by Adam - Petaluma, CA
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THURSDAY MARCH 29 11:25AM PST
-by Adam
No update for the last 24 hours. Guess the race organizers and crews are deep in isolation away from phone and internet access. I will post an update just as soon as I can reach the crew.
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WENESDAY MARCH 28 1:05PM PST
- by Adam
I just got off the phone with the crew for Mark, DP and Melissa. Things are going great. We are currently in 5th place with Will and RWG only about an hour back in 6th place. Looks like once the nightmare kayak was over they are gaining some ground on the other teams even picking up a few places.
So far they have completed the kayak, a mountain bike and a trekking leg. They took about an hour nap this morning before heading out on the second bike leg. Apparently on the first bike leg Melissa went down and got a bit banged up and Mark’s rim had to be replaced. Looks like a bit of sketchy tired riding out there I’m sure. After all of that, the crew said that they arrived to the TA in good spirits.
The weather has cleared up and it’s warming up with dry conditions.
So far no foot or medical problems. They are taking extra care of their feet apparently. (That’s good!)
Sounds like all in all they ar playing a smart, safe and well calculated race!
I griped to Karen and Paul for the lack of mention and coverage in their race reports about the Dirt Avocados. They were mentioning ALL other teams except for the DAs for some reason. I guess this got back to Donato at th elast TA and he had this to say; “You know we’ll get more coverage when we’re leading the race!”
The crew was passing through Encinada when they called me and were about to head inland towards the mountains so they weren’t sure what cell coverage would be like. I will try calling them tonight and will post another update when I can get one from the horse mouth.
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MONDAY MARCH 26 9:44PM PST
- by Adam
I just got off the phone with Mark, Donato and Melissa while they were out for their last supper at a local Italian joint. Spirits are high. When asked if they were nervous, mark said not so much nervous but anxious.
A storm is headed their way and they were warned by race organizers to be prepared for swells and cold weather while out on the kayak and over the higher passes.
The canyoneering segment is supposed to be epic Mark said. Earlier tonight during the race briefing they were presented with a jaw dropping slide show of the canyoneering course. Good think Mark packed his waterproof camera.
They also had the slight upper hand on other teams during map preparation because while crew-less teams scrambled to organize their bins, Donato, Mark and Melissa got to focus on maps and relax.
Race starts at 8am PST tomorrow (Tuesday). I will be checking in with their crew every night to posting updates here.
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SUNDAY MARCH 25
We spent most of sat without doing much except hanging out with all the teams here lots of fast experienced racers everywhere. Sunady we packed our gear up and heahded up for the mandatory gear checks. Then on to ropes certifications then to our ocean kayak cert. All went smooth except for the kayak tetst. We were to paddle out from the beach, flip our boau upside down and get back in ready to paddle. Once we flipped we had a 5min requirement to be back inside the baot in 5min’s. Then paddle back to shore. All went smooth except our paddle back in. We were hit by a small wave and b/c we didn’t pump the water out of our baots (we were lazy) the small wave turned us and as we tried to brace it. We flipped over right in the surf zone 20 seconds later the next big set of waves rolled in by the end of that 7 wave set. We were on the beach but not inside our boats. Opps we made a big rookie mistake there. We were forced to go back into the surf. Paul romero wanted us to go oiut and “play” a littlr bit in the surf zone. We did just that bracing to our right for one set then to our lleft for the next set. After that we paddled out past the surf zone and wited for the lull between the sets and then belined it for shore. This time we came in like we knew what we were doing. Karen/Paul thanks for making go back out that did a lot for our morale. We were confident again. Now it turns out we will need that confidence as the water will be tough for the race as a storm fronts is passing through while/when we start the first 58km kayak leg. 5-9 foot seas are expexted with a small craft advisory. Yes even our Seatrek three perrson kakak at 27+ feet is a small craft 
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FRIDAY MARCH 23
Ok we get to mark richardsons house. Mark has us go through all of our gear. We have it all plus extra everything (and as it will become clear later we will need it). But wait a minute. We are missing a tub my food (dp). I had it organized in 12hour bags for the whole race and I left it in my garage with all 4 of my camelback bladders. So we leave for san diego. Make the long 6-8 hour drive without incedent and get to bed at a reasonable hour. The next am we are off to mexico (encinada). But first we stop at safeway and rei to restock my food and bladders. Almost 400 dollars later I’m ready to race for 4-5 days again. The drive to encinada was smooth and only took us 3 hous door to door.
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FRIDAY MARCH 23
Thursday night before we leave for Baja I agree to go to dinner with two girlfriends from back in my college days. End up out till almost 2am with them. Get home and have to finish making the 3 t-shirts for the race and 3 for the team + 2 for our crew guys and 1 for will. Shit now its past 4 am I have 1-2 hours to organize my gear into tubs and leave Petaluma to pick up Melissa in San Carlos. I just cram everything into my bins and in the car head to my local coffee shop and am off to Melissa’s house. Rush our traffic to/through and S of SF. Melissa and I barely fit our gear in my small car. Off the Oakdale to marks to reload into his pickup with Chris and tony (our crew). To be cont…
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FRIDAY MARCH 23
Hi Gang, wanted to get a blog entry started this morning as we are currently in San Diego and heading to Ensinada next to the start of the race which will begin on Tuesday the 27. Tomorrow and Monday we have Certifications and gear checks.
This Race actually started months ago for each of us. But, let me cut to the chase and just start with the leadup to leaving for Baja. Our Goal was to meet in Oakdale Friday March 24th (Mark’s House) and use his truck. Mark has two friends who have agreed to crew for us. Chris and Tony. They have no idea what they are in for…but they soon will.
I had a rough work week leading up to my departure early Friday morning. Got to get alot done before you take 7+ business days off from work for the 3rd time in 3 months.
Thursday march 23 i pick up our 3 person kayak from Sea Trek. It’s 27′ long and quite a bit too big for the rack on my little SAAB. I drove this thing back to my house and tried to figure out how to get it to Oakdale 120 miles away the next morning in Rush hour with two bikes. I know that would fun…
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The above posts are from Donato, Mark and Melissa as they make their way down to Ensenada and the start of the Baja Travesia.
Donato will be sending in daily updates as they progress in their travels and pass through certifications and finally the race start. Hopefully we here at home base in the Bay Area will be able to maintain communications with the crew so that we can continue to post more accurate and timely updates here on dirtyavocados.com.
I will be posing these updates on Donato’s behalf and the thread below will be updated with the most recent post last.
Good luck team!
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