2010 Blue Ridge

From 4LPH41337.com

1 Blue Ridge Adventure Race 2010 Info
2 Blue Ridge Pictures
3 Blue Ridge Videos
4 Blue Ridge Map
5 Blue Ridge Website
6 Blue Ridge Results
7 Blue Ridge Reviews

Blue Ridge Adventure Race 2010 Info

Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race
- Date: April 10, 2010
- Location: Blue Ridge, GA
- Event Details: 10.5 hour cut-off
- Event Description:
  - - 35 miles of mountain biking on single track, quad trails, rail trails & back roads, trekking & orienteering, and canoeing.
- Event Points Category:
  - Checkpoint Tracker Sprint-length Race
- Teams Registered:
  - Jack, Jordan, Holly, Mike (support), Laura (support), Josh (support)

Blue Ridge Pictures

Pictures From the Course
Jack Plotting Pre-Race	Team Plotting Pre-Race	Early Morning Start	Jordan Crossing River
Jack Soloing In	Team Launching Canoe	Paddling	Transition Area Setup
Jack In Transition	Team Rolling Out	Team Entering Water Crossing	Jack Crossing River
Jordan and Holly Crossing River	Team Finish	Team Photo	Team and Support Crew

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Blue Ridge Videos

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Blue Ridge Map

2010 Blue Ridge Map

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Blue Ridge Website

http://www.adventureracega.com/

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Blue Ridge Results

Race Results

8th place out of 79 teams (8th in coed out of 60), with all checkpoints obtained, except the bonus time CP. Finish time was 10:19:04 hrs.

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Blue Ridge Reviews

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Jack's Take

Great inaugural performance by the Sprint team! The race started in 3 different states! Holly started on bike from NC, Jordan on foot from TN, and me in canoe from GA. Totally unexpected.

My race start was sitting in the canoe in the river for about 30 minutes, trying to hold a position in the river. It was in the 30s, and luckily, Jordan loaned me his rain jacket. Canoeing solo wouldn't have been bad, if there hadn't been 80 canoes in a 80 foot wide river...with a couple of guys who didn't know how to control their boats. I watched a guy zig straight across the river, all the way to the bank before correcting his route. Then he did it again...and again... Small rapids! Three boats race to the chute and try to hit it all at once...only room for one boat. The other two hang on the rocks.

I knew Holly and Jordan would be waiting when I got to the rendezvous point, so I didn't delay. It was 3.7 miles in about 45 minutes. That's about 4.9 mph, which wasn't bad for my 16.5 ft canoe. I got hung up in a few spots, but only briefly.

After joining with Holly and Jordan, we joined up and left pretty quickly.

We managed to navigate the spillway without flipping (like the boat did in front of us). CP2 was no issue, but CP3 caused a bit of confusion. The 150m wide inlet to the north was nothing but a flat piece of marsh, with a small stream entering. Without looking at the compass and staring a the large body of water on the map, figured it couldn't be it, but as we paddled south I kept wondering if we'd made the right choice...was my compass pointing south or was it broken and pointing north??? We paddled almost all the way to the turn to the takeout ( part of the river where the label "NO 3" is in the river on the map), before figuring out we'd made a big mistake...along with about 20 other canoes. After much debate, we decided we had to go back, and go back we did, leaving a wake of confusion for all the other racers who'd also missed CP3.

Finally back at the takeout, we portaged up the the TA, where our crew was waiting. They did a great job, as we were out of there pretty fast (including time spent refolding the map). It was great to have one support member for each team member.

It felt great to finally be on the bikes. We flew down and up the forest service roads until we got to the hairpin turn near CP5. Looking at the condition of the "abandoned FS road", we decided to drop bikes and hike this section. There were brutal uphills to Granny Marr Mountain, but then we managed to jog/run quite a bit, despite the heal blister that I'd developed. A bit of duck tape seemed to work for a while, then we were back on bikes. This section (CP5-CP10 wasn't too bad navigation wise, though we turned 5 feet too soon on the way to CP6 and did quite a bit more hiking than necessary).

Back on bikes at last! A short ride later, we were at the orienteering course. All the hints mentioned FS roads, horse trails, and other features not on the map...rather frustrating. This section caused us quite a bit of issues, as we picked up CP12 then CP15. We decided it would be cutting it close to drop down to the time bonus CP and go back over the mountain, so we dropped down to CP14, then CP13 (which we ran right by and had to go back for...tucked behind a turn).

Back on bikes at last! FS roads and pavement brought us back to the river on rolling hills. I little riding on Hwy 5, and we were over to the last checkpoint, CP18. Hop on the railroad tracks and Woo Wooo, chugga chug chug over to they waypoint, were we got ensnared in a gaggle of bikers trying to make their way through the briar patch and barbed wire on the way to the river. When we made it to the water, we faced probably 40 riders wading across the river, carrying bikes, holding on to the safety rope. Screw that safety rope, we passed almost all those riders, by wading across 5-10ft upstream. It was a bit sketchy, but we made it across the river and on to the finish line, with a total time of 10 hrs 19 min.

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