Big Tahoma

Team Verve @ Big Tahoma - Christi Masi, Murray Maitland, Peteris Ledins
Report by Peteris Ledins

In short - we did great! And now the details.

Route planning gave us 85 km which increased to 95 during the race. I had planned some 2 more bushwacking sessions we opted out of (see km 61 to 64km and also 47.5 to around 52), but any way the global estimate of 95 and then measuring 97 on a digital map is a very good result.
The increase from 85 to 95 was mostly caused by very short planning time of less than an hour. The backwards measuring of distance was created with numbers like this: 10, 20, 30.., 80, 90, 90, ... 120, 120, 130.... 160 - together 80 km + 4km of appendix at the end. (Once you figure out the route, you try to measure distances from different points in the route. This way you always know how much is left and whether you have to cut something short and how much. I was using 20cm unit string to measure distance of our route, so 10 is actually 20cm, or 5km at the 25k:1 scale. Double counting is bad.) Christi and Murray made fun of my numbers during the route: "It was already half half an hour ago," etc.
Opponents - 3 teams stronger than the rest - Maxim and Gena (M&G) all male team and then two co-ed teams, one being Militant Hippies, including Mari Chandler and Kyle Peter; the other one had O' Team Canada member Louise Oram. I was mostly concerned about Kyle and Mari, especially when I saw how fast M&G left the hash house after the start, I did not have illusions for catching them. After all - training race, painful knee (I took 800 mg of vitamin-I at 8 and then at 16 hours).
How did we do? Christi was as strong as usual, never tired during all race. I and Murray had our weaker spots. I had trouble around 8th hour when I tried to figure out whether to give up and save my knee or eat some ibuprofen and continue. I did not navigate for a while and we managed to make some small error, which did not cost too much as our plan was to go further and then come back, so we got a second try for the CP. Sometime later I was also floating a bit. I had regular weak cramps, but I guess it was good for navigating. Murray seemed to suffer close to the end of the race, but the very last run up the hill was perfect for him. We beat all hour estimates.
Our route, highlights (see map to follow the kilometers) - from km 5 up, CP20 to 68 - a lucky bushwack, steep, but good - some 18 minutes. CP30 to CP52 (from km 14), misery bushwack. G&M had taken the small creek bed at once. I took it for the last 100 meters; Murray and Christi went all the way on the side of the creek. Christi fell on some slippery branches hitting her shoulder on a stump really bad. Thankfully now she says that her feet hurt and that's about it. We bushwacked to 54 and back from it (km 17), very nice and open forest there.
Km 26-27, around the Yurt - getting colder. When running away from the Yurt, freezing. But found a money clip - full of credit cards etc. Turns out it belonged to a fellow racer Cliff whom I talked to after the race. I remembered about the credit cards when I was driving home.The best bushwack was the first one during the night - to CP 64, km 46-47. Very precise up to CP. Then getting wet in the huckleberries and freezing on top of the mountain.We wasted an hour on 40 (the only CP misplaced), did not find it and went for the next.Starting from Water 1 (around km 71) we were feeling short on time. Started to be aggressive on our routes. No mistakes except a bit of bad bad bushwacking where forest was trying to turn us back around 47: we could not find the trail for a while. After taking it we went back to road. Once we got to 59 we had ~3 hours 30 to go and a bit more then 15k left, so we ran a lot (at that time it is a lot). The last interesting bushwack - around km 90 down to road. We clearly did it a fast manner.
How did our opponents do? We saw lots of Militant Hippies - first time around CP27/36/54 and then every two hours or so. Our general direction was very the same with them, but some choices were very different - when we first met them I could not figure out what they were doing. It seemed that they were going for 52, but then came back for 27. However, they did not seem to go for 54, so I assumed they had taken it. The next big route difference was getting up to 64/51. They chose to go around - 31/39/50, while we did 49/31/56 then up to 64 by bushwacking. I believe we beat them on this choice - they were moving faster on this choice, but somehow after all of it we came out almost together to Water 1. They earned an hour on our playing around 40 which they chose not to even try. For 47 - they passed it at first and then came back after doing the NW loop. I saw them coming out of the small road leading to 47. From then we felt like it was a battle between us and them. We believed they had taken already everything but what was yet to be taken by us; we convinced to run just because of the possible tie. 28, they catch us. 34, we take almost together. We choose to bushwack, they go around. 57, we think we are in front, we don't see them. 24 - we see them 300 meters behind. We push. I ask Murray, what happens if you sprint for the finish after 23 hours of activity? We get to hash house in good time. And we still have some left to take 26 and 46. We take it, we come back. And turns out - we are the only team with all CPs.
Other opponents - we saw two veteran guys who were very optimizing their weight - they dropped their packs on each out and back CP. Robin and Cliff looked rather fast in the company of some Darci who was a first time rogainer. I also enjoyed seeing some clearly non-competitive teams - having their picnics or just fun in the woods. M&G had trouble with some of CPs and did not do too well after all.
Funny episode - when seeing Militant Hippies I always made some comments on their route choice or running style with the exception being after CP40 - when we are coming out of it and they are running by, asking "how was 40?" Rogaining rules say you are not supposed to spread such information and especially in this situation I had no intention of saying anything, so I replied with "OK".
Thanks - they go to Eric Bone for setting up a rogaining in Washington; Seattle Running Company and all other sponsors of the race.
BTW - venue was very impressive especially when the clouds went away - RAINIER is FANTASTIC.
Useful information - results will be here. Christi already wrote about her experiences here.