by Adam - Petaluma, CA
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Finally a BAAR BRAWL that was completable.
This past Saturday organizers, whom shall remain anonymous to protect their identity, staged the infamous yearly “training event” outside San Francisco in Marin County, the Bay Area Adventure Racing BAAR BRAWL. The intent of this event is to be a 24-ish hour training adventure racing consisting of kayaking, mountain biking and running/trekking. In recent years teams have been pummeled by torrential downpours with sideways rain, punished by 12+ hour treks and on this team, even a broken collar bone. The BRAWL is widely considered to be unfinishiable, however this racer wants to note that in 2006 our team did actually “finish” after choosing to skip 3 pints on the return bike ride to the finish line after approx 28 hours of agony.
This years BRAWL would serve as a testing ground for a few GPS tracing devices we’ve often use; The TrackStick which historically has given us mixed and often frustrating usability results and worse customer service. The SPOT Satellite Tracker which the kind folks at SPOT flipped our way at the recent Outdoor Retailer Show in SLC. And our GPS tracker of choice, the Garmin Forerunner family of devices. In addition we tested the GoPro HERO camera and the Waterproof Pedometer by ARNavSupplies.com. I’ll have more details in my review of the above devices in a later post.
This race served as an opportunity for our team to gel and practice as we prepare for Primal Quest in later June. This year our Dirty Avocados squad consisted of Jen Rigoni, Adam Armijo, Donato Polignone and me, Adam Doti. Our fellow teammates Mike, Brian and Susan also raced to prepare for Primal Quest.
This event was a northern California “who’s who in AR” reunion. Those in attendance were (to protect identities I’ve used just first names. you know who you are) Rich, Gordon, Rick, Jon, Mark, Galen, Oliver, Mari, David, Mats and Jackie whom Mike and I raced with at Gold Rush last Fall and Team Lucky! These are all fellow racers I look up to and respect. I was more nervous racing the BRAWL than I have been in larger, more established races in the past 
The start/finish and TA location was at Bucks Launching near China Camp in San Rafael. The location was absolutely perfect. Remote, safe and roomy, it allowed us to circle our vehicles and dump out all of our gear.
The event began with a rolling start because the launching area was rather small. Karen recorded our times as we left the dock. We chose to paddle the two Necky Kayaks we purchased from the Primal Quest organization a couple years ago. We nicknamed them the “albatrosses”, because of their incredibly heavy weight. Our boat choice defiantly handicapped us compared to the other racers’ faster boats. Even the rentals from Sea Trek probably weighed half as much as ours.
We started kayaking through the marsh channels towards highway 101. One advantage our team had in this years BRAWL was it was held about 1 mile from where I lived for 4 years. So I knew the marshes and trails like the back of my hand. We eventually made our way to the dock near McGinnis Park when we exited the boats and ran to the top of the hill behind the driving range. After nabbing the CP we were to complete a special test. Miniature golf! After completing the requisite 18 holes we tallied our score cards and ran back to our boats. We then paddled south along the sore to China Camp beach and spotted David Kelly. David advised us to make a b-line for the Richmond CP out by the lighthouse on the island before getting the point south of China Camp on another island due to the strong tides. So we took his advice and made for Richmond. Because of the tide we made it in no time!
This is where it gets out of hand. After completing the CP we continued clockwise around the island to make our way to the next CP back on the Marin side. When we did, DP and I found ourselves between 2 rocks/islands and the current whipping through this small channel built up such force that our kayak was pushed over towards the rocks. As the tide pulled out for a brief moment we could see about 5-8 feet down into a hole the ocean left! We started paddling like mad little dogs trying to get out of the pool! A-Bomb and Jen could only watch in horror before they realized they needed to paddle like mad as well to save themselves. DP and I inched our way out of that channel and ferried into the open water.
Slowly but surely we continued to fight the current and made it to the last kayak CP on the Marin side.We inched our albatross back to the TA just behind Rick most of the way.
Back at the TA we transitioned into our biking gear. The biking section would take us into Fairfax and Tamarancho as well as all over China Camp.
We decided to tackle Tamarancho first and make our way back to China Camp at night. We make quick business of the roads from CC to Fairfax and to the CP that was supposed to be on a sign above a bridge off of Scenic Rd. After searching with Jon and Rick we gave up, chalking it up to mis-plot. I would later find out while talking to Zen that it was in fact plotted about 80 feet too low.
We made it across Fairfax and up Alta Loma and then down to the bridge and up the new Whites Hill Trail and the backside of Tamarancho. After some debate on which way around Tamarancho would be quicker we decided to go counter clockwise.
It was around here where I had my encounter with the Terradactyl. While stopping for a brief moment to allow for my fellow teammates to regroup I heard a loud screech, or maybe more of a feeding call. As I looked up and out of the corner of my eye I saw probably the largest flying creature I have personally ever witnessed. In the twilight of the evening I could only see its silhouette. It’s wing span seemed to be as long as a VW bug and it moved in a slow motion like manner. By the time my teammates caught up it was long gone. Of course I exclaimed “did you hear and see that Terradactyl ?!” They just laughed and rolled on by down the hill into Fairfax. This Terradactyl would haunt me for the remainder of the race.
Around the back of Tamarancho and back down into Fairfax and back to San Rafael and the Dominican University Area. But not before stopping at 7-11 of course. We shoved Sun Chips, Hot Dogs and colas down our gullets to the horror of a couple kids riding their BMXs in the parking lot.
We climbed an unmarked dirt road overlooking 101 for a CP where I seem to startle a resident of the hill that was wondering what the “shiny A” was for. Then some single track on the south western side of CC eastward when we decided to take neighborhood streets to the next closest fire road to the CP. This would be faster than dinking around with the single track in the night.
We basically worked our way around China Camp counter clockwise popping in and out of China Camp to get the CPs. We came across a huge posse of racers headed in the opposite direction; our fellow DAs, Brian, Susan and Mike, We also saw Manning and his team as well as a few others. We finished up the bike leg with a ride along the shoreline trail back to the TA at Bucks Launching.
We then received our trekking maps and passport. The entire trek would be in China Camp. After dragging DP out of the bar at Buck’s we hit the pavement after a “liberal” TA.
Again we decided to tackle this counter clockwise. We headed down the road to 7-11 and an open space trail hidden behind the building that would take us up to an old mine for the first CP. We then took a bearing and scrambled up a very steep slope to the next CP on a small trail. It was a hideously steep climb up a muddy, loose, scree-like slope for what seemed like 1000 feet! Remember Shashank Redemption when Tim Robbins punched through the sewer pipe and pulled himself up out of the mud and yuck to freedom? … kinda like that.
I used “the force” and we popped out onto the trail only about 20 feet above the next CP!
We made our way up to the Howell Single Track trail on the back side of China Camp. We ran down the single track until we got to the intersection where ewe usually go stay left and make our way back up. We turned right and made our way for the next CP. After counting the pipes we headed back and came out on the fire road those winds up to the Nike missile site. We grabbed another CP on the way and it was somewhere around here at the top of China Camp that we ran into the other Avocados; Mike, Susan and Brian!
We continued on to the next few CPs together. There was a bonus CP, 5B, that we should have realized that if we continued down the ridge trail from CP8 that it would have taken us right to it. But earlier in the night we had decided to skip it because it wasn’t worth the 60 minute bonus.
The other DAs had completed all their CPs and we had one to go because they opted to acquire the CP1 right away while we opted for the CP2 behind 7-11. We parted ways and arrived back at the finish about 30 minutes behind them. We busted into the bar to find Ken sleeping in the floor in the bag next to the stove. It took some rousing but we finally awoke him so he could share our middle of the night misery
We finished about 4:45 am on Sunday after nearly 21 hours of racing. The parking lot still had alot of cars, guess China Camp had plenty of company tonight.
Seems that there has been a lot of creative interpretation of the race results ;) Depending on how you slice and dice it, we finished 6th, 2nd or 1st. Well, what do you expect for a “training event”! I’m calling it 2nd in the co-ed 3-4 person category, just minutes behind baarbd(again!) which is what is typically the elete category.
Before parting our ways north and south on 101, we regrouped at McDonalds and scarfed down some Egg McMuffins.
For more on how the SPOT, TrackStick and Garmin devices worked out, stay tuned for a follow up posting.
Our SPOT data:
BAAR BRAWL 2008 (Using SPOT Data) at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks
TrackStick Data: Click Here
Garmin Data: Click Here
SPOT Data: http://everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=12979
Great post, AD. But did you have any beers?
No unfortunately I did not. DP did partake though. I was running around the parking lot trying to get my team in and out of the TA! With a 4 person team, that’s a lot of troops to move.
Adam, this is Aaron from Do or Die. After adding up the bonus, we had you guys come in 1 and 2 within just a few minutes of each other. We were actualy nipping at your heels by doing every bonus out there, (less that 15 minutes behind bothe of you). Baarbd was a distant 4th.
Did you get the final results from the BAAR site?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baar/files/BAAR_Brawl_2008_Results_REV4.xls