Equinox Mission Hills AR

Check out the organizer's blog below for the Mission Hills Race and check out his website. A great way to get into Adventure Racing!

http://www.baadventures.com/events.html
Blog written by Barrie (event organizer)

We had 37 participants participate in the short course of short run, bike, hike and bike. For some the bike section was longer as some checkpoints locations gave more of a workout. The race started at 10 AM and the short course winner (Devlin Rambo) was done and on his way home by noon. However, most of the contestants did the long course and the first place team of Jacob Bencke and Ramon Escobar finished in 2 hours 44 minutes. Close behind were two solo racers (Garret Bean and Kevin Swartzlander) who had no prior knowledge of Mission Trails. All racers were finished by 3 PM and what was meant to be a race at a different location was now over.

The map used for this race was a Regional Park map with trails only. It had no contours which meant racers had to rely on trail junctions and park signs rather than map features to pick their route. Because of the lack of features the race did not have a lot of route choices, it was instead a ride and run over some of our favorite trails west of the Fortuna hills.

The race started with a dash to their bikes, where the picked up information about the location of CP3 and CP11 (marked on the map above, but not on the racers map). The first valley crossing took them to CP1 and they then rode the Quarry Loop to CP2 and CP3 (for the short course) before heading to the TA. Those electing to do the long course had options to get CP3 and seemed to take all options including coming past the TA, traversing back to the start area and staying on trails, as well as hike-a-bike cross country along a small canyon.

When they got to the TA area racers dropped their bikes and took off on about a 4 mile loop across Suycott Wash and up the trail known affectionately as Cardiac Hill, to CP4. From there they ran along the ridge to the Fortuna Saddle and CP5, before returning to the TA. The course was straightforward and on a day where the weather was in the mid-60’s it was a great time for a run, hike, or struggle up the steps to CP4.

When they left the TA racers headed north along the rim trail to CP6, then down Portobello Ridge to CP7 which led them to a trail along Hwy 52 to CP8. There were various ways from CP8 to the Suycott Wash trail and local knowledge would have given the easiest route, but we assume those not familiar with the area got a good workout taking the main trail as it crested a small saddle leading down upper Suycott to CP9. This is one of the fun single tracks for bikes in the park with a short steep technical start to the trail, then some sweeping manicured curves leading to the lower trail and CP10.

After CP10 the short course headed toward the finish line with a small hill to locate CP11. The long course contestants were able to go fast down to the River crossing, to then turn around and grind back up the same hill after getting their CP11. :( In hindsight this was not a very nice checkpoint to finish the race with, but everyone took it in good cheer :lol: , bemoaning the fact the hill was such a climb, but agreeing that it gave the race some toughness.

Thanks to everyone for finishing, and congratulations to Devlin for making short work of the shorter course, and to Jake and Ramon for finishing first on the long course.