Into Darkness, the Course Takes a Toll
With the 44 mile mandatory bike route and the optional 15 mile, maximum-difficulty orienteering trek behind the field, teams are starting to feel the burn. Apart from some teams who made decisions to leave stage C early, most of the field would arrive at Transition area 4 in the dark of night. In front of them was another mandatory trek with several optional points along the way. While the trails here were somewhat easier to follow, there was plenty of elevation to gain and opportunity for mistakes in the darkness.
Team Hoof Hearted heads out onto the overnight trek section of their first adventure race. Photo: AR Insider
Transition 4 records show Rootstock’s quick turnaround to the trek. Photo: AR Insider
Racers review maps for the Leg D trek. Photo: AR Insider
Of the two teams fighting for the premier coed division win, team Enabled Tracking arrived at Transition area 4 first, roughly 22 minutes before Rootstock Racing. Rootstock would make up 7 of those minutes in transition alone as Enabled tracking spent 15 minutes changing to trek gear to Rootstock’s blistering 8 minute transition in the same spot. The two teams would be racing back and forth for nearly this entire leg, making and losing time with subtle navigation decisions. By the end of the leg however, Rootstock had erased their time deficit and jumped out ahead of Enabled Tracking by 14 minutes at Transition Area 5, still with 4 checkpoints in hand.
