Since February, Kevin and I have slaved away working on this race, from the permits to the course design to the post race food to fill the tummies of hungry racers. Every minute showed as the last team crossed the finish line with big smiles on their face. I will say though that taking a vacation and returning only 2 days before the event was not the smartest thing. Friday night I got a mere 3 hrs of sleep, ran out of paper for my printer, and was waiting for Kinkos to open their door at 7am. But the last minute scrambling transitioned to a smooth time once the racers started arriving.
The youth race started at 10am. 14 teams toed the starting line, most for their first adventure race ever. The kids race, which included trail running, biking, canoeing and a few mystery events, kept racers busy for about an hour. This was a bit short of our target time – they were much more energetic than we anticipated!
The main event for adults was the 6hr race that afternoon, lasting until 9pm. 36 teams of 3 participated, with everything from top regional racers to first-timers. Happily everyone finished and only 1 team came in after the time limit (causing them to be ranked unofficially). The event began with a 1 mile prologue in which racers retrieved their passport. This spread out teams nicely as they hit the water for a pretty long paddle, taking teams anywhere from 2-4hrs to complete. Next up was a mountain bike section followed by a trail run, taking racers to every possible corner of the mainland of Harrison Bay State Park. (I really give Kevin props for utilizing every bit of the park. He did a great job!) A few mystery events (including archery and a rope climb) spiced things up a bit and added to the fun.
some of the newbies were challenged in keeping their canoes upright
One of the hardest times of the day came in tracking teams as they finished. People were asking me questions about tshirts when I was knee deep in checking passports and tabulating results for our 3 different categories. Quite stressful! But we got it done with few complaints. We had $1000 in cash prizes to share amongst the top 3 coed teams, with lots of great sponsor prizes going to the top female and male teams (big thanks to Scott’s Bikes, Fast Break, Rock/Creek Outfitters, The North Face and Checkpoint Zero!).
Stressful situation #2 came in the cleanup. We were able to provide more than half the teams with canoes. During check-in, we failed to tell teams to put their canoes and gear back on the trailers after the race. Sooo, all the canoes (24 of them to be exact) were laying down by the waterfront at 11pm. That left us, the tired race staff, with the task of loading them all up… which kept us busy till 1:30am. That was simply not fun and we will definitely make changes here next year!
In all, this inaugural race was a great success, raising nearly $5000 for the Strong Kids Campaign. Yeah!!
) Big thanks to Chad for the pizza and beer at the end and the warm blanket from Nat since I forgot to leave a drop bag at the end.
