[rlord]

Amphibious Warrior Adventure Race

I wanted to write a few lines about the AR this past weekend down in Alabama. It's less htan three hours from Atlanta, just north of Auburn. It won't be spectacular because I'm working on STW stuff...or suppose to be.

After a short bike ride…to the bathroom, the race started! My partner for the weekend was to sit by and watch me run past it on four different occasions, unable to help me in any way. My failure to read the race description cost me my strongest event. I HATE To run! But I still had a great time.

We started with a water leg. We portaged down to the water and everyone went in the clockwise direction, except Ron Sanders. I had a sit-on-top, 11’ foot, pink kayak that was taking a lot of energy to keep speed with the three person canoes and the streamlined solo kayaks. There were only six points on the paddle leg, but the RD indicated that all points might not be manageable over the course of the race. I opted to bail on the paddle after three points and try to recover some ground on the land section…you’ll see that didn’t work too well as the majority of teams cleared the land section.

Anyway, I transitioned to the running portion…good jeep trail. Once out of the park I hit the first obstacles. I really missed this type of activity from when I was in the military. First came three eight foot walls, then a huge cargo net up the side of a steep ravine. Scaled that with no problem and got cocky at the top telling them that should be steeper, when they told me to carry the large sand filled ammo can to the top of the hill. Boy, that wasn’t fun after blitzing over the other obstacles. Gave me a chance to catch my breath! Continued the run and came across the next obstacle. Into a small pond with three foot thick mud in the bottom….into a red dirt, sand field where I had to low crawl under a lengthy section of rope…..with that damn ammo can again! Up and down numerous high mounds and thankfully into another pond of slimy water. And then guess what, no not another ammo can to carry up the next hill….a five gallon water can!

Finished the run and the last event was the navigation. I plotted the points and opted to get the four that kept me in a collision course with the transition area. I’m not a big runner and wasn’t sure about picking up the two points from the area I had just run from. I tried to play it off by telling myself I had to consider the time, so I proceeded to make a bad route choice...... because I had way more than enough time to get them all….as I told myself as I was running (kicking myself) back out there. 15 miles of running is a lot for me! I really missed my bike!

I got a nice climb to the top of a small lighthouse and then a short chilly swim that was much appreciated for the last point.

The strongest feature of the race was the personnel. Most races have a Director and some volunteers. This race does have a lead coordinator, but all the personnel have an interest in the outcome of the race. It’s their race. It was put on by the Auburn University Marine ROTC. I found this to be the most polite and sincere group of people I have ever run across during a race. It was like they were out for a fun weekend and just happened to invite us along!

It was a well run race and I’ll return next year…only thing: when I drove down from Atlanta, I thought there’d be more running!

Oh and in case you are wondering. The lead senior cadet in charge is bringing his team to STW. I got a little friend you can carry around the race course, sir!

Revenge will be sweet!

[RonSanders]

Rob already covered the play by play so I won't go into details, but here's my review...

Good:
This race is like a great restaurant that nobody knows about. The website says it's the "7th annual" but it's been going on longer then that under the guise of military training. While many people have been concerned about there not being enough sprint races, this event has been flying quietly beneath the radar. The first thing that jumps to the top of the 'good' category is the number of able and supportive volunteers. They were everywhere and deserve a lot of gratitude for keeping everything organized. Checkpoints were as marked and the obstacles were effective tests of athleticism, endurance, and teamwork. Putting the navigation points after the obstacle course offered an interesting choice; travel light and revisit the TA OR haul more provisions and take a more efficient route. You had to make your decision before you started your run or it might be made for you. I like races that make you think and plan ahead. Well done all around, but d@#n my legs are sore.

Bad:
Date selection. This year's race was right between Blue Ridge and Save the World, two very popular races in the Southeast. Whether it's time, money, training(or a combination) most people are only willing to do one adventure race a month (if that). Since the Amphibious Warrior AR is just three hours from Atlanta...a good sprint race like this shouldn't be lost in the shuffle.

Ugly:
None about the race, although I did have a leak in the rear compartment of my rented kayak. At the end of 7.4 miles of paddling it was no longer a kayak - it's a chopper, Baby.


Next year be sure and look this race up...

www.auburnmarines.com

.

[rlord]

Oh, by the way...Mr Modest didn't bother to tell you he came in first! What a great guy!

I think Ron paid them off to build the race to his strengths.

Maybe if I could get them to add in some more running, Ron's legs would totally fall off!

[skysapper]

Fantastic race! Kick-tail down-to-earth obstacles/challenges (in every literal sense), great terrain and stellar cadre will have us back again next year.

We did run danger-low on water midway into the orienteering leg and had to forego CPs 1&3 in order to be routed back by the TA for a top-off, which by that time ate too much of our time (6 hr cutoff) to attempt a run at them. We considered pressing on regardless, but one of us was completely out of water already and we didn't want to end up with a heat casualty. Although I could say it would be great if the cadre had water available at the trail run/orienteering transition, I think instead our team should include some iodine tabs in a pack for future races regardless of the gear list. There were plenty of creeks, and you never know right?

One of my favorite parts of the race was portaging through a very crowded campground, chatting with the kids milling about while we trudged up the main drag with our heads in the up-ended canoe.

If ever you needed motivation to both attend a certain race and post a good finish, get this- the top 3 finishers (one per teammate)were awarded BEER MUGS engraved with the race name, Marine logo and placing. HOO-YAH!

Kurt
Team Gut Check