Raging Russell Adventure Race 2003

This year’s Raging Russell was an overnight race about 70 miles long. As usual we didn’t know anything about the course until the start. There were three bike sections totaling about 45 miles, two bike sections totaling about 22 miles, and a short three mile paddle. The day time temperature was around 60 degrees and the overnight temperature was in the 30s. We had a new 50-Something teammate, Greg Chiarello, doing his first adventure race and Jeremy and Bryan returning as our support team. The race started at 3pm on Saturday and we had to be finished by noon on Sunday. There were a total of 26 checkpoints (CP) with four additional checkpoints during the paddling section.

The race started with an uphill trek to CP1 on top of Red Root Mountain. From there we trekked to the top of Chenocetah Mountain. Then it was down the mountain around Lake Russell and back around the lake to hit two more CPs. This took about three hours and brought us to our first transition and the start of the paddle.


It was dark by the time we started the paddle. Each of us was in an individual hard shell kayak and we had to stay close enough to keep from losing each other in the dark. There were four check points on the lake that could be visited in any sequence. We decided to hit the three CPs on the south side of the lake which were closer to each other and then go for the one on the north side of the lake. The CPs were relatively easy to find. The biggest problem was covering the distance. The longer we paddled the wetter and colder we got.

Fortunately, it only took us an hour and a half to finish the paddle. Then we had to carry the kayaks up a hill to a drop off which was a task in itself.


The next leg was on bike. We had to travel to five CPs before arriving at our next transition. Our navigator, Zach missed a turn to CP 6 and we had to double back to get on the right road. Many teams seemed to have a problem with CP 7 but we found it right away. Our biggest problem came at CP 9. Greg was riding a little ahead of us and Zach had the map. When we got to the CP we stopped but Greg kept going. After waiting for him, we decided to continue thinking we would run into him on his way back. No such luck, no Greg.


We arrived at the transition to the next hike. After waiting a short time for Greg to show, we set out to find the next five CPs. We had three hours before the first time cutoff and didn’t want to miss it. We ended up doing that leg with Team Bonk, the team that took second place to us at the AWAR, three weeks previously. At CP 14 Greg amazingly found us and rejoined the team. We arrived back at the transition with 45 minutes to spare.

After a quick food and drink refill it was off on the bikes again. This time we headed south and went up and down Farme and Kelly Mountains and over to Soapstone Mountain and then took a roundabout way to our next transition; arriving before the 8am cutoff. From there it was a trek to the top of Currahee Mountain where we had to pick-up a carabineer with our team number attached. After 20 minutes of fruitless searching Zach found all the carabineers hanging from Painter Rock, well disguised by all the paint. Then it was down the mountain.


At the bottom of the mountain we picked up our bikes and headed out on the last leg of the race back to the start. There were five more CPs on the way back which we had no problem finding them but we did have to ride over Red Root Mountain before arriving at the finish line at 1140am. Before we could officially finish, each of us had to shoot an arrow into a target. Greg made it on his first try, Zach on his third attempt, and Cathy kept trying and trying and trying. It wasn’t until our friend, Mike Dillon said “pretend its Zach’s face” that she finally hit the target.

We finished 14th in 20 hours and 31 minutes and within 30 minutes of 14 other teams finishing. It was a tough race and we are really proud of this finish.