Suches, GA
Saturday, January 18th, 2003
Click here to read article from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"The race was definitely an adventure! We have many stories to tell. Look at the www.ngar.org message board to get a broader selection of team's experiences. It was a first class race. It was COLD, 2 degrees at the start. It was snowy, 3+ on the ground. It was icy, we all wiped out twice on the bikes. It was 12+ hours, 55 miles of biking to get to the first TA. Then the canoe was cancelled because the lake was frozen. We trekked for 4 hours before making the decision to stop before we got to the serious part of the course." - Nancy
"I can tell you it was a long ride home and I kept going over and over in my mind things I could do differently. One minute I feel proud of our accomplishments and the next minute I am disappointed in myself for giving up. I think these feelings are just as much a part of the adventure as the actual training and racing. One important thing to do is learn from the experience and I'm trying to do that. As time goes by and I see more racers commenting on the tough conditions I feel more proud of our efforts out there." - Mindy
Our support crew extrodinaire, Cathy and Jane, want to send out a special thank you to Jason for towing our support van up the icy road out of TA1. They might still be waiting on AAA otherwise! They drove back to Dahlonega to pick up Cathy's jeep for the remainder of the race only to find out when returning to Suches that Crew Zen had dropped.
"Thank you Cathy & Jane for the being an awesome support crew (yes, we were pretty needy), and thanks even more for being great friends." - Carey
"Winning, finishing or anytime you complete a goal is always meaningful and fantastic, BUT I still don't think you gals have anything to be ashamed of with pulling out of the race this weekend. There is no doubt in my mind that you were and are capable of finishing that race, but I have even more respect for you now because you showed that you can be smart and sensible as well as being able to "tough it out". With the weather conditions you had , your "margin of error" time was greatly reduced and could have led to life threatening consequences, so if you are worried about what the racing community may think I would think that they probably respect you more now and know they don't have to worry about you being a liability out there. Although, I really did want to take my jeep up and down an icy mountain trail! .....My only regret for the weekend!" - Cathy Coveney