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2004 SALOMON/MOOSEJAW DECEMBER CHILL
Salomon North America and Moosejaw Mountaineering where proud to host the 3rd annual December Chill that was held Saturday Decmeber 11, 2004 in the Pinckney Recreation Area near Pinckney, Michigan.
» Overall Results Spreadsheet
» Race Pictures
Please visit our message board to provide us with feedback on the December Chill.
Event Recap:
On a cold snowy Saturday morning in mid December, what better place to be than the December Chill Adventure Race? This third annual event would once again be cold, fast and fun. The field was very large for this year’s race, filling up nearly two weeks prior to race day, and diversified with at least 10 teams in each division. Congratulations to all participants!
With a cold and fast race briefing at 8:10am, the race logistics were divulged. Racers had a few extra minutes to gear up and at 9:00am sharp the race began. Teams would start out with a fast trail run to get the blood pumping and body heat up. In this teams had the option to follow the Silver Lake Trail or make their way through the woods to the turn around point on the trail. That was where teams would gather their passports for the race. Then it was continuing on the trail looping back to the starting location for CP1. The rocky and somewhat slippery trail run was about 2 miles total.
Teams then transitioned to bike and headed off for Halfmoon Lake. This fast 5.5 mile bike was all on pavement and the lead teams were hitting the paddle section in less than an hour.
The paddle section led racers around Halfmoon Lake. It was short, at only 4 miles and non-technical, but it was a critical part of the race. Many racers came off the water very cold and wet. That took its toll on a few teams, causing some of them to drop out at that point. However, most racers that made it through the paddling leg without getting too cold went on to complete the race.
Then it was right back on the bike. Just a few miles down the road, racers had to dismount and carry, push and pull their bikes for a ¼ - ½ mile hike-a-bike section. Back on the road after this, racers headed mostly north to get on the Lakelands Trail for a few miles. Then teams had to head straight down through Hell and back to Silver Lake for the final transition. This bike leg totaled about 16-17 miles in all and included some very hilly and muddy back roads. Racers got the added bonus of actually seeing Hell frozen over in this section… Note that Hell, Michigan refereed to here is actually a very small town that the race course passed through.
Lastly, participants had the Orienteering course. At least two points were mandatory to complete the race. However, the lead teams that had really hammered out the initial parts of the race and would surely need to obtain all 16 points on the O-course to be competitive. The ropes for this race were a zip-line and located at one of the CPs on the orienteering course.
In impressive form, Team Tachyon (Tim and Dave Mielock) blazed the entire course seemingly without incident and completed the race in 5 hours and 32 minutes to take the overall and male division title. Absolute Endo (Andy and Jessica Yaksic) put together another fast race, taking the Coed division and finishing 2nd overall in 6:06. Joseph Smindak led the Solo division to finish in 7:09 and 4th overall. Team Friends of Virabhadrasana (Michelle Mathieu and Michelle Donatelli) were the winners of the female division by obtaining 8 control points and finishing in 7:43.
Congratulations again to all competitors. Just finishing, especially in a December event is a big accomplishment. 78 teams managed that feat with 2 finishing unranked and 13 being forced to drop out. There were plenty of beginners out there and we hope you enjoyed your first race experience. Rest assured they are not all this cold!
As always, thanks to our wonderful volunteers. We are very fortunate to have you come out and help support our races. We also want to thank the people at Pinckney Recreation Area. They were fantastic to work with and we certainly appreciate them letting us run around in their woods! Next time you are in Pinckney give them special thanks. We also are grateful to our many sponsors who have supported us this year, especially Moosejaw, Salomon and Michelob Ultra
We hope to see you all very soon at our 2005 events!
Race Staff
Infiterra Sports LLC
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