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

“Without adventure, civilization is in full decay.” - Alfred North Whitehead

Notes from the cowboy hat

During the last AR, I took to wearing a bright -blue-Kauai-souvenir-lost-in the-back-of-the-closet for-two-years-cowboy hat. I wore it for several reasons: I was feeling a little sassy, I hadn't showered in days, and it decreased confusion with folks trying to find me or the check-in within rather large TAs. For those of you that are concerned by Grant's change of tone, topic and tempo (and weren't at the race to view my beautiful hat first hand) this is his wife, Jill. Sigh, right? As a sidenote, I think that Grant needs some unique feature as well- aside from the floppy curls- I have a  hard time directing people to him.

Grant's busy mixing up a protein shake and unloading our cars for the 4th or 5th time and I just can't do it again. My car unloading sprit is broken and I've bartered a short blog for Grant unloading my car instead. Deal.

So, we've made it up to New Hampshire after clearing the course (thanks Pike!), sleeping, and playing a little on Bear Creek Lake with Grant's parents.Grant's rather water-phobic dad skippered his very first trolling motor-a day for many a wine glass clink for years to come. At present, we are still carrying cortisone cream with us like the precious (as I'm sure you are as well) and have nightmares about ticks, but are otherwise in good spirits and healthy. I have to say that the support crew, racers, and volunteers in this last race were the best yet-incredible attitudes, perseverence - an inspiring group at the least.  Kudos, cheers, clink, clink.

We've hit the ground running (shocker, right?) and are moving ahead with Untamed New England; a couple permits down and a couple more to go! Grant's been generally shocked by the enthusiasm and help from the folks who make the decisions up here ("Really, you'll only be here for 5 hours and from midnight to 5 am? Why don't you check out these couple of logging roads, that could keep you here longer." HUH?). You’ll see more detail with race information as the course solidifies. Question: We are thinking a 50ish hour dream race (but I'm biased) with a 24-30 hour short course (same finish), and we are aiming for a Untamed-supported race (no support crew, we source boats for teams).


    Would a short course make a difference with some of you making the trip or would you go for the long one if you participate? Does 50ish hours blow your mind or is NE just too far anyway? We'd love to have some familiar faces on the course.

Ok, G's starting to hover with a blender in hand, that's my queue. Hope you are all safe, happy and healthy.

-Jill




Comments

Chris (Crash & Splash) said:

I'd be up there for it!  50 Hours sounds like a fun challenge...
# June 15, 2007 2:50 PM

Kara & Ruth (Clip & Clipless) said:

We'd be there in a heartbeat!  NE is NOT too far away and we look forward to new scenery and terrain.  

Grant has done a great job of easing us ever upward into 24+ hr. races.  Although the 50 hr. does scare us, we'd have to give it a shot.  Grant and crew have shown us that we CAN do what we previously thought was insane.  So, count "the girls" in!

# June 16, 2007 9:03 AM

Kevin - Bighead Crew said:

My teammates might strangle me for saying this.. but the Bigheads would be up for 55 hours in New England.  I think..
# June 17, 2007 12:01 AM

Eric said:

Wow! Sounds like a challenge. However, as someone new to the sport I've found the 12-16 hours race a great challenge and backed out of the UntamedVA because of the length and looked forward to rejoining my team at the Storm (my first race last year). I was disappointed to hear that the Storm would be another long one and can only hope that there will be one more HR I can do this year. Traveling to NE for a race would be fun, but for 55 hours... probably only the true die hards will be up for it. What about consideration for running two groups? A 12 hour group and those that want to do the extended course? Much like running races where there's a 5k, 10k and 20k all at the same event.
# June 18, 2007 8:44 AM

RobD. said:

I'll be there for sure. Like I said to you at the T.A. at Untamed, "I'm ready for a longer race."
# June 19, 2007 12:19 PM

MNewlon said:

Well, I suppose a 50+ hour race would give me some other reason to go on besides being really, really, ridiculously good looking......
# June 19, 2007 12:42 PM

jeremy (walter donny and the dude) said:

Dave and I within the WD&tD organization would be willing to do the 24-30 hour race, but not the 50 hour one.  First of all, 50 hours is too long for us.  Second and more importantly, 50 hours so far away is no longer just a weekend trip, as we are somewhat weekend warriors.  Too many logistical plans for something other than Friday-Sunday. Our $.02.
# June 19, 2007 2:13 PM

gkillian said:

Thanks for the feeback everyone, all valid points (except for Morgan's, of course).  The 50+ hour race is absolutely moving forward and we'll have more to say about it soon . . .

We are thinking more about the 15-24 hour option as a "short course alternative" for teams not willing to make the big race committment . . . but there are complications with it and we'll have to see what we can come up with.  
# June 19, 2007 8:35 PM

russell said:

I'm late chiming in on this one, but my opinion is that the biggest value for the AR community is the 50 hr race. There just aren't many long races around. The shorter race would be nice, but there are a lot a 12-24 hour races around that fill that need. Unless the shorter race is a natural fit I would focus on the long race. Set the date early and I'm sure you'll have a waiting list with teams coming from all over the place.
# June 25, 2007 9:24 AM
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