The Toad Hollow Wilderness Adventure Duathlon

The (new & improved) Toad Hollow Wilderness Adventure Duathlon is a unique race format where 31 checkpoints were spread throughout the forest and racers used their navigation and bike riding skills to visit as many of those CPs as they could in 6 hours. Some were designated as "foot travel only", preventing this from turning into a glorified mountain bike race, and two special elements really tested competitors brainpower as they either had to negotiate a 3 point orienteering course from memory only, or another 3 point orienteering course using only compass bearings and no other terrain features. Amazingly enough, no one got lost, and some even claimed to have enjoyed it.

Warm and sunny weather all week held forth the promise of a fast race at Scioto Trail on Saturday March 19, and although no one "cleaned" the course, many teams enjoyed some good early season riding on the mountain bike trails throughout the forest. Although it threatened rain all day, it mostly held off until later in the race, but even that didn't stop people and many teams stayed out the entire six hours, before returning to some hot food and friendship at the Hash House. judging from the smiles and animated conversations, it was clear that everyone enjoyed the race.

All of the top teams completed both special elements, most of the TB course and much of the foot navigation course. Joe "Rock Doc" Garland, racing solo, had the best score, followed by the Coed Masters team of Steve Kaczor & Sue Douglas (who looked a bit surprised when the results were announced).