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.