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Team Santa Fe Newsletter
May 2002
The Balance Bar 24-Hour Adventure
May 4-5, 2002
Phoenix, AZ
Lisa Barnes, Kim Bear and Jan Bear
The 2002 Balance Bar 24-Hour Adventure
Race series consists of five races and the first event took place on May
4-5 with race central located at Lake Pleasant Regional Park outside of Phoenix,
AZ. The race would eventually take us north to Crown King and the Bradshaw
Mountains. Friday morning was spent completing the mandatory gear and safety
checks. The temperatures were quite warm, and we sought out shade whenever
possible. Once we completed all of our checks and took our gear to
the transition area, we actually had a couple hours to relax and nap before
the pre race BBQ and meeting.
After our pre race meeting, we were given our maps and UTM coordinates.
We were required to have all 14 UTM coordinates plotted before we could leave
the meeting. The race was very well organized and everything went as
scheduled, so by 7:30 p.m. we were able to head back to our camping site.
We spent a little more time with the maps and getting gear organized before
settling in for a good night of sleep. The race start was at 5:30 a.m.
the next morning. The race started with 2.5 miles of kayaking to our first transition area
at the end of the lake. We used 3 person sit on top Cobra kayaks.
Our kayak had a mind of its own about only wanting to go towards the right,
so Jan had his job cut out for him trying to steer the beast. We made
good time to the transition area and quickly got ready for the next leg of
the race, 21 miles of mountain biking with 3500 feet of elevation gain.
This was the main transition area and our gear totes were located here, but
we would not be returning to this point until the last leg of the race.
We had to carry everything that we needed for the rest of the race from this
point on. The only items we could leave behind were the mandatory kayaking
gear. Our packs were full of water, food and gear, as we started out
on the mountain bike leg.
We didn't get very far from the transition area before we had some trouble.
Jan's rear cassette loosened up on his new mountain bike, forcing him to
take the wheel off and put the cassette back together. He tightened
it by hand as best as he could. Without having the proper tool to tighten
the cassette, we began to wonder if this would end our race before we ever
really got started. We had just watched a lot of teams go by us, and
we still had 56 miles of mountain biking in front of us. We kept on
going, and Jan kept the cassette together by tightening it by hand every
time we stopped. We made good time on this section and managed to pass quite a few teams on
the rolling hills. The last 10 miles of this section was on a four-wheel
drive jeep road with some very steep hills. We finished the bike section
and transitioned to 18.5 miles of trekking with a rappel. We
continued to make good time and ran the down hill sections. The trekking
took place in the Bradshaw Mountains around Crown King, AZ.
We finished the trekking and transitioned back to our bikes for the final
35 miles of mountain biking. We were back on the bikes by 5:15 p.m.,
which allowed us to navigate the steep downhill section of the course before
dark. We passed a lot of teams on this section and gained a lot of
the time back that we had lost earlier in the race. Once we finished
the steep downhill section, we were in for 25 miles of rolling hills.
We were very happy to get back to the kayaks for the final leg of the race.
The last section was 9 miles of kayaking, which went well despite a kayak
that did not cooperate well. We finished the race in 17 hours 20 minutes with a 7th place finish overall,
and a 1st place finish in the Coed Master's Division. This was a great
finish despite our early trouble with the bike. It also was another
good lesson that you should never give up in adventure racing. You
never know how things are going to turn out.
The warm temperatures and tough mountain biking took a toll on the teams. Only 23 of the 50 teams finished the race.
With Primal Quest less than six weeks away the focus has been more on training
than racing. On May 18-19 TSF members Carl Gable and Joel Krypel headed out
with Bill Roth for a 35-mile, 11,200 vertical foot hike in the mountains
around Taos Ski Valley. We left at 10:30AM Sat. and returned to the car at
6AM. The trip included night navigation and one hour of sleeping/shivering
in the cold without a sleeping bag.
With the National Forests in northern NM all closed it is getting very hard
to find backcountry training options. Road bike rides will play a bigger
role for hill climbing bike training. Also trips up to southern CO will be a must.
The weekend of June 1-2 the entire team will finally all be together to train
and plan for PQ. The roster for Team Santa Fe, Primal Quest is:
Barb Dutrow, Brad Fawcett, Carl Gable, Joel Krypel, Bill Roth (support).
May 19, 2002
Santa Fe, New Mexico
This years Santa Fe Century was a surprise in the drought-ridden city.
The day brought cloud coverage, cooler than normal weather and not the usual
40-mile an hour headwinds. 2400 riders would participate in the well-supported
race. Jan and Kim Bear rode the century enjoying the weather.
This would be Kim's 6th time to ride and Jan's 2nd Santa Fe Century.
The 100 miles were easier to ride being on their Litespeed Classic road bikes.
They are looking forward to the 18th Annual ride next year. It was good to
get the time in the saddle in preparation for upcoming events.
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