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Team Santa Fe Newsletter
June 2003
June 1, 2003
Jan and Kim Bear
http://www.elephantrockride.com
Castle Rock, CO.
Kim and Jan Bear drove up to Castle Rock, Colorado to ride in the
Elephant Rock Century on their Litespeed Classic's. The night before
the race was filled with thunder storms which was worrisome. The
Century ride started at 6:30 a.m.; over 7,000 riders were registered
to ride from 25 to 100miles. Our goal was the 100-mile route. The
ride began at the Douglas County Fair grounds with fair weather. The
course took riders over high plains between Denver and Colorado
Springs. At one point we could see the Air Force Academy and Pikes
Peak. The roads warned of what to expect; for example, "Windy Pines
Road" gave us a very strong head wind that challenged the best of
riders. The other classic was "Roller Coaster Road" which started
with gentle rollers and ended up with tremendous climbing. Elephant
Rock's century finished with a 38 mile loop through the Black Forest.
This was where we hit a classic Colorado storm. The wind tried to
push us off the road as lightning struck around us. (It was SCARY!)
To add to the experience was rain and hail pelting our legs and faces.
Many riders stopped, but we feared hypothermia so quickened our pace
back to the car. We couldn't get there fast enough. The storm stayed
with us for about 30 minutes. Once in our car, safe and sound, we
were thankful to have completed Elephant Rock, but remain respectful
of mother nature.
Thank you to our great sponsors, Litespeed, AXO, Bolle, Platypus, Polar, Terry, SofSole, GoLite and BTI.
June 14, 03.
Jan and Kim Bear (support).
http://www.gravityplay.com
Durango, CO.
Time 7:46, 4th in men's solo category
The lure of a one day race so close to home was just too much for me.
I had to make it to my brother's birthday party back in Santa Fe by
7:30 PM, but the opportunity to do a short race with Kim supporting me
was very strong so what the heck, I went for it. We drove to Durango
Friday night and checked in for the race, got the maps, headed out for
dinner then back to the hotel to plot some points. In bed by 11 PM.
The race was going to be a short run, then a single track ride on the
classic Hermosa Creek Trail followed by some more riding on the Jones
Creek Trail with a short rappel then kayak on the Animas into downtown
Durango. There were 9 check points throughout the course. The race
started in the mall of The Durango Mountain Resort at 7AM, the trail
run included a midway check point and the instructions stated that we
must stay on existing roads, trail or waterways or be disqualified. I
choose to head out on the summer luge track, to a service road to the
main road that runs to Hermosa Creek, I was the only one who went that
way. At the top of the hill I headed down another access road to the
check point which was easily found and then back on the main road to
Hermosa Creek trailhead. This section of 8 miles took about an hour
and ten minutes. Kim helped me with a quick change of shoes, loaded
on my bike and rappel gear and jumped on the bike for an 18 mile
single track on the beautiful Hermosa Creek trail. I was trying to go
fairly fast so I didn't get to enjoy the scenery as much as I would
have liked but it was a great ride. At the end of the trail there was
another check point then we were supposed to find and ride the Jones
Creek trail up and over a ridge to a short rappel and the a short bike
on roads to the river put in. Jones Creek was a 15 and mile ride with
2500 feet of elevation gain in the first four miles, followed by some
fairly level riding then a 3500 foot drop to the Animas River. The
rappel was quick off a small ledge just before reaching the hi-way
that connects Durango with Durango Mountain Resort. After the rappel
and a short ride to the river Kim was again waiting to get me going on
the water. She had me eat a little and drink some and I shoved off
for my worst event the paddling. About 2 and hours later I reached
the take out and did the short run to the finish, where Kim was
waiting in a total time 7 hours and 46 minutes, finishing 4th in the
solo category. We quickly loaded up the gear and drove back to Santa
Fe just in time for my brother, Todd's 40th birthday party.
Team gear used included, Princeton Tec, Bolle, Thorlo, CW-X, Leki, WPC
Brands, BTI, Litespeed, GoLite, Montrail, AXO, Sunnto, Polar, Terry,
Schrade, Platypus, Hydropel and SofSole. Thanks to all of our
sponsors.
Sierra Extreme Lake Tahoe
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June 28 - 29, 2003
Team Santa Fe - Ries Robinson, Jan Bear, Lisa Barnes and Keith Bushaw
http://www.virtuactive.com
Kirkwood, CA
Finish time approx. 22 hours and 15 minutes
1st Place 4-Person Coed, 2nd Overall
We decided as a team that an adventure race would be a good training
session for Primal Quest and also a way for the team to get to know
Keith, who we had not raced with before. There was no better place to
train than the Lake Tahoe area, since that is the location for Primal
Quest this September. It worked that we found a race in the area and
it fit into everybody's busy schedule.
Check in started at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning and immediately we
were given an overview of the course and our maps. There was a race
briefing at 7:30 a.m. with some additional information and by 8:15
the race had started with a run up the ski slope. Our plan was to
start at a comfortable pace, but that plan quickly evaporated as our
competitiveness took over. The race did not have enough kayaks for
all of the teams, so at Checkpoint 1, half of the teams were sent out
on an orienteering course and the other half were sent directly to the
kayaks. We were chosen to kayak first, so off we ran to the lake. It
was a small lake, so we kayaked for less than 2 hours and then started
the orienteering course in reverse order. When we finished the
orienteering course, we had our first 10 checkpoints and we were back
at the vehicles to pick up our harnesses and helmets for a
trekking/rappelling section. We found out that we were in 3rd place
overall and not far behind the 2nd place team (another 4-person coed
team). The first part of the trekking section was a steep climb to
Checkpoint 11 and then a long hike to 12, 13, and finally the rappel
at 14. We kept trading places with the 2nd place team as we went
along.
At Checkpoint 15, we finally reached our mountain bikes and were able
to get off our feet for awhile. It was 8 p.m. before we started the
bike section, so it had been a long day of trekking/running. We did
not waste any time at the transition since the first two teams had not
left yet when we arrived. We left the shortly after the first two
teams, and hoped that biking would be our strength and would allow us
to catch up. Within a few hours we started climbing on the bikes and
managed to pass the other 4-person coed team. It was a long bike
section, and after 45 miles and about 8 hours, we reached the
transition to the final trek in 2nd place behind a 2-person male team.
At the final transition area, we found out that many of the teams had
dropped out due to the difficulty of the course. Since it was taking
longer than the race director had anticipated, he shortened the final
trekking section for all the teams. We did not know how far ahead we
were of the 3rd place team, so we transitioned as quickly as possible
and took off for the last checkpoint and the finish. We were
constantly looking over our shoulder watching for the teams behind us.
We finished in 2nd place, 35 minutes behind the 2-person male team.
We had a great time and worked well together. It was a great preview
of what we have to look forward to for Primal Quest. It is beautiful,
but challenging terrain. Jan and Ries did an excellent job of
navigating allowing us to travel quickly and not waste any extra
energy backtracking.
Team gear used included, Princeton Tec, Bolle, Thorlo, CW-X, Leki, WPC
Brands, BTI, Litespeed, GoLite, Montrail, AXO, NiteRider, Sunnto,
Polar, Terry, Schrade, Platypus, Hydropel and SofSole. Thanks to all
of our sponsors.
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