Kinzua Country Tango Adventure Race

 

CSO Adventure Team: Left to Right: Nick Irwin (20 mile mountain bike & 8 mile canoe), Miranda Putt (6 mile orienteering), Shawnee Mohney (2.2 mile swim), Mike Knarr (4.5 mile run), Steve Putt (half marathon run & 6 mile orienteering) and Matt Frank (8 mile canoe & swimmer safety support in the kayak)

On August 2, 2014 the Country Squirrel Outfitters staff participated in the Kinzua Country Tango Adventure Race.  The “Tango” as it is usually referred to, is a series of 6 different stages.  Each stage offers a different challenge.  The first stage is a half-marathon(13.1 mile) run, which begins at the Warren YMCA, takes runners across the Kinzua dam and ends at the transition zone (Kinzua Beach) where the second stage begins.  The second stage is a 20 mile non-technical mountain bike ride through the local forest roads.  Stage 3 challenges participants with a 2.2 mile open lake swim.  A team member in a canoe or kayak follows the swimmer to ensure safety.  Stage 4 is a 6+ mile orienteering course in and around Jakes Rocks overlook.  Stage 5 is a 4.5 mile run and stage 6, the final stage, is an 8 mile canoe paddle on the Allegheny River toward the YMCA.  There are several different categories of competition. Our Country Squirrel Outfitters team participated in the Corporate Relay division, which means that all of the team members worked for the same “corporation.”  I'm not sure CSO really classifies as a "corporation" since we only have 8 people on staff, but that is the race division we competed in.  I believe most of the other teams in our division were from much larger companies.

This was our first attempt at the Tango.  To make things even more interesting, we decided to use CSO rental equipment.  The canoe (Mad River Journey 156), kayak (Perception Prodigy 10.0) and mountain bike (Cannondale Trail 7) that we used during the adventure race is the same equipment that we rent on a regular basis.  We didn’t break any records, but we sure had a lot of fun.  We ended up placing 5^th out of 16 teams in the corporate relay division.  A respectable finish for a bunch of Tango rookies using rental equipment.  Our overall time was 9 hours and 2 minutes.  We were within 18 minutes of second place in the division.  We look forward to taking on the Tango again in the future.