Gung Ho Adventure Race

After missing out on the renowned Gung Ho Adventure Race for the last couple of years, I finally found myself out in east/central PA for the 10 hour race yesterday. I’d heard great things about the event but the timing had never worked. It wasn’t supposed to this year either as I was registered for a 24 hour event in Maryland with Jason and Jill, but after the race cancelled, we flipped the roster a bit and Abby, Jason, and I teamed up to take on the rugged terrain of Michaux State Forest, and I think we were all very happy that things worked out the way they did.

We’ve known the Gung Ho crew for years and have always loved racing alongside them and chatting before and after races. As it turns out, not only are they great people and racers, but they are one hell of team when it comes to designing an event. Without a doubt, this was one of the very best half-day races I’ve done in seven years of adventure racing, perhaps the best. The course was strategy heavy with a host of checkpoints set amid rocky ridges, overlooks and in deep reentrants. From the moment we received the maps, it was clear strategy would play a huge role in the race, and there were still some unknowns when we boarded the bus: primarily what the opening leg on a small lake would look like, what the mountain bike-O section would entail, and what strategies other teams would employ.

Considering these questions, the fact that Jason reported the Gung Ho races were too big in the past to be cleared, and that we were not collectively in top racing form, we elected to take a gamble and skip the first 3 bike points on the second leg, an unusual decision for us as we have never skipped points early, and these were three of the higher value points on the entire course. They also looked to potentially be slow compared to other parts of the course, and we wanted to bank time to sweep the rest of the course and guarantee a quick and easy stop at the ropes section, which was high value but could potentially take a fair bit of time if teams backed up late in the race.

After a quick bus ride, the RDs gave each team extra information and a packraft. This was certainly a surprise as we had been expecting a canoe. The opening leg was a slow packraft around the lake for four points. While two team-members rafted, the third had to pick up points by foot; the foot points corresponded with those on the lake, so to score points, teams had to find both the point on the water and the foot point on the hills and trails around the lake. Teams frantically inflated their boats while other individual racers took off into the woods on foot. Abby and I hit the water quickly while Jason headed off on his run. Not long after starting the paddle, Rev3 came blowing by, and after a quick discussion, Abby and I realized we had only inflated one of several compartments in our raft. We shrugged, paddling on, unable to do much to speed ourselves up. Thankfully, being light, this wasn’t a huge deal, but we probably lost a few minutes without the extra buoyancy. Still, I found myself having flashbacks to last summer when I sank my packraft in the depths of a cold Maine lake two hours into a four day race.

While Rev3 won the paddle handily, coming in nearly 10 minutes ahead of us, we landed back at the TA shortly behind ARMD and right alongside SOG. We didn’t know where Howler Monkeys or NYARA were, two more coed teams rounding out a strong field. We transitioned quickly and set off just behind SOG, and here’s where we took our gamble. While most, if not all, of the other strong teams set off up the big ridge, we stayed low, cruising along a road and bypassing the ridge and the three high value points along it. We made quick work of the rest of the bike section, bagging the five mandatory points and the remaining optional ones. The biking was spectacular with a beautiful section along a narrow technical trail on an open, alpine-like ridge with ridges and mountains around us. It was absolutely gorgeous and left us all happy as we descended through a maze of small trails to the next transition.

Here we set off alongside a team of two who had also skipped points along the way for a short but steep trek for one more mandatory and two optional points. Once again we made good time, were rewarded with terrific scrambling, bouldering and nice views. As we came back to the TA, we passed the Howler Monkeys and we also learned that SOG at least had also arrived. We had an hour or so lead on them and moved onto the mountain-biking orienteering loop.  Back into the earlier labyrinth of trails, we zipped about the woods, efficiently picking off point after point. After some initial gnarly trails, the rest of the leg was enjoyable and relatively easy riding, though we found ourselves finding many teams wandering about, still trying to navigate their way to the trek. After redirecting a few lost teams, we set off again, finishing the loop and then biking on to the final two sections, which were completely optional.

The first was a foot-O arranged around a beautiful rappel. Part of our strategy was to guarantee that we would get to this site before most if not all other teams so we wouldn’t have to wait and lose time on the clock; the RDs had made it clear that there would be no time credits if teams had to wait at the ropes. As we had hoped, we were first to the ropes, so we had a nice quick descent and then we made good time on the foot loop. Once again, as we finished the section, we crossed paths with the other coed teams. ARMD was just beginning their loop, SOG had made up ground (though we later learned they skipped some of the mountain bike loop), and Rev3, NYARA and Howler Monkeys were all arriving as we left. We took off, eager to maximize our time and sweep the rest of the course, which we did in good time.

Ultimately, we crossed the finish line with about 40 minutes to spare. We spent time poring over the maps, wondering if we had made the right call. We knew ARMD and SOG were probably going to pull ahead of us with points by the end, but we had no idea if our strategy had paid off against the rest of the field. As we revisited our race, we agreed that with the information we had and being a bit slower than normal (and a bit slower than several of the other teams, period), we had chosen the right route. We figured we had actually visited more points than all other teams, though skipping the 3 big ones early stung a bit. Still, had we not skipped those three, we very well may have had to skip more points by the end of the race. Either way, we were happy with the decision and pleased to find out that we had a comfortable lead on the rest of the field as we did indeed finish third behind SOG and ARMD.

My only disappointment was learning that I won’t get another shot at a Gung Ho event as the team has decided to stop running the race next year. A sad decision as it truly is an outstanding event. Well organized, great schwag, a tasty barbecue spread afterwards, terrific volunteers, a well-designed course with a great field of teams in a majestic location: it has it all. While, as an RD myself, I understand and respect the decision, the Mid Atlantic loses one of its very best events moving forward and I think everyone who has raced it will be sad not to do so again next year. A final congratulations to our friends from ARMD for a great win and to SOG for their strong second place finish.

Now it’s onto the wilds of northern Maine and Untamed NewEngland’s “short” race. After four expedition races in northern New England, Grant and company are taking a down year and running a 24 hour race as they plan their next epic event for summer, 2014. While it might only be 24 hours, I know it’s going to be a grand 24 hours, and I suspect we all will feel like we’ve been through a lot more than we bargained for.