D.C. gave me great advice, including getting a copy of Squiggly Lines (printed, not ebook), and I learned of a local course at Mt Tabor Park in southeast Portland in which to practice navigation.

Adventure racing is the kind of sport that someone can participate in even if they aren’t the fastest or youngest. Often times, it’s the teams with the better navigators that do the best even as the younger fitter take early leads. Maybe that’s why there is a good representation of middle aged adventurers at these races? We may be older, but we can still be relevant right?

Our first checkpoint was easy. Just follow the socially-distanced & masked crowd. From there we headed up in elevation and missed our next checkpoint, causing a 40-min delay to the clock. But we were learning and knew our next few checkpoints (upcoming pro points) would be at the top of an impressive ridge.

checkpoint in a cave within a cave!

little did I know we would be attempting to climb that peak while trying to push bikes caked in impossible rocky mud

selfie via drone

another drone selfie

While racing, my goal was to also document what I could while (hopefully) not slowing my team down too much. In my recordings I can hear myself constantly huffing and puffing for air, though I do tend to be dramatic in my mouth sounds when I’m a bit uncomfortable. I was trying to go light, with just a midsize hydration backpack big enough to fit some clothing items, water and basic gear as well as my DJI Osmo Pocket, GoPro Hero 8 (mostly helmet mounted) and DJI Mavic Mini drone. But it was an extra challenge to document while hiking, running and biking.

I only broke out the drone once while on top of the ridge. I’m still learning how to operate it, and it was having trouble connecting. I couldn’t see the flight path from my phone so had to opt for line of sight, limiting my options, but still providing some worthwhile video. But the amount of time it took to set it up and operate it, even for just a few minutes, was significant and nearly cost us finishing the race before the time cutoff I think.

That and another upcoming navigational error we would discover shortly…

After the drone video and rock scramble, we began to descend to the Transition Area (TA) where we would be moving from one mode of transport to another. We found our bikes and checked with the volunteers to see if we could stash some extra gear at the parking lot or send with them back to the race start. This isn’t allowed in a race, unless we are ok with a penalty, so we managed to spread around the stuff until we had packed it all sufficiently well. Perhaps Gabe had the most awkward of situations with a swinging, tied-on plastic bag attached to his pack, but we made do and headed out on our bikes into the most grueling of challenges I’ve faced in a long time: hike-a-bike in rocky mud that completely locked up my tires for most of our long uphill.

Another good lesson came about through our attempt to head up a steep, snow-covered hill. While we knew we were nowhere near the front, we noticed that no tracks appeared in the snow before us. We were working to meet up with another trail that would start to head in a more level, even downhill direction. So we abandoned the remainder of the ascent and headed across the open field after probably an hour or more of moving at a glacial 1-3mph pace. In retrospect, we should have taken a longer route that didn’t require the steep hill.

Eventually we reached flowy trails where we could move at a decent clip, stunning sights in the distance on a single track that required approaching bikes to lean off to the side while we passed (and vice versa depending on who decides to yield). We searched for a few more checkpoints and tried to push it but recognized we wouldn’t make the cutoff time for the climbing and rappelling portion of the race. But as this was our most questionable skill, we were okay with that though obviously disappointed. By the time we arrived at the TA, we hiked down to see what we would have done, hoping to one day return for a climbing + camping trip during warmer days.

As we came through the finish line, the flags were pulled out of the ground and we realized we were the last to arrive with two minutes to spare. But we had some pretty awesome swag to enjoy momentarily to go along with what we had received during check-in: yummy kombucha by Caboost and a hot meal from Adventure Eats packed into a new hot meal thermos from Hydroflask. Morning goodies included high quality sunscreen and skin balm from Amavara because skin care does matter pre, during and post race, a pair of socks from Smartwool that my daughter is currently enjoying, and a shot of caffeine nicely delivered by RISE.

I’ve already convinced a few friends to join me in February for a mountain biking Gourmet Coffee Course.