click

After the local Boy Scouts presented flags during the national anthem, over 300 competitors let out an adrenaline-fueled yell that echoed across the lake. As the starting gun went off, 170 three-member teams crossed the starting line on the upper banks of the lake, including top co-ed teams: Dallas race winners Team Red Bull; Atlanta winners Team Balance Bar; and, Team Hi-Tec, which for the first time this season was racing without Karen Lundgren, who sustained a stress fracture in her tibia during training.

"At the end of the run, each team found itself faced with the difficult "special" test of carrying 300-pound railroad ties through three feet of water along the lake's edge and then having to circle back through the mud and moss-covered banks of Lake Hagg...."

The teams' first challenge was a seven-mile run over the park's trails and through dry, rocky streambeds. At the end of the run, each team found itself faced with the difficult "special" test of carrying 300-pound railroad ties through three feet of water along the lake's edge and then having to circle back through the mud and moss-covered banks of Lake Hagg. This task became the first hurtle on a long list of mud-and-water-ridden obstacles the racers would be required to overcome throughout the day.

As the racers were running the first leg of the race, organizers quickly moved the kayaks that had been piled high next to the start gate, 150 feet out into Hagg Lake. This is part of what makes this an adventure race. The teams never know what obstacles may lie ahead nor do they know how the course may change after the start of the race. As the teams ran from the railroad tie test back toward the starting line, many moans and gasps were heard as racers realized they would have to swim to the next stage and the kayaks.

click

Team Nature's Garden had an over five-minute lead heading into the kayak portion. With bright orange life jackets strewn around the racer's necks, the lake became a sea of orange bobbing athletes swimming to the mass of kayaks. The kayak route was a two-mile, roughly 50 minute, paddle, around the circumference of the lake and back to the shores for the orienteering challenge.

The orienteering course posed a problem for many of the teams. The special test is like an adult form of a treasure hunt where teams use maps and compasses to find three letters hidden throughout a given portion of the course. With adrenaline pumping, many members strayed outside of the orienteering boundaries which caused precious time to be lost. Ultimately, this cost Team Nature's Garden the win.

Once the teams found the three letters, it was on to the 14-mile mountain bike ride. Participants were interrupted though just five minutes into the ride by the next special test: commando lines. Set up by Tony Yanjro, famed '80s Survival of the Fittest champ, the rope course became the ultimate test of teamwork in which each team combined its athletic skills and smarts to carry itself through a web of ropes — without falling into, or touching, the imaginary moat below. It took teams anywhere from three to 10 minutes to pass over the ropes and over their fellow competitors, looking like a bunch of Tarzans and Janes swinging from one hanging rope to the next.

"And the muddy, boulder-ridden roads were only half the battle—there were bees—swarms of them...."

The mountain biking is what most competitors recall as the hardest part of the course. And the muddy, boulder-ridden roads were only half the battle — there were bees—swarms of them. The gnarly ride took racers around the edge of the lake and back to another special test: the bike raise. With less than a mile to go, the racers faced this insane test which required them to scale a cargo net and use a rope-and-pulley contraption to hoist their bikes over the Fishing Pier, only to then have to get back onto their bikes and face the final special test: The Wall.

Team Endeavor raced to The Wall first and as the harried team members hoisted themselves over, teammate Diana Mann fell, but the team was still able to cross the finish line intact at an amazing 4:08:26, marking the longest time and the first win for this Connecticut-based team.

"We were afraid that we did not have enough time in front of Team Hi-Tec; we were told that we only had three minutes in front of them," Endeavor member Tiger Mann said.

Four minutes later, at 4:12:15, Team Hi-Tec crossed over the line, adding another top-five finish to its already record-holding list. Team Red Bull finished third, with Team Running Wild in fourth and Team Fogdog in fifth. What about Team Nature's Garden? It finished eleventh which shows that in adventure racing, the lead does not always determine the winner, oftentimes it is a matter of consistency: a team must play the course without letting the course play them.

— Susan Overton, MountainZone.com Staff