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Contents 1 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Pictures 2 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Info 3 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Maps 4 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Website 5 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Results 6 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Reviews 6.1 Jack's Take 6.2 Judy's Take 6.3 JoEllen's Take

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Pictures

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Info

• Team: Jack, Judy Schneider, JoEllen Ruf (Name: Jack's Jills)
• Date:

• 3/14/2009

• Weather Underground Historical Data:

• Start: (9:20am): 40.5F, feels like 39.7F; rainfall rate: 0.04in/hr (drizzling); wind out of the East at 4-6mph
• End: (2:15pm): 43.5F, feels like 42.4F; rainfall rate: .01in/hr (drizzling); wind out of the SSE at 2-14 mph

• Format:

• Chose disciplines in any order, but you don't know what checkpoints are in what discipline, until after you make your decision.
• Mystery swim during a trekking section
• Minimal compass work, more about reading the terrain, but there was a web of trails out there, that weren't all on the map.
• Overall, great step up from a beginner race! The weather made it tougher than it would have been on a dry day.

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Maps

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Website

2009 YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Website

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Results

Finished 4th overall and 3rd in 3 person co-ed out of 32 teams with a time of 4:52:00.

YMCA Challenge Four Adventure Race Reviews

Jack's Take

The race started off with a decision to pick which race discipline you would do first (canoe, trek, bike). We were warned of a waist/chest deep wade/swim during the trekking leg. We deliberated and figured that most people would start with mt biking to avoid the trails later in the day, when they would turn to slop. We also wanted to avoid the swim until later in the race. We had the same idea (in fact 50% of teams chose bike first), but in order to avoid the traffic jam that we expected, we picked canoe (figuring that we wouldn't have to worry about our legs cramping up in the boat, as we really hadn't used them much yet). This turned out to be a good decision, as the canoe leg was the longest, because there was an embedded trek during the canoe (CPs 7-10 were to be picked up on foot, after beaching the canoe at CP6). We were chasing and being chased by Kevlar canoes (pretty sure they were Wenonah Minnesota models) in our Lincoln 17' fiberglass canoe. We seemed to be able to hold a line much easier, as the Kevlar boats were taking much wider turns, and we held the one that was chasing us off pretty good on the way out. We couldn't hang with the boat that was in front of us (assuming this was the first place finishers, Spectrum Health and Fitness). At CP6, we learned that the swim was actually during this section of the race! Two mystery CPs were added to our maps at CP6. CP16 was the one we had to swim for. We got CP15 first, then went on to get the rest. The swim to CP16 wasn't that bad with my rain pants on--they actually held most of the water out. It was still pretty cold, but since we were trekking/running, we warmed back up pretty fast. We caught the wind at our backs paddling back to the canoe take-out. We were thankful that we weren't paddling into that wind (13 mph gusts) like some of the other teams that chose other disciplines first.

We made it out of the canoe and went directly to the TA to grab our bikes (cold was setting in during transition, and I was glad to have some extra, dry clothes), then we biked over to pick up our bike passport (figure this was faster than walking there directly off the canoe). The bike out was a bit slower than expected (or perhaps as slow as expected), as the trails were quite muddy. We got CP14 and CP11, but even though there were 2 more cps within reach, we had to bailout to make it back by the cut-off time.

We got 12 of the 16 CPs and were told we placed 3rd in masters. The official results are a bit confusing, and, well, wrong. It shows us as 3rd overall 3 person co-ed, but it also shows that we got 14CPs...

Overall a fun race, that I'd recommend for beginners and veterans alike! It's for a great cause--earning money for YMCA summer camp scholarships.

Judy's Take

JoEllen's Take

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