The Splash and Dash Adventure Race Recap

Splash and Dash Adventure Race - Bridging parts together

 The Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission recently held the Splash and Dash Adventure Race on 18 May. Originally scheduled for September, Hurricane Florence upended any activities planned that week. Thus the ICRC postponed the event with the aspirations that it would happen in the Spring. 

  I became aware of the Splash and Dash Adventure Race in April. I eyeballed the South Carolina Governor’s Cup race which would take place the same day, but I could not pass up doing a three part event with my wife.  The ICRC advertised the Splash and Dash as a two mile trail run, a four mile bicycle trek, and a one mile kayak paddle in Saluda Shoals Park.

These trees were spared by any bad weather

 It definitely sounded different than running a 5k or a half marathon, but still offered cardio exercise through the entire duration. It also meant I work together with my wife.  Teams could be two or three people, with “early” pricing being 25 dollars per person before the fifth of May, and regular registration costing 35 dollars per person afterwards until the day of the event.

  Our only preparation involved bringing our own bicycles, preferably mountain type, and helmets for the race. The ICRC would provide the watercraft, paddles, and life preservers.  I ran several races in Saluda Shoals Park before, so hearing this would be a trail race, I got excited because it meant I could wear my On Cloudventure shoes again.  Both of our bicycles are hybrids, so lowering the tire pressure a little, should set us for the race.

  Saturday morning, while pretty much every runner headed downtown to take part in a fantastic race Amanda and I joined just over a dozen others in our little adventure.  We parked on the east side of the park and picked up our packets.  We then proceeded to move our bicycles to the transition station about 100 feet or so away.  Amanda is the triathlete of the family, so she tried to prepare her bicycle on the bike bar as she normally would, but someone built the bar too high, so she positioned her bicycle underneath facing outward for easy transition. I followed suit, but noticed most others did not.

Taking Off

  We head back to the start line and listen to the overall scheme of events, the safety brief for the course, and how the ICRC had to adjust the course due to recent rising water levels from Lake Murray, thus modifying the run route, adding half a mile to the bike trek, and preventing us from paddling a mile on the river. Instead, we would paddle a canoe through a set of obstacles in Saluda Shoals’ pond. When the announcer tells everyone that she will count down from “ten” and that’s when we would start, people start going when she gets to “seven” (anxiousness, I suppose), so she released all of us then started the official clock.

The 1 mile turn-around

  The crowd starts running, but Amanda can only walk and we trail behind. However, never count out a walker, especially one who can clocked in a 12 to 13 minute mile pace during our 5k and 10k races.  We start down the road, but the course transitions into a trail route for almost the entire trek. Once we hit grass and dirt, I felt relieved that I wore my Cloudventure for this. The two mile course ended up being a mile out and back because the river swelled up and consumed a part of the return route from the original plan.  So as Amanda and I hit two-thirds of the first mile, we see a dad-son team run past us.  About two minutes later, we see the rest of the pack coming at us.  We do make it to the one-mile mark and turn around, and scoot back. Along the way, we cross the paved road a few times, and see a team on bicycles as we finish up the first leg of the race.

Had to walk up this hill. It was too steep

  We make our way back and get to the bicycle transition station. Our bikes sit alone, but once we reach the area, Amanda and I quickly pop on our helmets and pedal off. The bicycle portion consisted of part road biking and part trail riding. Before the race, I set our bikes’ tire pressure to 65 psi because I wasn’t sure of the terrain we would traverse, and I think 60-65 psi overall was a good choice. 

  We take off and follow the white arrows to a path. We weave in and around on the trail before we hit a couple of hills. I didn’t think Saluda Shoals could pack in such elevation spikes and dips along the trail, but I was wrong. In fact, a few times I hopped off my Cannondale and walked up steep inclines, with one time for a decline.  Part way through the trek, Amanda and I got lost. That sounds crazy, especially since at that point we rode on a paved trail, but somehow we missed signs for crossing the road. Instead, Amanda and I veer right and pedal up to the main entrance.  After wildly looking around, we circle the Environmental Center’s parking lot. Thanks to a friendly patron, we head back and retrace our steps. Once we neared the Broad River Road, we see an event volunteer and cones along the road. We ask him where to go, and Amanda and I made it back on course.

Wrong turn! Wrong turn!

Paddling is harder than it looks

  Once we finished the second leg, we reach the pond. They had a two person canoe ready for us and informed us we had to maneuver three obstacles. I’m not the best seafarer, but I can at least navigate a one-person kayak. A two person canoe is a different story. I take the front and try to steer the canoe, but it was more comical than anything else.  According to Strava, we paddled the course in 3 minutes and 18 seconds. Not bad for a very amateur uncoordinated person.

  We finish up by cycling back to the finish line, which was about 300 meters away. While we were the last to cross, and our time was 1:17 and some seconds, the ICRC awarded Amanda and me for our efforts. We each received a glass with the “Splash and Dash Adventure Race” logo on it and we each received a certificate to redeem for either for a one hour canoe rental or a two hour tube rental. Combine that with the t-shirt we got, and the Adventure race definitely seemed like a good deal.

 

The spoils of the race

What Is Inside A Honey Stinger Variety Pack?

  I recently became a Honey Stinger Ambassador and wanted to stock up on some of their products.  I’ve been a fan of their organic honey waffles for quite a while, but haven’t tried some of their other items.  So when I saw Honey Stinger offered a 10 piece variety pack, I jumped on it.  Honey Stinger uses organic honey as their main ingredient for fuel and helps anyone who wants looking for that bit of energy for their outdoor enjoyment.

  The other day, my Honey Stinger package arrived and I was pretty stoked to check out its contents.  Opening the box, Honey Stinger packed my variety pack in a Cherry Almond Protein Bar box, but had markings indicating that this was indeed their variety pack.

10 items to try, test, and enjoy

Organic Waffles. Love the Wildflower Honey.

 The first group of Honey Stinger goodness were four waffles.  Two organic packs consisting of one pack lemon flavored and one pack vanilla flavored. The other two packs are gluten free and consist of one pack wildflower honey and one pack salted caramel flavored.  Most people find Honey Stinger's organic waffles to be good before or during a run. 

Next, I pulled out Honey Stinger's two bags of organic energy chews.  I received two in their variety box: Pink Lemonade and Fruit Smoothie.  These make for a perfect energy snack, either on the go or just to tide over hunger until a main meal.  I tried the Pink Lemonade and they were so delicious, I was disappointed I only got one pack.

I think Pink Lemonade will be my favorite energy chew

 After the energy chews, I grabbed their two packed-in snack bars.  One is almond butter, dark chocolate, and sea salt while the other consists of peanut butter, milk chocolate, and sea salt. These are advertised as a good snack to have.

Better than a granola bar

Up next, I snagged the energy bar. Don't let the picture fool you, the rocket chocolate energy bar looks a lot better in person.  This category of Honey Stinger products is great for during or after exercising.  

Better in real life

And the final one is the Honey Stinger Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond protein bar.  Protein bars are great for strength training and people recommend eating them during or after a workout.  I, for one, will pass this particular protein bar to my wife, since I am not a fan of coconut in my food.  But that is why a variety pack is good to get, for the variety and if there is something that is not to your liking, you can always give it to a friend, colleague, or a family member.

GoPro Bike Riding and the Selfie Stick

This past Saturday I organized an event for the Columbia chapter of Team Red, White, and Blue.  Six of us took off on our bicycles for a ride on Timmerman Trail that came out to be an unplanned 13 mile journey.  I originally thought we would do either a four mile loop or an eight mile out-and-back trek.

  I'm known in the group for filming the local races and I sometimes record my bike rides.  However, this time I wanted to use the camera function of the GoPro Hero 6 and get some snapshots of our time out on the paved trail.  I set the GoPro on time lapse mode with a one second interval.  I didn't adjust anything of the the other settings, meaning that I left everything else in factory settings.  I used a two point expendable selfie stick and would occasionally adjust the stick to be anywhere from 25% to 50% longer than its default shortened size.  Throughout the journey, I ended up with over 5000 pictures to sift through and sort.

We start with the obligatory "beginning" picture.  There were only six of us, but I attribute that something I call Columbia's running problem.

  While Columbia, South Carolina isn't big enough by itself to be one of the top 100 most populous cities in the United States, there is no shortage of races to be found during running season or within a hundred mile radius. But usually, there's at least a race on Saturday in the capital, and I think on this particular day there were two in Columbia and at least one in one of the neighboring towns.

We left at the SCANA entrance for what I thought would be an easy ride.  We ended up splitting into two groups because half of us were entranced by a circling hawk over our heads.  Those not interested in eyeing a bird of prey who was seeking its food left.  The rest of us headed out about two minutes later.




  A little into the ride, I decided to play with the selfie stick.  My first attempt wasn't special but it was a start.


















 As time went on, I got more adventurous with using the selfie stick and picked up some good shots.

Checking out the back tire

The trees look taller from this view

As you can see from the first few pictures, the Timmerman Trail is a paved trail, meaning you can take a road bike on here with no issues.  I have a hybrid Cannondale and feel much more comfortable on that than a road bike. Besides, I like the idea of riding on a dirt trail as well.

You can see the people in my group were riding road bikes as I slowly chugged along.

The first couple of miles has a view like this.  We hug a smaller creek and even ride along the Congaree River for a bit, but in the short loop of the Timmerman Trail is a long view of trees and make riding much cooler, in both senses.

The picture on the left is a typical view from the GoPro while it rested along my handlebar.  Amazingly, I had no issues using the hand brakes on the bicycle while keeping the selfie stick across the handlebar.








I did play with having the selfie stick in front of my bicycle to get an interesting view.  These pictures are from different parts of the Timmerman Trail on our ride.

Eventually, we reached a point on the Timmerman Trail I haven't ridden on before due to the floods the Columbia area experienced two years ago.  A few weeks ago, maybe two months ago, the repairs were finally completely and the SCANA entrance was now connected to the West Columbia Riverfront Park and Amphitheater area.  This was good news and meant that runners, cyclists, and walkers could enjoy a longer trek.

 Hanging out at the Riverfront River and snagging a quick pic with the Congaree behind me.

This wooden terrace-work along the Congaree River is definitely new.  It is still fresh and doesn't look like it has any rain.
















On the way back, I wasn't trail bike. At least for long...

Towards the end of the trip, I managed to get a picture that made it look like I was going much faster than I really was.  In fact, I was going pretty slowly under the bridge because I have a tendency to wipe out in this area.










At the end, we all met up and started racking our bikes on our respective cars, but I managed to get a pic before everyone parted ways.

Of course, "Strava it or it didn't happen."

While I missed out on races like the Bunny Hop 5k, it was good to hang out with some friends and vary up my exercise routine.  We also introduced some of them to what I consider a hidden gem in Columbia with the Timmerman Trail.  Not many people come out and run out here, but I hope more come enjoy the scenery and sights soon.