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.