Southern NV Post Race Assessment - Overall, the race went well. Team PITA has great potential, but under the circumstances did not complete the recent 24-hour race. All said and done, if the team had completed the race, it is likely that we would have placed 2nd and maintained points to hold 2nd place in the race series.

To learn from the race experience and to move forward as a better, stronger team, Team PITA has begun correspodence via email.

Well Done:

1. Clearly we're a good paddling team - we need to fix up the green monster, but we've got a solid boat and we paddled well.
2. You guys stayed strong after some early distress, many teams would not have lasted after the shit we went through from cp4 to cp5.
3. In terms of speed, I think we can keep up with the best teams, the issue is we need to race smarter - certain races are faster than others and we need to be able to adapt to a slower, steadier team when the race environment demands it, like it did yesterday.

Trouble Spots:

1. Prepare for the specifics of the race - the HEAT was a real issue, we should have had close to 5 liters cpacity of water each on us. We need to look at the map briefly and figure out the distance and terrain from the current TA to the next TA. Our transitions need to be better organized so the only thinking we're doing in the TA is looking at resources we need to have for the next segment of the race. Each of us needs to have there own little area to organize their stuff and we should have clearer directions for our support crew. We should also take a few hours the weekend before the race and go through all the issues/scenarios that we should be prepared for. The next big race we need to make sure the three of us sit down and have that discussion the week before the race.
2. Navigation, Navigation, Navigation - The navigation was OK yesterday until we got into those slot canyons, and when we followed a team that looked like they knew what they were doing, they were quite a ways off. I will be the first to admit, I'm not an experienced navigator and I've never navigated in anything like what we were in yesterday morning - those slot canyons were tough to navigate. I'm not sure what the answer is here, If we want to try and find a better navigator, I am very cool with that, if we want to try Veronica as the lead Navigator, I'm cool with that as well. I just hate being the reason we did not do well.
3. Although there was not a lot of mtn. biking in this race, most races will have much more mtn. biking. We need to make sure that we keep improving on the bike, particularly on the downhill components, we lost time to some of the better mtn. biking teams who could take advantage of the technical downhills.
4. Faster transitions
   How do we get faster transitions? Should we do mock up transitions? Should we meet to see how everyone is packing, organizing gear. What we are bringing or not bringing to see if we are all on the same page in terms of organizing gear, food, water, etc. Maybe we need a big team checklist.
5. Navigation
   I think this is the one place where we need to slow down... review the maps at transitions (so we are better prepared with gear) and adjust the maps. Josh, I think you did a great job. This course was way hard even for the most experienced navigators. After studying the course map this morning, I saw some routes that would have been a little longer, but were sure bets on getting to checkpoint #11. I would rather take a little longer review the maps, than back-track.

Moving Forward:

1. A week before look at the issues (weather, altitude, resources) that will be particulary important for this race.
2. Allocate adequate time before and after the race for preparation and if things go bad and we get stuck longer than anticipated.
3. I disagree with Colin that we should always prepare for the worst case scenario, in that case we should have had a snake bite kit and a stretcher. But we should have a plan of attack that considers the issues of the race.