From 4LPH41337.com

Contents 1 SOAR Highlands Map 2 SOAR Highlands Website 3 SOAR Highlands Results 4 SOAR Highlands Reviews 4.1 Josh's Take

SOAR Highlands Map

SOAR Highlands Website

http://www.soarhighlands.org

SOAR Highlands Results

Final Results

SOAR Highlands Reviews

Josh's Take

First of all, all proceeds go to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, so it's for a good cause (I don't care if you're a 60s peace loving hippy, the armed forces serve us and preserve the right for you to do your thing).

Best friend from HS and I did this race together to catch up and see each other. He's currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corp. I was surprised to find out he was in excellent shape and we kept a good pace. We did the sprint race.

Race started in the town (highlands) and proceeded on foot up a gravel road and then into a single track, rarely used hiking trail to the top of a mountain and then down doing switchbacks. Again, trees were useful to stop as it was pretty steep. Once at the base, it was bike transition time and we rode back up a windy mountain road, which was very tough, to the rappelling section. Rappel was roughly 100-150' (from the top, it's closer to 150). After the rappel it was back on the bike down the steep hill, avoiding oncoming cars coming up the hill (my friend almost took out a corvette). More gravel roads on the bike and then the option of single track. We opted to bypass it for a "better" route. While it was better, I made a nav error that cost us 1 hour (1000-2000 feet climb on the bikes for ~2 miles). After realizing our mistake, we proceeded back down and continued on. All in all, we lost about 30 minutes to those on the trails because the path was faster if we hadn't gone UP A MOUNTAIN. Anyway, after that you get to CP5 where the elite racers have the option of doing 5 Orienteering CPs ?on foot?. We turned north to hike our bikes UP A MOUNTAIN. If we weren't so tired from the first one, my heart probably wouldn't have felt like it was gonna explode. Anyhow, from there we made it to the lake, where a gusty wind threw our canoe around. The lake's small, so they put CPs in the fingers and were done (~3 mile paddle). After that, back on the bikes up to the town center for finish.

It was a great race. All CPs except paddle and orienteering points were manned and had lots of water. Many volunteers and they were very helpful/knowledgeable. They were VERY focused on safety, and being that this was my first rappel in 2 years i was comforted by it. The scenery was wonderful, Highlands is 15 minutes drive west of Brevard--so around the Asheville area. I was told at the end that the course was nearly the same as last year's. The trails that were rarely used but that RD wanted us to use were well-marked with ribbon. Towards the latter sections of the race, wrong paths (that were likely to be taken because of high difficulty in ascertaining the right path) were marked with a "NO SOAR" sign, which I saw as a plus . All in all, a great race for a good cause.

One thing I noticed was I estimated 60-70% of the participants were not adventure racers but rather military folks supporting the cause. This was a good race and is growing. Next year, I recommend we show up with some more folks.

Not sure about last year's stats. This year was ~120 people doing solo and 2-person teams. About 40-50 people were in the sprint, so that leaves a big crowd for the elite. Official results to be posted on the website in a week or so.

Discuss This Article