WaterTribe's 2009 N.C. Challenges

I've been very busy.

The inaugural 2009 WaterTribe North Carolina Challenge and North Carolina Ultra Marathon is now one for the record books. A strong cold front over the weekend made the Challenge truly worthy of a WaterTribe event.

The NCC started with 5 sailboats (two solo), 9 kayaks (one double), and 1 sea canoe; the NCUM with 2 sailboats and 2 kayaks.

NCC finishers included 3 sailboats (1 solo) and 5 kayaks (all solo), NCUM finishers were 1 sailboat and 1 kayak. Finishers picture below.

There are lots of great pictures and video’s on the WaterTribe Viewer, and their should be lots of great stories posted on the forum throughout the week, results are here.

Unlike the shark and alligator tooth necklace award one receives in the Florida challenges, the NC challengers received 'Pieces-of-Eight' necklace awards, homage to NC's coastal history of pirates.

I spent the past year planning and organizing this new event with WaterTribe, and then ran it as Race Manager. Quite an interesting job; a big change from being a regular participant, yet certainly a challenge in itself. The weather made for some worry, having my husband and son in the race also added a bit to the emotional roller-coaster, but all the excitement and interest helped make it more fun than work.

We'll make some changes to next year’s event having learned so much this year. Bigger and better. First, we’d like to add a longer option, maybe a 50, 100, and 300 mile concurrent challenges. Special thanks to friends Frank, Maria, and Dave for their help and support over the weekend, and thanks to Chief of WaterTribe for help and support, you all really came through for me.

Now it’s time to get my paddle in the water for some of my own adventures.

And then I need to do some housekeeping on this blog. It seems to have reformatted and re-colored itself a bit. It's time for a new updated look.