MOGA 2018: Part 3 Competition Day

Lincoln Capitol Building on a dreary morning

 Saturday morning I woke up early to a cold and windy capitol. I couldn't even tell if the sun was up or not, it was grey and dreary out my hotel window. I had originally thought I would be competing in similar clothes to the previous night, but the fierce winds had me throw my jacket in along with the rest of my gear. I don't like to run in rain gear as you sweat more, but it looked like the kind of day where sweating wouldn't be much of a problem. The real problem would be the wind and rain, which would chill you to the bone even if you were running hard.

MOGA that away! A bleak morning at Pioneer Park

I pulled into Pioneer Park right around 7am, an hour before the competition was scheduled and there were already a handful of vehicles at the starting area. I could have been a bit earlier but I decided to stop at a grocery store and buy some cocnut water and a dozen donuts for the race officials. Donuts.... a good race fuel! The race officials had a trailer that they used as the race headquarters and it is a good thing, because it was the only shelter around. There was a pavillion not far away, but with the winds being what they were, it wouldn't have kept anyone warm or dry. The competitors crowded into the trailer to get the waypoints and punch-cards. The race officials did a really great job with the maps/cards this year. Instead of two separate sheets, the map and competition punch card was on one sheet and it was printed on Tyvek paper, basically rip proof and impervious to water. Excellent choice, I applaud them for this foresight. Not only did you not have to worry about separate sheets of paper, but you also didn't have to worry about them getting wet and destroyed. Not that I worried about this too much in previous competitions, but given the weather we were having, it was nice to not have to worry about the cards/map. I got the waypoints loaded into my GPSr and also had the GPX file emailed to me so that I could have the points in my phone as a back-up. The competition map was pretty good as far as showing terrain and the main roads, but it didn't show all the trails that went around the park. My phone did have all these trails on its map, and knowing where these trails were helped me plan my route. By now, I've done enough comps where selecting my route is pretty easy. I almost always pick a route that will take me off on my longest un-interrupted run first (un-interrupted by having to stop for caches). This way I have pretty fresh legs and can push through quickly. I then circle around in whatever way best approximates a loop, sometimes skipping caches that are close to the finish line since I know I can get those on my race towards the end. Usually, the later bit of my route has higher cache density, which means more stops between burst of running, and more opportunity for me to catch my breath. This has worked pretty well for me in the past, so why change now. The course consisted of thirty geocaches spread out roughly a mile in either direction from the race start.

Statue located near the race start/finish.

The race started promptly at 8am, after only a brief spiel from the race officials, mainly about how you absolutely needed to check in at the finish area before leaving or they'd send out search and rescue, but also pointing out some areas that were out-of-bounds and that we could be disqualified if found crossing into these areas. The wind and rain lashed at all of us, wrapped up in all our layers. I had on my rain jacket, which I hadn't planned on racing in, but was absolutely necessary. The weather was miserable, and the temps were dropping. It was only a matter of time before the rain would turn to sleet, and then snow. I actually hoped that would be soon, I much prefer running around in snow to rain, you actually stay a lot dryer. The horn sounded and we all took off, about 20 competitors in all.

My first long run took me west and heading directly into the wind. The terrain was easy running though. Pioneer Park is very open, and instead of running through brambly woods like the previous night, I was mostly running over mowed fields and meadows, dodging between only occasional trees. My first caches were out in a wide open prairie and were the wind was fiercest and my face stung from the freezing rain hitting it. It was out at one of these prairie caches that I discovered the first wrinkle that the course planners had in store for us. The cache was obviously located on this lone tree in the middle of the field, but a quick glance around the tree did not reveal its location. It wasn't until I looked up did I spot it, about 12 feet up in the tree. Having to climb trees for the competition was a new thing, and I heartily approved, I love a good tree climb. The rain and wind though made this a little bit more difficult than it should have been though, and hanging off a branch with one arm while trying to punch the competition card with the other is not the easiest.

At punch 62 (63?). The only picture I actually took during the comp.

After this first surprise I settled into a pretty steady rhythm of running between caches, making a quick find and then pressing on. At one cache, labeled as SI062 on our maps, the punch was marked 63, which caused me to scratch my head a little bit. And another cache, SI052, took me a bit longer to find as it was tucked underneath a steep embankment and nestled into some protruding roots. These were minor delays though and I was making great time. I didn't really run into many other competitors until I got out to the eastern part of the course, near the park entrance, and where there was a dense cluster of 6 geocaches. Here I passed several other cachers, and even had to wait in line to punch my card at one geocache, SI121. The wind and rain made things bad, but not miserable. Running around kept me warm enough and my rain coat shielded me from the worst of the rain. As I passed the 1-hour mark, I realized that I was pretty close to finishing the course. I pushed through, finding the last geocache which had a throng of other people at it, but not competitors. The punch location was in the same copse of junipers as one of the Kids Event geocaches, and there were a few families in there finding it. I punched my card with the last geocache while the kids were screaming about Hello Kitties, and then made the final sprint to the finish. FTF again (First to Finish)! And there were even a few donuts left, so I chowed one down while chatting with the volunteers manning the finish line. They had a nice propane burner going in the trailer and it was toasty warm in there, out of the wind and rain. I hung around for a while, waiting for a few other people to finish, but was pretty darn wet, so I didn't linger too long. I finished in around an hour and 20 minutes, pretty good time. That meant I'd have a little extra time to go back to the hotel, eat lunch, and try to dry some of my gear before the next race.

Between the races... near entrance to Pioneer Park

Drying my clothes became a priority for me. Once back at the hotel, I realized that I only had one more pair of dry socks, and if I raced in them, I wouldn't have anything dry for me feet for after the competition (or my trip home). So I furiously tried to dry out both my socks and shoes with the hotels little hair dryer. I spent a good hour doing this and it helped some, but in the end I had to resign myself to putting on wet gear before the next comp. Oh well. I managed to get in touch with the my team for the afternoon competition. Brad and Tom were in town and agreed to meet me for lunch at the hotel's restaurant. Laura had competed in the morning competition also, and had decided to take a hot shower back at their camper, and we would meet her back at the park before the next race. I found out later that she had ran the morning course alongside the other woman in her age group, and had helped that woman with all the tree climbing caches, and then let the other woman finish ahead of her to take first place. She is too nice... I mean isn't this a competition? Actually, I am really impressed with her kindness and generosity. It is a bit cliched, but geocachers really are super nice, and it is acts like hers that people remember most when they think about how friendly and helpful geocachers can be.

I gave Tom and Brad the low-down on our afternoon race. This would be their first MOGA comp, and they were keen to hear what it would be like. It was great to have them join our team, they are both veteran geocachers in the Albuqurque area, and well known for finding just about every geocache out there. We were feeling pretty good about our chances for taking the cup. After a nice hot lunch, I changed back into my damp racing gear, and drove back out to the park where teams were all getting the coordinates for the team competition. I was curious how the course setters would make this race difficult, as it seemed like there was only a limited area in the park where caches could be hidden, and that this area wasn't large enough for a full 2.5 hour race. The answer was that they extended the race area to outside of the park. A bunch of the geocaches for the team comp were located about 3 miles from the starting line, in the area where the previous night's competition was, Wilderness Park. To get there, we would have to run for miles along a bike path which connected Pioneer park to Wilderness Park. As my team all got their coordinates and we met up in Tom's truck to divy up the caches, there was never any doubt who on our team would be doing the furthest run... yep they'd fall on me.

The rest of the course divided up pretty logically into 4 sections. Two of the sections each involved about 5-6 caches and would be around 4 miles round trip. These each went to Laura and Brad, as our next two fastest members. There was one oddball geocache at the park's north entrance which was about a mile out, and this went to Tom, our oldest member. There was then a huge cluster of geocaches located in the park's east entrance, and Tom and I divied these up between us. Tom would have the shortest overall route, around 2.5 miles, and he would try to get as many geocaches in the big cluster as he could while I was coming back from the really far geocaches. My route coming back from the furthest caches took me right through this cluster, so I would help clean-up any one's Tom didn't get when I was running back through. If we timed things right, we would all end up back at the finish line in around an hour's time. At least, that's what we were shooting for. There were two geocaches located near the finish that we left for whoever ended up getting back the soonest.

The weather had only gotten colder, and the rain had turned to sleet, but not quite snow yet. The team competition usually has the most people in it, but this year, probably due to the weather, the crowd was pretty small. Still we gathered around for a group photo, and then they sounded the starting horn and we were off. I had three miles of road running to start with so I settled into a steady pace, kept my head down against the wind, and plowed on. And my pace was fast enough, that I mostly was running all by myself. I finished the three mile run out to the furthest geocache, and then started finding these remote caches on my way back towards Pioneer Park. As far as race courses go for MOGA, this was my least favorite. Running along a paved bike path for miles and miles just doesn't feel much like a wilderness race. I like backwoods trails, and even off trail running, I just find it more fun as a race. But it was pretty understandable why the course setters set it up this way... it was the most logical way they could get a big enough race course given the constraints of the parks we were near.

As I was heading back towards Pioneer park, a couple other racers passed me still heading out. I had a good few minutes on them, but I knew that I probably also had to make up for that time by finding more of the geocaches located closer to the finish area. It would be a close race. I called up Tom as I re-entered Pioneer park, after 5 miles of running. He had completed all his objectives. Given how close we both were to the finish, I told him to immediately head back to the finish, and that I would clean up the rest of the eastern cluster on my way back. I would have to run hard to meet him, and run is what I did. I got stalled out though at one of the geocaches, ST049, which was not a quick an easy find. There was a tall evergreen next to a large fallen deciduous tree and I was convinced the cache had to be hidden in the evergreen, but after circling it many times I could not locate it. I then started checking out the fallen tree, and still was coming up empty. It wasn't until I crawled and climbed into the middle of the fallen tree that I spotted it, hanging up high on the fallen tree in a spot where you had to walk out on the tree trunk to get to. In my opinion this was the most difficult hide.

After punching that I raced back towards the finish line and saw that there was a little bit of confusion among my team as to who would be getting the last two geocaches near the finish. Brad and Laura both said they could get them, but they appeared to still be fairly far off, coming back from their zones. Tom could get them, but he was already at the finish, and I was passing right by them, so I called out over our group text that I would pick them up, and everyone else should make a bee-line to the finish. I grabbed these last two caches and raced to the finish area arriving at just the same time as the last member of another team finished. The other team was elated, having completed the course first. Tom was already there, but Laura and Brad were still not in sight. We scanned out in the direction they would be coming from and within a minute we saw them coming across the field. We both cheered them on and they put on a little extra speed to reach the finish where we consolidated all our cards and handed them in to get our official time. We couldn't have been more than a few minutes behind the other group.

The Volunteer Chile Cachers Finish Strong!

All in all, it was a good race, and we were all happy with our finish time. Plus there was plenty of time for us to clean up, get warm and dry, maybe even find a few caches and eat dinner before the award ceremony later that evening. Which is what we all did. After taking a hot shower and getting out of my wet cloths, I realized that I no longer had any dry long sleeve shirts or jackets. Just about all the clothes I had brought with me were wet, except for a pair of underwear, socks, pants, t-shirt and down vest. This wouldn't have been a terrible thing except the weather outside was even colder, with snow and wind making it seem like blizzard conditions. Not t-shirt and vest weather, but I wasn't about to put on wet clothes... so out I went in a tee-shirt into the snow. And crazily enough, I decided to go after a few more caches before meeting up with my team for dinner at the Blue Blood Brewery. Can't let the snow stop you right!

I was able to grab a few caches before dinner with the team. The pub food was delicious and I was regaled with all sorts of crazy stories from Millasmommies12. Brad and Tom had their fair share of wild geocachnig yarns as well. We made a good team, and there was talk about getting together again to compete next year. I know I'll be there. The award ceremony was kept pretty short. With so few competitors this year, a lot of medals went unclaimed. The team that won the MOGA cup was actually the only 4-man team in the 30-49 year old age category. How is that possible? I always figured that this category would have the most turn out, but I guess geocacher demographics skew to the 50+ age group, the only category to consistently have more than three teams. It actually made me feel a little sad about the state of affairs for the MOGA competition. In the last three years since I've competed, it seems like the # of competitors gets fewer and fewer. It almost makes me feel that it is not worth competing in... almost. The competitions are what I like about MOGA, and I guess some people have felt that MOGA has grown into more of a MEGA event geared towards putting on a good event for all the non-competitors. Next year promises to be different though. They are calling it a "back to its roots" MOGA, it won't be a MEGA event, and it will supposedly be all about the competitions. Maybe that will mean fewer geocachers overall showing up, but it might mean more competitors, people that actually are just coming to run around in the woods for fun. And if that's what it's going to be about, then count me in!

Bringing the Feldmeier Cup back to Santa Fe for another year.