So in the end, what I gained in a shorter overall route, I lost wondering around in the swamp for 45 minutes when trying to shortcut between checkpoints 22 and 20 I think it was. Two problems with my attempt there – 1st, I interpreted “creek” on the map as a feature that I’d wade thru not a 40 meter wide body of water; and 2nd, it was my very first attempt at walking a baring without references. I set out in the entirely wrong direction, by about 45 degrees.

I was also pleased with my decision to drop my bike at the boat landing and run to the boat launch. This allowed me to ride to checkpoints 19 and 20 while I was on that side of creek already. Finally, I was happy that I chose to go after the northeastern checkpoints first, getting the run and paddle completed earlier in the day. I held a nice pace on foot, where later in the day I took advantage of coasting on the bike a bit.

What I didn’t mention in my post was that I only picked up 20 of the 22 total checkpoints. Before I realized that I missed checkpiont 9, it was too far back to go get. Checkpoint 1 was intentionally skipped (would have added about 6km round trip) since it was late in the day and I needed to make progress to towards the finish line.

I was out there too last weekend – what a BLAST that was. I was part of the two-man team “Stimulus Package”. I think your route may have been shorter than ours, which is a good thing for you. We went southwest on bikes and made a loop, then up to the Santee for the kayak leg, and then picked up the remaining 4 checkpoints on the East side on the way back in. This was my fifth race and longest to date. I have done the SRACAR (also hosted by Kando) as well, and enjoyed both.

Congratulations on completing your first race – especially in the solo category – that’s great!

Christian deV