SORCAR—Season Opener Raccoon Creek Adventure Race

Race Report

April 16 10:00am—The sun is heating things up and it’s looking like a perfect weekend for a race.  Hopefully the trails are drying and the mud won’t be as bad as we thought.  A few more things to organize and load in the truck, and I will be in the woods placing CP’s.  Perfect day—now where are those pipe wrenches?

12:00pm—Phew!  Getting hot.  Gotta’ get this truck loaded and get out in the woods.  Can’t keep up with all these last minute emails and registrations.  And I still can’t find a single pipe wrench.

2:00pm—It’s okay.  It will only take 35 minutes to get to the park.  There is plenty of time to get set up.  Not a cloud in the sky so the trails will be fast.  No sweat.  Just have to make one stop at Lowes for another pipe wrench….

3:00pm—This storm will pass.  I can see bright sky to the south.  The trails will be wet, but we will be dry.  It won’t matter that Bethann and I both forgot our rain gear.  It’s too warm anyway.

5:00pm—Figures!  This rain isn’t stopping anytime soon and I can’t stop shivering.  At least the map is protected.  This ride to CP 11 is taking forever.  Maybe we should drop it—or make it optional.  What the heck!  I’m here now so let’s leave it—the racers always expect our courses to be longer than we say anyway. 

5:30pm—Two more CP’s and I will be back in the truck and warming up.  This trail has turned into a stream.  I couldn’t be any wetter—or muddier.  Fortunately we brought some extra race t-shirts so I can at least have something dry to wear while putting the bike racks together.  Hope that new pipe wrench works better than the last cheap one we bought.  How do I keep losing them anyway?

9:00pm—Bethann has placed all the run points and completely set up registration.  I placed all the bike points and set up the transition area.  We should be home by 10:00.  A weeks worth of homework has paid off!

6:00am Race day—The first team arrives and it’s Twisted Sister—last year’s leaders in the women’s division.  When we hand them their race packet and tell them to read all the instructions, they do so.  When they find the 100 piece puzzle box they think first that it is animal crackers, then that it is a present.  It doesn’t take them long to realize that it is their first challenge of the day and that they won’t be permitted to start the race until the puzzle is completely assembled.  Interestingly though, it takes them even less time to get the puzzle put together.  We knew this “twist” was going to benefit the women—we just didn’t know how much. 

6:30am—A couple more teams have trickled in, and it is looking as though many teams have chosen to ignore our warning that they should arrive early.  As the Season Opener the SORCAR is purposely the simplest race of the year.  Typically a simple race means less set-up time for the racers.  Adventure races, however, are always full of surprises and good racers know to be ready for them.  It is always in the team’s best interest to arrive early and have plenty of time for race prep.  One way or the other the race directors will find ways to fill that time.

7:00am—Most teams have arrived, and are frantically trying to get their puzzles together and set up their transition area.  Those that are organized are listening to the navigation clinic and getting some helpful tips.  The maps for the SORCAR are orienteering maps produced the Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club.  They have a lot of useful information on them.  It’s just a question of knowing where to look, and how to interpret it.

7:30am—Pre-Race meeting time and there are still about 30 teams struggling to finish their puzzle.  This little sprint race has the air of a much longer event.  Everyone is rushing around tying up loose ends, while the race director is giving out important information about the race.  With a race start of 8:00am, there is little time to get last minute questions answered.

7:55am—“Teams 1, 2, and 4—you are starting in 5 minutes.  5,7, and 8 you have 6 minutes.”

At 8:00 am sharp teams BLAZE, Batty Boys, and Mud ‘n Guts burst out of the doors of the Recreation Hall and head off in three different directions.  The first leg of the SORCAR was an on-foot orienteering section.   It had some technical elements and race directors wanted everyone to have the opportunity to navigate, and not just follow the team in front.  This course was designed as three distinct loops—red, yellow, and green—and teams would have to complete all three loops before getting their bike punch card—blue.  The first three teams each went to the three different loops and a full minute passed before three more teams were released out the doors.  This gave the “lead” teams plenty of time to get into the tree cover.  Out of sight, out of mind!

8:20am, and all 55 teams have been sent onto the orienteering course.  All finish times will be adjusted to compensate teams for their start time.  On the race course it is Team Batty Boys—Dave Battista and Matt McCusker—that are the first to complete their loop.  These two are great navigators, but the yellow loop that they just finished is the shortest so it is hard to tell where they actually are in the race.    It seems an eternity, but finally Team BLAZE—Chrissy Valentine racing with substitute Randy Golab—emerges from the woods off of the red course.  A couple other teams have finished the yellow and green courses, but the red is the longest.    They look strong and calm, but it is hard to know where they are in the mix.

Approximately 55 minutes after starting, Team BLAZE is coming off of the Green course and heading out on their bikes.  They appear to have a commanding lead on the 4 mile run, now they just need to hold it for 12 miles of mud filled mountain biking.  A couple minutes later, it’s the Batty Boys heading down the steep descent out of TA.  At the bottom of the hill they will leave the paved Cabin Road and enter the unpaved Nichol Road.  Racers will follow this for about two miles—most of which is climbing—and then enter the multi-use trails via the now infamous Apaloosa Trail.  A seemingly simple navigation, this trail proved elusive for many teams and cost them dearly.  The Batty Boys made no such mistake and quickly overtook BLAZE on this difficult climb.  From there it was a relatively quick trip to the halfway point—CP12.

The Batty Boys arrived to CP12 almost 45 minutes after they began the bike leg.  The muddy conditions certainly slowed their pace, but they looked fresh and strong when they arrived.  It was nearly 10 minutes later before the second team arrived—#25 Fizbo Sheaf (David Shaffer and Cory McCleaf).  However, these newcomers to GRR started a full seven minutes behind the Batty Boys.  With a good second half bike leg, these two youngsters could close in, and possibly overtake Dave Battista and Matt McCusker.  The race was on—experience vs. youthful strength!

For the next several minutes there was a somewhat steady stream of teams—BLAZE, Eric(k)², Momma’s Makin’ Meatloaf and Team Hollyloft (both of warrenadventures.com) —then suddenly the stream “dried up”.  Many minutes passed, and no one made it to CP12.  Then suddenly a couple teams appear, reach for the punch, and say “S*@#!  This is CP12!  We missed 11!”  Realizing their mistake, these teams had to double back and climb up the long descent they were just enjoying, and ride all the way back to CP11.  The very CP that we considered “pulling” from the course the day before! 

Team after team made this mistake, and soon the return trip was dubbed “the walk of shame”.  Team Wrong Way of warrenadventure.com was one of the teams that didn’t make this mistake, but saw the number of teams going that way after CP12 and assumed that this was the correct way to go.  Fortunately it did not take them long to realize that they were indeed going the “wrong way” to get to the finish line, and got back on course!

Then a second grouping of teams began to arrive to CP12.  These teams were all commenting on how hard it was to find CP 10.  CP 10 was about 100 meters off-trail in a very deep “draw”.  It was at a stream intersection and was difficult to get to, but not very difficult to find.  The problem was that teams were missing the trailhead (Apaloosa Trail) and were finding themselves on a completely different set of trails.  However, no one wanted to give up on these wrong trails and spent too much time trying to make them work.  Some managed to succeed, while others found themselves doubling back to eventually find the Apaloosa Trail.  This in effect nearly doubled their distance travelled and definitely doubled the amount of vertical gain—once again showing that it is not how fast you travel, but how accurately.

Back on the race course, the Batty Boys cross the finish line in 2:27:10—two minutes and fifty seconds faster than race organizers projected for the winner’s time.  Now they have to wait more than 15 minutes to be sure that no late starting team will beat them.  Twenty three minutes later, Team BLAZE crosses the finish line.  The Batty Boys have won, but now BLAZE has to wait to see what place they will receive.  And what happened to Fizbo Sheaf?  One minute later they show up to dash BLAZE’s hopes of second place.  Apparently Cory McCleaf of Fizbo Sheaf had bonked hard, and this allowed BLAZE to overtake them.  However Fizbo Sheaf had started seven minutes after BLAZE, so they had taken second place overall and first place in the male division in their team’s first ever GRR event.  We’ll have to keep our eyes on these two!  BLAZE ended up with Third overall and first place in the co-ed division.

Rounding out the top spots was team Twisted Sister—Krista Burdick and Barb Fernandez—to take first in the all female category in their final GRR race as a team.  We’ll miss you Barb!  And our favorite award—the Lantern Rouge—goes to team Green Governor BEASTS (Lisa Tersigni and Kristen LoGrasso) for gutting out the mud and sleet for over six hours!  Their tenacity and spirit are to be commended!

Overall the spirit at SORCAR was incredibly high.  All teams are to be commended for their effort and for their camaraderie.  There were countless tales of teams sharing food, and navigational tips with other teams.  This is what drives Grass Roots Racing and is making us all a strong community.  We are so proud of what GRR is becoming and thank all of you for contributing to it.

See you all soon!  Until then—train hard and race smart!!