Discussion: Adidas Terrex Sting AR

Just checking in for the first time on the race to see how local Salomon - Running Free is doing. Interesting interface for the website but not quite sure I am following correctly. According to the leaderboard it's a tight battle between the top 5-6 spots with host team Adidas Terrex leading the way. Running Free is appears to be in 5th behind FGS Nectar, Team Mtn Hardwear and Team Endurance Life. Anyone know how the conditions have been so far?

BTW - there sure is alot of contour in the section that top teams are in now!?

It sure looks like beautiful terrain! I'm with you... the leaderboard is a little confusing. It shows Salomon/Running Free in 5th place but when you look at their times for CP12, they appear to be in 2nd place, which is also what the GPS tracking seems to show. Either way, it's a good start!

In the first trekking section the controls could be got in any order, so I think that explains the difference in time. If you look at the latest time of those 4 controls for Adidas Terrex, I think I recall that it was about 3 hours ahead of Team Salomon/RF.
If you click on the link for each section of the race, you can then find "Route Details" and click on the link to, " View extract from competitor route book (PDF)" I found that to be very helpful.

Thanks, Goose!

Shortly after I wrote that, they were moved up to 2nd on the leader board, and other teams were shuffled around so their times and rankings made sense too.

2nd - wow!! :)

(Although the tracker shows them 3rd on the paddle now.) Keep going!!

I think Relentless proves his point by actions not words telling Leanimal and Phatty to shut up and move...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChUvRUolvJ8

Love it!!

If I thought I was confused before, it's even worse now. Salomon - Running Free appear to be in 5th currently with 3 teams (Moxies, Adidas Terrex and Mtn Hardwear) in a small breakout pack.

Here are some pics of the whitewater section of the race.

http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?page...

If I'm understanding the website I believe there was a dark zone for the paddle and teams received a time credit based on when they finished the trek.

Based on the tracking it looks like they are in 3rd right now just behind Mountain Hardware.

I wouldn't have wanted to paddle that river in the dark.

This is probably one of the reasons there was a dark zone on part of the paddle. :)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=43292586674...

Crazy!?

According to the leaderboard, Salomon was one of the few teams to skip the optional "Falls of Bruar" CP (this race has the *best* checkpoint names), and they took a 240 minute penalty. This would be a strategic decision on their part but for now, it drops them to 13th on the leaderboard. I'm not sure how or if the penalties are accounted for on the leaderboard. Most teams have time credits listed beside their names as well so I suspect this is going to be confusing for awhile yet.

And now they're back in 4th with a visit to the Falls of Bruar after all. I guess it pays not to check on them too frequently!

Lol that's what I am finding!

I gave up and just check here! :-)

Uh oh... that's what we were *all* going to do!

It "appears" Salomon - Running Free are now in 4th place just slightly behind FGS Nectar. Adidas Terrex continues to lead followed by Mtn Hardwear. Some excellent photography from this race. Here are pics from Day #2 -

http://live.adidas-ar.com/photo/index.cfm?photoset...

Any idea what is being demonstrated here? :)

That's Pete demonstrating to Harper the proper wind up for the Sheaf Toss. Notice how the major muscle groups in the core and legs are being activated. Textbook form Phatty! Coach LD taught you well.

Harps and Leanimal looking good in the whitewater. http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/images/_12082104325...

Phatty and Relentless committing the cardinal sin of whitewater paddling! (That would be letting go of the paddle to grab the gunwale.)
http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/images/_12082104323...

I'm soooo jealous!

Phatty and Relentless... amatures :-)

Didn't *you* teach Phatty everything he knows about canoe paddling, Goose?

I'm pretty sure that's Phatty with Leanimal and Harps with Relentless. Leanimal is the only one with her paddle in the water though.

Wed morning - Team 14 Mountain Hardware have retired due to injury to Ant's leg during paddling.

Too bad about Mountain Hardware's injury, but it also means Salomon is in third!

per Harper on Aug 22: "Biggest concern are how bad the bugs are, called midges, hundreds biting around u at all time - makes fdf's desirable".

Haha, to think that FDF's are a welcome sight, they must be bad.

Looks like 10 have fallen back to 4th when time credits are applied... am I reading that right.

Still looks as though 2-4 could be a close battle depending on who has some gas (sleep) in the tank!

Hope S-RF can pull it out!!!

Yikes..those midges must be brutal if he can tolerate FDFs over them?! I saw a few pics with bug nets so must be because of them.

Closest I came to going crazy in a race was at an expedition race in Stirling in 2001 - can't even remember what the race was called now - the midges drove me nuts. Way worse than FDFs... you can't really see them, deet didn't work and they seemed to be able to get everywhere despite bug nets, long sleeves, etc.

And apparently those effects don't go away...
(I've seen Revy go crazy for no apparent reason in the middle of the night, mumbling something about "the midges")

S-RF has over come the time credit deficit and seems to be solid in third now.. I think..maybe.. 2nd within reach!

Only 8 of 36 teams remain on the full course. Salomon RF has visited Carn a Sagairt Mor and should be at Glas Moal soon. Go Canadians!!

I'm *loving* these CP names. They sound like places only hobbits would go.

S-RF's hold on third place isn't looking so solid this morning EST. At CP32 they were just 2 minutes ahead of Team Endurancelife, and that was before any time corrections. I'm hoping that the gap narrowed because S-RF were getting a little rest before a big push today.

Looks very close between 2nd through to 4th. Still enough race left to make a push for 2nd place. Looking at the maps used for the online tracking I'm wishing I was there navigating, such great detail.

> They sound like places only hobbits would go.

Team S-RF has just finished their 2nd breakfast and on their way to the Shire CP.

Only 6 out of 30 off team remain in full course! Looks like SRF has over an hr lead on 4th place team...

It would be awesome if they could find strength to move into a podium finish, but the time credits are tough to make up. Great that they are still going strong on the full course though! Very impressive!

I now see them just an hour behind 2nd place team..can they catch them? And there are only 5 teams left in the full course.. Am worried if there would be any team left in the full course!!!

Nice! They are kicking butt!!!

Looks like 1st or 2nd is not in sight for SRF, but 3rd is definitely there - i think they have at least a 2 hour lead on 4th place (and only 4 teams left on full course!). Almost there - blackout period for the paddlers right now.

Oh, yeah, baby! It looks like they are done! The tracking board is complete! Huge congrats to the amazing 4!

Congrats Salomon Running Free! Great accomplishment!

Yayyy!!!!! :)

Pete....ummm.....seems......ummmm.....really....sort of.....welll,......ummmm ......tired.....
.....yeah....

;)

Awesome work guys!
Just teasing you about seeming a bit tired at the finish. Of course you should be tired! Hardly any teams could even do what you did!

Well done!

Noticed on youtube - every one on the team has SI cardsÉÉ.

Some of the teams were sad to finish because they loved the course so much - I want to do it now!!!

Amazing! Congrats to Team Salomon Running Free. Look forward to hearing their race reports!

Thanks for all of the support, everyone! As was clearly evident on the video of us (or more likely the case, a VERY wasted looking me) crossing the finish line, completing the racecourse was a punishing challenge. The unrelenting climbing and wet conditions took a toll on our bodies and it took a pretty good effort to keep going at pace.

I cannot say enough about how well organized and professional Open Adventure is. I've been on that side of AR and know full well how difficult it is to execute to the level that they did. I hope the international AR community takes notice and supports their events in kind!

You superstars at the front always say that... :-)

Looked awesome. Also looks like you had ordinance survey maps. Probably the best maps you have race on in a AR too eh!

I think it was Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 for foot sections, 1:50,000 for bike section, all laminated, as that's the usual pattern for Open Adventure events; orienteering for orienteering sections. Not sure about canoeing maps as my housemate who took part has taken then all to work, before I've had a chance to look at them!

Hi all
I raced with Team Endurancelife in the race and we caught Team SRF during the 110km trek. We decided to try and outpace them from CP30 but were unable to do so with an injury to one of our team members. So we let them pass and wished them well. We bailed from the race after CP33 when our team mate's injury got too bad. :-(. I was looking forward to a good tussle with SRF too.

One team mate and I accompanied SRF on the Stage 9 paddle. They were very tired but plugging away to make sure that Moxie Racers didn't catch them.

Well done SRF. I was the guy that knew Bash (from APEX 2011) and lived in Montreal in 2009/2010.

Hi Gary! :)

Sorry guys - missed this thread during the event. Next time will get someone to monitor this forum to keep you informed.

As a race organiser its key to get the public facing part of the event working smoothly. We didn't shy from putting resources in to this - but even then I can see we still need to do better.

Arguably we got it wrong on the first night with the trek around the Tarmachan ridge / Ben Lawers. The leaderboard was set up for a linear event yet we allowed teams to visit the 4 controls on this stage (around 8 hrs) in any order and needless to say the leaderboard got in a bit of a tizz.. its sorted itself out once everyone was off the hill but i recognise it was confusing. Either we need to not allow free order in events to preserve the clarity for the viewing public or suspend leaderboard updates until the stage is cleared.

That said if anyone can show me another event that runs a leaderboard that is defined by tracker data where the information is accurate enough that it can trigger when a team has visted a control let me know - I'm keen to be inspired.

And yep all team members carry SI cards - this is used to verify tracker data. Leaderboard is provisional until this is confirmed. Many years ago in a pairs UK event, my wife and I were beaten by a mixed pair where the lady waited at the bottom of a hill whilst her partner legged it up the hill to get the card punched. The teams also carried a spare SI card in case one got lost or broken. It was in the sealed box with the tracker. I really wanted no excuses for not punching a control by all team members.

If you want a chuckle check out this post from one of the UK racers http://www.facebook.com/openadventure/posts/101520... may have a little bit of UK sarcasim in it but it is funny.

PS I'm at the World Champs in France for the Saturday at the end of the event.. if you have any questions about our events give us a shout.

No worries
James

Hi Bash. The SRF team members and I had a few discussions about you during the race. Small world!

My recovery has gone well with an 8 day vacation in Portugal. Lots of memories from the 2009 WARC came flooding back! However some of my other team mates have had to endure multi-day 12hr shifts! Lucky me.

Congrats to SRF again. We hope to see more overseas teams in the UK in the next few years.

It looks like spectacular terrain and an excellent event. I'm sure a few more of us will make the trip!

Hey Gary,

Great to race alongside you and so many of your countrymen. Spectacular terrain, competition and MAPS you got going there!

Thanks for the competition, sorry about your teammate having to pull out, would have been great to have you there racing for 3rd place as well. At least we got to paddle alongside you guys the last day... and let you pick the good lines for us ;)

Good luck with the rest of your races, hopefully we'll see you soon at another race in the upcoming years.

Finally got a race report up - http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_265...