Filed on 10/18/2007:
When I heard that a new sixty hour race was coming to the Northeast I
was immediately interested. Actually, ecstatic is a much better word. To
be fair, though, this is how I get when I hear of any new event. I
typically spend a few days rereading the event website, scouring for any
additional details, and deciding how intriguing that particular
competition sounds. Everything I read about the Untamed New England race
and the Untamed organization screamed "get off your duff and do this!"
During the months to come I'll be chronicling the events that lead up to
race day - which should prove very interesting. I have a new baby at
home in addition to my almost three year old son, so I will definitely
need to be flexible with my training schedule. Competing in an event
like this won't be worth much to me if I neglect my wife and children in
the process of getting prepared. However, I have also gone into a race
not being as prepared as I needed to be, and I have no desire to learn
that lesson again.
One of the first things I will be doing is looking to form my team for
the race. I'll also be starting to build my aerobic base back up to
where it should be. I'll be going over the race website in detail to
learn as much as I can, as early as I can. And I'll certainly be
pestering the race organizers with questions to try to pry out extra
scraps of information to help with my preparations.
I'll detail my progress on all these fronts in the months to come. I
hope that my sharing helps to convince some of you that may be on the
fence regarding a race of this length, or entering your first race in
general, to give this great sport a try. I competed in my first race in
2002 and I've never looked back.
Race hard. Navigate well. Have fun.
- Chris Yager, Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association,
http://www.GMARA.org, chris@gmara.org