Welcome!

 We are just coming off the weekend adventure race training camp. Gerry Voelliger and team High Profile put on this camp with the support of other volunteers.  This camp was fabulous, we spent a lot of time on navigation practice, race strategies, and climbing (rapeling and ascending). We had a great time at camp and it was a nice warm up for the year.  We did many rappels and ascents.  The park was beautiful and terrain was excellent and difficult.  The camp finished with a 3 hour spring race.  Gerry put together a nice couse and we ran it hard.  We finished 2nd of all the teams and had we not ran into a bottle neck on one of the rappels we would have been first.  We were pleased that we raced well so early into the season and experienced no difficulties with nagivagion or the ropes.  It was a great bonding experience for the team.  Next up GMRAS. 

Up Next: We will be competing in two 2-person teams for this race.

Never under estimate the importance of a bike tuneup at least 2-weeks prior to the race.  I'm at a loss for words in describing how this race unfolded.  First the weather; constant 25 mph winds with gusts up to 35 and a temperature of 38 degrees to start the day.  At least it was sunny, did not rain and it warmed to 50 degrees in the afternoon.  The next challenge was our bikes.  Normally, as a team we pride ourselves in the biking section, but, the 66 miles on a mountain bike was extra challenging this time around.  Three of us had biking difficulties that slowed our bike times.  There were several points during the race that we struggled through.  That is why it's called adventure racing, and in the end our team came out with a 1st place overall finish.  We have a bit more training to do before the Thunder Rolls in September.  See the pictures page for pics from the race.

 The race began after a strong thunderstorm passed through the area and during a light rain.  The race temperature was around 70 degrees with a light rain most of the time.  It kicked off with two racers tied together for a 3-legged race 500 meters up a large grassy and muddy hill.  This was followed by a 4 mile extreme mountain bike section.  In dry conditions this would have been a fun but challenging course.  However with 2 inches of mud and rain covering the entire area this made for a 4 mile mud trail run/bike push.  Imagine a drenched, muddy, washed out and very hilly course that included pushing your bike 80% of the time.  We have never been so excited to see a clearing at the end of it.  This section was hard to describe as we spend 1.5 hours forging mud slides and managing very slippery conditions.  Many tumbles off the bike and over the handlebars happened during the 20% that we could actually ride.  Other than that first section the race went very smoothly.  The race director added a nice twist to the canoe section where we had to carry our bikes on our canoes then forge them through a wooded section.  Paul was right on with our orienteering as we were right on point with every checkpoint.  In fact 5 hours 12 minutes after the start we crossed the finish line.  We thought we had a least an hour or so to go and believed we were coming in to transition to a yet undefined section.  No huge issues other than a small problem with a couple of bikes and many bumps and bruises.  We finished first for all 4 person teams, but did get beat by two 2-person all male teams.  Still a lot more training to do before September, hopefully the weather agrees. 

We are really training hard for this event.