The 2022 USARA National Championship course has proven challenging in many ways: altitude, technical terrain and route selection come to mind first. This year racers had an added challenge of plotting some of their own points on their maps. That is, the checkpoints they normally see as little circles on the map were instead given to them as a set of coordinates that they must then interpret to make their own map markings. This task is challenging enough for most well-rested navigators., but these teams are doing it after 12 hours of hard work, and in the dark.

As teams plotted their points, they needed to pay special attention to course notes and rules to travel to ensure they were not using any off-limits areas. Navigation at night is difficult to begin with, but throwing in potentially mis-plotted points and off-limits roads… it becomes extremely easy to make a mistake. At least one team has found that out overnight. Team Natural State Adventures has been the first team to be assessed a 4 hour penalty for using an off-limits road. While they certainly have cause for disappointment, they may not be the only ones. Judging by some of the other teams’ tracks, there might be additional teams receiving the same 4 hour penalty. More to come.