Tag: USARA National Championship

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Crazy sweeps the competition!

If you go back and look at “Crazy” posts in the last few years, you’ll see a handful of entries about how my little brother Justin and Team WEDALI have kicked some major adventure racing ass. Well, they can’t accomplish much more than they have in the last two weeks:

In 2012, WEDALI became the first team to win both the USARA National and the Checkpoint Tracker Championships.

(Admittedly, this is only Checkpoint Tracker’s third championship race, but given that WEDALI won it last year and this year, that’s pretty damn impressive.)

So pretty much all I can say at this point is… wow. And congratulations to Justin, his wife Molly and all of Team WEDALI!

Just for fun, here’s a video of the team crossing the finish line this morning (and I’m proud to say that yes, that’s my little brother dropping his bike and cackling wildly… I can’t imagine why people might think we’re related).

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Crazy is crazy fast

I know, I need to write another blog entry about what I’ve been doing recently, but this story is way cooler. If you look back at this entry, you’ll note that my little brother Justin is a bad-ass adventure racer. And when I say “bad-ass”, I mean “crazy good.”

He and WEDALI do really well in races across the country to earn points—he and his teammates have been racking up lots of frequent flier miles—the points at races sanctioned by United States Adventure Racing Association accumulate until (hopefully) qualifying the team for the final race of the year. I think they finished fourth for total number of points, so last weekend was USARA Nationals.

Here’s a little blurb from the front page on the website:

“About The Race

“The USARA Adventure Race National Championship is the “Heart & Soul” of Adventure Racing in the United States. Co-ed teams of 3 compete in 45 USARA regional qualifying events across the U.S. for a chance to battle it out for the title of USARA Adventure Race National Champion.

“Teams are required to navigate a series of checkpoints using only a map and compass to guide them while transitioning between several disciplines such as: Trail Running/Trekking, Mountain Biking, Paddling and Orienteering.

“These teams will have to push the boundaries of human endurance and teamwork just to finish. Winning will require extreme willpower, mastery of all disciplines, and a little luck.”

But here’s the most important page on the website: the final results. That’s right, WEDALI didn’t think fifth at Primal Quest last year would be enough of a legacy. They had to go ahead and WIN Nationals this year. Daaaaaamn…

So to Justin, his wife Molly and their teammate Erl, congratulations. Lots and lots of congratulations. I got to see a picture of the trophies they received—individual and a team trophy—and lemme tell ya, whoever keeps the big one will need to reinforce the mantle above the fireplace. Big trophy for a big accomplishment.