This race sounded like a great way to end the season. It was a 6-8 hour race, and I was able to convince two newbies to join the team. This is the first 4 person coed race we have been in and also the first race that required support . Race day began with the pre-race meeting where we received the rules and maps. The meeting concluded with about 20 minutes to the start of the race (which we spent trying to stay warm). The first leg consisted of around a mile and a half run to the canoe put in. We got to the canoes in the middle of the pack and were quick to put in. We had opted to use one canoe rather than two hoping that we would be at an advantage if we could paddle in sync. Our philosophy proved correct as we employed some dragon boat technique to pass a dozen or so teams. The second of the two canoe checkpoints was a little evasive. No one could quite figure out what we were looking for. We decided to commit as much as possible of the area to memory to prove that we actually went there. This ended up being acceptable to the race officials. We got out of the canoes in 10 th place or so and portaged uphill a few hundred yards to the transition area.

Mary met us there with everything in perfect order which helped us quickly transition to the bikes. The bike leg took us up and down the Delafield trail, through Delafield itself, and to a preserve where we would complete the remainder of the course. We used a towing system for the first time during this race which proved to be very helpful in maintaining our position. At the end of the bike leg, Alan took a gracefull spill over the handlebars while checking over his shoulder to see if we were keeping up with him. Luckily all was okay and we got a good picture out of it. The last sections of the race were supposed to be a trail run followed by orienteering. These two legs were combined by the race director in order to save time, however, this was not the case. It was near impossible to find correlation between the trail map given for the run and the topo map given for the orienteering. After getting the last checkpoint for that section, we were heading to the finish when we spotted another team coming up from behind. They kept getting closer and closer until we decided to beat them at a full out sprint to the finish. This was our best finish yet as we finished in the middle of the pack. We will definitely be doing this race again next year.