[jforest1]

The oh crap moment award goes to the team barreled on bicycles into a canoe at CP2 that another team was portaging. I feel for the dude. He was looking back to talk to teammates when he looked back where he was going and flew over the canoe when he t-boned it. The teammates managed to screech to a halt. CP2 was busier than a Tokyo traffic junction during rush hour.

Runner up goes to Jay Curwen and team Black Dome, for dropping their passport on the portage up to CP2. If we didn't have a Predator unmanned aircraft circling the area and streaming the video into my eyeglass display, we probably wouldn't have spotted it. And he made fun of all the gadgets we sport...

I'll write a full review soon, but all in all I liked the format of the race like I like extra icing on a cookie-cake. As long as it's not all over the place, it's cool. NM. Take that back. I love cookie-cake covered in icing.

--josh
_________________
Get Nuked! Atomic AR by Fuji

http://www.TeamROCGear.com

"In adventure racing, there is no victory for one--the finish line can only be a triumph of many."

[Jay Curwen]

Josh...no more fun will be made...You are da man...
Thanks!

Dale,
Sorry for not being a bit more sociable at 8...I definitely had my game face on and wasn't as pleasant as I should be...Karma caught up with me in just a few miles though...I broke 4 spokes in the rear wheel and suffered with it on the rest of the bike

I'd love to hear everyone's take...and strategery...

We biked instead of paddled...After 3, I ran for 7,6,5 and 4, while Michelle and Chris got our bikes ready...Then we all rode to 9 (getting 8 on the way) where I dropped the bike and ran for 10 and 11 while they rode my bike back around...They also took everything except my pfd across the lake while I was running...so, unfortunately, I had to run for 12 as well...oops...A quick swim across the lake and I re-joined them at the boat to ride to 14 and 15. We took the Green Mtn. trails...Chris descended fast and got 14...we plotted 16 and he bushed out to it quickly...Then we rode to the marina for 15...We got off the bikes in 3rd...and were promptly run down by CP02...We limped our way in for 4th...Hard day.

1st - Snickers (wow)
2. CP0 (Peter, Chip and Patsy...if she'd stayed w/ me on the initial run the might've won!)
3. CP02 (Alan, Jon and Jenn)
4. us
5. Taint so Bad (right on our heels for the whole ride)

[RonSanders]

Interesting concept this race...

We started out with our fastest Charles taking the wrong turn with the other front runners up the hill. This was bad because we had to wait in line before passing 16 teams on the paddle to CP2.

At CP2 we sent Charles to CP3, he got his bike and rode it to the trailhead and proceded on foot up the trail to the Knob and got 7,6,5,4. Allison and I followed behind, I climbed the net we grabbed our own bikes and picked up Charles' on the way back to CP2, then met Charles at CP13.

Next flub: since I didn't see Charles' bike shoes at CP3 I thought he was running with them (he wasn't). So my teammates biked to CP8 while I biked back to CP3 for the shoes and caught up to them at CP8 just as Charles was heading up to get CP11. From there we went straight to CP9, Charles went upto CP10 but when he bushwacked down we were waiting at the wrong reenterant. Luckily, we heard him yell and we were all back on bikes again.

We throttled it back to CP2 where I took the canoe and portaged alone to CP12, Charles and Allison took all bikes back to CP3, then ran after me to CP12 where we began our paddle. From there no-brainer CP14 (then CP16), then CP15, and the run to finish line where we were caught from behind by a college cross-country runners. Despite heroic efforts by Charles and Allison to push/pull/drag my 195# of fat and gear we couldn't keep up.

The race seemed to be about managing resources in order to keep our fastest(Charles) moving at all times, and minimizing slowest(me) with headstarts.


The saddest part is I heard on the grape vine that we got penalized for not punching at CP3. The TA that individually we visited on no less then three seperate occations.

[Jay Curwen]

[Lisa R]

Bo had a great run and came back in 4th I believe so we managed to get on the river before the total cluster at the put-in that happened behind us. The paddle went really fast, and quickly we were out portaging to CP2. We decided we'd do the bike option, so we portaged the boat all the way to CP4.

Our first moment of drama happened when I opened up the dry bag and found that the map of the first foot section (I had cut it in pieces), was not in there. ARGH!!! I was majorly stressed out for a few minutes, and tried to visualize the map in my head. I had thought the night before that it would be good to send the guys to get the bikes, while I did the loop by myself, but once I realized I didn't have a map and was going from memory, that was out the window. I didn't know how long the section would take or how straight forward it was so I didn't want to chance separating. We headed down the trail and then I remembered that we had the instructions and that was plenty to complete the first short run section. It ended up being really easy so I was kind of kicking myself afterwards, especially once we found that there was a cargo net special test on the way to CP3 that took extra time. No worries though, I went up the net (was looking forward to it actually!) and we grabbed our bikes and headed back to CP2.

Next we attacked the Brawley Mtn section, where our plan was for us to ride to CP 9, then I would go up the mountain and get CP10 and 11, while the guys took my bike back to CP2. What happened next was almost comical looking back on it, but it really took us out of contention. We had some communication problems on this section, as James was having bad chainsuck on his bike, but I heard him yell to me to keep going. After another few minutes down the road, I looked back and saw Bo, but no James. $hit! I thought..we're getting really close to CP9, but James was nowhere in sight (odd) and he had my running shoes AND the mandatory cell phone. I sent Bo back to get my gear from James, thinking he was just a little ways back, and I continued on towards CP9. I punched CP9, whipped off my biking shoes, ready to change shoes and hit the ground running...but where are my teammates???? 5 minutes later...still no teammates...(Insert lots of swearing and general grumpiness here). So I put my bike shoes back on and started riding back towards CP 8. 2 miles later, I FINALLY run into Bo, who has my gear. Now I could no longer take the trail up to Brawley, as going back to it would just waste more time, so I had to bush it all the way to CP10. Luckily it was a big target and the woods were pretty open. I hit CP10 and CP11 with no issues and booked it back down the BMT to meet my teammeates. As I popped out of the trail, they were just coming up the road with my bike.

When we met up, I handed the map over to Bo so that he and James could get CP12 and CP13 while I rode down to CP4 and started getting the canoe/bike shuttle ready. Unfortunately the distance I wrote on the map for CP12 was not correct, so they went way too far and it took much longer than expected. When they arrived back at CP4, we loaded all three bikes in the canoe, and James and I paddled it across the channel (portage wheels still attached), while Bo swam across.

We portaged up to the field and then hopped on our bikes for some sweet singletrack riding. When we arrived at CP14, and found out the location of CP16, I started wishing we had chose paddling option...especially after what happened next. I left Bo and James on the side of the road while I went to get CP16. About halfway there, I took the instructions for CP16 out again (not sure why...) and re-read that at least two people had to go to CP16... NOOOOO!!!! So back down I go and holler for Bo to come with me. Curses..and more time wasted. When we finally got CP16 and were nearing the end of the bike section, we saw teams running in on Old 76, so we knew things weren't looking too good. There was a team that had just started running as we were coming into the marina (Team Toccoa), so they provided some incentive to us on the final run. We finally chased them down coming up the big hill on Church Street and dragged it in for I think 7th, but I haven't seen any offical results yet. Not our cleanest performance, but it was still pretty fun, AND I got to climb the cargo net and hump it up Brawley (Yippie!)

As far as the format, I liked it to an extent. I like logistical races, but I didn't like the added CP - mainly because I felt it was more time consuming to those who biked. Of course, If we chose paddling, I probably would have been jumping for joy over gaining a bit of advantage. Actually, knowing about the existence of that bonus CP, I think the paddling route would have been slightly faster, especially for teams who were good paddlers with decent boats. The other advantage was somewhat rested legs for the final run, in case there were any close finishes.

I do think the open format was a bit mind boggling for the beginners...we stopped at Aska Falls and saw a canoe completely submerged in the rapid and a team walking down Aska Rd with just their paddles. Now why on earth would they have even have come down that far???..Chris said he saw LOTS of team paddling past Shallowford Bridge. I know we need to take responsibility for our own actions, but I don't think it would have hurt the format to give some general guidelines or say no boats past Shallowford Bridge - just for the safety of the racers and their gear. That team's boat was looking a bit mangled up - a costly mistake.

My only BIG gripe was the canoe pickup at the Turkey Farm after the race. This was a major cluster and took FOREVER. Since the road was so narrow and the gate was closed, only groups of 5-6 vehicles were being let in at a time, and everyone else had to wait until they all came out before the next group was allowed in. We didn't get out of there until after 7 pm...very frustrating! Other than that, it was a pretty good race, and always rates pretty high on the fun factor.

Race photos (just of our team...sorry)
http://picasaweb.google.com/lisa.randall24/BlueRidgeAR2008

[jfarmer]

I had to jump in here folks. It'll just take a minute. I had just finished up my crit in beautiful downtown Chattanooga yesterday afternoon when Carol said that James ROBO-RACER Holmes was racing in the Cat 3 field. Sure enough, I look over in the pack and give him a shout. After the race, in which he finished top 10 in a big field, I walked over to him and took a seat. After a little chatter I noticed his filthy legs and asked him if he'd wrecked. "No, that's from Blue Ridge" he said. I hesitated. "You did Blue Ridge this morning??????". "Yeah, I threw the bike on the car and drove up here for the crit. I got here just in time to register and jump in." It was definitely a holy crap moment for me. He even did the brutal, windy, road race this morning. WOW!!!!

[LabRat]

I always enjoy reading the posts from the front of the trail, I had some time and thought I'd give a race review from the back of the pack. Jim Kelleher, myself and Matt Williamson (first race) had a great time out there.

We got to the start earlier than most (7:15 ish) but got told to park on the side of the road almost at the end of all the trucks/cars that would eventually show up. Aside from the further distance to haul the canoe, Bradley Smith, our support crew, later had to get a race volunteer to help him get the truck unstuck!

Matt was 'selected' as the runner to CP1 (youngest, skinniest, newest). He did a good job - we realized as soon as he left that we probably should have shown him how a checkpoint works (the punch proved self-explanatory, it seems).

Jim, Bradley and I got the canoe ready and ended up with a decent spot at the picnic shelter across from the restrooms. As Matt came in mid-pack we had the boat in line at the main put-in...when Ron (race director) yelled that we could use the stairs beyond the picnic shelter. We ended up being the second or third in the water from the alternate put-in.

Our newly found good luck held as we passed many teams spinning in circles, overturned and stuck on rocks. Jim and I are not the best paddlers and with Matt on-board we were in a new configuration (no team practice!). But we executed almost perfectly - as i called the rocks, Jim steered and Matt paddled his heart out. We came out with everyone else below the boat ramp and used our brand new portage wheels. Those pneumatic wheels go into our "best purchase ever" bag - they attached well, rolled perfect and we were fast - passing a few teams on the way to CP2. We were happy to see less than 20 canoes at CP2 when we arrived!

We left the boat next to the trail to CP13 and all three of us ran to CP3 for the bikes. Matt 'volunteered' again to scale the net up to the bridge as Jim and I found Bradley and the bikes. As we were heading out of CP3 a female competitor stepped into the middle of the bridge, while the people around her yelled to "look ahead!" as she bent down to tie her shoes. I was again lucky to brake, unclip and dig in to stop on the wet wood stopping about 6 inches from her face.

We rode like demons out to CP8, bushed up and down to CP10 then biked to CP9. We made a decision to haul the bikes up to CP11 - yeah...we thought we could bike down the other side and hit the trail halfway back to 8. Turns out we weren't the only ones to make that mistake. The positive-side was we had a blast tearing down the hill on the bikes!! The ride back to CP2 was fast and fun.

I rode to CP12 as Jim and Matt got the canoe to CP13 with their bikes and took that load to the drop across the river. I then hit 5, 7, 4 - forfeiting 6 b/c of my poor decision to bush-whack up the mtn for 7. I ran into another race up there and we were able to find the trail at the top and low and behold a few yards away there was the CP. I toyed with the idea of running the trail to 6, but knew that Jim and Matt were growing tired of waiting on me by then. I picked up my bike, then busted to 4 and Jim waiting for me with the boat.

We were biking to 15 (obviously) and ended up with a little trail confusion at the right-hand turn on Green Mountain up where the houses and the black top was. For some reason we chose the blacktop. The trip down was a lot of fun. The trip back up when we realized how bad a decision that was...well, it could have been more fun. From there 14 was simple, 16 was confusing and unnecessary. We never found it, stayed too long looking and were generally frustrated with it. We finally bailed and rode like demons back to 15 to be the last team to make the cut-off (i think).

Matt and I were slow and painful as we ran to town. Jim on the other hand ate some weird ju-ju at 15 and probably ran his best race ever. We could barely keep up. Little did anyone know that Jim and I both spent time as lumberjacks until we showed everyone how to saw that log. Of course no one really saw our manly feat b/c we finished up in 10:27... not, I want to note, in last place.

As usual we had a blast and enjoyed ourselves very much. Matt had a good first race and will hopefully live to race again. Bradley is an aspiring racer and we think he might be hooked.

-jeff
_________________
I'm not really lost...I'm just sightseeing.
jeff papenfus
Team GLR

[Bo Martin]

For those who ran the prologue........


That's the most miserable I have ever felt within 30 seconds of the gun

sick

[Bill Fletcher]

I've never seen more options in a race before. I talked to a number of teams after the race and no team had run exactly the same race as any other.

Rules were CP1 and CP2 in order, then any order for the rest. Most of the points you could get on foot or bike, your choice. The big difference here was that teammates did not need to stay together. You only had one passport though (and cutting it in two was not an option). The last section of the race you had two route options - one on bikes, one in boats. Boats had to be dropped at waypoint X1 or CP15. Bikes had to be dropped at CP3 or CP15. This last bit won't mean anything for those not there, but maybe someone can post a map.From CP15 (Blue Ridge Marina) it was a 3.5 mile run to the finish.

I bet we spent three hours running through 25 different options on Friday night. Here's what Snickers Marathon ended up with:

Ricky took the first run up to CP1. He did a great job and we put in the water in 5th, right behind Enduraventure. I was really nervous about the next leg. We were using Ricky's expensive Kevlar boat on the Toccoa river. We had decided on the boat option on Blue Ridge Lake and needed the faster boat. We scraped a few rocks but didn't do any real damage to the boat (I hope). I had intended to pull out at the power lines which was a quick portage to CP2 but decided to pull out at the boat ramp at Sandy Bottoms because I was nervous about hitting any more rocks. We made it up to CP2 still in 5th place.

Here we did things a little bit different from anyone else I have heard so far. We sent Ricky running down FS35 while Julia and I ran to CP3 to get the bikes. That way we only had two bikes out on the course. We thought it would slow the bikers down too much on FS35 to be trying to carry an extra bike.

I climbed up the cargo net then we took off after Ricky. We picked up CP8 and CP9 and then I headed up towards Brawley tower to get CP10. Ricky lowered my seat and rode my bike back to CP3 with Julia. Then they ran back to CP2 and portaged the boat to CP13.

Meanwhile I got CP10 then CP11, ran back thru Grand Central Station (CP2) and headed down to the river. I grabbed CP13, 4,5,6,7 all on trails and then bushwhacked back down to the river trail. When I got back to CP13 Julia said they had been waiting about 20 minutes. If I remember right, it was about 11:25am. We felt pretty good because it looked like we were the first team to have all three teammates back at that location.

We had decided on the boat option because we thought that we could make good headway with the boat while other teams were carting their bikes across the river and portaging up the steep trail to the Turkey Farm. They would also have a lot of climbing to do.

We grabbed CP12 on the boat, then made the long paddle to CP14. Lots of doubts crept into my mind about whether we had chosen the right option. When we got to CP14 we had to plot an additional CP. Ron had this one in his back pocket in case the teams were ahead of his schedule. We had to backtrack a little in the boat but I thought it would definitely be easier for us than it would be for bikers. Then it was on to CP15 at the marina. Of course the first question we asked our support person was "Has anyone else been here yet?" We got pretty excited when he said No.

We came across CP0 biking to the marina on our run back into town. We figured we had at least a 10 minute lead but we kept pushing hard. There still was the possibility of a time penalty for a mystery event at the finish. We were happy to play lumberjacks at the finish with no time penalty option.

All in all, I thought it was a great race. I loved the amount of strategy involved and I thought we put together a pretty good one. You had to look at all three teammates' strengths and figure out what role each should play. I don't know if I'm sold on having the teammates apart for such a large portion of the race though. But it was fun for one race. Of course all three could have stayed together the whole time, but I don't think you would have had a chance for a top finish that way. Thanks for a fun time Ron and thanks to Blue Ridge for once again putting on a great show!

Bill

[Bill Fletcher]

[Jay Curwen]

It's "wow" at the perfect execution of a smart strategy. We made a few mistakes and probably weren't as fit as we'd like...but we had a great race...as I bet most of the top teams would say about their races...You guys put together a flawless race...I'd say the out-of-towners that show up for Nationals this fall are going to have their hands seriously full with the southeastern folks...

Beyond the finishers...I'd like to commend and thank Ron and his team for a really fun day...The 2 Blue Ridges I've done have had tremendous volunteers, the best finish line festivities, and generally a fantastic value for your racing dollar...First rate IMO.

JC
Black Dome/Sport Factory

[Jay Curwen]

[Bo Martin]

My eyes were buggin

[jollespm]

I personally liked the options, but it was nerve racking to be out there on the course with no idea where you were in relation to everyone else. We asked several times on the last leg where we were and got different answers every time!

Our route choice was similar to some of the others, the main idea was to find the optimal route for the passport itself, ignoring what the others had to do.

Patsy did the run to CP1, while Chip and I readied the boat. As we saw some of the other faster teams come off the mountain, we expected to see her barreling down behind them. It felt like an eternity standing there, but I noticed there were other teams waiting, and guessed that some of the pack took a wrong turn (or it was a total cluster f@#$ at the CP).

Eventually she made it down and we ran into the second issue. The major log jam at trying to get into the river. I hate to be pushy in circumstances like that, but I knew we had to get on the river as soon as possible as I think we were at least 15 minutes down. We snuck in the side of the ramp and got into the water and promptly started passing teams. We took out at Sandy Bottoms, put on portage wheels, and dropped the boat at CP2. From there we all ran to the bikes at CP3.

We got the first good news as we saw Black Dome and CP0-JV headed out, and we were less than 10 minutes behind them. We dropped the hammer and rode to 8 and 9, along the way catching up with CP0-JV. Jon and I teamed up and ran to 10 and 11, while our teammates took the bikes back down. They dropped my bike at 2, and set the canoe up for portaging them across to X1. I picked up my bike at 2, rode to get 12, then back to 13. I dropped my bike, and ran to get 4, 7, 6, and 5. I nearly forgot to punch 13 and had to do a quick backtrack to get it. Meanwhile, Chip and Patsy moved the canoe and bikes to X1. From 5 I swam across and made my way to X1 where we jumped on the bikes and rode the rest of the way.

I think we had a couple things that attributed to our success. We stuck to the plan we made the night before (having my bike at 2 to get 12 was key), we communicated well throughout the race, and I had no shame in taking a tow on the bike from Chip. Chip and Patsy also pushed me the whole last 3.5 miles to the square, as we were just trying to keep ahead of anyone coming up behind us.

In hind sight, if we hadn't lost time at the start of the race, it probably would have turned into a foot race with Snickers at the end, and I really don't think I would have had the steam to out run them. I think it would have been a touch faster had we split up the running part and have one of us get CP10 and 11 while the other got 4, 5, 6, 7 as it would have made for fresher legs on the last run. I never considered Snicker's strategy of only taking 2 bike out, and that was probably the best plan of the day.

[Bill Fletcher]

Yea, every once in a while every thing just seems to click, and it's a lot of fun when it does. It was great to do well against so many strong teams. I think that this years' Nationals is going to show how strong adventure racing is in the Southeast. I know that there are a lot of doomsayers out there, this race was cancelled, that race had low participation, but the Southeast will definitely represent in November.

Bill