Melissa and I had a great weekend on Mt. Shasta with about 11 others including Grif and Adrian. The weather was incredible, not a cloud in the sky and hardly any wind. I did the climb wearing boots, crampons, tights, shell pants, a thin base layer top, lightweight gloves with lines, and two fleece shirts. I didn’t need a shell. It was so nice on top I stayed there almost an hour.

The road to Bunny Flat was closed at McBride campground @ 4900 ft. elevation. We had to start there Friday afternoon which added 2800 feet and three miles to our ascent. We camped about a mile form Horse Camp at 7100 feet the first night and on a col at about 9900 ft. elevation on Casaval Ridge overlooking Avalanche Gulch on the second night.

On summit day four people returned to the cars and brought them to Bunny Flat (the road opened at 10am Saturday). The rest of us left at 4:15am for the summit. We started with three teams of three roped together. Two teams each had one member struggling early. We gave those two people their own rope and the let them continue at their own pace. After that there were four teams: three teams of two and one team of three, and seven people summited. I was able to move much more quickly after we rearranged the teams. I felt strong the whole time with no headache and reached the top with my partner around 11;36. Melissa was also looking strong when her team reached the top at about 12:15. The view was amazing. Mt. Hood and all the snow capped Cascade range was shinning in the sun to the west and north and Mt Lassen towered above it’’s surroundings in to the south.

Several of the people at the summit were very tired and the Casaval Ridge route seemed like it would be harder to descend than it was to climb. As a group we chose to return to our camp at 9900 feet via the non technical Avalanche Gulch route. Some huge glissdaes and a tedious post-holing traverse took us back to camp. I could see that the last people to return were a least 45 minutes behind. We were just starting to break down the camp when Adrian reached us on the radio and suggested we wait. When the final people dragged themselves into camp at 4:30 the group consensus was to camp another night on the mountain and hike the short hike to Bunny Flat on Monday morning. We finally had a bit of wind kick up around 3am Monday morning and no one was up and about in camp until about 8am. Once we were off the ridge the wind stopped and we were HOT hiking down. We ate together in Mt. Shasta before everyone headed home.

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Over the last week of rain and cold weather I’ve had a lot of time to be cold and wet. Anyone that has raced with me will tell you that it almost always rains when I’m on the course (who else gets rained out of

Moab twice?) Through all of this I have learn a few things about racing and training in the cold and wet. Being a nice guy I thought I would share some it.

First and foremost – you are going to have to get use to the idea that you ARE going to be cold. There is nothing that you can do about it, so suck it up. The question is not whether you will be cold, the question is how cold will you be and will it impact your performance. Being cold is OK, being hypothermic is a problem.Understand what makes you cold. Water against the body sucks the heat away from it. Wind takes heat from the body as well. Wet and windy at 45 degrees can be much worse then a dry, calm 32 degrees. It is keeping moisture off the body and protecting it from wind that will keep you from getting too cold. Insulation is the third part. Holding the body heat in is the goal.You have to have a good attitude about it. If you are cold, everyone else on your team is also cold. Complaining about it only makes it worse. On the other hand, if you cross over that line into hypothermia, you need to let your teammates know so you can get some help.Keep key areas warm. Your head, neck and hands are most important. Most of the heat goes out of your head and neck so have something to cover them up. A Buff, as thin as it is, works really well. A shower cap over a bike helmet is another light weight item that will help keep your head warm. Cold hands can be very painful and prevent you from actually doing things with your hands. Having good gloves and a spare pair when the first gets wet is a good idea. I have been playing with using surgical gloves under other gloves. It works OK but my hands sweat a great deal so I’m not totally sold yet.Don’t over dress. It’s better to be a bit cold then too warm. Once you start running or climbing you will sweat which puts water against the body. That sucks the heat away. You should be cold at the start. Your activity will warm you up. If your comfortable at the start, you will over heat and get wet from the inside. Keep moving. Stopping is what gets you cold. Do everything you can to keep moving. If you have to stop, do jumping jacks or run in place or anything you can to keep your body moving and therefore warm. Carry heat packs and remember you have them. At Gold Rush I carried them but forgot I had them. Anyway, a chemical heat pack on the neck, chest and/or under the arms will keep the body core warm which will help keep everything else warm.I have not found anything that is waterproof if it rains hard and long enough. Just understand that no matter how much money you pay, 12 hours in the rain equals getting soaked.I have yet to figure out a way to keep my feet warm. Ever since Raid the North Extreme I have had trouble keeping my feet warm so maybe it’s just me. Bootees and waterproof socks help but my feet still get cold, even if they are dry. Another suck it up situation.Learn how to use your space blanket. When things get bad your space blanket can be your best friend. First make sure you have a new one. If it’s been in your pack all year, it will not work, won’t unfold and will be worthless. Spend the couple of bucks and carry at least two good new ones. If you are really wet and cold, strip down and wrap the space blanket around your bare skin. I put the middle at my neck then wrap it from either side around my chest and around my back. Then put your wet clothes over it. Although it feels strange it will help keep the water off of you and the heat in. It really saved me in

Canada. I recommend trying it in practice one day. Knowing how it works and how to put it on will really help when you are fighting with the space blanket in the pouring rain at night when you half frozen. Anticipate when the weather will turn on you. We all like to travel fast and light. But having an extra layer at 2 in the morning can really make a difference in how well you move.Keep an eye on your teammates. If you’re cold, so are they. Make sure they don’t get so bad that it becomes serious. Hypothermia is serious. One of the biggest problems is you just get stupid and make poor decisions. Work together to make sure you don’t get to that stage. Especially keep an eye on the navigator because his/her decisions can make a huge impact on the entire team. I once was so cold I missed an obvious turn that lead the team 8 miles and 800 vertical feet down the wrong way. It was raining in LA (of course) and it lead to a DNF.I recommend reading “Hypothermia Frostbite and Other Cold Injuries” by Gordon Giesbrecht Ph.D and James Wilkerson M.D. if your are doing expedition racing. Understanding the problem and knowing how to deal with it will not only make your race a better experience but could help you prevent something bad from happening – like a DNF.

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I’ve heard from several people who are struggling to get it together to come out and race the Gold Rush 24 Hour Adventure Challenge, GR24.  Here’s some reasons that all adventures racers in California and neighboring states shouldn’t miss it:

1. Team Karma is a grass roots group who promotes races because we love the sport.  Professional promoters have struggled to make ends meet finacially promoting 24 hour races.  There’s no big series by one promoter on the horizon.  Supporting grass roots events ensures the future of this great sport.
2. It’s a real 24 hour race.  No team will blow through this course in 14 hours and be home showered and in bed when the last team crosses the line.  The winners can expect to be done in no less than 19-20 hours.  Gold Rush offers route options so that all teams finish within a few hours of each other. 
3. The post race meal is well attended.  Because the winners didn’t finish 10-12 hours before the last teams most teams stay for the post race meal and awards.  Teams compare race stories and routes with other teams.  Novice teams learn from advanced teams, and teams that finish well are recognized by their peers.
4. Great volunteers are a long standing tradition at Gold Rush events.  We have several who make it a point to come out and volunteer at Gold Rush every year. 
5. An amazing course awaits those who race.  Team Karma always puts together a good course and learns more about what racers like every time. 
6. Free orienteering clinic by adventure racing pioneer Adrian Crane.  Adrian is one of only a handfull of people to have competed in all of the Eco-Challenge races.  This is an opportunity to learn from an adventure racing legend.  Check out his resume at www.teamkarma.com. 
7. The GR24 course is very scenic.  Missouri just is not pretty in November so skip USARA Nats and save yourself the airfair and travel expenses.  Race Gold Rush instead, you won’t be sorry.
8. GR24 is tough and the tougher the course the more rewarding the finish.  GR24 2007 will be very rewarding.
9. Great sponsors will provide prizes and swag bag items.  Hi-Tec, ZombieRunner.com, ARNavSupplies.com, Dinotte Lighting, Zanfel, and Kool N Fit will be supporting GR24.  You can demo lights by Dinotte Lighting and rotating mountain bike map boards from ARNavSupplies free of charge.  If you like it after you try it you can buy it on the spot…pretty cool!

Treat yourself to a great race and support grass roots adventure racing at it’s best.  Clear the calendar for November 10-11 and get a team together for the Gold Rush 24 Hour Adventure Challenge, you’ll be glad you did.  See www.teamkarma.com for details.  Also, join goldrushar@yahoogroups.com to keep up with the latest Gold Rush news.

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Why adventure racing is the greatest sport on earth.

Whether you come from a running, biking, triathlon or other endurance background, the next step in your evolution is adventure racing. Why is that?

1. You are a competitive person by nature and you are looking for the next real challenge.

2. AR is more fun. Once you start doing this type of event, you find that you can go anywhere and do almost anything. If you don’t feel like running, go for a bike ride or a walk or a paddle. You can lift weights. You can ride at night. You can go explore areas that you have never been and work on navigation. The world is yours to explore.

3. You will see sites and places that you would never see otherwise. Some of the most amazing sites I have ever seen have been during a race. The Milky Way on a midnight paddle in
Oregon. Mountain ranges in British Columbia. The lights of LA as the sun comes up. Faraway lakes, beautiful sunrises, unbelievable waterfalls and exotic plants. All of these things await you in the world of AR. You would be surprised what wonderful landscapes exist off the beaten path.

4. While most people think that you have to train harder for AR then other sports, it’s not true. Yes it’s important to work out consistently. However, AR is more mental then physical. Having a good attitude is way more important then being able to run or bike fast. Any athletic event that you do is training for AR. Whether you go for a run, ride your bike, go camping or even work around the garden, you are training muscles that you will use in AR. In addition because you are doing things like paddling, running and biking, you are using different muscle groups. This means that you should be able to avoid the kind of soreness that one gets when all you do is run or bike. You also avoid the boredom that comes with doing the same thing all the time.

5. AR is a team sport. That means that it is more then just training with other people. Those people will be part of your team. While picking good teammates is sometimes a challenge, once you do, you will have new best friends. Having people to count on in the woods at 2 in the morning is truly a bonding experience. When you finish an event, you have the benefit of celebrating with your teammates. You also have people to help you and make you better then you would be by yourself. Being on a team is a great motivator for both training and getting out doing races. You will always do more for your team then you would for just yourself.

6. You get to buy cool equipment. You will become a jack of all trades. You will learn to climb on ropes, read a compass, and choose routes through the mountains. You will become a better mountain biker, and a better runner/trekker. You will learn to paddle in a river, on a lake and in the ocean. You will learn how to fix bikes with duct tape and zip ties. Problem solving will become second nature.

7. You will meet and become friends with some of the greatest people on the planet – other adventure racers.

8. You will have a chance to compete on the same field with some of the best athletes in the world. I know I will never go to the Super Bowl, the World Series or any other “traditional” type of championship. But in AR, I can go and compete against the world champions (and have) on the same field. Also, because AR is a thinking person’s sport, it’s not about just being fast. It’s about being smart. That is why a 47 year old ex-runner can compete and place (from time to time) in this sport.

Adventure Racing is the greatest sport on the planet. Get out there and give it a go. It’s completely doable. You don’t have to have all the skills to start. Contact one of the local teams in your area, find someone who is in the sport and go outside and play.

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Gordon Wright contacted me last week and asked me to write up some ideas/stories for an article he was writing for Adventure Sports Journal about getting into adventure racing. Here’s a slightly edited version of what I wrote.

Oddly enough, the first adventure race I won was the first adventure race I ever entered back in May of 2000. It was a sprint length race that was part of the sprint adventure race series that Cal Eco put on that year. I was rehabilitating from a back injury that prevented me from continuing my passion of bicycle road and track racing. I was planning on doing the Hi-Tec Adventure Race at Folsom in August when some police officers in Tracy where I work as a firefighter needed a last minute substitution in their team, Nocturnal Swine. The race was only four days away at Del Valle near Livermore. Both of my teammates we strong, fast, and determined. We finished first in the Co-ed division despite one teammate riding off of a piece of single track and falling over a ten foot cliff into the lake with her bike. After our success in our first sprint race together we signed up for a Cal Eco 24 hour event in Auburn. The race information said that the race would take 14 hours for the winners. Our success in the sprint length race made us confident that we’d do well and finish in around 16 hours. We were in for a rude awakening! The race started at midnight Friday night…I HATE that. One of my teammates was supposed to be at work by 11pm Saturday night and none of us thought it’d be a problem to get to work and patrol Tracy functionally on the graveyard shift…wrong! His supervisor was on the support crew and ended up put him off on leave.

We actually got off to a fast start and finished the first leg, a 24 mile trek, in the top five. Our only minor navigation error resulted in crossing the American River about 1/4 mile downstream from the intended crossing at Ruck-a-Chuck which was the end of the trek. That is where things began to fall apart. I found out that our female teammate suffered from Raynaud’s Disease which is essentially an acute sensitivity and exaggerated adverse reaction to cold. Swimming across the American River was a bad thing for her. At the transition area she shivered violently in a heated car while we transposed the next several checkpoints onto our maps. She was finally getting warmed up on the ensuing bike leg when we reached some rocky and slippery sections of trail that her triathlon cycling experience hadn’t prepared her for. Several teams passed us. About then we also discovered that after six hours of racing she had only consumed one energy bar and about a quart of Gatorade. She was frustrated by the rocky trail, the teams passing us, and was also bonking hard which resulted in a physical and emotional breakdown. She sat and cried and told us to continue without her. “No way!, we’re a team, we can do this” we replied. I was just like Mark Burnett’s coverage of Eco Challenge, the emotional highs and lows, made for TV. We talked her into continuing. To continue we had to get some food into her which is when I discovered that the crew had not put any food into my pack at the TA and I was to get by on what was left over from the previous leg and we were well into an 8 hour ride. Eventually we got back under way and even moved steadily on the fire roads that weren’t too steep. I could tell that every team that passed us was taking an emotional toll on our girl. We struggled on big climbs. I had to actually ride past her and grab her bike by the stem and take her it from her grip because she was too proud to accept assistance. Halfway through the race both of my teammates were struggling badly. My 12 year of competitive cycling were serving me well, but my strength did not benefit team because my teammates weren’t letting me help them and I didn’t know how to help except to take one of their bikes at a time and push them up the hills for them. The bike leg was to be about 35 miles. We made it about 32 miles as a team. Then we decided I should roll ahead and send the crew back to pick up the rest of the team. One teammate was completely bonked and the other was experiencing symptoms of heat stress and had to quit to avoid a medical emergency.

The volunteer staffing the transition area offered to let me finish the race which would only have involved a 2 mile trek, 3 mile paddle, and a 5 mile trek. But since some of our crew had to be at work in three hours, my only ride home was leaving so I was forced to drop out.

That was my first attempt at a 24 hour race. I was a “DNF”. I have only dropped out of one race since then. I would go on to be an “unofficial finisher” in the next seven 24 hour Adventure Races I entered as I never managed to get to the finish line with the whole team intact and all the checkpoints covered. Finally at the end of 2003 I became an official finisher at the Cal Eco Finals in Kernville. I have been an official finisher ever since in all but one race, Cal Eco Ft. Bragg 2004, a distinction shared by many Nor Cal adventure racers. My current philosophy is that I will finish any race unless the promoter makes me quit or if I need to get to a hospital pronto!

What I learned in all those unofficial finishes was teamwork. There are many ways to help a team move faster as a unit:

• Carry some or all of a teammates gear.
• Tow a teammate moving slower than the rest…practice this before you try it in a race.
• Monitor everyone’s condition by asking regularly how each other are doing and answer honestly.
• Assign some one to be the food and drink monitor. Every half hour or hour remind everyone to eat and drink.

The biggest negative characteristic a teammate can have is a big ego. Anyone who is too proud to allow another teammate to help them should stick to triathlons or race solo. I have had too many teammates whose pride did not allow them to accept help from others on the team. This has proved especially true of adventure racers with less experience. Nothing frustrates me more. I had the long term goal of being on a team fast enough that I’d be the one getting towed, a goal I finally achieved racing on Bull Moose Extreme at Tehama Extreme in 2005, thanks Ross. Individual pride and ego have no business in Adventure Racing because it is a team sport and teamwork is the single most crucial aspect of the sport. Racing with Dirty Avocados now affords me the luxury of always racing with people with similar goals, skills, and teamwork ethic. When someone is having a rough time we take it in stride and move ahead as a team.

Other mistakes for new adventure racers to avoid are:

• Not developing off-road bike skills.
• Packing too heavy
• Not sharing a goal as a team.
• Not practicing navigation
• Not eating their race food when training. Learn to eat while mountain biking and paddling.
• Writing detailed race reports that feature the failure of teammates (Sadly, I’m an expert on this one, but am reformed).

Team Karma’s Gold Rush races offer an excellent venue for newbies to try their first Sprint and 24 Hour Adventure Races. Both races offer teams the choice to choose short course options. A team can choose to skip a checkpoint, accept a time penalty and still be an official finisher. The Gold Rush Summer Challenge is a 6-8 hour sprint race in July featuring orienteering, cycling, and paddling. The orienteering is challenging but the rest of the navigation is not difficult. The Gold Rush 24 hour Challenge in November is not a race that will be completed in 14 hours. Top teams will finish in 20-24 hours, and slower teams will too because of time cut-offs that allow everyone to experience completing an adventure race 24 hours long. for more information see the Team Karma website at www.teamkarma.com.

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Fourteen more days until the biggest adventure race some of the DAs and I will have ever done. It’s the Raid the North Extreme. It’ll be on British Columbia’s North Coast. And it’ll be epic! In fact, it already is. Over the last few days, floodwaters there have risen to heights most have never seen before! Below is an excerpt from a local paper describing what’s waiting for us. We can’t wait!!

Closed roads and possible power blackouts have sparked food hoarding in Prince Rupert and Smithers, where flood waters have risen to their highest levels in 80 years. The worst of the flooding may have passed for the Lower Mainland, thanks to lower-than-expected rainfall. But the danger remains high in the northwest, where 70 per cent of this year’s record snowpack remains on the mountains, ready to flow when warm weather strikes.

Bring it.

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Interested in Adventure Racing, but don’t know where to begin? Have no fear, answers are here! As adventure racing continues to grow in popularity, many are still unfamiliar with the basic fundamentals that go into this ultimate of team endurance and multi-discipline sport. Join experienced adventure racing athletes, the Dirty Avocados and their friends as they provide an overview of the sport, discusses basic training programs near you, equipment/clothing needs and upcoming events here in California for first timers, beginners or intermediates.

Date & Time: 03/22/07 7pm - 8pm

Address:
Sports Basement
610 Mason Street San Francisco, CA
The Presidio of San Francisco

Directions:
http://www.sportsbasement.com/pop_ups/directions/code3_presidio.htm

For more information contact:
Will Gilmore - willisnot(at)yahoo.com

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EATING RIGHT

By Rick Crawford

For elite endurance athletes, whose training is often high volume and high intensity, I recommend a super high quality diet consisting of small, frequent meals. Essentially, this diet encourages lean protein sources (fish, poultry, beef, eggs, pork, etc), and loads of fruits and vegetables, while avoiding post-agricultural-revolution products like dairy, grains and all products thereof. Of course athletes have some flex and greater caloric needs than sedentary people, but the basic tenets of this diet should be closely followed. I am lenient on dairy and whole grains as long as they are clean and as integral and unprocessed as possible.

Building blocks and energy are the two main factors of our physical constitution. These two aspects must be met, and considering the high demands endurance athletes impose upon themselves, anything lacking will become a limiter. Too much energy and not enough of the building blocks and co-factors that go with it will expose a limiter. Too many building blocks and not enough energy to use it will also yield negative results. The balance is critical.
Timing of meals and types of meals are very important. Frequency and glycemic affect are the two most critical elements to understand and manage. Meals should be small and frequent. Outside of exercise windows (during and ~2 hours after workouts), only low glycemic foods should be consumed. Protein and fruits and vegetables fit into this category and should make up all normal dietary meals. Grains can fit in too but not if they have been ground to powder and processed. Post exercise is the time to indulge in higher glycemic foods (pasta, bread, sweets, dried fruits). Sweets should be limited to very small portions as a desert after a low glycemic meal, and are allowed in calculated amounts within exercise metabolic window. Macronutrient profile should be roughly 50% carb, 25% protein, 25% fat.
A good way to eat real food in the ideal frequency is to prepare all the food the night before or the morning of the day to be consumed. A rather large thermal container is best for keeping food fresh. A day’s worth of meals will be carried in this container to be grazed from constantly and regularly throughout the day. like dripping real food. The ideal base for this bucket of food is spinach (alkaline and rich in micronutrient/fiber) and/or leafy greens. Add fresh veggies and fruit. these can be consumed on an unlimited basis. Walnuts are the best nut to provide the right fatty acid balance. a handful of walnuts add body and calories to the mix. A handful of raisins (alkaline, but high glycemic) are ok and pick up the flavor. Add protein (calculate based on 1 gram per pound of lean body mass per day) i.e., hard-boiled eggs, fish, chicken breast, lean beef or pork, etc. Dress with a mix of canola oil/olive oil (50/50), lemon juice, a lit tle balsamic vinegar, and your favorite spices (go easy on salt). Graze until gone. Be as creative as you wish as long as you follow the rules.

Sugar and salt are the big enemies to health and immunity. Athletes are not exempt from this. This diet will provide minerals in the proper ratios. Use salt sparingly to flavor foods. Try to sensitize your palate to the taste of fresh foods. Sugar and salt tend to mask flavor with their strength. Athletes need sodium and greater amounts of potassium. This diet supplies huge amounts of potassium, and sodium should be supplied sparingly. This is the ratio humans perform best with. Fact, humans are meant to ideally consume potassium/sodium ratios of 3-5:1, while in our current reality, we consume 10-15:1 sodium/potassium. no wonder hypertension and heart-disease are rampant. Sugar is no better, causing acidification of the blood, wiping out immunity, and causing disease on an epidemic level. just say no. That said, athletes need salt and sugar to live. Sugar is good fuel during and after workouts. Salt is required at higher amounts for athle tes who train regularly in extreme heat to maintain adequate sodium levels. Just be aware that out there, sugar and salt are everywhere and have to be metered carefully.
Avoid all processed foods. Almost all are polluted with sugar and salt. It is interesting to note that bacteria can’t live in high concentrations of either sugar or salt. that should be a strong indicator that humans can’t either. Manufacturers preserve foods with sugar and salt and they are everywhere. Just say no. Humans don’t survive so well with sugar and salt either. it’s just the scale that allows us to exist longer in an environment saturated with it. Know what your food has in it, and know what it is expected to do once it’s inside your body. If you don’t know, then find out.
It is important to note that modern-day agriculture practices have left much of our food deficient and polluted. That’s why supplementation is critical in my opinion. Athletes have higher demands, and food may not supply the necessary nutrients. It only takes one limiter in the seemingly infinite list of essential materials to cause a problem. Supplement wisely… that’s a topic for another few articles. Supplements are an important part of staying healthy these days.

Eating right causes metabolism to optimize, which always yields lean. This should be a way of life for healthy people, especially athletes. Athletes can’t get away with eating poorly just because they are working out all the time. That extra demand on the athlete’s body means that it needs better nutrition to handle the load. Quality proteins provide the amino acids to do all the metabolic chemistry this is needed to meet the extra load. Quality fruits and veggies provide energy, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and a multitude of known and unknown micronutrients to fuel the body’s needs. It is the way we were meant to eat. No calorie counting needed with this diet. metabolism will zoom and athletes can eat more calories and still lean down, with the dividend being better recovery. Good food, good health, and optimized performance. what’s not to like?

www.dedicatedathlete.com

A little about Rick Crawford

http://www.targetraining.com/racing/roster/roster_crawford.html

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Last night, I joined organizers of the SF Oyster, Jen and Galen of baarbd.org and fellow racer Adam Chase to discuss adventure racing and specifically the upcoming SF Oyster Urban Adventure Race Oct. 15th.

It was nice to see the room above capacity (30+) for the talk. This is just more data that the sport is growing here in California. The audience was only 1/3 triathlon and/or marathon experienced and about 1/8 had done an adventure race before.

The race organizer, Jason Ornstein gave a great overview of what racers should expect on the course. One important thng to know for the race is that REI will be where all transitions will be made and that the course will resemble a wheel with spoke. Racers will head out on one leg of the race on say a trek or a bike and then return after hiting a few checkpoints to REI before going out again in another format such as skating.

Adam Chase, showed a video before talking one that his brother made to help people visualize the sport in general. He discussed AR in general before introducing Jen and Galen of the local community adventure racing portal baarbd.org sharing their own experience with AR and why they love the sport and most importanltly how people can discover the local AR community through baarbd.org. It was good to add balance to the stage and more voices sharing unique experiences and why each in particular loves the sport.

Adam Chase then picked up his talk again going quickly into the nuts and bolts of doing well in this urban race. His talk specifically emphasized the need for coming to the race to race as a team and knowing each others weaknesses and strengths.

Adam then turned over the floor to me to discussing training. I had prepped and passed out copies of a basic plan of exercize and skill building that was intended to build more confidence then actual physical abilities in the last 3 weeks before the race.

If anyone is looking for tips and help training for this up coming race then send me an email at wgilmore (at) pacwestathletics.com or check out our site for more info about the adventure racing program and other outdoor fitness programs at PacWestAthletics.com

Tonight, I am speaking again with the group at San Carlos REI at 7:00PM. Come and join us if you are in the nieghborhood.

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Another great event report by Aja.

Another run in the park… Not!

Event photos by Galen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolface/sets/72157594288793832/

Saturday morning Adam Armijo and I woke up at the crack of dawn to hook up with the BAARBDs for their Rev It Clinic, hosted by Rich Brazeau, held out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I was under the impression that Adam and I were going to practice how to become better orienteer’s in case anything ever happened to Doti. Once at the park entrance we were greeted by fellow Dirty Avocado Will Gilmore, and Mark Manning from Team AR Nav Supply, for a quick clinic on how to use maps, compasses, and other useful navigation tips. Once we were briefed, we set out the get our gear together before Rich arrived with the maps.

9 am hit and still no Rich. Apparently he had been at a bachelor party the night before (Shhh!!) causing him not to arrive home till 4 am, the same time Armijo and I got up to head to the clinic. Around 9:30 he finally arrived, passed out maps, and gave us a course briefing. At that point it became quiet apparent that we weren’t just going for a run in the park. We were going to do a mock mini Primal Quest.

10 am hit and Jen Klafin was yelling out the count down. Adam had the maps, apparently plotted with coordinates, and stated that he was prepared for battle. 25 eager adventure racers took off in two different directions. Will, Jen, and a large number of racers headed off in one direction. All the others, including AR Nav Supply, went the other way. Adam and I just stood there. I yelled to Adam “Which way nav?” He looked at me blankly and said, “I don’t know lets follow these guys.” It was at that point I knew we were in trouble, and it hit me how lucky we are to have Doti as a teammate. We headed out down a dirt road following both AR Nav Supply and Sharon, both trustworthy groups to follow. Right?

We lost both groups in less than a mile for much a needed bathroom brake. At that point we began practicing our nav skills, teaching ourselves to be more realistic. About 45 minutes into the course, we arrived at a ridge that we thought to be close to where we needed to be. From that location, racers could be seen running around like ants in an ant farm, coming and going from all different directions. Some crazy fast AR guy came by, having already been at CP1, and gave us a pointer for which direction to head.

As we headed down the ridge per crazy guys suggestions, we ran into Will, Jen, and a few other racers who seemed to know what they were doing, all of which had been to CP1. We apparently added an extra two miles to what should have only been .5. Oh well, we had a few extra pounds to work off anyway. As we headed to CP1, nearly 6 groups passed by us heading in the direction we had just come from. They all gave us very funny looks, sort of like, Uh-oh you guys messed up, huh?

We pounded the down the hill hoping for some short cut that could possibly be taken to get us to CP1 just a bit faster. While bush wacking through a steep section, Adam and I found a fence that we thought we could go up and around to get to the trail head faster. It was a great idea if it actually got us to the trail head. Adam scampered up and around the fence with me and my slippery shoes following closely behind. My last step before sliding past the fence landed directly in a pile of loose rock causing me to loose my footing and slam straight into the side of the hill. Unable to see anything but stars, I decided it was smart to stay sitting for a few minutes. It was then I realized my running shoes were not going to cut it anymore. Battered, bruised, and bloody, we resumed our mission; after all we had not even made it to CP1 yet.

A few minutes later we found ourselves alone on the ridge were CP1 should have been spotted from. From atop the ridge we found that all other teams had left the valley and were well on their way to CP2, leaving us to look for some random human made object that was the ruminants of an old water tower. What a joke that was. After 15 minutes of searching we decided that it had to be this rusty old pipe sticking out of the ground.

Nearly two hours into the race, three miles deep, Adam and I had only reached CP1, but we had smiles on our faces and good feelings about the remainder of the race. We jogged back up the ridge we had just come down to start our journey towards CP2, which was positioned some 2 or so miles away. At about the 1 mile marker we stopped to asses the course markers. It was them we found that we had missed our trail and had been heading in the wrong direction. Oops! We were looking at the map upside down.

Finally on the right track, we flew through CP2-4. From CP4 there was a long rolling trek that clung closely to the mountains base line. Together we switched lead positions as we charged the four or so miles back to the cars, where CP5 awaited our signature. We were told in the beginning of the race that if we did not reach CP5 by 2 pm we should re-park our cars outside of the park in order to prevent our cars from being locked in by the parks sunset deadline. Apparently, Rich was expecting the bike course to take more than 6 hours. YIPPEE! Since it was 2:30 Adam and I decided to re-park the car.

We assessed the bike map and decided that we had a pretty big climb ahead of us in order to get to CP6. Pretty big did not accurately describe the climb up to Black Mountain Communication Tower. The map made it look like a doable road climb. This was not the case. An hour and 15 minutes later, we finally reached the top after playing dodge ball will oncoming Mercedes, Jags and BMR’s. It was decided at that point that we would ride down to CP7, turn back around and call it a day.

We dropped 800 feet from the 2600 we stood at for CP6. We wound down a fun little single track with small woops and banked walls that lead us to CP7 and threw high fives. It was then that Adam and I knew we were heading back to the city for beers. An incomplete Rev It Up event took us 7 hours to complete 11 running miles, and about 12 bike miles, can you say SLOW? For me, for Adam, we had a great time; we worked on our skills, and lived to tell a story about it. Who cares if we were the slowest out of the bunch?

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