[LabRat]

this was a fast and fun race with a field that seemed to have a wide variety of expertise in AR. if you missed it, feel bad about it - it was put on very well by Dale Long and couldn't have been more fun.

Team GLR consisted of myself, David Montgomery and Michelle Lindsay this time and we got off to a good start. The Friday night church "lock-in" was very well received. we found a great brand new italian place almost literally across the street and ate too many garlic rolls! we did appreciate that dale arranged for the lodging that night - he also ended up making coffee and cooking! what a host.

the teams were split into those that would paddle first and those that would trek first. the bike leg was the middle for both. we started with the paddle, but to get there we had a 3 or so mile bike ride mostly on blacktop to arrive at the boats. we got the jump on all the teams but almost got passed at the end. we got in the water first, only to find (i can't believe i'm admitting this in public) that in our haste we got in the canoe backwards. i felt like total imbecile. but we pulled over and switched out while two teams passed us.

once we had the boat under control we were able to make up the water lost and get cp 4 then cp 5 from the open river water. we then paddled up the tight feeder creek to get cp1 from under the bridge. on the way out from 1 we thought we'd see a feeder creek to get to 2, but it never appeared. back on open water we see the entrance to the creek and there it was. no time lost, but on our return to the river we encountered an un-paddle-over-able (is that right?) tree across the stream. we decided to portage around it. nothing lost, but a little wet shoes. we had decided to paddle in our bike shoes so, we regretted that later. cp 3 was an easy paddle around what should have been a quick foot point, but the rules said to get them from the boat so we complied.

on the bikes now we overshot 11 by a couple hundred yards which allowed the two other teams to catch up with us. we smartly rode the road to the 11 and had the jump on them getting out by a few seconds. cp 12 was easily found i saw the marker from the road even!

13 was tougher as we went down the wrong road (the gated, dead deer road) not the nicely groomed dirt road. that was a cruel trick to use the nice road for the cp, not the crappy one.

14 was a cinch. at this point the team of 3 women from wake forest (catapulting rhinos) was a bit ahead of us (i think they choose better on 13 to get the jump). they swung around back down the same road we came in to get 14, i chose to take us north-west and around to be on the better road to the north. we caught them at the Maple Crossroads church. i made a poor decision on the approach to 15 and we overshot because we thought we had turned at the cemetery, when in fact we were at the Maple Crossroads (i really should read road signs). oops. after figuring that out we adjusted well and ended up coming in 2nd to the transition. my bike had acquired a very tight bottom bracket last week that i didn't fix yet (felt like pedaling on sand, even on the pavement) and i was pedaling as hard as i could but not making any ground, so we had to go a bit slower than we would have wanted.

once on foot our feet felt like blocks of ice and we had a bit of trouble running the railroad line to cp 6. but we finally caught up with the rhinos at 6 and passed them when dave found 7 next to the old building. we were quickly across the road and briefly scouting for 8. when we missed it on our first quick look we headed to 9 - thinking we'd come back for it. when we loused up on 9 (b/c we tried to take the trail all the way in) we bailed and went for the mandatory cp 10.

i could have sworn we went too far and had screwed the pouch on 10, but michelle found it just fine right where it was supposed to be. on our way out we see the rhinos and two other teams headed to 10. we then approached 9 from the powerline, like we should have the first time and michelle's young, eagle eyes pick it right out. cp 8 was much easier approaching from the northwest into the corner of the field. after briefly considering bushwhacking back to 701 we ran the old road and came on in.

we finished 5th overall (in 5:35 or something like that), after our sister team GLR Masters (jim kelleher and tracy lewis) who finished 2nd overall! they rocked that race. for me finishing on foot after the bike was taxing both mentally and physically. particularly after bike issues that drained my legs to jello. a total of 9 teams cleared the course, but don't let the fool you, it was a good course, laid out well with fun navigation issues.
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I'm not really lost...I'm just sightseeing.
jeff papenfus
Team GLR

[David-M]

Jeff summed up our experince well. I just want to add another thanks to Dale Long for putting his heart into this race and it turned out to be a fantastic day.
If I ever hosted a race I think this one would be a good one to keep in mind. Having a free/safe place to sleep the night before was simply outstanding racer support and the chicken bog hit the spot after the race.
Congrats to GLR Master's Jim and Tracy for a great race. It was nice to see Steve Morrone out there too, supporting a fellow RD. Thanks again Dale & crew.

Dave Montgomery
Team GLR
(P.S. our team is looking for an artist to paint a sharks mouth on the front of our boat so we know which way is forward .

[dwightwater]

Fantastic race! Dale, Thanks for putting this all together.

For those that didn't attend, this was really a deal and I think you missed a gem of a sprint AR. Not only was it a well thought out and fun course, we had FREE heated lodging, HOT food at the end. Tons of swag and some very nice prizes AND a Trailblazer membership. The volunteers were great and the litte group of halflings that were helping out really did a good job.

I think we did about 20 miles of biking, maybe 3 of some cool swamp paddling and about 8 miles of trek (although I think I ended up doing 10-12 with my zig-zag navigation technique). The nav was pretty staight forward (unless you come from the mountians and use elevation as a crutch). It took me 1/2 of the race before I realized the white areas on the map were fields. I thought it was private property. Oh well.

I think about 1/2 half of the teams cleared the course and everyone made it back within 5 mins of the 6hr cutoff. Thats a big "hats off" for the course design to assure that everyone gets a fair shot at finishing. A true beginner friendly race. Very refreshing to race in a different venue and the low key, grass roots feel was awesome.

Good seeing everyone. If I wasn't so sick, I would have been a little more social.

Thanks again, Dale, A+++

d

[Dale Long]

I appreciate the kind words from everyone, and the input about the course. I hope next years edition will be as well attended and raced as this one.

I have read over the comments, and this race did seem to be unique from other races. It felt like a "tribe" meeting, or just a practice race amongst friends. It was hard fought, but very low key, low stress. I hope being such an early race caused many to use it as a gauge and opportunity to jump into 2009.

The 2010 version will hopefully be the same. Results will be posted today.
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Make things happen.....

[dwightwater]

Short race report on the Inov-8 Blog if anyone is interested. Still one of the most fun races I've done in a while......d

http://team.inov-8.us/search/label/Dwight%20Shuler

[Todd W]

Great race Dale! Can someone please physically describe where CP10 was located. I feel that we looked all around where we thought it was, with no luck. What did we miss?

[Dale Long]

At the prerace briefing, I told everyone the partial roads on the map from Hwy 701 and oak Street connected. The map datum was 1983, and each showed they partially went away from the road.

CP 10 was about 200 meters from Oak Street. Several teams that told me they were uncertain from the crossroads finally did find it. But, from the crossroads, a quick map orientation and compass check would have made it a very easy choice.

Several teams actually came back to the S/F or went to CP 6 by the roads after getting CP 10.
_________________
Make things happen.....

[tclewis]

Jeff, David and Dwight hit all the right notes on summing up how much fun and how well-run this race was. I'd just like to point out what a great job Dale did of netting prizes and schwag for his inaugural race - not an easy task for an RD with several past events under his belt, much less for one launching his first race.

I race for fun, not prizes or schwag, but it was still cool to see such great stuff from the many kind sponsors - the prizes and schwag bags were as generous as I've ever seen in a short race and rivaled those of many a longer, more expensive race. I scored a sweet Brunton AR compass, a Brunton fire starter, a Park Tool hex/multi-tool, a Trailblazer UTM tool, a 1:24K mini-corner tool from maptools.com and several other cool items. Great surprises all!

I love these races where every participant leaves with AR-useful, fun stuff from the prize table. I think it helps newbies get a headstart on accumulating the gear they need for AR and instills in them the fever for the next event!

A big thanks is due, as always, to the sponsors of this and the other races in the TB series!