After an unsuccessful attempt at arriving at the Expedition Hidalgo event in Mexico due to flight problems with Elina’s airline tickets from Spain, Roy and I quickly turned our pent up energy to the next available long race. The Smokey Mountain Adventure Race (SMAR) April 1-4 in North Carolina, fit the bill. I queried the interest of Crash formerly known as Kim Morse from Southern California to round out our three person co-ed team. With a little encouragement we had a top notch support crew assembled with Maria Burton, Trish Malone and Crash’s brother Ryan.
While a weather system gathered strength on Thursday and Friday we readied our gear for the Friday, 10:00pm start. Turns out a 3 ½ hour Canoe leg would greet all 57 teams with wind, rain and several flipped boats which kept race management busy. At 1:37am Team Subaru exited the water in 5th tied with three other teams and scrambled to a chilly transition and on to a 60 mile bike. As we knocked off teams over a 2 hour period we finally latched onto the back of the 1st place team which contained Patrick Harper formerly of a footwear sponsored team. Patrick coming back after injury in late 2004 was now racing for Adventure Sports Magazine NE. The two teams see-sawed back and forth for hours as we gained elevation and snow depth. After a few mysterious flats we descended several thousand feet to the transition area TA #2 to a hiking leg. But the story doesn’t stop there, the bike section was much more funny than can be described. I will attempt to paint the picture. The newly named Kim Morse known now as Crash must have explanation. Crash wanted very bad to descend quickly to the TA in an effort to warm the numb fingers brought on by freezing temperatures and wet gloves. However, descending down the dirt road at 15-20 mph tends to bring ones hands to a frigid temperature and impede the ability to apply the needed pressure to the brake levers. Crash, having no other choice, decided to drag her feet slowing only slightly and finally resorted to scrubbing off some speed by bouncing along the uphill side of the embankment. After several “Crashes” she joined Roy and I near the bottom of the hill. Having a few hundred feet to go Roy implemented a reverse tow and we descended safely to the bottom and on to the TA.
Through the descending challenges Patrick and his team gained a 10 minute lead upon entering the TA and departed with that same margin. By this time 51 teams had either pulled out, been rescued or were lost in the North Carolina hills. 6 teams ultimately left the TA on the run. After three CP’s with substantial navigation involved and several hours we arrived at CP 17 and 6” of snow driven by 50-60 mph winds. It was at this point we were notified that the entire race would end here. We were 10 minutes behind Hooked on the Outdoors (1st). As it turns out, only two teams made it to CP #17 and 23 hrs and 50 minutes of what we thought would be a 32-35 hour winning time.
Adventure racing, you just never know what your gonna get.
In Adventure
Dan Barger
