Race Recap #2

Final Race Results
We’ve made a couple of adjustments to the race results.

Maps
For future reference, here are the race maps.
Run Section
Bike East Section
Bike West Section

Survey Results
Thanks for the feedback. Very few races ask for input. I don’t understand why. It’s so valuable. I’ve already made notes in my Winter Edition plan to address things we can do better. Overall, you gave us a 100% thumbs up with 84% very good and 16% good.

What you liked most about the race:
Challenging but fair design, challenge of Millennium Park, strategy, variety of terrain, challenges (except one!), tasty lunch, good volunteers

Your suggestions for improvement:

• Move drink and fruit tables away from pizza. Yep. Can you tell we’re not food service experts? If we forget to do this in future races, someone holler at us.
• Reduced hydration requirement. Only one or two of you mentioned this but we are reviewing mandatory gear for each 2015 race.
• Incorporate ArtPrize more. Yep but almost impossible with the race on the first weekend of ArtPrize (conflicts on other weekends; we picked the best weekend for weather at least!). In future years we expect to be on the second or third weekend of ArtPrize so look for more integration. Next year’s race will be October 10.
• Hard to get to Millennium Park from downtown. A few of you didn’t realize that there was a Bike East map on the back of Bike West. I will try to make that more explicit but CPs on the Bike East map were discussed during pre-race meeting so speak up if you don’t see them.
• Millennium Park was difficult, map was hard to read. It wasn’t an easy section, but most out-of-towners and others not familiar with the park got through it pretty well. Our only other option was the park trail map which demands only rudimentary map-reading skills. Next time I would try to tweak the contrast so the map is lighter.
• CP4 wasn’t on the map. That was intentional so that bikers would not bike the trail in the wrong direction which could lead to head-on collisions. This was clearly stated on your Race Instructions. You should definitely read the entire race instructions each time and match CPs up to the map (that would help with the bullet above too).
• Himalayan Safari. Combination of difficulty and lack of space made this challenge pretty miserable. We agree. Interestingly, some teams took one look at the mayhem and skipped it, making this challenge the most strategic of all of them. Nonetheless, we would adjust location and difficulty if we repeat some day. We wish we could have gone with our dream idea for that hill… a zipline into an abandoned building across Division.

Thanks 
I forgot to thank Millbrook Tack and Laura Howell for the roping equipment. Maybe we’ll bring that back closer to downtown some day, although it was fitting at Flyin’ Hoof Ranch.

See you at The Zombie Dash, Dirty Duel or the Winter Edition perhaps!

Thanks again for racing.

Mark

Race Recap #1

Thanks for racing today. Not many people will tackle a 4-hour race with an unknown course and unknown challenges so just showing up and racing is impressive. We’re trying to grow adventure racing in Michigan (not just our races) and we hope you’re along for the ride.

Thanks to: 

• The fantastic volunteers (copied on this note) including the teams from  Degage Ministries, West Michigan Mountain Biking Alliance and Grand Rapids Community College. Degage will love the bus tickets for those they serve who need rides to job interviews, medical appointments, etc.. We’ll send some race proceeds their way as well as some cash to the WMMBA, which builds all of the great public bike/run trails in West Michigan. Thanks to the VanderPloegs for loaning us their ranch and bike trail.
• Our generous sponsors: Gazelle Sports, Sight Optical Boutique, Founders Brewing Co., Bill & Paul’s Sporthaus, Peppino’s Pizza, 8^th Day Gym, West Michigan Bike & Fitness, Health Motion Physical Therapy and Let Us Design/Build. Check out what they have to offer and If you buy from them, tell them their sponsorship of the race is worth it.
• Thanks to our vendors for discounted products: Peppino’s Sports Grille, Kingma’s Market, D&D Printing, and Baker Tent Rental.

Results
Here are the preliminary results. Thanks for your patience. We really had hoped to have these on site. Our scoring website was hacked just before the race so we had to re-build scoring in Excel. That, combined with scoring 200 passports and confirming the top finishers, was more work than we had hoped. If you finished in the top five but were not there for the awards ceremony, please email me and I will mail it to you or pick up at a Gazelle Sports store. Please email me if you think there’s a significant error on our part.

Nice job to all on a tough course (as usual). We design almost all of our courses so that most or all teams cannot easily get all of the checkpoints. 90% of racers have asked us to keep it that way so that strategy, time management and route selection are critical to maximize checkpoints.

Survey
Please complete our two-minute survey. This helps us improve our races.

Photos
Thanks to Jamie Geysbeek Photography for the awesome photos. Check our Facebook page for more. Eventually we’ll have a large batch on Flickr. Stay tuned to Facebook for that.

Shirts
We have some race shirts left. They can be delivered to the Gazelle Sports GR, Holland or Kzoo stores upon payment by check. We have a few shirts left from many of our past races too if you need one. All shirts are $7 or 2 for $10. Email me.

Lost & Found
Found: Detroit Tigers hat, bike glove, Nautica pullover, West MI Uniform travel mug. Email me if one of these is yours. I’ll leave items in the Found box at Gazelle Sports Grand Rapids or have them delivered to Gazelle Kzoo or Holland.

What’s Next
The Winter Edition registration is now open. This one is more about running and orienteering, but we’ll give you a taste of snowshoeing and fatbiking too (if we get the equipment and snow), along with fun challenges. Stay motivated with your training as the weather gets cold. The race moves to Camp Roger this year for some fresh terrain and we own the facilities now. Feb. 7, 2015.

Next year’s spring race at Silver Lake State Park will have crazy Sahara desert-style orienteering, sandboarding, and paddling. June 6. Likely 6 hours as we slowly pull people up the ladder to longer races. Other races below.

Race Calendar
Oct. 25  The Zombie Dash, 5K, sunset, downtown Grand Rapids
Nov. 15 Dirty Duel trail race, 5K vs. 6K, Robinette’s, Grand Rapids
Feb. 7, 2015 Michigan Adventure Race: Winter Edition, 4 hours, Camp Roger, Rockford
April 25, 2015 Hurt the Dirt trail race, quarter, half, and full marathon, Luton Park, Rockford
June 6, 2015 Michigan Adventure Race: Silver Lake Edition, 5 or 8 hours, Silver Lake/Mears
Aug. 8, 2015, Michigan Adventure Race: Epic Edition, 8-10 hours, Belding/Smyrna (30 minutes east of GR)

Thanks again for racing. We hope you had a fun experience.

Mark, for Greg, Matt, Brian