Seriously, us Georgians almost got our ***es kicked last year at the Atomic by a bunch of flat-landers.  Out of the teams that cleared the course last year at the Inaugural Atomic Adventure Race, 5 were Georgians and 5 were Floridians, among others.  Here's the breakdown from the results:

Place | Team | State

2) Layer 3 (GA)
4) NADS-Freeflite (GA)
5) Arms Raised in a V (GA)
6) Shake-A-Leg Miami (FL)
7) MGART (GA)
8) Florida XTreme/Relentless (FL)
10) Spiritual Endurance (FL)
12) Secret Squirrel (GA)
13) Pangea Adventure Racing (FL)
14) Florida Xtreme Masters (FL)

And I know what the rest of you Georgians are thinking...that our 5 were ahead of their 5.  And sure enough, if you took a Cross Country style scoring of the two states' teams, where the lowest score wins, it would be GA: 30 (2+4+5+7+12) to FL: 51 (6+8+10+13+14).

But lets face it guys.  Having an equal number of Floridians on the board is as much a defeat as having more and/or higher ranked Floridians.  And I am pretty sure that if the same number of Georgians went down to the Floridian's back yard to race, they would not be as evenly matched.  In fact, the result would probably be similar to how we (Team ROC Gear/4LPH4 1337) did down there--we got schooled and went home crying like babies looking for our pacifier.  That is why I have got to hand it to the Floridians, not only did all of their teams finish the race, but they finished well.  And here I was thinking before the race these guys would be able to race well at altitudes above 10 feet.

Now, you Georgians might be protesting, "But Josh, you guys did not take us to any familiar places, so we weren't really on our home turf."  But that is no excuse.  Jack and Jordan certainly did a good job designing the course such that it leveled the playing field, and this year will be no different.  We are taking you guys to places in the area most of you will have never seen.  Yet it is still the mountains of Georgia, so it is still your back yard.  So no excuses this year. None.  You know how it is gonna roll.

I talked with Jeff Leininger from Team FLX the other day and he said he knows of six Floridian teams that will be coming up for the 2010 Atomic Adventure Race, two of which have already signed up.  Shake-A-Leg Miami, now Green Paw Adventure Sports, has grown to become one of the predominant teams in the country, and they'll be coming back for revenge after a wrong turn on a prohibited route last year in the literal last hour of the race landed them a penalty that took them out of the top spot.  And if one of the other four teams from Florida includes Dr. Ron Eaglin, then us Georgians will have a formidable rematch on our hands, as this PQ veteran and expert navigator will surely be an asset to whatever team he joins.

But us Georgians are not without big guns of our own--Checkpoint Zero will be toeing the starting line, and hints are springing up that our own legendary navigator, Bryan Goble, has taken a keen interest in the race.

The warmth that will later be a incindiary storm of competition is begining to heat up, and with seven teams on the board already six month ahead of the race and more coming, there is no doubt in my mind that the 2010 Atomic Adventure race will be bigger and badder than ever!