2010 Mission 18 hour Adventure Race, May 15
To split up the teams at the start, Bill L was our representative to sprint out to get a paper with 3 pop quiz questions on it. Answer the questions correctly, get clues and map, simple. Two of the questions were VERY simple: definition of magnetic north and what's the square root of 2. The stumper for most teams was finding a stone marker nearby with the year that the park was built/dedicated. We ran around frantically but no luck finding it. After the 15-minute "mercy rule" the race director handed out the maps anyway.
There was the usual 18-hour time limit of course, 6am to midnight. But the first segment was a 6-point rogaine on foot that had to be completed by 10am sharp. One point penalty per minute late. We struggled a bit on one point, found it, then found two more, but we ended up further from the TA than we bargained for and we desperately tried to sprint back in time. We were 8 minutes late, so that zeroed out all the work we had done in 4 hours. (At least we weren't the only team that did that.)
The race was broken up into many segments, which was a nice change from some other races. Next we biked a short distance to what looked like a compass bearing test into the woods and back. After consulting the map we figured out we could bike to the checkpoint quicker, and it ended up being a log-carrying mystery event. There were chunks of wood, one of which each racer had to carry about 100 meters. If Bill L hadn't noticed that some logs were denser than others, we might have chosen 60-pounders instead of the "light" 40-pounders he found! Then we biked a short distance to the canoe put-in. An 18-wheeler was waiting to take our bikes somewhere else. Before getting in the water there was a checkpoint to find at a 'pond' on foot about 1/2 mile away. It was more of a large forested marsh, and the pond was simply the lowest point in the middle, and we had no choice but to wade through muck about a foot deep. (No leeches, lucky for us.)
Back to the canoe, and we were on the Muscatatuck River, not too much of a current to speak of. Halfway down river we got out to do a 2-point rogaine, which we aced. Upon returning to the canoe, the volunteer commented on how quick our split time was. What was interesting was that the checkpoints weren't hung where the clues put them on the map. We got a little lucky and made it a quick foot trek.
Back in the canoe to the take-out and our bikes. More plotting for 8 points on bike, rogaine-style. It was mostly paved/gravel roads and 2-lane jeep trails. Very little single-track. We opted to stop by the TA on this segment to restock. Just before dark we arrived at a checkpoint at a rock outcropping, and there were two rappel lines set up. It was a nice break from the bike saddles, and virtually no waiting. We didn't have any trouble with these bike points and returned to the TA about 11:40pm, with 20 minutes to go.
We plotted one of the next segment's points about 1/2 mile away and took off running. DOH! I had left the passport on the TA table while plotting, so back to get it. We ran to a wooded area hoping to find the point quickly, but no luck. So we high-tailed it back to the finish and made it in at 11:58pm. Turns out that point we were trying to find was the zip line, and I think they had closed it down due to being almost midnight.