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

Interesting route. Our route was very similar except for CP10 & 11 which dropped us from around 5th to alt course. What a fine line you draw.

Hey Eric...just curious, what did you do for 10 and 11 that slowed you down? Our route for the race was similar as well...notable exceptions were:
- This team looks like they took a route around the backside of Oyster on the way to CP1 rather than taking the main road
- They also paddled a good bit of extra distance by not going thru "The Narrows" on the way down to the lookout tower at CP2
- They had a less direct route than we did out to CP14 on the boardwalk
- They did the long paddle down and around the point on Sunday AM rather than the portage.
- On the Sunday ride into Cap Charles they took a road that does not seem to exist (?) rather than just staying on Business Rt 13 to where it turns into 184 and goes right into town

As the map-my-run maker, I should have added the disclaimer that it was our "general route."  The program doesn't have a lot of the roads that we took labeled (and our race maps are soaked, stinky and long gone) so it was just a quick-n-dirty overview from memory.

We likely took the main road to Oyster, but it is true we missed the narrows and kayaked a bit longer. Likewise, we did wander a bit before we found the boardwalk. And yes, we toured the countryside on our last bike leg into Cape Charles. Our map was not readable at that point and we were guessing and not wanting to get stuck on main 13.

And yes, we chose to paddle instead of portage in part because of my teammate's gimpy wrist, and in part because we couldn't turn down the opportunity to do some more awesome rough sea kayaking. That's what makes these races fun!

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this event happen -- thinking about it will get me through some of those long days behind a desk.

Hi Val. Ah, so you were the one whose team mate had the bum wrist! I saw him before the start and was amazed he was going to attempt to do the race. Congrats to you and your team (especially the injured one) for taking on (and completing) such a rough race! You have to love a sport like adventure racing...where else would you find someone with an injured wrist deciding to undertake a long and very difficult kayak paddle in rough seas and windy conditions because that was the "easiest" route!

(and yes I agree that the kayaking was awesome! ;-)

Well Team Blue Ridge Learned some lessons after this race!  First lesson learned would be:  Always show up to the race early!  Showing up with only an hour before the race started especially when the race start was a 15 minute drive away put us in complete disorganization.  We plotted the coordinates after the race started and put us about 45 minutes behind all the teams.  Second lesson:  Be organized!  We geared up the night before and this should have been done much earlier.  Getting a mental idea of step by step processes during transitions makes the race much smoother.  Third lesson learned would be: keeping the important stuff dry!  After the first paddling section which as everyone on foot at the time knows allowed for about 30 feet visability.  The towers at the trekking section disappeared from sight but I guess a race called the STORM deserves such conditions (I enjoyed the 25mph mist).  After this we realized the mapcase isn't a sure fire way of keeping the maps dry.  The maps turned into more of a used wet toliet paper consistancy and a cell phone and saltwater don't mix well...  Doing it over again I would at least double bag the maps, possibly laminated them before the race start, or I believe there is a water proof spray out there which I've never tried.

Being physically ready is important but I wish we had a women on are team to get the two BRMS fools in line!  It was an amazing race put together by an amazing HR staff/volunteers.  Good Luck to the HR team out in Moab!!!    

We went way south to Wise Point Rd for CP 10 thinking that was the road to the south of CP10. The problem was caused by where I reploted the point on a non-1:24 road map. Anyway, we spent a good 45 minutes treking on a trail that ended in thick briars (worse than saw grass). After finding CP10, we went back to Seaside Rd on the east side of the shore which may of added 10-15 minutes. Remove 1-1:15 from our time and we make the full course w/ no bonuses.

As for the rest of the course, we used the same route as Too Many Kids. Direct to Oyster, thru the Narrows, portage and 13 to 184 on Sunday.

I know that Too Many Kids and Are We Done Yet picked up CPs 4,5, and 6 so which points did Hummer and NVRacing pick up on Mockhorn? Was just wondering if CP3 was easier than CP6.

I know for sure that Hummer got 4,5 and 6...not sure about NV Racing (can't remember if we saw them near CP6?), but I figure they most likely did the same. After we picked 5, 6 and 4 and then decided to bail on CP3, we were on our way back to the boats and we saw Hummer right by Fish Hog Gut. At that point, they made the same decision as we did, and they headed back to get into their boats and do the paddle in the daytime. The open terrain made for some interesting nav, since you could often see what other teams were doing...we were also able to spot CP4 easily from well over a half mile away. I have not heard much about CP3, but it seemed pretty far away, and the terrain on the way probably could not have been too much easier than the relatively easy beach run we had down to CP6...? In the end, I made a bad choice regarding the order of the CPs we got. By going 5, 6, 4 we had to go out to the middle of the island and back twice...and we all know now that was not an easy trip! It would have made more sense to go either 6, 5, 4 or 4 ,5, 6...with 4, 5, 6 probably being the best choice, since CP4 and CP5 were only getting harder as the tide came in.

We were near Are We Done Yet from CP6 thru 4. I'd agree that going from 4 to 6 would have made the trek a little easier. Add in the storm coming back from CP6 and that was some nasty trekking.

Grant,
You announced our team as 4th place at the party (Are we done yet), not sure about your statement above "Are We Done Yet (2-coed) from Virginia Beach actually finished 4th instead of 3rd as originally announced"