Fort Parker Adventure Race
April 02, 2005, Ft. Parker State Park, Mexia, Texas
click images to enlarge
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| (Left) Sunset. (Middle) Our chef prepared a gourmet meal for us. (Right) Last minute gear checking... zzzzzzzz |
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| The usual scene at the transition area (TA) on the race day morning |
Pre-race team presentation.
Note that the male population was disproportionably underrepresented. |
Directeur Sportif Martin |
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8:08 am - The race began with a short and easy “team challenge” – our legs were duct taped together and marched around the parking lot. Then we started hunting the checking points (CPs) on the bike, in a kayak and on foot.
(Above) At CP2, Dusty got off the kayak to punch the passport.
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| Under the blue sky and the warm sunshine, we decided to take a casual stroll in the park on the way to CP3. Obviously, other teams shared the same idea. |
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| At CP3, Lauren climbed upon the tree to punch the passport. |
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| Proving that I’m not utterly useless -:)
| Dusty |
Back at the TA, Kari was plotting the rest of the CPs on the map while others prepared the food and drinks for the next leg. |
10:04 am – The kayaking leg began. We paddled across the lake and upstream on the Navasota River, hunted for more CPs at the Confederate Reunion Grounds and paddled back. The blue sky, the sunshine, the cool breeze and the calm water made my first kayaking trip rather enjoyable. The whole trip (approx. 7 miles) lasted 3 hours, 19 minutes. We finished at 1:23 pm.
1:50 pm – The navigation/trekking/trail riding leg began. During this section, we forced ourselves through lots and lots of thorny bushes, trekked through some rather smelly pig trails, slogged across several waist-deep swamps (the deepest area was about the chest high). And finally a kamikaze trail ride in the dark to beat the cut-off time. (The ladies kindly baby-sat me through my first trail ride making sure that I came out of it without a scratch -:) We arrived at the finish line at 8:02 pm. Overall time: 6 hours, 12 minutes.
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| 11 hours, 54 minutes! We did it!! |
Results (4-person co-ed teams)
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| 1. Vignette |
7 hours, 20 minutes |
| 2. Mongrels |
8 hours, 33 minutes |
| 3.HART/Dead Reckoning |
8 hours, 44 minutes |
| 4. Fitstop/Pushin Up Daisies |
8 hours, 54 minutes |
| 5. HART Attack |
9 hours, 1 minute |
| 6. HART 2 |
9 hours, 7 minutes |
| 7. Team TOW |
11 hours, 54 minutes |
missed 4 CPs |
| 8. HART 1 |
10 hours, 50 minutes |
missed 5 CPs |
| 9. Nine Lives |
10 hours, 45 minutes |
missed 12 CPs |
For the completed results, visit www.rattlesnakeracing.com.
Links:
TOW Adventure Racing Team
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