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!