Filed on 5/9/2008:
I was pleased to read the announcement of Franconia, NH, as the race location.
My wife and I spent a weekend there about eight years ago and really enjoyed the area.
The Untamed crew certainly won't have any difficulty getting in the 30000 feet of
elevation gain they mentioned. One of my teammates picked up a New Hampshire atlas and
has spent a little bit of time looking over the maps to get a feel for the area. It's quite the playground!
Last weekend, three of us raced in a training event put on by one of our GMARA members. It was a
shorter race (eight hours) but really helped us to work on our communication, transitions, and
generally get back into the race mindset. Barring one minor mistake (why is the lake north
of this ridge?!), we nailed the nav through the whole course and still felt strong at
the end. It was good to get on a course with Dan before the Untamed NE since I hadn't raced
with him before. As expected, he did great and will be a strong addition to our team.
Dan & I also got out for some great training last night. We spent several hours padding
on Lake Champlain, finishing right as it was getting dark and starting to rain reasonably hard.
We then hopped on our bikes and went for a fantastic rainy ride at night. I've always enjoyed
training in warm, rainy, weather and last night was no exception.
I'm also psyched to see so many more teams signing up to race, including several teams
that race in the events I help organize. The adventure racing community is made
up of so many great people, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces at
registration and on the course.
33 days to go! Woo-hoo!
Race hard. Navigate well. Have fun.
- Chris Yager, Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association,
http://www.GMARA.org, chris@gmara.org