The 2018 361 Unbridled AR series is on, with the first race "The Bluff" last Saturday. The Unbridled is a series of 3 adventure races organized by the "361 Adventures" 's brothers Shawn and Dallas in partnership with the Kentucky state parks.
We got CP11 first and then clear the 3 hike CPs, going CP10, 9 and 8. The climb to CP10 and 9 was "something" but once we were running down to CP8, we were glad we went in this order :P. Back in the canoe after collecting CP8 to clear the remaining lake CPs 12-13-14 and 15. We got bunch of head wind on the way back that gave us the feeling of not moving...we stopped quickly as another team found my compass fallen at CP14...but the compass never made it to our canoe and is laying now at the bottom of the lake hahaha!!
"The Bluff" was a 8hr format happening in Jenny Wiley state park near Prestonsbourg, KY, which included the amazing Sugarcamp MTB trail system. We will race the series with Marc as a 2 male team under the name TJ79 Team Moziatex, our sponsor. Moziatex is a company founded in 1991 but with previous experience in the field since 1975. Manufacture under Mozia Brand that design, cut and craft confection every step of the production to create unique customized elite professional sportswear like ours. Thanks Roser and Mozia for your support in this Adventure.
The new kits are coming and we are really excited to use them in our second race from this 361 series in August.
The new kits are coming and we are really excited to use them in our second race from this 361 series in August.
From the time we woke up we understood that the hope of a dry race was over and the rain will be on and off during all the day, not a bad thing for staying cool.
After dropping the MTBs and the canoe at the 2 different transition area locations, we got the maps (all checkpoint at 1:24000 and MTB trail system CPs at 1:10000) at the check-in at the state park convention center. In one hour our strategy was set-up, with most of the time spent deciding how to deal with the CPs on the MTB trails, choosing to keep 3 CPs for the way back to the finish. The race had a first trek leg to the TA1 where were stages MTBs, and from here it was a MTB-paddle-trek leg with open choices for the team to get those CPs.
After the pre-race speech interrupted by a energy outage (Marc actually saw the sparkles on the power line when we were getting ready before the meeting), we all lined up for the mass start.
At 10am the racers were set free starting on feet. As always we made a little push at the start to try to take the lead and hitting the first trail leading to CP1 in front.
Cutting by a bridge and small stairs heading to the main road put us in front of the pack and we started to climb the trail at a good pace, slowing down to not burn too much energy. We found CP1 after a steep climb followed by couple of other teams and then decided to go down to follow the trail to attack CP2...well that would have been perfect but the trail became quickly a messy bushwhack and we realized when back on it that we definitely went to far than the expected attack point. After a short climb, we saw other teams including Topo Adventure coming from the ridge and the CP2 where they found a nice fire road.
CP2 found, it was time to chase the teams in front of us, bushwhack down to the main road to hit a trail, climbing to get the other 4 CPs in direction of TA1. As we realized that all the climbs are pretty steep the call was to not cut bushwhacking and to stick to the ridges and trails to attack the remaining CPs (3-4-6-5-7). That worked pretty well and we arrive first at TA1.
After a quick transition, we headed down the trail system, choosing the technical short downhill over the long easy switchbacks to reach CP25. A great choice, even if slippery this trail was a lot of technical fun..We passed the rocky sections staying on the bike which reminded me my rides in south France. The rest of the MTB ride went as predicted, staying first on the ridge then on the north side of the trail system to collect 20-21-22-18-17 and 19, keeping the 3 last CPs on the south of the ridge as they were on the direction to the finish line.
After CP19, we jumped on the main road at the end of Lizzie's path to a fast ride to TA2 to jump in the canoe.
On the way back, we crossed Topo adventures near the TA and realized that they were closed to us, which gave us a boost to jump on the bike heading to the Arrowhead point trail-head to get back on the trails to clear CP16, 23 and 24 before going down back to the road for a last fast 3km in a pace line relay to the finish.
We were happy to learn that we were the first team to clear the course with an official time of 5hr43min. The day went pretty well with no major orienteering or strategy mistake for a first win for TJ79 Team Moziatex in an Adventure Race.
As always, Shawn and Dallas delivered a great race set-up, challenging and fun with some pure mountain biking and steep hills. Fun dinner with the AR friends, talking about the day and for a first watch of a Kentucky derby before heading back to Cincy.
A big thanks to all the volunteers to help setting up such fun and great race!!!
A big thanks to all the volunteers to help setting up such fun and great race!!!
