Monday, October 22, 2007

The Howl at the Moon 18-Hr AR (2007)

Last year we had to pull out of race when Ralph's bike's crank arm split into two.

This year, same location, North Florida (Suwannee River State Park).

42 registered teams (about half from Georgia).

My team: Nature Calls (Jim & Lori Gabbert, Jason, me)

Started with a swim across Suwannee River, carrying our packs.  Completely submerged in river.  Wet, cold, but fun.

Got lost on the way to 1st CP.  Lost about 45 minutes looking.

Found other CP's fast.  At CP3 we were in 22nd place.

Ran fast and hard and between CP3 and CP7, we passed tons of teams.  Arrived at paddle TA in 4th place.

Paddle was nice.  At night in the Suwannee River.  Easy paddle, and easy to find CP's.  Finished paddle in about 4 hours.  Got passed by 4 teams in paddle.  So finished paddle in 7th place.

Then it was biking time.  Bike started out great.  Fast and easy.  Until CP10.  Got really lost looking for CP10 as there were tons of trails and roads that were not on the map.  Lost over an hour before we finally found it.  Rest of CP's were easy.

Then we rode to finish.  Finished in about 14-hours.  Won 2nd-place in the elite 4-person coed division.  Not sure about overall.  I think 8th or so.  We won awards and prizes, but were too tired to wait around for awards ceremony, so we left to come back home.  =)

Great race with great and awesome teammates!!!  As I've said before, Jim, Lori and Jason are amazing to race with.  We are good and very competitive, but we also have a blast.  I bet we probably have more fun and laughs than any other team out there.  Love you guys!

Next up, The Turkey Burn 12-Hour AR with Jason, Brent, and Nikki.  Should be a blast!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment