Race Report

Fellow Tamers,

News from last weekends adventure race could have been better. But at least we had fun and that is (so they say) the most important part. My team mate Jeff and I picked up the last of our 'required equipment' on a quick shopping run to REI the weekend before. A compass was the thing we lacked and we splurged on the best that $14.98 will get you. Would you believe some people buy the extra fancy ones for as much as 80 bucks?! Next was a trip to the nearest state park for training with this new fangled technology. After a thorough skimming of the boy scouts orienteering merit badge book (or at least the first 2 pages) and a 1 hour of practice we felt pretty confident. And it was nearly dark.

We planned on doing this 'on the cheap' so camping the Friday before the race a Yankee Springs Rec area was the only choice since the race was right there. With a weather forecast of 28 degrees Jeff and I elected to sleep in the seatless minivan on an inflatable mattress. The lap of luxury. We checked in with race officials at the crack of dawn and for once the weatherman was right on. Colder than a well diggers ass.

An inspection of the swag bag yielded 2 complimentary Hammer Gel packs, just like my fellow Tamers recommended. Good thing to cuz it turns out they don't sell the stuff just anywhere. Especially not at a Meijer's in BFE the night before the race. Meijer's did however have Power-Bars that seemed to have a unique ability to transform directly into lead when eaten in the heat of battle. The gels were way better. Thanks a bunch for the advice. Right on as usual.

So the race is scheduled to start off at 9am with a short run to get our maps. Then a 2 mile canoe section, a 4 to 8 mile run (depending on the route you choose) a 15 mile mountain bike section, and finally an orienteering section. The whole thing is really an orienteering section, but in the last section the check points are buried in the woods and not right off the trail. There were 91 (2 person) teams broken down by Open, Males, Coed, and Women with a 5 minute split start between the groups.

At the starting line I couldn't help but over hear a fellow racer behind me showing off his fancy new compass. I fought the urge for a minute then leaned back to take a look at such a marvel. "Looks heavy" I told him. We got off to a good start and were the second men’s team to be in the boats with maps in hand. We finished that leg in mixing it up with some of the open class racers even though they got to use their own equipment, not the rentals us common folk had. The kayak paddles they had seemed a pretty big advantage. Getting out of the boats we're in 8th place overall and 2nd in men’s. The run was mostly on hiking trails and was uneventful except what seemed like a lot walking. I recall saying something to Jeff like "what do you mean you didn't practice running with you hydration pack on?”. We must not have walked much, and/or a lot of racers got lost since we ended the run tied for 4th overall and tied for 1st in men’s. Next was the mountain biking, what we figure to be our strongest event. One hour and seven minutes later our stats were unchanged and we were handed the orienteering map as we rolled though the last mountain biking check point.

Oh would you look at the time. I’ll have to finish this tomorrow night.