Results

Results. Overall and by division, 5 and 8 hour.

Great job everyone. If there are significant errors, please email me before June 13 or we’ll consider results final. Be patient though as I have to sort through a lot of passports. I’ll then post them. 8-hour teams will get split times as well. Note: We forgot to adjust for a few medical emergencies that some teams stopped to help with so those partial time credits changed a few positions.

If you finished top 4 in the 5-hour two person, top 2 in the 5-hour solo, top 2 in the 8-hour two-person or first in the 8-hour solo and weren’t there to claim your prize, please email me by July 1 and I will mail it to you. If you saw the wood medals to the top finishers and like that style for gifts, ornaments, etc, please check out our newest sponsor Fran’s Girls on Etsy. They hail from Grand Rapids, coincidentally.

Race Recap 

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. -Molière

We’re so impressed with all of you for tackling the most difficult (and jaw-dropping gorgeous) race we’ve ever put on. When we’ve surveyed our racers about difficult courses, 90% have urged us to keep them difficult. They say they learn more from challenging courses and are more satisfied looking back. Next time I would add some easier checkpoints as confidence builders, especially for the 246 of you racing for the first time! Don’t be discouraged. In the days and weeks to come we’ll show you how the top teams found various checkpoints and we’ll share a lot of navigation tips to help you get better. With those new tools and your own learnings from the race, we encourage you to try another race such as the Oct. 10 ArtPrize Edition, which will be a breeze compared to Silver Lake. Even the Epic Edition on August 8 may feel easier even though it’s twice as long! See the end of this note for more on these races and others in Michigan.

We’re especially grateful that there were no serious injuries to my knowledge. Riding bikes in open traffic while reading a map is a high-risk activity. Some of those ORVs you probably actually biked UNDER, didn’t you? Let’s keep our streak of 30+ races without a serious injury going!

A Big Thanks to:

• Gazelle Sports, Wave Club Watersports, Silver Lake Pizza Factory, AR Compass, West Michigan Bike & Fitness, Bill & Paul’s Sporthaus, Let Us Design/Build, Tec Labs/Tecnu
• All the volunteers and Grace Adventures friends and staff. Thanks for all the donations in the Charity Challenge; we’re still working on the final amount from the challenge and race profits but looks like well more than $500 will go to a scholarship fund for kids from families with financial needs to go to Grace’s summer camp.
• Local vendors for discounted goods: Pentwater River Outfitters, D&D Printing (maps), Jons to Go

Survey
Please take a minute to fill out our survey to help us improve future races. Two things on my list are to add some easier checkpoints and bring pizza earlier. You can certainly comment on these two things, but we’re really looking for things we’re not aware of that we can improve upon.

Lost and Found
Are any of these yours? Email me. We can deliver them to Gazelle Sports GR, Holland, Kzoo and possibly Northville this summer or send me a pre-paid mailer so I can mail your item back (or keep it until the Epic or ArtPrize races).

Race Shirts
We have men’s shirts in all sizes and two women’s each in S, M and XL. We can leave them at a Gazelle Sports store once we get a check from you for $10 each. Or, mail me a postage-paid envelope. Two for $15. Email me if interested.

Photos
Thanks to Jamie Geysbeek Photography for the race photos. See below for a few of them. I also posted several on our Facebook page yesterday. Once they go through image editing, we’ll post hundreds more to our Flickr album and let you know via Facebook.

Thanks again for racing with us!

Mark, for Greg, Matt and Brian