USARA National Championships

November 7, 2008

Friday morning arose with darkness and fog settled in across the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia. Over 70 teams gathered at the town gazebo, ready for instructions to begin the Adventure Racing National Championships of 2008. This was the first time we as a Team had stepped foot in this area, notorious for difficult navigation, unmarked trails, and unreliable maps. With a grand start, we all boarded the scenic byways train in downtown Blue Ridge, travelling to a destination unknown.

Looking back at the week before the race, we really would like to recognize Charlie Merrill and Alta Physical Therapy for the help they gave Tiffanie. Just days before leaving for Georgia, Tiffanie sustained a grade II ankle sprain. Charlie worked with Tiffanie over the weekend to help her achieve the quickest healing time possible, and his coaching and advice enabled Tiffanie to get to Georgia and get on that train Friday morning.

We received "prologue" points while on the train. Already armed with the majority of the race points from the map pick-up the previous night, we would begin the day with a fresh set of checkpoints to get us from the train to the canoes. The "prologue" consisted of 4 checkpoints by foot; a quick segment to see who could get to the boats first. With this quick beginning in the "prologue", we were in the canoes before we knew it. Sunshine was finally beginning to drench the river, and we headed downstream.

The canoes only had 2 seats, which meant Tiffanie had to brace herself on the floor of the boat. James and Brooks continually leapt from the canoe to carry it across shallow waters and portages. With such a low water level this time of year, the canoe portion had quite a bit of running involved (and plenty of getting wet in the process). After about 17 miles on the river, we finally made it to the shore and our first official checkpoint on map. From there, we carried the canoe another mile to the drop-off, which I can tell you is no easy feat. As we dropped the canoe, the rain began to fall. We ran 10 miles along the river to our bikes, dropped off the night before at the only "transition" of the race. Not allowed to have any extra gear or food at that transition, we simply picked up the bikes and were on our way. The rain continued to fall, and as night descended, we finally made it to the first run section. Donning our favorite Ay-Up Headlamps, we set out with lights ablaze for an adventure on foot. And as usual, we have the best lights out there -- we even discovered that the burn times of the 3-hour batteries can actually sometimes last you through 5 hours -- awesome.

As I mentioned before, the maps of the area aren't always inclusive of all trails, and even some trails on the map no longer exist. We climbed and crawled our way up the steep slopes, trekked along unmarked horse trails, and ran whenever we could find a reasonable surface. Rain kept pouring down as we unearthed ourselves from the dense brush and remounted our bikes. Our Rocky Mountain Bikes continued to handle the tough terrain of rocks, roots, and sludge, and our Maxxis Tires held descending steep slopes slippery with wet leaves and roots. We were drenched to the bone, without a single piece of dry gear to wear. We ran out of water, and as a result had to forage for streams to treat our water. Thank goodness for Nuun tablets, which helped mask the taste of chlorine dioxide and kept us wanting to stay hydrated! Arriving at the next run section, we were colder than we couldn've ever imagined we could be.

The night continued, and with 13 hours of darkness, we plowed through the cold and wet. When the morning rose, we welcomed it with open arms. The rains finally began to lift, and so did our body temperatures. We finished the race in good spirits and good health, crossing the finish line after being on the course for almost 28 hours.

Although we finished mid-pack in 37th place (out of 70+ teams), we learned a lot in this race, and continued our growth as a Team. We had hoped for a better finish, but we're proud of our showing at Nationals, and are even more proud to represent the companies who support us. It was amazing to pull our Tifosi sunglasses out of our packs after a night of wet and dirt, to see them intact and perfectly ready for the sunshine of the morning dawn. Our Smartwool socks kept our feet protected throughout the whole race, and not one of us suffered a blister, even though we trudged through wet and sludge for hours on end. As far as we've seen, we're the only Team to get to Nationals completely carbon neutral, and we only hope that more will follow suit next year (and we'll be recommending other teams to have Native Energy do that for them!). And big thanks to GoLite, for helping us to get to Georgia, providing us with the best packs and clothing for racing, and for believing in us all season long. We've really enjoyed all the adventures we've had this season, and look forward to many more to come!