Raging Russell 2001

The race took place at Lake Russell Wildlife Management Area in north Georgia on 20 October. The course consisted of four legs, two running and two mountain biking, and three mystery events. For this race we went back to our Hi-tech teams; Zach, Cathy, and Zach II on one team and Jon, Kristin, and Mike on the other. We wouldn't see Jon and company until the end of the race except one time we passed each other on bikes and everyone was saying something that no one could understand.

 

 The first leg was seven miles of running up and down some hills and then around the shore of the lake. About half way through the run we came to the first mystery event. We had to tie a water balloon, without it breaking, around a line that was 9-10 feet in the air. Cathy went on Zach's and Z II's shoulders and was able to tie the balloon without it breaking, without her falling, and with no time penalties.

The second leg was mountain biking a gravel road the went uphill for two miles, downhill for a mile, turned around at a grave yard, and then went back the opposite way. Other then the difficulty of biking the hills this leg was uneventful except for the 2d mystery event at the grave yard. We had to solve a riddle involving names on gravestones or take a 10 minute penalty. The riddle was, "Some say it's an oddity, others not. Find the similarity between the mother and the tot." After we searched for several frustrating minutes, Cathy was able to find the right name on the tombstones and we biked on.

 Leg three was a three-mile running loop with one big uphill and the rest downhill or flat. Part of the run was along a stream with small waterfalls. At the end of this section we hit mystery event three. It was a short obstacle course where two of us were blindfolded, the other couldn't touch the ground, and all three of us had to stay in contact the entire time.

Cathy was piggyback on Zach with ZII trailing and Cathy had to give directions to both of us so we would step in the right places. We went over the barrier, up and down the steps, and were at the bar that we had to go under when Zach's head touched it and down the bar went. We were assessed a two-minute penalty.

The last leg of the race was the toughest, seven miles of mountain biking, part on single-track trail, part on gravel road, and part on paved road. The part on the single-track trail was the tough part. There were two big hill sections where we had to walk our bikes up; the first was about 1.5 miles long and the second close to a mile. Then there was a section that had numerous fallen down trees where we would ride a short distance, dismount, carry the bike over the tree, remount, ride a short distance, dismount, carry the bike over the tree, remount, ride a short distance, dismount, carry the bike over the tree, remount. Get the picture. Just when we thought we would never get there we arrived at the gravel road. From there it was an easy ride to the finish.

We are still waiting for the official results and finish place. Jon, Kristin, and Mike finished around 4 hours and 15 minutes and we finished around 4 hours and forty minutes.

The after race events were excellent with great food, door prizes, and contests. Zach won the prizes for the tire toss and inner tube changing contests and Zach and Cathy almost won the tire spoke placement contest. The picture describes it better than words.


This was an excellent race that was very well run and very well supported. It was the kind of race that we want to do again next year.