DANFORTH, Maine — Saturday, May 13, marked the 13th annual East Grand Adventure Race, held the second Saturday of May.
“This year’s course featured all the events racers have come to expect and more: a mile-long compass run, followed by a 10-mile bike ride, and ending with an 8-mile canoe and kayak race,” explained Dave Conley, one of the event organizers. “Many exciting challenges took place between the biking and paddling legs including the familiar mud pit crawl and log rolling in Baskahegan Stream. New challenges included a scaling wall, partially submerged 29-foot culvert to crawl through and an environmental challenge where racers identify evergreen tree samples.”
More than 100 people participated this year. The new family division opened up the race to parents and adult mentors taking part with younger children which included all elements except the biking portion.
Orono High school students along with numerous adults were well represented at the event with the high school boys team of Kellen Doyle and Ben Allan-Rahill not only winning their division, but the race overall with a course time of 2:28:02 before time deductions.
East Grand’s Philip Farley and Matthew Potter took 2nd place in the boys division and 2nd overall with a course time of 2:35:05. Kellen Doyle of Orono also won the door prize, a new Vapor kayak, paddle and life jacket donated by Old Town Canoe.
“Perhaps the biggest personal accomplishment of the day came from race participant Jill Plummer, a teacher at East Grand School, losing 100 pounds and getting into shape in preparation for the race,” Conley said. “After helping out with last year’s race, Jill set a personal goal of getting into shape and losing the weight in order to take part as a race participant this year. Jill achieved that goal while taking part on the relay team of Tammi Matula, Danlen Espenscheid and Erika Napoli as was all smiles the whole time.”
Ben Randall of Sabattus set a record in the 34-mile Baskahegan Stream separate canoe and kayak race with a time of 4:33:47. In second place was the four person team of Terry Wescott, Chip Loring, Ander Thebaud and Bob Hesser narrowly winning by only 13 seconds over the four person team of Marc Ranco, Justi Wardwell, Bill Deighan and Eve Dana. River Robertson came in fourth place with a time of 4:58:53.
Contributed photos
