The Shag.

First I have to tell you: If you've never raced Shag, you don't know how good an adventure race could be. And it's not because of perfect organization, and not because of difficult terrain, these two you can see at some other races as well. But only NYARA provides this level of navigation challenge. This was my third Shag race, but it was my first time as Shag race primary navigator. Finally I felt strong enough to try it. My teammate for this race was Vladimir, good friend of mine. It was his first AR and not only he finished the race in one piece, he also enjoyed it (especially the medal at the end :-).



We started the race with 10+ kilometers of lake paddling, following by a short road bike section. Foot navigation o-course was next and biking o-course was at the very end before the finish. The race was in the best modified ROGAIN format and strategy was very important. Hurricane Irene was approaching and it was raining from the start of the race. Shag race is famous by its tough mountain biking trails and we decided to spend more time on foot and less time biking on slippery rocks of northern New Jersey parks. Despite very thick bushes of Rhododendron, it was right decision and we took all but 3 CPs of the first o-course. We did a very few mistakes, and Vladimir helped me a lot with navigation, especially at the beginning. Part of the navigation challenge was to collect a trash near Laurel Pond at the end of the o-course. We were the last team at that location and the place was sparkling clean. Fortunately 2 miles latter we took a wrong turn and found a big pile of trash left here from the pipeline construction. This mistake (and not having other mistakes) gave us 6 bonus points for the bag full of trash and led us to the 3rd place in the most competitive male-2 division of the race. We had GoPro camera with us on the course, all "good" photos from the race are here. For now I hope to improve my navigation skills and waiting for the next year Shag race.
Dima

Final race results are out. We are 3rd in male-2 (out of 8) and 6th overall (out of 37)!

Equinox traverse and future plans.

Written by Dima.

August is the busiest time for the team, especially this year, when we organized the longest and the toughest Calleva Race ever. There are 1000+ photos and links to some exiting race reports on the race website.
Finally I got a few minutes to write about 46 hours Equinox traverse that was almost 4 weeks ago at Ohiopyle park in Pennsylvania. Actually, Ohiopyle was pretty much start and finish of the race, while most of the course was all the way north beyond the Pennsylvania Turnpike! The race was epic! I don't remember last time I had to run so much, but we had to run. Competition was strong and team Orion from Minnesota beat us on every single stage of the race except the last O-course where we gained 2 extra points. As the result we finished 2nd in coed 2 (next time we have to run even more, because we have no chance to beat team Orion on bikes) and 5th overall (actually 4th, but they forgot to count ropes bonus for our team). The highlight of the race was my new Fenix light. It was so bright I had to dim it for incoming car traffic.

Now the plans for the rest of the season. Next weekend is the Shag. It's 12 hours and I am going there with Vladimir. He is doing boring triathlons and I hope to convert him into the "right religion". He already did his first mountain bike ride, not bad for the first timer:


In September is going to be East Coast Championship in Pennsylvania. And finally in October all North American Adventure Racing Championship in the Land between the Lakes in Kentucky. Both championships we are going to run with Michelle in coed-2. So far we are ranked first in both championship series and all we need now are victories!