Desert Winds...we beat the heat

Desert Winds II was nothing short of an epic race in great terrain. We started out hot and I was thankful that the first of three legs had swimming mixed in with the desert trekking. I'll let the pictures do the talking, overall it was a successfull weekend and I achieved my goals of not having another heat stroke and enjoying the race. It was cool to race against the other DART team too..a new perspective for me.




Heading into this race, which is my first 24+ hour after entering fatherhood, I had some reservations about where I was physically and whether or not I would be ready to handle a fast paced race in the heat of the desert.

I focused most of my training over the last 4-6 weeks on running and treking, basically spending time on my feet in rugged conditions. It paid off, as this race was a meat grinder on the feet and was a real push.

As far as the heat went, I focused on being hydrated and staying out of the sun as much as i could. This meant that I used nuun in all of my bladders and water bottles and I carried a bit more than I normally would. For clothing I made sure that I wore a long sleeve, white and breathable layer as well as something on my head to be able to keep cool.

The race itself was fast paced and we found ourselves jockeying for first with the other DAT-nuun team comprised of Cyril, Aaron, Aaron and Mari. It was a blast beign competitive with them and at the same time enjoying some humor here and there. I think I saw Rinn sneaking some rocks into Glenn's pack and we tried to gang tackle them, didn't work. We held the lead after the first leg and got passed by the other team in the second leg...the third leg saw teh lead change a number of times until we threw in the towel and decided to complete the race together, it was an easy decision.

It was also nice to get the victory, you can see the results here.

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Here are a couple of paddling pics from the race director...