by Jess Evans
February 10, 2018
If you are into adventure sports and racing, the LBL Challenge is for you. For starters, it has an awesome venue! I remember the first time I visited Land Between the Lakes (LBL) – not related to any adventure race. I was amazed that this pristine park sat between two large lakes (Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley). The park exists where the Tennessee River and Cumberland River are dammed up to create this very cool land mass in the middle, sort of like an island. The wildlife is spectacular, and the trails wind you through that beauty so expertly.
Early in my adventure racing career, I had heard about the adventure race at LBL. I think one year there was a championship race there. It was on the periphery of my knowledge of adventure racing. At the time I was basically racing “The Fig”, and that was it. In 2017, Shawn and Dallas brought back the LBL Adventure Race. I decided to try it. I was signed up to race with Laura, from “Only MOSTLY Lost”, but Laura came down with something – maybe strep. Therefore, Gary and I teamed up to make the two-person “Only MOSTLY Lost” team.
The race started with the paddle on one of the gigantic lakes – I can’t remember which one. The waves were ginormous! (Well, that is an exaggeration, but they were big.) The race had awesome flowing single track and fun (challenging) orienteering. There was a BIG bike leg at the end, and it took us over 4 hours to get back to the finish. We chose to do the shorter race… 15 hours. There was also a 24-hour race going on simultaneously. As we were heading back to the finish, on that long 4-hour bike leg, we passed many of the 24-hour teams. We cheered them on, giving them encouragement as their long night was just beginning.
The LBL Challenge is March 3 and promises to be another great race this year. It will be 18 hours, in honor of 2018. And it is one of the four races in the 18-hour series. If you have not done this race yet, seriously consider it. LBL is a unique venue.
