The G-Rant : Grant's Rants on Adventure Racing

February 2006 - Posts

• Final Odyssey One Day Results

  Odyssey has posted their final results from the winter race and awarded us 3rd place (they disqualified Lightspeed . . . it's a long story that I barely know the basics of).  This changes the results I shared from my previous post.  Somehow, 3rd place sounds a lot better than 4th.  Odyssey has also published a synopsis of the race but if you've never done a winter race (like the original NGARs of 04 or 05, for example) it's hard to appreciate the conditions on the course.  What a fun weekend! There are some great photos of the race taken by some volunteers; I'll post the HRAdventure specific ones when I have a chance.. Posted Feb 22 2006, 02:58 PM by gkillian with 1 comment(s)

• What's coming up . . .

  I've been very busy since getting back from the Odyssey One Day race; no "spare" time to update this weblog.  It's crunch time with sponsors for 2006 and the SPROUTE is only 1 month away and we've got many details to finalize regarding that event.  Don't worry -- the course is set, tested, verified, and ready to roll.  It's all the ancillary details like logos for the race t-shirt, prizes, bibs, bags, food, parking access, proofs of insurance, etc.  The race itself is nearly sold out (I think 2 or 3 team spots left) so we'll have a lot of fun out there on April 1st!  I expect our first captain communication for the race to go out in the next couple days. There are some fine training opportunities coming up including the Encompass orienteering run (Goat event) on March 4 and the next Saturday, March 11, at 9 AM Team HRAdventure is hosting an orienteering for adventure racing clinic at Newport News Park; cost is $10 per person and space is limited for the clinic (I think we're about half full as of Feb 22nd).  If you're an experienced orienteerer and just want a good workout, come on out and you can train on the course (you can make it into a paddle, bike, trek, or combination workout).  The following weekend is the Shamrock in Virginia Beach and HRAdventure will staff a booth for the weekend in conjunction with VBAdventureFest . . . I might wear an "Asphalt Sucks" t-shirt or something equally appealing to those having finished running all those pavement miles.  At least they altered the course so the marathoners aren't having to run two loops on the same roads! Only a few weeks until the April 1st SPROUTE! Posted Feb 22 2006, 10:37 AM by gkillian with no comments

• Results from the Odyssey One Day

  Given the lack of concise information, it's hard to divine results from the Odyssey One Day Extreme race this past weekend; the leaderboard is here but it takes a lot of effort to sort out the results.  Here is a summary based on my reading of the leaderboard: 27 teams started the race 21 teams were a DNF (did not finish) or DQ (disqualified) 3 teams finished the full course  Lightspeed (the winner, a coed team) Checkpointzero (2nd, a coed team) Nads (3rd, a 2-person mens team) This leaves 3 teams not on the full course, including us on Team HRAdventure They've awarded 1st place on the shorter course to Misguided (coed team) They've awarded 2nd place on the shorter course to Team HRAdventure (coed team) They've awarded 3rd place on the shorter course to Whos Your Daddy (3-men team) When you do the math, a 5th place overall finish for us isn't too shabby (or 4th place if you just consider the official 3-person coed teams).  Posted Feb 15 2006, 09:02 AM by gkillian with 2 comment(s)

• Where do I start?

  What a weekend we had at the Odyssey One Day Extreme adventure race in North Georgia.  There was sleet and snow the entire race with temps down around 24 degrees at times . . . we really got our fill of "winter racing!"  I've got tons to share but not much time at the moment so I'll tease you with a quick summary: Around 28 teams started the race, I think about half dropped out by CP 9.  They closed the race course due to all the snow and ice around 8 AM on Sunday (26 hours into the race); they permitted the 3 lead teams to cross the finish line officially and -- no shocker here -- Litespeed was the winner (the other two teams were also more or less local to the area).  We were about at CP 10 when they closed down the race. The first leg, a paddle starting in the dark, gave every team trouble and instead of 3 hours on the water most teams spent 6 hours . . . it's a long story that I'll probably save for Pam's full race report.  I think we were about the 6th team off the water (including the 2 teams who didn't double their paddle distance, putting us 4th off the water for the big group of teams).  The second leg, a bike leg, had a few tricky nav elements that gave us trouble and the going was slow on the dirt roads because of all the rain and snow.  Morgan and Don, support crew extraordinaire, had some major derailleur and brake adjustments to do once we got to the TA.  The third leg, around 13 miles of Benton Mackaye Trail trekking, had some grueling elevation in parts.  Thank goodness for trekking poles -- 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. The fourth leg, some more biking, was getting tougher because of the ice and snow accumulation.  I had a great wreck on some black ice and Mike also fell on some ice. This is where we learned they had closed the race down (the race director tracked us down in some Wildlife Management Area and gave us the news). The mountains with all the fresh snow and the crisp air were breath taking -- we were the only fools out there so we had it all to ourselves! Our race plan generally worked; the paddle nav killed us (my fault), but it impacted every team so it was generally nuetral to the outcome of the race.  Having 3 extra hours of daylight later on the race course, however, could've made a big difference and that's a burden I shoulder. Nutrition and body temp strategy worked really well for me and I've got a lot of confidence for any future long and cold races . . . I'm not sure Pam will say the same, however, but she did say "I'm glad we had the weather we did" once it was all over.  Big kudos to Pam, our lil' Floridian, for enduring all that the winter could throw at us! We got a big dose of bad news when our support crew picked us up after the race closed: Mike's 4-wheel-drive Yukon was totalled after skidding and rolling off any icy hill earlier in the morning.  What a way to wrap up our race experience.  We skipped the post-race food/prizes and set immediately to making sure the driver, Don, was OK (he is fine!) and getting the insurance stuff taken care of. That's it for now, more later! Posted Feb 14 2006, 09:01 AM by gkillian with 2 comment(s)

• New fitness facility dedicated to multi-sport in Richmond, VA

  Endorphin Fitness is having a Grand Opening on Feb. 25th on the west side of Richmond.  They've also scheduled some clinics and bike time trials for the weekends leading up to Feb 25.  They'll do group coaching, V02 Max analysis, strength training, all that good stuff.  There's already a strong triathlon vibe in Richmond, and this goes to prove it.  The fact a business is targeting multi-sport athletes so directly is exciting  and overdue.  Too bad Richmond is a 60 minute drive for me . . . too far to go for regular workouts.  I'll hold out hope for a more local option (and I should have news on this front to share later this year). Posted Feb 08 2006, 02:41 PM by gkillian with no comments

• My latest favorite race and . . . the Powhatan Trail Race?

  Even though we're gearing up for a great race this weekend, I'm thinking ahead and I've found an event that I'm calling my "latest favorite" race.  I go through "favorite races" like other people go through underwear, so take it with a grain of salt.  Anyway, here it is: The Kokopelli Trail Race.  It's more than just a long mountain bike race through tremendous terrain . . .  it has a self-sufficiency ethic that I like a lot.  Quoting from the website: "Just because you decided to skip filtering water at the last creek does not mean that someone else should come to rescue your dehydrated carcass. If you bring a CO2 inflator instead of a pump, and it malfunctions or you run out of cartridges, don't ask someone else to save your ass. Start hoofing it and, as you walk, think about the error of your ways." I've done races where our team will responsibly stop and filter water . . . only to find the race organization providing water and snacks at the next checkpoint.  What's up with that?  Sounds like a triathlon aid station to me . . . or now that I think about it, preschool.  Anyway, if you're in the Rocky Mountains this May check out the Kokopelli Trail Race.  Maybe, as an homage to the Kokopelli race, I'll coerce some friends into doing something like this out at Douthat or Sherando on May 13.  Instead of the Kokopelli Trail Race we'll call it the Powhatan Trail Race.  Any takers? Posted Feb 07 2006, 10:53 AM by gkillian with 4 comment(s)

• Article on the World Championships

  Scott Pleban just sent me an interesting article about adventure racing from Canada's National Post.  It discusses the adventure racing world championship (ARWC) last year in New Zealand and confirms what other sources have told me: the course was excessively long and grueling.  Only 6 out of the 46 teams that started the race (and representing the real cream of the AR crop!) finished the course and there is an opinion among many of the participants that the course was designed without much regard for racer safety or feasibility. Adventure racing can certainly walk the line between challenge and true danger, but a well-designed course shouldn't put racers unnecessarily into harms way and should never do so just because it makes a great photo op (like the opening paddling leg on the Tasman Sea).  Posted Feb 02 2006, 07:23 PM by gkillian with no comments

• Encompass's March "Goat" Event ?

  In March, Encompass is hosting an "Adventure run and long orienteering event" at York River State Park.  I've talked with Encompass and some others about this, and it sounds like it will be a "goat" orienteering event -- not everyone knows what a Goat event is so when I came across this great write-up on a Goat event in Cincinatti last month by Eric Buckley of adventure racing team Carol's Team I thought I should share it.  Eric's article even has links to the maps so you can can get a feel for the decision making involved.  This write up illustrates the decision making of a goat race with the mass start, alternate routes, skipped points, and other strategies.   It sounds like a fun change of pace! While I don't know for sure what the Encompass guys have up their sleeves for the March event, I know they like to be innovative and maybe one of them can chime in with more specifics. One quote to note in Eric Buckley's piece: "The course largely avoided the very technical area of the park (an appropriate choice for a goat event)" Based on my experience orienteering in York River State Park and with Encompass events in the past, avoiding "very technical" areas might be tough to do and -- secretly -- I suspect the Encompass guys harbour a desire to put racers into technical areas that will really challenge them.  That's just my unconfirmed suspicion, though. I'm bummed that I'll miss the March event, but I have some other arrangements for that time period. Posted Feb 02 2006, 10:27 AM by gkillian with 3 comment(s)

• The Countdown Continues

  1 week until we leave for our Georgia race and we're checking all the details off our list: Confirming our hydration bladders don't leak (and buying new ones when they do!) Testing the burn time on all our HID lights (and the ones we're borrowing from friends) Keeping an eye on the weather forecast for Blairsville, GA It's calling for partly cloudy and a high of 48 and low of 27 on Saturday; not great, but not too bad and at least it's not calling for rain! Picking up food and other supplies Sorting out driving logistics and begging support crew to miss work for us This is all pretty typical stuff, really.  The challenging part for me is that we should have done this a month ago but Odyssey moved the race date at the last minute (from Jan 15 to Feb 11) so all this planning and organizing is carrying on into February when I should really be spending more time on HRAdventure race planning; this is a critical time for testing, meeting with park and city leaders, etc.  I'm making it all work and things could be much worse . . . besides, we just got word from Odyssey that there will only be about 15-18 miles of paddling at this race which translates into easily 1.5 to 2 hours less time on the water compared to the race we did last January and that paddling leg is what really killed us.  We came off the water miserable, stiff, and cold; portaging was an attractive option just to get the circulation going in your legs!  This year will be different because of a better canoe and we're generally one year wiser/fitter going into it. Posted Feb 02 2006, 09:35 AM by gkillian with 1 comment(s)