County adventure race challenges teams

FORT FAIRFIELD – Strains of “We Are the Champions” drifted through the air Saturday morning as about 50 competitors warmed up in a gravel pit for the start of the fourth annual Aroostook Adventure Race.

It was music meant to inspire, no doubt, because as race officials emphasized, this was no ordinary race.

“This really tests racers’ physical and mental ability,” Bobbi-Jo Caron, co-race director said on Saturday. “They need to be focused on completing the race and on the tasks we give them to complete.”

The competition, which included canoeing, mountain biking, trekking and compass and map reading, involved 14 four-person teams and took between four and six hours to complete.

The event is organized by The Aroostook Medical Center and raised about $10,000 for TAMC’s Lifeline Emergency Response System, a one-button response and support service that provides help in an emergency to seniors, people with disabilities and those with short-term needs.

While the cause is good, and racers cited it as a main reason for participating, the event’s challenge also was a major attraction.

Eric Hendrickson has been designing the race, sanctioned by the United States Adventure Racing Association, for four years. Each year, he tries to incorporate something new and unexpected into the race. Last year, he sent people trekking up and down Mars Hill Mountain several times – a memory that still causes some returning racers to shudder.

This year’s challenge involved a compass-based scavenger hunt around the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle.

Racers also faced a 6-mile paddle down the “very low” Aroostook River. They were forced to get out several times along the waterway and drag their canoes across mudflats.

They also endured an even longer bike ride – a highlight was a trail that dropped suddenly at a 45-degree angle followed shortly by a 220-degree turn; and a very long hike through the woods.

The course layout is kept top secret until the morning of the race. No one even knows where the course starts until a few days beforehand.

The lack of information, though, did not seem to deter racers who gobbled doughnuts, double-checked their equipment and chatted with competitors as they waited at the start line – the gravel pit – for the race to begin.

“We’re hoping to have a good time out there,” Brendan Tateishi of the New York City team “Big Apples Little Spud” said on Saturday.

He and his girlfriend Megan Reich are training for the New York City Marathon and thought the adventure race would be a fun workout. Tateishi’s father Richard, who works at TAMC, told them about the race. Tateishi, Reich and Tateishi’s sister, Caitlyn, decided to do it “mostly on a whim.”

It was no whim, though, for Craig Green, who has competed with his teammates Matt Smith and Scott Higgins for the past four years.

He shared fond memories of past races in which they got hung up on low tree branches, dragged across the muck in a river and stung by bees. Green’s favorite anecdote is the fact that “both of my teammates have dislocated my ribs at some point.”

The men joked that “the yelling” is what keeps them together, but then they laughed and looked at each other.

“It’s fun,” Green said with a grin. “You just never know what’s going to happen.”

Aroostook Adventure Race winners:

Co-ed Division: “Goldielocks, 2 Bears, and a Bobcat,” Brent Jepson, Brian Powers, Erin Bougie, Haley Jepson

Men’s Division: “Four Firemen,” John Simko, Keith Kendall, Mark Doty, Joey Harris

Senior Division: “Boomerangs,” Bonnie Wood, Stephen Wood, Deborah McGann, Lenny Cole

Women’s Division: “Just Not Last,” Kimberly Beekman, Susan Snow, Tanya White, Mary Smith