SOAR 2005

 Just as last year The Specials Operations Adventure Race 2005 raised money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation which benefits the children of Green Berets and SEALS killed in action. The race was in the Highlands, NC area, but this year it was south and east of town which was the opposite of last year’s west and north of town. There were only one-person and two-person teams in this race. Cathy decided to pass on the race this year due to the extensive amount of mountain biking. Last year we spent 10 of 13 hours on the bike and this year was not going to be any different. Zach teamed up with Jeremy, our son-in-law, who also raced Blue Ridge with us. We were in the Masters Division since our combined age was over 80 years.

This was an unsupported race so we had to drop our bikes at the first TA the night before. We were only allowed to leave water bottles with the bikes, which meant we had to carry all our biking gear with us on the first trek. This made already heavy packs even heavier. The race started in the middle of Highlands at 7:30 am with a trek down Main Street to a gravel road to a trail that was not always easy to follow. If not for some engineer tape placed along the trail by the RD most teams would have gotten way off course. The last three miles were downhill all the way. We maintained a fast pace to finish that leg in an hour and a half. The first cut off was at CP6 at noon and we had to maintain a quick pace without getting lost to make the time cut.

After a quick transition to the bikes we were off to the rappel. CP 3 before the rappel and CP 4 after. We needed to be finished with the rappel by 10 am to meet our time line. We dropped the bikes and then had to climb an incredibly steep mountain to get to the rappel site. Although we had been assured by the Race Director that there would not be a wait at the rappel, there was. We waited 25 minutes before rappelling but were given 25 credit minutes toward our total race time. A fast rappel and a fast run down the mountain brought us back to our bikes. We were back on the main Forest Service Road when we went flying by a truck. We were already past the truck when we realized it was Cathy, Jenn, and Jackson driving to watch us rappel. Oops, too late. We didn’t have time to stop and talk. Another mile and a half down the road was our first turn. We watched in amazement as four teams in front of us kept going straight. It was a single track to CP5. After CP5 things started getting dicey as there were many trails not on the map and we had to find the right one to turn north. We missed the turn and ended up on a paved road. After looking at the map Zach found a road that would get us back on course with little loss of time. When we finally arrived at CP 6 it was a little after noon and the Race Director told us we would be the last teams allowed to complete the entire course.

This next section from CP 6 to CP 12 was an orienteering section. Both of us had a restless night’s sleep trying to figure out how we were going to complete the entire course by the 7 pm cutoff. We knew that we couldn’t finish in time so we decided to skip CPs 10 and 11. As it turned out it was a very good decision on our part because the trail to CP 10 was very difficult and no one could find CP 11. We biked uphill from CP 6 to CP 7 and on toward CP 8 until we had to drop our bikes and continue uphill on foot about another mile to find the CP. Fortunately, we met another team returning form the CP that told us where it was placed. It was way off from where it was supposed to be and if we hadn’t run into the other team we might still be looking for it. It was on the right trail, the Bartram Trail, but was at 500 feet lower elevation than it was by the map grid coordinates. After punching our passport we ran back downhill to the bikes to CP 9, then to CP 12 where we again met up with the Race Director and told him we were skipping CPs 10 and 11. He thought it a good idea as well.

It was 3 pm then and we had to be at the paddle by 6 pm. By this point Zach was towing Jeremy on the bike to help him maintain a faster pace. We had several miles up a steep Forest Service Road and then a turn onto a single track which took us near Glenn Falls. The single track trail was steep enough and we were tired and hot enough that we just hiked-a-bike the entire trail until we arrives at the next FS road. From there it was about two miles to the lake and the start of the paddle. Although the bike section was difficult we made it to the lake in an hour.

We dropped our bikes, picked up our canoe and put it in the water. The paddle was on Lake Sequoyah, which is a relatively small lake. As we put our boat in the water one of our fellow TrailBlazers was exiting and told us that the four CPs were not in the correct location according to the map. The volunteers at the CP told us the fastest paddle at that point was one hour and twelve minutes. We found the four CPs with no problem and completed the paddle in 54 minutes. From there it was a three-mile bike to the finish line. We crossed the finish line at about 4:30 pm. Jenn and Cathy missed us crossing the finish line not expecting us to finish for another hour and a half according to Zach’s calculations from the night before.

From there we took showers and headed to the post race dinner, which was excellent, and the awards presentation which never took place because they were having difficulty finalizing the results. We finished 7th overall and 2nd in our division (Masters) in 11 hours, 27 minutes, and 43 seconds with the penalties for the two missed CPs.