Keen Adventure Race - Alps to the Ocean
It’s a beautiful, clear and sunny day here up in the high country.
Jacqueline Windh / 07.04.2008
Stage 1 starts in three hours, and racers have just received their maps and instructions for the next three days of competition. They also received their great swag – really nice tech shirts with the race logo, as well as a pair of KEEN shoes for every competitor!
Today’s Prologue will start at 2pm, up at the top of the Summit Chairlift at 1760 m, above the village of Falls Creek. RD John Jacoby says he’s being kind to racers by having the chairlift running to get competitors up to the startline, and promises that the Keen Alps to Ocean is all downhill from here...
Today’s format gives a lot of route options to teams, since they can choose to nab CPs in each section in whatever order they wish. It starts with a run (2 CPs), ending back down in the village at 1550, then a bike ride (3 more CPS, the highest at 1850 m), then back down to the lake for a paddle (4 more CPs around the lake, for a total of about 8 km paddling).
John gave a bit more information about the race in general at this morning’s meeting as well. “You’re all grown-ups, I don’t need to tell you what gear to carry,� he said, pointing out that the obligatory gear list is quite small. “But even I would carry more than the minimum on the list,� he added, pointing out that it can get cold and it can wet, and people need to use their own common sense about what to take with them.
John’s got an innovative strategy for some of the more remote CPs in later sections of the race. Rather than the classic flags and punches, he’s got questions that people must answer about the locations, for example how many nails are in an arrow sign on the trail. This is because of the rough terrain, he explained to me. “This way, I don’t have to go back in after the race and take the flags back down.�
Stay tuned in a few hours for the reports on Stage 1 – fastest teams are expected to be done in about an hour and a half, with the last ones coming in in about 3 hours.
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