RACE DATE: April 29-30, 2011
Teams will be mountain biking, trekking, and paddling for up to 24 hours as they navigate their way to checkpoint flags. Estimated distances in each discipline are: trekking 8+ miles, biking 75+ miles and paddling 20+ miles. Your mileage may vary, depending on your team's navigation skills. :)
For those racers not yet ready for a 24 hour course, there will be a shorter, 12 hour course that will let you experience the fun of the sport and the location, with a smaller time commitment for training and travel.
The 24 hour course format will be modified rogaine style, with teams having a fair amount of freedom to choose the route they follow to find the checkpoints. The course will not be marked other than with the checkpoint flags themselves. Due to the length of the course, we will dictate the order teams go through the sections. This design is like a "string of pearls", with rogaine sections strung together along the general course route.
The shorter 12 hour course will feature a similar modified rogaine format. More details to follow on this course!
Support crews are not required or allowed. A boat drop will be required prior to the race. Boats will be returned to the Finish area by race staff.
Scoring will be based on the accumulated point values of the checkpoints found. Points are awarded for each checkpoint found. Some checkpoints are worth more than others, so teams get to use their brains as well as their bodies as they work out a winning strategy for accumulating the most points!
The event will start and finish at a location to be announced later. It will be in the Pilot Mountain / Hanging Rock area of NC. Check the Schedule link for exact times. Expect some of the traditional Bushwhack perks like a technical race hat, pint glass, post-race meal, quality mytopo race maps and more!
In my experience, the 12-hour course is frequently a modification of the 24. If that's the case for this race, will you be reducing biking, trekking, and paddling somewhat equally? My concern is that I don't want to end up in a situation where one discipline (particularly paddling) is over-represented in the context of a 12-hour time limite and we don't have a sporting chance to see all the sections of the course.
ReplyDeleteHi Melanie,
ReplyDeleteWe are designing the course so that you will have a sporting chance to see it all! Because this 12 hour course is more linear than some courses we design, we've had to plan to get all teams through it by the cutoff time. Slower teams will have to choose to skip some CP's, but they shouldn't have to skip whole sections. That said, a team that chooses to float the river instead of paddle it, might have to skip more than others in the later parts of the course. :)
Any estimates on 12hr breakdown/mileage?
ReplyDeleteI promise to paddle : )
ReplyDeleteUpdated split estimates:
ReplyDeleteFor the 24 hour course:
18-20mi paddle, 65-70mi bike, and 20-25mi trek, plus a ropes section.
For the 12 hour course:
7-8mi paddle, 35-40mi bike, and 12-15mi trek, plus a ropes section.