Tuesday, October 16, 2001
I know I know. It's nearly been a month since I posted. Somehow not having the site online yet makes it difficult to motivate myself to keep blog up-to-date, but I'll try harder in future! I'm also getting thoroughly involved in the redesign of the NYARA website so I feel like any free time should be spent doing that, rather than faffing around with laraland.
Still, a couple of pretty momentous events must be mentioned here - first the E-Fix in West Virginia which happened on 28/29/30 September, and second the Triad race on Long Island which happened on October 14 (can you believe it's mid-October already!!).
The E-Fix was amazing. I'll say right away that we didn't complete the course. We withdrew from the race at 7am on Sunday morning after failing to find checkpoint 7 by the cutoff time. We didn't see the point of completing the course without placement or finishing time - that's how entrenched we are in the spirit of do-or-die competition!! I'll explain more about the details of the race in my Adventure Racing section so for now, suffice it to say that a). you don't need drugs for some pretty vivid hallucinations, b). you don't need to be in a cinema to see people sliding down near-vertical earth banks to expected death, and c). the New River is bloody cold to swim across at 3.00am in September.
The Triad was better in a way, in that we won the 2-person division (coming in 3rd overall) and were the first co-ed team to (legitimately) cross the finish-line. We were as surprised by this as you might be, but it seems that we are fitter and faster and better at navigation than we tend to think we are. We completed the race in just under 5 1/2 hours and are proud to have run every step of the 10-mile hiking section, including the 2 miles on soft beach. The race was an excellent length (just long enough not to exhaust yourself completely but to be able to go at it for the whole length), and was on reasonably flat but interesting terrain around Sag Harbor, Long Island. It comprised a 6-mile sea-kayak (with 1-mile portage), 15-mile MTB (which turned into 20 miles when we had to go back to CP7 after having accidentally missed it the first time round!), and 10-mile run (with sea-swim). We won free entry into the next Triad (next Spring), and the ubiquitous T-shirt and tacky medal.
Also had a great time getting to know the NYARA guys as we stayed at Rich's house the night before with Yi Shun, Larry and Chris Ballou. They're a really excellent bunch of people and it's soooo refreshing to meet guys (who are as mad as we are) who aren't connected to Bluewave or Ernst & Young.
Seriously looking at doing the Beast of the East now (Rockies in June) ... are we completely MAD!????
Still, a couple of pretty momentous events must be mentioned here - first the E-Fix in West Virginia which happened on 28/29/30 September, and second the Triad race on Long Island which happened on October 14 (can you believe it's mid-October already!!).
The E-Fix was amazing. I'll say right away that we didn't complete the course. We withdrew from the race at 7am on Sunday morning after failing to find checkpoint 7 by the cutoff time. We didn't see the point of completing the course without placement or finishing time - that's how entrenched we are in the spirit of do-or-die competition!! I'll explain more about the details of the race in my Adventure Racing section so for now, suffice it to say that a). you don't need drugs for some pretty vivid hallucinations, b). you don't need to be in a cinema to see people sliding down near-vertical earth banks to expected death, and c). the New River is bloody cold to swim across at 3.00am in September.
The Triad was better in a way, in that we won the 2-person division (coming in 3rd overall) and were the first co-ed team to (legitimately) cross the finish-line. We were as surprised by this as you might be, but it seems that we are fitter and faster and better at navigation than we tend to think we are. We completed the race in just under 5 1/2 hours and are proud to have run every step of the 10-mile hiking section, including the 2 miles on soft beach. The race was an excellent length (just long enough not to exhaust yourself completely but to be able to go at it for the whole length), and was on reasonably flat but interesting terrain around Sag Harbor, Long Island. It comprised a 6-mile sea-kayak (with 1-mile portage), 15-mile MTB (which turned into 20 miles when we had to go back to CP7 after having accidentally missed it the first time round!), and 10-mile run (with sea-swim). We won free entry into the next Triad (next Spring), and the ubiquitous T-shirt and tacky medal.
Also had a great time getting to know the NYARA guys as we stayed at Rich's house the night before with Yi Shun, Larry and Chris Ballou. They're a really excellent bunch of people and it's soooo refreshing to meet guys (who are as mad as we are) who aren't connected to Bluewave or Ernst & Young.
Seriously looking at doing the Beast of the East now (Rockies in June) ... are we completely MAD!????
lara : 17:18
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