Well the first (for me) of the season was a blast! This year I am racing with Florida XTreme 2 as part of the Pangea series (and preparing for some big races including the Idaho 7 day). Jim and Wanda are great team-mates - fast and fun. The TCAR started at South River Outfitters (http://www.southriveroutfitters.com/) in Stuart FL.
It was a cold morning - but it was projected to warm up nicely (mid 60's). A short run was followed by a paddle. We were first into the water (even though we were 4th coming into the boats). We had a decent paddle - though a lack of a middle seat really meant Wanda was not able to contribute to much to the effort. A big strategic move was hopping out of the boat at CP8 and running to CP12 and back to the boats. That move probable saved us 10 minutes in the race, though did slow down our paddle a little. We were still 7th coming out of the water in a really tight race. Eco-choice had come out of the water 20 minutes earlier (they are a really fast paddling team).
The next leg was the trek and we moved into a quick run making quick work of the next few CP's working with FL Xtreme 1. Also here Jim and Wanda's local knowledge of the park helped. We got to the paddle board section with a few other teams and sent Wands (the only one who had used one before) out on the short paddle board loop. Jim got to the do the short swim (it was cold) to pick up one CP on an island. As we hit the TA - we saw Super Frogs heading south on bikes - they had already picked up the one CP north of the TA. FL Xtreme 1 and 2 headed north to CP16 (an out and back loop).
We simply flew through this bike leg. The navigation was relatively straightforward and Jim and Wanda's local knowledge allowed us to choose some pretty optimal routes avoiding bad trails. We caught up wit Super Frogs 3 controls from the finish line and we knew it would be a head to head sprint to the finish line. At the next to last CP we were able to get about a 20 secod jump on them by spotting an open gap joining the trail we were riding on and the trail that the control was on. We dropped the bikes as i shouted out commands - drop the bikes! straight in and left! Back out! I appreciate my team putting up with me. I could tell Wanda was hurting (at least until she looked behind and saw Super Frogs right on our tail), but it was not a long sprint. Tem feet from the finish Wanda clips another bike in the TA and goes over her handle bars. I hop off my bike and grab her as we run to the finish. 3 hrs, 48 minutes, 18 seconds.
Sine we had plenty of time - we grabbed the map and passport and headed out to do the Sport course that had started about an hour earlier. That was fun too, I got to try out the paddle boarding (so did Jim) as we did that course. We also got to have a little extra paddle challenge. On the sport paddle we passed a 2PF team (Real Deal Double D) - both cute girls struggling a bit on the paddle. We tossed a tow rope on their boat and towed them most of the way through the paddle - which is really more challenging than it looks and it looked challenging.
The new Pangea site is really cool and has all the splits! http://pangea.ph3.us/event-details/events/2011-treasure-coast-ar
I think Meg took some pictures ( I did not bring my camera - doh!) they'd be at http://www.megrobertsgalleries.com/Adventure-Racing There are some pictures up on the facebook site. http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1434195394828&id=1831247678#!/pangeaadventureracing
Big thanks to Mark Roberts - great course design.
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