Krispy Kreme Challenge 2009!

On Saturday, Team NORSA members Adam, Alan Stewart, Tim Josey, and Taylor Hinson were joined by newcomer Scott Hinson and over 5,000 other runners to compete in the 5th annual Krispy Kreme Challenge.

The official event involves running 2 miles from NC State University's belltower to the historic Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in downtown Raleigh, eating 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and then running the two miles back in under an hour.



This was Adam's fourth year of participation and the size of the race has grown each year in number and stature. This year a commentator from ESPN participated in the race in a suit and tie with a camera crew in tow.

In the end, only 1,433 individuals successfully completed the challenge. Congratulations to Adam and Alan for their noteworthy finish times.

Participant    Run1(Rank)  Donut(Rank)  Run2(Rank)  Overall
ADAM   19:28(1062) 13:34(424)   19:09(684)  49:30(571)
ALAN   19:42(1105) 17:53(739)   18:33(573)  53:26(818)

The winner completed the entire race in 28:09 and the fastest doughnut time was 1:44.

McTrouser Gravy Bike Challenge a ... success!

Long ago, NORSA cycling veterans Tim Josey, Alan Stewart, and Adam gathered over drinks and hashed up a new type of competition. This would combine elements of Ironman, the Krispy Kreme Challenge, and the Virgilinia Twelvety. A sort of Mythbusters crossed with Fear Factor, the event would require stamina, endurance, and perseverance. After many months of rescheduled dates and school conflicts, the team gathered this past Sunday to complete the McTrouser Gravy Bike Challenge.

Everyone knows that endurance cycling, McDonald's Quarter Pounders, and prunes all have something in common - they all create a similar effect on your body. The heart of the McTrouser Gravy Bike Challenge was to combine all three elements and see who could hang on the longest.



The team gathered Sunday at 11:00 AM (along with NORSA member and race supporter Taylor Hinson) and started with the pre-bike portion of the event. Over the course of an hour the competitors consumed a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and three cups of prunes (roughly 1.25 lbs), with prune juice being the only beverage alternative. Keep in mind that most internet sources recommend a daily intake a 2-3 prunes, with 4-6 being a daily maximum.

After an hour had passed and the members had consumed the burgers and prunes, they straddled their bicycles and began a bike ride on their traditional Bonsal training route. This bike ride mostly travels through rural terrain with many uninhabited stretches which would provide ample opportunity for the competitors to abandon the race and sprint into the woods.

A rule was set which mandated the crew hold a 15 mph average, but throughout the ride actually held an average of over 17 mph. As the miles ticked by, the crew could feel the dense mass of prunes ravaging their innards. Beginning as severe stomach cramps, the feeling later transformed itself into a pressing need to stop cycling.

Adam was the first competitor out of the race, bailing at the 17.8 mile mark. After being picked up by Taylor in the chase vehicle, they caught up to the riders just in time to see Alan abandon the race just past Bonsal at the 22 mile mark.



Showing a feat of inhuman strength, Tim remained in competition long after he had to. "I couldn't s@#% even if I tried" Tim reported as Alan made a dash behind a set of railroad tracks. At this point, the team got into the chase vehicle and returned to Adam's house, where Tim continued to compete for approximately another hour.

The team learned a few things from this endeavor. 1) Prunes and prune juice in massive quantities do not taste good. 2) The cramping is the worst part of the competition. 3) The effects of the competition continue for many hours longer than you would like them to.

The challenge was formally completed and at the end of the day, win or lose, everyone was a loser.

From our family to yours ...

And a NORSAtastic New Year!

NORSA Films Visits Iron Furnace!

Team NORSA members Alan Stewart and Tim Josey took a canoing expedition to Iron Furnace last weekend. NORSA Films was in tow to document the expedition. Enjoy!



A NORSA Films Production

The First to "Brown" Themselves Loses

What: The first ever NORSA-sponsored "McTrouser-Gravy-Bike Challenge."
When: 3:00 PM, Sunday, September 21st, 2008
Where: Raleigh, NC
Why: ...

Following on the heels of the previously NORSA sponsored "Pork and Beans Race" and "Gallon of Crappy Ice Cream Escapade" comes the "McTrouser-Gravy-Bike Challenge." Conceived at a bar and nurtured through many beers, this event carries the NORSA name to new depths.

Rules:

NORSA Cyclists Make It to Virgilina!!

On Sunday, April 13th, NORSA cyclists Alan Stewart, Mike Rhodes, Tim Josey, and Adam successfully completed the epic Raleigh to Virgilina, VA road ride - a 116 mile trip from central North Carolina, north to the Virginia border town of Virgilina, and back.

NORSA had attempted the trip back in December but was hampered by 40 degree temperatures and cold rain. The cyclists made it only halfway to Virgilina and turned back at the town of Stem, NC. Virgilina remained in their sights, however, and April 13th proved to be the day when the weather and everyone's schedules cooperated.

The team left from Ryan Boyle's house in North Raleigh at 8:00 AM (Alan and Adam had spent the night before partying with the NC State Sailing Club for it's annual Commodore's Gala semi-formal). Following a route mapped out by Mike and Tim, the cyclists swiftly covered the first 25 miles of familiar territory past Creedmore and Stem. Just before reaching Stem, they were pursued by the first of many packs of dogs. A group of three dogs charged into the road as the team rode by a property, putting the cyclists into an all-out sprint which left the dogs behind but resulted in the first of two flat tires for Adam.

Adam patched his tire and the team continued on through some of the most beautiful countryside North Carolina has to offer. Horse farms, pine plantations, and traditional farmland provided scenery under a beautiful sun and 60' temperatures as they worked their way north. Then, a little after 12:00 PM, the cyclists left the State of North Carolina and entered the Commonwealth of Virginia!

After lunch at an exceedingly 'local' pub/restaurant/bar, the cyclists made a lap through town, and headed south. Following a different and partially bootlegged route back, they pedaled their way across rolling hills, through the town of Oxford, and back to Ryan's house. Legs and rear-ends burned with pain, but in a good way.

Virgilina was a success. The only disappointment from the trip was for Alan and Adam, who experienced a painful revelation of exactly how far the Louisville Ironman will be.

See Tim's photos and videos here! See Alan's photos here!
Check out Tim's GPS tracker. 5300+ feet of climbing ... not too shabby.

Team NORSA Cycling Attempts 1st Stage of the BBBT - The Virgilina Twelvety

[Courtesy of Alan Stewart and sailnaway.blogspot.com]

For the last 3 weeks or so, Adam, Mike and Alan had planned a ride from Raleigh North to Virgilina, VA. Virgilina is a very small and unique town in that half of it is in NC and half in VA a total of about 120miles round trip and the plan was to complete the whole ride in one day leaving early in the morning. Tim was also exited about it and joined the group as did Adam's friend Steve who drove down from DC for the weekend. Team NORSA was on the road again.

We rolled out from Base Camp (Mike and Alan's apartment) at 7:36am Sat. morning bundled up for the low 40 degree temperatures and 100% overcast skies that greeted us. The forecast for the day was low 40s all day with increasing chance of rain after about 1pm in Raleigh and 100% chance in the evening. Being an optimistic bunch we just decided that we would probably be ok. We took flashy bike lights along since we figured that we would not make it back before dark. We were off.

From left: Adam, Steve, Mike, Tim (Alan w/ camera). It was cold but we were making good progress and having fun. Averaging about 15mph and with purpose we were exited to be on an adventure and awaited what challenges might lie ahead of us. Dun dun dun (...thats foreshadowing).

Adam had one flat tire at the bottom of a hill just before we got to Falls Lake which is exceptionally low due to the severe drought in and around Raleigh. We waited up for him and all was well. We made it to a gas station for a bathroom break in Stem, NC about 32miles out when the rain started. Mike noticed the drizzle at first and then bigger drizzle quickly followed. A check on time revealed that we would definitely not be making it home before and dark and while we are a rough and tough bunch, even we were not prepared to ride home in the dark...in the rain...in the freezing cold. No thanks. We voted, and with more weather on its way decided to return to base camp. It would be lunch in Raleigh at IHOP for this chilled crew

But not before photo proof of our progress as the Stem Town Hall Police Department building served as a backdrop. With a renewed energy we headed back to Raleigh. About a quarter of the way back we outran the drizzle storm that was moving west south west and the roads were dry again but it was definitely a little colder.



We made it home around 12:30 after riding a solid 65miles. Feeling good about our accomplishment and now fully realizing how much the temperature had dropped as the darker clouds filled in faster than expected we enjoyed a satisfying IHOP lunch and good conversation. Team NORSA has unofficially vowed to attempt the ride again in the near future. If you're interested in coming along just let us know.

NORSA Adventure Racing Team Debuts at the 2007 Gold Nugget!

This past weekend, members of the NORSA Adventure Racing Team (Mike Rhodes, Alan Stewart, Tim Josey, and Adam) competed in the "Dirty Dozen" category of the 2007 Gold Nugget Adventure Race. Taking place in and around the Uhwarrie National Forest in south-central North Carolina, this 12 hour race was a combination of mountain biking, trail-running, bushwacking, canoeing, orienteering, and a high ropes course.

Trip Report and Photos by Alan Stewart:

"We arrived Friday late afternoon and set up camp at Morrow Mountain State before heading down to God's Country Outfitters to check in with the race director. There were many other racers there, including a two man team and from Erie, Pennsylvania who remarked that "we wanted to get in one more before we went to nationals." They apparently do many 24 hour races and made themselves out to be quite the hotshots (despite the fact that they were staying in a hotel friday night). Our other favorite quote was... "You guys have altimeters on your watches right?" We must have asked each other about 100 times during the race.."TIM! whats the altimeter reading? I think we're almost there!" They were nice guys though; fun to talk to.

Afterwards, we hit up the Walmart Supercenter for supplies, headed back to camp, ate dinner, and did some last minute rigging. Racing started at 6:45am.

We were up at 6am and after the pre-briefing, with a blow of the horn at 7:00 AM, it was a mad dash to the top of Morrow Mt. to get our maps and passports. The trail was composed of very steep switchbacks for about 3 miles and NORSA's biking experience showed through as we were the first ones to the top. We felt good biking in close formation and passing other teams with ease (and maybe pushing a little hard so early on). We joked later that the newbies were saying "holy shit," while the old guys were calling us "newbies."

We plotted our points, headed back down to the get the boats, crossed the river, and got to the transition area without incident. Our first stop was check point (CP) 2 where we completed the special challenge: a high ropes course. The course was pretty easy but waiting in line for 15 minutes to get on the stupid thing was hard. We were all feeling really good.

Next, we were off on our bikes. We hit all the waypoints designed for the bike (near a bike or jeep trail) over the course of six hours of HARD riding over extreme grades and rocks with brief moments of jogging through woods to a CP. We had to backtrack once after getting a little exited on a downhill run and blowing by a CP worth 40 points. We finally finished the bike course with about 5:30 hrs remaining. We got in the boats again and went for the canoe points.

We decided (for some reason) that we could hit the canoe CP's faster by landing and running through the woods instead of paddling. We landed and started running. We were off by about a 1/2 mile on the first point. It took us a while to figure it out but we eventually got it (it was hanging off a limb over the water, imagine that). The second one took us pretty far off course but we found it (well Adam did) by literally he just stumbling upon it walking toward the river.

The return to the boats took us onto to a road where we jogged for a while before taking a creek bed back to the canoes (a pretty major detour). By this time we were down to 1hr and we needed to get back to base camp.

We made it across the river post haste, hurried up the trail to base camp, and turned in our map with about 15 minutes to spare. This is the part where you are supposed to start the Orienteering course. We threw everything down, got the "O" map, located the first point and sprinted for it. We made it back and finished together with about 1 minute to spare and 5 more points added to our score.

We got some mad props for our "never quit" attitude and found out that the hot shots from PA didn't get any of the "O" points which we thought was kind of weird. When we finished they had already showered so they must have thrown in the towel hours ago (not very NORSA'esque).

Pizza, Subways and gatorade awaited us at the finish line (a welcome sight) and we ate ... a lot ... while we talked to Altimeter guy and his partner comparing routes and. The awards followed immediately afterward and though we didn't get top 3 we were still really happy with our day's accomplishments. There was a raffle of sorts as well. Tim scored a $30 floor pump, Mike got trail guide for Uwharrie forest, Adam got a bottle of electrolyte powder and I got another event T-shirt.

We slept well that night and woke up around 8am. We left the campground at 9:30 and made it back to Raleigh by noon. Great trip; awesome adventure. Another one for the NORSA record books."