Team UHB. The first 24 hours race.

Report by Adam Swisher, team Calleva squad UHB.

Racing in the Wild and Wonderful 24hr AR was an incredible experience for our team, Calleva UHB (Sarah Reschovsky, Phil Raymond, and Adam Swisher). We are relatively new to the AR scene, but are already hooked. The three of us work as Instructors at Calleva Outdoors and last summer, when given the opportunity, we decided to participate in the Calleva Adventure Race. We did well, winning the sport division, and caught the eye of Dima, who asked us to race as interns to the Calleva Team. We were grateful for the opportunity and super psyched to test our abilities in some bigger races. Showing up to the Wild n' Wonderful we didn't know what to expect and were humbled by all the teams and the grandeur of it all. I remember as we started the first trekking section we didn't know if we should jog or hike. We decided to play it safe and save our energy, so we hiked. Soon after, teams started passing us so we stepped it up a little and after a short while we found a good groove that would carry us the duration of the race. As we paced along we worked out some of the kinks of novice racers and for most of the first day found ourselves sitting nicely in the middle of the pack. Our only goals were to finish the race and to thoroughly enjoy ourselves in doing so. At times we would get lost or take unnecessary detours, but worked through it together and never lost more than a hour. The scenery was incredible. At checkpoint 13, I think it was, we stopped and stood in awe on a rocky outcropping as the sun set over the gorge. As night fell we unknowingly started gaining time and at midnight as we transitioned into the bike time trial we were surprised to find ourselves well within the top 10. With the encouraging news we rallied through our transition and cruised into the single track time trial only to face the most difficult part of the entire race. Sarah counted the number of times she fell, 27, and was not happy about it. I was feeling nauseous and Phil ate it hard on an inside corner. This was the only time during the race where we were uncertain we would finish. We pushed on biking, then hikiing, then biking again, all the while feeling a little broken, but as the sun started to shine we caught what may have been our fifth or sixth wind. With about a mile to go to the finish line we saddled up our bikes and gave everything we had left. Crossing the line was a wonderful feeling and though our muscles were less than happy we couldn't help but smile and give each other a huge UHB hug. Now, a few weeks later the only question we have is 'Where's the next race?'

All photos from the race are here.

Wild and Wonderful.

Report by Val Chapa, team Calleva.

The Wild n Wonderful 24hr race was a good experience for all of us, especially me and my navigation! Due to Dima's inability to avoid a stationary wall on his bike (he luckily only broke one rib), Team Calleva was down one member, our best navigator for sure. Vlad, Karen and I made the journey down to Ace Adventures outside of Oak Hill, WV. This is a very well established outdoor venue with wonderful whitewater, miles of trail running available, and some of the best single track around on the eastcoast. Odyssey race organizer Ronny Angell put together another great race course. At the start of the race, Karen did a great job with the swimming leg, and the land navigation portion of the race. Vlad and I basically supported her and helped with pointing out visible reference points to help us along. We finished this portion of course in the top 5. Midway through the bike leg we climbed up to first. On the bike legs, I navigated some and did okay but once it became nightfall I made a critical error in not counting the forks in the road! This would lead us to spending 2hrs. at the farthest lake trolling in beaver water for a phantom checkpoint!! Earlier in the evening we stopped racing to help a local man re-harness his dogs...this gesture would later help us as we then could use some advice. After learning of our missed turn we headed back found the checkpoint within minutes and then headed to the transition to learn that we had fallen way behind the leaders. Our last section of the race was a night orienteering leg that befuddled us because of the necessity to use local maps that were not orienteering maps, so the became confused in the wee hours of dawn when we realized we were much lower than required when trying to get one of the mandatory checkpoints. Disgruntled with our performance and with little time to get make it to the next bike orienteering section we enjoyed ourselves as we strolled back to the finish line. The bigest enjoyment of this race was racing with Vlad and Karen, some of the whitewater rapids, the beautiful views and the great single track. Hope to see ya'll racing.