Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp
Copyright© 2025 by Canairs90s
Scene 2 — Lindsey
Lindsey jerked awake and was briefly disoriented about where she was and who the guy kneeling at her bedside was. Then things began to click into place as her mind activated for the day.
“Sorry to wake you,” Cal whispered gently, “but the start time is coming up and...”
“Shit, what time is it?” Lindsey asked frantically, glancing around for a clock.
“It’s ok, it’s ok,” Cal soothed her, “you have more than 20 minutes to get ready.”
“Ok, thank you. Sorry, still not a morning person,” she said.
“That’s ok, I get it. I’m normally not either, just amped up for today. I brought you some coffee and a protein bar in case you needed either,” Cal said.
“Awww, thanks Cal,” she said. She couldn’t help but smile, it was nice to be back on the same team thinking about how they could help each other. She spent a few minutes sipping coffee and getting down a few bites of the dense protein bar before heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready for the day.
She emerged from the bathroom and began pulling out her clothes for the day. She thought about going into the bathroom to change but thought it might help build trust if she just did it with Cal in the room; it wasn’t like there was anything he hadn’t seen yesterday anyway. She stripped off her pajamas and checked out her options.
The only clean underwear she had left were a plain white pair and a pair with pale green and pink pair with horizontal stripes. Pretty easy choice, she mused - white was not a great choice around this place it seemed. Which brought her to her next problem - the only clean bottoms were a pair of white leggings. Not much she could do about that, at least they were a quality athletic pair, not some cheap brand that would be totally transparent in the water. For her top she had a grey sports bra with a black elastic band around the bottom and a sky blue workout top to go over it.
“This outfit is the downside to wearing all my dark clothes yesterday morning and getting them filthy,” she said to Cal mirthfully as she got dressed.
“Well you were committed to winning,” Cal pointed out, she was glad that’s where his focus was. “Would you like me to go grab the stuff we left out to dry?”
“Nah, it’s fine, if it gets dirty it gets dirty, you did learn your lesson on that yesterday, right?” Lindsey asked.
“Haha, yes ma’am. Winning comes first,” he said and made a sarcastic crossing his chest gesture.
“Good boy,” she said in a playful tone. She did feel a little awkward about the white pants, completely soaked from the swim it probably would be pretty easy to see her underwear. She realized the orange shorts from yesterday hadn’t gotten too dirty and she grabbed them from where she’d left them in the bathroom yesterday and put them on. “Ready to go,” she declared.
“Great, hey, don’t want to be weird, I definitely understand the shorts, but they might chafe a bit on the ride. I’m not exactly sure what the bikes will be like and I, uh, obviously am not familiar with exactly how this works for ladies, but I know for guys that’s why we don’t wear shorts that are too baggy, especially on road bikes if they happen to be that style.” Cal said.
Lindsey could tell from his awkward expression and slight blush he felt really weird saying that, but he was trying to help. She thought about a retort about him just wanting to check her out but realized that would probably not be helpful for the fragile trust they were trying to build.
“Ok, thanks, I will definitely keep it in mind. I’m sure chafing would slow me down and then it would probably really suck for the run part,” she said, “let’s head for the start.”
Cal nodded and they walked out to the starting line on the main field.
It was cool and there was still a bit of fog over the lake. Everybody was ready a few minutes before 6 AM and Laurie offered a quick greeting. Lindsey sized up the other teams. Team 1 was looking typically smug, once again in muscle shirts and shorts. She figured they were probably feeling confident since at least the first part of the round was mostly just a physical competition.
Team 3 was again looking surprisingly focused, apparently their newfound competitiveness hadn’t dwindled overnight. Stefan was wearing another pair of dingy white rugby shorts which Lindsey could tell had been filthy on many occasions and a black sleeveless shirt. Annie was wearing a matching workout outfit, this one was even more revealing than yesterday and neon pink. The top was a yoga sports bra with thin straps and not much of a back. The shorts were very short and very tight. Lindsey’s initial reaction was that Annie was just wanting more male attention but then she realized such tight clothes were probably advantageous for the swim leg when fluid dynamics could make a difference.
Team 4’s outfits really drove this point home. Cara and Bailey were both dressed in dark blue one piece competitive swimming suits. Lindsey felt like an idiot for not thinking of that and packing a swimsuit. It would be a big advantage compared to wearing regular clothes and would dry quickly. She wondered how it would feel riding a bike though. She briefly considered discarding her shorts to be more aerodynamic in the water but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do that.
“Good morning, glad to see you ALL here,” Laurie called. ‘Ugh, that was a barb at me,’ Lindsey realized and felt renewed guilt again about her little meltdown the previous evening. “Remember, you must begin the third leg as a team, check in with Pierre once you leave the Mess Hall for instructions. I will be meeting you at the finish. Good luck to each team, I hope you all have enjoyed things so far, Pierre and I have certainly enjoyed having you at our camp and we’re excited to see what you have in store for today. Any questions?”
There were none and Laurie gave them a signal to indicate they could begin. The eight competitors set out at a run along the shoreline of the lake, looking for the markers for where they could get into the water to start the swim leg. Tommy quickly took the lead with Dillon close behind him. Lindsey didn’t worry too much about keeping up with them, knowing this was the start of a long morning and conserving energy was crucial. After what she thought was about 10 minutes of running they spotted the markers for the start of the swim. Lindsey shook her head in amusement, of course it was where a small depression in the shore had resulted in the formation of a large patch of mud. They were all going in the water momentarily anyway, it wouldn’t matter much.
The competitors splashed through the mud and into the shallows all within about 100 yards of each other. As soon as the water was up to her hips Lindsey dove in head first and began to swim. She wasn’t exactly sure how far across the lake it was but she guessed about a mile. She figured she could probably do that in less than 30 minutes, but it would definitely not be a sprint. She got herself into a nice rhythm and focused her mind on maintaining a steady tempo with her strokes and breaths. She passed by the other competitors within a few minutes and was out in the lead. It was certainly a bit of time, but she was approaching the shore near where they had started sooner than she had expected and suddenly realized she could touch the bottom again.
She stood up and jogged out of the shallow water. She took just a moment to look back at the competition to see how far she was ahead. She was surprised to find that Annie was actually in second and probably less than a minute behind her. The others were a bit further out. She couldn’t tell exactly who was who but one guy was definitely a good distance behind the rest. She had a bad feeling that it was Cal.
There wasn’t much she could do about that, so remembering their conversation about doing their best she took off across the field for the Mess Hall.
Pierre was seated outside as promised and waved as Lindsey ran past and into the building. It was a pretty remarkable change from yesterday when the dining area had been largely empty. Now eight modern-looking exercise bikes were set up on exercise mats in two rows of four, each labeled with a competitor’s name. There were also several large industrial strength fans blowing. Lindsey ran to her bike and was about to get on when she remembered what Cal had mentioned earlier about potential chafing. Looking down at her soaked shorts she decided it wasn’t worth the risk and dropped them, then got on her bike. She looked down and her underwear was pretty clearly visible through her wet leggings. At least she was in the back row, there really wouldn’t be that much to see from the front anyway and her leggings were meant to dry quickly, the fans would help as well.
Now that she was moving Lindsey looked around to get a better sense of her surroundings. She realized the bikes were grouped by teams counterclockwise. So Team 1 would be in front of her, Cal would be next to her on one side, Team 3 on the other side and Team 4 in front of them. Of course it had to be Annie right next to her instead of Stefan. At the front of the room was a big screen TV. It had each competitors’ name with stats next to the names, like a scoreboard. Of course, since Lindsey was in the lead hers was the only one showing anything so far. There was a little bar that showed her current effort level, what percentage of the ride she had done so far - it ticked from 1% to 2% as she watched - and an estimated finish time. She could compare that to the clock on the wall to figure out how much she had left to ride. ‘This is all pretty cool and high tech, this place always has a surprise for us,’ she thought to herself.
Cal had given her some tips on pacing herself since he was an experienced cyclist. The big thing he had emphasized is that an hour of riding would really add up if she started out too hard. He explained how even experienced riders often started off at a pace they thought they could hold all day only to begin to really struggle after the half hour mark, so Lindsey picked a pace that felt easy. Since she was in front she could see how she felt as she went and if others were catching her she could up her pace. There also was no point in pushing herself to beat others since she couldn’t progress to the next stage without Cal.
Cal’s other tip had been that if the bike allowed her to adjust resistance level to use a lower one. He’d explained that since she was a runner her aerobic fitness would be better than her leg strength so by doing more pedal strokes at a lower resistance she could stress that part of her body, which could recover quickly, but minimize leg fatigue for the run. Lindsey found the control on the bike to lower resistance and turned it down a few notches while she pedaled to keep her overall production steady. The little effort display on the TV was a big help.
Lindsey had just about settled into a rhythm when Annie burst through the door. Lindsey had seen that Annie wasn’t too far behind her when she had emerged from the lake but she still couldn’t help but be a little surprised that the diminutive woman was her closest competition. As Lindsey had done a few minutes earlier, Annie took a moment to orient herself then ran to her assigned bike, hopped on, and began to pedal. Her pace was furious from the start, surpassing Lindsey’s output. Lindsey was immediately concerned and began to push harder.
It had barely been a minute when Annie’s pace began to slacken. Lindsey adjusted her pace accordingly.
“Phew, this is way different from my spin class!” Annie exclaimed. “I thought I would be good at this since I spin 2 times a week.”
“How long is your typical spin class?” Lindsey asked.
“Like 45 minutes with a warm up and a cool down, but we have breaks where we go slow and recover,” Annie replied.
“Well we’re probably going an hour or more, I think we need to focus on finding a steady tempo we can keep up for a while.” Lindsey explained.
Annie looked at her with surprise, that was weird to Lindsey, what she just explained seemed like common sense. Then it dawned on her, Annie wasn’t surprised by her advice, she was surprised Lindsey would say anything that might help her.
“Thanks...” Annie said, in a very tentative tone, “now that you put it like that it seems really obvious. Thank you for helping me.”
Lindsey pondered the contrition in Annie’s tone, it surprised her considering that they had largely been rivals thus far in the competition. Over the next few minutes the pair fell into what they both hoped was a reasonable rhythm they could maintain for the full 20 mile distance. Lindsey noticed that Annie’s estimated finish time was steadily creeping closer despite her little output bar being a little higher. She realized this is what Cal had explained to her about power to weight ratio. Since Annie was smaller and lighter she had to exert less total effort to go the same speed as Lindsey. Lindsey wasn’t quite sure if she should up her pace or just stay steady.
After a few minutes the other contestants began to arrive. Dillon was the first, but Cara, Bailey, and Tommy all arrived within about two minutes of each other. Annie and Lindsey were already past the 15% completion mark with a lead of several minutes. The new arrivals took differing approaches. Tommy seemed mainly concerned with the effort indicator and tried to keep himself above all the others. The big man was just mashing the pedals, it reminded Lindsey of someone doing reps on a leg machine. Dillon was a little bit more fluid, but his effort bar was still way higher than Lindsey thought she could sustain for more than a few minutes. The women’s approach was a bit more measured; Lindsey thought they seemed more focused on the long game but their fitness was clear as they were both not losing any ground to her on the estimated finish time graphic.
The next contestant to arrive was Stefan, much to Lindsey’s dismay. Cal had told her he would struggle but the situation was getting desperate. She considered her options and realized she had basically none other than to conserve her energy and hope Cal’s cycling skills really were as good as advertised. She kept up her steady pace even as Annie and Tommy’s estimated finish time dipped below hers.
A breathless Cal finally burst through the door a few minutes later. Lindsey looked at the clock and realized he was a full 20 minutes behind her. She’d known he would struggle at the swim by his own admission, but that was a big gap. She didn’t see how he could make up so much time on the others. He ran to his bike and didn’t even make eye contact with her. She imagined he felt ashamed and embarrassed by his performance so she quietly offered some words of encouragement: “We can still do this, Cal, this is your specialty, keep your head in the game.”
With all 8 competitors now ‘in the saddle’ Lindsey could survey the scoreboard and get a better sense of how things might shake out. Cal was just underway with only 1% of his ride completed but his initial pace was impressive. His energy bar was on par with Dillon’s. She worried if he could maintain that pace but thought back to their discussion about trust and decided she should not bother him. Tommy currently had the best estimated finishing time with her and Annie just a few minutes behind. Dillon, Cara, and Bailey were a few minutes further back. Stefan was a few minutes behind them with Cal in last. It looked like he would finish about 12 minutes after Team 1 and 10 minutes after Team 4. Lindsey felt frustrated but realized there was nothing she could do about it right now.
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