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2005 SALOMON/MOOSEJAW SPRING FURY
Salomon North America and Moosejaw Mountaineering where proud to host the 2nd annual Spring Fury that was held Saturday April 30, 2005 in the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area near Waterford, Michigan.
» Overall Results Spreadsheet
» Race Pictures
- Special Thanks to Tim Coddington for providing most of these pictures.
Please visit our message board to provide us with feedback on the Spring Fury.
Event Recap:
On a chilly spring morning racers began gathering well before the first light of day beckoned. They were checking in for the 2nd Annual Salomon/Moosejaw Spring Fury 8 Hour Adventure Race. This race had sold out nearly two months prior to the event date, so the field was packed and excited. This year’s race was held in Pontiac Lake Recreation Area in Waterford Township. It would be a strategic, challenging and fun race for all involved. Racers came in to a special treat of Salomon windblades that lined the trail to the registration pavilion.
Before long 221 racers had checked in with their teams and the Race Briefing was underway. Teams were learned that they would be picking and choosing their course to their liking. At 8:30am the two person teams were off. With the vast field, the four person and solos started a half hour later on a stagger. Both groups would complete the same course in 8 hours from their start time.
The race started on foot with a quick and simple orienteering section of two points. At each point racers would obtain a map of the course. One map had the points to be obtained from the canoe section and one map contained the bike course with three bike drop locations. Racers would choose which leg to run first, either paddle or bike.
Upon returning to CP3 Teams made their decision on which discipline they would pursue first. 80% of the field chose to paddle first. The paddling was on Pontiac Lake and had points 4-9. Of these CPs three were mandatory and points could be obtained in any order. However, nearly all of these points were located on land and many times teams had to land their canoes and go off on foot after the CPs. This left racers with lots of choices and decisions to make. Go after all points? Get the minimum and get to the bike course? Or somewhere in between? And then which order to retrieve the points? What a great scenario!
Then it was to CP10 where teams could transition into biking gear. A great bike course, 10 miles of single-track lay ahead now. But the trail was divided up into sections by the three bike drops. At each bike drop teams would receive a new map with seven CPs. Of these seven, three were mandatory in each section. In other words there were three mini Score-O sections. Again, lots of choices and strategy for teams. The ropes course in this race was one of the points in the final Score-O section or third bike drop. It was a massive zip line in a gravel pit. This giant, fun zip was coordinated by Planet Rock Climbing Gym who did a fantastic job of keeping teams moving and the waits to a minimum with two lines running full speed.
Then it was on to the finish. There were some teams that chose to bike first and paddle second, so they just did the disciplines in reverse order, but the course was completed in the same manner.
Great Job to all who competed. It did turn out to be a challenging course, but one that was thoroughly enjoyed by most teams. Congratulations to the winning teams, they did just a spectacular job. Overall winners Absolute Endo/Northern Michigan Endurance Team (4 person coed) in 6:01, second Ambush Adventure Racing (2 person male) in 6:53, third Blue Bayou (4 person coed) in 7:29, fourth Cliff Lambarth (solo) in 7:30.
Each of these teams obtained all 34 control points. Rounding out the top three for the four person coed division was Hafke Legal Services (14th overall, 7:44 with 32 CPs). The two person coed winner was Quagmire (19th overall, 7:46 with 30 CPs) with C^2 in second (23rd overall, 8:00, 28 CPs) and Relentless Pursuit third (26th overall, 7:54, 27 CPs). The 2 person male division had a tie for second and third place (5th overall, 7:37, 34 CPs) between 2 Fools w/ Wheels and John Hufstedler’s Team. The solo male 2nd place was also a tie between Mike Hanchett and Bill Scanlan (7th overall, 7:57, 34 CPs). The solo female winner was Tina Coughley (46th overall, 7:34, 19 CPs). Unfortunately both two person female teams that started the race finished just over the cutoff time, but they did put on a tough race. There were 9 teams total that got all 34 CPs and 47 of the 91 teams that started the race found enough CPs and finished before the cutoff time to be considered a ranked team. 39 teams completed the course but either not with enough CPs or not before the cutoff. Only five teams were forced to drop out of the race.
We had some great volunteers for this race and want to extend a special thanks to them. They were great! Also, special thanks to Salomon for attending the race and bringing out the works. What a touch to the race! And to Planet Rock for running the Ropes all day, what a great job! Great thanks to Pontiac Lake Recreation Area for their cooperation and use of their facility. We hope to see you all again soon! And thanks to all our wonderful sponsors for their terrific support. We know the racers enjoy all of it!
Race Staff
Infiterra Sports LLC
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