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Youth Race a Success at the Challenge Four

Greg Yetter / 13.08.2006

At 0900 on Saturday morning 11 teams started the Cherokee YMCA Challenge Four Youth Race. While each team had an adult mentor to race with them, the young racers were the captains of the team. The race had participants as young as 4 years old, YES, 4 years old. For those of us who no longer race or have never raced in an adventure race this should serve as a monstrous wake-up call.

Young Alex Whitworth of Georgia was the youngest competitor and completed the course in just over 1 hour and 33 minutes. With the ages of the participants ranging from 4 to 17 years old and several female racers, this race is a fantastic way to encourage our up and coming racers.

Team Hairy Scary – Chance even felt that the race course might have been just a little too tame, so the team went on to complete the ADULT mountain biking section. While this detour took the team out of the running for a top ranking it did prove to the adults racing later in the day that anyone with the will to finish can finish.

Racers competed in disciplines such as running, mountain biking, canoeing and orienteering, with archery and climbing thrown in to keep things interesting. The main disciplines encompassed over 1 mile covered for each of the events so this was no cake walk for the racers.

Results for the race are:

1. Tomato Kickers
2. Alpha Spine Center
3. Team YMCA
4. Enigma
5. Whiplash
6. Camp Coca-Cola
7. Mama HooHoo
8. Team RiverCrest
9. Team Mighty Dog
10. Sisterhood of the Traveling Bikes
11. Team Hairy Scary – Chance

Each racer received a framed photo of them standing under the race banner to show their friends and classmates. Hopefully even more young racers will register for next year’s race.

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