Croom Crumbler Adventure Race

This was my first Adventure Race (or triathlon on crack as I like to call it). It was an awesome experience. I'll start off by saying that I had never mountain biked and only canoed once in my life prior to this weekend. So I was very nervous and had no idea what to expect. A friend asked me three days prior if I would fill in for her teammate who couldn't make the race so needless to say, no time to train.

This was a short race with minimum navigation skills necessary. When you get there in the morning they hand you a couple maps and some instructions. The instructions inform you that there is a bike-run-bike leg and a canoe leg. Throughout the course there are checkpoints you have to find, some on the map some not. The ones not marked have navigation hints to find them. There are also special tests that must be completed.

So the race starts. We all run through a quick obstacle course, over and under some ropes, throw your gear over a rope up in the air and then wade across a stream that comes up to your chest (yes, you are soaking wet first thing, quick dry socks would have been nice). Then you are off on whatever leg you choose to do first. We chose to do a special test first and knock it out. They toss you an innertube and one of the team members has go across the river to a checkpoint and back. Thanks to Coach Becca and her kicking drills I rocked this.

Then run to transition area one and on to the bike. We spent about 45 minutes biking through the woods. It wasn't too bad. I only fell once when I hit the sand on a sharp turn. For the most part I enjoyed my first mountain biking experience (other than the fact the bike I borrowed didn't quite fit me and my lower back was aching). We arrived at the second transition area, dumped our bikes and were presented with the second special test. There were poster boards on the ground with a dart board of sorts drawn on them. You had to toss candy corn until you scored 50 points. This was fun and a nice little break from the grueling biking. Once we scored our 50 points it was off to the trail run. My legs were already so tired it was more of a shuffle through the woods than a run. The trail was only marked by intermittent blue blazes on trees so you had to be very aware of where you were going. We caught up to a couple teams that got lost and had to retrace their steps to get back on the trail. There was one checkpoint in the woods, not marked on the map. Our only instructions were to find the brown sign, turn 262 degrees and go 70 meters into the woods. We got lucky on this one because as we came upon the sign we heard another team crashing through the woods yelling they had found the checkpoint. So we followed their voices and found the checkpoint quickly.

Back to transition area two, pick up our bikes and get back on the trail. The second leg of the bike was an easy paved trail with two checkpoints to find. We found them pretty easily and made it back to transition area one. Then we grabbed our canoe and started paddling; once we got the steering thing down we got into a good groove. The river looked like alligator heaven but we made it to the checkpoint and back without seeing any wildlife. We pulled our canoe out of the water and crossed the finish line to discover that we were the first female team to finish! It took us exactly 3.5 hours and I have no idea what the distances were. It was utterly exhausting and my legs are covered with scratches and bruises, but I think I'm now hooked on adventure racing. I can't wait for the next one.

That sounds like a fun time. Do you have to have a team to run the event?

You can do the event solo...although it was nice to have someone to help with reasoning out where to find the checkpoints with, not to mention having someone else out there in the woods with you. Several teams got seriously lost.

AU Tiger wrote:You can do the event solo...although it was nice to have someone to help with reasoning out where to find the checkpoints with, not to mention having someone else out there in the woods with you. Several teams got seriously lost.

I'd just tail you guys:)

That sounds so freaking cool!!!! I wanna do one now