Evan Moreshead, Glen Lewis, and Amanda and Tom Martin of Strong Machine Adventure Racing are each longtime participants in the race, a nonstop, 24-hour endurance event that has taken place in coastal Maine since 2016. But none had ever won the race – until the weekend of July 13-14, finishing first in the premier mixed-gender division and second overall.
With the victory, Strong Machine AR received a free entry to the 2024 USARA National Championship, taking place in Snowshoe, West Virginia, on September 27-28.
Canadian Joseph Huard, racing as Flying Tomato, nabbed one additional checkpoint in the final hours of the race, after going neck-and-neck with Strong Machine AR for the previous 20 hours, to take the overall win. Huard finished with just four minutes to spare, collecting 77 of 80 checkpoints, while Strong Machine AR finished with 76 checkpoints in 23 hours, 41 minutes.
Team Vert finished third overall and second in the premier mixed-gender division, collecting 72 CPs in 23:40. Enabled Tracking finished fourth overall and third in the premier mixed-gender division with 71 CPs in 23:31.
As the 24 hour race is part of the Adventure Racing World Series North America calendar all of the teams in that category also scored series ranking points.
Team Huffin' and Puffins took the overall win in the 8-hour race and Liz Serafini won the 3-hour race, with the Gritty Yunitz winning the 3-hour family division.
Like the 24-hour race, the 8-hour and 3-hour races started and ended at P-3 Park in Brunswick, Maine, and all three courses made use of the local Neptune Woods trails as well as the Kate Furbish Nature Preserve.
The 8-hour and 24-hour races also got a unique kayaking experience, traveling down the New Meadows River and into Doughty Cove and Harpswell Cove while exploring the Cliff Trail, Long Reach Preserve and Doughty Point Preserve in Harpswell.
The 8-hour racers returned to the finish from there, but the 24-hour racers continued into Topsham, completing a 20-mile singletrack route and ending up in Lisbon Falls, where they celebrated Moxie Fest by completing a Moxie chug for the race’s trademark challenge checkpoint. The race concluded with an overnight trek in Bradbury Mountain State Park and a bike back to the finish in Brunswick.
“We’re so fortunate to be able to bring our racers to some of the most beautiful coastline in the United States, if not the world,” race-co director Cliff White said. “Maine has so much to offer in terms of adventure and we’re excited to be making the Maine Summer Adventure Race into one of the premier destination races for the U.S. adventure racing community.”
Full results can be found at MaineSummerAR.com and the live-tracking from the race can be reviewed at http://live.enabledtracking.com/msa2024.
All racers were eligible for a prize raffle that included backpacks supplied by OutThere Packs, gift cards from L.L. Bean, tubes of Zanfel, Squirt Lube products, and packs of Pasokin snacks, made by top-ranked adventure racer Marco Anselem.
Adventure racing photographers Randy Ericksen and Perry Flowers were on scene for the race and their photos can be viewed at the Strong Machine AR Facebook page. Randy Ericksen also put together an overview of the highlights of the course, also viewable on Facebook.
And Jeff O’Connor of Adventure Racing Insider provided commentary before, during, and after the race.
Strong Machine Adventure Racing will be hosting the ninth annual Maine Summer Adventure Race in July 2025 in the mountains of Western Maine.
