[Andy McCann]

ouch

that was my first 24hour race. ouch

it was pretty fun
it was what i expected though i wasn't ready for all the transitions with the treck/swim section. we just took a long time to switch out each time.

the plan we made with all the time cuts (self imposed) worked out well for us. We skipped a lot of stuff on purpuse due to being so slow. We couldn't find that trail to CP13 and we tried to bush wack it but we had run out of water so we decided to make a b-line to the bikes to recover what little we could.

the race was a blast and there were a ton of great folks racing and supporting.

Thanks so much!!!
ouch,
Andy

[JohnF]

A big thanks to Toby and Team for putting on a very good race. I think it offers some of the best value per race dollar spent. I know that I will be sore for a few days.

All of the sections took far longer than I thought especially the first trek. I thought I could move quick as I have been in the area before (I was wrong). The paddle was one of the best I have ever done. It was cool, clear sky, and the lake was like glass (little bit of fog).

I knew we would swim a lot after looking at the map but it seems like so much more when you are out there doing it. The time it took to switch from trek to swim (gear) started to really add up. Between the swims and the Creek I think I spent more time wet than dry.

Some how I got lost around Boston Creek. This is funny because I was telling myself how easy it was going to be getting to Pine Log once I made it under 20. I made it under 20 but at some point I walked up the wrong creek (heading Due East not NE) and by time I looked at my compass I had been going for sometime. I then changed direction and made it to a big grass field (someone that knows show me where this was).

The extra time on trek 1 and the extra effort and time at Boston Creek kept me from spending time in Pine Log but oh well (been there done that). I likely had time for a quick loop 18,19,20. I just decided to jump on the bike and get back.

The paddle back was short but HARD. I had my bike in tow on a small tube. It was like dragging an anchor. I bet I was moving at 1 mph. It took maximum effort to go that fast and stay straight. All of the chop from the boats did not help. I know this was hard because Lisa, Neal, and Bo passed me not going much faster(thanks for the help getting my kayak and bike out of the water). I also want to thank the life guard in the boat trying to act as a blocker for us.

[Rbreddin75]

I'll let Brian post the report... we were SOLID for the first 12 cp's found all of them pretty easily (we were traveling with Black Dome & Secret squirrels through the first trekking section to the Y, and saw them, enduraventure, and NADS through the swim trek section towards pinelog)

it was a good race, we were moving faster than our self imposed time stamps and started the swim/trek around 4:45 in the morning, yeah, it was slow moving through all the swim/trek transitions, but, like I said... we did well (until the heat and improper nutrition finally caught up with me, and we screwed up heading to 13) after 1 cp in pinelog (having screwed up my nutrition) it was all i could do to get back to the finish...

the paddle over from macedonia cemetary to redtop was a lot like paddling in the middle of a nice day on the lower section of Lake Lanier... so if you're looking for some tough training... pick a saturday or sunday and paddle the lower section of Lanier (near the dam) around 1:00pm

thanks to toby and the RA's for all the hard work... the only frustration I had with the way things played out were all the rule changes and the exceptions that were made from team meeting time through the end of the race.. but Toby already knows how I felt about it and I know that the corp. kept throwing curve balls at him..

TEAM BASIC INNER RASH (Brian, Chris & Ron)
_________________
I'm Crappin' you NEGATIVE...

[Jay Curwen]

sitting in an airport and reading updates...wish I could've been there

I had to miss it...but, I've been turned around heading too and from Pine Log before...I bet you were here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=34.220301,-84.684581&spn=0.004746,0.009484&t=h&z=17&msid=109580528846845177828.000453a412b6dc80c48c4

[Rbreddin75]

Jay..that's the field next to the ranger station at stamp creek... we had to travel up Boston creek and there were 7-9 fields over that way too... (boston creek/20 was a mandatory waypoint) after hitting cp12 we had to travel northwest to find a road which was supposed to travel northwest again and bring us into the upper section of stamp creek (where cp13 was located) and then it was north up stamp creek to hit white rd (opposite of travel in lastyear's race from 6-7)

that lower section of boston creek was easy to mess up because it is not a very large creek to begin with and there are a TON of little branches that come and go here and there.. (cp12 was at the intersection of Boston creek and some unnamed creek about 1K north of 20) and those fields are all over the place in that flat land surrounding the creek (N of 20)
_________________
I'm Crappin' you NEGATIVE...

[kenttownley]

Saturday was my 40th birthday, so I wanted to prove myself and see what I was still made of. This course did that and more.

Good news is we finished (unoffical as one man went down at the bikes) and had an awesome experience. The bad news is my crotch now glows in the dark.

Thanks to Toby for this epic adventure. His races are always my favorites.

oh.. and I HATE COASTEERING. I don't even think it is really a word!!!
_________________
Arms raised in a V...

[JohnF]

Thanks Jay. We had to go up Boston Creek. I think you marked Stamp Creek. I was in the fields due East of the ones you marked. I was in the first two and started heading North once I got to the end of the second one (The one that looks like it has a tilted triangle at the end).

[Neal Radford]

Hi All,

Thanks to Toby and all his volunteers...GR was one brutal but fun race!

It was awesome to catch up with old friends and new - its the great folks in AR that keep in me in the sport.

We loved the swimming (especially Lisa & I with good but super cheap fins)...Bo and I found the heat and riding at Pinelog to be particularly tough!

My funniest moment was falling asleep on the swim (but I keep on kicking!), then doing a 180 and swimming back past a very confused BO who luckily woke me up before I got too far past him

Great to see Tony and Beth at the TA...sadly just the one beer ...but it was AWESOME!!! Big thanks also to Mr Patrick for the post race taste of the Rockies

Thanks to fellow Kiwi Paul Humphreys & HS for the help on CPB (final CP)...congrats on your finish & just let me know where to ship your beer

Thanks Paul Cox for lending me some last second gear...I will return when you get with Ardie and do a co-presentation of your guys epic paddling and mtn biking races!

Thanks Chris Randall for your pre-race help and patience...my Mtn bike has never felt so sweet!

Thanks Lisa (as always; great attitude, race prep, nav and awesome biking) and Bo for carrying EVERYTHING with a smile. Hopefully Lisa will post a race report so I can find out where we went Goble, get off your a$$ and back out there where you belong!...keeping your seat warm is proving extremely painful!

UNOFFICAL results 3C (Toby will post/email after he gets some well desverved rest.)

1. Enduraventure (Sorry, I did my best to slow them down )
2. Hairy Scary (way to go guys!)
3. Black Dome (how were those bike shoes for road trekking guys?...sorry, that really sucked)
4. Snickers Marathon (they looked to have a lock on 2cd but sadly now have some great (& rough!) stories to share )

Sorry...thats all I THINK I know...

Cheers,
Neal

PS Tho old body is hurting BIGTIME today

[Lisa R]

JohnF,
I think you went the way you should have..as Boston Creek heads east to CP12 once you get into those grass fields. The Fields were the way to go, as they were wide open and runnable. Once you hit CP12, you should have picked up an old roadbed in the woods and could take trails to CP13 and White Road. The old road was not completely obvious in the fields, but where it crossed Boston Creek was pretty obvious IF you were along the creek.

Ron - Good job! I don't think that was us you saw, rather Kim Moore and Kevin. Kim was wearing the same shorts as me. Sadly, we did not see a soul from the paddle till just before CP11, when teams started skipping CPs. It was very lonely out there!

For those that thought the swim/foot transitions took forever..if you just quickly carabiner your shoes to your pack, put on fins, blow some air into your bladder, and use it as a kickboard, it was fairly quick. You wanted to have anything you needed to keep dry in a drybag INSIDE your packs. Putting the pack into a dry bag at each swim was definitely not the efficient way to go, and an actual kickboard was just a piece of unnecessary gear you had to tote around. Once back on land, we just carried the fins instead of stowing them in our packs..much faster that way.

Oh, and you want to make sure that your pack has drain holes to let the water drain out after swimming, otherwise it weighs 20 lbs.

[JohnF]

It looked like the creek ran into the road and the CP was on the road. Was that not the case? I was walking up the creek looking for it to hit the road and the CP. I guess I got off on one of the branches that ran along that first field. When I saw the field I crawled out of the creek and stood around and scrached my head apparently in the second field with the triangle tip (I was on the long, straight, narrow part). I walked back out the Southwest corner of the first field and found a creek but I did not know if it was Boston or the one I had just been in. I then walked back down the long, straight, narrow part to the triangle and made my way into the woods at the NW tip of the triangle. My only hope was to go North until I hit Stamp Creek Rd. Where was Boston Creek and 12 in realtion to the first field?

[JohnF]

AHHHH. Lisa you mean I was going in the right direction and stopped short! How far past the second field was the road and CP? I guess because I traveling in the creek rather than on the shore I got confused. I thought the creek was more NE and I was going E so I thought I was wrong. Oh well that is what happens when your awake for 30+ hours.

[jtfreeman]

Team Advanced Pressure and Gutter (Matt Schaltenbrand, Laurie Freeman and myself) had a pretty good race for a team that has been out of the game for a long while. We were a little slow on the first section but made it to the canoe (CP3/TA1) in 28th place, around 12:00 and after a short trek to check in and punch we were out of there by 12:30. The paddle was rough on me as I was about to loose what food I had in my stomach (I think the frozen gatorade did me in, water in the drink must have been the only part still frozen and all I drank was sugery concentrate). I was falling asleep and that is not good if you are steering. We finished the paddle at 4:30 and did the trek/swim/trek thing over to CP6/TA2. We had passed 10 teams by this point and check in in 18th place. We had a quick refull at the vehicle and passed a few more teams in the TA. We were feeling good heading into the swim/trek section. However, once we got down to the boat ramp at Bethony Bridge the ambassator stopped os for about 15 minute (while he tried to confirm) saying about 4 minutes prior he heard from the RD that everyone had to skip CPs 7,8,9 due to time (this was actually due to safety). This was frustrating because we had to then turn around and head all the way back up to TA2 (where subsequest teams found out about this course change) to head to CP10. Cost us a good 30 minutes, but I guess that is the way it goes. Anyway, we swam back across the lake to head to CP10. Punched 10, 11, 12, 13 with pretty much no issues (Matt is a champ navigotor, I take no credit). Oh, except the yellow jacket nest. Together we got 11 stings. We got to CP14/TA3 at about 1:45 and was refueled and out on on bike by 2:15. We climbed to CP15 and then down to 18. By then it was about 4:45 so we headed to CP22 to paddle across the lake with our bikes grab CPA and CPB and then finish. We rode our a$$es off to get to CP22 (long way) and of course found out that you can no long paddle with your bikes. Frustating, but we understand. Sucks because we had no fins and no running shoes. Anyway, we paddled across and treked to CPB. By that time it was about 6:40 and there was no way we could get CPA with no bikes or fins and get back by 8:00 so we headed in.

We had fun and were pretty strong the whole time other than some pain in knees and the falling asleep issue.

We had to leave the finish at 8:00 to go pick up boat and bikes. Did Toby hand out swag?


Jason

[Lisa R]

Just like last year, the Goldrush AR ended up being way tougher than we had anticipated, and this years race has been the hardest yet. The heat, the coasteering and bushwhacking, and the rough roads and elevation in Pine Log all made for a VERY demanding course.

The first section of the race was about a 12 mile running and coasteering section. The initial pavement run out of town had to be extended (grrr), as there was a powerline down across Main Street. The first few miles went by fast but the section from Rope Mill Park to the YMCA seemed to really drag on. We didn't have PFD's, as the ones they had brought us were pre-loaded with full bladders, Ensure, Gel Flasks, etc. Oh, and they were soaking wet from the torrential downpour that blew through an hour before the race. The thought of carrying a 15 lb PFD on the first run made us cringe, so we left 'em. Not having the PFD's hurt us a little on this section, as it meant we could only cross Little River at the shoals by Rope Mill. I did not consider the train trestle, as I wasn't sure if it was legal or not, and I didn't want to be the first team DQ'ed. So we had to go a bit out of our way and we were on the wrong side of the river past the trestle, which was a bit undesirable and slow going, but we managed to fight our way back through a handful of teams and were back in the lead by CP2. We had Snickers and Hairy Scary on our heels at this point, but managed to lose them by using our night bushwhacking ninja skills. There were no useful trails from CP2 until you got to Rose Creek, so we were in full-on bushwhack mode. We saw some HUGE spiders, and left them for Paul H. since he poked fun at Neal's "Puku". This definitely wasn't a quick 'n easy run, so we were excited to finally get in our boat.

The paddle to Macedonia Cemetery was fairly uneventful and straight forward. It was even a bit chilly at times. The lake was calm and we were not hit with any other thunderstorms. We arrived at Macedonia Cemetery at around 2 am and grabbed our fins for the swim over to Red Top Mtn State Park.

We swam across from the tip of the peninsula south of the cemetery to the boat ramp at WP9. I was happy to be in the warm water, as I was a bit chilled in the boat. From WP9, it was just a couple miles of pavement to the TA. Once at the TA, there wasn't much to do, other than chowing down on some food and transfering gear into our bigger packs.

We ran down to the boat ramp and swam about 600m directly across to near CP7. Neal and I were really loving the swims, as we had efficient and comfy fins and we used our packs as kickboards. It was so relaxing and you could even rest your head on your pack-kind of like a soggy pillow, but it was nice nonetheless. CP7 took us a little while to find as we were initially on the lower trail, and it was visible off the upper yellow blazed trail. We moved onto CP8 which we attacked from the trail. From CP8 we ran to the tip of a small peninsula to swim to CP9, and we were greeted with a 15' sheer bank. We scrambled down on boulders precariously stuck in the mud and thankfully none of them gave way. We swam to the CP9 on the island, then swam some more to the shore. We whacked up to Cottage Rd at WP4 and made our way to the northern-most tip of the park. From here we swam across to a skinny peninsula and took a somewhat overgrown trail east for a bit, before whacking north through some pretty nasty brush to get to the northern shore of the peninsula. We originally planned to swim directly north, whack through the next peninsula, and then do a short swim to the island where CP10 was located...but we decided that since we liked the swimming so much and the shorelines were frustrating at best, going from runnable to boulders to cliffs...that it was much more efficient to make longer swims and minimize the coasteering and bushwhacking. From CP10 we took roads and trails on the Allatoona WMA map to CP11, again, on an island. The terrain from CP11 to Boston Creek looked particularly nasty, so we swam the entire distance from CP11 to the flat area south of the Boston Creek inlet. Neal liked it so much that he fell asleep on his pack while swimming, kept on kicking and did a 180 and started swimming back past Bo. This entire swim only took us 35 minutes and I don't see how anyone could have traversed that section on foot in that amount of time.

SWIM=no briars, no yellowjackets, no elevation gain, no tricky nav=Lisa a happy camper!

We had to whack a bit up Boston Creek until we hit the clearings, which we were delighted to find did not contain any briars, stinging nettles, or any other ornery wildlife. We had to hunt a bit for CP12, as it was hung at the creek-road junction instead of the creek junction. From there it was all old trails to White Road, and then a slog on pavement to Pine Log. It was around 10 am when we arrived and I think it was already 87 degrees, so the ride was going to be toasty!

Regarding the ride at Pine Log...I ride here a good bit, and have to say that this was the most vile piece of riding that anyone could have pieced together...mostly due to the direction that we had to travel on many of the trails. I have never had the urge to push my bike up to Hanging Mountain, and probably never will again. We headed out to CP15 where I managed to just fall over when I slowed to let Bo pass and look at the map. I landed in the lava rocks which poked a bunch of nice holes in my left knee and left a big bruise on my left hand. Oh, it hurt and it made me cranky for a while...luckily my teammates just kept their distance. At CP15, I had it plotted right off the road, so we initially went down into a dry depression and poked around, then headed further down the road and found the actual pond. Up to CP16, it took me a couple of minutes to find the trail, as I'm always going DOWN at that point, and it was a bit overgrown in the field where the trail came out. CP16 was easy to find once we were up on the ridgeline trail. From there we headed northeast along the ridge, but instead of doing more hike-a-bike and then the steep descent to the spur near CP17, we whacked down an open hillside to a small gap where I knew there was a trail that was not on the map. We rode that trail, which eventually swings south and dumps you on the east-west trail that runs just south of CP17. We rode to just south of CP17, dropped our bikes and went up on foot to retrieve it. Neal was on point up the spur, so that he could detect any yellowjacket nest land mines. We opted to do this route, because I knew there were dense pines near CP17 and we wanted to keep our sanity and not have to constantly be untangling derailleurs and handlebars from all the small trees and brush. These first 3 CPs took us over three hourse and it wasn't easy. For those that skipped that section..you chose WISELY! From CP17 we rode the trail to the road intersection where I floundered around in the creek a bit as I didn't initially see the CP. Next it was up to Grassy Hollow for CP18. I think I sweated about a liter of fluid out on this climb alone - damn it was HOT! Next we headed to the trail to CP20, where we dropped our bikes and ran down to retrieve it. I was upset, as this is one of my favorite downhills at Pine Log, but the thought of having to push our bikes back up it meant that we'd have to hoof it instead. It was again HOT! We then headed to CP21 which was on more rutted, washed out, rocky roads. Arrggghh!!! There were no "easy" miles to be found anywhere, and I have a general aversion to out-and-backs. When we finally hit the pavement and got out of Pine Log, we were back in our happy place. The road climbs came easy, as we were used to having to expend tons of energy to maintain traction and momentum on all the crappy Pine Log roads.

Back at CP22, I managed to ride my bike over a clump of a hundred yellow jackets that were feasting on something. Thankfully I was on my bike and they didn't get me but they did go after Chris who was watching...sorry...even spectating at these races is dangerous apparently. At the caone, we started to assemble our "floatilla" which consisted of two pack-rafts lashed together with our three bikes on top of them. There had been a late rule change of no bikes IN the canoes, due to all the traffic and chop out in the main channel of the lake. This did not affect us, as we had planned to drag the bikes on the rafts, and we quickly left the TA before they could come up with a reason for us not to do it. Once assembled, it seemed seaworthy, so we headed out, dragging our bikes behind us. Our progress was excruciatingly slow, and we started to reconsider our decision to paddle the bikes across. I think we were going about 1 mph in the small inlet by the cemetery, but once we were out in the main channel, we picked up a tailwind that got us up to about 2 mph so it wasn't THAT bad. The rafts were doing great and in actuality could have probably handled class 2 whitewater, but we were still nervous. Having to fish the three bikes out of the lake would have REALLY slowed our progress. We got across without incident and took a quick swim in the lake to cool off. We were thankful to have our bikes and got the stink eye from a lot of PO'ed teams who had planned on putting THEIR bikes in canoes. The ones running in bike shoes were particularly unhappy...

We picked up CPA easily from the trail, then rode back out to pick up CPB. We arrived there and found many teams searching for the CP, as it was hung slightly off of its plotted location. Luckily Paul gave us the heads up that it was in the next reentrant over and we picked it up and cruised into the finish.

This was definitely a tough race, so hopefully my soreness and hobbling will go away by Wednesday. My teammates were great, especially Bo, who persevered even though he was a bit sick coming into the race. Neal was great too and of course his beer drinking and antics helped to liven things up a bit. Anyone who made it to Pine Log should probably commend themselves, as it wasn't easy. Thanks to everyone helping out and to those that did all the grunt work to make this race possible.

Some photos that Chris took can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lisa.randall24/GoldrushAR2008

[Bill Fletcher]

We under estimated how long it would take to get CP's 15,16,17. We were second behind Enduraventure getting on the bikes, but after fighting our way back down the mountain from CP17 with our bikes through the pine saplings and briars (Lisa said afterwards that there was a relatively clear path down but we must have missed it) we only had time to pick up CP18 on the way back out. We had to skip bike points CP19-21 and CPB back at Red Top. I believe that Hairy Scairy and Blackdome skipped CP's 15-17. That was definitely the right strategy to take. Good job guys. Great job by Enduraventure as well. They really smoked the course!

Thanks Toby for putting on the race. It was a tough course. We had a lot of fun though. I did have a fairly high toll on equipment - 1 dead headlamp, 1 pair of broken glasses, 1 dry bag which now has a hole in it (they don't work as well that way), and 1 lost swim fin (they work better in pairs).

Bill Fletcher
Snickers Marathon

[Paul C.]

Thanks Toby and all who helped organized the race. I only wish the lake traffic would have been a wee bit less, though I know that just ain't going to happen on a hot weekend. That lake swim/trek was a real neat feature.

Special thanks to the lifeguards watching us as we kicked across the lake at night (though that and the night-time paddle definitely were my favorite parts). I got a little worried heading to CP 9 and hearing the air horn from the lifeguard's boat blasting behind me!

Congrats to Enduraventure on the victory. And thanks to Tim Page and Claire Pate for inviting me to be a stand-in Secret Squirrel.

Nuts, nuts get 'em!