WAR - Ha, Good God Ya'll

WAR II, the Warner Adventure Race took place at beautiful Percy and Edwin Warner parks last Saturday.  Two outdoor rec coworkers and friends and I chose to participate on a bit of a whim when our boss suggested it.  We had done an awesome adventure race for staff training earlier in the year, and this seemed like a great chance to get a taste of the real thing and to have some fun.

The great WAR volunteers and RDs instigated a costume contest, in which we immediately chose to participate.  We donned green tees with safety pinned yellow bellies (complete with pecs and abs), head and arm bands, and turtle shell covered backpacks in our representation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I was also sporting my new Rayhawk hairstyle in support of the home team in their world series bid.  We looked great, got lots of compliments, and WON the competition, winning some recovery drink.  

The race was tough but a lot of fun.  It started with all the teams running (I chose to sprint) across a field to get our maps, which were cut up into pieces.  As one teammate assembled the map, the other started plotting our UTM coordinates (he learned how from ~15min of web browsing the morning of), and I began transferring the points from the topo to the trail map.  We then set off.  The first half was all on foot.  We were very quick and efficient and easily found all pts.  We returned to the start, switched maps, and hit the bikes.  It was soon realized that biking was the nemesis of some teammates.   :)  I navigated the first couple pts (sometimes reading the map while riding hands free).  Our pace slowed some and we lost some time on the bike but stayed steady throughout.  Feeling strong on the bike from my past cycling experience, I tried to keep the morale high with bantering, singing, and even some bike seat surfing (standing up on the seat on a downhill).  Throughout the bike portion, we all took turns navigating.  

One neat part of the race was that there were intermediate challenges along the way.  We completed an obstacle course complete with a wheelbarrow push and dizzy-izzy(spinning around a baseball bat followed by attempting to run), tried to find points from memory, and tested our compass skills, all for extra pts.  I learned that my compass skills from high school NJROTC orienteering are a little rusty.  We finally got going on the right track after I pointed us in the direct opposite direction.  

When we came in, over the five hr mark, we were all adequately tired and glad to be off the bikes.  We laid around in the sun, ate candy, and then refueled on some pizza.  The awards ceremony yielded a 3rd place Coed finish, 10th overall, a nathan steel bottle, door prizes (socks and a wallet for me), in addition to the recovery drink.  

A big thanks to the Trailblazers AR club and the Heichels for putting on the race.  It was a great first taste of the AR scene.  I think I'll be back.  I really enjoyed racing with my two friends.  

Things I learned:

- take adequate food and water in a well-secured pack

- must be efficient in use of effort, time => balance haste & planning

- trust teammates

- stay cool and collected

- pay attention to the needs and pysical and mental status of partners

- try to fully utilize strengths of each member

- have a well balanced team = only as strong as weakest link