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

September 2007 - Posts

• Untamed Adventure Now Hiring: Podcast Elf Anyone?

  We're looking for a "podcast elf" or wannabe "podcast elf" who can help us produce a monthly 30-minute audio piece for the internet.  Specifically, we're looking for somebody to work with us on the recording and audio editing of what we've code named "Radio Free Lactic Acid."  We envision the show being a conversation about adventure racing, training, and anything else that comes up -- we have a great format together with some good sponsorship backing and there are no shortage of entertaining AR tales to share . . . we just don't have the time to get up to speed on the audio production side of things.  We have online hosting lined up, but we're looking for our "podcast elf" to provide the finished, edited podcast for us to spread the gospel of adventure racing far and wide.  So, if you have compentency in this area or are interested in building competency in this area we need to talk asap!  We simply have no time to master a new set of technology, but we're willing to be patient with somebody who does. Our compensation package is nothing short of spectacular.  I'm talking Untamed Adventure shirts, jerseys, hats, race vouchers, and connections to lots of related outdoor businesses (and shirts, jerseys, hats, etc from them).  It's a schwag-hound's dream come true.  We can talk about a budget for gear expenses, and down the road actual compensation (in, like, US Dollars or at least Swiss Francs) is possible -- just not at the moment since we're in shoe string start up mode. Geography is of no concern to us; we're already spread between 5 US States and 2 continents at the moment.  We would, however, like to find somebody who knows adventure racing and knows what it's like to stumble through a disorganized transition area at 3 AM with your teammate's waterproof pants on because you lost yours during the paddling section -- compared with that this podcast thing should be a piece of cake! Email me at Grant [ at ] UntamedAdventure.com to talk it over! Posted Sep 30 2007, 04:50 AM by gkillian with 1 comment(s)

• Storm

  I got all the photos from my Speer adventure onto Flickr; here's the slideshow or here is the more traditional gallery.  Map nerds might particularly like the map showing the route: I should send a shout out to my friends competing in and organizing the Storm the Eastern Shore AR this weekend -- hopefully it's a storm of happiness and not snow for you all!  The Eastern Shore is an interesting place to do a race because it's essentially a couple mile wide peninsula of sand between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic; the terrain isn't all that great for traditional AR pursuits like mountain biking and trekking, but it does have amazing paddling and that's something many races gloss over.  There are also miles and miles of marshy wetlands that can always make for interesting times! Props to our friend Sasha for the photos from the first Storm!  I think www.waramos.com has expired their shots from last year so . . . you'll need to make some new ones this weekend everyone! Posted Sep 27 2007, 04:37 AM by gkillian with 4 comment(s)

• Fall becomes Winter in 15 minutes

  On paper it should have been a nice Fall trail day with some great elevation and amazing scenery, but it turns out the line between Fall and Winter is razor thin in the Alps!  I abandoned my original plan to summit Speer peak after I reached white-out conditions about 1000 feet below the summit; I opted to play it safe and live to fight another day.  More pics once I get them onto Flickr, but until then here are four that tell the tale: 3 hours in and things were going fine . . . great view back down the valley, but you can see a hint of snow on the rock in the foreground. I was gaining tons of elevation and the weather turned . . . and where did my trail go?  This picture was taken about 15 minutes after the previous one. This was taken by accident, but it sums up my state of mind: I was having doubts about summiting Speer today. The visibility was like 30 meters at the base of the final push to the top.  With an hour or more to the top, and uncertain conditions and terrain, I called it a day.  Maybe the solitary cross was a divine message? Posted Sep 26 2007, 10:42 AM by gkillian with 5 comment(s)

• Ambitious todo list for the rest of September

  Aye, what a week coming up.  About 80 hours of consulting work on deck and I'd really love to get out for some long days on the trails while the weather is so nice -- Fall in Zurich has been cool and sunny thus far, couldn't ask for anything better! A couple things on the todo list: 1) New singletrack on Zurich's own little mountain, the Uetliberg (they debate whether it's a true Alp or not): here is a 7 minute youtube video some guys shot while riding the trail. 2) I've found a modified route in the Filzbach area that should have great Fall colours; here is a picture of the general route.  I first hit Filzbach in August and can't wait to get back! 3) The IronBike mountain bike race is (was) this weekend and it's just about an hour from where we live; they've posted the course online here and I want to get out and ride the singletrack.  Finding good singletrack around here is much harder than finding giant jeep trail climbs, and I don't want my legs to forget how to ride the technical stuff! 4) Of course, I need to keep working on my paddling too, and I don't know how long the weather will remain mild and forgiving to those working on their kayak rolling! As I compose this list I'm starting to stress out and think I should just get going . . . maybe I'll report in a week how many of the above I checked off the list? Posted Sep 23 2007, 06:36 AM by gkillian with no comments

• Photos from New England

  I've uploaded the pics from the race with Pam and Mike up in Vermont.  It was a gorgeous morning at Killington mountain in Vermont. Check out all the photos at my Flickr section for the Vermont race.  We had a bit of a contest to see who could make the silliest face in a photo, I think each of us have a good contender: -Mike's Silly Face Candidate (so many to pick from!) -Pam's Candidate (smoking a CO2 cartridge -- while fixing Mike's cyclocross flat) -Grant's Candidate I'll part with a final photo teaser fresh from some New England course testing; this is Eric looking wet and cold with his bike, complete with cyclocross tires -- not an ideal choice for the wet stuff!  What is it with people and the cyclocross tires lately? And you wondered why we have a shelter requirement for the Untamed New England race? Posted Sep 19 2007, 04:28 AM by gkillian with 6 comment(s)

• Balance Fairies

  One thing we adventure racers (and even more so, adventure race organizers) wrestle with is achieving balance across all the facets of our lives.  It's tough to make room for work, play, and all the other worthy things demanding your attention! Make no mistake about it, I'm not a great role model.  I don't always balance very well.  I live in a country where my visa prevents me from having a regular day job, so you'd think that would be one piece of the puzzle removed for me . . . but it's far from the truth.  In reality, I do just as much billable consulting work from Zurich as I ever did while living in Virginia.  The internet has truly revolutionized work.  And while I take the 2 hours I used to spend commuting to work in Virginia each day, and try to get out and paddle, bike, run, orienteer, climb a rope, etc during that time, it's still difficult for me to balance all the parts of a normal human existince (like paying bills, shopping for groceries, walking the dog, spending quality family time, etc). Everyone I know struggles with this.  Everyone.  Some people I know train so much they literally don't have much else going on in their lives.  They've "balanced" the equation way to the personal fitness side of things, and they are in phenomenal shape.  I sometimes feel sad for those folks, but I sure am envious when I see them kicking ass up and down the mountain side!  I've been fortunate in my life to find lots of worthy pursuits besides adventure racing, so I gladly take our dog for a walk and I really look forward to my weekend trips with Jill.  I have found a sort of balance, but it's constantly in flux and I'm always concerned with going off the deep end. I was scurting the edge of the deep end last month when I was shopping for a kayak.  Those of you in the States should be proud of your low import tariffs!  A quality Point 65 kayak can be yours for about half of what it would cost me in Swiss Francs!  As I looked over the kayaks at the local kayak outfitter, I could hear the little balance fairy on my shoulder say in her high-pitched voice: "you can't splurge on a boat . . . you're only in Switzerland for a year or two . . . do you really need a kayak?" Well, of course I need a kayak and there are no good rental options around Zurich, so I made the decision to buy.  But I passed on the nice sleek Point 65 boats and went for a more affordable Valley Avocet poly kayak; it's not a bad kayak, and downright fun to play in the waves, but it is a step down from my Point 65 days.  Oh well, balance right?  I still had money left over for the nice little Metolius ascender leg loops (check out this video from Metolius to see them in action -- worth the extra few bucks when you're dirty, sore, and sleep-deprived and trying to wrestle with all that climbing gear!).  So I purchased the frugal kayak and good thing because it turns out my wife had a talk with her own balance fairy and fell in love with this Bosch coffee maker from the far future.  This is a self-cleaning coffee making beauty, winner of tasting contests around the globe.  It integrates the foam for cappuccino and keeps different kinds of beans separate (so I can have decaf while Jill can have the full octane).  It has some grind-on-demand mechanism so your whole beans are only ground one ounce at a time, supposedly ensuring the freshest coffee you can have.   I don't even like coffee all that much, but this is a nice coffee maker; seriously, I think she some how stole it from the future!  Here's a picture . . . Jill says she "never wants to be without this coffee maker:" Interestingly enough, the prices for both the coffee maker from the far future and my Valley kayak are just about the same.  Those balance fairies have good heads for figures! Posted Sep 17 2007, 02:37 PM by gkillian with 3 comment(s)

• Untamed New England Coming Into Focus

  I'm wrapping up my Fall trip to New England -- in fact, I'm sitting at Logan waiting for my flight and I thought I'd post a quick update since I'll be in jetlag hell for a day or two.  It was a very successful trip and I'm really psyched for the race next June; the course has so much variety and scenery!  I also got in a fun day of racing with Pike, spent some quality lactic acid time with Eric, visited some with my wife's family, and explored across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine -- what an amazing area and, to my mid-Atlantic friends, I didn't get any chiggers or a single tick in all the hours of being in the woods!  Lots of elevation, though . . . We've gone ahead and published some changes to the race gear list including the addition of several glowsticks for paddling legs -- so yes, you can count on some night paddling; also note that there will be ascending at the ropes course but we will furnish the ascending equipment.  If you don't know what I mean by "ascenders" you probably have two options: Option 1 is to forget I even mentioned it and show up at the ropes site with a blank look on your face, maybe saying "What are those ascenders for?" when you arrive.  And then you'll spend the next 45 minutes floundering around the rock face and struggling to use the contraptions.  We'll make sure the photographers are close by and I promise you'll discover upper body muscles you didn't know you had -- the ropes course will be physically taxing and don't say I didn't warn you. Option 2 is to get to a rock gym, climbing instructor, or somebody who knows what they're doing and build some familiarity with ascending technique.  I would estimate even 60 minutes of basic instruction is enough to cover the fundamentals and keep you from exhausing yourself at the ropes site. We've also identified the Manchester, New Hampshire Airport as the suggested arrival location for those wanting to make flight arrangements.  So there's one more cat out of the bag. Registration will open next week so . . . I have some computer nerdery to do over the next several days. Posted Sep 12 2007, 05:17 PM by gkillian with no comments

• Kayak Sponsors and Some Fame for Sherry and Joel

  Check out the current photo on the VA Kayak Center homepage: it's my Untamed Adventure teammates for Patagonia Joel and Sherry: Read a bit more about their maiden voyage in the new kayak on Sherry's team blog.  We're also excited to welcome two new sponsors to the family: Virginia Sea Kayak Center and Seekajak of Zurich, Switzerland.  That's right, two top notch kayak outfitters on two sides of the planet . . . ready to get you out on the water no matter which continent you're on! Speaking of fame for Sherry and Joel, they figure prominently in the latest marketing materials we developed for the Untamed New England Adventure Race.  We included an artist's rendering of those two in action at a race last year on the back of the marketing flyer . . . look for them at gear shops or events starting this Fall and if you have an event or store that would like to promote the race and our Untamed Adventure efforts drop me a line and I can send you a stack of the items. Posted Sep 11 2007, 01:19 PM by gkillian with no comments

• The 80-hour Untamed New England Adventure Race

  We just got done with a partial run through of the 2008 Untamed New England adventure race course and it was a great experience.  If you don't like going out for days with just your gear and some friends (in this case, it was just one friend along with me), this isn't the sport for you!  It's early for me to comment on course details, especially since a lot will be changed in light of our recent run through.  In fact, what I envision is a complete revamping of the course to improve the flow and bring the course duration back into the 60-hour time window; "flow" is a term I throw around that speaks to how well a race course holds together one leg to the next, capitalizes on terrain, and balances challenge with natural beauty.  The original course had just too much of that gorgeous New England terrain, so I will be taking a "less is more" approach.  Specifically, we stopped our "race" part way through because it was obvious we were on a 80-hour course or possibly longer.  Now, I love long races, but I think 60-hours is bumping against the cieling for most of our potential participants' limits and I can't run a race with just 10 teams in it . . . the race budget really needs 30 teams or more so we abandoned the course test part way through since we were testing a course that would never see the light of day, and my short amount of time in New England must be focussed on developing the race and not just running around in the woods.  My quads are sure sore, though, and some of the memories will stay with me far longer than the muscle aches.  One view in particular caused my buddy who joined me, Eric Cone, to exclaim "Wow.  That is Untamed New England!  That's about the prettiest scene I've ever witnessed."   I also got to try out my new Rajd shelter from Hilleberg as we rested on the mountain side -- Eric was having some stomache issues and the brief recovery time beyond the reach of the wind and rain seemed to really help.  I need more practice setting the Rajd up, however!  Pictures will be posted later this month. Posted Sep 10 2007, 07:38 AM by gkillian with no comments

• A bit of mid-Atlantic press . . .

  A buddy in Richmond sent this link from their local paper my way: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-08-31-0070.html It emphasizes mid-Atlantic racing and does a fair job of surveying the landscape . . . although it has some inaccuracies like giving the impression I'm still running the Storm race (Pike are handling it as part of the HRAdventure calendar), it's nice to get a bit of media attention. Journalism is a strange business.  In my limited exposure, it seems authors spend hours researching for mere paragraphs of content.  For example, I spent 2 hours talking on the phone with Shape magazine editors and assistants regarding a 3 sentence blurb about one of my events last year.  All that effort and the final product in Shape was positively tiny and had an incorrect photo citation for my event! For this Richmond article, I talked with the author for 30 minutes from Switzerland (maybe even longer) for two meager sentences of material.  Now, I know the author a bit and we shot the breeze for a portion of that time but it still seems like a tough way to build content for a story.  I guess if you really don't know adventure racing . . . and let's face it most journalists do not . . . it would be hard to crank out a meaningful piece on adventure racing that was accurate, insightful, and on target for your editors.  There's no such thing as bad publicity, right?  It is cool to see a paper at least recognize the sport exists and invest energy in exploring it, so kudos to the Richmond-Times Dispatch!  Of course, the Summit Daily News from Colorado often has adventure race coverage -- but there are many high profile pro racers that live out there; in fact, this quick google search turned up this piece about PQ possibly going to Summit County Colorado. The mid-Atlantic might not be Summit County when it comes to press coverage of the sport of AR, but it's a darn good region for adventure racing and great to see the media start paying attention! Posted Sep 05 2007, 09:30 PM by gkillian with no comments

• The "Unexpected" Green Mountain Race Experience

  It was a beautiful Vermont weekend for Pam, Mike, and I to take on the Ultimate Green Mountain Adventure Race.  I met up with Pam and Mike (from here on "Pike") at the race check-in where we learned there were only 11 teams signed up for the race . . . my first reaction was why does somebody go through all the effort of designing and organizing an adventure race for so few teams?  As it turned out . . . the planning that I go through -- or most other organizations go through -- in making a race happen vastly exceeds the planning that went into this race, so my assumptions were all flawed!  The Ultimate Green's slogan is "expect the unexpected" right? Our hotel was quaint and several other teams were staying there too.  We ran into the Berlin Bike team, currently at the top of the USARA standings, and asked about the low race turn-out.  They chuckled and said, "just wait until tomorrow . . . you'll see."   For the record, the Berlin Bikers said that they love Marty, the Ultimate Green organizer, but that he has a certain style all his own and it comes across a bit disorganized on race day.  Pike and I braced to expect the unexpected! There was no real race check-in, instead there was a 4 AM team meeting where race instructions would be circulated.  4 AM was early for most, but with a 6 hour time difference between Vermont and Switzerland I was actually in good shape with the early morning!  At this meeting we learned that there were two "courses" as part of this race, the "hard" and the "less hard" . . . we were one of just 4 teams or so to select the "hard" course and it certainly shaped our race day.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. The actual race started at 5 AM and, while I don't want to do a full race report (since Pam has promised to do that part), we had an interesting start with a contrived flat tire (the race org let air out of one of our tires) and a quick bike circuit around the ski slopes to collect our maps  and UTM coordinates.  It was a chaotic first 30 minutes, and while I usually don't like little artificial tricks (like letting the air out of your tires), in hindsight it fit with the rest of the day.  Over the course of the race we found a couple CPs to be misplaced, UTM coordinates with inconsistent numbers of digits or off by 1000 meters, and at each TA we learned of a couple more checkpoints that were being removed from the race course for one reason or another.  The finish line was moved and we never even got to paddle because the course ran so long -- it was 13+ hours of trekking and biking for us in what was advertised as a 12-hour race.  No team got to rappel because the ropes outfitter got stuck on his own ropes while setting it up and couldn't execute a rescue . . . maybe it was just as well nobody got on those ropes after all?! This is a litany of problems and logistical issues that thorough course testing and a rigourous review process would remedy . . . but that's apparently not the style for this Ultimate Green and the other Marty races.  And you know what, I kind of get it.  I didn't come away upset in the least.  My previous paragraph, where I enumerate several significant problems with the race, didn't diminish my enjoyment of the day one iota.  We had a great time on the course and went into the race with an open mind and, mostly, just looking for a chance to get a great workout and catch up with Pike for a bit.  It's like a junior high musical: you know it's going to be funny even if it isn't trying to be, and so long as you're not looking for Broadway caliber you can come away smiling. Well, I came away smiling and so did Pike.  We got some great photos, even stopping at checkpoints to photograph the race volunteers and chat a bit.  The sunrise at Killington was very pretty!  My camera cable is back in Switzerland, however, so it will be a little bit until I can download all the photos; look for them later in September. I have no idea where we finished or how you calculate results for such a topsy turvy event.  If there were only 4 teams on the "hard" course we maybe finished 3rd or 4th (Berlin Bike won) -- but we did better than many of the teams on the shorter course so all together I think we have to be no worse than 4th or 5th overall out of 11.  But rankings aren't really the point, here, not for this kind of race and not for how Pike and I approached it.  We were mostly excited to be back racing together for a little while.  Even Mike's crazy cyclocross flat tires didn't tarnish the day . . . it was just a fun day of kicking our butts all over central Vermont. We raced as team Untamed New England, and spread the word about that 2008 race a good bit.  The response at the post-race social was very positive with lots of interest from the racers; anybody who pays $400 for the Ultimate race experience should have no problem paying the Untamed New England fee (around $400/person) for a solid and vetted and professional 60-hour race course.  As I said earlier, I'm not taking anything away from the Green Mtn race this past weekend as I had a real blast, but the course planning was a mess here and if I was a tri-athlete or super-up-tight racer type I would have been really pissed about the all the problems.  If Marty tried to host this race in Richmond, for example, he would be raked over the coals (Richmond has a huge preponderonce of triathlete types). So, would I do the Ultimate Green again?  Actually, I would.  It would be fun!  It's a gorgeous area with lots of hilly terrain and scenic views.  I would, however, try to arrange some race discount by swapping entrance fees with Marty or something so that I wouldn't need to pay $400/team.  That's a bit steep for the level of chaos we witnessed this weekend!  Marty is a friendly guy, who just loves to host a race . . . and I would enjoy being part of one in the future . . . but when they say to "expect the unexpected" they really mean it with this event! Posted Sep 05 2007, 06:43 PM by gkillian with 2 comment(s)