by Jess Evans
September 11, 2018
The USARA National Championship Race will be held in Bloomington, Indiana on Sept 28. Because that race is approaching, I thought it would be fun to recount some of my memories from past races.
When I first learned of these championship races, I day dreamed of how cool it would be to go to one, but was sure I would never have the opportunity. Therefore, in 2011 when I was asked to join a team that had already qualified for Nationals with another female teammate, I jumped at the chance. Their female teammate was racing with a different team much to my luck. I was sure that I would never have the opportunity to do that race again. But… I have qualified and gone to the USARA National Championship Race 5 times since that 2011 race. Each time has been so much fun and full of great memories.
There is at least one thing that stands out for each USARA National Race I attended through the years. In 2013, the race was in Brown County, Indiana. I remember walking down a trail after mid-night and hearing this loud water-rushing sound coming towards us. My mind could not formulate what it could possibly be. It turned out to be a wall of rain barreling down on us. We stepped to the side of the trail under the trees, but soon found ourselves standing in what seemed like a waterfall in the woods. This rain did not stop for several hours. In 2014, the race was in Maryland, a state I had never been too. The fall colors were spectacular, but it was a cold race. During the night it rained, and in the morning, the temperature dropped. We had our final ride to the finish in snow flurries. During that race, we stopped at a campground restroom in the middle of the night to sit under the hand driers and warm up. Somehow we tore ourselves away from those hand driers. In 2015, the race was in Kentucky at Pine Mountain. The race started with rain, and I am not sure if the rain ever stopped. Wearing my poncho during the paddle was futile, because I was soaked to the bone before we got in the boats. We tipped our canoe at one point and just felt cold wet rather than the warm wet of our clothes. 2016 USARA National Adventure Race was in Georgia. This race had some great single track around the lake in the middle of the night. For this race, it was actually hot until dawn. My long tights were too hot at 3AM. At dawn, while we paddled down the Savannah River, I was finally shivering a little. That race was also memorable for the bug bites I found all up and down my legs. In 2017, the race was in Pennsylvania. That was my first time racing in Pennsylvania and on an all female team. Both the team and the race venue were lovely. This was another warm race except for in the middle of the night. The temperature dropped pretty quickly at night. We decided to skip the second river crossing because staying warm was a priority. Later we heard that was a good choice.
I will be going to the USARA National Championship again this year with 361 Adventures Chickpoints. We are defending our first place title for the All Female Open Division.
