WON Members Bring Home First Place

On April 26th, Meg Grantham, Linda McLean and myself (Tiffany Ballew) competed in the Carolina Challenge adventure race. We raced in the all female division and brought home first place. This was very good news for me since it was my first time competing in an adventure race.

In case some of you are not familiar with adventure racing, let me take a minute and give you some details. Adventure Sports or the sport of adventure racing began in the late 80’s with the French Raid Gauloises - the first race was held in New Zealand. Military teams (among other competitors) competed to test their navigational and endurance skills – almost as if it were an elevated form of military training. A few years later Mark Burnett founded the ECO-CHALLENGE, which some of you may have read about or seen on television. Since then many other formats have come about.

This sport typically involves a team of four (mixed gender) which compete together in several different human-powered events - mountain biking, whitewater, ocean or lake kayaking, canoeing, rafting, hiking, trail running, ascending and rappelling sheer cliff faces using appropriate mountain gear, glacier travel and navigating using a map and compass. These events generally are combined in sequence to form a non-stop competition…in the wilderness!

Races can be as short as 4-5 hours or as long as 10-15 days. More races are popping up across the U.S. and in international countries and have different classifications.

This race, the Carolina Challenge, took place in Spartanburg, SC and was considered a “sprint” race. It consisted of trail running, kayaking, mountain biking, and special (mystery) events. We began the race with a 5 mile trail run in mud so deep I almost lost my shoes and so slick I often felt like I was ice skating. Within the run there were three mystery events. The first was crossing through a pavilion which had strings run across it, some high some low. You had to either crawl under the low ones or jump over the high ones without touching the string at all. The second event had Meg and me navigating through a section of trees while blindfolded and Linda yelling directions out to us. The third involved taking a water balloon and tying it on a line strung high above in the air and then breaking the water balloon. We then ran into the transition area and grabbed our gear for kayaking. It was a 2 mile paddle with one mystery event three quarters of the way through it. We finished the paddle and ran up for our fifth special event, in which only two of your teammates could be touching the ground. This had Linda and myself supporting a 4x4 about 6ft. long on our shoulders with Meg hanging from the board like a monkey, while we traversed a muddy course with trenches. (I have never been one for shoulder pads, but they were sounding pretty good during that event.) We then ran back up to the transition area and changed into all of our biking gear, grabbed the bikes and headed out for the mountain biking section. Before we could really begin the ride we had to cross a river that was about waist deep with a substantial enough current that they tied a rope across so we could hang on to avoid being washed away. The riding though was great! It was tight single track, very fun, although these trails too were nothing but thick, juicy MUD. We were slippin’ and slidin’ the whole way. There was only one special event in this section and it was a mental challenge, something like you see on the SAT’s. We were less than pleased to actually have to be thinking in the middle of all this.

After the biking we had two challenges left. The seventh in total, was crossing about 8 cinder blocks spaced about 5ft. apart by using two 2x4’s and we had to stay touching each other at all times. The final event was the classic 10+ft. high flat wall that we had to get each other up and over. Then finally we sprinted through the finish line. We finished in about 3 1/2 hours.

This was my first adventure race, but it will not be the last. The next one for me will be up near Nantahala on May 10 and is double the length of this race. I hope to work my way up to the Eco-Challenge, which if anyone is interested is on the USA Network starting on May 5 These races are great fun and I encourage anyone to try one whether you are a beginner or super fit.

-- Tiffany Ballew