Double Feature is Coming

Submitted by beek on Sat, 09/12/2015 - 18:27


 

We've made it through Uff Da (well, results are in process), which means Fall is in the air--and Double Feature is coming.  This pair of races is one of our favorite weekends of the year.  It's one last big hurrah before the winter cold sets in and the snow flies, and is the only race where it feels perfectly natural to sit down in front of a roaring fire and have a big bowl of Dakota Harvest soup, before stepping back out the door and into the fray.

It's also a great beginner race, so if you've been hearing about us for a while and just haven't signed up, now is your chance.  Each day has three ways to race, Saturday on mountain bike (END-TOMBED) and Sunday on your own two feet (END-TRAILS):

  • The Imp. Started last year, we reailized there were people who wanted to come chill for a while without being gone the whole day.  The Imp starts at 2 PM, which is six hours into the whole enchilada--watch other people suffer while you test the waters on a single lap.
  • Skeleton Army.  Grab your team of up to four undead and alternate laps of the course, in any order you want, for the full 12 hours.  Two laps back-to-back by one person?  Only one lap by another?  It's all good.  
  • Zombie.  The premiere category. It's all you, racing other zombies to get the most laps in 12 hours.

We love this event because it brings people together in one place, not spread out over half of creation, never to be seen for hours at a time.  It's grassroots, which is how we like to do things.  To help push you off the fence, you should be seeing a "Save $10" link on each of the END-TOMBED and END-TRAILS web pages--just spread a little social network love to your friends and get a coupon code.  Your friends + our friends = a mighty fine race weekend to end the season.

END-SPAR 2015 Results

Submitted by beek on Sat, 05/23/2015 - 10:06

Results of END-SPAR 2015 (our sixth year of this race!) are available here.  As always, if you think there is a mistake, please let us know.

This was our first adventure race without Andy acting as course designer and race director, and I'm super glad so many teams came out to race.  The field included many teams who were either entirely new to the sport or had members acting as navigator for the first time. As someone who is not the best navigator in the world, I can understand how daunting it is to head out into a race with nobody more experienced to rely on.  The most common thing I hear when encouraging people to sign up for AR is that they would love to, but they don't think they can navigate.  So let's give a big THANK YOU to anyone who is teaching this vital skill and helping to grow the sport!

The course was hard this year, not only because the river conditions decided against rafting and forcing everyone to stand up and pedal or march the whole day.  The rogaine sections were tricky, the trail maps incomplete, and we misplaced one point on the map (the infamous CP E, which some of you found on the trail after we discovered our error and moved the point).  I'm thankful for everyone's understanding, but these things can be improved upon for the next race.  Due to the uncertain future of ENDracing, we can't promise anything for certain--but if you were looking for certainty, you wouldn't be doing adventure races.

Team captains will be receiving an email with a survey link and a graciously donated discount code for the Spruce Woods Adventure O.  If you like our races, the next one is END-BOB, right here in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks on June 6th.

 

 

END-SPAR 2015 is over!

Submitted by beek on Sun, 05/17/2015 - 11:29

Thanks everyone for an AWESOME #ENDSPAR yesterday!  It was a tough course for a spring race, but you all pulled through to the end!  

We'll have a longer race recap sometime soon, but if you get a chance, please check out the sponsors for this race: Dakota Harvest Bakers​, Plains Chiropractic & Acupuncture​, and all those listed on the North American Adventure Racing Series​ page.  Sponsorships aren't really for ENDracing--they're for you, the racers, and help keep costs low.

Special thanks to our small but dedicated volunteer squad: Dex, Betsy and Steve (TA1) and Sandi and Erin (TA2).  Without volunteers, these races couldn't happen at all.

END-WET Guest Swimmer: Sarah Thomas

Submitted by admin on Sat, 04/11/2015 - 15:07

We’re excited to announce Sarah Thomas as this year’s guest swimmer at END-WET! Sarah joins the ranks of past guest swimmers Darren Miller, Jen Schumacher, and Annaleise Carr.

Sarah is an American open water marathon swimmer. She entered the ultra-distance swimming world in 2010, completing the Catalina Channel. That same year she was the US Masters Swimming (USMS) 6K open-water champion for her age group. In 2011, Sarah swam the esteemed Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), taking 2nd female and 5th overall.

In 2013, Sarah completed two double-crossings in Lake Tahoe and Lake Memphremagog, impressively negative-splitting and setting records for each event. For these two record swims, Sarah was nominated for the 2013 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year and was the recipient of the Marathon Swimmers Forum 2013 Barra Award.

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