In response to Chris' request;

I ran two this past season, the Ultimate White Mountain and the
Ultimate Green Mountain. Both were phenominal races and I plan on
running the series this coming year (the one I missed last was the
Ultimate Adirondack). Website is at http://www.ultimate-race.com/
Let me list some pro/cons about this series
Pros
1. Marty (the Race Director) really caters the races to the
'racers.' He has two catagories; Championship (4 member coed which
covers about 65 miles) and then standard all male, all femail, &
mixed, consisting of three members, covering roughly 40 miles. If
you're up to it and have a three member team you can run the
championship. The difference in lengths are for teams that aren't up
to the longer race. This gives newer racers the opportunity to run
along seasoned teams.
2. Great race courses. Marty and his crew really put a lot of
effor into creating a challenging course and you'd be hard pressed to
find anyone that has run one of his courses tell you that it was easy.
3. Support: Some teams have a difficult time finding support
crew, so for an additional $50 smackers, Marty takes care of this for
you. He rents a large budget truck and totes the gear around for you
in two large containers that your team supplies. The teams I raced w/
used this 'unsupported' option at both races and it worked really
well.
4. Navigation: If you're new to the race scene, again, Marty
caters to the racers. He can provide a plotted map and additional
help w/ it if you request, or you can plot your own during the
pre-race step off.
5. The challenge: It's not neccessarily a race to see who can
get to the finish the fastest, but to see who can just make it to the
finish! His courses are really challenging and test your mentally and
physically in the short time frame of 12-14 hours.
I could go on, but you really need to run a race to get the true
experience. If you want further info just email me.

Cons. Honestly, there really weren't any. There were a few check
points that people griped about, but that happens in a lot of other
races as well. I can' really say that I found anything negative about
the races.

Again, if you have questions, let me know. Otherwise, hope to see you
all at the upcoming climbing day/night @ Petra. Lets get out and have
some fun.

Greg.


--- In gmara@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Yager" <yagercs1@y...> wrote:
>
> I'd love to hear what racers thought of the different races they
> attended or volunteered at this year. So if you don't mind, take a
> moment and fill in the group.
>
> Not only at the battle stories interesting, it will help people
decide
> what to think about doing next summer.