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Team Santa Fe Newsletter
June 2005
Races
Teva 10K Trail Running Race
Vail, CO
June 4th, 2005
Kim Bear, 6th place age group, 1:29:01
www.tevamountaingames.com/results.cfm
By Kim Bear
I entered the 10k mountain run for the second year in a row. I planned
on volunteering to help at the Sprint Adventure race the next day, but wanted
to get a training run in as we would be doing the AdventureXstream 24 hour
race the following weekend in Durango.
We woke up on a June morning in Vail on Saturday and found that it was
Christmas again. Snow was everywhere. The race began in downtown Vail,
so I got out my trekking poles to help with the "running" up the ski slopes.
The trail wound up and down the front side of Vail Mountain with elevation
changes of over 3,000 feet. Jan and Ries bundled up in their winter gear
and came out to cheer me on. I finally spotted them as I was climbing up
Vail Mountain happy to get rid of some of my winter clothing. I don't remember
the sun coming out, but it did get warmer with all the climbing. The trail
seemed longer this year for some reason. I don't know if all the snow, mud
and water added to the perceived distance but it was only a 10k.
I crossed the finish line 6th in my age group and covered in mud. I was
grateful for my trekking poles from Leki otherwise I probably would have
fallen many times on those slick trails with roots, snow and ice. My Sealskinz
socks kept my feet warm and dry. I am looking forward to next year as you
never know what surprises Vail Mountain holds in store for you.
Teva Games Sprint Adventure
Race
Vail, CO
June 5th, 2005
Jan Bear, Ries Robinson and Shantelle Price, DNF
www.tevamountaingames.com/results.cfm
By Jan Bear
What a weekend, we arrived in Vail on Friday night as Kim was going to
do the trail 10k the next morning and much to our surprise just outside
of Leadville it began to snow. It continued snowing all the way to Vail.
By Saturday morning there was 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. The report
was that there was a lot more on the top of the mountain. Kim had a wet race
and Ries and I went out to take a few pictures. We both agreed that it
was a miserable day and that we were glad our event was the following day.
I met Shantelle for the first time; she was to be our woman teammate for
the Teva race. We went through check in and the gear drop without any problems.
Then it was time to get the maps and plan our route. The points were plotted
for us and all we had to do was take a couple of them off a master map.
We were off to prepare and the race start was delayed till 8AM to allow
the snow to start to melt a little.
The first leg was mountain biking with some orienteering mixed in; we were
in the middle of the pack. Next it was a trek that within a couple hundred
yards was all in snow. It was snow all the way to the top of the mountain
which turned into deeper snow making our snowshoes necessary. We used snowshoes
until we were between CP 11 and 12, the rappel. The rappel was short, but
the hike down to the river was extremely steep and rocky. Once at the river,
it was into water gear and then down Gore Creek. The water section gave
Shantelle some trouble as the current pushed her into the river. After several
swims, she pulled herself out of the race while Ries and I continued to
the finish in downtown Vail. Unfortunately due to Shantelle dropping out
we were considered a DNF. We still had a great time. However as soon as
the race was over it was a quick pack job and we headed back to Santa Fe.
Thanks to our sponsors, Litespeed, BTI, GoLite, CamelBak, Crescent Moon
Snowshoes, Leki, SealSkinz, Dermatone, Boulder Bars, Hydropel, Montrail,
CW-X, Polar, Terry, Petzl, Black Diamond, Bolle, Werner, Suunto, Shain,
Bike and Sport, and E-Caps.
AdventureXstream 24 Hour
Adventure Race
Durango, CO.
June 10-11, 2005
Kim and Jan Bear, 1st Place Coed Pairs
www.gravityplay.com/axs
By Kim Bear
The 24 hour race was staged out of Durango Mountain Resort. We were staying
with an old team mate Keith and his wife Robin Bushaw, so we got to prepare
for the race together. We had Chris Garcia from our office supporting us.
It would turn out that he got the best room in Durango Mountain Resort with
a view of the start, ski slopes and a river right outside his bedroom window.
I was worried that we wouldn't see him on the race course with such nice
accommodations. It was a useless worry as he was always there to encourage
us, beginning at midnight.
This race started at midnight with maps and UTM's being handed out. It
would begin as an orienteering course with 6 Checkpoints to find before 10
am the next morning. A 1 hour penalty would be given for every checkpoint
not found. Time penalties would also be given for every minute accrued after
10 am; however no one could leave before 9 am onto checkpoint 7. The trekking
would be about 30 miles long of "grunting" up and down the mountains of Durango.
I wore my SealSkinz socks which not only kept my feet warm, but also dry
when we had to cross all the streams. Night navigation was challenging causing
us problems in finding one of the CP's. We spent so much time with several
other teams searching in the dark along a ridgeline that we finally bushwhacked
down ravines and slopes to easily find another CP. By this time, the sun
was just beginning to appear. We made a strategical decision to miss another
CP that would have involved even more climbing and headed back to the bike
transition to arrive around 9 am. I had really had a bad night and was a
"little" irritable. We had missed 2 checkpoints, but could now head out
on our bikes with a 2 hour penalty which would be applied at the end of
the race. We would just have to wait and see how the other teams had done.
The mountain bike trail took us back to Hermosa Creek, one of the premier
single track courses in the US. Last year we had started on this trail and
it was much nicer to be thinned out and not have a lot of riders around you
on the technical sections. Once I made it by the section where last year
I had fallen into the river, I felt really good. My mood improved a lot.
Jan and I made good time and reached the Tyrolean traverse 3rd overall of
the 24 hour participants. We had one team and soloist (our buddy Keith) in
front of us. After the traverse, we continued on our mountain bikes up Jones
Creek. Jones Creek is a major climb with a spectacular view along a ridgeline
and then it descends back into the Animas valley to water section. It began
to rain and lightening as we headed into the paddle. Chris was waiting for
us and pushed us out into the river after feeding us. The paddle was an
18 mile section with the pull out at a park across from the finish line.
We ran in our wetsuits through the rain and crossed the finish line as the
4th 24 hour participants with a finish time of 21:41. We finished overall
in 5th place with 2 soloists, two teams beating us. We would be the fist
pair crossing the finish line, as the male pair had also missed 2 checkpoints.
We felt very good about our race. (We didn't even fight on the water.)
Thanks to our sponsors, Litespeed, BTI, GoLite, CamelBak, Leki, SealSkinz,
Dermatone, Boulder Bars, Hydropel, Montrail, CW-X, Polar, Terry, Petzl, Black
Diamond, Bolle, Werner, Suunto, Shain, SofSole, Bike and Sport, and E-Caps.
Twisted
10K
Salt Lake City, UT
June 11, 2005
Eric Jacobsen/Katherine Martz, 4 hours and 1 minute; 4th place in Coed
category
By Eric Jacobsen
Team Santa Fe entered the first Twisted 10K in a series of 4 races. I
raced with a first time adventure racer, Katherine Martz. The twisted 10K
was promoted as a 10K where anything goes. The first surprise – it was
20K!
The race started with teams staggered in the beginning. We were given
our first two check points at race check in. Then, every 2 minutes, a team
was released from the start. We had to blow up a balloon and once it popped,
we could leave. After the first check point, we returned to the start and
got our "maps". Instead of being topo maps, they were aerial photographs
of the local area. They had UTM's (they weren't real UTM's but a confusing
series of numbers concocted by the race coordinator) on the sides. We had
to plot our points. The problem was, the race coordinator had already plotted
points. While many were accurate, some were completely wrong. Further,
the maps had two different courses on it so you only needed half of the plotted
points. Very confusing. So bottom line, you couldn't trust any of the
plots at all. To further compound the plotting, one of the UTM's was completely
wrong! While others weren't even on the map, but off the edges.
But aside from the very bizarre navigation (it's difficult to determine
mountains and valleys on an aerial photograph), the race was quite fun.
Some highlights:
- At one point, we had to go through a water culvert with
fresh run-off coming through as well. Going up river, we walked on a ledge
about 3 inches thick while stooped over and holding on to little bolts holding
the culvert together. It was almost completely dark inside the culvert.
And if you slipped in the water, it was too deep and too fast to stand
so you would get carried back to the start. Fortunately, neither of us
fell off, although I came close more than once.
- Another check point was at the end of a very long culvert
(no water this time), but the entire culvert was in darkness and there were
huge boulders along the route.
- Another check point required us to walk on a tight rope
while holding another rope over your head. Both teammates had to get across.
Try standing on a rope with no support except for another rope about waist
high. It was hard.
- Yet another check point required one teammate to be blindfolded
and lead through an obstacle course – over rocks, along a "curb" that was
3 inches thick and a few feet off the ground, and more.
It was a great race for early in the season. We look forward to trying
to do the remaining three in the series.
Thanks to CW-X (I am a walking CW-X advertisement – I love the stuff),
CamelBak, Polar, Leki, and Suunto for providing great gear which was awesome
during the race.
New Mexico Orienteers June Event
Los Alamos, NM
June 18th, 2005
Jan Bear, Vetter Brown Course, DQ Red Course
www.nmorienteers.org
By Jan Bear
The monthly New Mexico Orienteers event in June was staged at the Guaje
Pines Cemetery. I had volunteered to Vet the Brown course so I arrived at
about 8:30 AM to get started, the Brown Course took me about an hour and
10 minutes to complete and was certainly challenging. After this I prepared
to do the Red Course which was scheduled to have some significant climbing
in the aprox. 7 KM course. All went well for the first 5 CP's then things
began to get a little harder from a combination of the heat, it was over
90 degrees and the terrain got a little steeper, there was very little on
trail activity most was bushwhacking and with more and more trees down each
month it gets harder and harder to get around. I continued on and by CP 11
was tired, hot and running low on water it seemed however like the rest of
the course was going to be very straightforward based on the topography.
Well that's what I get for slacking I spent about an hour and a half looking
for CP 12 never to find it! I went on to get 13, 14 and 15 with no difficulty
but missing 12 left me with a DNF. By the finish I was out of water and out
of patience with CP 12. The Red course got the better of me on this day.
Once again the NM Orienteers did a great job staging this event.
Thanks to TSF sponsors, Montrail, SofSole, CamelBak, Bolle, Hydropel,
Dermatone, Leki, Suunto, GoLite, CW-X, Outdoor Research, ThorLo and Polar.
Watermelon Mountain Classic
Mountain Bike Race
Albuquerque, NM
June 25th, 2005
Jan Bear, 1st Place Men's 50+ Sport
www.bitemeracing.org
By Jan Bear
It had been several years since I had ridden a mountain bike at the Sandia
Ski Area. I had forgotten how nice the single track trails were, there was
lots of variety in terms of steepness, surface, tightness of the turns and
the surrounding forests denseness. It was really a very nice site for a mountain
bike race. There seemed to be quite a large group of racers as the start
was postponed due to race day sign-ups. So my start for the sport master
category was not till 9:16 AM, too bad I got there so early. The star was
wide open for about 150 yards then single track fortunately there were only
about 10-15 people in my group at the start so it wasn't too bad. However
I quickly found that to pass on the course was hard, the best spot for me
was cutting a switchback very tight as the slower rider went wide. This
worked well and by the time we reached the top of the mountain I thought
that I was in about 2nd position based on the people I saw at the start. I
was however very concerned about the downhill portion of the course as I
don't like to go so fast as to get out of control and passing on the downhill
single-track would be hard. For the 7 mile down I passed one person and one
person passed me, thus a fairly steady pace. I crossed the finish not knowing
how I had done and Kim and I quickly left the venue as we had to pick up
our daughter in Albuquerque. I found out later that I had won my division
by about 6 minutes over the 2nd place person also from Santa Fe.
Thanks to TSF sponsors, Litespeed, CW-X, CamelBak, Hydropel, Boulder Bar,
E-Caps, BTI, Bike and Sport, ThorLo, Dermatone, Corrales Sports, Shain,
SofSole, Polar and Bolle.
Training Events
Heartbreak Double Century
Palmdale, CA
May 28, 2005
http://www.planetultra.com
Lisa Carr-Broome & George Broome
By George Broome
The Heartbreak Double Century is billed as the fourth toughest double century
in California covering 202 miles with 15,500' of elevation gain. In Planet
Ultra events there is a mass start and finish times are recorded and there
is a cutoff time which riders must beat in order to receive "official finishers"
status. The event is not considered a race and no awards are given other
than having the official times recorded on the website.
We took off in a mass start at 4:00 AM from the Ramada Inn in Palmdale.
The temperatures were in the 50's as we rode out of Palmdale and quickly
began climbing into the Angeles National Forest with a 10 to 15 mph headwind.
In the first 30 miles there were a few rollers as we passed through the
towns of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake in the dark. At mile 30 we began
a more serious climb for several miles before intersecting the Ridge Route
that dropped us down to Quail Lake where we began another climb to Gorman
and Lebec with a 20 to 30 mph headwind. After checking in at the checkpoint
in Lebec, we began a climb that lasted the next 30 miles with a few short
descents thrown in. At mile 71 we reached the checkpoint Apache Saddle which
meant that we had completed about one-half of the 15,500' of climbing that
we had to do. The next few miles consisted of some short steep climbs and
quick downhill's finally giving away to a steady downhill into the beautiful
Cuyama Valley where we began a gradual climb to the lunch stop in Ventucopa.
After a short break and fueling up, we continued to climb along the Cuyama
River until we turned into the Lockwood Valley where the gradual climb began
getting steeper as we approached the infamous "Heartbreak Hill". After conquering
Heartbreak Hill, we encountered rollers for a few miles and then descended
into Frazier Park and back to the checkpoint in Lebec.
The last fifty miles from Lebec to Palmdale were the reverse of the first
fifty miles so we had more downhill than uphill, but the climbs seemed harder
than they should have been due primarily to the time already spent in the
saddle climbing. The last fifteen miles or so into Palmdale were predominantly
downhill which gave us a big boost of enthusiasm and we rode into the finish
at the hotel with a smile on our faces at 7:53 PM.
The event had 81 registered riders but only 70 showed up at the start line
and there were 58 official finishers. Lisa and I finished 41st and 42nd,
with an overall time of 15 hours and 53 minutes.
Gear used from Team Santa Fe sponsors included Terry saddles, Suunto wrist
computer with Polar heart rate monitor, CW-X jerseys and sports bra, SofSole
insoles, Camelback hydration packs, NiteRider Lighting Systems, Shain helmets,
Bolle sunglasses, Hammer gel and Sustained Energy sports drink.
to do better!
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