This past weekend, I had the pleasure of racing in Medicus WRX‘s Half Ocho adventure race in Middleton, Wisconsin. They put on a fun race that had challenges for experienced racers and also beginners like myself. While I tried to prepare for the event by thinking about race strategy and the gear that I wanted to carry with me, I never thought that my most useful tool of the race would be a rubber band!
My whole career I’ve collected rubber bands around my wrist during the work day and work week. I guess that I just mindlessly put them on my wrist and then forget about them, ending up at the end of the day with a wrist full of rubber bands. It has been a running joke in our family, first with my wife and now my boys have caught on to it too.
But that meant that as I was going through my race packet with my maps and passport, I naturally had a rubber band around my wrist. I’m trying to better manage ready access to the things that I need most during the race – maps, passport, compass, water, food. The rubber band around my wrist provided a convenient solution for holding my passport. With the rubber band doubled up I could conveniently hold my passport and a pen at ready access, but without impeding on any of the biking, paddling, or map reading.
I’m right handed, so I kept the passport secured to the inside of my left wrist/forearm and the pen on the outside of my left forearm. This way as I approached a control point, I could quickly pull the passport to punch or to write the control answer. Afterwards, with my right hand, I could tuck the passport away again and be on my way.
In retrospect, having only a single rubber band was risky as I didn’t have any backup should that one rubber have broken. Had it gotten caught on a branch I could have lost my passport somewhere in the middle of a navigation bushwhack. In the future, I can mitigate this by using a heavier rubber band, and at least two rubber bands. I’ll also look for other solutions along these lines. I’ve thought about using one of those phone holding armbands, perhaps with modifications for fit and use.
It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun. Medicus is putting on another adventure race in September, the Code Blue Challenge. If you are looking for an exciting way to spend a day in the beautiful Driftless Area of Wisconsin, you should check it out.