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Posted by Grant on 2. September 2010 00:21
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I completed my notes for Adventure World Magazine on the segments of Untamed New England 2010:
- Leg 1 (Paddling the headwaters of the Connecticut River)
- Leg 2 (Mountain biking through Indian Stream, the US/Canadian border territory)
- Leg 3 (The arduous "3 Summit Trek")
- Leg 4 (Biking and swimming/trekking in extreme northwestern Maine)
- Leg 5 (The final bike leg, waterfall climb, and the finish line)
As the weeks go by, and perspective continues to evolve, I hope the racers continue to look fondly at the fun we had in mid-August.
Race feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and I attribute a few key reasons for this:
- We constructed a memorable course, assembled outstanding staff, and pay attention to details (yes, I'm tooting my own horn here but our hard work does pay-off). We are a strong organization that continues to grow and improve.
- This was the 3rd year for Untamed New England. We've really hit our stride with the endurance community and, whether through word of mouth or otherwise, less experienced teams are not coming out to Untamed New England the way they did in the past. These less experienced teams were often the ones disappointed about getting short coursed, found the off-trail navigation not to their liking, or simply came to the starting line unprepared. Now, there have notably been some less experienced teams competing across all 3 years and for those hearty athletes the challenge and excitement of racing the best competition on a truly remote and rugged course is a ton of fun -- these are the ones who return to push themselves to the limit and savor the opportunity. I guess what I'm really saying here is that teams arrived to the starting line prepared and generally in shape for the monumental 3-day challenge in front of them (even though one of our taglines is: "You may not be ready for us, but we're ready for you!"). It turns out, most teams were ready -- and late the second night was when the first set of DNF's came, which is a tribute to everyone for sticking it out through that tough first bike leg that would have gobbled up lesser spirits!
- Our Untamed Adventure connections in the region have really grown and this year the community developed a new dimension of appreciation for the racers, the sport, and the effort we put into organizing the race. I know that any future Untamed New Englands will enjoy even better support in the region and it's a partnership that the communities are starting to really value -- a local small business or two actually approached us, unsolicited, about sponsoring future New England races at a significant level, so we're really on the right track!
All that said, it's logical to focus on the future and many have asked about future Untamed New England adventure races . . . after the race, while I was still in the US, I did invest considerable time exploring and meeting with new venues, hosts, and areas about future New Englands. There are some fantastic opportunities -- lots of places with beautiful terrain and very few people! In addition, a certain non-New England region -- turns out a very special area -- reached out to us about bringing our World Championship qualifying Untamed Adventure Race to their area in the future. We're discussing all our options and there's lots of exciting elements to all of this.
The truth is, we're not making any announcements about future events at this time. My wife and I are excited about the baby daughter set to arrive in just over 1 month (gasp!), and we will probably be moving from Switzerland in the next 6 months -- so these are our priorities and it will be a while before we decide where and how to proceed from there.
Oh yeah, and some "Team Untamed Adventure" teammates are looking at going down and race in Ecuador next Febuary, so it's not strictly domestic fun on the agenda . . .