2011 North Georgia AR 30AR

From 4LPH41337.com

Ben's Take

First the NGAR has a reputation for some very ugly weather but that reputation was tarnished this year with 60 degree temps and clear skies. The storms early in the week had the creeks and rivers at 400% at one point and even though the river had come down to around 200% above normal flow by the weekend the race staff decided it was unsafe. Prerace: We arrived at the check in a little later than planned so did not have time to review the maps before the meeting but that’s actually common although not Ideal. We read the rules, plotted, and set a general route before heading back to the room for some gear prep and bed. At breakfast Mike had the idea that maybe we should consider dropping the paddle all together as it was 1 point for about 3hrs of padding which we discussed and decided that was a good plan. Prologue and start: The Prologue was a run up a very steep road to our canoes and then back down Wren and I were at the front and a few teams jumped out in front but as the road went up more and more dropped back until it was just us and the guys from Tecnu. We grabbed our canoe and headed back down with the Tecnu guys in front of us carrying their canoe on over their heads… we passed them as they were struggling the change positions and finished the prologue in first and really without feeling like we pushed that hard at all. Meredith then had to pick up the first O-Course map after which we could not talk to her. That was her first time navigating with a map and compass and she did great beating a few teams and a number of dudes. First Bike/2nd O/ 2nd bike: The first bike was all road from the lake to the fist TA about 16miles away we missed one turn that cost us about 30min but other than that it was just a smooth ride. When we got the TA it was time for Wren to do the second O-Course which he cleared without any trouble taking about 30min. Back to bike we climbed Pinhoti 2 to pick up a CP which was a short bushwhack off the trail which we went straight to. We then biked out to the FS Rd and up towards Potato patch Mt. this is a pretty steep climb that switchbacks a few times. After this we had an out and back to punch CP 11 which was up on a high point so we got close and climbed right to it. There were a number of teams in the area but we were able to get up and back down without anyone seeing us up there. From there it was back out to the FS Rd to finish the climb to potato patch Mt and then west toward the next point. We had some fun fast down hills followed by some climb so a nice ridgeline ride. We punched the point CP12 at about 5:00 and figured it would be about 2hrs back to the TA since the route looked pretty straight forward…. Not really! The decent was pretty crazy! Huge props to Meredith for taking this like a pro as I’m pretty sure there would be people who walked it and we made comments that anyone riding this at night would need every bit of headlight they could find. About a K before I was expecting a turn there was split and this is where we first went wrong… knowing that we did not want to head west we took the east turn which would have been fine since it did cross FS maybe a rd for smurfs! 96 we went past this once and then came back and followed it down the creek eventually coming out at a rd crossing with no marking. Long story short we should have just followed the creek down rd/trail or not however we went back and forth collecting more and more teams I think there were 10 teams at one point in this area!! but just went with heading in the general direction we needed to go, southeast. This took us to a point where we finally just bushwhacked straight south towards barking dog found our Rd and make it back to the TA almost 6hours later than expected. Oh and near the end of this ride Wren’s bike lost a battle with a tree branch dismembering his drivetrain leaving him with a coaster bike. 3rd O/trek to finish: The 3rd and final O section was run by me and I found out after the race that I had dropped the ball on this section punching one of the points from the 2nd O course which were all unmarked… it was on my route to the point I wanted but I guess I forgot what I was doing when I saw a CP hanging in a tree. I should have know to since my bearing from that point did not take me to the next point and I had to head a little west to pick it up… it just never occurred to me that there were other point nearby. We started the trek climbing up the Pinhoti to Hwy 52 and made pretty good time at a fast hike but Wren’s stomach had started acting up and he was not able to eat anything for the rest of the race but he did not complain besides a few extra trips into the trees! The rest of the trek the navigation went pretty much to plan but we were worried about how long it would take us to climb up to the finish so we left CP19 out there although we would have had time to get it I didn’t want to risk a DQ. Mike and Laura ran our support for the race and we felt like royalty you guys Rock could not have done it without you. Roses and Thorns: Roses to the weather, roses to the course it was beautiful, Huge roses to Meredith for stepping up with a weeks’ notice and zero time on a mtn bike!, thorns the intersection of 78, thorns to the branch that messed up Wren’s bike, thorns to me for the O course, Big roses to our spouses for letting us race and being supportive, roses to RocGear, Reality Bikes, and Injinji, roses to getting home safe.

Meredith's Take

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. It turned out very well and I got to learn more about orienteering- I had to do a section (EASY) on my own with a map and compass... and I made it! We had PERFECT conditions and while it was very intense and there were some challenges I could not prepare for, nor would I have ever chosen to try for 'fun'... it was oddly fun! I did come to a few points that in retrospect I felt that God had really protected me in the way/route we chose to take and BOY was I glad when we finished with the mountain biking section! 15 hours was more saddle time than I've EVER seen.

Doing this with my brother was awesome. He set up a tow cable on the back of his bike, which he does use with his other female team members, but he definitely took a beating pulling me up some of the toughest hills. I still had to pedal, but as soon as I got in tow- what a difference it made.

Some of you know I was sick to start the race- pretty good chest cold. However, I only delt with a little sinus congestion no headache and- and no coughing... until I stopped! Exactly what I needed and an answer to prayer that I could get through the race without being tormented by the infection.

As we got close to our last few hours on the course- I did get a little emotional thinking about seeing my boys and Cary at the finish... and as I tucked the boys in last night, I was so thankful for them. While I so enjoyed the opportunity to be in the middle of Gods creation and see parts of it I would never see without a compass and a crazy Adventure Race.... I am who I am not because of what I do, but becasue of the value God has place on me and the people he has given me to care for and grow. I am so thankful that Cary values me as an individual and recognizes, maybe sometimes even more than I do, how refreshing it is for me to do something like I did this weekend.

Really... in a small way... I am more of a mountain woman than I have been before.. :)

Mer If any of this doesn't make sense... I'm still catching up on sleep and I did have a tree limb drop directly on top of my head... thankfully I was still wearing a bike helmet.

)