Several Atlanta adventure racers won and placed well in their divisions at the 44-mile Suwannee River Challenge that began at White Spring, Fla. this past weekend.

• Jon Barker and Tim Page: 1st in tandem kayak (Ruahine Duet)
• Paul Cox: 1st unlimited kayak (19.5 ft. Ruahine Firebolt)
• Ardie Olson: 1st sea kayak (18 ft. Seda)
• Jay Scott: Tied for 2nd recreational kayak

A very special thanks to Sherry Olson for meeting the guys along the river with drinks, pain meds (for Paul's sore fanny) and cheers, and for shuttling them to and from the river in the Big Red Van! She even posted updates to the Dog Pound during the race.

The start and finish location had to be changed due to very low water levels. The paddlers still had to jump in and out of the boats many times during the first half of the race, which suited the adventure racers perfectly.

Jon Barker (two weeks after winning MegaDose) and Paul Cox (one week after surviving the storm of the century in Moab) are once again packing up their paddles, boats and nuun and heading out of town.

Jon and racer Tim Page will be paddling the 42 mile Suwanee River Challenge in a tandem kayak while Paul will tackle the race solo. Are two men faster than one? That would be my guess. Good luck to Checkpoint Zero racers, friends and all the racers this weekend!

-- Lisa Cox, Paul's most accommodating wife

(PS: Paul says he's looking forward to mowing the grass and reading more Harry Potter to Henry when he gets home)

It's just before 8 a.m. on a beautiful Sunday morning here in Moab, Utah. Most of the team is asleep at the hotel, but I've been a little restless since the Adventure Xstream Expedition race was called off early Saturday morning.

Looking out the window of the Mondo Internet Cafe just off Main Street it's hard to believe the weather was so bad just a day ago, when severe winds, flooding, driving rains, falling cliffs and washed out roads forced the race directors to move teams around on the course and eventually call it quits. I've heard folks calling it Moab's Storm of the Century.

It was crazy out there -- probably the most miserable weather I've had to put up with during an adventure race. It was especially tough at the CPs at the high points in the La Sal Mountains during the first Rogaine trekking section and at the start of the big bike leg, which took us across wide open areas that got hammered by lightning.

The team was in good spirits throughout, though I was starting to get alarmingly cold at CP 25, where the race directors started sending all teams back to the Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge for the "finish." It's impossible to stay warm when everything is wet and the rain is hitting you sideways and soaking down into your many layers of clothing.

I don't envy the race directors who are trying to put together rankings for the 3-day race that was cut down to about 30 hours (depending on where you were on the course when the race was called off), especially since the race started with a Rogaine in which teams strategized to get more or less points depending on how difficult the terrain was for an expedition race. Teams that got fewer orienteering points at the start of a race with a Rogain section could advance farther along the course than other teams that chose to get more points. We did very well on the Rogaine; we got all but two points and still beat the firt cutoff to the paddle by several hours. I guess we'll see how the rankings shake out.

Thanks to Will and all the folks at the race headquarters. I'll post more about the race later. I'm going back to the hotel and get some sleep. We're all trying to figure out what to do now with our extra day in Moab. Maybe we'll rent something with a MOTOR (no more biking for me today).

Team Checkpoint Zero with Jon Barker, Suz Falvey, Pete Spagnoli and Scott Pleban claimed a victory this past weekend in Odyssey's 2-day Mega Dose adventure race in Front Royal, Va.

More to come soon in a race report on Checkpointzero.com.