This is a pretty awesome news feed from my facebook friends, right after Trioba.Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tell me who are your friends and I'll tell you who are you
This is a pretty awesome news feed from my facebook friends, right after Trioba.
Trioba 24+ hour race report
Trioba 24+ Hour Adventure Race, Northwest of Plain Washington
Team Verve
Featuring Peteris Ledins, Captain and Navigator
Christi Masi, Ian Hoag and Murray Maitland
The race awards were only an hour ago, and the drive home was already feeling very long. Dust from the trails was irritating my eyes, but I didn't want to close them longer than a blink. The fingers of my hand slapped across my 2-day old bristles that cover my face. A stinging, tingle spreads out and then stimulates a minor adrenalin rush that in turn, causes my brain neurons to fire a little quicker. Singing loudly works better to keep me awake, but there isn't anything but advertisements and slow ballads on the radio. Despite the fact that they call the 27-hour effort that I had finished an "Adventure Race", driving is by far more dangerous. I ponder whether I should stop and have a quick nap, but instead I stop in Sultan and eat four McDonald's Hamburgers.
Thinking back, there are so many brain-memory stored images about the last two days, it is hard to keep them from leaping to the surface. The last leg of the race on mountain bikes alone was 30 miles with 4000ft of descent. Who knows how many feet of uphill we did. That leg, if considered by itself, was grueling. Not to mention the other 3 legs of the race. Swollen tendons on my right hand, an aching left knee, and a vague all-encompassing fatigue are minor short-lived, physical souvenirs of the effort, but the mental images are much more important and longer lived. Since nobody on our team brought a camera, let me use words to describe what these mental images, filled with colorful scenery, people and emotions, look and feel like.
The race director, Glenn Rogers, had added many nice touches to the race. A racer could see these through the entire event. For example, instead of disposable plastic bags we received our pre-race stuff in reusable, Fred Meyer bags. However, fate gave a twist to the race that I don't think Glenn expected.
The race started at midnight, which for those unaccustomed to adventure racing might seem a little odd. For me, all I wanted to do was start the race, so midnight was perfect. All week long, leading up to the race I had a mild cold. My normal activities had been huge efforts. I wanted to shake off the cobwebs, and get into race mode. Sleeping the night before a race is never very easy anyway, so we may as well be out enjoying the night.
After a short cycle to Wenatchee Lake, we carried and dragged our heavy, plastic, two-person kayaks to the boat ramp and started paddling. Immediately, I got into the rhythm following Peteris’ lead. The race director made a good choice to have us paddle at night. The lake was absolutely calm and quiet except for the other teams. Overhead the stars were brilliant. It seemed like we were out in the wilderness despite the homes along the shore. None of the teams had good boats, so it was a level playing field with our tubs, and despite our mediocre style, we soon overtook teams, one by one until we were in the lead. Not for long, but enough to hope for good things to come.
The first major climb on the mountain bikes was about 3000ft into the Cougar Mountain area. The first two thirds went by quickly, partly because of the spectacular sunrise. Golden clouds were surrounded by deep and lighter blue colors. I have never seen anything like it. After 35+ years of being in the outdoors, how many more new things will I see, and in my own back yard too.
Christi rode her mountain bike close to the back of my mountain bike and reached to grab a loop suspended from a retractable dog leash that was taped under my bike seat. She hooked the loop over the middle of her handle bars. It was my turn to help her a little. Five-minutes each. It was only a small amount of extra weight, but the effect was important. All of us were working just as hard as the others. Together, working as a team, we were more efficient. As we went over a bump, the towing line broke. A quick fix and we go again. Eventually, the wide gravel and dirt road became a single lane trail. At that point, towing was out of the question, but Christi kept up the pace.
The hill started to take a toll on my left knee, then my hands. Time became meaningless to me. I just keep going. I’m sure the race results will have our splits that people will analyze. Whether the hill took two hours or four, who knows? I just tried to keep on the fine line between efficiently moving forward and over-extending myself.
Little errors started to show up when we start to get tired. Ian forgot his helmet at a checkpoint, and had to go back for it. Since we are particularly worried about the race rules, we all go back to stay within the specified distance of each other.
The sun shone over the gold meadow as we switched from bike shoes to running shoes. Even though we were 40 minutes behind the two lead teams, there was huge optimism. The trekking-orienteer section is supposed to be our strongest discipline relative to the other teams. Volunteers cheer as we run off to catch the other teams. Unfortunately, we ran in the wrong direction and faced the humbling moment of running back past the volunteers the other way.
Twelve hours into the race, and the top three, four-person teams were within a few minutes of each other. A little while later, on a long descent off a ridge, and we saw the first place, four-person team, “Checkpoint Zero” right ahead of us. At 4:15 pm, 16 hours into the race, as we put back on our bike shoes, they were only 3 minutes ahead. Then the race got tough.
At first, the mountain bike single track along the Mad River Trail was exactly what the race organizers advertised. It was phenomenal! Spectacular color and scenery surrounded a perfectly groomed and packed trail. But then, as the sun set, we pushed our bikes uphill. The kilometers/hour seemed to grind to a halt. Estimating the arrival time at the next checkpoint became so depressing that I just turned my odometer off. Off course, you always reach the crest, and ride the downhill and get to the next checkpoint. But we had lost valuable time compared with Checkpoint zero.
The last section of the race, from checkpoint 19 through 29, became the crux of the race even though the race director had not planned it that way. Glenn had told us that it would be fast downhill with easy to spot checkpoints along the way. The truth was that the last section was nothing like that at all. We struggled with uphill after uphill. Maybe if our legs were fresh we might have ridden all of it, but after 24 hours, we walked uphill after uphill. Ian suffered and Peteris groaned. Christi helped to keep us going.
The checkpoints were very difficult to find. Navigation was made harder by the fast down hill sections where all Peteris could do was watch the trail not the map. To add to the difficulty, the maps were not all that accurate regarding the bends and turns. Just by luck, we found all of them until the last one. Then, we tried, and tried, but couldn’t find number 29.
How do you feel when you’ve been out for 26 hours and your position on the podium is decided not by time, but by the number of checkpoints that you find? Our capacity for clear decision making was impaired to say the least. Peteris and Christi argue while Ian and I tried to mediate. Actually, I think I chose Christi’s side. Finally, after going forward and backward on the trail we gave up, hoping that the checkpoint is actually missing for some reason. It is amazing how the high points and comical moments of the day are shattered by something like this. My favorite stunt of the day was showing how you didn’t need to stop, if you could hang really far back off your mountain bike when you needed to…. Oh… sorry, I forgot this is a family channel.
Three o’clock in the morning and we finished. Twenty-seven hours of racing, and I felt good. Walking out of the hall, there was nobody else around. The night was dark except for the stars as befitted a new moon. I picked my mountain bike up off the ground. “You know, I think we really bonded on this trip” I said to my bike “You did well out there.” I think I was getting a little punchy, since I really meant what I said.
Team Verve
Featuring Peteris Ledins, Captain and Navigator
Christi Masi, Ian Hoag and Murray Maitland
The race awards were only an hour ago, and the drive home was already feeling very long. Dust from the trails was irritating my eyes, but I didn't want to close them longer than a blink. The fingers of my hand slapped across my 2-day old bristles that cover my face. A stinging, tingle spreads out and then stimulates a minor adrenalin rush that in turn, causes my brain neurons to fire a little quicker. Singing loudly works better to keep me awake, but there isn't anything but advertisements and slow ballads on the radio. Despite the fact that they call the 27-hour effort that I had finished an "Adventure Race", driving is by far more dangerous. I ponder whether I should stop and have a quick nap, but instead I stop in Sultan and eat four McDonald's Hamburgers.
Thinking back, there are so many brain-memory stored images about the last two days, it is hard to keep them from leaping to the surface. The last leg of the race on mountain bikes alone was 30 miles with 4000ft of descent. Who knows how many feet of uphill we did. That leg, if considered by itself, was grueling. Not to mention the other 3 legs of the race. Swollen tendons on my right hand, an aching left knee, and a vague all-encompassing fatigue are minor short-lived, physical souvenirs of the effort, but the mental images are much more important and longer lived. Since nobody on our team brought a camera, let me use words to describe what these mental images, filled with colorful scenery, people and emotions, look and feel like.
The race director, Glenn Rogers, had added many nice touches to the race. A racer could see these through the entire event. For example, instead of disposable plastic bags we received our pre-race stuff in reusable, Fred Meyer bags. However, fate gave a twist to the race that I don't think Glenn expected.
The race started at midnight, which for those unaccustomed to adventure racing might seem a little odd. For me, all I wanted to do was start the race, so midnight was perfect. All week long, leading up to the race I had a mild cold. My normal activities had been huge efforts. I wanted to shake off the cobwebs, and get into race mode. Sleeping the night before a race is never very easy anyway, so we may as well be out enjoying the night.
After a short cycle to Wenatchee Lake, we carried and dragged our heavy, plastic, two-person kayaks to the boat ramp and started paddling. Immediately, I got into the rhythm following Peteris’ lead. The race director made a good choice to have us paddle at night. The lake was absolutely calm and quiet except for the other teams. Overhead the stars were brilliant. It seemed like we were out in the wilderness despite the homes along the shore. None of the teams had good boats, so it was a level playing field with our tubs, and despite our mediocre style, we soon overtook teams, one by one until we were in the lead. Not for long, but enough to hope for good things to come.
The first major climb on the mountain bikes was about 3000ft into the Cougar Mountain area. The first two thirds went by quickly, partly because of the spectacular sunrise. Golden clouds were surrounded by deep and lighter blue colors. I have never seen anything like it. After 35+ years of being in the outdoors, how many more new things will I see, and in my own back yard too.
Christi rode her mountain bike close to the back of my mountain bike and reached to grab a loop suspended from a retractable dog leash that was taped under my bike seat. She hooked the loop over the middle of her handle bars. It was my turn to help her a little. Five-minutes each. It was only a small amount of extra weight, but the effect was important. All of us were working just as hard as the others. Together, working as a team, we were more efficient. As we went over a bump, the towing line broke. A quick fix and we go again. Eventually, the wide gravel and dirt road became a single lane trail. At that point, towing was out of the question, but Christi kept up the pace.
The hill started to take a toll on my left knee, then my hands. Time became meaningless to me. I just keep going. I’m sure the race results will have our splits that people will analyze. Whether the hill took two hours or four, who knows? I just tried to keep on the fine line between efficiently moving forward and over-extending myself.
Little errors started to show up when we start to get tired. Ian forgot his helmet at a checkpoint, and had to go back for it. Since we are particularly worried about the race rules, we all go back to stay within the specified distance of each other.
The sun shone over the gold meadow as we switched from bike shoes to running shoes. Even though we were 40 minutes behind the two lead teams, there was huge optimism. The trekking-orienteer section is supposed to be our strongest discipline relative to the other teams. Volunteers cheer as we run off to catch the other teams. Unfortunately, we ran in the wrong direction and faced the humbling moment of running back past the volunteers the other way.
Twelve hours into the race, and the top three, four-person teams were within a few minutes of each other. A little while later, on a long descent off a ridge, and we saw the first place, four-person team, “Checkpoint Zero” right ahead of us. At 4:15 pm, 16 hours into the race, as we put back on our bike shoes, they were only 3 minutes ahead. Then the race got tough.
At first, the mountain bike single track along the Mad River Trail was exactly what the race organizers advertised. It was phenomenal! Spectacular color and scenery surrounded a perfectly groomed and packed trail. But then, as the sun set, we pushed our bikes uphill. The kilometers/hour seemed to grind to a halt. Estimating the arrival time at the next checkpoint became so depressing that I just turned my odometer off. Off course, you always reach the crest, and ride the downhill and get to the next checkpoint. But we had lost valuable time compared with Checkpoint zero.
The last section of the race, from checkpoint 19 through 29, became the crux of the race even though the race director had not planned it that way. Glenn had told us that it would be fast downhill with easy to spot checkpoints along the way. The truth was that the last section was nothing like that at all. We struggled with uphill after uphill. Maybe if our legs were fresh we might have ridden all of it, but after 24 hours, we walked uphill after uphill. Ian suffered and Peteris groaned. Christi helped to keep us going.
The checkpoints were very difficult to find. Navigation was made harder by the fast down hill sections where all Peteris could do was watch the trail not the map. To add to the difficulty, the maps were not all that accurate regarding the bends and turns. Just by luck, we found all of them until the last one. Then, we tried, and tried, but couldn’t find number 29.
How do you feel when you’ve been out for 26 hours and your position on the podium is decided not by time, but by the number of checkpoints that you find? Our capacity for clear decision making was impaired to say the least. Peteris and Christi argue while Ian and I tried to mediate. Actually, I think I chose Christi’s side. Finally, after going forward and backward on the trail we gave up, hoping that the checkpoint is actually missing for some reason. It is amazing how the high points and comical moments of the day are shattered by something like this. My favorite stunt of the day was showing how you didn’t need to stop, if you could hang really far back off your mountain bike when you needed to…. Oh… sorry, I forgot this is a family channel.
Three o’clock in the morning and we finished. Twenty-seven hours of racing, and I felt good. Walking out of the hall, there was nobody else around. The night was dark except for the stars as befitted a new moon. I picked my mountain bike up off the ground. “You know, I think we really bonded on this trip” I said to my bike “You did well out there.” I think I was getting a little punchy, since I really meant what I said.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Endurance Adventure Challenge 2009
The Map of our route to the top of Rainier and back to Paradise really says it all, but that was not the end for me. I continued on bicycle back home with a grand finale in Lake Washington.
The details of the trip:
Our adventure started with a paddle. Glenn Rodgers (Team DART)and I started at 7am from Alki Beach in Seattle. We set off on a cloudy, wetish morning. Along the way we saw salmon jumping constantly! You could almost walk from Vashon Island to the mainland on boats there were so many.
Our paddle lasted about 3 hours and covered 17 miles to Saltwater Park. Scott met us there and we picked up Matt Hayes who continued with us on bikes. We left Salt Water park at 11am.
Our ride to Paradise covered 94 miles and about 7000 feet of elevation gain. The day was cloudy and cool, but really a nice temperature for riding.
We arrived at 7:30pm ish, just as my niece was pulling into the parking lot with our gear. We changed over to our climbing gear, drank tons of coffee, ate lots of food and started hiking to Camp Muir.
Paradise was in a cloud all day, but once we were up about 400 feet, we got out of the cloud and it was beautiful! The conditions on the way to Muir were crazy! Solid ice from 8000 feet with crevasses everywhere. I have not ever seen the Muir snowfield in this condition.
We arrived at Camp Muir at 1:30am. We ate for a half hour, then slept for one hour. We were out of Camp at 3:45am.
We summitted at 9:15am – it was amazing!
The route was actually in really good shape, except for a couple of sketchy places. Matt Hayes did a fantastic job (it was his first glacier climb) and Glenn was really good too. Glenn was super positive the whole time and just kept us all going.
We stayed on top until about 10:30am, including about 20 minutes of napping.
Then we descended, arrived back at Camp Muir at 1:30pm, packed the rest of our stuff, and headed down. We arrived back at Paradise at 4pm. My niece was there to help us with gear again. Matt and Glenn got a ride home with JVG and Frenchy who had come up to ride home with us, but of course this didn’t happen because we were 4 hours behind our original schedule. They were out riding in the park when we got back. Matt found their car and left a note saying that we were in the lodge. I really wanted to ride home, so I got a room in the lodge by myself and rode home 119.7 miles today ending with a dunk in lake Washington.
It was a blast! Next year we will do another Endurance Challenge somewhere else.
Route Home
Final photo:
The details of the trip:
Our adventure started with a paddle. Glenn Rodgers (Team DART)and I started at 7am from Alki Beach in Seattle. We set off on a cloudy, wetish morning. Along the way we saw salmon jumping constantly! You could almost walk from Vashon Island to the mainland on boats there were so many.
Our paddle lasted about 3 hours and covered 17 miles to Saltwater Park. Scott met us there and we picked up Matt Hayes who continued with us on bikes. We left Salt Water park at 11am.
Our ride to Paradise covered 94 miles and about 7000 feet of elevation gain. The day was cloudy and cool, but really a nice temperature for riding.
We arrived at 7:30pm ish, just as my niece was pulling into the parking lot with our gear. We changed over to our climbing gear, drank tons of coffee, ate lots of food and started hiking to Camp Muir.
Paradise was in a cloud all day, but once we were up about 400 feet, we got out of the cloud and it was beautiful! The conditions on the way to Muir were crazy! Solid ice from 8000 feet with crevasses everywhere. I have not ever seen the Muir snowfield in this condition.
We arrived at Camp Muir at 1:30am. We ate for a half hour, then slept for one hour. We were out of Camp at 3:45am.
We summitted at 9:15am – it was amazing!
The route was actually in really good shape, except for a couple of sketchy places. Matt Hayes did a fantastic job (it was his first glacier climb) and Glenn was really good too. Glenn was super positive the whole time and just kept us all going.
We stayed on top until about 10:30am, including about 20 minutes of napping.
Then we descended, arrived back at Camp Muir at 1:30pm, packed the rest of our stuff, and headed down. We arrived back at Paradise at 4pm. My niece was there to help us with gear again. Matt and Glenn got a ride home with JVG and Frenchy who had come up to ride home with us, but of course this didn’t happen because we were 4 hours behind our original schedule. They were out riding in the park when we got back. Matt found their car and left a note saying that we were in the lodge. I really wanted to ride home, so I got a room in the lodge by myself and rode home 119.7 miles today ending with a dunk in lake Washington.
It was a blast! Next year we will do another Endurance Challenge somewhere else.
2009 Sound to mtns endurance challenge
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