Discover Portland 6-Hour Adventure Race May 12 2007
Portland, Maine
The race started with an exciting orienteering butterfly relay section at Falmouth High School. One third of the field started on one of 3 legs of 3 checkpoints each. When that first field returned they handed the punchcard to the next teammate who ran a different course of 3 checkpoints. Some tidbits heard at the exchange zone were a teammate who had his thumb on the map in such a way as to cover the CP and thus could not find locate it. Another was color blind and could not see the red circles on the green map.
When the third and last teammates had run their leg, they received a packet of maps for the rest of the day and were off on their bikes for a 6.2 mile (shortest route via Hardy/Brady Rd) bike to the boat launch on Highland Lake. 10 teams headed out after the orienteering relay within a minute of each other lead by Eastern Mountain Sports, Cogg Wild and Trimaniacs. Some teams chose to go over Blackstrap Hill which we learned is the local triathlon team training hill, which was a good workout during the race.
Anticipating a cold, windy ocean paddle, teams were pleasantly surprised to head northwest to the transition at Highland Lake where they would enjoy the comparatively warmer waters. Wicked Pissah was first into the water at the TA along with Eastern Mountain Sports and ARFE/SmartWool. Teams quickly threw their canoes in the water and were off on the 5.1 mile paddle to find 7 checkpoints. ARFE/SmartWool, Eastern Mountain Sports and SPTU/DarnTough were so fast that you could have water-skied behind them and were first off the lake. Some checkpoints were in marshy areas so that teams were returning to the TA very wet and muddy with swamp water; but they looked and felt great! Later teams had to contend with a wind shift which meant they battled the wind in both directions.
Out of canoes and onto a 10.2 mile mountain bike leg, teams took off over the Central Maine Power lines in search of mud; I mean a checkpoint at a bridge. Mud holes that looked rideable were deeper than appeared and also dangerous. One rider (still clipped in) went over her handlebars into the mud. With the bike on top of her and her head underwater, it took great effort to push with all her might to get out of that trap. While that is the only close call, many riders who attempted to ride the mud found that they could only make it part way before bogging down in the center of the muck. Another rider (also still clipped in) fell off the bridge into the stream. Thank you CMP for those adventures! One of the next checkpoints was along a river that only a few weeks ago had risen 9 feet above flood stage and killed 2 people. (While hanging flagging for the race I noted the water mark a good10 feet above my head) There were some hike-a-bike sections on this trail around debris. CP’s 12 and 13 provided confusion and jumbled the teams at the top. After getting a couple more checkpoints, teams rode to the Baxter School for the final transition to a running leg though town.
Run distance including relay: 6 miles. A misplaced circle at Deering Oaks Park had teams looking in the wrong place for the beautiful carvings on the rocks at the end of the pond-like stream. Next teams had to run to find an orienteering flag hanging inside the Eastern Mountain Sports store on Marginal Way. What did shoppers think of these muddy, exuberant people running in and out of the store without buying anything? During the run people in town were asking teams if this was the “Race Across America”? Teams then went from Back Bay up and over the city to the harbor and one of the many wharves to catch the sea breeze (and look for the CP clue) before going up and over Munjoy Hill to take in the panorama of the city (and one more CP) before hitting the downhill finish at East End Beach. Top finishers were Eastern Mountain Sports (3:58), Wicked Pissah (3:59), SPTU/DarnTough (4:01), ARFE/SmartWool (4:03), and Berlin Bike (4:43).
Note from flag hanger on Highland Lake:
I had allowed a few hours to hang all 7 flags on the lake using a kayak. No problem I thought. I’d been given the map and the assurance that all control locations had streamers. I set out only to find that the streamers were for the most part underwater and very short. The lake was up about 2 feet from when the streamers were hung. As I was searching in one area, I hit a log and the kayak went over. I was able to get everything back into the boat except my glasses. Cold and wet I continued to try to find the locations and hang the flags, which was difficult because of the underwater streamers and now my missing glasses. At this point I began to worry that I’d get all the flags out and this is just as the relay was about to begin! At one location, I needed to get out of the kayak to hang the flag and when I got back the boat had floated about 20 feet away but still in the marsh. I tried walking out to it only to suddenly lose all footing; I went down the shoreline to try again but to no avail. Too thick to swim, too deep to walk I started to think I would never get back to my boat to hang the flags! Finally trying new approaches and a walk/swim maneuver I made it to the boat. I got underway and paddled up the lake only to battle a head wind where I was really getting hypothermic. My hands were shaking so badly I had a hard time making my fingers work the string to hang each flag. When I turned the boat around to head back, again I hit a head wind… it had shifted! In all, I spent over 6 hours on the lake that day and watched as teams hit the same headwind in both directions. It’s an odd lake.
