Fragile Flowers Adventure Racing

Check us out! Fragile Flowers are ready for 6-day Expedition Oregon!!!

In the next couple of days and weeks we will be starting to share our teams for Expedition Oregon 2022.

Today we are introducing Team Fragile Flowers! We think this picture sums up their all around badassness but for a little more intel on this amazing team we put together a few bullet points:

- they are the only all female team to enter Expedition Oregon - America's Toughest Race... Ever.
- they have been training super hard and diligently for the past 8 months.
- one of their biggest fears is running out of Snickers bars
- between the four of them they have 9 furry kids and 10 human kids.

On September 10, 2021 Fragile Flowers team consisting of Olga Huber, Erin Rycroft and Laura Howard took part in 30-hour USARA Adventure Racing National Championships in Cable, WI. Actually, we were not sure if we will be able to race at all, as Laura came down with the injury just days prior to start. And a few calls to alternate team members that went along the lines "Could you jump on the plane with your mountain bike tomorrow?" did not produced the desired results. Finally, Laura was cleared to participate, with the restrictions of "no running or jumping". Special Thank You to Ryan Healy from Genesee Valley Physical Therapy for always providing outstanding care to multiple team members and keeping us ready for new adventures.
The team really enjoyed a fantastic course designed by Paula White. The cloverleaf section at the beginning provided a variety of options and strategies for all teams, and as a result we were able to interact with many other teams along the course which made it for a great experience for some of us extroverts on the team.
One of the course highlights for us was an E navigation section. We were warned that due to some mineral deposits in the area the compass might act erratically. And we were able to confirm that fully, as the compass was moving from North to East to North in the matter of seconds while walking in the straight line. Luckily the sun was still up to give us a hand in navigating.
The best joke of the day goes to Brent Russell from Rootstock Racing. When Brent and Brian pulled out in front of us out of the woods, Brent yelled to us: "We are having a really bad day. And we just lost Abby!" The second statement got us holding our breath. And us we were ready to join the rescue mission to find Abby (because what Women of AR will be doing without Abby), Abby appears from the woods.
Continuing on with the race and keeping to our strengths - navigation - we skipped a few mountain biking points and enjoyed the longer trekking stages. Armed with trekking poles and a positive attitude, not only our injured teammate Laura persevered thru the course, she made sure she kept up the spirits of any other teams along the course with her encouragement. That time somebody yelled "Great Job!" to your team in the dark at Nationals? It was Laura.
We crossed the finish line in 28 hours 20 minutes, placing 2nd in a very competitive all-female division, keeping alive our streak in placing in the top wo all-female teams in every National Championship we entered.
Special Thank You to Paula White for a great course design. As an all-female team, oftentimes we find ourselves biking from TA to TA to stay under the cut off and skipping trekking or paddling legs as a result. But not in Cable, Wisconsin. We got a chance to do it all, loved the area and would love to go back one day.

Two Rivers adventure race by Rootstock Racing over Memorial Day was the longest racing weekend in Fragile Flowers Adventure Racing short history.
We rented a house in Morris, PA for the duration of the weekend and enjoyed each other's fully vaccinated company cooking team dinner together and working on the maps Friday night. A few inside jokes were born (too team-personal to provide more details on), but we are confident that nobody on the FF team will be able to talk about our gear box or the duck tape during the race without cracking up.
At Two Rivers Adventure Race organized by Rootstock Racing we were represented by not one but two 3-person all-female teams. Stina Bridgeman, Katie Dunn and Shea Coleman nailed 15-hour race, with the race being Katie's very first adventure race. And Olga Huber, Erin Rycroft and Laura Howard took victory in the all-female division of the 36-hour race in a very competitive field, with the race being the longest race for all three of the team members.
The weather did not cooperate with temperatures between 40-50 degrees for the whole race weekend and pretty much non-stop rain, so keeping warm was a key objective to success. Best FF quote of the weekend goes to Stina Bridgeman: " The only thing dry is our sense of humor!" But the scenery was spectacular with waterfalls, creeks and vast green spaces, and the fact that we are racing again with other humans made up for it. The 36-hour course included a 12-mile hike in the Rock Run creek. And Yes, we meant 'in the creek' as 9 checkpoints along the route were unmapped and were only visible if you actually were in the creek as you pass by.
And about that Fragile Flowers - FF abbreviation… 36-hour team had a great strategy that paid off - skip the packrafting leg and instead capitalize on the extra points on the foot orienteering section. We kept going in a counter-clock wise fashion from checkpoint to checkpoint making great progress. Until we came to the one with the clue 'Tree line above pond'. We circled around and found all the ponds. And checked all the tree lines. We circled again. And again. And again. No flag. Disappointed in ourselves, we decided to abort and head out to TA to make sure we could complete the mandatory bike portion and finish on time. At TA 2/3 we chatted with Brent, race co-director, and told him our last checkpoint story. He asked which check point it was, and then he got very quiet and explained that based on our tracker they were not expecting us to get back to that checkpoint that late in the race, and they took the flag off as they started to clear the course. So Brent gave us an extra point for that one. But guess what was the name/symbol for that checkpoint on the map? It was …. FF, double F, just like in Fragile Flowers FF … Do you really think it was an accident? We think not.
Great time had by all Fragile Flowers at Wet and Wild weekend, and we are looking forward to more Rootstock Racing events in our future. Because every flower, especially fragile, needs a strong root system, strong rootstock (see what we did there :))