Two weeks back, Jon, Ann, and I headed down to Henlopen State Park for Delmarva’s Coastal Challenge. A new race on the east coast circuit, the race turned out to be a nice one with a great setting in a beautiful park along the coast, complete with crashing waves, sandy dunes, towers peeking above the treeline, and the most epic paddle of any sprint race I’ve done.

The course was fun with plenty of checkpoints to keep us busy and a small but strong field of coed teams with ImOnPoint, two Rev3 teams, and Too Many Kids all whipping about the course. We made up for not being the fastest team on the course with a few good calls on route choice and strategy, and found ourselves finishing in third, narrowly beating out the second Rev3 team. Otherwise, the race offered some scenic runs along the beach, a windy and wavy paddle (which we gave up on, electing to tow our boats along the beach on the way back to the paddling TA), some great trail running in marshes and beside dunes, and a wonderful crew of volunteers. I would have liked a bit more of a challenge with navigation, but it was ultimately a great early race for the new season.

Congratulations to ImOnPoint for their win and Rev 3 for their second place finish. Next up is NYARA’s Longest Day. As always this race will surely be one of the best of the season, though I’m personally not looking forward to the midnight start tomorrow night. I know some people love starting an 18 hour race sleep-deprived, but I’d rather start with the sun. Either way, should be a great race with some fierce competition.

Brent’s Race Report

It’s been a busy April for team GOALS ARA. We’ve had continued issues with filling rosters, last minute shifts in our team for the Savage, and a couple of early season races. First up was the Savage, GOALS ARA’s annual 6 hour sprint race. Abby and I were to join Bruce in his last hurrah here on the east coast before his upcoming move to Indiana. We are excited for him as he has an awesome professional opportunity in Indiana, but it is a shock of sorts to lose the…Godfather?…Grandfather?…of the team. I know I personally owe most of what I have learned about AR to Bruce, and I was excited that leg issues had forced me to abandon an ultra and sign on for the Savage instead for one more race.

Unfortunately, a nasty case of the flu swept through, leaving Abby and me out of action for the race. Instead, Jon and Sue jumped aboard and raced with Bruce as a GOALS masters team. Bruce has been whining for years about how young Abby and I are, so I think it was rather fitting that he finally got his chance to race Masters in a GOALS race. The old guard raced well, winning the Masters division and coming in second overall to a team of gentlemen from ARMD. We celebrated Bruce after the race, and hopefully this won’t be the last race for Bruce with GOALS.

Last weekend, we saw two of our new teammates, Jill McMillen and Derek Lawrence, join Brian for the Yough Xtreme. By all accounts the trio had a blast with Derek knocking off some rust and navving well in his first race back on the AR circuit in four years and Jill impressing and making everyone laugh in her first race with GOALS. As always, SOG blitzed the course, and a strong Rev 3 team hammered away to a well-deserved second place. GOALS snuck in for third in the coed division with a strong showing overall.

So, the season is off to a fine start. This weekend, Jonathan, Ann and I are heading down for the 8-hour Delmarva Coastal Challenge. Sounds like a fun race right on the ocean, and I’m eager for a new race. The field looks small but deep with Odyssey, a couple of Rev3 teams, sprint experts Too Many Kids and I’m sure a handful of other unknowns toeing the line. I can’t say I’m that hopeful about our prospects as I am still suffering from symptoms from the flu, mostly coughing that kept me on a couch rather than allowing me to jump on a bike for over two weeks (to say nothing of moving faster than a slow walk). I finally got back at it this week and found my legs dead and my coughing flaring up enough to leave me making a mess on the road…or trying to, as my hacking had me swerving back and forth along the pavement. So, I’m just hoping my teammates don’t decide to dump me in the ocean when we get into the boats.

On a side note, I’m looking forward to seeing friendly and familiar faces at the race this weekend and at NYARA’s 18 hour race in a couple of weeks. It’s been a tough week for all of us in the AR community with the sad news of legend and friend Scott Pleban’s accident last week. We are all praying and wishing the best for him in his recovery, and while the online energy and camaraderie has been exceptional over the last several days, I’m looking forward to watching all racers honor Scott on the race course over the next few weeks until he’s back on his feet. Wishing Scott a speedy and safe recovery.

As the 2013 season gets underway, team GOALS ARA welcomes a handful of new faces to the team. Last year, Jill McMillen took east coast adventure racing by storm in her first year racing, having impressive finishes atop the podium in several races. Splitting her time primarily between NYARA and GOALS, she is going to become a familiar face on the east coast circuit, and we’re all very excited to have her join the team.

Along with Jill comes Jason Brown, a seasoned decathlete who impressed us a few years ago with his blazing speed and impressive finishes in several GOALS races. We’ve become friends over the years, and I for one am glad he is racing with us now rather than against us.

And finally, while not a new face to adventure racing, Derek Lawrence of Adventure Pocono has come out of early retirement to throw his hat into the ring once more. We’ve been working hard for the last couple of years to bring Derek’s old teammate Brian Reiss into the fold, and we’re fortunate to have Derek join him.

So, with a full roster for 2013, GOALS ARA is looking forward to kicking off the year, and we have already raced a handful of events this winter and spring, though mostly as solos or in pairs. After a monster season last year that included 18 races, 2 expeditions, and the USARA National Championship, the team probably won’t be around as much, but we’re eager for the races we do have lined up.

With that in mind, we kicked off the season with a trip up to CNYO’s annual fun in the snow with the 17^th edition of the Snowgaine. After a couple years away, Abby and I returned to upstate New York, and while he couldn’t join us for the first day, Jason came up to run around with us for the second day. All in all, we had a grand time, and the course was beautiful as always, buried in several feet of hard-packed snow. The course was faster than usual, and for the first time, I was on a team at snowgaine that cleared the course. In general more teams than usual did so, but we were still happy with the race and enjoyed seeing friends from north of the border and some familiar faces from the East Coast Adventure Racing circuit.

Jason and Jill both went out for the Adventure Racing Addicts new sprint race, Brake the Habit, a 6 hour event in Maryland. Rumor is Jason had a blistering start as a solo racer, leading the large field of teams after the first leg, only to find his boat sinking during the paddle. Still hoping to read a report of that one! Jill was out with Josh Gillespie on his first adventure race, if I’m not mistaken, and while I haven’t heard their stories, they seem to have had a good time!

And finally, NYARA kicked off their adventure racing season with the annual Fool’s Rogaine, which had a fair bit of foolishness to say the least. 6 hours of biking and running for me, racing by my lonesome, in Wawayanda State Park in northern Jersey. Abby and Jonathan also were out in the woods, Jonathan also running solo, while Abby raced with good friend Val Nordquist. No results as of yet, but I do know that I severely choked on route choice, thoroughly embarrassing myself even though I was the only one “laughing” in the woods as I marveled at several stupid decisions. Despite that, we all had fun, and it was wonderful seeing a number of our friends after the offseason.

So, next up is the GOALS ARA Savage. Abby and I are teaming up with Bruce for his final hurrah as he prepares to move to Indiana, and Chris is racing with his wife Debbie as she prepares to take on some longer races this year. As for Bruce, he has decided to move to Indiana so he can spend the next six months scouting USARA nationals…He also has a new job out that way. We’re bummed to see him go, but thankfully he still we be racing with GOALS, just on a more limited basis.

A long season has finally come to a conclusion! Three weeks ago, Bruce, Melissa and I made an unexpected journey down to the Outer Banks to participate in American Adventure Sports’ Blackbeard Adventure Race. After falling behind several solo racers and a speedy coed team of Marines on the first run, we slowly worked our way back to take first overall. It was a good final tune up for Nationals (we all raced, though all on different teams), and floating in the ocean after crossing the finish line was a wonderful way to end the race.

A week ago, we finally made it to the USARA National Championship, hosted and directed by NYARA this year. Considering the excellent quality of average NYARA races, we knew this would be a fitting and spectacular end to the season, and the folks from NYARA did not disappoint. Abby, Brian and I raced as GOALS ARA, and Bruce and Jon joined forces with Jen Shultis as GOALS Masters. In addition, Chris and Melissa teamed up with Bill Donohue as Haines Street Hustlers, and Ann raced with the guys from Cumberland Trail/ARMD.

Unfortunately, Abby, Brian and I had a tough race, our worst of the year in fact, and I’ll blame the fact that it was my unlucky 13^th. We had mechanicals (my rear derailleur sheared in two). We had physical (Abby unable to wake up over an eight hour stretch, no matter how much caffeine, conversation, or encouragement we gave her). And we had navigation issues (several hours of fruitless searching with nothing to show for it in the middle of the night). We still managed a respectable finish (10^th in the division and 13^th overall), but we left a lot out on the course and know we could have done considerably better.

That said, the race quickly made us forget all our issues. The course was extraordinary with a creative paddle section to begin that quickly had 55 teams spaced out within minutes, a terrific orienteering section, and an incredible final foot section in Minneswaska. The scenery was outstanding with rocky clefts and gorges, bare rock spurs, and idyllic cascading creeks. The weather was fitting for a National Championship with cold temperatures, rain, sleet, and hail throughout the morning, and bitterly cold temps overnight that left bike shoes and drive-trains frozen solid. The competition was fierce with one of the deepest fields I have seen in a race in seven years of adventure racing, and the course layout made sure teams kept crossing paths regardless of placement. It was truly an epic adventure, and a big congratulations goes out to Wedali, Tecnu, and Sog for their podium finishes (1^st-3^rd respectively).

So, after nearly twenty combines races since March, GOALS ARA is shutting it down for the winter. While Abby and I at least plan to ramp it down a bit next year, I for one am already excited to see what new races and adventures are in store for 2013.

Brent’s Race Report for Nationals

This past weekend, Abby and I teamed up with Brian Reiss for our first race since we crossed the finish line of the five day Sting in Stirling in the Scottish Highlands. The East Coast Adventure Racing Championship would be a good opportunity to shake out the legs, and we’d also be tuning up for USARA Nationals, which the three of us are racing together in four weeks. The race had added importance as it would determine the top three finishers in the ECARS series.

We had a solid race, though Abby was hobbled by injuries suffered in Scotland and a nav risk early on went horribly wrong. Still, we had fun and generally raced well, finishing in a tie with REV3 for second in the race behind SOG who, as always, blazed through the course. We were happy with the race and our strategy though we were a bit baffled that we tied in an adventure race for the SECOND time this season! Must be some sort of record in AR.

Ultimately, the finish was good enough for second in the series, and we worked out some final kinks before Nationals. The course, designed by the good folks at Grassroots Racing, was fantastic and the best I’ve done in Western PA. It was challenging physically and mentally, and it was worthy of a championship race. For more complete reports, check out our individual blogs:

Brent’s Race Report

Abby’s Race Report

The dog days of August saw GOALS race on both sides of the pond, with Ann teaming up with friends Bill Donohue and Jim Ziminski to race American Adventure Sports’ 24 hour Lionheart in the leafy mountains around Ohiopyle. I can only imagine the joy that must have come with the summer heat and humidity, something I loath, but they raced steady for fourth place in the coed category.

A few weeks later, after three weeks of hiking and bumming around western and northern Scotland, Abby and I joined friend and Untamed teammate Mark Lattanzi and Thor Egerton from Australia for the five day Sting in Stirling put on by the folks from Open Adventure. The Scottish Highlands were without question the most amazing venue of my racing career and I was in heaven as the weather was cool, the sun mild, a nice change from the heat and humidity of east coast summers.

We had a great time, and though we likely cost ourselves a bit in the rankings due to our “see and do as much as we can” strategy (there was a unique penalty system that actually benefitted short course teams who skipped parts of the course) we were still happy with our eleventh place finish. The World Champions from 2009, Adidas Terrex, won handily and were certainly impressive as athletes but also as people. I for one can’t say enough about the race directors James Thurlow and Nick Gracie and their entire crew. Congrats to our friends from north of the border, Salomon Running Free, who took third, and it was great to constantly cross paths with American friend JD Eskelson who raced with Last Minute AR.

The highlights:

• A checkpoint in Doune Castle, site of Monty Python lore
• Another in the ruins of a priory on a small island, accessed by rowboat
• And a third at the grave of Rob Roy
• The canyoning (though some of my teammates may disagree as they are still shivering)
• The hike a bike up Mt. Keen and the ride down the backside
• The epic treks, through heather and peat, though it caused injury, slowed us down and tested our limits
• The final 60 km paddle down the River Tay
• The dancing man, dancing the entire length of the United Kingdom
• And of course the highlands themselves

As Abby and I slowly regain our strength in preparation for the ECARS championship next weekend, which we will race with Brian Reiss, Bruce, Jon and Ann just competed in NYARA’s annual Shag adventure race, a 12 hour course that took place around Highpoint New Jersey this year. Still waiting to hear more details about the course, but word is GOALS took second to Rev 3 and just barely beat out the Checkpoint Zero team. Congratulations to Rev for another strong race. A long season is starting to wind down, and with two championship races to go, including the much anticipated USARA national championship, directed by our friends from NYARA, it should be an exciting finale.

Abby’s Adidas Terrex Race Report; Mark’s Adidas Terrex Race Report

After Bruce and Chris teamed up with friends Laurie Stewart and Bill Donohue for a tough 48 hours at American Adventure Sports’ Equinox Traverse, I hit the trails once more for the twelve hour Greenridge Adventure Challenge. Unlike the Equinox, which had twelve teams, the Greenridge had a large field, though power house teams SOG, Tecnu and Salomon Canada were absent from this local race in the panhandle of Maryland. Still, there was some stiff competition from Cumberland/ARMD, Rev3, HalfwayThere and many more good racers and teams.

While my legs have felt better, I had a great time with teammates Ann Lombardi and Tim Mundon, friends from the GOALS network, though we haven’t raced together before. We had a strong race, finishing third in the coed division and fourth overall. Kevin and Hutch did a great job in their second edition of the race, and the hills and forests of the Greenridge State Forest on the banks of the Potomac make for a wonderful place to race.

After toughing it out with Chris, Laurie and Bill in the always killer Equinox, Bruce teamed up with Jon and Abby for this weekend’s Krista Griesacker, GOALS’ annual twelve hour memorial race. While I was bummed not to get to race the new and improved course this year, it sounded like a great course with a brand new paddle and a new trekking section. The team had some early issues and the heat slowed them down at times, but they came back for a second place finish in the premier division. Ann, Tim and Steve had a strong race as well, finishing fourth in the premier division, from what I hear.

All in all it was a busy month. August will see Ann and Tim head back west to Ohiopyle for the annual Lionheart, and Abby and I are boarding a plane tomorrow for the five day Adidas Terrex Sting in Stirling where we reunite with Mark Lattanzi. We’ll be joined by Thor Egerton, a top navigator from Australia. Should be a good time, and thankfully for me, no packrafting!

For more detailed race reports:

Brent’s Greenridge report

Abby’s Krista report

June was a busy month for GOALS ARA. After the successful weekend of directing and racing at the Cradle of Liberty, Abby and I focused our attention on Untamed New England. We teamed up with Mark Lattanzi and J.P. Bordeleau, and for 77 hours, we raced our way through the lakes, rivers and mountains of western Maine. Jonathan meanwhile teamed up with our good friends from NYARA who fielded two teams for the event, not to mention the fact that NYARA queen Denise was everywhere over the course of the four days.

 The course was gorgeous, amazing water-based features highlighting this year’s edition (which was not only the deepest field to date but the best course without a doubt), and despite various technical issues, we had a great time and a good race. When the dust had settled we finished 10th in the premier division and tied for 11th overall with our new friends from Team Bushwhacker. Abby and I are tag-teaming the race report for this one, so check out our leg-by-leg reports for the detailed story and more pics from the amazing photographers who graced the course!

For now however, the highlights:

-Sinking my packraft two hours into the race

-Destroying my bike. Absolutely taking the drive-train apart.

-Great whitewater rafting

-Beautiful waterfalls

-A Canadian Lynx mauling a fawn

-Terrific bushwhacking and fun nav

-Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf

-The Alpine Trek on Sugarloaf

-The Pancake Paradise and the Maine Huts and Trails in general

-The O Relay

-Packrafting down the Dead River: my favorite section of any adventure race. Ever.

-Our final hours with Bushwhacker and the Hunger Games-esque dam release (definitely worth reading our blog reports for that story)

-And the amazing field of teams: Thule (the defending world champs and new Untamed New England champs), Dart-Nuun, SOG, IMONPoint, NYARA, Kinetic, the team formerly known as GUATS, Salomon Trail Tour, Daredevils, Cumberland-ARMD, Bushwhacker, Yoga slackers, several other great Canadian teams, Untamed New England, Calleva, Sole, AR a Decade Later, HalfwayThere and the list could go on and one. Congrats to Thule, Dart Nuun and Salomon Trail Tour for taking the podium.

While we were racing up north, Bruce and Chris teamed up with Melissa for the new Delmarva adventure race. I didn’t hear much other than that the heat was brutal, testing many teams over the course of 12 hours. The course sounded fast and fun, and the team brought home the win in fine fashion. We have a couple more events coming up before Abby and I head off for Scotland and a reunion with Mark. Together with him and Thor Egerton, we’ll be taking on the five day Sting in Stirling. Thankfully we all feel great after Untamed, so we’re eager to get back out in the woods this month for a final tune up before the next expedition. Next up, Bruce and Chris will be teaming up with our friends Bill Donohue and Laurie Stewart for the Equinox Traverse.

Untamed New England Report:

Brent’s Blog

Abby’s Blog

                Leg 1

                Leg 2

                Leg 3

The summer started off with a busy weekend for GOALS ARA. Abby and I directed the annual 24 hour Cradle of Liberty, which all and all went extremely well. Jon, Brian and Melissa had a strong race for third place in the co-ed division and Chris teamed up with local racer Bruce Kuo and raced to a second place finish in the 2 person male division. Racing alongside friends Laurie Stewart and Bill Donohue, the race was a test run as Chris and Bruce (Wong) are teaming up with them for the Equinox Traverse this summer. Not to be outdone, Sue joined forces with NYARA’s very own Denise Mast, and Steve Herzog, Ann Lombardi and Tim Mundon raced as well as GOALS 2. While we were bummed to cancel the paddle, and we had a close call with a bee sting and a trip to the hospital, all else went well as spring turns to summer.

Coming up, Abby and I head north for the wilds of Maine and Untamed New England. We’ll be racing once again with JP Bordeleau who is filling in for Bruce, and the team is rounded out by Mark Lattanzi, who we’ll be racing with both in New England and in Scotland in August. Every year, the field for Untamed gets stronger. After narrowly missing out on the podium in 2009 due to an unfortunate DNF, we went into 2010 thinking the top ten would be  a great finish considering that most of the best teams from the US and Canada were racing along with a strong Danish team (who ultimately took second). We somehow managed to sneak into the top 5 with a 5^th place finish, and we were elated.

This year, the top ten once again seems like a good goal, though it will be even harder to achieve, and if we don’t make it it’s for good reason. In addition to strong northeast teams including NYARA (who will be joined by our very own Jonathan Neely), SOG, Untamed New England, Calleva, Cumberland/ARMD, and Odyssey/IMONPoint, the United States is also being represented by some of the very best athletes and teams from the west coast, including Dart-Nuun, Yoga-Slackers, and Sole. Throw in AR A Decade later, who used to compete at Eco Challenge and a couple of strong two person teams, and the United States is sending its deepest assortment of AR teams to date (and I’m sure there are other strong US teams coming I’m not familiar with). Not to be outdone, the Canadians are sending a handful of their best including the defending Untamed champs, Pentathlon des Neiges and the second place finishers from 2009, Kinetic. Throw into the mix two of the best Danish teams (including the second place finishers from the last edition), a team from Sweden I know nothing about, and the World Champs from 2011, Thule, and the battle will be an entertaining one to watch.

Live tracking will be up and running with the race starting on Wednesday morning and cutting off sometime on Sunday. Hopefully we’ll emerge from the woods with good stories and strong race regardless of where we finish!

 Abby’s Cradle Report

Abby and I hit the woods once more for our final tune-up before Untamed New England. Including a 15 hour test run on our Cradle of Liberty course (running in a mere two weeks!), this marked our seventh race of the season since March 1. While we have both been feeling some fatigue from racing, course design, graduate school, home improvement, and a little thing called work, we came out of NYARA’s Longest Day feeling ready to hit the wilds of Northwestern Maine for four days in June. We have some things to fine-tune in regards to training, but generally we felt strong and sharp, kept the fatigue to a minimum, hit our navigation, strategized well as a team and continued to move well up until the 24^th hour (literally finishing with a few minutes to spare).

With Bruce out of action for this one, we teamed up with good friend Brian Reiss and Joel Ford from ARMD. From the opening run through rolling meadows to the final plunge down a ski slope to the finish, we clicked on all cylinders, all helping out and communicating well…

…Except for the moment when Joel and I looked back after nearly 10 minutes of paddling to see empty water; Abby and Brian, who had been punching a control and dealing with some gear, didn’t realize where we were headed, and I neglected to specify. Assuming they saw us head off across the lake, we were stunned to see them paddling in the opposite direction, following a team of two who had passed by not long after we reached the control. After fifteen minutes of moaning and yelling to no avail, they finally realized we were not the boat they were pursuing and turned around. Thankfully, this blunder, which shall be added to Venzini’s list of “classic blunders”, didn’t come back to haunt us at the finish).

We saw rattlers, I believe I saw a bear watching me in the night (only eyes, but rather high off the ground, rather large, and much further apart then deer’s eyes tend to be), we had beautiful ridge traverses as only the Catskills offer, I swam for a CP after nightfall, surrounded by angry bullfrogs. The course, as always with a NYARA race, was epic, adventurous, and challenging, and we often found ourselves joking that the mandatory controls were harder than the optional ones. The competition was fierce with SOG, Untamed New England, NYARA (I and II), Rev3, and Calleva all battling it out for the podium.

When the dust had finally settled, we were stunned to find ourselves on top with SOG in second and Rev3 coming in third. Going into the final section of the course, we weren’t sure we’d crack the top three though we felt we had a chance. Finishing first wasn’t even a possibility in our minds. While we did manage the win, we have to congratulate SOG for an amazing race. They set a blistering pace, and when all things are said and done, they ultimately collected a few more controls than we did. We managed to score five bonus points, however, by clearing a particular section that allowed us to make up for their superior speed and secure the win.

Huge thanks to the folks at NYARA and all of their volunteers. Ann Marie, Charlie, and Denise did a marvelous job planning and running a huge and complex course. We have several races and many months until October, but we’re already excited for our next trip north to the Catskills for the USARA national championship.

For a more complete report, check out: Abby’s Report, Brent’s Race Report