I’ve been impressed with the quality of races that Trioba puts on here in Washington state, and was looking forward to Trioba’s 33 hour “midnight start” adventure race that would take place in Chelan this fall. I attended as part of Team Mergeo: our team was Miles Ohlrich (me), Roger Michel, Andrew Feucht, and Beth Brewster.

It’s high time I conclude this series of posts looking into the 2010 Untamed New England.  There’s tons of other stuff going on in the world of the Adventure Racing World Series and I need to make room for that material — Costa Rica, France, and the UK recently wrapped up their World Championship qualifying events, too.

Team nuun-SportMulti at the 2010 Trioba 24 hour Adventure Race, was composed of racersMatt Hayes, Mari Chandler, Sean Clancy and guest-racer Jeremy Rodgers. Mari and Sean went into TRIOBA with an 5-race winning streak together. For most of those races, their 3rd teammate was ace-navigator Glenn Rogers. This time around, Glenn was the race DIRECTOR, and teammate Matt Hayes would step into the navigator role. Could they keep the magical streak alive? Glenn and co-director Ryan Van Gorder promised to throw some curve-balls to prevent ANY team from having an easy go of it. By the time teams reached the finish line, the 2010 TRIOBA 24 would go down as a classic and one of the harder-but most rewarding-events in memory…

In case you’ve missed them, installment 1, 2, and 3 are also here on Adventure World.

We have already shown a few clips from Randy Ericksen as he filmed Team Adventure World Magazine at Untamed New England. Here is an unedited clip as he followed Team GOALS ARA at night bushwhacking off of Magalloway Mt. The team was comprised of Mark Lattanzi, Masha Glanville, Jonathon Neely and Jeremy Kuhler. Stay tuned for more race clips in the coming weeks.

Next month, Cynthia Aguilar will attempt to complete a 130 mile solo paddle board crossing from Cuba to Key West. Her goal is raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and her non-profit organization, Keep Paddlin’, Inc. The 26-year-old is out to show people that one person can make a difference. She has undertaken other endurance events as a way to raise money and awareness for individuals and groups. She also hosts paddleboard races as a way to help others in need.

Sara Lingafelter and a group ‘kick ass girls’ reached the summit of Mount Rainier earlier this month to raise funds for Big City Mountaineers through the Summit For Someone program. Sara created this video from the climb and we couldn’t pass up sharing it with you. Stay tuned for some mountaineering gear reviews from Sara!

Regardless whether you are male or female, one has to be inspired with an athlete like Rebecca Rusch. We make it a weekly ritual to check out her site to see what is new with the ‘Queen of Pain’. After winning her second Leadville 100 race in as many years, she continues to dominate her sport. Check out this video by the folks at Specialized as they chat with her about her preparation for the event.

Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is Video #3.

To catch you up, I’m examining each leg of the 2010 Untamed New England.  Legs 1 and 2 can be found here and here.

Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is Video #2.

Team Tecnu Extreme competed at the Untamed New England Adventure Race last week. 41 teams from the US and Canada as well as Ecuador and Denmark all came to Dixville Notch, New Hampshire to compete in the 3 day race and hope for a chance at qualifying for a spot at the World Adventure Race Championships that will be held in Spain in October.

Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is the first of 3 video clips he shot of the team.

Moving on to Leg 2 of the race (after Leg 1 where I began this series), what looked like at first glance to be a straight-forward “connector” leg between the paddle and the 3 Summit Trek had a bit of challenge lurking beneath the surface. As a race planner, I like the challenges that nobody sees coming.

Things were not looking good a few months before this… our most important race this summer. Two of our teammates John and Denise, could not race with James and I (Harper). With a very stacked field and time running out, we had some serious shoes to fill in our recruitment process in the few weeks before race start. Luckily, we were able to nab veteran Ontario racers Jayme Frank – who has countless expedition victories under his belt and Barb Campbell – a well respected navigator who captains the successful Tree Huggers adventure racing team.

As promised yesterday (see my introductory post), here is a blow-by-blow look at the Untamed New England 2010 course starting with Leg 1: 40 miles of paddling, portaging, conservations projects, and an orienteering relay through the “Kingdom of Water.”

Planning is well underway for the return of the Atmosphere Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race (MOMAR) to Cumberland, BC, scheduled for September 25, 2010. With over a month to go before the race, local representation is strong and growing.

Over the weekend I had the great pleasure of joining my Team nuun-SportMulti teammates Cyril Jay-Rayon, Jen Segger and “Stuntman” Slater Fletcher at the Gold Rush 24 Hour Adventure Race in Long Barn, California, near Yosemite National Park. Race directors Mark Richardson and Adrian Crane put on one of the best 24 hour adventure races I have done, anywhere, and I have been adventure racing since 1997. The race managed to be very challenging physically, even without much-feareds bike-destroying manzanita bike-whacks or a gratuitously long and boring hike-a-bike.

This past weekend, the team was at it again at another national series 24 hour race in the Sierras just east of Sonora. The race was hosted by Gold Rush AR and the course took teams through a stunning landscape near Yosemite. We battled for first for over 26 hours against the Yoga Slackers but, in the end, came up short. The Slackers had a excellent race and beat us by 31 minutes. They raced a near perfect race and deserved the win. As for us, we raced well but just didn’t have the added speed and efficiency needed to win. The team was comprised of Jen Segger, Sean Clancy, Cyril Jay-Rayon, and newcomer Slater Fletcher.

As the dust starts to settle from Untamed New England 2010, as the Race Director and all around guilty party behind the race, I was asked by Adventure World Magazine to offer a blow-by-blow look at the race from the inside out.  I jumped at the opportunity to share some insights into the race and to look at how it all went from my perspective.  We work hard to make our race a truly wilderness experience and explore some of the most remote sections of the region.  Our tagline, “more an adventure than a race” is not just a phrase, it’s something we’re thinking of the entire time we’re putting the race together.

Race at a glance: 8 out of 41 teams completed the full course. 9 teams did not finish and two teams received unofficial completion (due to dropped teammates).
GUATS, Skandia, and Team Granite have all earned spots in the Adventure Racing World Championship (ARWC) kicking off in Spain, September 30th.

We currently have eight teams still on the full course after a second set of cut-offs at Checkpoint 24-Bosebuck Camp. Teams had to finish their 3 Summit Trek and arrive at CP 24 by 8:00 a.m. The following teams are still considered to be in the Premier Division (in no particular order):

•Team 5 ( Eastern Mountain Sports/Checkpoint Zero)
•Team 11 ( BRAT)
•Team 14 (GOALS ARA 2)