We raced as IMONPoint.org and I am still catching up on everything I missed over the last week. Look for our race write up soon. Until then, out the USARA Nationals website: www.usaranationals.com/home.aspx and the IMONPoint.org site.
Jen Moos, Mark Lattanzi and myself are off to the USARA Adventure Race National Championship
October 22-24, 2009 in Pilot Point, TX. This will be the debut race for the On Point Foundation (ImONPoint.org) race team.
Pilot Point Texas - here we come!
See you outside (in TEXAS),
Shane
This gets me thinking about our teammates about to do the day of endurance this weekend. The incredible scenery reminds me of Colorado - Brian and Shannon I am jealous!!!
UltraRunning from Matt Hart on Vimeo.
From the 25-26th of September I will be off racing with Ronny and Holly from Odyssey Adventure Racing. We will be completing as a 3 person, coed elite team in the Bushwack 2009 Adventure Race down in the Raleigh/Triangle area of North Carolina. This should be a great event, Bushwack Adventures and Don Childrey have a reputation of hosting great events. On top of that - Ronny, Holly and I managed to get a great 10 hour training day in a few weeks ago and our teamwork was excellent. Look for us racing as Odyssey Adventure Racing.
See you outside,
Shane
Teamhalfwaythere.com will be working closely with the On Point Foundation. Check them out at: www.ImONPoint.org
Here is who they are and what they do:
Helping service members regain control of their lives through education, rehabilitation, services, and equipment.
ARE YOU ON POINT?
“On Point” is a military term referring to a person who takes the lead in a patrol or tactical movement. This lead individual carries the mission of guiding the rest of the unit and assumes the responsibility of protecting all that follow. That individual is known as being ON POINT!
Service members have always worked around the clock, devoting their life to duty. The attacks of 9/11 brought forth a new era for service members, along with the high price they would pay to protect our way of life. All service members have made sacrifices while some have paid the ultimate price in defense of our county and community. With the shifting economy and the ever present strain carried by our men and women in uniform it is time for us to be “ON POINT” and take responsibility for our service members.
On Point Foundation was formed as a nonprofit in 2009 by three former soldiers. With combined military experience of over 30 years, 20 years overseas experience, and 11 operational deployments - these three service members have now focused their dedication, knowledge, and love of country to “helping those who protect us”.
When deployed overseas and engaged in combat we put our trust in other organizations to protect our family and our way of life at home. These organizations do not violate our trust! The soldiers that founded On Point wish to honor and take responsibly for many service members, not just the members of the Armed Forces. We define service members as personnel - past or present - of the Armed Forces, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, and federal agents.
On Point is dedicated to providing honest and valuable services that can truly make a difference in the lives of the people we sponsor.
Overtrained and overraced.
So, the last two races were pretty miserable. Thankfully I had great teammates to pull me through. Lessons learned: don’t race at 100% plus, have completely debilitating lower body cramps (curled up on the side of the road - see the Odyssey One Day write up), throw your back out a few days later, take Percocet and Flexiril and think that is an adequate recovery and taper for a race 2 weeks after the blow up race!
Did I mention how lucky I am to have the teammates I have!
The title says it all. We have two teams for the upcoming Odyssey One Day Race on 24-25 July, and are looking forward to another epic Odyssey event. One team is comprised of Lukas, Christy, Aaron and Barry. The second is myself, Jeremy and Jen and Mark from Paradofobia. Of note is that although Barry is a long time Teamhalfwaythere.com team member, this will be his first 24 hour race. Go Barry!!! Follow our progress online at Checkpointtracker.com
See you outside,
Shane
Promised Land State park was the start and finish for the 2009 GOALS Cradle of Liberty race. From early Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon we paddled, shot (paintballs), trekked, biked, and navigated our way over, under and through northeastern PA.
We had two new additions to the team for this race: Jen Moos from the Paradofobia AR team flew in from Ft. Lauderdale and my personal friend Tim Miller raced this as his inaugural AR event. We had a good race and ultimately ended up 5th in both the overall and three person coed categories. Thanks so much to both of you for doing this with me!
Highlights from the race:
Pre-race. The drive from Northern VA to NY to pick up Jen en route to Tim’s house outside of West Point, NY. Friday I-95 traffic. Grrrr….. 12 plus hours of driving. Getting Jen, arriving at Tim’s and chowing on some BBQ - worth the effort 
Race. A short time into the race there was a paintball event - one person per team had 20 paintballs to knock over a gallon water jug, failure to do so resulted in a 10 minute penalty. Tim smoked it.
High water levels, and the last 2/3rds of the paddling was in a raft. Question. What is the maximum hull speed for an inflatable raft? Answer. Crazy slow. Quantified as 1 to 2 knots faster than drunk people propelling themselves by having their small children swim behind their rafts.
Wet bike sections on “almost” unrideable trails. Wet roots, rocks and deadfall everywhere. Any worse, and the effort to ride would not have been worth it. But, it was rideable and we made decent time riding it. (Read - we worked our butts off trying to keep up with Jen, she absolutely crushed everyone in sight on these sections.)
Dismal trails on the O-section. Hindsight, it would have been better to bushwhack than attempt to follow the trails.
Making some great decisions as a team late in the race. We assessed how long the trek would take vs. the point value of the the CP’s along it. So we skipped the trek, bagged some high value bike points, and had more time for the final bike o-section. Definitely a good team move.
Post race. Chatting with all my fellow racers - always one of the best parts of the racing scene.
Ordering one of everything on a McDonald’s menu. Strawberry shakes….hmmmm.
Racking out on the most comfortable bed ever - Tim’s giant couch.
Thanks to Bill and Ann Gibbons and all of their staff for putting on a great, epic race. Can’t wait for next year’s edition!
Lastly, a special thanks to our sponsors. We could not compete at the level we do without your assistance. Thanks to all of you for making this possible!
See you outside,
Shane
Rottencheeseburgers have just finished Untamed New England , the only AR World’s qualifier in North America this year. Official results are still pending, but it looks like our folks will pull a top 10 finish against an extremely tough field. Everyone seemed in great spirits and we’re looking forward to hearing some great stories.
The inaugural Equinox Traverse starts Friday morning. Doug Crytzer of American Adventure Sports has teamed with Chris Caul to put together what promises to be an epic event (http://www.americanadventuresports.com/traverse.htm). We are fielding one coed elite team of Bryce, Andy and Michelle, while Andi B. is joining forces with a team from Odyssey. This will be a 48 hour unsupported race, essentially a two day expedition style race. As a bonus, this is both a double points race in the Checkpoint Tracker series (www.checkpointtracker.com) and a USARA qualifier (www.USARA.com). Good luck everyone!!! We can’t wait to hear the race stories from this one!
