Getting Lazy

I realize that I am not just getting lazy at posting on the tmmar blog but I am also getting lazy at the training which inspires my postings.

I am not one for new year resolutions. Instead, I just need to sign up for an event to get motivated. Luckily, the training is still there...just not as aggressive as it should be. This is about the same time that we (Peter, Clark and I) started discussing the options for what started out as Team Aleing Loons and ended with Team Midwest Mountaineering.

As for sponsorships in 2009.....we'll have to wait and see. Midwest is and has been very good to us and we are happy to wear their names across our chests. Hopefully they feel the same.

I think it is about time to find our first event for 2009 so I can kick my training in to a higher gear.

For now, it is back to work.

SoundBody

I told my……I guess I use to call him my chiropractor but now he has become more of my body mechanic…..that I would post a message on the incredible work he does at maintaining my body from a health, physical, alignment, flexibility and well……soundness. His name is Dr. Harrison and he is the owner/founder of SoundBody. Now SoundBody has only been up and running for a month but he has been treating me with all the elements of this new clinic for the last few years.

SoundBody is more than a chiropractic office and he is more than a ‘neck cracker’. In fact he specifically moved away from the term chiropractic because the services he provide are much more holistic. Being an outdoor junkie, adventure racer, fire fighter and anything else that involves physical or active work his services have helped keep me in the game. From simple weekly visits that help keep the lower back and neck in alignment to the more acute trigger point massages (that can literally bring tears to my eyes but feel oh so good after the fact) help keep my body ready for the next adventure.

Now that his practice has opened up and expanded to multiple treatment rooms and two massage therapists I can honestly say I have never felt better. For anyone regularly runs, rides, swims, races, climbs, ski’s or anything else active I would highly recommend finding a clinic that offer this level of service.

Stretching
Alignment
Acupuncture
Trigger Point Massage
Full body Massage

Race Overview

Okay....I lied below. I have no idea if TMMAR is 'still going strong' but I am going to assume they are still going strong. I know they made it through CP 8. Here is a recap of the race (still going on) as provided by USARA:


Course Description Friday 11:07 PM
As requested by a race follower in Philadelphia (some may know him as Dr. Evil), here is a brief overview of the race:
The teams began with a quick two-mile prologue before setting off on the water for a 15-mile paddle leg. All teams were in canoes; third seats were expressly prohibited (including beach balls).

Following the paddle, teams trekked from checkpoint 3 to 4, where they picked up their bikes and headed on an extended mountain bike leg, grabbing checkpoints 5, 6, and 7 before reaching checkpoint 8 and the first major orienteering section.

Racers dropped their bikes at checkpoint 8 and embarked on a seven-mile foot loop, where they could get checkpoints 9, 10, 11, and 12 in any order. Checkpoint 13 was located mere feet from checkpoint 8, and after they punched in there, they picked up their bikes again for a short ride to checkpoint 14.

Teams followed another orienteering loop, estimated at 8 miles, to checkpoints 15-17 (again, in whatever order they chose). At 18, they picked up their bikes and headed off on their final leg, a bike-o section whereby teams could get 19-23 in any order, then 24, then 25-28 in any order, and finally 29 before coasting into the finish at the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Center on Main Street in downtown Blue Ridge.

Because the race was a ROGAINE format, several checkpoints were optional and a number of teams elected to short-course themselves after checkpoint 13, biking directly back to the finish. It's unclear to us at race central whether this will result in a DNF or an official finish with fewer points.

USARA Nationals

Okay.....I am feeling a bit like a couch a potato this evening.....primarily because I am sitting on my couch watching a movie with my kids while my team is out competing at Nationals. Don't get me wrong....I am enjoying hanging with my kids but not racing in nearly two months is wearing thin.
Here is a video from this morning's race start.....more to come

MNOC Rogain (August)....by Peter Wentzel

One of the items I continually struggle with as an orienteer/navigator for AR is route selection. It varies between; am I picking an efficient route, is this a route that has a higher probability of success, why did other competitors make those choices…surely I must be doing this wrong. I think that is the main reason I enjoy AR and orienteering, it is a live chess board where you make a move, think, check, move, and finally get a measureable result. The game lives on in your head for days.

August is a slow month for Minnesota AR, the perfect time for MNOC to hold its annual ROGAINE. A free for all point grab with no route…which means more decisions. This year’s ROGAINE was held at Jay Cooke State Park, just south of Duluth, a rugged tract bisected by the St. Louis River. My teammate, William Eddy, and I departed the Twin Cities early. Plenty of time to get organized, packed and fitted out for the trail. Two coffee stops and a restroom break later, and we are pushing it to get there by the start. We arrive with time to register, change, hastily throw our gear together and take two breaths before it’s time to go. A glance at the map gives me reason to pause. The start is in the center of the map, just like my first ROGAINE in 2007, but the river, with only two approved crossing points, splits the course into 6 points to the North, and 15 to the South. Additionally, there are three northern and four southern points that are placed at the very eastern periphery, a long distance from the start which is collocated with the eastern most river crossing. Looking closer at the eastern points, the contour lines look like a thumb print. Big hills and valleys in that direction. It was a distance runners course, or nightmare, depending on how you were feeling that morning. Do you go long and save some close points for picking up at the end if time allows, or do you grab the close points and see if you have enough in the tank to make a decision mid course. William and I decide on the latter.

The countdown to start begins and we concur that we should start north, work in a loop to the West, cross the river at the western bridge and work our way back east, zigzagging between points. I’ve got the map, William has the passport and clue sheet. I am not a big fan of following competitors to points, so we push out hard to get in front of the others who made the same decision to pursue CP3 first. We head east via the trail and find our attack point. I give William a direction; he heads in to the ferns with me close on his tail. Fifteen feet in I take a log to the shin and let loose with a colorful announcement of our location. We are ahead of the pack, but I think I will be limping/bleeding the remainder of the event. We find our first three CPs with no real problems. The park has some great terrain and elevation changes that make things a little easier to orient. We hit the road and head off to the bridge. It is still fairly early in the morning, 9:30 or so, and the heat is already pouring on. Running on the asphalt is not enjoyable. We cross the river, find our trail, and are back on the hunt. Nice distinctive ridges make great handrails and we quickly find our next point. We head to the nearby railroad track and start enjoying a snack. Two minutes later and I realize that I didn’t give William a distance to pace, and I didn’t start counting. Like I said, lots of terrain features to guide from…. Hmmm that ridge looks like it could be this one, or this one, or maybe this one. A quick jog 200 meters in each direction and I think I know where we are at. The next CP has a nice catching feature, so we should be OK. Turns out that we were correct and we quickly grab our 5th point about 90 minutes in to the course. Leaving the point behind us, we travel 150 yards and William stops me. He doesn’t have the passport! How do you backtrack through a field of ferns? We try, but it is impossible. So, we vet the course. We found point 21 three times. I can confidently state that it is in the correct location! However, we still have no passport. Today’s packs are really nice. They are light, comfortable, and have a lot of features like sleeves for water bladders, and lots of pockets…. Now we both feel a little sheepish. William for placing the passport in a “different” pocket, and me for not asking him if he was sure he put it in the correct pocket. Oh well, 15 minutes out of the 6 hour event isn’t too bad….

We push through another two points when I make my next small blunder. I broke Rule #1, don’t be a follower. We come to a ridge, I want to go North, where my gut tells me the point is located, but another team is coming from the South. There are no other points further south than this, but these are good orienteer’s. I head south and waste 5 minutes looking for a non-existent point. So we go North, quickly find the point and continue our journey until it is decision time. (The good orienteers admitted later they were a bit off course…) There are 4 points far to the east, and 5 in the direction of the start point. Looking at the terrain, we aren’t sure we can get out that far and back, plus we are low on water. Problem solved. We head North with me again questioning our initial route selection. We head for point 16, a stream intersection. As we near our attack point, the trail turns to water, then back to trail, then back to water. Odd. We reach our attack point and head in. Chin high ferns and brush…..and water, everywhere. Nothing that resembles a field with two small streams is anywhere in sight. More like a marsh sprinkled with hidden holes and a few gaps in the brush. We slog through our pace count, taking several baths and continually announcing our location with colorful language. I am lost, everything looks the same, and the brush is high enough that I can’t get a bearing on the surrounding features. Then someone colorfully announces their location, and we catch a glimpse of orange in there direction. Now we have the control, but are faced with the same problems getting out. Who chose this place for a park anyway… We emerge on our trail and find ourselves among competitors for the first time since the start. I don’t like that so we take off up the nearest hill and knock off the next three points before meandering to the water drop. We have 90 minutes remaining, one more close point, and then back to the start. We find the control, then back track, pick up the trash at the watering station and head to the bridge. What are we going to do? 65 minutes to go and nothing reasonably close. We stop on the bridge to enjoy the view. This is why they located the park here…. We head back to the start to check in. 15 out of 21 points, I guess that will have to do. It doesn’t seem right.

Jerritt confirms that it isn’t right…. We should try a little harder. I take some measurements and see that the closest control is a 4.5 mile loop with a lot of hills. We can do an 8k with some bushwhacking and control hunting in sixty minutes, can’t we??? We both know we are a bit goofy to try, but head out anyway. Long story short, we spent about 5 minutes longer than we should have looking for the control, but found it and stumbled back down the scorching asphalt, making it back with 90 seconds to spare. Sixteen controls and first place in the 2-person open category, a first time occurrence for us both. My legs are still bearing the bruises and scrapes, but it was well worth it.


Back to the issue of route selection; did we make the correct choices? It is really difficult to say. I think for our fitness level and ability, we made an initial choice that turned out to be correct. We maximized the number of points that we could collect and left everything out on the course. I don’t think that we could have collected an additional control if you eliminated our mistakes. Was that a factor in our placement? That is the beauty of orienteering; you never know what sort of difficulties the other teams have, or just how lucky you are. The only way to get resolution on that question is to compete again.

My thanks to the organizers for putting on another great MNOC event.

Team MM BBQ

Last night was the first time TMMAR got together in a non-training environment. In fact, it was the first time that many of the individuals who raced with TMMAR this year were able to meet one another.

Last night was a good get together and an opportunity to wish the team good luck at nationals next week. As busy as I am right now with work, consulting, fire training and family I really wish we had set up a second team. Oh well...it gives us something to look forward to next season. We did start talking about a few races next spring and summer....will we do a multi-day race?

I need to get profiles on the rest of the team and those who attended last night:
Pete, Clark and ?????????? (I am the worst at remembering names) Good Luck at Nationals.

And those of us who will be cheering from our computers:

Alan (who filled in for me at Wild AR 24)
Jessie (hope the leg gets better for next year)
William (Finish that drywall)
Jen (Happy early birthday)

Missing in action last night was:
Nicole (Tri)
Meghan....(where are you?)

Does the season ever end?

Adventure racing is one sport that I believe is continuous year round. The amount of training and effort it takes to get in shape to be able to compete for 24 consecutive hours is a lot. At least if you want to be functional the day after a long race.

TMMAR started training last year in early January with some MNOC races. The team is going to Nationals in three weeks which marks the end of the season but that is when we need to start training for the next year. It does not make sense to take a couple of months off....

Good luck to Pete, Clark and our newest female racer (I don't even remember her name).

Mission Accomplished!

TMMAR set out the first year with one goal in mind. To reach the USARA Nationals by invitation. And to have fun. Make some good friends. Have some great Adventures. Get better with each race. Okay, so we had a few goals and I am proud to say we accomplished all of them.

Thanks to a strong performance from Peter, Clark and Paula (Ya-Mule) and the last minute substitute Alan, TMMAR finished the Wild AR 24hr to qualify for Nationals.

Watch for more....

USARA Rankings

TMMAR is ranked 18th in the USARA 2008 Overall Standings. Not bad for a first year team. The good news/bad news is we are definitely a team that has some great potential but in nearly every race we get hung up on one or two CP's that end up costing us valuable time and place.

Our other issue was maintaining a healthy consistent team. In each race this season we ran a different mix of individuals:
Wild Adventure 12HR included (Dave, Peter, Clark and Jessica)
Wild Adventure 6HR (Dave, Peter, Clark, Jessica) and (William, Nicole R)
MNOC 8 HR (Dave, William, Peter and Jessica)
Thunder Rolls 24HR (Peter, William and Nicole) and (Dave and Clark)
Wild Adventure 24HR (Peter, Clark, Paula) and (William and ??)

Between Injury's and schedules it was difficult to field a consistent team but the group of individuals are exceptionally strong.

Race Schedule Schedule and Results

2010

Jan 16-18, Purdue Outing Club Adventure Race (POCAR):  48 hour: 2^nd place
May 8, Wild Spring Thaw 12 hour:  6^th place
May 20-23, Fat Otter Raid, Black River Falls, WI:  72 hour:  2^nd place 4 person elite
June 19-20, Planet Adventure Old School 36 hour, Paoli, IN (Team MAAR):  36 hour:   4^th place 4 person elite
July 10th, MNOC Adventure-O:  8 hour:  2^nd place 4 person elite
July 17th, Stubborn Mule, Wausau, WI:  30 hour:  1^st place 3 person coed
August 28th, Thunder Rolls, Oregon IL:  24 hour:  4^th place 4 person elite
October 29th, CP Tracker National Championships:  28 hour:  22^nd place 4 person elite
Year end CP Tracker Ranking:  14th





2009

Jan 17-19, Purdue Outing Club Adventure Race (POCAR):  48 hour: 1^st place

April 18, MNOC AR Tuneup, Sand Dunes State Forest, MN: 1^st Place

May 9, Wild Adventure Spring 12 hour, Red Wing, MN:  3^rd Place

June 13, Wild Summer Sprint 6 hour, William O'Brien State Park, MN: 3^rd Place

June 27, Race for the Booty (14 Hour) Sheboygan Falls, WI: 2^nd Place (Coed 2/Overall)

July 11, MNOC Adventure O, Mankato, MN (6 Hour): 4^th Place

Aug 8, Sweatty Otter (24 hour), New Fane, WI: 1^st Place (Coed 2) 1st Place (Coed 3)

2008
April 20 (Sunday): MNOC AR-Tune Up, Afton, MN (4-6 Hour) : 2nd Place Finish 3:46 Minutes
May 10 (Saturday): Wild Adventures, Red Wing, MN (12 Hour): 4th Place Finish 12:27
June 14 (Saturday): Wild Adventures, Hudson, WI (6 Hour) 2nd Place (2-person); 4th Place (4-person)
July 12 (Saturday): MNOC Adventure "O", TBD (6-8 Hour) 2nd Place 7:01
September 9-10, Thunder Rolls (24hr) Illinois City, IL 1st Place (2-man); 6th Place (3-person)
September 19,20 (Friday/Saturday): Wild Adventures, Biwabic, MN (24 Hour): 4th Place 4-person
November 5-6:  USARA Championships, Blue Ridge, GA (30 Hour):  20th Place

Wild 24---Counting Down

What a difference a few days can make. This week TMMAR has been recovering physically from last weeks 24hr race. All in all not too bad:


Sore Muscles
Intense tendinitis
Few Scrapes and bruises
Chaffing

Not bad considering the final tally came in and we traveled (about):

6 miles in a blow up raft
12+ miles in a canoe
24+ miles running/orienteering
45 miles on mountain bikes


Now we prepare for Biwabic. The Wild Adventure 24hr race. This races looks a like a combination of Ya-Mule joining TMMAR for the four person and an 'unknown' joining William for the 2-person mixed.


Should be a great race. Start time: 3pm on Friday. Finish....tbd.

Desmodium cuspidatum

I think this is what the hell is attached to every article of clothing from this weekends race.

Desmodium cuspidatum

Stick-tights or beggar's-ticks (Desmodium cuspidatum) produces slender legume fruits that break into small, one-seeded joints covered with tiny barbed hairs. Technically, this special kind of legume fruit is called a loment. The individual joints are so flat that they are exceedingly difficult to remove from your socks. Like little flat ticks, you must individually pull off each one. This can be exasperating when your socks are covered with them. Several species of this remarkable hitchhiking herb are native to the midwestern and eastern United States.

How the hell to do you remove them?

23.29 46 0 5

Those were the final numbers for the Thunder Rolls 24 Hour Race this past weekend. A Team of 5 us (3 person coed + 2 person open) captured 46 CP’s with no "0" misses (errors) in 23 hours and 29 minutes.

We don’t have final standings yet but we believe the 3 person team took 6th and the 2 person team won that division.

A huge “THANK YOU” to Megan C who graciously decided to join the team with a little less than a day’s notice. Not only did Megan join the team she was a rock star on the course (way to go “Cheeks Too”).

Buzz Kill phrase for the race “Take an Azimuth” which basically meant did not find the CP where we originally thought it should be so we needed to back track, reassess and attack from a different point. Effective but none the less it meant we wasted time.

The course was solid and well planned. Quick Summary:
· Midnight rolling start
· 5 mile downhill sprint to TA/CP1
· Inflate rafts and out for 3CP’s
· Back to TA and hit the woods orienteering
· Back to TA and on to Canoes
· Stop at remote TA and Orienteer
· Tyrolean Traverse
· Back to remote TA (awesome baked beans)
· Canoe for a few more CP’s than back to the base TA
· Pick up mountain bikes and head out for 40 miles of gravel road riding
· Remote drop for the last 3 CP’s. Hills, Downed Trees, Creek beds, TOUGH!
· Pick up Bikes for a 6 miles sprint/race to the finish.
· Pizza, Cold Fat Tire Beer and a chance to kick back



I’ll post more later. Time to get back to the day job!

48 hours and counting……

Finally. The Thunder Rolls 24HR race begins at midnight on Friday. This is going to be a great race but we have one significant problem…..our female (Jess) ended up tearing a calf muscle last week and is out of commission. So this week has been spent calling, posting and basically begging female athletes across the Midwest to join our team……yeah you can imagine the luck we have been getting “excuse me, you have run a few marathons and/or tri’s right? What do you say about competing in this Adventure Race? Well, it starts at midnight (keep in mind we have to drive 6 hours to get there), you’ll be running with four strange (I do mean strange) guys for nearly 24 straight hours, you can expect mountain biking, running (through dense woods with poison ivy and other stinging stuff), canoeing, some Tyrolean traverses, and some swamp crossing/swimming. Oh yeah, we also want to finish in the top three.

Needless to say it looks like we are going with four pairs of X and Y chromosomes (no female).

Should be a great race.

Nocturnal Training

I just tested my new bike light and headlamp on an night time ride……incredible. Riding at night brings a whole new perspective. From a tunnel vision like blackness only being broken by an intense hallow beam to the damp smells of the trails and frequent glowing eyes of deer off in a field. I am hooked. This is a great way to ride. No one else on the trail. Stars overhead. And oh yeah….don’t forget the clear glasses……millions of bugs seem to be attracted to the headlamp. And at 20MPH your eyes don’t stand a chance.

TMMAR Takes 1st at MNOC

TMMAR takes first place at MNOC's ROGAINE (Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance) event last weekend. Peter and William competed in the two person male division.

Training on the Road

I am in Lake Forest California this week on business which makes it tough on training. If I am lucky i can get a one or two evening runs in during the week. I typically stay to the streets but this time I wanted to venture out and see if I could take advantage of the local hills/mountains. I was directed to a neighboring park where I ran into a ranger who blocked my access.....because there was a rumor of Mountain Lions being seen.

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=283503

Check out this video of the dude who decided it might be fun to pet the 'kittens'. I don't think this is the same interview as I saw on the news last night but this guy thinks he is part "Cat" because he is a Leo. Something tells me he might have smoked a little too much herb in his life.

Anyway, thanks to "Ralph", a local runner who introduced me to another trail that provided some good, safe running.

Black Diamond Headlight

Okay. This is the first of many future posts on product reviews. I recently purchased the Black Diamond Icon Headlamp.

A single 3-watt bulb and four 0.5-watt LEDs that runs on 3 AAA batteries. It also has a NRG
rechargeable battery kit, sold separately for $30.

I have not used it in a race but I did go chasing my Vizsla at 2am and this baby stopped him like a deer in headlights (literally). He had no idea I was behind that shining beacon. For the price (About $85 with the rechargeable kit) I think it will work fine. (BTW....I bought mine at Midwest Mountaineering....so should you!)

The only hassle about Black Diamond lights it their 'half button' technology which makes slightly push the button to switch levels. I would much prefer to just mash the button four times and cycle through each mode vs. trying to be soft and delicate.

What have you done this week?

Simple question? Let's see, I have logged a few training runs, Clark been eating some bon bon's, Peter is pedaling his way across Iowa logging 500+ miles and William just summited Mt. Rainier.

MNOC 8HR Race July 12

MNOC did another great job at setting up an extremely challenging and fun course. This 8 hour raced proved to be that and more with the majority of teams finishing at the 8hr mark. The setting was North of Bloomer WI in a very remote section of the Chippewa Falls National Forest. This course provided everything from deep woods with more deer flies then anyone expected, single track riding (that is being modest as there some sections that were just overgrown animal trails loaded with stumps, rocks and fallen trees), swimming to reach CP14
, equal parts of portaging and kayaking and some deep bog and swamp trekking. All of this combined with a beautiful day made this one of the best races!

This was the TMMAR first race without Cheeks (aka. Clark Flowers) but we had a solid replacement with William Eddy who backed up a nearly flawless orienteering by Peter.

The race had a few spills. I took header over the bars trying to bunny hop a log and Peter did a face plant after flipping over his handle bars. Jessica provided a little anxiety early in the race with a broken chain that proved to not have an significant impact in the race.
Another pitfall was the miscalculation of the race time and water. Once again most of us were running on a few ounces to get us through the last hour or so. Never again! At a minimum I will always carry two extra bottle so of Vitamin Water as insurance….calories and electrolytes!

Top spots went to Wedali (Congrats). TMMAR took second. And I think Speed Kills took third.

Results should be posted at MNOC soon

Welcome to TMMAR

Meet our newest member of TMMAR: William Eddy

Minneapolis Tri-Loppet

Okay, this was not part of TMMAR or even an adventure race but it was fun as hell. The Mpls Tri-Loppet is an 8K kayak, 5k rund and 11k mountain bike race in Mpls. Saturday's race was had 350+ competitors and turned out to be a mud-bath on the mountain bike part. I was very impressed with the level of competition in the race....some fast dudes (and dud-ets).
My one take-away....if you are going to compete solo you need a fast(er) kayak. the 75lb poly-plastic kayak was good but stroke for stroke was much slower then a narrower and lighter kayak.

Primal Quest 2008

One of the biggest races of the year is over half-way done and the legendary Team Nike is out in front. Primal Quest
What an addicting sport. This year SPOT GPS allows you to track each team individually and provides real time updates on the race. How cool!

back to work.....

First and Third!----Great Race.

Whoops. I mean second a fourth. Team Midwest Mountaineering and Team Midwest Mountaineering Too actually ran an great race. We competed together as a six person team and had a near flawless day on navigation. One minor intersection we copied the wrong sign down which resulted in a fifteen minute penalty that dropped us from the 1st (Two Person Coed) and 3rd Four Person Coed) to 2nd and 4th.

Enough of that......I am over it and unlike Red Wing it only took me a half day vs. a few weeks.



This was a great race. Excellent job to William and Nicole who joined the TMMAR group this week and Nicole’s first ever AR race!

Race Overview:
-Wet Start to Kayak
-Orienteer
-Kayak
-Orienteer
-Cycle
-Mystery Challenge (Azimuth & Pace Counting)

3 hours 47 mintues with adjust time of 4 hours and 2 minutes.

Oh yeah.....a great find by William: FAT Squirrel

Introducing TMMAR Too

We have finally added a second team to the Team Midwest Mountaineering AR group. This two person team brings our core members up to six which is key for maintaining a healthy and competitive group.

This Saturday we'll be racing a two-person coed and four person coed teams. Our goal is to run as six but we'll have to see what the day brings. Weather forecast for Saturday should be interesting:

Race options

Without having to fly/drive across the country the best option for an additional USARA Qualifying race is the Sep 6 - Sep 7 Thunder Rolls Adventure Race - 24hr Illinois City, IL

The 6th annual "Thunder Rolls", 24 hour adventure race will follow the trails, waterways, and migration routes of Chief Black Hawk and the Sauk and Fox Indians of the 1800's. This traditional style, unsupported, expedition style race will involve canoeing, trail running, bushwhacking, coasteering, mountain biking, navigation and ropes. Teams of 3 will travel 100 miles through two states. Expect a great North Face Fleece top, racer gifts, and after race pizza. The race is a USARA Regional Qualifier and in the CheckPointZero National Series. The cost is still only $450 / team for the 24 hour race.

Redwing 12 Hour

What a few days can do for the mind (and body). Okay...I don't think anyone on the TMMAR would disagree that Saturday's race was a huge dissapointment with a 4th place finish. Each of us were pumped and ready to compete.



I won't go into the days details but we started off fairly strong and left the first TA in second place. Our major struggles took place on the second set of orienteering where spent three additional hours of CP hunting up and down the bluffs of RedWing. What should have taken 2 hours ended up taking nearly five. Those extra three hours depleted most of our water and food which led to a couple of us (yours truely) coming close to bonking.
After a quick pit-stop on the road to 'borrow' some water from a few hoses attached to the friendly residences of RW we were back on the path to finish.
Following a short single track, gear inspection we were off to the last leg of orienteering with a short traverse and 80 foot rapell and then back to HQ for the finish and post race BBQ.

Try It!

Update

Well the Aleing-Loons blog was turned off by the powers as it was labeled as a 'spam' or some potential threat. So as that is worked out I’ll post any updates to the TMMAR blog as they pretty much involve the same people right now.

100 Mile IRONMAN ride

Sunday was the Ironman bike ride. Five (Peter, Clark, Dave plus two others) of us road as a group which helped as we were able to switch off as the lead rider setting the pace while the others could draft behind. Bike time was about 5:50 minutes. We managed to stop at each rest way with mechanicals at the first the three stops.

This is the week we focus on Kayaking before the first race in 11 days.

April 20 MNOC AR Tune-Up

Solid first race for Team Midwest Mountaineering. Dave, Jessica, Peter and Clark ran a solid race with exceptional navigation. 75 individuals competed today.

MNOC AR Tune Up

Introduction to Adventure Racing

Join TMMAR on June 11 at 7:00pm

Introduction to Adventure Racing

Wednesday, June 11, 7:00pm
Have you ever watched Adventure Racing on TV and wanted to try it? Does the idea of mountain biking, kayaking, orienteering and climbing over 12, 24, 36 hours or even days sound interesting or insane....or both? Members of Team Midwest Mountaineering will explain the fundamentals of Adventure Racing. Learn the basics from what gear is required to training tips and where to find a team and/or race. Expedition Room, Midwest Mountaineering

Newest Sponsor

Team Midwest Mountaineering would like to welcome our newest sponsor Vitaminwater® from glacéau®.

Team Sponsor

Thanks to Midwest Mountaineering for taking the lead opportunity to sponsor our Adventure Racing team. Officially, Team Midwest Mountaineering - Adventure Racing will join the two other sponsored sports under Midwest Mountaineering including Team Whitewater and Team Kiting.
Midwest Mountaineering is located down near the University of MN campus’ West Bank at 303 Cedar Ave. They are known for offering the best possible advice, the best technical expertise and the best gear and clothing for outdoor adventurers. There “Ask us we’ve been there” is a fact.