Most adventure racers like to know before the race how much time they’ll spend doing each of the disciplines in a race. But knowing that takes out some of the “adventure”, doesn’t it? The exact distances or time any given team will spend on each discipline are difficult to estimate. Here are the general targets used in designing the courses. Actual mileage/time for your team will vary.
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4 hour course
Mountain biking and pushing a bike – 1 hour
Paddling and portaging- 1 hour
Orienteering – 1 hour
Special challenges – 30 minutes
Scratching your head and looking around in confusion – 30 minutes
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8 hour course
Mountain biking and pushing a bike – 2 hours
Paddling and portaging – 3 hours
Orienteering – 2 hours
Special challenges – 30 minutes
Explaining to others why you’re doing this – 30 minutes
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12 hour course
Mountain biking and pushing a bike – 4 hours
Paddling and portaging – 4 hours
Orienteering – 3 hours
Special challenges – 30 minutes
Asking yourself why you’re doing this – 30 minutes
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GENERAL EXPECTATIONS
Biking - Riders should be prepared for anything, from flying down paved roads to pushing bikes up rocky trails. Or vice versa.
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Paddling - It shouldn’t take long for most racers to figure out there really isn’t much whitewater in the Uwharries, so I’ll go ahead and acknowledge that. There is enough diversity in bodies of water there to have some flat and some moving water to deal with. This all depends on whether the drought continues or not.
Along with paddling comes the dreaded portage. You can’t paddle if you’re not on the water, so I’ll include getting your boat to the water in the list of paddling expectations. There are other options and techniques than simply grabbing one end of the boat and walking.
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Orienteering – Although finding checkpoints involves a bit of land navigation and possibly map and compass work, I wouldn’t consider that to be real orienteering. The 2008 Gold Nugget AR courses will include a section of bushwhack travel, similar to orienteering. Expect to see ontrols placed away from trails and roads.
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Special challenges – Be prepared for anything. It wouldn’t be much of a special challenge if it didn’t test your nerve and/or mental skills. 
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Racing for 4 to 12 hours – Any time you go out to exercise for more than an hour, refueling and hydrating become much more important. Racers should come prepared to carry all of their food and a significant portion of their fluids with them on the course. Race staff may be able to provide water resupplies during the race, but you won’t know when you will reach them, so plan on being as self-sufficient as possible. Teams may be able to plan for mid-race transitions at their vehicles once they get the maps and passports at the start of the race.
