week of 3/13/02
 
 
 


From dawn... to dusk
Racers tackle NOC/Subaru Adventure Race
By Don Hendershot
One hundred and two adrenaline-filled adventure racers roused in the predawn morning Saturday, March 9, at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Wesser to make it to the 6 a.m. starting line for the NOC/Subaru Dawn to Dusk 12-Hour Adventure Race. Thirty-four three-person teams, (28 co-ed and six male), began the nearly 40-mile trek that included mountain biking, paddling and hiking/trail running. Twenty-six hours and one minute later, the last official finishers crossed the finish line. Five teams did not finish.

Pre-race favorite team North Face lived up to its billing, crossing the finish line almost two hours in front of everyone, in seven hours and 27 minutes. This co-ed team of premiere regional athletes was composed of three of the four members of the North Face team that finished second in the 2001 United States Adventure Racing Association (USARA) National Championship. They are Jay Curwen and Dan Miller of Asheville and Brenda Simril of Ooltewah, Tenn. Lee Simril, Brenda’s husband and the fourth member of the 2001 team, was scheduled to race but a back injury sidelined him and Dan Miller stepped in. Last year’s North Face team of Simril, Simril and Curwen won NOC’s 30-hour spring adventure race last March.

Curwen said there was probably a home court advantage. “We were familiar with the terrain. We’ve raced there before. There was one place on the bike ride where we knew exactly where we were, and we could just put our heads down and go for it. It was definitely our race to lose.”

This year’s race was a qualifier for the USARA championship, and Curwen said team North Face was looking forward to trying to better their last year’s second place finish.

New NOC adventure race director Lecky Haller was not surprised by North Face’s good showing.

“They are good athletes with good team skills. Adventure racing is all about teams working well together,” Haller said.

This year’s spring race was shortened from last year’s 30-hour format, and the course, while still challenging, was not quite so arduous. Last year’s grueling course and frigid temperatures resulted in only six of the 60 teams finishing the original course.

Haller said the race was shortened and the course was toned down to make it appealing to a wider range of athletes.

“The whole idea is to make it fun. Ideally we would have every team finish the course,” Haller said.

Of course, “toned down” is a relative term. The race started with a 23-mile mountain bike ride over Tellico Gap with transitioning at the Tsali boat ramp. Riders had to find six check points along the route.

From Tsali there was a five-and-a-half mile open water paddle along Fontana Lake, with four check points. The paddling portion ended at the N.C. 28 bridge, leaving racers with a 10-mile back country hike to NOC and the finish line. Hikers had to find eight check points along the way.

The changes in the race format and philosophy were duly noted by participants.

“It’s the best-organized race NOC has ever had,” said Sherry Olson, support person for team Spotted Dog.

Perhaps Spotted Dog could have taken some organizational tips from race directors. The co-ed team, which finished second in a time of eight hours and 59 minutes, gave everyone a full 15 minute advantage when members had to rush back to their cabin from the starting line to get the keys to unlock their mountain bikes from the van. A flurry of finishers followed Spotted Dog across the finish line with five teams coming in between nine and nine-and-a-half hours.

Spotted Dog members, Russell Partain and Arden Olson of Atlanta and Debbie Fuller of Chattanooga agreed that the course was well laid out. They thought the toughest leg was the 10-mile finishing hike. There was a lot of elevational change with at least three long climbs and descents and a lot of off-trail bushwhacking.

The team says they plan to return for next year’s race.