Seventy-nine racers signed up for the first SMARTBlast event - The Blast. The weather was perfect for the start. Cloudy, cool and not too windy. Race start was at 8:00 A.M. from American Cycle and Fitness (ACF) in downtown Pontiac. Racers left ACF on foot to get to the canoe put in at Beaudette Park a couple miles away. There were four check points on Sylvan and Otter Lake to choose from with only two being mandatory. Several teams got all 4 making the paddle 7 miles long. The next stop was Planet Rock where racers had 7 different routes to climb. Most racers really enjoyed climbing but found it challenging with wet shoes or bike shoes.

Next stop was Murphy Park for the orienteering course that some thought would never end. This is also were Mother Nature decided to bless the racers with a short shower making it slippery on the sledding hill that they had to bike down. Most racers were surprised at how thick the bush could be in an urban race. The 1:24000 scale made it difficult to find some CP's (CP11). CP8 (man-made pit) was another one you either liked or hated. It was truly a man-made pit that you had to move the wood cover to find. One team said they stood on the cover for 20 minutes trying to find it before they realized it was right under their feet.

From Murphy Park teams were suppose to bike out the back and head for the Clinton River Trail. Many teams decided to get more than the minimum on the canoe or at Murphy and did not have time to do the bike trail. The bike portion was an out and back on the the trail to the M59 overpass.

Teams returned to ACF to begin the city portion of the race fighting an ever increasing west wind. Most teams did the bike toss first thing right at ACF to get their raffle ticket for a chance to win a bike. It looked like some teams took out their aggressions from the Murphy O course on the bike toss. I never thought anybody could toss a bike that heavy that far. No teams completed all the city O course. There were two flags (both on the river) and several "thinking" events. CP19 (Earth 2 Earth) was one block off on the map (my mistake) that sent racers to the Oakland Press to use their two quarters to buy a paper. The Oakland Press had set out a special box for The Blast. Another stop was Mill Street Grille for two other special events. One racer was blindfolded and had to put together a puzzle with directions from their teammate. The other event had two racers on a piece of wood using a rope to pull themselves a short distance. It required the racers to keep moving the rollers from the back to the front of the wood. Another challenge was to navigate through the parking structure and find sponsor stickers on columns (Moosejaw and Kahtoola).

The finish was chaos with all the racers finishing within 30 minutes of each other and 40 mile an hour wind gusts blowing. While we hurried to finalize the results, racers enjoyed a feast of barbequed chicken (grilled right at ACF on race day), potato salad, chips, watermelon and lots of homemade deserts. No one should have left hungry!

Prizes, prizes and more prizes were next. Our sponsors really came through with some great prizes. We raffled the first bike from ACF while waiting for the results. All first place teams received shoes from Salomon North America. Second place teams received Kahtoola Snow Travel Systems or gift certificates from Runnin' Gear and ACF. Team Holy Cannoli One (coed) was first overall followed by Team Chrysler (M/M). Brett Dohnal finished third but was not eligible for prizes because we did not have a solo category. Jeco (M/M), He Owed Me One(coed), Dirtylicious (coed), Murphy's Law (M/M), South Lyon Cycle, and Stony Creek Bike rounded out the top ten finishers overall. In the female team Whatever, Hanging On and Grizzly Kittens finished in the top three for their division. There were still a ton of prizes left so we started the raffle. Every one should have left with prize. The last bike was then raffled and the event was officially over!

Please support our sponsors and send them a thank-you if you received a postcard because they donated some great prizes.

SMART wants to thank all the racers, volunteers, sponsors (especially ACF) and our families for all their help and support. This caused some sleepless nights and anxious moments leading up to the race. It was our first attempt at putting on a race and promoting the sport of Adventure Racing. We hope you all enjoyed it and have some good stories to tell your friends and co-workers!

The Oakland Press ran a great article today (June 1st) with a picture of the canoe on page A3 that would make a nice souvenir.The Oakland Press Link. AOL users use this Link.

Our volunteer photographer, Kim Squires, must have been busy. She has posted over 400 photos for your viewing pleasure. Click on the Pictures Link.

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Results Sheet

Racer Instructions

Map 1

Map 2