Hope your post-season is going well and you are getting ready for the holidays by taking a much deserved rest.  It has been a while since we last wrote and have a lot to catch-up on, so I will try to keep my thoughts organized and brief and thank you for your patience:

 2010 has been a great season for GRR.  We have had some awesome experiences that go beyond our normal race season production work.  This year the United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA) brought their National Championship race to Hidden Valley Resort right here in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania.  Hidden Valley is a favorite of ours and we were approached to help with race course design and implementation.  Drawing from our HVAC and P2P experience we were able to design a challenging, fast bike course and a very challenging and technical final orienteering leg in the Roaring Run Natural Area.  Bethann and I were then given charge of the finish line and had the pleasure to stay up all night and witness the finishes of some of the best teams in this country.  Team Tecnu came into the final “O” leg first and had a commanding lead over their closest rivals—Team Wedali.  Wedali then went on to clear the “O” course with perfect navigation and managed to beat Tecnu by a slim 6 minute margin.  This experience has given Bethann and me a confidence boost and a renewed excitement for 2011.  It has also taught us a few lessons which we hope to implement in the coming year. 

 2010 G.R.A.S.S. Results—But first we need to give “shout-outs” to our own racers.  2010 saw a shake up of results in the GRASS series.  Previous years saw the series dominated by Team Blaze—a co-ed team—and witnessed top five placements by Team Spang and Team Hollyloft/warrenadventures.com—also co-ed teams.  Something changed in 2010 and the top five has been dominated by all male teams.  Does this warrant a scoring change to “even the playing field?”  Possibly—and we will be looking into that.  In the meantime we want to give kudos to those teams that excelled in the series:

 Top 5 Overall                                                                                Points

1) Batty Boys—Dave Battista, Matt McCusker                            278

2) Fizbo Sheaf*—David Shaffer, Cory McCleaf                         256

3) MMM/warrenadventures.com—Chris Darling, Eric Fadale 250

4) Mud n’ Guts—Chris Welsh, Dan Snyder                                242

5) Go Ugly Early—Scott and Patrick Kirkham                             240

* 2010 was Fizbo Sheaf’s first year in adventure racing.

 Top 3 Co-Ed                                                                                    Points

1) Team Spang—Edna and Tim Spang                                      210

2) HL/warrenadventures.com—Missy McNett, Scott Angove  198

3) Blaze*—Chrissy Valentine, John Ralston                             156

*Blaze’s score comes from only two races.

 Top 3 Female                                                                                  Points

1) Sister Act*—Amy Hileman, Abby Stoops                                60

2) Thunder Buns and the Category 9                                          40

3) L.O.S.T.—Kelleigh Miller, Martina Brletich Thomas              38

*Newcomers Sister Act’s score is based on only two races.

 Congratulations to all participants in the 2010 GRASS .  Remember, you do not have to be entered in the series to be scored.  Complete one race and your scores are entered.  Complete two—and you may have a high enough score to place well.  Just look at the winners of our all-female division for an example!

The finish of the finale was so late that we did not have a proper awards ceremony.  We are hoping to hold that ceremony at the Two Below Duo in January.  However, if you are unable to attend we will be happy to send your awards to you—just drop us a line.

 2011 GRASS Scoring—While we are discussing results we will take this opportunity to point out some changes that we are planning to implement for next year:

 1) All Grass Roots races will be entered into the Checkpoint Tracker scoring system.  We have given much thought to this and finally decided that Checkpoint Tracker is the future of adventure racing in this country and have made the leap.  This will—in effect—make all of you eligible for two series: The GRASS and the Checkpoint Tracker series.  Whether you are serious enough to be chasing the National Championships, or just want to see how you stack up against the rest of the country, we feel this is a valuable addition to our races.

 2) GRASS scoring will mimic the Checkpoint Tracker Points system.  For the purposes of the GRASS the points will be awarded using the following distance definitions:

Sprint—3 hours or less.  Top points awarded=25 per teammate.

Sport—3-6 hours.  Top points awarded=50 per teammate.

Adventure—6-12 hours.  Top points awarded=100 per teammate.

For the GRASS, an example of a “Sprint” will be the TURFF, an example of a “Sport” will be SORCAR and MAD, and an example of an “Adventure” will be HVAC SF.  For the GRASS we will follow the CPT system of awarding top points to the top 15 and minimal points to all finishers after that (see CPT chart).  A “finisher” is someone that finishes the race in the time allotted and scores the accepted minimum number of points.  This will be explained more fully next.

 3) All Grass Roots races for 2011 will be constructed with a time cut-off.  This will mean that a race that is slated as 3-5 hours long will be 3-5 hours long.  Our original goal was to give every racer an opportunity to complete the entire race course, regardless of time.  However, this has shown to stress our limited volunteer resources, so we feel a “cut-off” time is fairer to all involved.  To keep the race interesting for all competitors, each course will be designed so that each section has one or more “outlying” control points.  As the race develops it will be each team’s decision whether they have enough time to reach those “outliers”.  This will have similarities to Rogaine style races (i.e. TURFF) but will be more formatted.  The ultimate “ideal” is that those teams that want to win will retrieve all the points.   Those teams that are there to finish will get only those points that they are sure they can reach in the time allotted.  Severe penalties will be garnered to those teams that do not make the “cut-off” time.

 4) All Grass Roots races for 2011 will allow for a solo division.  Awards will be given to the top solo finisher in each category—overall, female, and male.  If the solo division grows (as we hope and predict) the awards will be increased to include top three.  For the purposes of the GRASS, solo division points will be awarded following the same formula as noted above in #2.  Note that the scores are awarded per teammate and that a solo racer will earn half the points of a team.  Note also that the points a solo racer earns may be applied to a team’s GRASS score.  This will give all teams another option when one teammate is unavailable to race.

 5) The GRASS will include the following races:

SORCAR—April 16—Sport

TURFF—May 21—Sprint

MAD—July 16—Sport

HVAC—October 15—Adventure

All four races will count toward your team’s point totals.  Your options for schedule conflicts include one allowed racer substitution (substitution may be any gender for the overall result but must be same gender for the category result) or racing as a solo.  We feel this will simplify scorekeeping and will award those teams that are more consistent in their race attendance.  

 Website—With all these changes—along with the usual annual updates—you can expect to see a “new and improved” website within the next couple of weeks.  Chuck has done a great job of photo-documenting your experiences over the past season, and we hope to showcase more of these.  We’ll keep you posted on these changes.

 Blog—In an attempt to increase communications with all of you we would like to request that you visit often.  While here, please subscribe so that you will be notified of any new updates.  We hope to reduce the number of emails this year and will rely on the Blog for updating purposes.

 Cookie Fundraiser—It’s that time of year again!  We will drop a line shortly to notify all of you regarding the ordering process, etc.  Start making your list now!

 Warren Adventure’s Two Below Duo—This race will be taking place January 22-23 and is brought to you by the Warren Chamber of Tourism.  We will notify you shortly regarding the registration process.

 That’s it for now.  Hope to see all of you in January.  Until then—have a great holiday season!

Frank and Bethann