Filed on 6/2/2008:
It's amazing to think that after months of preparation we're finally in the
last two weeks. I'm sure most teams will soon be wrapping up their hefty workouts and
changing over to some last minute fine tuning and gear packing. My team spent last night at
our local climbing gym, Petra Cliffs, practicing our ascending and rappelling. Once of my
teammates had not done an ascent before so it was key to get him some practice. Dan was
smart enough to bring his pack so we actually ascended with weight and had a little
timed competition. Jim supposedly eeked me out by half a second, but he was the one doing
the timings, so I'm somewhat skeptical.
We had a great time and then talked race strategy over some burgers and wings. For some
reason my wife was not too excited when I came home sweaty and smelling of onions and garlic,
but it was otherwise a very successful evening.
I thought you would all appreciate this quote from Grant, responding to a comment I made
about the elevation gain in the race: "You'll hardly notice the elevation gain as we've
tucked it into the most innocent of locations. It will be a gentle 30,000 feet.
30,000 feet of harmony from the organizers to the racers." I'm sure that when we're exhausted on
day two, fighting our way straight up to some remote peak through acres of stinging nettles,
we'll all have some 'harmony' that we'll want to give back to Grant.
On that note, make sure when you roll into a staffed checkpoint that you thank the volunteers for
being there. An event like this could not happen without their dedication and enthusiasm, and
a few words from the teams coming through really does help them to feel appreciated.
Best wishes to all the racers wrapping up their race prep. Stay healthy and I'll see you soon.
Race hard. Navigate well. Have fun.
- Chris Yager, Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association,
http://www.GMARA.org, chris@gmara.org