BRMAR 2005

Our team was a little younger in total age than usual this race, since our son-in-law, Jeremy was racing with us in his first AR. He has been one of our support crew members for the past three years, so he was familiar with everything in AR. Our support crew for this race was Mark and Casey, two friends who volunteer with us at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception homeless shelter. Mark is also the husband of Zach’s bother, Paul’s boss, Lori, and Casey is Lori’s brother, Got that! Mark and Lori own a cabin in the Blue Ridge area and they graciously invited us to spend the night before the race at the cabin. Mark and Casey are getting ready to race in their first AR this summer.

 The weather for the race was absolutely perfect, unlike the race the week before which had six inches of snow and had to be stopped half-way through because of weather conditions. We had decided not to race in that one and were we glad we made that decision. The race started at the train depot in downtown Blue Ridge at 7:30am. All the teams boarded the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway for a 45 minute ride south to a drop off point. It was a nice ride in comfortable cars except for the teams in the last car which was open air. Burr! Were they cold!


After the short ride we exited the cars, had to solve a riddle and then it was a short run to the bikes for first leg of the race; an eight-mile bike on paved and dirt road from Cherry Log to Stanley Gap. Unlike most races we were not given the maps at the start of this one instead we received maps, directions, and CP coordinates that would take us only to the next Transition Area, so we had to plot and navigate on the run. At Stanley Gap we started a five-mile orienteering section with six checkpoints. We had to plot the coordinates on the map before taking off on the run but something was amiss. The coordinates were not matching up to map locations, so we headed out without exact checkpoint placements. It wasn’t a big problem since we were able to readily find the CPs, which for the most part were fairly close to a trail and as we ran into other teams we knew, we would exchange information on CP placements as well.


At the end of the orienteering loop we were back at Stanley Gap and off on the bikes again for a 10-mile ride to the Shallowford Bridge. This ride was on dirt and paved road with a lot of downhill, unlike the ride up to Stanley Gap, which was mostly uphill. For some reason this race does not allow towing on bikes and is the only race we know with such a rule. Bottom line, if Zach can’t tow Cathy, we move slower up hill. After we crossed the bridge it was a two-mile ride along the Toccoa River to our next stop. The team had to split, so Jeremy volunteered to do the two-mile trail run, one mile up and one mile down, while we pushed the bikes a mile down the road to meet up with him. What we didn’t know is that the race monitors would not let Jeremy go down the hill until he could name our bike brands; since he has been part of our support crew for so long it was a snap for him. Unfortunately, on the way down the hill he hurt his knee, how bad we didn’t know at the time.


After that short challenge it was on the bikes again for a 15-mile ride, mostly uphill on Forest Service roads to the rappel site. Only several miles into the ride we found out how much Jeremy hurt his knee when he was barely able to ride uphill due to the pain. He started walking most of the uphill, which slowed us down considerably; but what can you do; it’s part of the race and we just do the best we can. Unfortunately, his injury was slowing us down at a time Cathy was riding strong without a tow. We actually asked Jeremy several times if he needed to stop, but he wanted to continue, so we did. On the last hill leading up to the rappel site we road ahead of Jeremy to find out if we had missed the cutoff. Fortunately, it had been extended. The other good news was that for the first time that day we saw our support crew and were able to refill our pack bladders. We got into our harnesses and climbed the hill to the line waiting about 30 minutes to rappel. This gave Jeremy time to eat, drink and evaluate his condition. When we got closer to our time to rappel Jeremy climbed the hill to join us. It was a nice 100 foot rappel, definitely worth the wait.

After the rappel we made sure Jeremy was ok to continue and then we took off on an eight-mile orienteering section. The UTMs were off on this part of the course just as they had been off on the rest of the course. There were five CPs on the way to the lake. The first three were right off a trail or road. Then we had to find CP16, which it required bushwhacking to reach it. Since the UTMs were off, we were off and were looking in the wrong place. We looked with several other teams for CP and CP17, which you couldn’t find unless you found 16, but to no avail. Knowing the paddle cutoff was coming we decided to take the two-hour penalty and get the boat in the water.

The paddle section was five-miles long. We are not the greatest canoe paddlers but we passed about half a dozen other teams during the hour and a half paddle. The paddle was pretty straightforward and at the take out we met out support crew and transitioned to the bikes for a six-mile ride to near the finish line. Fortunately, this bike section was not as hilly as the other bike sections and Jeremy had been able to rest his knee while we were paddling, so he was able to get through this section ok. At the top of the hill before the finish line we dropped our bikes and had to run the last couple hundred yards to the finish line. But before we crossed the finish line we had to get over slippery mountain. Waiting at slippery mountain for us was Mark and Casey and Zach’s Uncle Leon and Aunt Faye. We arrived at slippery mountain about 7:30pm.

Zach had told Leon and Faye we would be finishing around 4 pm based on our finish times from previous years, so they had been waiting since 3 pm for us. We’re glad they got to see us. Anyway we did manage to slip ourselves over slippery mountain and cross the finish line almost 12 hours after we started. Out of the 87 teams that started the race 48 teams finished. We were the 46th. To top off the night Leon and Faye took us to dinner at the Victorian House. What a nice way to end a race day!