Posted: Sun Feb. 10, 2008 8:25 pm
2 team pinnnacle members battled it out to a almost draw on Sunday Feb 10th at the Newport Winter Carnival.
Ethan Willey, the local 15 year old outsmarted the favorite elder statesman Randy Waterman for a 5 second victory.
IT went down like this. 4 people toed the starting line, with maps in hand. Ethan, Cara, Randy and Linda. 10 checkpoints were spread out on a 2 mile course full of snow, fields, trees and snowmobile trails. Ethan and Randy were off like a shot and sprinted to the first checkpoint. An easy find Randy held a small advantage. The Gals trailed but seemed to be very steady and efficient. Both Randy and Ethan chose to cut across the field and chose the inefficient out and back technique, while the girls used the counterclockwise motion to actually take the lead momentarily.
Next came Randy's first error. In his haste to outpace the young Ethan (who new the woods better than anyone) Randy flew by checkpoint 5, and headed to Oak Street (which wasn't on the map). Ethan snagged checkpoint 5, head across the field for 6, then crossed the moat to snag the final 4 in the only real bit of woods we had. Once Randy realized his mistake, he grabbed the final4 checkpoints before looking for his missed checkpoint 5.
Meanwhile the Mother/Daughter combo were meticously pinpointing locations with great accuracy (Linda did need an assist, as she followed Randy to oak Street). Though they never ran a bit, their sense of direction was excellent.
Ethan with a full 10 punch card started the trip back to the Finish line. About a 3/4 mile run. Looking back he saw Randy chasing him down. Realizing Randy had yet to find # 5 Ethan relaxed a bit after he watched Randy miss the turn to where #5 was, and asked me where "the gate" was. Without revealing too much Randy deduced thet he yet again went by it. Ethan felt victory emerging, but had a steady paced jog to make sure. Looking back every 10 or so steps and not seeing anything for a quarter mile Ethan began to walk. What he didn't see was the Randy took the deeper, snowier, shorter route across the field rather than follow Ethan down the easier, longer, snowmibile trail. Within a 100 yards from the finish (as Randy quiety, but quickly, approached from behind) A snowmachine went by, as Ethan watched the snowmobile pass (apparently Ethan liked this model better than his 78 artic cat) he caught randy in the corner of his eye. A quick jolt of adrenaline got his legs moving again, finsishing just a mere 5 seconds ahead of Randy, who only needed another 20 yards of real estate to make his pass. Ethan 41:04 and Randy 41:09.
Cara (daughter) and Linda (mother) finished out the day at 51 minutes and 54 minutes respectively. A super time considering they did not run at all.
Big thanks to Dana, Nathan and Ryan for the help.
Learning what we did, look for a summer adventure in the Town Forest. "The King of the Town Forest", coming soon as one of your next Team Pinnacle adventures.
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