So yesterday I ran in an "event" called the Texas Treasure Quest put on by none other than Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT). I call it an "event" for two reasons - one, I wasn't racing it. Two, it's less a "race" and more a strategic expedition. I decided a couple of weeks ago to come to Texas for it mainly b/c DC weather has been a real fickle b*tch lately and all the glorious DC heat and humidity has been on hiatus since I started training for Badwater 2015 and 2016 over a year ago. So I figured 12 hours on my feet in the dry Texas heat would be perfect. Side note - it was great training. It was most definitely NOT dry.
Anyway, the race itself is held on this KILLER horse ranch near Sealy TX called the 7IL ranch. It's just spectacular and I was interested in seeing the ranch prior to my fall 100, Blazing 7s, which will also be held there. So you can see the justification behind my decision to venture once again, to a favorite town of mine.
Ok, anyway, let's get back to this "event". The way it works is that there are several primary trails that weave all over this mainly pancake flat ranch for a total mileage of about 40 miles. Because they constantly intersect each other and and criss-cross, you can essentially get from point A to point B fairly easily, which makes the idea of an open scavenger hunt very viable.
Anyway, the race itself is held on this KILLER horse ranch near Sealy TX called the 7IL ranch. It's just spectacular and I was interested in seeing the ranch prior to my fall 100, Blazing 7s, which will also be held there. So you can see the justification behind my decision to venture once again, to a favorite town of mine.
Ok, anyway, let's get back to this "event". The way it works is that there are several primary trails that weave all over this mainly pancake flat ranch for a total mileage of about 40 miles. Because they constantly intersect each other and and criss-cross, you can essentially get from point A to point B fairly easily, which makes the idea of an open scavenger hunt very viable.
| The race has 4 time-based intervals you can choose to play - 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours. You can also choose to do the event alone or as a team of 2 or 4 people whereby the teams format requires all players to stay together the entire time. As soon as the clock starts, captains are given laminated maps with all routes marked and a point value assigned to each of the "hidden treasures" At these treasure locations, there is a small stamp pad and unique stamp for that location and as a runner, you carry a small book with you where you stamp a page at that point. Sounds simple right? Wrong. |  |
There's a HUGE strategy behind this because once you have 5 stamps, you must return back to the start-finish area, have your stamps logged and then you go back out. You can only get each stamp once and because Rob Goyan is smart, he likes to add a wrinkle, which was that each stamp has a certain point value. Not surprisingly, the harder to reach/find stamps are worth more, the close in stamps are worth less. To make it even more interesting there were 5 bonus items that you could bring back (if you could find them) for additional point accumulation but most were things you wouldn't want to carry around with you should you be out there mid-collection, like a 10 lb kettlebell. So dragging that back means losing time. Speaking of, when your cut-off is coming up, you have to make a choice to try to run out and squeeze in more or stay back b/c each minute you miss coming back in for your cutoff is a point lost. After 30 minutes, you're DQed. Trust me when I say it's surprisingly easy to get lost on this course later in the day. I know. I did and kept going in circles come 2pm or so.
But did I mention in the midst of these rules that it was ridiculously FUN? Because holy cow, it was a blast. You'd be amazed how fast you can run when you see a small sign off in the distance and you know it's something you've been looking for. Or how fast time goes when you stop watching your Garmin Fenix 2 (which died anyway... useless brick of a device that it is)? And this ranch... oh my god was it gorgeous:
But did I mention in the midst of these rules that it was ridiculously FUN? Because holy cow, it was a blast. You'd be amazed how fast you can run when you see a small sign off in the distance and you know it's something you've been looking for. Or how fast time goes when you stop watching your Garmin Fenix 2 (which died anyway... useless brick of a device that it is)? And this ranch... oh my god was it gorgeous:
So it was really a marvelous place to run and great day for it ... except for the trail conditions. Wanna see?
The course was under a ridiculous amount of water and the mid-morning severe thunderstorms made it so bad that one of the water crossings I had to traverse twice was waist-deep for me. WAIST DEEP. I realize I'm a bit of a shorty at 5'3" but an ark would've been a more appropriate vessel to navigate with than my feet. The good news is I didn't have blisters and the muddy Sketchers held up reasonably well. I say "reasonably" well because they didn't make it into my suitcase to come back home. I'm going to try going back to Altras for BW135 after having tried out a few post-race.
At any rate, it was crazy fun, TROT and Rob know how to put on one seriously well-run race (<- HA! See what I did there?!) and I'll definitely be back next year... if for nothing else but to hear the cheers of the race staff each time I came in, usually spoken in with a bit of a pirate accent. It was a dAARRRRRRn good time.
At any rate, it was crazy fun, TROT and Rob know how to put on one seriously well-run race (<- HA! See what I did there?!) and I'll definitely be back next year... if for nothing else but to hear the cheers of the race staff each time I came in, usually spoken in with a bit of a pirate accent. It was a dAARRRRRRn good time.
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