Sports

Threepeat: Mills claims third Coosa River Challenge crown

By Griffin Pritchard
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The Coosa River Challenge isn’t supposed to be an easy stroll through the woods.

It’s an adventure race that challenges the participants’ endurance.

Apparently Scott Mills was in better shape than his competition.

Mills won his third consecutive Coosa River Challenge Saturday with a time of 3 hours, 16 minutes.

“Winning is definitely the hardest part of this race,” said Mills, moments after jogging under the inflated Red Bull archway in the center of Wetumpka’s Gold Star Park.

“Getting in front and staying in front is hard.”

At one point, Mills was nearly 15 minutes ahead of his competition.

“The people that design the course are creative,” said Mills.

“At the mudpit, they had taken barrels and cut them in half and you had to get down under the mud and under the water and go through the barrels. That was tough.”

Prior to the official start of the sixth version of the Coosa River Challenge, participants were encouraged to succeed by Wetumpka’s Mayor-Elect Jerry Willis.

“My prayer is that God grants all of you protection, strength and endurance while all of your are out there on the course,” said Willis. “I’m excited to see the way that this has grown and next year’s race will be bigger and better.”

The race began Saturday morning at the mouth of Swayback Ridge where participants, who were divided into their respective classes and flighted 5-minutes apart, raced under the sign and onto the winding trail. Overall, Coosa River Challenge covered a 12 mile area to took participants from Swayback down the Coosa River to Wetumpka’s Gold Star Park.

“There is no question that this benefits the community,” said Willis prior to the start of the Men’s Individual flight. “Events like this are very important to the area. Tourism and the use or our natural resources are very important to the area. Hopefully we’ll be able to expand our hotels and motels to better accommodate the sheer number of people who come into the area for an event like this. The City of Wetumpka has a tremendous advantage when it comes to hosting things like this. To have 226 participants and more than 100 volunteers in our town for one event is a tremendous boost to our economy. This is the type of event that is going to grow each year.”

The 226 participants �” 40 men’s individual racers, 54 men’s teams, 34 co-ed teams and 10 women’s teams �” proved more than what director Chris Cooper was expecting to have.

“This far exceeds our cap of 200 participants,” said Cooper. “I don’t know who traveled the farthest, but I do know that we have people from Orlando and parts of Georgia registered this year. There is a strong military presence this year too.”

Racers made their way back to the staging area to pick up their bicycles for another multi-mile trek through the Swayback area.

“I do know that at least 50 percent of this year’s participants, this is their first time doing this,” said Cooper. “So out there on the course, we have around 100 new faces that will come back next year and do this again. That’s why this event is so great for tourism in this area.”

Once the mountain biking was completed, participants dropped them at the staging area and ran to the base of Jordan Dam for another set of obstacles.

“My dad signed us up to do this again this year,” said Harper Cassady, age 11 of Daphne.

Harper and her father Max competed in the Co-ed division. Last year Harper, at age 10, was the youngest person to participate and finish the Coosa River Challenge. “I hope that we can do it every year.”

“We both like to kayak,” said Max. “And we’ve ridden Swayback and the bike trails up here are prettier than they are in Mobile and Birmingham.”

Once at the base of the dam, participants in the race had to climb rock outcroppings (jumbles) then grab a personal flotation device, jog around a rocky trail and then climb a sheer rock face that led to a 100-ft repel into the Coosa River.

“The 3-mile run at the start was tough,” said Taylor Rice, age 18 of Montgomery, who’s done the Challenge just for the ability to say he’s completed it. “But the repelling into the water was the most fun.”

From there participants �” still in running gear and a lifevest �” had to swim against the current back to the boat landing to get a kayak.

“That’s the toughest part,” said Jim Mills, Scott’s father, while watching his son swim the more than 100-yard distance. “It’s up stream and you have all of that weighing you down.”

Once back on land, racers grabbed a kayak for a paddle to Little Beaver Island and then through the Moccasin Gap rapids before stopping for an archery challenge sponsored by Outdoor Women Unlimited.

“The kayaking was the toughest part of it,” said Michael Camerio, age 14 of Montgomery, who participated in Saturday’s Coosa River Challenge for the first time and was one of the event’s youngest racers. “My brother Taylor (Rice) had done it before and I wanted to do it. Nothing seems easy about it after you’ve done all of it. I’ll do it again next year.”

Participants then took back to the rumbling waters of the Coosa River and made their way to one last challenge, a brief swim with their paddle to the steps of the lock just below the Bibb Graves Bridge and then a leap of faith into the waters below. A swim back to the kayak and a paddle across the river was all that was left. Racers pulled the boat ashore and then jogged through the inflated Red Bull archway signaling the end of the course.

“A lot of racers don’t come out here to beat a certain person,” said Cooper. “It’s a personal challenge to a lot of them. It’s a challenge to complete the course, or to beat a time. I know of at least three or four people that have gone on from this run full Ironman triathlons and marathons. A lot of people will come back from year to year to see if they can improve their time on the course.”

For the Men’s individual winner Mills, Saturday’s 3:16:00 finish was eight minutes better than his 2007 time.

Even the best can do it quicker.

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