Colinoba 2010

One of my favorite underground Adventure Races, or birthday bashes went down on Saturday March 6th, in and around downtown Seattle. I think we ran between 8-10 miles throughout Seattle on an urban adventure of a lifetime. After climbing fences, dodging cars, getting our picture taken with a pink dildo and drinking a beer or three we were all smiles.

This was a fun way to hang with a lot of peeps from the local AR community, take a small break and see Seattle...all dressed up as mimes :-) That's right, this is how we do it:

2010 Colinoba

We are in training for the E-Fix in West Virginia in 3 weekends. We are looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and doing a new race. 2 guys and 2 girls toeing the line for DART; JVG, Hayes, Jenn Rinderle and myself. We probably wont do that race as mimes.

See you on the trails.

Big Tahoma Rogaine

To hone the Navigation skills Glenn and I raced as Team Trioba in the 12 hour rogaine at Mt. Tahoma. The race is put on by our friend and long time racer/race director Eric Bone of Mergeo.com. We entered the 12 hour duathalon, 6 hours of biking followed by 6 hours of running, so we could hone our skills and work any kinks out that would be better left in the hills of Washington over the next couple weeks of racing.

One thing about Tahoma is that there is not a lot of flat ground. You are either going up or you are going down, so we spent some serious time working our way up. After the maps were handed out we strategized and came up with an ambitious loop to circumnavigate Mt. Tahoma on bike and then climb it on foot. There were clusters of checkpoints on the circumnavigation that required us to climb a couple of other mountains. When it was said and done we climbed 6,400 ft. on our bikes.

We made it about 5/6 of the way through our loop and realized we were going to be cutting it short with time. In a rogaine missing your time cut off results in drastic time penalties so it is better in most cases to get back within the regulated time rather than squeaking in that last CP. We found an out on our route and climbed our way up and over a ridge and bombed back into the hash house with 3 minutes to spare. We learned our competition, team nuun-Feed the Machine (That's my team!), made up of Aaron Rinn and Aaron Matzke had already come in and were out on the course.

We quickly transitioned, re-organized our foot loop and headed out running all flats (There were none that I can remember), slight uphills and down hills and fast hiking the uphills. After it was all said and done we felt like we left some points on the table that we should have gotten but overall were happy with our effort. High fives all around the hash house when we came storming in and the anticipation built.

It turn out nuun-Feed the Machine cleared 1455 points and we eeked them out with 1465...totally amazing to be sooo close after 12 hours of racing and having two completely different point profiles/routes. More high fives, some coffee and off to warmth. Did I mention it was snowing at the high elevations? Here is a link to our bike route.

Not only was this a great race, but it was fun to see a lot of the other local teams and people out running around the woods. The Trioba-A team (we were the B team), Verve, Militant Hippies, Robin and Cliff, and many others...adventure on.

Trioba - 24 hour race Plain, WA

2009 Trioba has come and gone just like that...wow. We were scouting the area near Lake Wenatchee for a 24 hour race in October of 2008 and a year later we were able to throw together a course that was challenging, had some good navigation and was a real challenge to physically get through.

Overall it is tough to be on the other side of the start line, or the race director's side. What's different? Way more stress, you want everything to turn out smoothly and there are sooo many things that can go wrong. You sleep less in the day before and day after the race...and most importantly as a racer who was directing I just wanted to get out there and bike , run and paddle with everyone.

The midnight start was a hit and guaranteed that everyone would have a night in the dark, and probably 2 nights in the dark. This is pretty cool and packs an expedition feel into a 24 hour race. After a short bike to Lake Wenatchee we sent teams out on a night time paddle. This looked easy but turned into a fun navigational test where teams worked up a slough and had to find a hidden lake. After this teams tackled a monstrous climb up to Maverick Saddle and then hit the single track.

Upon arriving at the remote TA teams left for a 7-12 hour trek that tested their nav skills and was a good challenge. From there teams would climb another 1K feet on the bikes and then start dropping into the screaming singletrack descent. B19 was an aided CP where bikers could drop their trekking gear, warm up and get back on the trail a little lighter. From here we had a lot of checkpoints that were meant to keep teams on the single track to the finish line if they wanted to complete the full course.

In hindsight this turned out to be the only issue/blunder with the race...the USGS maps were not real indicative of the trail's route (we were definitely aware of the maps inefficiencies but were banking on the reflective tape to clue in teams on the flags), our reflective tape failed and a couple of flag placements were on very subtle or redundant features. This proved to be a real challenge and dictated some changes in the placements...This was tough to swallow, we wanted to be perfect and a couple of issues with these CP's put a small damper on that. We will take a lot away from what is still a success for our first 24 hour race and can rest assured we will not have to deal with that issue in the future.

Overall good times, I look forward to another year of scouting...not sure where next year will take us, but we have a lot of good options! Thanks to all the volunteers for making the race a success and good job to everyone that toed the line!

You can get to race central on CPTracker HERE

Peterisoba

My schedule finally aligned itself with the annual race known as the Peterisoba...which follows suit with the Colinoba as an underground adventure race which costs nothing and gets you racing in un-permittable areas in our backyard (follow tie in with Trioba). Peteris out did himself with a 12 hour Creekteering, challenging Mountain Bike, rapel, ridge running and boulder hopping course followed by a 12 hour rogaine.

23 hours later my trusty team mate Aaron and I found ourselves in a baja rally car with Peteris behind the wheel. He exclaimed in his Latvian English that he could drive this road blindfolded and that if he had a real rally car we would have a better excuse for holding onto the Oh Shit handle. We also got the details of the traffic patterns on the North Fork road and that we could be assured that cornering on the inside of a blind turn at 45 mph was ok because in the last year only 3 cars had been seen between 4 and 5 am...did you know Peteris knows how to drift on washboarded logging roads?

In the end we climbed, ran, walked, slept and boulder hopped our way through the course and got to see a bunch of friends out there doing the same thing. I wrote another report here for our teams PQ training, check it out if you want more...big THANKS to Peteris and other volunteers for including us and having a well planned course. I am now considering PQ training for next years Peterisoba.

Pics and other reports:

Peteris' Pictures

Colin and Connies Pictures

Verve's Race Report

Whats next? Big Blue Lake Tahoe as team Trioba.com then taper for PQ. Getting excited about racing in SD and checking out the Badlands and the Black Hills.

-Photo credit to Colin Ness, love that picture!

Cascade Cream Puff 2009

Wow, another whirlwind year at the Puff...this year the temperatures held off but the skies opened up with a light drizzle all day and we traded overheating with sloppy trails and nice comfortable mist. 11 hours and 49 minutes of from start to finish and I was happy to scrub almost all the poison oak off with Tecnu and get the race fee included massage at the end.


I raced this year with Aaron, JVG, Hayes and Brent from seattle and we had a blast. When it was all said and done I had 3 less spokes, a severely bent deraillure hanger, a snapped granny limit screw and a sliced front deraillure cable and housing...it was war out there. I was happy to cross the finish line with my 3 working gears and a smile on my face. No nap this year and an improvement on my time, I think the cooler temps helped out. Next year I hope to improve once again.


Here is a link to the CCP pictures...there are some good ones out there. As well as a link to the results.

Trioba

Trioba CP (photo: Mike Bitton)

The Trioba Sprint has come and passed and was a success from a race directors standpoint. It was quite an experience from this side of the table and was very rewarding to see local teams of all caliber out there on a rugged and challenging course giving it their all! Props to everyone who toed the starting line. As well we need to thank our race sponsors with a special thanks to the Outdoor Adventure Center and Wave Trek for a great time on the river and at the post race party!

A couple of links to Stories and racer pics from the course:

-Mike Bitton's shots

-Jerry G's Shots

-Colin N's Shots

I'll post more as I get them... now on to updating the website with results.

Thursday April 30th - AR in the Northwest

Here is a blurb from the Trioba newsletter that went out this week in case you are not privy to the presentation this Thursday at REI:

"Thursday April 30th- AR in the NorthwestDon’t forget our presentation this week at REI. We will be there with our partners and sponsors handing out free goodies and talking about upcoming Trioba events. Come see a sneak peak video of the sprint course and hear tips on how to get ready for the first race of the season. Also, Ryan VanGorder of Team nuun-Feed the Machine (DART) will share some of his experiences and strategies for success. This event is for those who are new to the sport, experienced racers and volunteers. "

Date: April 30th, 2009
Location: Seattle Downtown REI
Time: 6:30-9:00PM
Cost: Free - Info here

Trioba Site is Live and Updated!

Check out Trioba.com ...Well its been live for a bit, but it is updated with the 2009 racing details. Get over there and check it out! The sprint will have white water rafting...going to be sweet! The 24 will be loaded with epic singletrack and some tough nav.

MOMAR Cumberland

The Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race (Momar) has been a long standing race that has history running deep here in the Pacific Northwest. Momar Ladyfinger or Mt. Tzuehalem (sp?) was my second adventure race ever in 2001 or 2002, I can't seem to remember back that far.

What a race that was... Frenchy, Cyril and myself taking exact bearing to find orienteering controls and running from tree to tree to take our next bearing. We thought the winners must have cheated or been on drugs as it took us 2X the amount of time, we could not have been that slow....ummm we were that slow. Well, times have changed, but one thing still holds true and that is that the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race kicks ass and Bryan Tasaka is still producing challenging and fun races with the best party ever to be held in conjunction with an Adventure Race.




This year we were going to race as a team of four with Seegs, JVG, Norm and myself. As the ferry from Horseshoe bay docked and we pulled off, my co-pilot (in life) JVG told me to pull over and the Island sickness kicked off with some not soo much fun vomitalia. A couple of pull overs later and we made it to the campground. The next morning JVG threw in the towel, with urging from me to do so, and decided to rest instead of race. Lucky for us Segger knows everyone and race director Bryan Tasaka recomended a couple of solo racers that wouldn't mind taggin along with us. With our new team mate Tom ready to rock we were back in the 4 person category.

For the rest of the race details I will send your HERE. What a good race, props to the production team and the over 80 volunteers they had (this is amazing!). Now we are training for the Upstate Adventure race in South Carolina on October 25th, should be fun!

Moab revisited, Xstream Expedition

Another national expedition race put on by the folks at Gravity Play, known as the Adventure Xstream Expedition. We've raced in Moab before, beat Nike and then got disqualified for not staying on the recomended route...that is neither here nor there, just flashing back ;-)

The team is in full force racing in Moab, where among other things teams have started to drop like flies because of the heat. The mercury reached 95F today and a couple of teams succombed to the heat, sound familiar? I had a heat stroke in Primal Quest in Moab when we entered Pritchett canyon, the EMT that stayed when I took his spot told my team that it was 122F where the helicopter landed. Moab is a hot place. Well we are back at it, I'm in an air conditioned car heading to Momar in Cumberland, while the real tough guys are dealing with the heat in Moab!


The team is comprised of Glenn Rogers, Sean Clancy, Mari Chandler and Matt Hayes. Powerhouse squad with a lot of potential. The website is fairly informational, but is missing a key ingredient to an expedition race...the leaderboard! This is what I know from our superstar support personell, JPC...translation is tough, but she is on her iPhone and probably has little time to type.


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We are second. Our TA is half the time of the first place. The 2 hour lead is do to a flat in the beginning and a bike front wheel and a 10 minute lead on the water that one we had a three minute TA. Good eats to go and everything is clean. They look strong. Glen gets a little out there but his team is keeping him in line. We have motivation to have fast healthy strong TA. Matt is quieter. Mary is an amazing person. Sean is great in TA but need lots of water food and special drinks. Mary is so organized. Everybodies personality works well. Lots of laughing. Only I lost it was glens last bomb in the hotel. I had to puke three times. He is a great guy in some ways. Ha. Tom is solid TA support. A few really behind people and race director my TA angle came out. He constantly let's me know updates. And TA time for leader. We cut in half. They are strong and will catch them
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Did she say puke? Those bean/bologna/cheez whiz burritos will do that to you ;-) Stay tough JPC and Tom!


Here is the gang getting ready to rumble on the boats.

Gorge Games 2008

The Gorge Games have come and gone and they lived up to the hype and expectations. DART-nuun took home the victory in a well fought battle between Mergeo, Yoga Slackers and Wedali was up there too. The race was in a rogaine fashion and yielded a spider web of of racers heading in all directions at all times.

The first leg of the race was the paddle section, which was canceled due to high winds and 6 foot standing waves out in the mighty columbia river. Thankfully the race director, Shane Gibson, had a back up plan. We were able to paddle ~2.5K loops near the shore to an Island and back. Though this was not very scenic, after the first 4 loops, it was still exciting in that you got to see your competition and gage your pace against others. We were able to lap the field and put in 12 laps, each worth 200 points.

The next leg started at 9pm and was a 3 hour leg on our bikes. We would climb nearly 4000 feet up to the next TA and we decided to try and clean the course. We knew this would be tough but wanted to go for it. After cleaning the course we ended up in the TA with 30 seconds before penalties would be assessed. Oddly enough we were the second team in the TA behind Mergeo, who had mis-interpreted the rules and thought they had to be in by 11:30. We all remember Shane specifically stating that the end for each section was the beginning of the next. This seemed to be a point of contention for Mergeo as it affected their decisions on course as to what CPs they could get. It seemed like ever team but DART-nuun and Mergeo would have penalties, not sure it played out that way. Oh well, on to the trek and 10 hours of foot travel.

Glenn navigated while on foot, Mari navigated the paddling and I navigated the biking sections, and after warming up on CP 181 Glenn was dead on. We crossed paths with Mergeo shortly after we headed out, doing the same clockwise loop that we had designed, and got spun around at 1:30am looking for CP181. We abandoned ship and moved on deciding we had wasted an hour looking for and not finding 181. As the trek moved on we made good time and ran all downhills and flats and moved briskly on the uphills. We had a decision to make with 4 CP's left and 1.5 hours until the cut off. Do we go back to 181 (worth 181 points) or get 3 closer and easier checkpoints whose value add up to less than 181. We went for the big one and Glenn nailed it with enough time for us to round up the remaining CP's, clear the course and get back in time to prepare for the final bike.

The final bike course had us heading up Mt. Defiance (again, we did it in the trek too) and working hard until the end. There were far too many CP's to clear this course but we biked and got check points until 4:55pm and we able to best the field.

Overall we loved the terrain and good use of it. I've spent some good time in Post Canyon where the race was but had not seen a lot of where we raced. We spent a lot of time travelling near or on trails we had been on for different sections, but were still kept on our toes (and tows) by having to constantly navigate and pay attention. Nice race everyone!

Here's my favorite part of the race...the finish line and party! Thanks for the picture Colin Ness of Peak Physique.

Results top 5 points for Co-Ed Teams of 4:

DART-nuun: 12,452
Mergeo: 11,324
Yoga Slackers: 10,963
WEDALI: 9286
Our Angel Nicole: 7,693


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Lots going on right now with the Mountain X Race in France and a Trioba news release out, more on this later.

Cream Puff 2008

Well the cream puff has come and gone, and I completed my first goal of surviving the race and not falling victim to heat exhaustion and also rode hard. The results were emailed out and I finished in 12:13 and placed 36th.



Now for the details... I came out of the gates blazing and was in a chase pack of 6 riders that followed the top 10 riders up the first 4000 foot climb over 12 miles. I swapped bottles at the aid station and blazed on through. I passed 4 riders on the next 20 miles of single track and got passed by 1 single speed rider. We are talking fast and furious single track...I hugged behind the single speeder, Chris, for the remainder of the single track and moved faster than I would have if he was not there. I enjoyed his company for most of the climb and we talked about FSA and whether or not we were going to drop the Uber tech stump on the second lap (we both walked it the first time and subsequntly the second time as well).

The second big climb went well until my tubeless front tire failed when I got a slash from a sharp rock or glass. 3 minutes later I was covered in Slime and riding with a tube in the front. I blasted through the second, third and fourth aid stations. After mile 65 some one turned up the heat while I was on the third climb. I kicked it down a notch and began to think about conserving a little and not blowing up. At the 6th aid station there was a tub of cold water directly from the near by creek, I dunked the head and enjoyed some shade.

After mile 80 there was one more monster climb left. This bad boy was in the heat of the day and had lots of sun exposure. I told myself that if I saw a good looking piece of shade I would take advantage and lay down for a small rest. There it was, staring me in the face as if I was in day 4 of an adventure race. I set the alarm on my watch and laid down for a nappy nap. 25 minutes laterI was far from fresh, but ready to knock the climb out. The Alpine trail took me down into the finish line where Scott Taylor gave me my finisher hat and officially classified me as a bad ass.

This race is a class act. The best run aid stations and support personell that I have ever been a part of. The entire race I carried very minimal supplies and ate like a king. If you have not done this race then put it on your list...I will be back.

Capitol Peak Ultra-race report

My race report, at least the bits that I can remember...grab a cup of coffee, this is a long one.

This was my first official Marathon, or Ultra marathon at that. The longest official running race I had done prior to this was Bay to Breakers in SF, it's a 12K. Of course I have run farther than this, I just have not done a lot of running races. My overall goal was to run a consistent race, survive and have fun. I wanted to average around 11 minute miles and avoid my problem of fast/slow running.

Glenn, Aaron and myself headed down to the start of the Capitol Peak ultra on Friday night since the race was to start at 6:00 am on Saturday. We did not want to deal with driving before the race, especially that early. Aaron set his alarm for 5:20 and I set mine for 5:25.

Beep, beep , beep ...oh the pain of the early morning alarm. I brushed Aaron's off knowing mine would go off. I shut mine off before it was done with its first chirp of noise...thinking that Aaron had just hit snooze and his would go off again. Next thing you know Glenn has opened up the back of my truck and yells, "I can't believe you guys are sleeping through all this noise." It's now 5:44 and the pre race meeting is in one minute, it shouldn't be a problem as were pretty much sleeping on the start line.

We missed the race meeting and the instructions and I do hear something about a course change but I don't catch the particulars. I steal a couple of gulps of Glenn's warm coffee and then hit the woods, to avoid the ten person line to the bathroom. Michelle came over and gave out some pre race hugs and said hi, it was great to see her...she was running the 50 mile, big props to her.

Next thing you know Jeff, the Race Director, says, "OK Line up!". I've got my new Vasque Aether Tech's on, I've hydropelled my important parts and I'm applying the first safety pin to secure my race number (142) when I hear, "Ready, set, go!" They were off, not real fast, but they were off. Aaron and I looked at each other and laughed and Glenn threw something in the back of my truck and left with the gang.

After a couple of other preparations and grabbing a map we were out of there, DFL. We both opted to start cold and knew we would be warming up. Right out of the gates we climbed 600 feet and continued with a gradual climb for the first 6 miles. We took it easy and within 10 minutes or so we bumped into a line of 20 racers that were walking a pretty gradual hill, we walked with them for a while and then did the three man weave for a quarter mile to work our way around them. Soon enough we bumped into our second pack of 15-20 people, saw Maislen with this gang and then we topped out at the first aid station just behind 3 racers. Aaron and I were both wearing Gregory Stimulus and had enough provisions to stop at every other aid station so we passed these guys and kept trucking along.

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Note, I was running very alert for most of the race due to the fact that we missed the meeting and I kept thinking that my map would get me out of any trouble that we might find. As it turned out I knew the trails good enough to understand where we were going and I never really needed it. The Adventure racer in me was ready to nav at any point, but the course was impecably marked and running the intended route was a breeze. Thanks race management.

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I was feeling great and really enjoying the trail. I have biked the loop we were running before but there is something to say for running trails as you get a much different perspective and can enjoy the scenery a bit more. Soon enough we were at the 2nd aid station where I put down a couple of ounces of Coke and ate some salty chips on my way out. My Hydrapack bladder was filled with Tri-Berry nuun and it was treating me perfectly. On our way out one of the volunteers said we were five miles in...as we left Aaron and I both simultaneously thought what a downer! All this running for five miles. Of course I checked my watch and we were 2 hours into the race and I was anxious to figure out what the real mileage was.

After a couple of miles of mostly downhill running back to the start and aid station #4, we quickly learned we were 15 miles into the race. Awesome! Both Aaron and I were feeling great and were excited to climb Capitol peak and get this done with. The next 7 or 8 miles was filled with climbing and more climbing. It felt like someone had put 5 pound ankle weights on me...it was the climbing. Aaron jumped in front and dropped the hammer a bit on the switchbacks, I held on for dear life and soon enough we were on top of the world. At this aid station there was a 1.5 mile out and back to the peak, where you could drop your gear if you wanted and climb .75 mile straight up and then sprint back down. this was also a great spot to see what competition was within striking distance.

We had passed a good number of runners to this point and with this section we realized that there was more roadkill, probably 7 or 8 runners within 10 minutes of us. I think the fire was lit in Aaron's eyes. WAIT, what was that? Rocky, no. But, EYE OF THE TIGER, YES! The race director had a ghetto blaster playing eye of the tiger on repeat for the climb. I got to hear 2 full renditions of the song, one on the way up and one on the way down...and then it was permanently stuck in my head until I finished. Loved it. (JPC I thought you might have been behind this).

After this we hit the North side of a ridge that had a large amount of snow remaining on it. This took the wind out of my sail and slowed me down a bit, at 4:20 in the race Aaron took off. I think eventually we passed almost all of the runners we had seen on the out and back, but my low point was right around the corner and Aaron drifted off into the forest around 4:40 into the race.

I could not stay on top of the snow and was post holing every other step...feeling my pace go down and getting a bit demoralized I knew I had to refuel and keep moving. So I went into a fast walk and ate and drank just about everything I had. The snow diminished and soon I was back in the saddle. BOOM, we hit the aid station, it was a sight for soar eyes. 6 miles to the finish.

I filled my bladder with the complimentary nuun and pulled up a front row seat to the table known to most as aid station #7 and started to buffet. PB&J's, watermelon, cantelope, chips, payday candy bars...I thought I might just hang out here for a while. Oh yeah I'm racing. I felt the creep of some lactic acid in the legs and realised I had to get out of there. I decided I would try and run the last 6 miles in 60 minutes. These 6 miles were the best section of trail and made what should have been the toughest part the easiest part. It helped that it was all downhill too.

69 minutes later I came into the sunny finish line and was pumped. Aaron and Glenn finished 10 minutes ahead of me and per my watch we climbed 1,430 meters and I finished in 6 hours and 9 minutes. We'll see what the official time says, I expect it to be a bit longer (5 minutes) as I did not start my watch until I started running.

I consider the race a success and think I accomplished my goals
-Average estimated pace 10:51min/mile
-No blisters
-No injuries
-Feeling great!

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Just found the race pictures here!

Wicked Gorge Games...Shane Gibson interview

I spent the weekend in Hood River with the family and had some time to get out on some of the trails. That was just enough for me to get pumped about the Wicked AR series coming back this year and uniting forces with the Gorge Games...The Gorge Games popped my cherry...I mean was my first 24 hour race and got me addicted to adventure racing. Ok, so this was enough for me to get some questions out to Shane Gibson at Wicked AR for a high level preview of what to expect. So here you have DART-nuun adventures first prime time interview...

> Wicked is back! We missed you, are you fired up to get your race production back on?

You bet! Kathleen and I are incredibly excited to be putting on races again. We really missed producing races in '07 - and are excited to be back at it. This year, we had (as always) far more ideas on what we want to do, than we practically have the time to do well. We still have so many races and places we want to explore, having to chose a select few races is almost as hard as producing them!

> How did Wicked end up in the Gorge?

The 2005 Wicked Gorge race was one of our favorites. Beacon Rock State Park was such a gorgeous venue, Erik Plunkett, the head ranger, was incredibly supportive and great to work with - the feedback on that race has always ranked at the top of the list. We've wanted to come back tothe Gorge year after year, and we decided it was time we did for '08. We started laying plans back in October, and in December we were contacted by Scarlett Marketing who now owns the Gorge Games brand. They were interested in us producing an Adventure Race for the Games. Ironically,we had already begun initial planning for a Gorge race. The connection was almost eerie. This race will be a very different experience for us - since the responsibilities for event management, production, and running the race are varied between the Gorge Games and Wicked Adventure Racing. We're looking forward to the enthusiasm and excitement that has surrounded the past Gorge Games, and tapping into that energy. The businesses, people,and community in the Gorge have been incredibly supportive of the Gorge Games return.

> Did you race the Balance Bar at the Gorge Games? If so what do you remember the most?

I didn't participate in them - that was pre-Shane racing era. I was still on the couch in awe of what those athletes were doing, trying toget up the courage to participate. I do remember watching the Games and the Balance Bar race on the telly - and I vividly remember the final leg when teams were heading to the finish line, up river. One of the teams was using a kite with their kayak, when the camera panned from in front of the boat, to the bow, you could see the hull up out of the water, it was like the kayak had an outboard engine opened up to full throttle -it was incredible. Then they lost something in the water, and had to drop the kite, got passed, and lost the race by a few spots. I rememberthat scene clearly - and it plays forefront in my mind when I'm outthere scouting the course out, thinking about what all the racers willbe going through. The Gorge is one of the top destinations in the World for wind powered sports - racers should be prepared for some incredibly tough paddling conditions!

> Will focusing on one race in 2008 allow you to do more in terms of preparation?

Well - we never approach or consider producing a race with out being asfully prepared as we can be. We take the safety of every single racer out there as if they were our own children. My gut turns knots when we're at HQ deciding whether or not to mount a search and rescue since Team X disappeared into the mist and are now three hours overdue. In many ways, producing a race is a LOT harder than participating. When I'm racing, I just have to focus about navigating my team safely through the course and directly be responsible for our decisions as team captain. When we're producing a race we have to worry about some odd 30 to 50 teams getting through our race course safely! It will be an interesting experience since we are meshing the Wicked team with the Gorge Games organization. So far they've been exceptional people to work with, tremendous experience, knowledge and care. We have incredibly busy lives and producing only one race in 2008 allows us to produce a great quality event and also to focus on other areas oflife.

> What are we in store for in the Gorge in '08?

Definitely expect the paddling section to be tough. Teams without any paddling skills are going to be hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Strong paddling teams are going to be challenged, and will be well rewarded for their experience and training. Many of the NW racers have seen the Columbia River Gorge. I don't think anyone in their right mind would call any of it "gentle" terrain. It's going to be steep. It's going to be leg and lung busting. But I also expect it will be an incredibly fast and furious race. We also have a few twists in store for racers that we're working on - if they come to fruition, I think this race is going to continue the great buzz around the Wicked Gorge legacy. This race is also a CheckPoint Tracker Series points race for the $30,000 series prize purse. We've had a number of teams contact us from outside the region that are interested in pursuing the Check Point Tracker title - so expect some new faces. You were there for the last Wicked Gorge Race, Ryan. Based on your experience, what are you expecting?

[rvg: I'm expecting nothing but monster climbs and big gnarley downhills, brutal terrain and soft sultry single track...maybe some wind on the side]

> Any issues with permits and how are the people to work with in the area?

So far we've had great experiences. Land agencies can be very difficult, expensive and time-consuming to negotiate with when you're a small AR company, but hooking up with a prestigious event like the Gorge Games really helps pave the way for permitting. There is still a tremendous amount of work to do on the race course, but so far things are looking promising.

> Where will Cp1 be? Just making sure you were paying attention.

Well, Ryan - I don't think I'm known for coughing up details too easily! I can tell you this - when you get to the race HQ on race day, look for the highest point. Chances are always good that some wicked sick race director is going to think it's a killer idea to send you up there ...on the steepest slope possible! We are looking forward to the 2008 Wicked Gorge race this year. Forthose of you looking for the down and dirty stats:

Friday July 18th at 5:00 pm - start of the Wicked Gorge Pro course -24 Hour raceMountain Biking, Kayaking, Trekking, Navigation, and some othercoolstuff ...

Saturday July 19th at 10:00 am - start of the Wicked Gorge Sportcourse - 5 to 10 hour raceMountain biking, Kayaking, Trekking, Navigation, and some other cool stuff ...

Complete details will be posted on the Gorge Games website:

http://www.GorgeGames.net/events/adv_race.asp

Registration will be open on March 25th, via the Gorge Games website: http://www.GorgeGames.net/

We hope to see all of the Northwest racers our there this year - we've missed producing these races, and we've missed the camaraderie and community of the athletes - we're looking forward to kicking off another WICKED year! --Shane

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rvg: Thanks for your time and best of luck on the preperations Shane!

Happy New Year! What will 2008 have in store for Adventure racing?

Now that we have set foot into 2008 we can all start planning out our life and race calendars. What exciting things will you fill your calendar with...with a child on the way my priorities will shift, however both JVG(the wifey) and I are ambitious about keeping adventure racing and adventure in general as a part of our lives. I guess it will always be part of our lifestyle, but kids tend to shift priorities a bit.

DART-nuun will again focus on international expedition, however I will personally focus on local racing this year and perhaps one international race. A couple of series we have highlighted to participate in locally:

-BEAST (Lottery)

-Big Blue

-Wicked (hopefully back to life in 2008...see Gorge Games comment on CP Tracker series)

-Momar

-Checkpoint tracker Series (National Series)

and internationally:

-Baja Travesia (Baja, Mex)

-EcomotionPro (Brazil)

-Bull lof Africa (South Africa)

-XPD Portugal

In the mean time I'll be sticking to weight training and some long slow distance on my feet and in the saddle. Winter has hit here in the Pacific Northwest and the skiing has been great! Here is a shot of JVG snowshoeing on Christmas day at Steven's Pass. See you in the hills.

BEAST Adventure Race - Pictures

Finally, I got my pictures uploaded from last weeks winter Beast. Was without internet for a week or so...hope you enjoy them. Only a couple came out as the lense was wet and sweaty most of the time, at least there was a couple of keepers in there.

Winter BEAST race and the winter storm of 2007

The Winter BEAST 2007 turned out to be a real test and for some reason coincided with the first big winter storm in Seattle. DART-nuun had 3 members of the team participating in the lottery program where we get teamed up with new adventure racers or racers that are interested in racing with us. This serves as a great opportunity to give many inside tips and tricks of the trade to racers that don't have the breadth of experience under their belts that we do.

There was an incredible turn out and it was great to see people out ready to test themselves against the elements. Here are the race reports I have seen so far and they are great testemants to how nasty it was out there...winners of the BEAST and great guys Gary and Todd from up north and DART-nuun member Matt

I was teamed up with three of my coworkers and assured them that we would breeze through the course ...little did I know we signed up for suffer fest 2007! Brent, Greg and Dave toed the line with me and were ready to roll when the start gun went offyour .

Course overview:

-35 checkpoints, 25 biking and 10 trekking.

-20~ miles of biking and maybe 5-7 miles of trekking/running/bushwhacking.

The race was on, in route to CP4 we had a racer down with massive cramps in his quads. The cold conditions and lack of fluids took their toll...we started pumping electrolytes and upped the amount of nuun in his water immediately. I gave Dave a brief introduction to my friend the bike tow and we were off. From here we fell into our groove and picked off the CP's one by one. Brent and I alternated with the navigation in route to the transition, he did great.

We were cold...but had seen worse. The key to survival was constant forward motion. If our feet got cold we jumped off our bikes and ran until the blood in our body was pumping. If cramps came we downed more nuun and did our best to fight off any more by eating regularly.

We jockeyed with racing veterans, the Commandoughs who had also picked up a lottery DART member (Aaron), from CP 5 into the transition. This was a battle royal and I was going to pull out all the tricks to keep us in contention. Jill (Commandough superstar) got a bit cold and we called off the dogs just long enough hook her up with some gloves and get the pit fight back on.

Out of transition we were 5 minutes back on the commandoughs and feeling good about being on our feet. After a short bushwhack (a first for Greg and Dave) we said hi to the commandoughs again. Neck and neck until CP7 where I took the team slightly off route and through a fun bushwhack they had pulled ahead. We succeeded in our mission to complete the full course, in what turned out to be a war of attrition...and cold. We were the last team to finish the full course and the gang was excited to be back and closer to their cars and some warmth.

Good times and great racing with Harlow David-son.

rEco Challenge 2007 - Washington Edition

That's right the Rico Challenge made its presence known as the 2007 edition was held in Washington at the Samamish State Park. In our backyard!

I fielded a powerhouse team for this event, as I knew it was going to be November's biggest production and have the largest cash purse in all of Samamish State Park, at $0 and a cool medal. The team was comprised of the 6.5 month pregnant JVG, my father in law (also known as Captain Dew Over) and stranger Miles...he's fast. Lets get it on!

The race started with a 4.5 mile paddle out of Samamish State Park. At CP2 the teams were forced to search a large area of the lake with stumps coming out of the water for a piece of ribbon with your teams name on it. Rico was out to get us...since we were soo stacked I am convinced the trick was on us, needless to say we spent some good time out on the water cleaning the course. We headed into the technical river section and paddled up stream in class 3 rapids, maybe it was a lake looking like a river but whats the difference.?. A quick portage and we were right back in the thick of it in last place.

There was more about this race than we knew. As we transitioned, off of the clock Raid Style, Rico called a racer meeting to announce that, starting with the 2nd place team each team had to select one member from the team in front of them to compete on their team for the staggered restart. The first place team would have to select from the last place team. Hmmm, I went from DFL to first in the drop of a hat when Andrea and Connie (Double trouble) picked me. We were out of there like a bolt of lightning. To the time trial where we blasted through 3 quick loops of kick biking and a penalty run for being first. Back on our bikes and a bit of a climb later we were cargo netting our way through the ropes course...epic!

We arrived at the next transition near the top of Cougar Mountain, team swap number 2. Now you had to vote a member off...we ro-sham-boed and I lost. Evicted from our second place team to first again! The gods were looking down on me this fine day. Roger, Reed, Max and I were off on the 7 mile trail run at Cougar. We crushed it...then got the mixer again for team swap number three...we waited a couple of minutes for teh second place team of Miles, AV and Connie to roll in.

Soon enough we were bombing down to civilization and Lake Samamish where the finish line and race production were located. Mega-Props to Robin and Eric for a killer race and Cliff for the sweet eats post race. It was good to race with peeps I would not normally get a chance to and to hang out with the PAc NW race crew for a fun filled day. Check out the offical race photo's here.

As rumor has it 2008 is going to be the year of the "Free Race" or perhaps the year of the tightly organized traning competitions. By my estimates there could be 4 underground races in the Pac NW next year with the following races:

-Lava Quest (Aug)

-Primal Smith (???)

-Death Talus (May)

-Rico Challenge. (Nov)

4th Dimension Adventure Race

Last weekend saw the introduction of a new race, the 4th Dimension 24 hour adventure race to the Pacific Northwest. Produced by Roger Michel and Glenn Rogers (Fellow DARTer) this was the real deal in 24 hour racing. It was a very challenging course accompanied by some difficult weather and especially visibility at night. I needed a fog light.

Here are the pictures that I took, the first 3, and then Roger subsequently took the rest with my camera when I left it in the TA with my PFD by accident. I really let myself and the team down by leaving the camera behind...we try and subscribe to the philosophy of "no camera left behind!"

4th Dimension AR

This was one of those courses that you will not forget easily as there were a lot of decisions to make from a navigation standpoint from start to finish. This kept us on our tows and off our toes I guess. The race started with a 16 mile paddle, follwed by an epic 69 mile bike section that climbed over 10,500 feet and finished with an extra large Rogaine.

We rode most of the bike with the exception of pushing our bike up the Church Creek trail and right around check point 9 where the grass was 4 feet tall. It was great to see so many familiar faces on and off the race course. There were lots of local racing stars at checkpoints around the course and helping out with the race in general. (ie: Duncan, JVG, Tyler P., Patrice, Stacy(in by association))

We held the lead for most of the race or shared it with the two person Mergeo team (Dave and Peteris). Did anyone do the bike whack from CP9 up the hill? We started the climb with Mergeo 2 person and then backed down at the alders and overgrown road. The option to ride the hill proved to be worth its weight in gold...our first big mistake was at CP13 where we bombed the hill right past the overgrown road and had to climb back up a couple of kilometers to get it. After that we had the 4 person mergeo and the 2 person mergoe team running around with us. Too bad they caught us as we made heads or tails of the geography and figured out CP 13. We put it on a silver platter for them. It probably did not make much difference in the end.

We finished the bike leg strong, transitioned lightning fast and paddled into the last TA to the trek/rogaine transition about 25 minutes ahead of Mergeo.

This is where the wheels came off a bit. We were moving fast but focus was not with us (Very sleepy) and we made the 2nd big mistake of the race by chosing to navigate the south controls first and hopefully move to the north section in the morning. In retrospect the more concentrated controls up north were the place to be at night and we should have gone there first.

We got turned around a couple of times in heavy fog with a couple of sleepy choices and ended up running out of the time that we needed to bushwhack to the north side. In the end we simply did not cover the amount of ground we had planned on. It looked so easy on paper ;-)

We've decided it is time to work on the Rogaine a bit. They seem to be a bit more prevelant in Adventure Races these days and in my opinion they are a good way to allow the field to finish close to one another, instead of 12 hours apart. Shane who produces the Wicked AR series is asking whether or not racers liked it here on his web page.

We ended up gathering 10 controls and fell short of Mergeo's 13 controls to take 2nd in the 4 person co-ed division. Mergeo looked strong everytime we saw them and they nailed the rogaine...we are looking forward to the next time we meet.

Now on to Tahoe for the Big Blue 12 hour adventure race...2nd to last race of the season.

I would bet we see more Rogain style finishes in AR in the future,

Recovery filled taper

We are a couple of weeks out of XPD and less than a week before the 4th Dimension Adventure race on the Olympic Peninsula. I'm in that ambiguous state between recovery and taper...is there a place in between the two? Some call it Baskin Robbins, others call it rest ;-)



Over the weekend I went on a great hike up Mt. Pillchuck with JVG and had a killer mountain bike ride at Tiger. I think the variety added into my training has helped keep the drive alive and at least allowed me to really enjoy the trail. The 80 degree temps and dry trail helped out a bit too.



Anyways, we are fielding a tough team for the race this weekend and it will be my first chance to race with Aaron, Aaron and Mari...it should be fun to see how fast we can move and how many pictures we can take. Looking forward to seeing you all out there!