Just wrote this response to a team doing the Tidewater Traverse; their question was "any final tips for adventure racing rookies doing the TT?":
As for final tips to rookies, let's see . . . you've picked a great event as your first race. The course has a lot of variety and natural beauty, so you're in for a treat. The course will be very challenging, both physically and mentally, and as a team new to adventure racing the mental aspect will probably be the toughest part for you. It doesn't matter how much you run-bike-paddle in your training, it's hard to prepare for the stresses of choosing routes, team dynamics, decision making, tracking which map is for which area, making sure your team has enough food/water for each leg, etc. The mental endurance is considerable and hard to train for and the heat on June 3 is likely to contribute to the mental fatigue. If your definition of "doing well" is to have some laughs, see some amazing wilderness, make some tough decisions, and get dirty while keeping a heart rate over 100 BPM all day long, then your team will "do well." If you go into it with the right attitude, that you're in it for the experience and unlikely to win the race, then you will do fine.
Oh yah, you should also know how to plot UTM coordinates.
The final captain communication goes out tomorrow . . .