Chatt-AR-Nooga 10 Hour Adventure Race

The inaugural edition of this race, put on by Jim and Susie Farmer, took place out of Covenant College atop Lookout Mountain.  No paddling at this one (YEA!) and heavy on the single track (double YEA!), teams of 2 had 10 hours to complete 5 legs. Since Lisa, my usual teamie, was cold plunging up in da harbor all summer, I asked Ali Whittier if she wanted to play with me.  And yes, she did!

Jim is a real stickler for playing by the rules, which I am all about, and so to ensure that we stayed within 100 feet of each other, several of the checkpoints had additional tasks, which required both players to hit every CP together.  He also made us seal our phones in bags, so no pictures for me 😞. He laid out the course such that strategy was involved and multiple route choices were available.

27 teams signed up, including a lot of first timers, and a lot of women, which was cool to see.  We received maps at 7 am, with the race starting at 8.  My "Jimmy the Geek" prediction of course flow was spot on.  And with Ali's extensive knowledge of these trails (Moonshine, Durham Mine, 5 Points, and Lula Lake), it was going to make my job of navigation a little bit easier.

Leg 1: Prologue and Bike (21 miles, 2 hours, 47 minutes)

The prologue involved retrieving Map 4 and CP at 2 different locations on campus. Ali went for the map on foot, while I went for CP1 on the bike. Like my legs, it takes my brain a while to warm up.  I blew past the turn to CP1, even knowing that it was on a power pole and I saw the damn power lines!  After calling myself a few names as I ran down to retrieve the CP, I was able to pass most of the teams that got ahead of me during my moment of brain fog.

A compilation of our race

Ali arrived back at the start, where her bike lay, at the same time as I.  From there we picked up the CCC trail and proceeded to go after CP2, just off the Bathtub Gin Trail.  I let Ali go first under the auspice of her extensive knowledge, but in reality I wanted her to collect all the spider webs.  We knew we were in first place, by her constant squeals and ugh's, as she slowly became enveloped in Charlotte's webs.

With overnight rains, the trails were slickety-slidy.  Knowing that this race is not just about speed, we wisely chose to ride safe.  After nabbing CP2, we backtracked along Bathtub Gin and finished off the CCC to Lula Lake Road.  We proceeded on road for 5 miles to Durham Mine/5Points. Next up was CP4 on the Marion Trail.  With so many twists and turns, I was quite proud of myself when we found the re-entrant within 50 meters of dropping our bikes. We rode Marion until it came close to the road and bike-whacked up to it.  

CP3

additional task at CP3

We then took the 5 Points connector to Kettle Bottom to the cut-through to Torino to grab CP3.  There, we had the additional task of taking the nail polish and painting each other's finger nail.  Then back down Back End Trail to Bank Head to Tailing's Run to get CP 5 which was a tailings mound.  This one befuzzled us for a bit as there were several mounds in this area.  I misjudged the distance and we dropped our bikes a little too early.  I would scramble up the mound while Ali walked below.  Finally, on our third try we found it. In the midst of my excitement I unknowingly got turned around.  Fortunately Ali was persistent in knowing which way to back track or else we could have been wandering and wondering for awhile.

We rode to TA1/2 at the Durham Mines parking lot, turned in our punch card, and changed into our running shoes.  There was ICE (first ever, in an AR) for us, as well as water.  

Leg 2: trek (11 miles, 3 hours 24 minutes)

We headed out to get CP 8 first, taking 5 Points ExpressWay to Slickenslide and then bushwhacked up to Windy Shot and nailed it.  From there we bushwhacked down to Kettle Bottom, ran along it 100 meters or so and then dropped off it to get CP 7, a tailings mound, nailing it as well.  

Perhaps feeling a little overconfident in our navigation, we  headed off next to CP 6, planning on attacking it from the trail above.  Ali thought Mick's was the blue one, so we ended up on the trail above the trail we wanted.  Ali didn't realize this until we came to the next trail intersection, after checking out no less than 4 re-entrants along the way.  We then dropped down to the correct trail and found the CP quickly.  It also helped that there was another team coming from the opposite direction looking for the same CP. That mistake cost us 25 minutes.

We then dropped down to the CCT trail and headed over to CP 9.  We dropped down off the CCT and found the roadbed and the CP was right there!  It was at this point the thunderstorm hit, dumping cooling rain upon us.  Man, that felt good.  We then headed back to Durham Mines and snagged the final CP of this trek, CP 10 by running along DC&C to Dinky and then bushwhacking down to Fuggett. This checkpoint had the additional task of us getting a selfie at the game camera. We then backtracked to TA1/2.

We went for the bonus CP, which had us split up and grab 2 puzzle pieces each at 4 trail intersections.  Ali grabbed the 2 at Durham and I the 2 at 5 Points.  Once back at TA1/2, we put our bike shoes back on and headed out for the next leg.

Bonus CP

Leg 3: bike (10 miles, 1 hour 23 minutes)

We hopped back on the CCT and headed to Lula Lake, grabbing 2 CP's along the way.  The first one, CP 11 was easy as it was located just off a major switchback.  The second one, CP 12, was a trickly bastard, located along a creek, off the trail a ways.  I should have paid closer attention to our mileage, but I thought I could go by creek crossings on the map.  Unfortunately there were a lot more that were NOT on the map ... lesson learned.  We ended up having to back track.  Fortunately there were several teams looking for this one, too, so that helped us in eventually finding it, after crawling through mountain laurel thickets and wading through the creek.  We only lost about 7 minutes on this one.  From there it was a little more single track followed by road to Lula Lake.

Leg 4: trek (5 miles, 1 hour 23 minutes) 

We arrived at TA3/4 at 3:45.  I told Ali that we had 90 minutes to grab as many CP's as we could. Her IT band and hip flexor was in full on revolt mode so we decided to drop 1 point here, CP 14.  We started with CP 13, which was a steep descent followed by clawing my way up a steep hillside of dirt that had a cat litter like texture. Fortunately Ali did not have to follow as we were well within the 100 foot rule.

CP 13 - a scramble up kitty litter

Next we crossed Rock Creek, which was flowing very well after the preceding night's rains.  It was a little tricky as I couldn't see the bottom, but it felt so so good. We nabbed CP 15, then continued up Middle Trail to the Bluff Trail.  What a glorious view from up top, at CP 17.

Ali's IT band barked all the way down the High Adventure Trail.  I could tell she was hurting, but she is no stranger to pain and gritted it out.  We got CP 16 at the base of Lula Lake Falls, which was raging!  It was a climb back out of there and then we hobbled back to the TA.  I thought we might be in first, but we were coming across quite a few teams that looked really strong.  As long as we could get back on our bikes first, I know we would be able to haul ass back to the finish.

CP 16 - Lula Lake Falls

Leg 5: bike (5 miles, 37 minutes)

Once we got back on our bikes, Ali's pains went away.  Still, climbing back up White Lightning made my legs bark a little. But now, I was smelling the barn. CP 18 was an easy find and then we rolled in to the finish with 16 minutes to spare.

We ended up with the overall win, getting a total of 18 points (17 + the bonus).  We made the right call to drop the one in Lula Lake, as there were a couple other strong teams that did get that point, but went over time and were penalized.

Birdhouses for the Win!

I was extremely happy with how we performed as a team.  We each had our "whoopsie" moments, but we stayed positive, focused, and rallied.  I want to thank Jim for putting on a challenging course.  He was all apologetic at the finish, thinking he had made it too hard.  But for many teams making timely errors, the course was definitely clearable.

 I loved the CP locations as they showcased the history of the areas we traveled through.  It was a true "choose your own adventure" course, as there were multiple ways to tackle the points.