AR Militia Wins Open Point Series

We competed in the 12 hour Turkey Burn race over the weekend in Sorrento, Fl. Despite placing 5th at the race, we still came out on top in the Open Division for the year. Write up on the race coming soon. The trophy is badass!

Pangea Takes First At Coast To Coast

AR Militia went out to work on the support crew team for Pangea Adventure Racing's push across the state of Florida in the 2010 Coast to Coast race. Pangea ended up taking first place going 55 hours and 11 minutes (give or take) without sleep. The sleep monsters definitely got to them out but we'll let you tell them about all the strange things that they saw and did.

They left it all out there in what we hear was a very frustrating course because of the check point placement. Congratulations Greg, Mark, Allen and Katie.

Here are some pics and video of the race.











Coming in off the last 12 mile paddle before the 7 mile beach run to the finish



Coming in at the finish

Build a Bike Repair Stand

Here is a bit of documentation on how to build your own bike repair stand. These things go for 130-200 bucks in bike shops, mine was about $60. This thing is also expandable to hold more bikes if you change the base. Adding the second bike on the back requires a bit more hardware but is pretty easy.

Here's a supply list for one bike with a clamp:

1 Pony 3/4 inch pipe clamp
1 48" piece(s) of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe
2 24" piece(s) of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe
1 12" piece(s) of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe
2 1" piece(s) of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe
2 "T" 3/4 inch fittings
2 45 degree 3/4 inch elbow fittings
2 3/4" end-caps

Here are some picture of the build.

Militia Goes Training - Brian Wipes Out

Went training at Santos in Ocala this morning. Brian had a nice wipeout at the 1:20 mark. We made it to the landbridge that crosses I-75. The landbridge might be where they cross on this year's 10 year anniversary Coast to Coast race later this year. We ran in to Team GreenPaw at the end of the day who were out there training (read: scouting). We are all looking forward to the Superhero race in a month.

A Luminescent Adventure

The folks at Pangea Adventure Racing hosted the Luminescent AR this past weekend, and since we could not compete in it as a team (due to scheduling conflicts), I decided to do the next best thing and volunteer myself to staff the race. The Luminescent was a night race, called so because of the unicellular plankton in the Indian River Lagoon that luminesce when the water is disturbed by boats, paddles or fish, which makes for a really cool paddle at night. The elite race started at 9pm, the sport race started at 1am and both ended at 5am.

Navigating the course at night, through freshly soaked terrain proved to be a fantastic challenging as no elite or sport teams were able to clear either the 8hr or 4hr courses within the allotted time. The course may have beaten the races, but that didn’t stop them from thoroughly enjoying the race. After the race, Pangea directors/staff heard lots of comments from racers about how much fun they had and how cool the bioluminescence was while paddling the waterway. Many racers, especially elite racers, expressed how much they enjoyed the challenge of the course.

After the awards presentation, just before dawn, Ron Eaglin and I paddled the sport and elite courses to retrieve the buoys and CP markers. We were able to catch a few minutes of the bioluminescence before dawn, also for the majority of our paddle in the main Indian River waterway; we were constantly surrounded by pods of dolphins. We think they may have been playing with the race buoys, as we were unable to locate and retrieve one, even with the assistance of GPS.

We missed out this year, but the Luminescent will definitely be on AR Militia’s race schedule next year.

AR Militia Takes First Place At The Nocturnal

AR Militia took first place in the 18-Hour adventure race known as the Nocturnal Challenge in St. Cloud, Fl over the weekend. Completed the course in 15 hours and 39 minutes. The top three teams were separated by a mere 10 minutes. Team Super Frogs and Team Fl Extreme took second and third places respectively. We hear they had quite a battle on the last trek and sprinted the last two miles down a sandly road for the finish. Congrats guys (and girls) and to all the other racers who came out there and battled the night.

Here's a picture of our split times:

Here's some video from our race. This was shot on the HD Hero Cam which shoots 1080p and is waterproof to 180'. It's a pretty baddass little device.

Orlando Mountain Bike Park Underway

Our team headed out this past Saturday to help with clearing the landed that is going to become Orlando's first (and only) mountain bike park. We were there for about 3 hours in the sweltering heat clearing vegetation. There was a tremendous turnout with well over 75 people, congratulations to the promoter for making this such a great event. In September the course designer is going to lay out the course. We hear that initially it will consist of a long yellow loop (easy) with off-shoots on to harder tracks. The second phase will expand the project so that the trails will actually run through the old military barracks and some dirt pump tracks.

Here's a link to the facebook page for more information.

Pics of the clean-up:

Orlando Mountain Bike Park Needs Your Help

Come out on July 10th from 8am to 12pm and join in the effort to create Orlando's first mountain bike park. Bring water, sunscreen, work gloves, rakes, trash bags, etc. This is only going to be a preliminary clean-up of the area. The park is going to be built in what is known as Area C near Coytown north of 50 and west of the Fashion Square Mall. Check out the Facebook event for more details.

Atomic 24hr AR 2010

http://www.atomicar.com/

Dawsonville, Ga.

May 14th-17th

May 14th - Day Before The Race:

We made a final stop at REI in Atlanta before heading up to our cabin. MWR picked up a new pair of sunglasses, a nice 60 dollar pair of phototec Tifosi's (more on these later). We all picked up some batteries for our night lamps and other last minute items. After leaving REI we had a short 2 hour drive to Dawsonville and our cabin at Big Canoe resorts. Our cabin was huge, 9 bedrooms (we were sharing it with 3 other teams) and had an amazing view of the mountains. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay there long on Friday because we had to get to race check-in at 5pm.

Race Check-in/Maps:

We got to the bottom of the Amicalola Falls where the race was going to start and eventually finish. After unloading our canoe (we had to provide our own) and securing our PFDs, paddles and other items inside we had our mandatory gear check that was surprisingly basic. We finished the check-in process, got our maps and returned to the cabin to start plotting before CRT had to return to the captain's meeting at 8:15pm.

We had some trouble plotting the first couple of UTM coordinates but after a few they much easier with practice. If you don't plot UTM with some regularity you may a bit rusty when you first start out. We also had some difficulty plotting some of the 7 maps we received because was a 1:70,000 scale and another that was 1:30,000. We didn't have a tool that matched either. Fortunately, team Green Paw let us borrow one of theirs for the 30k map, we later did some math and made our own scale for the 70k map. We also broke our Scalex at the last race (water) so we had to borrow one of those too in order to get our measurements. We didn't finish plotting and finalizing our routes until 1:30am on Friday night; it shouldn't have taken us longer than 1.5-2hrs.

We then had to pack our gear, prep our food and check our equipment; from now on we will do this way before hand. We finally hit the sack at 2:30am with our alarms set for 4:30am.

May 16th - Race Day

4:30am

Alarms, 2 hours of sleep, disgust, showers, food, pile in the truck.

6:15am

We arrived at the race start and shuttled our bikes up to the first bike T/A at the top of the Amicalola Falls and came back down to the bottom for the start.

7am - Race Start

Prologue

The race started out with a short run by only one member of each team. Obviously we choose BENC a/k/a Cool Runnings a/k/a I'm going to try and win this race in the first five minutes. BENC actually came in 5-6th in the prologue but blamed it on the fact that he had to adjust his 25lb pack the entire first half of the run.

CP1 -> CP2/Bike TA -> CP3

After the prologue we were off to CP1 which was pre-marked on our map. The route to CP1 and CP2/Bike TA was a steep climb (relatively steep... they would get steeper) to the lower part of Amicalola Falls where about 400 stairs awaited us. After climbing the stairs we were finally off on our bikes and heading to the top of Frosty Mountain. Here it was 20-30 minutes into the race and we are already winded from the stair ascent. This was only compounded by the fact that we had to ride up a mountain (we are from Florida, come on...). The whole time all I could think about was "man, wouldn't it be nice if there actually was Wendy's Frosties at the top of this thing?"

CP3 -> CP4

Remember that nice 60 dollar pair of phototec Tifosi shades MWR bought at REI yesterday... it was at about this point in the race that he realized they had slipped off his croakies and were gone (more gear loss to come). When we finally reached the peak, there were no Frosties, but there was about to be a killer descent down the mountain. In all I think it was about 2000' of elevation change going down. We probably averaged around 18 mph down a rough double track with drop-offs of a couple hundred feet to our left. With total disregard for our safety, we raced down the mountain at what most would call unsafe speeds, but we made up a bit of time and passed 3-4 teams.

CP4 - Bearden Falls

We dropped our bikes at the end of a trail that led up to Bearden Falls. It was about a 1.2 km hike up to the CP at the falls. The last 100 m were brutal because we had to scale a narrow, steep, slippery mud trail. It got a bit tight on in this section as teams slowed down due to fatigue, leg spasms and craps setting in; BENC almost cramped up himself. We passed a couple more teams on our way up. When we finally made it to CP 4, we whipped out our waterproof camera but it was so misty the picture barely came out.

CP4 -> CP5/11 (CP8, CP9, CP10, CP6) -> CP5/11

After CP4 it was a short ride to the Nimblewill Church and the beginning of the first bike rogaine section through the Bull Mountain area. In the Bull Mountain section we had to pick up 4 out of 5 CPs in any order we chose. We basically had two options, go for the longer but flatter route or take a shorter route up another mountain. Being that we are from Florida, we choose the longer, flatter route in the following order: CP8, CP9, CP10, CP6. It was starting to get hot by this time and once we finally made it to CP8 it was a welcome relief that it was another waterfall so that we could cool off.



We made a short navigation error on the way to CP8 and over-shot it by one trail costing us about 15 minutes. One of the reasons we turned around was due to a local who was out biking. This guy had to be 50 years old, full spandex and flying through the trails. He helped us identify the trail we were on and where we were trying to go (CP8). He said, "I know exactly where that is, follow me." Then the dude just took off down the mountain and yellowed, "THIS IS HOW WE DO IT IN THE A - T - L!" We all looked at each other, laughed, and tried to catch the old dude but he was flat moving.

After CP8 we didn't have much trouble finding the rest of the CPs but the storm clouds started moving in and we got our first dose of rain (plenty more to come). After the Bull Mountain section we headed back to CP5/11 to check-in before continuing on our bikes to the canoe leg.

CP11, CP12 -> CP13/Boat TA

Heading to CP13 was once again on bike, not much foot racing in the first half of this race. The trails to CP12 were some muddy Georgia clay trails that handrailed along some power lines. About halfway down the trail MWR's front tire got stuck in the clay and was launched over his handlebars. Fortunately, he was okay but was covered from head to toe with clay. After we got off the clay trail a couple of teams traveling with us continued to follow the power lines to the right, which was southwest. Fortunately, MWR was paying attention to our course and guided us correctly to the southeast. After a couple miles of riding back on the street we came upon a mini-mart. Heaven. We filled up our water, bought some regular sodas for sugar, a couple boxes of pop tarts, and some snickers bars. We even found a hose outside and quickly rinsed the clay off our bikes.

CP13/Boat TA

Now the fun begins. Whitewater paddling (class 1 and 2 rapids) in a canoe full of flat land, flat water, Florida boys. Now we have all been whitewater rafting before, whitewater canoeing is a whole other level of potential boat and body devastation. We took our normal places in the boat, CRT in the back (a/k/a the master helmsman, a/k/a Captain Ron, a/k/a Captain Jack Sparrow, a/k/a Captain Crunch... we had plenty of time to come up with witty captain monikers for him), BENC in the middle, and MWR in the front to navigate (basically warn us of rocks).

The paddle started out pretty calm and we knew it was going to take a while because we had to paddle 23 miles. At least it was all downriver with the current. We paddled for about 20-30 minutes before we came upon our first rapids section. All we could hear was what sounded like a waterfall and couldn't see how far the drop was. BENC started running through his profanity dictionary as we approached. It was a rough section, but it turned out to be one of the milder rapids we would traverse on the paddle. We got the hang of reading the river and had a pretty flawless paddle beyond CP14 and Etowah Falls. Once we got to Etowah Falls race crew were to warn us of the falls and advise us of a take-out and portage point. We saw the race crew but received no direction on the portage (we heard other teams had trouble getting direction here as well like team Pangea who almost went over the falls). The portage around the falls was short but technical. We stopped for this picture before putting in (you can see our vigilant race crew striking a pose the background and basically being completely useless).

It wasn't long after the falls before we got a real dose of whitewater and obstacles. Up to this point we had not tipped the canoe or really had much difficulty with the rapids (thanks in large part to ol' Capt Ron at the helm). Unfortunately, our luck was about to change as we entered a rapids section about 2.5-3hrs in to the paddle. We dropped in on a rapids section as we had been doing for the past couple hours, only this time there was a huge tree laying horizontally about a foot above the river. Our canoe hit, turned sideways, instantly capsized and was being crushed against the tree by the rushing water. We all heard the canoe bending and cracking. Eventually, we were able get the canoe unstuck and push it downstream. This cost us about 15min and svelte boat. The boat was now so bent that we all had to sit all the way to the edges of our seats to keep it level, no easy task when you are trying to paddle through rapids with hours remaining on the river.

Just as we thought the paddle could not get any worse, thunderclouds started rolling in. For the last 45min of the paddle we were in a torrential downpour which dumped both lightening and hail. The upside is that we were able to pass a few teams that had the smarts to take cover and get out of the water.

cp15/Boat TA -> CP16/End of Stage 1

After the paddling fiasco we had a short 3k run to the end of stage one. On our way to the TA we passed a few more teams that stopped to refill their water at the fire station. We finished stage 1 at 8:17pm and were 5th overall at that time.

CP16/Stage Transition a/k/a Hell on Earth

As soon as we got to CP16 the rain began dumping on us again. We were given new maps that we were supposed to plot for stage 2, not an easy task in a thunderstorm, at night with no tent. We were able to find shelter under the awning of an RV pulling a horse trailer. We think the people were asleep inside. We duct taped our maps to the side of the RV to begin plotting, the whole time we were standing in 3 inches of water. Miserable. We were starting to get tired and the rain made us a bit irritable but all we could do was laugh at how shitty the situation truly was. BENC disappeared to get soup the race crew was serving, meanwhile MWR and CRT plotted the maps and chose our route. Eventually, BENC was found sleeping standing up, leaned against another RV. Didn't think that was possible.

Race Restart 12am Sunday Morning

CP16 -> CP17 (Where it all went downhill)

We headed out at the race restart at 12am along with every other team that didn't withdraw. Probably about a third of the teams withdrew or didn't make the initial cut-off at the boats.

As the pack thinned due to some teams running and other walking we found ourselves in the middle of the pack. We thought we were heading East toward the Etowah River again but somehow ended up way north of where we thought. Once we finally came to our first water crossing, we thought we had reached the Etowah; instead we were crossing Shoal Creek, which we were told was only going to be knee deep. What we didn't know is that a flash flood was in progress, it raised the water level making the river crossing impossible for a single team. We had to work with 2 other teams (9 people total), locking arms, in order to get across. Once across we thought we knew where we were; wrong.

We turned north and hiked uphill for a couple km before we started to get nervous and eventually realized we were lost. Fortunately, as we turned around to head back we saw about 10-12 headlamps coming at us full steam. It was the race leaders who were flat moving up a hill. I asked them where we were, the gave us exact directions on how to get to CP17, about 2.5km south (great...). As we made our way back south we got passed by just about every team left on the course who didn't get lost.

CP17 was a whole other level of difficult to find. The clue was "hidden falls" and hidden they were. We had to follow the stream to the fall. Slogging through the stream and treking the steep dense banks was a challenge. Somehow CRT lost his hat and sunglasses (yeah its about 2am) as we bushwhacked our way to CP17. We followed the sound of the falls and found the CP placed on the precarious banks of the fall. After finally punching our passport at CP17 we climbed out and made our way back upriver.

CP17 -> CP18 (The wheels are coming off)

There is nothing more demoralizing than getting lost in the middle of the night looking for a CP. Even more so when you are in 5th place and watch every team pass you as you backtrack. On the way to CP18 MWR and BENC began falling asleep while jogging/hiking. In fact, MWR fell asleep on one boardwalk and almost fell into the river which could have been a race ending scenario.

CP19/Bike TA

We decided we need to get a little bit of sleep before trying to finish the course. MWR and BENC took an hour nap. BENC shivered in his emergency blanket and MWR found a campfire to curl up next to. CRT finished plotting the maps and got 15 minutes of shut eye.

When we woke up the sun had broke. We all actually felt pretty good about continuing. We ran into team Mims the Word and Katie let us have the rest of her water since their team was withdrawing. Thanks Katie! After filling up with water we were back on our bikes heading to the final section.

CP20

From the Bike TA it was a quick jaunt to CP20 which was under a rusty old steel bridge. Nothing remarkable other than it seemed like we were always riding uphill.

CP21/Trek TA

After riding our bikes uphill 3 miles of incline to 2800' we were beat by the time we got to CP21. We knew we were running out of time (the race cut-off was 2pm) and we were at least trying to get all of the mandatory CPs. (The TA's were the mandatory ones).

CP22

This CP tested some basic rope skills. Using ascenders and then repelling. Race staff had a 90' tree rigged with ropes to put us to the test. Only one person from each team had to complete it. Nobody was too happy about it but CRT decided to give it a try; BENC steadied the rope (no easy task) and used a fireman's belay during the descent. Here are some pics of us getting ready to climb:










After completing the short ropes section we decided to get CP25 before heading to the finish. We didn't think we would have time to trek to the remaining three so we painfully skipped them. We all hate not clearing the course, but running out of time and getting DNF'd would have been worse.

CP26 (Finish)

Upon arriving back at Amicalola Park, we were told that we had one last challenge (fantastic!). Climb the 604 stairs to the finish line at the top of the Amicalola Falls. Just getting to the stairs was pretty much straight uphill. We did get some comedic relief from the comments of the tourists that had come to visit the park for its natural beauty. The looks on their faces were priceless as they watched teams coming through who looked like zombies, smelled like they slept in the woods (which we did) and were covered in sweat, mud, some blood and dirt. Though painstaking, we have to admit, the climb to the top of the falls was amazing.





At the top of the falls we crossed through the finish line at 12:08pm. We certainly got nuked and will definitely be back next year.

Nocturnal Challenge

Looking for a great way to start adventure racing? Look no further than the Nocturnal Challenge. Pangea's only night race open to the sport division. It's a 5 hour race and great way to cut your teeth on racing at night. If you are a little more adventurous, the elite division race is 18 hours and you you will be racing against us. This race includes a zipline section which is amazing at night. We did it last year and it was a blast!

Atomic AR - Live Coverage

Alright folks, the Atomic adventure race is nigh. We’re pumped to race among so many serious competitors from all over the nation on a 30 hour course including our friend's from Pangea! We’re making our way up to Atlanta Georgia today then to Dawsonville tomorrow where we will do our pre-race check-in, receive maps, plan our course of attack and catch a few hours of sleep before the race starts Saturday morning.

The race will begin at 7:00am Saturday 5/15. This is our 1st expedition/stage style race and it will certainly be an experience. Fortunately, the race director is providing live technology support; so if you’ve ever wondered why we train so intensely, what its like to compete in an adventure race and why we are so beaten, battered and depleted after a race; this is your chance to see leader board updates, video, audio, pictures and blog updates live while we race through the course.

The following links will take you to the official race website and the race coverage websites.

The race website:
http://www.AtomicAR.com/

The Live Race Coverage website:
http://www.RDBoard.com/

Backup RSS feed race coverage:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AtomicAdventureRaceFeedMix

Ready to get nuked!
Militia

BOAR 2010

Pangea - BOAR AR

http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/race_archive.php?r=39

Pre-Race:
We pull into Orlando Wetland Park at about 7am. The sun is just breaking, but the temperature is still in the 40’s. We quickly set up our staging area and picked up the map giving us plenty of time to plan our race strategy, warm up our legs and do one final gear check before the 9:00 race start.


Prologue (Bike 1): 9:00am
Greg does his traditional war cry signaling go time! All elite teams take off on a 3km loop down the roughly paved entrance road before heading off to the bike/boat TA. No CPs to collect on this leg, just a race to get into the water. Unlike most our previous races, we did not make an attempt to sprint to the front of the pack. We formed a line and maintained a 19kph pace on the 8km jaunt to the bike/boat TA.


Boat:
We got into the water where the reclaimed water canal spills out into the St Johns River and start paddling east towards CP5. The first couple kilometers of the paddle were torture on our cold shoulders. Once we saw our first congregation of 6’-12’ alligators we were less worried about our shoulders and more worried about moving fast and staying in our canoes.

Despite our intentions and attempts to keep our feet dry in every race we always fail miserably, this was no exception. Within 10 minutes of our paddle we were slogging through some of the soggiest, slipperiest, shoe-sucking muck we’ve ever come across; we went through a lot of it as we had to do quite a bit of portaging. After picking up CP5 we headed south against the river picking up CPs 4, 7, 6 and 8. We then paddled back north to get CPs 3, 2 and 1, with the current, but against a steady wind that made the return paddle north more challenging than the paddle south. It was clear that we attacked the paddle checkpoints in a different order than most teams as we did not cross paths with many teams. Thanks to our improving paddling skills and Matt’s flawless performance on navigation, we sped through the paddle in 1hr 46mins, extremely confident in our performance.


Bike 2:
We left our paddles at the bike/boat TA and rode off to CP9 which was a few kilometers down a rough jeep trail dipping in and out of the river. The clue for CP9 was “palm tree along trail”; this CP was particularly frustrating because from a distance we could see small clusters of palm trees lining the trail in approximately 400 meter intervals, and just when we thought we reached the last palm on the trail, the trail kept going. When we finally reached that elusive palm we punched our card and used the camera attached to the CP to take a team picture as proof of our team’s cohesion. We returned to the B/B TA to secure our paddles before moving on to CP11. Bart was experiencing mechanical problems and suffering from muscle fatigue, so we put our leash system to work and I towed him for the remainder of this bike leg. We carried on toward CPs 11 and 10, passing the start/finish TA at about 11:30am where we saw the sport racers preparing for their 12:00 start. We returned to the S/F TA just after the sport race started.

We replenished our supplies and changed into dry shoes and socks (another feeble and failed attempt to keep our feet dry).


Trek:
This trek was a great physical challenge and test to our navigation skills and easily the most difficult stage of the race. We had to shoot bearings to find 3 of the CPs, as if that was not enough of a challenge, we also had to keep our bearings while bushwhacking through the swamp, circumventing unexpected lakes and slogging through chest-high grass fields. When we finally got back out onto a trail and thought the worst was behind us, we quickly discovered that the next couple kilometers of trekking would prove the most challenging (going from 17 to 19 to the T/A). The path we trekked toward CP’s 16, 17 and 19 was heavily traveled by herds of cattle leaving the surface riddled with hoof depressions and fecal matter making it prime terrain for ankle injury. Our only relieve from dodging holes and piles of cow shit was sloshing through a wreaking mix of mud and shit. These CPs were not too far off the trail, but I made the mistake of reading the clue for 18 when we were actually looking for 19 causing us to pass it by about 100 meters. Chris paying attention to our backstops was key to quickly recognizing and recovering from this mistake.

Bart, Chris and I were exhausted after that section of the trek, but Matt was suffering from debilitating cramps. As illustrated in the log of our trek, we slowed down significantly after CP16. After a couple of km of dry/even terrain I recovered enough strength to use our running harness to tow Matt the last couple minutes to the S/F TA.


Bike 3:
And we’re off to finish our last leg of the race! Not so much, Matt mounts his bike to find his rear tire completely flat (of course it had to be the rear tire). We make an attempt to put air in the tube and save time, but the hole is massive and the tire won’t hold air. So we summon our inner pit crew and change the tube in just less than 3 minutes. In our haste, we forgot to check inside the tire for the source of the flat, we all knew it could have been a disastrous mistake but, no one even wanted to mention it, so we carried on to the final 7 CPs with less than an hour to go.

Because of the hard packed surface surrounding the system of lakes, the last bike leg was a sprint to the finish requiring little navigation. The fields were mostly open, making the CPs easy to find, but also made the wind more of an opposing factor. Fighting the wind and fatigue, we formed a draft line, tucked our heads to pick up CPs 25, 24, 22, 23, 20, 21 and 26 in less than 40mins.

Completion time: 5hrs 37mins

Takeaway:
I think our most important lesson learned from this race is the importance of accuracy over speed. It seems like an obvious concept, but during a race we have so much adrenaline pumping through us that we sometimes forget that in addition to endurance, mental and physical fortitude; a successful adventure racer requires discipline, restraint and a clear head to stay safe, accurate and on course.

We also learned that whenever possible we should try to include the wind factor when plotting our plan of attack.