       Help Improve Endurance When Contesting
(Help Staying awake and alert during a contest)
Many
of you participated in the survey about this subject that I posted on
several of the E-Mail groups. I thank all of you who replied. This is a
follow up on what everyone told me, and possibly something for all
of you aging contesters that can not stay up all night that I
discovered. And I don't mean to stay up all night that the blue pill is
for!
Now this is just information for you all. Use it, don't use it. That's all up to you. I hold no responsibility for it's performance for you or any side effects. I am just posting about what I discovered. Do with it what you may.
Like Many Amateur Radio operators, I'm
getting OLD. Things I could do when I was younger, I just can not do
anymore. Like doing long contests. Like 24 or even 48 hour long ones.
Like Field Day, ARRL Sweepstakes, and for sure the CQWW 48 hour long
contests. I just can not stay awake and alert to do these contests
anymore. So for the past 10 years I have been only doing short sprint
contests, OR Multi OP Efforts, where I can go and take a nap if I need
to. I felt that this was to be my
destiny type of Contesting for the rest of my Amateur Radio Life!
BOY WAS I WRONG!
But first, before I give you what I discovered,
lets do a
little history. In the past I tried all the suggestions that people
made in the E-Mail replies. (If interested I can post them here) But
all of them never worked for me. The only thing that somewhat worked
was as many many said, Coffee and LOTS of it. I tried Coffee,
and as they say a LOT of it. I even tried that 5 Hour Energy
stuff. More or less a shot glass that has 5 cups of coffee's amount of
Caffeine in it!
Now while this indeed did wake me up, It had a terrible side effect on me, it might be just my bodies reaction but by the time I had enough caffeine in my bloodstream to make me be awake, I was useless for contesting because I was like this!  So jittery! Yes I was awake, But I couldn't actually concentrate! So I felt destined to be a sprinter or multi op contester. And also do what I love to do is be an "Elmer" and get new folk that have never contested before to try contesting. Then about a month before the November ARRL CW Sweepstakes I was looking for something on my computer and came across an old picture of some guys rappelling off a cliff in one of my Adventure Races.   If you look closely at the red arrows the tiny orange things are the T-Shirts of my Race Staff. It was a 180 foot high Rappel. What Fun! You may be wondering what is an "Adventure Race"? You are probably familiar with the "Ironman Triathlon" A sporting event that gets huge publicity as being the toughest competition in sport! To these "Adventure Racers" the "Ironman" is just a nice short weekend training event. Check out this video below (it is only 10 minutes long) to see what "Adventure Racing" is all about, and it will help you in a bit when I explain to you what I discovered or should say RE-Discovered that can help you in contesting! If the above embedded video won't play, go view it directly on the You Tube site by going here. https://youtu.be/OXNGuX1DDeo?si=fFVWLWlDCop3NTwC
OK, Those two races are like the
World Series, or Super bowl for Adventure Racers. I loved the sport,
but
I for one thing was no where good enough to compete in those two
events. In addition the entry fees were incredible.
DZAR2004
For the Primal Quest one for the 4 person team the entry fee was $8750.00 Thats $2187 Each person! The ECO-Challenge was even worse! Team $14500.00 Or $3625 per person. Then there was all the travel expenses, equipment etc. Way beyond my League for sure! So I found local races that are held all across the country. Most average like $100 for the entry fee. And I loved doing these events! I loved it sooo much I decided to make a race myself for others also to do. It became quite popular with teams from all across the country coming to do my race. One team even from Korea! Check out the DZAR2004 link below for the results of my 2004 race. It was quite interesting and I am lucky I'm still around because of it!
You may be wondering what all this has to do with helping you
in a Contest? Think about it. We have what a 48 hour event to contest
in? Those major Adventure Race events are 10 DAYS LONG! They
have to go non-stop for ten days! Any time resting is just like in a
contest giving your competitors the chance if they keep going to pass
you!
I looking at that web page remembered one of my sponsors. They specialize in supplements for these Adventure Racers. Typical stuff like electrolytes, and stuff like that. Energy stuff, but they stay away from Caffeine! Caffeine and strenuous sports is a BIG MAJOR NO-NO! But they made all sorts of supplements to "Fuel" these ten day long racers! They even make a "PHOOD" Pun in spelling but it is a actual packet that you mix into water that will "Fuel" you muscles during the race YET because of how it is made and what it is made of you don't have to worry about that old thing about eating and like swimming right away problem. This stuff is easily digested and available to the body with no gastric issues. This got me to thinking endurance, hmmmmm? So I contacted them, and described what we do in a Radio contest. How we need to stay awake, alert etc. all that stuff but with little to no physical exertion. What ya got that could help us I asked. About a week later they replied with three items. And here they are below.
I ordered:
6 Fully Charged 6 Perpetuem 2 Phood They arrived 2 days later, NICE! Well the test will be Sweepstakes CW. I haven't been able to do this full contest in at least 10 years, maybe more. The day of the contest I did my usual routine. Make sure everything is ready and working, and just relax. I know some sleep But I have never been able to on Contest day too much excitement building I guess. They suggested to take the Fully Charged half an hour before contest start. But I wanted to really test it and take it only when I needed it, to see if it really helped. So 4 PM happens and the Contest has started. It's now 10PM 6 hours into the contest and I'm feeling a little fuzzy so I do a Fully Charged. 1/2 hour later WOW! I am wide awake, like crazy wide awake yet no jitters or any funny feeling. Just wide awake! This is pretty cool. Ok so far sooo good. My Back and BUTT are getting tired/sore tho, as usual. Can't afford one of those super gaming chairs some suggest to use. So muscles eh? OK I try that Perpetuem stuff at 11PM. By 11:30 I'm not sore anymore! This is awesome, I'm actually feeling better than when the contest started. Ya know old mans aches and pains? This is soooo cool! The Fully Charged say to re-take every 3 hours. It's 1 AM, I don't feel like I really need it yet. But hey follow instructions right? And I press on! CQSS CQ TEST,,,,,,,, Well the 3 AM slow time has hit, and I decide to shut down for a while. Go and get some sleep. Hmmmmmmmm. This isn't working.... Maybe I shouldnt have taken the second dose of the Fully Charged. I'm wide awake. UG! So lesson learned,, maybe wait till you start to get tired again before taking any more? Just in case ya want to go to sleep! It's 6 AM Sunday and get going again, Never got any sleep and still wide awake. Interesting. At about 8 AM I'm getting hungry I haven't eaten anything since ohhh 3PM Sat. So I mix up a batch of that Phood. (what a name) Neat! In minutes the hunger feelings are gone! Thats pretty cool! I finish off the contest with a Fully Charged at 10AM and Perpetuem at Noon and a Phood at 3PM. The contest is DONE! and I never had to stop because of tired, or hungry either. Even stranger never needed a litter box break either, thats weird! OK I am writing this so far, the weekend between SSCW and SSSSB. I have enough to try this again in the phone weekend. Lets see if the results duplicate again! CQSS! Joe Ok, Phone weekend is done. I did similar as I did in the CW weekend. Except I did not take that 1AM Fully Charged dose. Lesson learned about not being able to sleep. 3AM and I go to bed. By 3:30 I'm out! 6 AM alarm clock gets me up and I'm going again and do similar to what I did on Sunday last weekend! Last weekend was not a fluke. There just wasn't any sleepiness, or anything at all. I will continue to try this in future contests. Now do us all a favor, if you do decide to try this, when you make your order, be sure to tell them that Joe from the Maidenhead Mayhem sent you. This way we can isolate to them any orders from Radio people, from the Adventure Racers. If we get enough interest for them, then they said they will actually go and tweak their products to match what we need even better! When I explained to them,,,,,Well here is an example. A semi large Adventure race has what, a few hundred racers? One of these contests is happening this weekend. (well there are several every weekend actually) some are larger than others. But this one this weekend is very popular. It has been happening for decades. And it averages, get this,, between 9000 and 10,000 entrants! Yeah ten thousand! In June is one that is even more popular in 2023 it had over 30,000 participants! Think if only ten percent of these people use your products that's 900 or 3000 users, just for these two contests! It would make your Adventure Racing sales look like nothing. So everyone if you do try this, be sure to let them know I sent ya. I get no commission on any sales. Hell I couldn't even get them to donate some for as a prize in the Mayhem! he he he. Hey maybe this stuff may help someone win the $1100.00 Dollar Single-OP Unlimited Prize in this years Maidenhead Mayhem! See ya all on the Bands! Joe WB9SBD        |
