Nationals this year was in Blue Ridge, GA.  A few weekends back about 80 teams converged for the 30-hr rogaine style course.  What resulted was rain, 35 degree temps, and a non-traditional race-course with a few arbitrarily placed checkpoints.  Mike K, Tamela, and myself had a tough race.  The weather really dampered our forward progress so I guess that means we are just high-maintenance?  We finished 19th out of the 80, nine places off our top-10 goal.  I'd give us a B-.  Either way, another awesome experience with some memories to boot.

Props to the New England teams who raced well (EMS, Dark Horse, & Berlin Bike.... am I forgetting anyone?).

I'll put some photos together soon, I know I've got one somewhere documenting David D's blown tire which, in an impressive McGiver maneuver, he was able to temporarily fix with a poland springs bottle until his team was able to steal a tire from another team.

Time to fix my sensitive body and get back on the weights in preparation for some snowshoe racing this winter.  I should probably wash my gear, too.

WP's Joe DeSena is known for doing some crazy things like running from NYC to Vermont in three days (300 miles, only stopping 3 times for 2hrs each).   If you think you have some crazy stories then prepare to be humbled by this guy.  There are few people in this world who have done 17 Ironmans in a 12-month period or who have completed the Badwater Ultramarathon (120ish miles), Vermont 100 Ultra (100 miles), and Ironman Lake Placid within a 10-day span. 

Joes latest vacation is to ride his bike from Vermont to California where he will then race the Furnace Creek 508 Cyling race, a 508 miles race with a 48 hour time limit and something around 35,000 feet of vertical (up Mt Washington 10ish times).  Joe's been riding his bike for 5 hours at a time on the indoor trainer while working at his desk over the last few weeks to prepare!

A blog of the adventure (written by a companion) is below.   
http://www.peak.com/cmitchell/blog/

Photos of the Trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maltomitch/RideAcrossAmerica#

Press release of the adventure:
http://peak.com/Wolf/blog/565/

Joe, have fun.

-Morris

Props to Jen shultis from Team EMS for putting together a local trail-race at Great Brook Farm in Carlisle, MA, this past Saturday.  EMS and montrail teamed up and opened this up to ladies only, so Mike K, David D, and I decided to go and show some support.  This came in the form of helping pre-race danzels in distress get situated as well as directing runners at confusing intersections.  Bonus was the ride and run we built into the day for training.

Many adventure racers consider paddling the boring and worthless part of racing.  Although I'm not a huge fan of pushing an inflatable tub for 12 hours against a headwind, I do find a lot of enjoyment out of some good kayaking.  For those of you looking for a little more excitement out of your forward stroke, consider getting into a surfski and hitting up some rough stuff.  Like mountain biking is to road cycling, surf-skiing requires more balance, power, and concentration.  Plus, it's damn fun to ride some surf and hit 15 mph as you cross your fingers you don't get tossed.  Bonus is that if you do on a surfski, you can remount and not have to bail out the boat. 

My birthday yielded me a new Think Evo in Fiberglass construction.  Super comfortable on my bumb and stable enough to enjoy some more of the rough stuff.  I was paddling a Huki S1X before and that was just too unstable to enjoy.

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to see a different side of adventure racing: Support.   I was still recovering from my ITB tendonitis that I developed 8 hours into the Untamed 60-hr race and we needed a good navigator for the Racing Ahead 24-hr race. Team WP recruited long-time racing enemy Steve Reif who has seen great success racing with Team SPTU.  Since I had to make my way through 15 miles of the Jay Marathon the next weekend in order to brainwash my future wife into marrying me I thought it would behoove me to not push my way through 24hours of racing.

Although not my first time supporting (I did solo at one of the AppExtreme races), a few thoughts:

• Where does 24 hours go? I thought I'd be able to work out, sleep, relax, get some sun, eat, and relax some more. But, somehow 24 hours came and went and all I got to do besides the obvious support crew duties was eat, sit in the sun, fall asleep reading 5 pages of a magazine, and sleep in the back of the subi wagon. It was nasty humid and the bugs were crazy so we had to turn the AC on while sleeping in the car or we would wake up sweating.
• Supporting is just not that exciting. (This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it). Maybe I pictured the various crews getting together to throw a rager but that never happened at this race.
• Someone ordered a pizza to be delivered to one of the TA's. It showed up being delivered by a guy on a tractor. Only in New Hampshire!