Gnome Hunters' Plans for 2010

Posted Fri, January 15, 2010 - 10:02 PM
gnomehunters, advracing

Time for another beginning-of-the-year meeting to plan our outdoor adventures! Last week we met at the Happy Gnome, fittingly, to discuss the future of Gnome Hunters.

This year is better than last, since we have at least three good expedition level races - the biggest one is Untamed New England, which will take place in the Dixville Notch area of northern New Hampshire (which I've been to, and it's beautiful). There's also a 3-5 day near Las Vegas in the fall, and finally, Fat Otter Adventure Sports is making their first foray into expedition length events with a 2-3 day in Wisconsin. That's right in our backyard, and probably worth it, even if they haven't had the experience of other race organizations.

We've contracted a bit this year too, with five primary members, although Corey is looking to do the Spring 12 hour and move on to longer events if she likes what she finds. We talked a lot about one-time subs (since they're always necessary), and about rebuilding Gnomads to at least have a sport team.

Brian has spent a lot of time working on our web site and Facebook page. It makes me think that this might be the time to start courting sponsors again, although with the state of the economy and based on long experience, sponsorship for AR is always hit and miss unless you're a nationally competitive team. Right now, I think we're just at the cusp of being players on the national scene - with results like our 13th place at Nationals year before last and 6th at MIX. We even picked it up beyond either of those two races at the Wild 24 hour race, and perhaps this is the year to move on to the next level.

Corey and Val are both great runners. I already gave credit to Val in a prior post, and Corey's best marathon was somewhere around 3:15. That's a definite difference from previous race years. I'd like to spend some time this spring helping them with mountain biking, since that should bring us to skills parity with the best team in Minnesota - and likewise, with many of the best teams in the country.