The 106th running of the Boston marathon began under a heavy blanket of fog, high humidity but cooler than predicted temperatures in the upper 50's. Early forecasts called for highs into the upper 70's and 80's, which made many of the runner's wary. Team member Governor Gary, kindly offered to take me along in his specially arranged transportation to the starting line by the Mass. State Police. This was wonderful as we were able to relax and leave about 2 hours later than the bus. After a quick ride and final entrance to the Athlete's Village in Hopkinton, escorted by two police motorcycles, we quickly reverted back to being just one of the crowd.

As we listened to the 'singing' policeman blare out the Star Spangled Banner, I waited for the helicopters to come over.they didn't. The heavy fog kept them grounded, so there was little/no TV coverage of any portion but the lead pack. John Kelly, 61 time runner of Boston and now 94 yrs old, started us off. Using my qualifying time from last year's Boston marathon, I started out a few thousand runners ahead of Gary.  Runners wear electronic chips on their shoes so that their relative position can be monitored by electronic sensor pads placed at the starting line and each 5K to the finish line. As the runner crosses the pad, their running time is recorded and immediately uploaded to the web so that a runner's progress in real time can be tracked. It is a wonderful boost even when no one is there to cheer you on in person, you know your friends are watching. It provides a unique motivation to run well! [At the finish, you have the official time, which is measured from when the officials say, "go" to the finish, and thus, includes the time it takes you to reach the starting line. Your "chip time" is your actual running time from the start to the finish lines.]

Gear: Both of us used our Polar Heart Rate monitors/watches, I love the easy to read numbers and easy to hit lap button. Barb also ran in her favorite Thor-lo socks, the padded tennis crews – and I didn't have a single blister nor black toenail after the race!

See www.baa.org for more information.

On April 14th, I participated in the Ridge to River race in Wenatchee, Washington.  The race consisted of cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, running, biking, kayaking, and a portage to the finish line.  The weeks leading up to the race were absolutely beautiful in UT with the snow melting quickly every day.  The forecast for Wenatchee was for more of the same so before departing, I waxed my skis with warm weather wax, packed up my whitewater kayak, loaded the car to the gills with equipment and headed off to Washington.  I arrived a day early so I decided to practice the whitewater section of the race just to get a taste of what was to come.  My first surprise of the race was that it wasn't really whitewater.  Sure, there were some rapids, but whitewater?  Maybe that was considered whitewater in Washington, but not in my book.

The second surprise came on the morning of the race.  A huge, unexpected storm blew in that night and the morning of the race was freezing cold.  As I took the chair lift up the ski lift to the start of the race; I realized I was totally unprepared.  The winds were blowing about 60 miles an hour, the snow had turned into a sheet of ice with any crumbs of snow blown off in the night, I was dressed in skimpy clothes, and I had the completely wrong wax on my skis.  Still undeterred, I put on every article of clothing and headed out -- determined to finish in the top 10% of the race despite the turn of events.

Once the race started, I quickly came to the third surprise.  The cross country leg started with a very, very steep, and very long hill.  And I'm not talking just a little steep.  There were times at the start where I was taking two steps up the hill and sliding three steps backwards back down. In fact, I turned around to the starter and asked if I could just remove my skis and run up the hill.  No such luck.  After struggling up the hill I turned around to see if I beat anybody up the hill.  Of the 100 or so people starting in my wave, 6 were behind me.  That meant that 94 or so were ahead of me.  Bummer.  But if I have learned anything in adventure racing it's that it doesn't matter who reaches the first checkpoint first, it's who reaches the end first.  So I headed off on the rest of the cross country leg.

The rest of the leg was fairly easy although it was icy and difficult with my lousy wax.  I didn't really get discouraged until just before the transition to the downhill when I was passed by a skier who started in the second wave, 20 minutes behind me!  And he passed me like I was standing still.

The downhill was fun, but I raced for 4 years in high school so this part was easy and then we transitioned to the run.  Again, this was pretty straightforward and I cranked out some very fast miles, making up lots of the time I had lost on the cross-country leg.  And then came the bike.  I never really felt that equipment mattered much, but I was proven wrong on the bike leg.  I have a perfectly acceptable road bike, but many of these racers came very prepared.  They were dressed like Lance Armstrong with the long pointy helmets and had bikes that had more technology in them than I will ever understand in my lifetime.  I was being passed left and right and I think of myself as a pretty good biker.  No problem, I was still holding my position fairly well and was at least close to the top 10 percent.  But then came the biggest surprise of all.  When we hit the water, I knew I was in trouble.  Lined up next to my short little whitewater kayak was an array of the sleekest, sexiest racing kayaks I have ever seen.  These people took this race very seriously.  I entered the water in about 30th place and I stopped counting the number of boats that passed me when I hit 60.  It was too frustrating to count.  But I did enjoy the comments I received as people passed me like "nice boat" or "I think you have the wrong boat", or my favorite "are you out of your mind to race in that thing?"  Needless to say, I didn't hit my goal of being in the top 10%.  But next year, with the help of the right equipment, I'll show them!

Team Santa Fe member, George Broome talked four of the other Team Santa Fe members into going to do this century ride to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  Meeting him in Austin were Kim and Jan Bear as well as Jen and Ries Robinson.  On Saturday, the foundation hosed a fun run which was a 5-km fun run with over 1,000 participants.  The best part was at the finish line; there were so many many goodies to eat.  Another treat was Lance Armstrong riding in with the children’s bike race and generously giving autographs. That night, we all went to the Gala and were impressed by the heroic stories of cancer survivors.  It was very inspiring.  The next day was the century ride where we joined 10,000 other riders.  Lance Armstrong led the group.  George, his new wife Lisa, Kim, Jan, Jen and Ries rode the 100 miles in a Team Santa Fe peloton and enjoyed the sea level elevation.  It was great to get our first century of the year under our belts and for such a good cause!  I think George will easily convince us to go again next year. 

On April 20 2002, 7 runners set out to run an 80-mile course organized by Aaron Goldman. The goal was to run every trail within Bandelier National Monument, which is a total of about 80 miles and 12,000 vertical feet. This was in celebration of Aaron's 70th birthday. TSF members Carl Gable and Joel Krypel were not running in the event but had volunteered to provide support. We carried 4 gallons of water into one of the trail junctions and then ran back to Park HQ and then on to Ponderosa campground for a total of 6 miles of hiking and 16 miles of running. Final results are not in, but I believe less than half of the starting field finished the run.