Discussion: Wish I was in Dixville

Why can't my race fund and vacation time be unlimited?

I am hurting big time in the soul right now wishing I was racing Untamed NE. I won't make that mistake next year!

Might as well get a thread started tracking the race... I can't get twitter at work so if anyone can relay any big news I'd appreciate it!

Any predictions?

I've done the race the past two years as well and thought I'd be okay with not doing it this year... I feel your pain as well!

I don't know all the U.S. teams, but I'd put money on EMS, ATP Salomon, Running Free or Wilderness Traverse...although not necessarily in that order!

Kinetic is another strong Canuck team, but I've got to show my love for my homeboys-n-girl with Racethephantom.com, I'm thinking they are a dark horse for top six.

Milton Basement did well last year and should again this year too.

Untamed's picks:

Teams to watch:

ATP/Salomon
Team Kinetic
NYARA
Berlin Bike
Running Free
Team Granite
Eastern Mountain Sports
Tecnu Extreme
Guats Adventure
Goals ARA
Skandia

I forgot about Kinetic and MBR...both also strong teams. Going to be a great race to watch from home!

The conservation project and o-relay really split them up!

I wonder what the conservation project was... must have been quite packed with the lead ~15 teams coming in within about a half hour of each other.

One of my teams' tracker isn't working, it's driving me nuts!

I'm curious about what this orienteering relay involved. Running Free would have been really strong in this section - all team members can navigate.

It was just that... one member at a time. Last year we couldn't complete all of our map work before the race, so while you're not in the relay some work could be done there.

I can't wait to hear about this! Where it really split up the pack I can only assume that there was some drama.

If some teams were smart they'd have worked together pairing non navigators with navigators... THAT would have been a slick move!

In case you are interested, many of the Canucks log on AP and post some excellent race reports. Check out:

getawaystix (captain of Guats Adventure)
Harps, Bash, Relentless & Kirikou (all of Running Free)
Phatty, PhattyJR, LaFemme (ATP Salomon)
Tiny (captain of Milton Basement Racers)
TRex and FB (of Spirit Canada)

I'm sure that I'm forgetting a few, but I'm sure some of these people will write some very thorough race reports! I wasn't able to follow the race all that closely over the weekend as I was without web access, so I am excited to hear about all about it!

Thanks for putting together a list! I only knew about half of them were racing.

Or you could just use AP's built in events feature

http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp?even...

There are twice as many people listed now than there were a couple of weeks ago!

If some teams were smart they'd have worked together pairing non navigators with navigators... THAT would have been a slick move!

I believe that was illegal, since I know a couple of teams who were planning to ask about it and they didn't end up doing it.

Very interesting!

It turned out to be a fun break during the race. I was afraid we'd be cold because we were standing around wet at night while our teammates ran their orienteering leg, but there were a couple of campfires going and lots of activity. At first, we all used our time wisely to purify water, eat, adjust our gear and so on. But there's only so much you can do when you've just got your boat and your pack, and we were all there for a couple of hours. Plenty of time to just relax and socialize with friends! We picked up our trail mail, and a fellow with a laptop was typing up our messages to the outside world.

In hindsight, the best strategy would have been to do the long,hard route with the best navigator first. There was enough overlap on courses, they could pass of info and note "discrepancies" that teammates could make use of.

Was the general concept received well? I remember hearing rumors of the idea last year and I loved it. One of our teams never heard the rumors so I don't think they prepared for such a thing.

Urthbuoy is right - that's how we did it.

I didn't hear anyone complaining about the O section. It was in the race information months in advance, so people knew to plan for it. It wasn't wilderness travel but it was a test of a key adventure racing skill.

I loved the O-relay concept and hope more races start using it. They made it so there were simpler legs for the "not as strong navigators". btw, I think UNE might be taking a break in 2011 and coming back in 2012.