Many thanks indeed!
Best wishes
Simon

Please know that as a recreational racer I love the part linear part rogaine format of American Adventure Sports races.  I had pretty much retired from racing until last year when Peter Mount convinced me to give one of your races a try (LIONHEART).  Your format gives recreational racers the opportunity to success, as opposed to pure linear races where you either keep up and finish, DNF or become an unofficial team.  As a result of your racer friendly format I enjoy racing again and have un-retired and as you know, will be captaining a Primal Quest team (maybe I should wait and thank you after Primal Quest).

Thanks again for a great race and for your support.

Mark Sells
Quixote Adventure Racing
www.teamquixote.com

Thanks again! Looking forward to next year!
Dave

The race started out with a three mile trail run over the river and through the woods, except instead of over the river at checkpoint two we find out we had to go through the river before bushwhacking to find the Sugarloaf trail and our way back to checkpoint three and our first transition area. No worries, Doug’s son was there as a safety to keep us from floating down stream if we fell. While some teams elected to take their shoes off to keep their feet dry, in we went, hey its all good! Once on the other side, we shot a NNE barring and entered the woods, trying to avoid the heavy Rehderodendrons and the thorns. Our barring was good and we found the trail right where we should, we even managed to keep another team on track as we went. The scenery for this section was incredible; most of the run followed the river (yes, in the river to) and past beautiful waterfalls. 

This is where the first twist came into effect. At the transition area Ellen and I mounted our bikes and John and Peter stuck with their trail shoes and we all headed up a six mile, 1200 foot climb along the Sugarloaf trail to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain and checkpoint four. (In the two previous races teams had been bused to the top of Sugarloaf to start the race, I offered to pay an extra $10.00 to my entry fee for the bus ride, but Doug wasn’t interested, maybe I should have offered $20.00) Race rules required teammates to stay with 100 meters of each other, so with two riders and two runners it made for an interesting ascent. Ellen and I would ride along the trail until it became too steep/technical for riding and we would then start bike whacking, at which time John and Peter could catch up and move ahead. We leap frogged our way to the top in one hour and eight minutes. As the non-biker on the team I was happy with the climb, I just hoped I hadn’t killed myself for the rest of the day. 

At checkpoint four we dropped the bikes and everyone headed out on foot for a six mile, 1100 foot descent to checkpoint five at the Ram Cat boat launch, where the inflatable boats awaited. It wasn’t long before our water bladders were empty and there were no creeks in site. We found a cabin along the way and as luck would have it, the water wasn’t on, with no choice we continued on. About a mile out, we came upon another house this time there was someone working in the yard. We ask if we could fill out water bladders and as any good neighbor would, he invited to all we could carry. He later came by in his truck as we ran down the hill and asked what exactly we were doing. We told him we were headed to Ram Cat to paddle to Ohiopyle. He looked at us and told us that was a long way. Little did he know what we had in store. At the boat put in Doug’s second twist had arrived, this time we got one boat for the team, which meant two paddlers and two runners. Since John and Peter had been running the whole way, Ellen and I started out running with John and Peter in the boats. The river was running high and fast so the paddlers had the advantage, it was up to us to Ellen and I to try and keep up. The Alleghany Trail runs along side the river and is marked every mile, so we decided to run five minutes each time we reached a mile marker. This kept us in site of our boat, as required, and we even managed to get ahead once, it didn’t last long as they again floated by. We ran/trekked the first five miles of the nine mile paddle while John and Peter paddled and rested their feet and legs. At the five mile mark, we switched places and continued to the next checkpoint.

After checking in, we hit the rappel site. Always the best part of a race, except we had to hurry because the weather was coming in and Doug was considering shutting down the climb site. After the rappel, we went back to the transition area and prepared for another ascent on Sugarloaf, this time with Ellen and I running and John and Peter on bikes. Within ten minutes of leaving, the rains came. It was actually a nice cool rain and felt good; however as no good deed goes unpunished the rain was soon replaced by humidity and bugs. We arrived at checkpoint 8 at five p.m. and we had until six to finish or lose points. We considered going for another checkpoint, but decided that it was better to be safe then greedy. So, we grabbed our bikes and got ready for the grit your teeth hold on to the handle bars down hill to the finish. The downhill was a blast with John and I leading the way followed closely by Ellen and Peter. 

Team Quixote arrived at the finish line with 30 minutes to spare and enough points to finish 3rd in the 4 person co-ed division. As a recreational team we were happy to have made it up and down Sugarloaf within the time allowed and look forward to the next event. The next day at lunch we had the opportunity to eat with Doug and talk about racing. When we mentioned his up coming Lionheart 24 hour adventure race, who told us he was so “freakin excited about the race course.” I not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing for us, but we decided to stay true to our motto “Life Untested is Life Unlived” so we started making our plans for a return to Ohiopyle and see what American Adventure Sports has lined up next. 

Mark Sells
Quixote Adventure Racing
www.teamquixote.com
"Life Untested is Life Unlived"