Less than two hours before we reached Roanoke, Va., and what we hoped would be a good night's sleep, we learned the host hotel for the Odyssey One Day Adventure Race didn't have a record of our reservations.

Most of team Checkpoint Zero/GoLite (me, Michele Hobson, Peter Jolles and Tim Abbott) along with my wife, Lisa, son, Henry, Tim's wife, Gina, and dog, Bernupe, had been on the road for about 7 hours and knew we needed plenty of rest before the start of the race July 21. Now we had to search for a suitable replacement. It wasn't until about 11 p.m. that we got settled down. None of us will be staying at a Knights Inn again, I can tell you that.

Now, I get a little superstitious when it comes to, well, pretty much everything. So, I crossed my fingers and cashed in some good karma chips so the next day's race wouldn't be as cursed as our evening. Fortunately, things turned out well and team Checkpoint Zero/GoLite won the 24 hour race in a time of 16 hours and 18 minutes. But there certainly were some iffy moments along the way.

The race start and finish was at Explore Park, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway outside Roanoke. The park also would serve as a transition area that we'd visit several times during the race. I'd grown up -- for the most part -- just 30 minutes from Roanoke in Lynchburg, Va., so I knew the course would be beautiful.

The event began with a short run of about 3 miles to spread teams out a bit. With the run finished, a small pack of lead teams took to the single track loop still bunched together. We were just behind co-ed Calleva/Moosejaw/Yogaslackers as we hit the dirt. Each of us love to shred the trails, so Team Checkpoint Zero/GoLite was ready to cut loose. Unfotunately, we and Calleva zoomed right by the first checkpoint punch, which was attached to a stream of orange tape rather than an orienteering flag. We'd been able to get in the front of pack of riders, but now had no decision but to circle back and ride the loop over again. That was a bit tough to swallow because we knew in doing so we'd put ourselves behind most of the pack, and therefore would have a tough time passing on the tight trails.

Trying to be polite, we weaved our way through other teams, found the punch, and cycled hard to the end of the short 5-mile bike leg, even with soloist and racing buddy Scott Pleban in first place. We took a few minutes to load our paddles (we had to carry personal paddles throughout the race if we chose to use them rather than the single-blade canoe paddles provided) and shoes into our packs and grab more water at the transition area, then we pedaled off in a group with Scott and another soloist in first place.

We were headed onto the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway where we immediately were treated to gorgeous views of the valley below. Then we cycled up the paved road in a loose pace line, headed to a trailhead where we would run a time trial on foot. The team with the fastest time in each division would get an hour deducted from their finish time -- a HUGE award for a race we figured would be decided with a win time less than 20 hours.

So, off we pedaled in a small group, up, up up ... and right past the trailhead and the checkpoint volunteers that certainly must have shook their heads as we pedaled by. While Scott stopped to consult his map, we kept going upward -- until the road ended. What?!? We'd actually gotten to the top of the mountain to the site of the famous Roanoke Star -- the largest man made star in the world -- and completely passed the turnoff to the start of the trail run. So, we turned our rigs around and zoomed back down the hill, where we found the checkpoint volunteers and LOTS of bikes. The gaffe had cost us about six places. We dumped our bikes and traded our bike shoes for trail treads, then tromped off determined to get the fastest time on the trail run. Queue our next navigational misstep ...

We didn't have a detailed map of the trail we were supposed to take, but were given the directions to take the red blaze trail counterclockwise for a 5.5-mile loop. We took a right turn (what we considered to be the correct direction) and zoomed down the trail. About 5 minutes later we met friends and two-person team Triangle AR with Ernie Chilcott and Charlie Roberts coming up the trail toward us. They quickly informed us that we all were on the wrong trail. I looked around and -- sure enough -- there were no red blazes to be found. At that point Scott was with us again, and our little group -- which grew by a few more misguided racers who took the wrong trail -- bumbled briefly around the hill while we looked for a red blaze. Nearly 10 minutes later, we realized we had no choice but to turn around and run back to the start of the trail, which we did then hustled around the loop. Not only had we lost more time to teams that passed us due to our mistake on the previous bike, but we potentially could be down an additional hour because of the time award. We'd have to hustle on the remaining trek, bike, orienteering and paddle sections.

Finished with the running loop and back to where we dropped our bikes, we grabbed some water and started the next trekking leg, which required teams to hoof it up a trail to the Roanoke star, find the name of the overlook above which it was mounted, then return to where we previously dropped our bikes to report the answer to the local trivia to a volunteer. We passed a two-person male team along the way, but arrived at the bikes about 10-15 minutes behind the co-ed teams ahead of us.

The next biking leg would wind about 50 miles up and over beautiful gaps and back roads surrounding Roanoke. Along the way we biked through a meadow and by what appeared to be an outdoor music festival. Where there's music, there usually is food and drink, but there’d be no time for stopping.

The sight that stood out most on the bike ride, however, was Michele staggering in agony as cramps set in not even one-third of the way into the ride. She persevered, even though her legs locked up repeatedly as she bore down on the climbs. We split up her pack between us and she insisted we keep moving. We caught and passed Calleva and Berlin Bike -- the co-ed two teams ahead of us -- and were cycling along with soloist Dimitri Kaganovich and behind Scott. Despite the severe cramps that limited Michele to pedaling with one leg at times and several stops, we finished the bike and returned to the transition area, even with Dimitri and ahead of the other 4 person co-ed teams. Next, we'd head off on an orienteering section in which we'd search for 15 points, all bunched somewhat close together near the Explorer Park. At that point, we were about 30 minutes ahead of Berlin Bike and maybe an hour behind Scott.

Just as we were getting ready to head off on the O-course, Scott rushed into the transition area looking for a compass. His stopped working, so I loaned him mine and off he went again after losing lots of time to bad luck.

The orienteering points were tucked mostly in re-entrants and finding them was fairly straightforward. Tim and I brought our bright bike lights along, and Peter's job was to point us in the right direction. Michele worked out the cramps in her legs, and Peter was right-on with the navigation. Roughly two hours later we were returning the transition area with all 15 points punched. We saw Berlin Bike and Scott while out on the course, but were unable to draw any conclusions about positions since teams could punch points in any order.

Next was a 10.2 mile paddle in canoes down the Roanoke River to snag a checkpoint, then back up to the finish line at Explorer Park. On the way back we also had to spot a point along the right shore. The start of the paddle was rocky, but it soon mellowed. Michele and I enjoyed the view from our boat, and at one point Peter and Tim picked up a hitchhiker when a small fish decided to jump aboard. Otherwise, we just swung the paddles and finished in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. When we passed Berlin Bike on our way back up the river, we determined we had an hour lead. We assumed they had won the time trial run, so our lead over them couldn't slip.

We beached our boats and crossed the finish line at 4:18 a.m., 16 hours and 18 minutes after the start. We waited for an hour to pass before we felt fairly sure we'd won. Berlin Bike would finish an hour and 12 minutes after us. But the winner of the time trial actually was Calleva, who finished an hour and 13 minutes after Berlin Bike to get third place.

Unfortunately, Scott's bad luck with the compass really hurt his finish. He came in a half hour after us, but with a smile on his face as always. It was great to see him and so many other adventure racing friends at another well-run and enjoyable Odyssey event.

- Paul Cox