Administrivia:

Please forward this email on to your teammates. They may not have received it, as not all email addresses were entered upon registration. As such, anybody that gets forwarded this email should let your captain know so they can update your registration.

If you received this email and you are no longer racing, please send me an email and I'll remove you from the list.

You should all now have my email address as well as the email addresses of the rest of Race Management.

If you never recieved Racer Update 1, please visit the folllowing, where all the racer updates are also posted:
http://www.atomicar.com/index.php/racer-updates

Looking For Teammates:

For the background, please refer to this Race Forum post:
http://trailblazerar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6455

There are a lot of folks looking for teammates.  April 18th is the absolute last date to add new competitors to the registration list.  I am ordering shirts/pint glasses VERY soon, so if you do add teammates email me immediately.

Canoes:

Jon Barker:  Kayaks are not allowed.

Safety First:

If you are competing in the Atomic Adventure Race and have any preexisting medical conditions that may affect your safety during the race, please know that you do so under your own risk.  :) 

However, Laura, our Safety Director, would love to know about them BEFORE you show up to the starting line so that she can compile a list for our paramedic/EMT crew.  With this list, they may more effectively treat you if, God forbid, you are in need of medical attention.

As such, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any information that may be relevant.

Gear List:

The gear list has updated for one team.  No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

Due to an injury, 2009 Atomic Adventure Race defending champions Lab Rats are going Rogue (registered as 2-person team Rogue) and can no longer compete in the Elite Category.  If they do not add a 3rd to their team roster, the honor of carrying the Atomic Trophy throughout this year's course will roll down to 2009 runners-up Layer 3.  As mentioned last year, when Lab Rats earned the privilege of carrying around this honorary medal, crafted out of cast iron by my very hands at Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia, it is mandatory gear that carries the penalty of DQ if it is not on the team during the race.

Win, and they'll keep the honor next year.  Lose, and they'll pass it on to be carried in 2011 by this year's champions.

Race Format:

This year's race will be a stage race consisting of two stages:

1.  The ROC Gear Stage
2.  The Reality Bikes Stage

Depending on your team's speed and other variables, expect to have a period of up to 6 hours of rest, strategy, and recovery at the end of the ROC Gear Stage.  For planning purposes, please note the following from the Gear List in the Recommended Gear List section:

Gear Drop (must fit in a single stretch garbage bag per team):

• Tent
• Sleeping pads/bags
• Big microwavable dinner
• Change of clothes

You are not responsible for transporting any gear yourselves.  The stretch bags we mention are these, and we'll likely be using the Odor Shield variant.  :)   Thanks to Wavebox, we'll have two portable microwaves at the end of the ROC Gear Stage (thus, the microwavable dinner part).  Teams will have many options with what to do with their time, but will be off the clock at this point until the race is restarted with The Reality Bikes Stage.  Everyone will start together again at The Reality Bikes Stage, but their times will be proportionally offset based on their time off the leader of The ROC Gear Stage.

For some of you, this may be a huge relief.  For others, a point of frustration.  My advice:  prepare yourselves mentally for the inevitable temptation to end your race at the end of the ROC Gear Stage.  The goal of the break between stages is to give some of you guys an opportunity to rest.  But it is a double-edged sword.  Do not let it cut you and go home wishing you hadn't.

Checkpoint Tracker Series:

For background, see the following:
http://blog.checkpointtracker.com/2010/01/20/new-requirement-for-earning-points-and-being-ranked/

If you are interested in the series and receivings points for your placing at the Atomic Adventure Race, please ensure you complete you team and squad profiles on the website, else you will not receive credit for your performance!

Being registered and paid up for this race does NOT mean that you are automatically enrolled to recieve Checkpoint Tracker Series Points.  You must do the above FIRST.

Other thing is don't sweat the "Pending" registration status on the registration page of Checkpoint Tracker for this event.  It's not in sync because we used an external registration system.  As we get closer to the race, I'll move pending folks to the "Confirmed" list.  Just wanted to give folks some time to do the above so I don't have to check every day.

Sponsors and Partners:

If you haven't seen our sponsor list yet, here it is:
http://www.atomicar.com/index.php/sponsors

Our sponsor list is finalized.  To be posted on the website are new Gold Sponsor Hi-Tec and Platinum Sponsor Wenonah.  More on those soon; they mean very good things for you guys.

We have a great set of sponsors, and they are really showing their support for the AR community (especially given last year). So please give them you attention and gratitude. As mentioned above, some are offering prerace discounts as well, so check out the list.


That's it for now, see you next update.  Any questions/comments you have, please feel free to post them to the race forum. Can't wait to see you guys out there!