NYARA, this was my first adventure race and it was Awesome! Thanks Denise for the wonderful organization and a memorable day!

- Richard Brounstein, Richard and Jean

I really enjoy this event - and can see why it gets more popular each year. I appreciate the hard work that goes into this course, the awards, and the scoring - and love how it all comes together. Glad we had great weather for the day! That said, knowing that hot weather was expected, there should have been many more water stations along the course. I hope no one suffered from dehydration. I felt badly for runners who finished later, there wasn't any water left at all. AND thank goodness we did not have to carry that darn sandbag again!

- Ellen Brennan Hearn, zig zag

My wife and I had a great time. I volunteered at the food tent for the High Rock in 2003 and I've worked at a couple of Balance Bar races, so I knew what to expect. The special events are imaginative and well done. The crawl through the stream underpass was just long enough to be fun (there's gotta be a better way to attach the race numbers aside from safety pins; one of mine came undone and impaled itself in my abdomen) and the math problems near the end were just hard enough to be daunting after a 10k run. Oh, and I don't know which one of you sick and twisted people came up with carrying a six foot long 4" PVC pipe filled with just enought water to slosh around, but everyone should have to do that at least once in their life. It was an awesome time and I'm looking forward to doing other NYARA races as well as the High Rock again next year.

- Randy Strauss, Funkytown Mudpit Ninjas

Big Thanks to Dan Kennedy for setting up a wonderfully laid out course! Loved the tunnel, my wife did not. Happy to see the event growing, but all those people drank my beer at the end!

- Dan McSwiggan, McSwiggan Clan

It was great to see the incredible increase of participation in this race. The amount of energy expended before the first racers start is unknown to most. However, Matt, Dorothy, Jeanne, Kristen, Denise, Port Richmond CERT (there wouldn't be any fun without them) do know, and deserve our appreciation. It's hard to imagine when I'm out mapping the course in January that water stops would be an issue. And, to be honest, it does get debated - with a consensus for less. Afterall, it is a NYARA sponsored race and adventure racers are expected to be self-sufficient. But, we realize that any gear requirements would be an unwanted burden and meet somewhere in the middle to provide water stops where feasible. I received many questions about the (apparent) difficulty of the mental challenge. It was a modified word problem from a 6th grade workbook. The simple solution was: (226/2) + (56/2) = 141 males 226 - 141 = 85 females Keep the feedback coming. It only makes for a better race next year.

- Dan Kennedy, Course Director

April 25, 2009 marked the seventh High Rock Challenge (we skipped two years somewhere in the middle). This year's attendance broke all records with 262 teams competing along the grueling and rugged trail course (over 7 miles, thanks to Dan Kennedy). Although the traditional sand bag stunt was not part of this year's mystery challenges, the first tunnel crawl, the highest ever cargo net, the crazy carts, math quiz, combination lock challenge and pipe-filled-with-water balance challenge kept all 524 of you busy. Record temperatures in the 80's added yet another challenge. We hope you liked the new race site at the Greenbelt Recreation Center; let us know what you think and thank you for participating in this year's event. We would also like to thank the many volunteers who helped out on the race course and at water stops. We're already recruiting volunteers for next year's event and race committee, so if you're interested, let us know. Many thanks to Matt LeBow and Dan Kennedy whose energy and expertise drive this event. We are also grateful to our sponsors (see back of the race tee shirt) and our hosts at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation Greenbelt Recreation Center. We encourage everyone to enjoy the Greenbelt throughout the year - run, walk, play golf, ride the carousel, join the Recreation Center, send your children to our summer camp, become a member of the Greenbelt Conservancy - log on to www.sigreenbelt.org and/or visit our blog: www.greenbeltpark.blogspot.com to see all that's going on. Dorothy Reilly Director of Public Relations Greenbelt Conservancy

- Dorothy Reilly,

Excellent job by all putting together the High Rock Challenge. It's nice to know I could have this type of competitive fun and not have to pay a toll. Dan, I do understand the math problem was basic 6th grade stuff so please, I beg you to destroy that video tape. Thank again it was a great time.

- Thomas DeAngelis, men w/pensions

If possible have an earlier start. My team was 251 and we were still running in the mid-day heat. We were held up for a few minutes at more than one event due to the number of teams that arrived at the event at the same time. If we were competing to place, those would have been valuable minutes. Maybe have a way of monitoring a team's wait to subtract from their finish time. Also, I mistakenly deleted an email from you that had a product name for poison ivy. I could really use it for future use. Thank you

- anonymous,