East Coast Championship

This past weekend Dima and I headed up to Seven Springs Resort in PA for the 1st Edition of the East Coast Adventure Racing Series Championship Race put on by American Adventure Sports. The race was 18 hours long and we were looking for the win in our 2 person Co-Ed division so we could win the series overall. The race started at Midnight on top of the ski resort mountain and after coming out of a warm summer it was a balmy 45 degrees with wind at the start. The race started with a mandatory trekking leg with 5 points and then an optional orienteering leg with 6 points. We made our way through the first trek and within minutes we were both warm after a chilly start. After looking at the orienteering map we decided to skip one of the points and headed out for 5 of the points. Unlike many other teams Dima did a great job navigating this section and we wrapped up both trekking legs in roughly 6 hours and headed back to the TA and a transition to bike. The bike leg consisted of several mandatory CP's as well as several optional CP's on the way to Hidden Valley Resort. We headed out on the bike for a very cold but brief descent down the mountain. The first few points we in the ski resort with several more on our way to Hidden Valley. Daylight was upon us soon after we got on the bikes so we were able to put the headlamps away making navigation a bit easier. We got all the points on the way to Hidden Valley and started the climb to the TA. At this next TA we transitioned to another trek/orienteering course within Hidden Valley Ski Resort. Once again several of the points were mandatory and several were optional. As we headed out on the trek we planned to go for all the points since we were making good time. We hit the first 2 and headed for the 3rd point located on the northern tip of a hill top. This point was tricky and we spent an hour and twenty minutes looking for it with no luck. We decided to call it a day and headed out of the woods to our next point and then back to the TA. Once back at the TA we had a quick transition back to the bike. We headed out for the ride back to Seven Springs. We had several points along the way as we headed back into the resort for the long climb back up the mountain to the TA. By the time we got back to the TA it was about 3pm and we had 3 hours left on the course. We had 2 legs of the race left, a short orienteering trekking leg and a final mountain bike leg on trails within Seven Springs. We headed out on the trek for a pretty easy leg. The highlight of the race was at the end of the trek when Dima decided that we should take the ski lift back up the mountain instead of trekking back up. We had overheard Doug the race director say taking the ski lift was not prohibited so we went for it. We got lucky and did not have to pay the lift fee. As we went up the lift which went over the downhill mountain bike trail system we saw many riders bombing down the mountain. We got to the top and headed back into the TA with about 1 hour left on the race clock. We quickly transitioned back to bike and headed out on the final section which consisted of 4 optional points. With only an hour left our plan to was try and get at least one point before heading back to the finish. As we were making our way to the first point Dima discovered that something was wrong with his bike seat. He got off to check it out which resulted in the entire seat breaking off the bike. There was no way to fix it and if we had continued Dima would have been riding without a seat. The timing could not have been better to lose a bike seat since there were no mandatory CP's on that last bike leg. So we headed back to the finish and turned in our passport for an official time of 17 hours and 30 minutes. Overall I think we had a good race, winning our division and winning the overall division for the race series. We walked away with some cool swag and it was a great warmup for the real National Championship Race in Kentucky the weekend of Oct 21st. That race will be even harder with some great competition in the 2 Person Co-Ed division. We are going to have to be in top form and run a fast race to win. Stay tuned........
Michelle

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!