Thanks everyone for making Adventure Day an exciting, fun, safe, and successful event! We really appreciated having so many of you join in on such short notice. We were also very pleased to see so many familiar faces from last year along with the great mix of new faces.
Once again, this event would not have been possible without the cooperation and efforts of teams Vyster (Rick S), Master Lock Albatross (Nick R, Joe E, Scott L), and Ya Mule (Pam S, Kathy B, Carol J, Paula W, Tom W, Tony G). We also would like to thank a few others who helped guide us through the process of running the event, and/or were out there volunteering: Andy M, Tammy G, Beth S. Sure had a great time working with you guys to make this happen and it's nice to know we'll have more than a few weeks to plan in 2009!
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Although we kept things in and around Lapham Peak State Park again, we decided to shift operations to Trecker Lodge in Homestead Hollow to mix it up a bit (okay, actually we just took what we could get with the late notice!).
As it turned out, the weather ended up being so nice that we didn't really spend much time inside.
With temperatutes around 50 for most of the race, we saw a few more smiles along the way than we probably would've seen later in the month.
Last year's race was fairly heavy on following written instructions so this year we thought we'd show new racers a few more maps and give them a better feel for that aspect of adventure racing. We also decided to make the "mystery" challenges more physical rather than mental to keep everyone guessing in 2008.
At the pre-race meeting the course was revealed and racers had a chance to ask questions about the fairly routiine mix of disciplines. The day would start out with a short trek through the park, followed by a bike section, then paddling/trekking, a few mystery challenges, and finally an orienteering section. Teams would be ranked first by the number of check points they found, and then by how fast they were able to find them. We also used the meeting to raffle off some very nice items provided by Trek Stores of Madison and Master Lock.
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We tried to add a little flare to the opening trek by having teams hunt down three "unusual" objects at various locations within tha park.
Each team had a chance to copy down the locations of the objects on a somewhat less than detailed park trail map.
Unfortunately, the lack of detail on the map and a combination of other factors led to one of the objects ending up in the wrong location.
Fortunately, Tony was in the area and let us know that something was up before teams wasted too much time looking for that object.
However, we'd still like to appologize again for the misplacement.
We learned a few valuable lessons that should help prevent that from happening again.
The next segment of the race was the main bike leg comprised of a 27 mile route that took racers primarily north and west of the park. The course was designed to weave around some of the more scenic lakes in the area while trying to keep riders on the less busy country and neighborhood roads whenever possible. During this leg of the race, teams had to find the answers to 10 questions (i.e. Check Points) to help keep them on course. Teams did well on this segment with only a handful of missed CPs and a few minor detours taken by a couple teams.
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Once teams got back to Lapham, it was time to decide which team members got to do a little more biking and which team member got to do a little driving.
The mission for this part of the race was for teams to get themselves, their boat, and their paddle gear to the boat launch about 2.5 miles away.
This was something that seemed to work well last year to help eliminate the need for a support crew or running boats around before and after the race.
The paddle itself was actually a mix of paddling and trekking. Half of each team had to paddle to a distant CP (finding other CPs along the way), while the other half of the team trekked to that distant CP. Upon arrival at that CP, team members switched roles and returned to the launch. Conditions really couldn't have been much better during this segment with comfortable temperatures, a very light breeze, and beautiful autumn colors. Most teams were able to complete the entire paddle course, but a few had to be short-coursed when their bike legs ran a little longer than expected. Once done with the paddle/trek, it was back to Lapham with the bikes, boats and gear.
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The next segment of the race is probably where the most fun was had by all.
The mystery challenges were a variety of activities that tested the physical, mental and strategic prowess of each team.
Rules were that 4 of the 5 challenges had to be attempted in any order, and at least 15 minutes of effort or successful completion of each challenge had to occur.
With names like "Leaky Tube", "Barrel of Fun", "Board Walk", "Flat Fun", and "Puzzle Pain" there was a pretty good chance everyone would be doing a few things they're not used to doing.
The final segment of the race was the orienteering course where teams had to find at least 3 of the 10 CPs to remain ranked and all teams managed to do that. Since everyone had to be back to the finish area by 5:00p, they once again had to strategize which CPs to go for in the limited amount of time available. The top teams demonstrated why they are the top teams by getting all 10 CPs, but all teams did well based on the varying amounts of time they had to work with by this stage of the race.
To get an even better feel for the race and how it played out, be sure to take a look at the splits and photos. As would be predicted, the winning teams had a lot of the fastest splits. But accuracy counts too, and a missed CP or 2 really moved teams around in the final standings. Even more important than those aspects of the race was the fact it looks like everyone had a lot of fun and raced safe. When we saw all the smiles in the photos, we were pretty sure something good happened out there and we intend to make to provide that opportunity again in the future. Prizes for the top teams along with pizza and beer for everyone put a very nice cap on the day.
Mike R