The Odyssey Endorphin Fix has carved quite a reputation for itself over the years. It’s become known as a no nonsense suffer-fest measured in vertical feed of elevation gain and, unfortunately, for obscurely worded rules subject to individual interpretation. The 2010 edition was no exception on both fronts.

This year saw what was likely the strongest field of adventure racing athletes assembled at one race outside of Nationals. In addition to bragging rights, being able to say you’d tamed E-Fix, this race was worth 200 Checkpoint Tracker points, consequently there was a lot on the line.

And on the line we stood, awaiting the Start which was set for 2 pm Friday afternoon at Camp Bluestone in West Virginia. Ahead lay 50 hours of the “toughest race in the country”.

Did I mention it just started snowing moments before…this just keeps getting better.

We arrived knowing that this wasn’t just any race, it was E-Fix, an unsupported trial of suffering and pain. We’d read in the weeks leading up to the race that the area had seen 20 inches of snow and the rivers were flooded rivers. Spring seemed a long ways off.

Was this insanely difficult race about to become event more difficult?

After arriving late Thursday night we awoke to grey skies on Friday and had breakfast with the other teams at the beautiful Camp Bluestone. We spent the rest of the morning gathering gear, picking up our maps and plotting the ~200 miles of race course. After the race briefing there was little time to make final preparations before the Start.

To separate the pack we were sent on a short single track prologue (this was really the only single track we ever saw….really I should of brought my road bike) then up a hill and back to Bluestone where we ditched our bikes and begin the first trek.

We were 2nd out of the TA on that first trek and quickly started making our way to the various trekking points. We were joined off and on by EMS, Bones, Tecnu and a few others. This section went by relatively easy with the only big decision being whether to continue down the river back to camp or up and over a hill. It appears most of the leading teams went up and over the hill.

Back at the Bluestone TA we were given the next set of paddle/trek points which should have been a clue as to what that section would be like. After a short portage down to the lake we were paddling to drop our bikes after securing them in the boat. Packing bikes in boasts is something most race directors avoid, but for some reason Ronny seems to love it.

We dropped our bikes right at dusk and continued our paddle, thankful to have left them behind. The fading light and fast moving “lake current”, yes moving water in a lake, made it very difficult to paddle. We decided to ditch the boats and run to get the mandatory and some of the optional points. Looking back on this we should have blown off most if not all of the optional points. However, at the time our thinking was that we would be one of the few teams to ‘clear the course’…so off we went. Between the fog, a few creatively placed points, and the strong current, we lost precious time and had to leave this section around dawn having left a few optional points out there.

After paddling back downstream…in the lake…yes the lake…we left our canoes to begin biking. The lake shore was a sloppy mess of mud, and when I say mud I mean mud. Past your knees and up to your waist in some places…and it stank…bad.

After reassembling our bikes, in the mud, we rode off to collect points on the way to Pipestem SP. This was last year’s Start/Finish. It was good to be in familiar territory. Along the way we hit a convenience store that provided us with great sausage-n-egg biscuits and coffee for a mid morning pick me up. This section was an O-Course with mandatory & optional points. Teams had to be checked out by 4pm or else get “short coursed”.

Remember that phrase.

The weather on Saturday was brilliant after a day of rain and snow on Friday followed by cold temps Friday night and into Saturday morning. We cleared all the points at Pipestem and rode off back towards our boats. Along the way Michele had serious a mechanical on her bike. She broke a spring in her derailleur. That woman doesn’t know how strong her legs are. Seriously, it was just a random, unfortunate act of God.

Not being able to fix it we considered all our options including a DNF. Several teams stopped to offer genuine assistance as we stood there scratching our heads. However, with a downhill to the TA, and our mud clogged boats, we were able to coast down to the river. When we got there we heard that nuun-SportMulti had dropped out of the race due to a sick teammate. We quickly called HQ to see if we could borrow Jenn Rinderle’s bike from nuun-SportMulti…afterall, they’d borrowed Jenn from us for this race :-)

This worked a treat and we paddled down the river, I mean lake, and met Jenn half way to switch bikes and continue on to the next TA. This is a really good example of the great friends we have in this sport. Even though rivals, there is always a willingness to assist each other.

At the next TA we assemble our bikes, again, on what was now Saturday evening and a setting sun. A haiku for race volunteers got us each a brownie that was well received. The one I composed cannot be repeated here. Then off we went into the setting sun and MORE road biking. I did bring a mountain bike didn’t I?

We reached Camp Creek SP around 11pm, feeling the effect of over 30 hours without sleep and cold temps. We completed most of this ride with team ImONPoint, but did put some distance between them towards the end. This is amazing considering we were all having some serious issues with the sleepmonster by this point. I was having visions of characters running around my feet again.

We decided on a 15 minute nap which really never happened with the cold biting at us as we lay on the frigid ground. We left the TA on foot to collect the mandatory and as many optional points as we could and still be back to that same TA by 2am.

This is where it all gets a little cloudy.

Between misreading/misinterpreted the rules we didn’t make the 2am cut off and found ourselves being “short coursed”.

There’s that phrase again.

This rule confusion was about to catch a few teams out, including some of the top contenders, but the fact is we we’re the ones that didn’t read rules properly. Upon reflection we should have spent less time on optional points early in the race.

Having been “short coursed” it was back to the boats…the exact same way we had just ridden to get to the park. This left us less than enthused about continuing. When we considered that we weren’t going to get the invaluable Checkpoint Tracker points we were hoping for, coupled with a teammate dealing with a deteriorating foot and general unhappiness with the overall race, we decided to drop.

Yes, drop and hang out by the camp fire at the TA while we waited for a ride back to the finish line. This was a long, cold, 4 hour wait punctuated by other teams returning to the TA to discover their fate was the same as ours, a long ride back to their boat.

We thought that route could be best described as “the longest out-n-back ever”.

We finally got a ride back with Ronny , with our bikes, only to have to turn around and drive back…again…to get our boats. Our good friends nuun offered insistently to go get our boats, but we refused. After all that we were back to Camp Bluestone to clean an load gear, grab a shower and take a nap before the long ride home.

There has been a lot discussion, debate and even a little angst over this race. While there is something to be said for letting the dust settle, or in this case the mud, there appear to be some valid concerns regarding certain things. Only time will tell if passion and energy will be translated into changes next time around.