When Racing Ahead’s Norm Greenberg and Tracyn Thayer chose the name “Appalachian Extreme” to go with their annual adventure race in Northern New England, they either had incredible foresight or just understood how brutal conditions can get in the back woods of Western Maine and Northern New Hampshire.
Of the 20 teams to start this year’s Appalachian Extreme Adventure Race, which concluded throughout the day Tuesday as teams straggled into the finish at Sunday River Resort, only three full teams completed the 187-mile course from beginning to end.
“This weather and the difficult navigation part of the race made it hard for a lot of the teams, even those that had more experience,” said Thayer.
“You just had to think of the weather as another of the disciplines out there.”
For some of the less-experienced teams, such as Team 20-40 (half of which was Eric Cobb and Beryle Martin of Auburn), the going was much tougher.
After finishing the first leg of the race, a 25-mile section of the Connecticut River from Cannan, Vermont, Cobb and Martin were in 18th place with a 65-mile bike ahead of them. Together with their teammates, they started the leg well, but soon ran into trouble when the rain started to pour down.
The steep terrain was largely washed away by all of the recent rain, and many of the bike trails were barely passable. At one point, all four team members lost the brakes from their bikes because of the mud.
Cobb and Martin could not be reached Wednesday.
“There were a lot of teams saying how tough it was,” said Thayer. “You definitely have to have a different mindset when you do a race of this length.”
Cobb and Martin pushed on through checkpoint No. 9, but for health and safety reasons, the couple called it quits. The two other members of the team continued and finished the race on an alternate course.
As for the bigger picture, Team Eastern Mountain Sports won the race at 7:02 a.m. Tuesday when it crossed the line at Sunday River. Team captain Jennifer Shultis, along with teammates Dave Lamb, Pete Swenson and Vytenis Benetis are now qualified for the Adventure Racing World Championship in New Zealand.
The only other co-ed team to finish was Team DART, from Washington. One four-person all-male team finished the full course as well, Team Adventure Pocono.
“Despite how tough it turned out to be because of the weather, it seemed like everyone still in general had a good time,” said Thayer.
Greenberg, when asked to comment about some of the teams claiming the race was too challenging, smiled a little and shrugged his shoulders.
“Some teams have forgotten that the Appalachian Extreme is a World Championship qualifier,” Greenberg told the teams at the post-race gathering. “It’s supposed to be difficult.”
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