Week 6: Adventure Racing

This weekend I participated in my second Adventure Race, the Odyssey Sprint AR, near Roanoke, VA. Like most of these races, this AR consisted of orienteering, treking, mountain biking, and canoeing. We must have covered 25 to 35 miles in the course 0f 6 hours. We strayed off course from the get go, taking the high road, which turned out to be a bad idea. After trudging through some heavy foliage, we reached the canoes at the first check point.

The canoeing seemed to drag on forever, and it didn't help that we were spun around 3 times by other boats. We resumed right where we left off on foot going way off course, and eventually learned that we were making this event harder than it needed to be. Every checkpoint was on some major trail or road. It seemed like smooth sailing once we hit the bikes, but we ran into some technical problems when Stas' Chain guard broke off and wedge into his gear hub. We were able to cut it away and get back on track leaving Stas with out his low gear.

This years Odyssey Sprint was overall a great time. Despite our misguided methods of navigation, everyone on our teams (John, Stas, Sergey, and I; Mike and Ian) had so much fun. I look forward to future ARs with these guys!

Despite an exhausting day, followed by an outing in Staunton that last until 2pm, I went for my 10 mile run to cap off week 6. I had been speaking to Kevin Shirk earlier in the day, and being humbled by his run times, I encouraged myself to step up the pace for the run.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
10.02	1:17:24	7:44	153	175

I have thought about approaching the coach for South Lakes HS Cross Country about assisting him this fall. The only hang up is the ability to get to practices with my work schedule... It turns out Sergey is going to be running for the team. The kid had a motor and was cranking this weekend, running when everyone else wanted to rest and barreling up the hill on bike. It would probably be a good time to get involved since I know one of the athletes... Maybe I can find someone who has volunteered and had an office job like mine....

John pointed me out to the Brooks ID program which supposedly could get me a 40% off discount. I'm excited!