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Team Santa Fe Newsletter
March 2004
2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl Mardi Gras Marathon
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New Orleans, Louisiana
February 29, 2004
http://www.mardigrasmarathon.com
Barb Dutrow, 1:36:35, 12th F of 1046 F, 2nd Masters, 82/2039 OV
What better way to spend a leap year day than to run a wild race in New Orleans? The Mardi Gras Marathon and Half are
known for exotic customs, lively bands, a scenic course, and the fun. Having been in ultra training, my speed needed
work and this is a flat, fast course.
Checking out the weather channel race morning provided excuses already in
the bag; humidity 98%, temps at 6 am of 70F, and sustained winds at 20-30
mph. Beginning in front of the Superdome, the race was off at 7 am with
runners headed for the French Quarter. Winds on this portion were strong,
funneled in between buildings. Once we turned into the Quarter, we were
shielded from the winds and they were no longer an issue for the remaining
race. At that hour, the Quarter was silent! We then headed out the oak lined
Mall for City Park - where the crowds were gathered. Following the canal,
along palm decorated roads, we came to the only hill on the course - a 30
foot climb over an overpass. At the turn around, we headed back by the cheering
masses at City Park and on to the Superdome. They had even closed exit ramps
from I-10 for this race! Fortunately the clouds remained providing some
protection from the searing sun. After long fast stretch, racers circled
the Superdome with the marathoners continuing and the half marathoners finishing
inside the Dome! The dark, cool interior was a sharp contrast to the outside
heat and humidity.
New Orleans races always have masses of volunteers, so aid stations are well
stocked, loud, and fun. The worst part was the chip timing - it took the
contracted finish line folks four hours!!! for results. When the results
were finally in, I finished in 1:36:35, a bit slower than usual, for 12th
female of 1046, 2nd Masters female and 82 of 2039 overall. About 2400 marathoners
joined us for the half.
As is true for all of my runs, my Thorlo socks padded my feet and my Polar
Heart Rate System kept me from slowing down too much. Lesson learned: take
sock options. The chips were strapped to Velcro and had to be wrapped around
your ankle.....a bad combination with the roll top socks that I wear. The
chaffing around the bare ankle was definitely unpleasant.
Carl Touchstone Memorial Mississippi 50 Trail Run
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De Soto National Forest, MS
March 6, 2004
http://www.ms50.com
Barb Dutrow, 50 mile, 9:29, 3rd F
Carl Gable, 50 Km, 5:50, 17th M
Photo: ms50.com
This race looked ideal for my first 50 mile race its Mississippi, so it
must be flat; in a pine forest, so the trails should be nice cushy pine needles;
and its early March, so it should be cool. These preconceived notions were
quickly destroyed when the gun went off, into the drizzly, dark morning.
Temperatures at race start were balmy, in the 70's, and together with
humidity continued their rise throughout the day peaking with T's in the
80's!
The 50 mile course consists of four 12.5 mile loops, with the 50 Km
completing two loops plus a 6.1 mile loop. At 6 am, we were off on a nice
pine needle path, dodging the water puddles along the way (It had been
a rainy previous week). At about the 1.5 mile mark, keeping the feet dry
was no longer an option when the "small creek" was above my knees - and stretched
for about 10 yards! No wonder the organizers said "there are a lot of small
creeks on the course, so hot dry feet are not usually a problem." Creeks
I expected, rivers and lakes I did not!
Unfortunately, that nice soft dirt trail then degraded into a mud bog...
mud, inches and inches of slippery, sticky, Mississippi shoe-sucking mud.
But not to worry, at about the 4 mile mark another "small creek" needed to
be crossed. This one was over my waist and extended for another 10 yards!
Fortunately there was a rope across the river to provide some security. The
trail continued to meander through the forest, along some very muddy logging
roads until other stream crossings. In each of the 12.5 mile loops, there
were five stream crossings; two above my waist, three about knee high! Thank
goodness for new materials, e.g. coolmax, not that your shoes dried but the
shorts usually did. There were mile markers along the course, so by the last
loop, you definitely knew what was coming (with dread or not). At the half
way point (we were back to the start and our drop bags), there was so much
sand in my shoes and socks, I took time to change them and wash my feet.
It was a life saver; only one tiny blister resulted from all of that rough,
nasty debris grating on my feet. And there were hills, the entire trail was
rolling! Carl and I ran together the first loop, and then split off. I got
so tired of the mud; I ran beside the trail and bushwhacked with my shins.
Having never run this far before, I solicited much advice from sage
runners on food (thanks to all). My intake consisted of half a PB&J sandwich
each loop, some electrolyte tabs, with sports drink and potatoes from
aid stations. Four aid stations were well-supplied with incredibly friendly
support folks. They'd grab your bottle and fill it for you, feed you, come
out to meet you when you ran in, etc. All worked well and I felt great.
Carl finished in 5:52:13 for 18th place (17th male) of 67 finishers.
Barb was 14/31 finishers (45 starters) in the 50 mile, and 3rd female. Because
only Carl and the race organizer were at the finish line when she came
across in 9:29, Carl had the honor of presenting her the trophy so that the
organizer could take a photo! (see photo at www.teamsantafe.org). Although
a running title for this run could be "The Mississippi Mudfest", it was a
great first 50 miler, despite the mud!
Thanks to Thorlo socks for protecting our feet, Hammer Gel electrolyte
tabs for keeping us balanced and Polar Heart Rate Systems for keeping us
on track (miles were marked). Carl ran in CW-X shorts and Montrail shoes.
8th Annual Ben Myers Ridge-A-Thon
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Taos Ski Valley, Taos NM
March 26-27, 2004
Carl Gable, Joel Krypel, Bill Carey, 1st Place
Gary Johnson, (unknown) Place
Photo: skitaos.org
Carl and Joel teamed up with Bill Carey for the Ben Myers Ridge-A-Thon
held at Taos Ski Valley, NM. However, the difference this year is we raced
both days. Most participants only race one of the two days. The Ridge-A-Thon
is a ski race to benefit the Taos Community Foundation Emergency Medicine
Fund and is held in memory of Ben Myers, a former Taos resident who died
of cancer. Over the years the event has raised over $100,000. Carl, Joel
and Bill, racing under the team banner of Team Santa Fe Adventure Racing,
raised $850.
In this event one must hike and ski double black diamond chutes on
the ridge at Taos (Billy Sol, Ninos, Juarez, Spitfire, Oster, Stauffenberg,
Zdarsky, K-chute #4, K-chute #5, Kachina Peak) for 5 hours. This is some
of the steepest and most demanding terrain Taos has to offer. The hike from
the top of the chair lift to the beginning of the chutes is a 5-8 minute
lung buster at elevations above 11,000 feet. If one chooses to hike to the
K-chutes or Kachina Pk one is hiking for 30-45 minutes, but the payoff
is that these runs count for four points. Then comes the thigh burning non-stop
runs down the chutes. There was again a bonus on Saturday. Due to marginal
weather, Kachina Peak had been closed all day. However, when two o'clock
rolled around, the ski patrol allowed those in the race to hike the peak.
The 1000+ vertical foot hike was slower and harder after two days of hike/ski/hike/ski.
Also, 40-50mph winds hitting the ridge line made the hike 'full conditions'
but the rewards made it worthwhile. We all got to ski untracked powder
off the peak. Due to the high winds we gathered at near the bottom of the
run to toast the memory of Ben Myers with Myers rum. Our final tally was
27 runs plus 32 bonus points for a total of 59 points. This was the first
year that Bill has competed in the Ridge-A-Thon, the second time for Joel
and the third time for Carl.
Thanks to our sponsors: Thorlo, Polar, GoLite, Black Diamond, Suunto, Boulder Bars,
CW-X, WPC brand sun
lotion and lip balm.
Adventure X Stream, Moab UT
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Moab UT
March 27th, 2004
Team Bear/Brasher/Santa Fe
Kim Bear and Jeanette Brasher
Support: Samantha and JJ Bear
http://www.gravityplay.com/axs
Place: 1st All Female, 30th 2-person Open Pro, 9:13
Last year, we made a family vacation out of going to Moab to support
Jan and had so much fun that we returned to all participate in the Moab AdventureXstream
race. Samantha, our daughter, had turned 16 so we now have a driver. I
hired Samantha and her sister, JJ, to support us in the race. Jeanette Brasher,
my partner, had done this race 2 years ago as a woman pair and was looking
forward to repeating the experience. Her only problem was that she had broken
her ribs earlier in the year on a mountain bike fall and was just starting
to get back into training. We decided to use this as a “training” race and
see how we worked together as a team.
We checked in to the race on Friday and went with the rest of Team Santa
Fe to plot the maps. Jeanette, being an engineer, was to be the navigator.
We had done a gear check back in Albuquerque and went over last minute details
on preferred gear so we would be comfortable during the race. Our goal was
to finish.
Saturday was a beautiful day with some clouds. We started with a 10 mile
river paddle down the Colorado River in rubber ducks. We were glad it was
only 10 miles which took us about 2 hours. We had never paddled together
as a team and quickly found out that we were mismatched with our paddle strokes.
Once we got that under control, we found that every time we lost our focus,
we lost our line. But besides those minor annoyances, we got out of the
boat still smiling. My feet were kept warm with Sealskinz socks.
Jeanette had to use her quads quite a bit with the steering maneuvers which
would come back to haunt her on the bike ride. Robin, Team Santa Fe’s support
helped us to quickly transition to the mountain bike. My Unicoi Litespeed performed flawlessly. I had just switched to a new Terry saddle making it a comfortable climb. My bike helmet was from Shain and KHS Bicycle Supply
the US importers of the brand; this is a great helmet which adjusted easily
to fit my head snuggly and comfortably giving me greater confidence riding
fast downhill. My hydration was easily managed with my Rally CamelBak,
which fit comfortably on my back. We headed out on the Potash road to Long
Canyon, a 15-mile ride with a very big climb from mile 3 to mile 9 of about
2000 feet. Jeanette’s quads screamed at her and after stretching and applying
a topical nonsteroidal they quieted down. We made it to the next check point;
Sam and JJ pushed us through quickly having us place on our Black Diamond
climbing harnesses to ride our bikes to the rappel. “All the other teams
are doing it, Mom!” That was a new experience for me, as the ATC kept catching
on the saddle, but you can put up with anything for 5 miles of riding downhill.
Danielle Ballange was riding quickly up and looked to be in about 4th place
overall. We smiled at the “woman power”. We didn’t see any other woman
pairs and thought about renaming ourselves Team Premarin because we are old
enough to be in menopause. We quickly reached the rappel; the 9 ropes were
backed up with many teams. We waited about 30 minutes and then quickly rappelled
a 400 drop with some overhanging sections followed by a 6 mile run back to
the bikes. I used my Leki trekking poles to power up the hills and give Jeanette a pull with a tow line. My Vitesse Montrail runners with Thorlo socks
were a perfect match for my feet and the run. From there we got back on
our bikes and rode quickly back to our support, the Bear girls. We dropped
our gear and rode quickly down Long Canyon into a head wind and pushed to
the finish line with a time of 9:13. We were the first woman pair across;
Team Santa Fe had been waiting for us for hours and we happily shared our
experiences. It was a good experience for Team Bear/Brasher/Santa Fe.
Other gear used was from our sponsors SixSixOne, Bolle and CWX.
Adventure X Stream, Moab UT
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Moab UT
March 27th, 2004
Team Santa Fe, Lisa Barnes, Deb Werenko, Jan Bear and Keith Bushaw
Support: Robin Bushaw
http://www.gravityplay.com/axs
Place: 7th 4-person Coed Elite, 6:57
Photo: Samantha and JJ Bear
Moab is one of my favorite places to mountain bike ride as the early season
warm weather is always nice. We thought this would be a great place for
an early season sprint adventure race. Last year I did the race solo and
Keith did it on another team. We felt that we would have a good chance to
place well in the event even though our strengths are the longer events.
We were pleased that we would all be in rubber duckies for the paddle because
in previous years each person could bring their own watercraft thus the good
paddlers had a very large advantage. In the first part of the race all teams
came out of the water within 15 minutes of each other so the big climb up
Long Canyon was to be the key to the race. The first mountain bike section
was about 20 miles then on to the rappel where we were held up for a rope
issue for 10-15 minutes. This was frustrating and ended up costing us a
couple places. After this was a 10K trail run followed by repeating the bike
course to the finish line. Team Santa Fe finished in 6 hours and 57 minutes
for 7th place. Robin provided great support for the team as did all of our
team sponsors. Sponsored gear used during the race included, Camelbak, Montrail,
Litespeed, Schrade Knives, SealSkinz, ThorLo, Boulder Bars, GoLite, Shain
Helmets, Sunnto, WPC Brands, Sof Sole, SixSixOne, Terry, Bolle, Black Diamond
and CWX.
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