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Contents 1 2009 Strong Adventure Race Info 2 2009 Strong Adventure Race Pictures 3 2009 Strong Adventure Race Map 4 2009 Strong Adventure Race Website 5 2009 Strong Adventure Race Name Results 6 2009 Strong Adventure Race Reviews 6.1 Jordan's Take 6.2 Joanna's Take 6.3 Judy's Take

2009 Strong Adventure Race Info

Strong Adventure Race

• Date: August 15th: Check-in begins at 7:00am; Mandatory pre-race meeting at 12:30pm; Start: 1:00pm; End: 9:00pm
• Location: Ocoee, TN
• Event Details: 8 hours
• Event Description: Plan on 30-40 miles of adventure! Disciplines include mountain biking, trail running, flatwater paddling, orienteering points and a few special surprises along the way.
• Event Points Category:
  • USARA National Qualifier, USARA Point Series Sprint Race + 10 pt bonus
• Team Registered: Jordan, Joanna, Judy (recruit)

2009 Strong Adventure Race Pictures

2009 Strong Adventure Race
Start	Swim	Jordan	Judy
Debbie & Rocky - Support Crew

2009 Strong Adventure Race Map

2009 Strong Adventure Race Website

Strong Adventure Race

2009 Strong Adventure Race Name Results

Full Results

• 6th co-ed elite category out of 23 teams
• 6th overall out of 51 teams

2009 Strong Adventure Race Reviews

Jordan's Take

The joy of rogaine format races is you have complete discretion over your strategy, the pain of rogaine is you have complete discretion to choose a terrible strategy.

With that in mind we pained over which section to choose first, without knowing if the race directors would let use decide that. Up until 20-30 minutes before the race at the noon pre-race meeting, we had no idea how the race was going to start. We knew that we had three distinct sections, but beyond that it was a mystery. We had a few potential strategies each with options in case of time overruns or nuanced race directions.

After the pre-race meeting we finalized the decision to run the race in the following order, Swim/Trek, then Canoe, then Bike. I'm not particularly fond of the bike or bike navigation so I was pleased with the plan.

After hitting the ST points dead-on and exhausting ourselves swimming without fins (did I mention I don't like swimming?), we made a snap decision to change our strategy. Since our arms were already tired from swimming, canoing probably was not the best section to tackle next. We hopped on our bikes and went on our merry way out of the park.

Most of the points were at distinct locations off the road, and we had the benefit of being closely behind Sport Factory, which allowed us to verify our locations and poach a little navigation. The Southernmost trail was not pleasant as there was plenty of deadfall and debris in the trial. The hills also didn't help and we ended up pushing our bikes a bit at that point. Once we hit CP11 we were delighted with watermelon and felt as rejuvenated as we could feel at that point. We had a nice grind to get up to CP12/13 and then decided to hike up to CP3 since we were not going to continue on bike to CP2. After hiking up and up and up, getting the point and sliding back down we continued on for the last bike point before heading back to the TA.

The canoe was very pleasant, we hit all the points straight on, as they were placed correctly and could be reached from the boat.

All in all, the race was beautifully run, the RD and course designer did a great job. Parking was a bit of a problem, but we all made the best of it. Congrats to all who participated.

Joanna's Take

Judy's Take

The Strong Adventure Race 2009: was an fun 8Hr event held in beautiful Ocoee, TN. There were great volunteers and staff, like Joanna’s awesome mom that made the race all the better. I raced under the team name of Team ROC Gear/4LPH4 1337. The team consisted of Joanna, Jordan and me! Both of these racers new I was new to the 8-hr race and took good care to explain everything they were doing when we were studying the map prior to the race. I learned so much from these two. Thanks guys, you were awesome! I hope to race again with you.

The Trekking portion came first thanks to Jordan’s speed in the prologue. We were able to choose our starting discipline thanks to our speedy teammate...thanks again Jordan! We were told that in order to make it to the start of the trekking portion we needed to swim across a lake! Our swim wasn’t as fast as we would have liked (because we would have liked a boat) but we made the best of it. Once we pulled up and out of the lake (there wasn’t any shore to speak of) we arrived on land at the base of a “mountain” that was very steep. We took off and started to climb up through the thick thick brush. Our gators saved a good portion of our legs during this part of the race! I am not sure what the elevation gain was but I could hear my heart pounding in my ears when we reached the top of the 1st peak. Jordan and Joanna did a great job avoiding the steep slopes and cliffs. We ran, climbed, slid, and swam for about 2 ½ hours on this leg but finally finished with all CP’s. Whoo hoo! We finished by swimming back across the lake. The biking portion was next and was what I was looking forward to the most. We started off riding up one of many lengthy climbs. Not to be redundant but there were a lot of long tedious assents on curvy rocky roads that I felt ate up too much of the clock. I didn’t like that. I guess I prefer technical riding over long slow endurance? We eventually took it off road. Finally, I thought here comes some fun stuff. NOT! I have never bike whacked up a foothill before. That was tough. We were hauling bikes over mounds of fallen (I mean BIG) trees, water, ravines, rock gardens and all sorts of other crazy stuff. I had never done that before. At that point it clicked that’s why they called it the “STRONG” race. Luckily they had a water station at one of the next CP. It was a good break. We finished the bike with a nice down hill (yippee). We were all eager to jump into the canoe. We transitioned quickly. Oh before I forget, Joanna was great about reminding us to eat and drink the whole race. Thank you Joanna!!

The Canoe section came last and in my opinion was the most straight forward. Jordan navigated us to each check point effortlessly. Joanna paddled in front like a champ and I kept Joanna’s paddle pace! Besides for Jordan’s ramming speed directly into a few check points, poor Joanna, things went as planned. (JK Jordan!) We even had time to exchange a few funny stories. We finished strong. We finished so strong that Jordan one armed the canoe up onto land almost knocking me off my feet. We were all ready to get out of the canoe. We handed in our pass port and that was it. Whew!

Would I do it again? Definitely. Would I recommend this race? For sure. If I could change one thing it would be the biking portion. I would like to have more technical riding and less..of the long..slow...hills for sure. Granny gear sucks.

I had a great time and had the best team out there! Way to go guys.

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