Final Day, Final Thoughts

Press Release / 20.08.2014

Sunday was move out day, and the athletes started sorting through their (way smelly) clothes and bins, causing several gagging fits, and more laughter.

I would like to take a moment and truly thank our AMAZING crew… in most races of this size and length, there will be a crew numbering in the dozens, or even as much as a hundred, with trying to keep up with the logistics of such a huge undertaking… not only did we get all of their gear to each of the nine TAs, spread out over 500 miles, on time and ahead of them, we had hot food(!) and full support at every TA. (Several of the racers commented that with the amount of food we served them, the race motto might have to change to “Suck it in, princess,” instead of “Suck it up, Princess!”)

The coolest thing is that we managed all of the logistics with only 7 on course crew, and from Tuesday night until Friday, we only had 4 of us on the course, including doing “rescue and advance” missions, moving TAs, cooking etc, as well as filming and photographing the racers.

I have been very blessed to have developed an outstanding crew that have “cut their teeth” by organizing and running the Great West Gymfest, one of the top gymnastics competitions in the world, and they took the same attention to detail and performance they have mastered at GWGF and applied it to adventure racing… as a final compliment, for all except Pete, this was their first ever adventure race of any type, and to pull off such an incredible event as this is a huge tribute to their professionalism and talent! Despite the small crew, the racers unanimously stated that this was easily the best supported race they had ever attended. Thanks to Eric Rouse and his wife Brandy for their rescue efforts and on course filming, to Jenn Kumanchik, Stacia Lee and Sean Everett for being an awesome TA team, and for bringing out chicken, bagels and, um, “beverages” to the Dark Zone! The biggest thanks to Michael Davis and Pete Clayden for being the ultimate TA team throughout the week… How many bins and bikes did we load?!? And thanks of course, to my wife Lisa Rennebaum-Adlard, for coordinating registration and holding down the fort throughout the week.

Other folks that helped out in whole or in part included Fritz Rennebaum for driving Eric up the river in your boat so we could get great kayak footage.
Guy Farmer and Melissa Coombes for airport runs etc, as well as Guy being our on the river safety boat.

Brian Hoots for rigging and managing our ropes section.

Willy Bartlett from Silver Mountain Resort who went way above and beyond in helping us to pull this off!

Bruce and Chelsea from Journey Racing for your help setting the finish up.

Rick McCharles for filming and helping at the race start – we wish you could have been with us all week!

Matthew Lee from Trackleaders who provided our FANTASTIC tracking system! They will be a part of ALL of our events in the future!

Final Thoughts: Despite my marketing ills and conflicts with the race calendar, we decided to fulfill our promise and run a first class event, even for a limited number of teams, and I think that we came through with what the racers called the best supported, best organized race ever, with perhaps the toughest course ever in north America, if not anywhere. It was a huge commitment, but seeing the racers cross the finish line on Saturday and seeing the pride on their faces during the awards made it worth the $$ and the effort on our part. Because it was such a small field, it really did have a “family” feel to it, and our crew got to really get close to the racers throughout the week, and vice versa – in the end, we were all in this together trying to get everyone to the finish! On this note, our philosophy, for right or wrong, has been to try to create the most interesting, challenging (and not always “safe”) course we could, so that even the best teams in the world would be challenged to their limits or beyond to complete it, but at the same time, to have plans in place to allow all of the other teams to race to their potential for the entire 7 days, and cross that finish line as champions in their own right, having given all they could. Steve Prefontaine was quoted as saying that “to do anything less than your best is to diminish the gift,” and whether you completed the entire course or not, we are so proud of these racers for giving everything they had in so many ways.

We are already working very hard on Expedition Alaska, June 28 – July 4 2015, and we promise that it will be, perhaps the most epic race ever… come join us at the birthplace of AR as we celebrate “The Last Frontier!” We are already more than than half way to filling the field of 25 teams, so please let us know if you want to come do the race of a lifetime!

ExpId will return in 2016, this time based out of Boise, and taking you up into the Sawtooths before finishing with a thrilling raft trip on the Payette … sound good? Come and race for yourselves!

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