June 01, 2002

Remember Team CORE

An Account of the Asheville Mountain Sports Festival
12 Hour Adventure Race

By Richard Ridlehuber, Susan Jones, and Charles Ridlehuber

Core Def  An inmost part of something; the essential meaning;
acronym for Carolina Outdoor Recreation Experiences


Team Members:

Captain/Navigator:   Richard Ridlehuber, married, father of 3, chemist, Masters Level cyclist, 2 Adventure Races completed with top 10 finishes.

Passport Carrier:     Charles Ridlehuber, married, Exercise Physiologist at US Naval Hospital, Parris Island Marine Base, Beaufort SC, Cat 2 cyclist and personal coach, first adventure race

Co-Navigator:          Susan Jones, Engineer, Cat 3 cyclist, Scuba Diver, Mountaineer, first adventure race

Support Crew:         Page and Matthew Fletcher: sister and brother-in-law to Charles and Richard, Teachers
Gail Ridlehuber: Charles’ wife and teacher

Part 1 Team Building and Preparations


12:00 Noon Saturday, June 1. Team and support crew arrive at my home as planned for a hearty meal and pre-race overview intended to turn 3 cyclists and their families into a successful adventure racing team. We haven’t been able to go through the 4 stages of team development: 1) forming 2) storming 3) norming and 4) performing, so I rely on terrific family support, our pre race knowledge of each other through cycling and my experience from 2 recent top ten adventure races to take us from “forming” to “performing”.

Around the dining room table I spend 2 hours describing the idea behind the team, the Top 10 reasons we’re a great team! Role and duties of support crew, race strategy, what to expect during each stage of the race, UTM Coordinate plotting, map reading, and a mock equipment check-in. I announce that I slightly detached my right big toe nail in a hike down Table Rock Mtn the previous weekend but it seems to be Okay. Charles and Susan have added running to their cycling training regimens and say they are 100%. Charles suggests a way to paddle the small, lightweight raft and Susan takes a special interest in navigating. Everything is coming together much better than I ever expected!! We load the borrowed Toyota Previa Van and leave for Asheville.

5:00 PM At registration/race check in I discover the red tail-light for my bike is missing, go to a nearby Festival Booth for Liberty Bicycles and buy one from a festival attendee who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Problem solved. The race assistant tells me a navigation competency test is required. I meet with Norm Greenburg who shows me a topo map and asks me to identify the UTM coordinate for a house and what bearing I should take to travel from point A and Point B. I pass the UTM coordinate test, but have my direction of travel backwards and my compass bearing is 180 degrees off. Norm tells me to brush up on how to take a bearing.

7:30 PM After the Pre race briefing by Norm and Tracyn Thayer of Racing Ahead, we drive to our rooms, looking for a place to eat. An Olive Garden restaurant is near our motel and we all agree to eat there, no matter how long the wait. I brush up on compass skills and how to shoot a bearing during the 20 minute wait.

10:30 PM Our carbo-loaded bodies are finally in bed with alarms and wake up calls scheduled for 4:00 AM.

Sunday Morning, June 2. We drive up to the Waffle House curb at 4:40 AM; three Policemen greet us. One holds the door while I rush in to help my sister, Page, stir cream and sugar into six large cups of coffee. We make our way through the maze of sobering late night party bosses and go back to the van. The Policemen wish us a good night. Our adventure is beginning.

We tank up on our coffee and navigate our way out of Asheville onto highway 19/23 North. The Toyota Previa Van is bottomed out with the weight of Team CORE. The start is somewhere along a mountain dirt road between Barnardsville NC and Mt Mitchell State park.

During a few minutes of spare thinking time during the drive, Susan remarks that she is very impressed with our family and how well brothers and a sister work together.  I thank her and ask about her brothers and sisters and she says she doesn’t have any --- she is an only child! We immediately and unanimously adopt her. Our new sister then asks if there is a bathroom at the start. I say “probably not” and remind her she is carrying the trowel. She fits right in!

We reach the dirt and gravel road leading up the mountain to the start. Its washboard surface and lack of suspension in the van combine with the recently consumed coffee to create some serious vibrations that stimulate bladders and digestive systems. We finally reach the start, van doors fly open and Team and Support Crew dash in all directions looking for a place to be discreet.

Relieved, we all hurriedly set up the map table and lantern. Matthew is elected to get the maps and race instructions.

Part 2 The Race


6:01 AM            Matthew runs up with the instructions and maps, I unroll them, call the team together and read the instructions once for everyone to hear. We begin plotting our course.

6:43 AM            We are finally off with maps, instructions and passport, all perfectly laminated by the Support Crew/Teachers. We walk up the road to Cane River gap and are immediately faced with our first navigation test. There are three converging roads that lead in slightly different directions. I take a compass bearing and we head up the left road, following the ridgeline towards CP1. Another team from our hometown, Greenwood S.C. takes the trail to the right. We never see them again. We climb steadily at an 11 minute/mile pace watching the terrain looking for Flat Spring Knob. At what looks like the right place, I go left off the trail approximately 75 yards to the top and find CP1 and two other teams. Susan is baffled about how I knew where to look. We return to the trail that parallels the ridgeline and proceed to CP2 encountering other teams traveling in the opposite direction.

8:00 AM            I count our next two landmarks, the Butts (Big Butt and Little Butt) and arrive at Point Misery to find CP2 hanging hidden behind a tree about 10 feet off the trail. We get it and move on, making good time by running the flats and downhills. So-far-so-good.

8:46 AM            As we approach CP3 on the Blue Ridge parkway, we see a team in front of us go left along the Mountains to Sea trail that the instructions carefully tell us to follow. We check in at CP3 and Charles and Susan go left following the other team. I check my compass and map and realize that is the wrong way, calling for Charles and Susan to come back. We re-read the map, using our democratic approach to decision-making and opt to go in the opposite direction, crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our decision is confirmed when we see two other teams arrive behind us and make the same, careful decision.



8:46-9:56 AM     We move quickly at a 10-11 minute mile pace, timing ourselves and slowing down at estimated distances to find CP’s 4-7 right beside the trail. Legs are starting to cramp, but we are eating and drinking regularly.

10:08 AM          We plod steadily along and arrive at CP8/TA1. It’s been cool, windy and a little rainy in the clouds at 5000-6000 ft elevation. We’re faced with a fast downhill on the BRP and I put on my jacket and down a can of complimentary Red Bull. As we check out of TA1, Susan yells that she can’t turn her cranks. I check it out and find the chain is jammed between the small cog and chain stay, I quickly pull off the rear wheel, un-jam the chain, replace the wheel and we’re off.

I estimate 12 miles to the road that seems to lead to CP9. We’re in our element now, so we put our heads down and Charles leads at 30+ mph down the foggy parkway, spun out in our low-geared Mtn bikes. At a road that resembles the one we are looking for in distance and elevation I stop, take off my jacket and ask Charles and Susan to read the map with me. We agree that the road we need is down the Parkway a little further and continue. About ½ mile later, we see Team NCOBS coming in the opposite direction. Charles is hammering and I sit up, hesitate, but we keep going. Another ½ mile later we reach the road we think we should follow, re-read the map and estimate the distance to CP9 from the parkway. We travel down a gravel road the anticipated distance, but the terrain and elevation don’t match the map. We stop, admit we’re lost, and look up to see a local resident returning from his morning ride on a cyclo-cross bike. We greet him; explain our situation and he helps by showing us where we are and where we should be. In our frustration, I remind the team that this is an adventure race. Since we know where we’re going, we put the hammer down and climb back out of the hole we’re in and get back to the Elk Mountain Scenic Highway. Total time lost to the navigation error is 30 minutes, so we haven’t lost too much and focus on coming back.

Race instructions tell us to find a telephone pole and memorize its yellow lettered number and report it to the person at CP10. We see the first pole that matches the map and memorize a five-digit number letter combination. Susan is carrying the instructions and remembers that we need a four-digit number! We ride up the road and see another pole that also resembles the map UTM coordinate. We memorize GM72 and continue along the Elk Mountain Scenic Highway descending along suburban streets to CP10.

 12:33 PM         We greet the person at CP10 and Susan tells her GM72. We pucker with anxiety, hoping that we got the right pole and won’t have to ride back up the mountain we just descended. The Race Assistant smiles and tells us we got it right. Whoopee!!! Now just a little further to CP12 and then the transition to paddling. We navigate through some confusing streets, making a couple of 5 minute errors and arrive at a red light on Merrimon Avenue where another race support person gives us a map not issued with the original set and tells us to watch out for some triathletes on the road we’ll be traveling. We cross the road, read the new map, quickly determine our course and start hammering at 25-27 mph, flying along the flat road that parallels the French Broad river. At two red lights we confirm our destination with pedestrians and a moped rider and hammer on. Crossing over the RR tracks at 27 mph, Susan slows, Charles and I sit-up, we re-group and settle back down to a more reasonable 24 mph pace.

1:25 PM            Suddenly we see Gail and Page motioning us into TA2. There is a huge Red Bull tent set up and the support crews look like they’re having the party of the year! We transition quickly, replenish lost fluids, grab the boat and start trotting to the put in. We go to the water’s edge and launch the boat. Our plan is for Charles and I to sit on the front and motor with canoe paddles while Susan sits on the back and steers with the kayak paddle.

In a series of mishaps and bloopers worthy of a prize winning “America’s Funniest Home Video”, the following transpires: Before getting in the boat, Charles and Susan remember my pre-race instruction of “DON’T PEE IN THE BOAT!” I wait downstream from Susan, while Charles stands downstream, laughing. I climb in the soft boat and it immediately collapses around me. I start laughing, poke my head up, and announce our paddling strategy won’t work, so I tell Charles to sit behind me while I sit in front and Susan gets behind Charles. We shove off, and immediately get stuck under an overhanging tree. Susan yells “The paddle is stuck the tree!”. I cannot imagine how a paddle got in the tree, but manage to untangle the paddle and we break free into the mighty waters of the French Broad River. We are pitiful, Charles is bumping me in the back of the head with his paddle, I’m sitting so low that I can’t get a good paddle stroke, and Susan is struggling to keep us straight. I make the decision to pull over on the far side of the river. We get out, turn the boat around to paddle it backwards with me in the back on the nose of the boat, Charles in the middle on his knees, sitting on his pack with the kayak paddle and Susan on the front with a canoe paddle, sitting on her pack watching for rocks and helping me navigate. We quickly develop a routine that is much better and start moving downstream.

2:16 PM            Shortly, and thankfully, we see the take out point at CP13. We pull over and elect to carry the boat the remaining 25 yards to shore, get the passport punched, let the air out of the boat and head off on the course that Susan has selected while reading the maps during our paddling ordeal. There are no teams in sight behind us or in front of us. We head out at a brisk pace with me carrying the boat. We trek up Patton Avenue passing pedestrians and Ashvillians enjoying the Sunday afternoon in their yards. A few cheer us on. Finally we see the large black oblisque marking the finish area and our families. Clapping and cheering erupt and my children and two nieces run with us to the finish area.

2:43 PM            We finish. Tracyn Thayer and assistant take our picture. We are 6th at 8:43, a little over an hour behind the first place team.

Part 3 Post Race

We spend a peaceful afternoon at the Asheville Mountain Sports Festival, enjoying the activities and catching up on some people watching and even learn some interesting new dance moves. My right big toe starts to bother me and is getting worse by the hour.

Monday PM June 3. My right toe is swollen, red, and throbbing. I have a low-grade fever. Not good. I decide to get some help and visit a podiatrist friend who surgically removes the toenail. With a little care, it will grow back like the others have.

Charles and Susan report they are so sore they can hardly move but agree it was worth it! We all feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment and redeemed ourselves for unsatisfying Assault’s on Mount Mitchell two weeks earlier. Our preparations, teamwork, support, and talent overcame what we lacked in experience. We all want to do it again.