RESULTS

Women's Adventure Race (Phoenix) - 11-12-05 Saguaro Lake

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Perfect weather, gorgeous venue, 60 athletes, 3 hours of fun.  Here's the play by play.  The day began with a run up a wash where teams had to find a tennis ball that corresponded with their bib number and retrieve the first piece of a secret treasure map.  They then proceeded to untie a piece of rope from a distant dock on the lake before heading up another wash where every team had to fill a sandbag to 40lbs and carry it all the way back to the start.  It was on to a bike ride that had every team climbing uphill for 2 miles on pavement, then following dirt paths for another couple miles and a long walk out on a sand wash for the first mystery event.  

The first mystery event had teams pulling either a team member or 3 sandbags on a wooden sled for about 100 meters before continuing on to the hike.  The hiking section took teams out into "The Rolls" Off Highway Vehicle area and through a swampy lakeside area before returning for mystery event 2

Each team was given a 2 gallon bucket with which to shuttle water from the lake to a waiting 40 gallon trash can on the beach until it overflowed.  The math says that would take 20 trips, though not for these ladies.  A member of nearly every team ended up taking a dip in the bucket to displace the water and save themselves a number of trips back and forth.  Where else can you dive into lake water in mid November without getting hypothermia?!  Check out the pictures at MyRacePics.com, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  

They were less than a mile from the finish, though it had to be completed on inner tubes while floating on the lake.  A number of teams opted to use paddles or fins and still others just reclined in their tube and back paddled.  But wait, that's not all....Along the way, each team had collected a series of 4 pieces of a treasure map.  Upon assembling the map, they headed north through the picnic area to find two treasure chests, each with two padlocks.  Upon choosing a chest, the team had to figure out which of 6 combinations opened  the locks....and then it was a dash for the finish.  

Congratulations to all of our participants.  That was no walk in the park!  Windy Marks and Vickie Nelson of team Monster Energy knocked out their third win in the women's races we've put on, though not without Brigid and Georgie of team Red Energy keeping the pressure on all morning.  Three person team "Team Oh" consisting of Deanna Luna, Lisa Barnard & Donna Tomlinson were first in in their division, and soloist Melissa Branta of team MeBeFit was the first soloist in at just two hours nineteen minutes!  

Christy Church & Chandra Collister of Team Godiva take home a $100 race gift certificate for best decorated Transition Area with honorable mentions going to the Beastie Girls & Double Agents.  

Thanks so much for making this day a fun one for us as well.  As Adventure Racing is most frequently a coed sport, we firmly believe that building it lies in attracting more and more women.  If you had a good time, please tell a friend about Adventure Racing, and if you have a bike shop or gym where you could place some flyers, let us know and we'll mail some out: SierraAdventureSports@hotmail.com.  Oh, and by the way, on 12-3 we're holding the finale to the Desert Rage series, and simultaneously running a recreational course all from the same area. We hope to see you there.  

Volunteers, You Rocked!  It wouldn't be possible without you.  

Desert Rage Las Vegas - 11-5-05 Lake Mead Recreation Area

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Desert Rage Las Vegas proved to be our most challenging race to date as 60+ racers headed out to conquer the course.  The race began with all participants having to fill a sandbag with 40 pounds of sand and rock to be weighed and carried some 200 meters.  They then had to rummage through a pile that included everyone's paddles and pfd's to find their own before beginning our longest paddle ever.  Long course racers paddled over 8 miles, with rec coursers island hopping about 5.  From the start, a case of follow the leader lead many teams to the wrong peninsula, though it was a short jaunt back to punch the checkpoint. 

A couple of islands later, team P.I.T.A. lead the long coursers from the water and on to a 30 meter rappel at Lodge Rock.  The next mystery event had one person from each team riding a wooden sled to be pulled by other teammates for about 150 meters.  While the rec course finished the trek before rappelling, both courses utilized the same section.  Teams ran along the lakeside, and eventually climbed a steep mountainside to the historic Six Tunnel Trail railroad bed.  It was a smooth run from their and back to the TA to the bikes.  

Another mystery event had teams having to untie a bag full of wooden tiles and unscramble the words "High Roller" before continuing on to the bike. Long course teams had a long way to go with their first checkpoint at the top of Boy Scout Trail in the famous Bootleg Canyon Downhill Mountain Biking area.  They eventually wound their way back down toward the lake and rejoined the rec course racers for the final 3 checkpoints.  Those last three proved challenging to many as the rock was so loose it forced many teams to hike-a-bike for more than a mile.  A number of teams found shortcuts between checkpoints including Team in Training #4 of Eric Leclair and John Brown who shaved a couple miles between two points.  Another top team, AdventureRacingConcepts.com along with soloist Stokli Ski's made a longcut up and down cliffs, lowering their bikes with bungee cords and garnering the award for "Most Adventurous" if not the "Craziest".  Dynelly & Justine of Team in Training#3 were smiling all the way and made it a fun day for everyone!  

It was a quick couple miles to the finish, which for most came after dark.  Congratulations to Team P.I.T.A. for cruising in with a total time of just over 8 hours and Team In Training for winning the recreational course in just under 7 hours.  

Results are not considered final until one week after the race.  Please contact us at SierraAdventureSports@hotmail.com if you see any discrepancy in where you finished. Congratulations to everyone in this most challenging of races.  There wasn't a team out there that didn't put the hammer down for any less than 7 hours proving that adventure racers are top notch endurance athletes...and they did it smiling.  Check out the great pictures at www.MyRacePics.com.  

Los Angeles Women's Adventure Race on 10-1-05 at Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park

Photo's courtesy of Wayne Short

When ladies come to race, you can bet it's going to be a fun day of surprises.  If you've ever been to Bonelli park, you know it's a good size park with some incredible terrain.  What I'm about to tell you was completed by every single team in less than 5 hours total.  First, the women had a mile run between 3 mystery events which included a Frisbee throw, a word scramble atop one of the many park hills, and wading into the water to search for a washer with their team number on it, strung from a line of buoys.  They then took off on a bike ride that went the entire way around the lake, on tree covered trails, up some tough single-track, and back to the Transition Area (TA).  From their, they had to complete a bike joust (check out the pictures on the gallery page) before propelling their inner tubes across a 1/3rd mile section of the lake.  Many returned via a pathway, though were forced to get back in their tubes to cross yet another small branch of the lake.  They then had to complete a belly-crawl on the beach before heading out on a trail run that followed the summits on the tree-lined trail through the park.  

It was a blast!  Team Monster Energy's Windy Marks and Vickie Nelson successfully defended their title from last years Phoenix Women's race, while soloist Veronica Williams kept in close chase for the entire day!  3 person team Red Energy finished 3rd overall just over two hours. The two girls of Team Green became our youngest ever competitors at just 15 & 17 years old and soloist Michelle Poole swept the course completing her very first AR.  We hope to see you all at the Phoenix WAR!  

Extreme Heat Summer Series #3 on 8-13-05 at Dreamy Draw Park, Phoenix

picture by Gerry of team Ruination

What a day!  Congratulations to Tommy & Michelle Kelly of team Red Energy!  We hope you had fun!  Special thanks to Angela Zampino for taking over 200 pictures.  You can see them at CampZamp.com, then follow the links to the "Event Photo's".  

This was a beginners race, and upon and early discovery that 2/3rd's of the field went to the wrong checkpoint #2, two decisions were immediately made.  First, they needed to know they had done this as soon as possible despite this in itself being illegal to help the racers.  Unfortunately, this meant the first teams (that had made this error) through the TA weren't alerted to this because at that point, we didn't realize so many people had followed the leaders to the wrong CP, though they would later have the opportunity to return to CP#2.  Secondly, rather than DNF'ing 2/3rds of the field in a beginners race, because, according the rules, they would have to return to the correct CP#2 and rerun the remaining 6 CP's would place all of these teams past the cutoff of 11am, we decided to let them return to that CP only.  While we don't like to utilize the seldom considered rule #14 in your handbook, we felt it best in this case.  

A few teams picked off the correct CP#2 right away.  First, Second & Third overall did exactly that.  Teams Red Energy (Tommy & Michelle Kelly), Brakin-Away, and Ascent Solo hit it perfect.  These are as yet unofficial until Saturday, so if you find anything that appears incorrect please email us asap.      

Extreme Heat Summer Series #2 on 7-9-05 at Coon Bluff Rec Area, Lower Salt River

The weather couldn't have been hotter, but an early morning start and a finish "adventure tubing" down the Salt River didn't hurt.  21 teams started the race with a choice of completing 3 orienteering points or 3 mystery events in any order.  Mystery events included a rope traverse strung between two trees, a frisbee golf shot and shuttling water back and forth from the river using only a 3oz Dixie cup to fill a 10oz cup.  During this initial phase, teams also had an option of filling up trash bags for a 10 second per piece time deduction that left the entire area looking much better than when we got there as most teams participated.  Teams then headed off on a 3 CP Trek over abotu 3 miles and spent their final mile on innertubes floating down the Salt River, which was nice and cool!  

Congratulations to Team Ascent who took in first place in the two person team division. Josh and Jack had fins on their feet and paddled backwards to move away from other teams in pursuit.  Not far behind, Team Red Energy was second, with newcomes team Chicken Legs in third.  In the Solo division, brand new Adventure Racer Jared Ihnen took first place with dead-on navigation.  Brian Dunnington & Brad Poe tied for 2nd while team Spanky solo came in third. 

Hope to see you on 8/13!  Thanks for racing! 

Cache Clash Phoenix 5/7/05

8 teams of 2 people gathered together for the inaugural Cache Clash held in Dreamy Draw Park.  At 7:30, a list of 21 hidden cache's was given to each team.  They were searching for pastel colored containers all containing an alpha-numeric code.  In 5 of these containers was a slip to be exchanged for a prize at the finish line.  All had a great time.  There was a mix of Traditional Geocacher's, Adventure Racers & Orienteerers present.  The goal was to find all of them in the shortest time, or as many as possible in 3 hours, and solve a word scramble after finding all of them.  For every minute a team exceeded the 3 hours, a 5 minute penalty was assessed.  

Different strategies were employed by each individual team.  Some ploted each point on a map and only used their GPS when near the point, however, the strategy used by the top 3 teams was to simply input the coordinates into their GPS and have it lead them from one Cache to the next nearest Cache.  

Team Adventure Racing Concepts.COM (Dennis & Tara Paprocki) came in tied with Monster Energy (Butch Nelson & Brian Karasek) at 1:59:50, though ARC was able to unlock the word scramble a few seconds earlier for the first place win. Team GeoCacrackers (Merridi Haskell & Julie Calderwood), both Geocachers, came in a solid 3rd at 2:49:04

Adventure Racing Concepts.COM: 1:59:50 (All found)
Monster Energy: 1:59:52 (All found)
GeoCrackers:  2:49:04 (All found)
Windy & Teresa & Georgie: 18 found in 2:59:33
Dave & Debbie: 15 found in 2:54:08
Michelle & Vickie: 15 found in 2:56:44
Freddie & Mrs. Schineller + 2 kids in backpacks: 9 found in 2:22:00
Peggy & Mark (Plus Louis & Clark; kids in stroller): 8 found in 3:15:00 (includes 15 minute penalty)

Check out the Gallery page for pictures of Geocrackers and Team Denial

Full Moon Over Phoenix Night Adventure Race - Bartlett Lake 4/23/05

Many people agreed that they'd never seen anything like the storm that overcame us at Bartlett Lake that night.  The late afternoon saw many lake users having a great day frolicking in the sun, that is, until the ominous clouds started approaching from the southwest.  As the race started, the solid field of 11 teams would see occasional glimpses of the full moon, though that wouldn't last long.

The race started at 6pm with teams having to go to each of 3 orienteering points where they collected two maps and a list of coordinates.  Upon completing this task, they began a 3.7 mile paddle from SB Cove to Rattlesnake cove with team Monster Energy leading the way.  The sun went down and the moon peeked over the mountaintops for this section.  That's when the storm started to hit.  As the lead teams worked on a 4.5 mile trek to two checkpoints as a slight drizzle started, with those same teams heading into a full on rain as they jumped on bikes from CP4 to CP6.  The latter teams were still working their way through the Trek section when the worst of it started.  Sideways rain, gusts to near 50mph, and even small hail at times pelted racers until midnight.  But there was more.  

5 teams had made the turn up a remote forest service road that is generally used only by off-road vehicles.  Teams Monster Energy & Ruination (who was also racing as team Sierra Adventure Sports for this race) made it over the crest of a 2 mile climb and began the decent to CP7 at the lakes edge, when water levels on the road and in washes started to get above knee high in some areas.  Team Ascent was spotted powering through 8 inch deep water with head high rooster tails coming off their back tires.  Teams Backside and others reported having to move off the roads and washes to higher ground as the possibility of being swept down in this flash flood was becoming and increasing possibility.  

With this flash flood unfolding into a true (and spooky) adventure, a number of teams made the tough decision to head back to the transition area to insure they were around to race again one day.  Meanwhile, teams Gold Digger and Two Hens & a Chick (a first time racing team of 3 females) were coming off the trek in the full ferociousness of the storm.  Both teams had full intention of continuing, though were redirected to the TA with them being short-coursed.  "With 2 teams beyond our current reach, and no end to this flood in sight, we didn't want to risk letting anyone venture out on the remaining bike course for fear we wouldn't be able to extract them" said race director Rick Eastman.  

With all but two teams, Monster & Ruination accounted for, the tension continued to mount with the decision being made that if they were not heard from by midnight, a search would begin.  Team Monster Energy is currently the naARcs (na-arcs.com) point leader in the west, and the winners of both Desert Rage I & II.  Team Ruination is a group of 3 who serve on a Search & Rescue team in Tucson and also have top 5 finishes in the Desert Rage series.  

Upon not having heard from them at midnight, a search began with two 4x4's heading out.  Fortunately the rain had turned into a sprinkle, and travel was much less risky in the fast draining sandy soil.  About 2 miles in, to our surprise, team Monster Energy emerged with smiles on their face and a report that Ruination was just a few minutes behind.  Both teams wanted to finish the race which still included a 4 mile ride and a 2 mile orienteering section before finishing.  

The No-Moon Over Phoenix Adventure Race was "Truly" an adventure for all.  Congratulations to all that raced.  A huge Thanks to Carter, Peggy, Kim, John, Joelle and all the other people who made this race happen, and toughed it out through some super-nasty conditions. 

Results:

Monster Energy (Dave Marks, Windy Hutchings, Butch Nelson) 7:02
Ruination/SAS   (Gerry Bach, Jim Holmes, Jane Larkindale) 7:07

Remaining teams in no particular order halted or turned around en route to CP7:
Adventure Racing Concepts.com #1
Adventure Racing Concepts.com #2
Ascent
Animal House
Gold Digger
Backside
Denial
Red Energy 
2 Hens &  Chick

Desert Rage II - 05'

What is it about mud that makes Adventure Racers smile?  In the last year of putting on races, it's becoming glaringly obvious; The greater the struggle, the happier the racers.  Some call it "Extreme", but it's really not.  It's overcoming the gauntlet in your brain that tells most people "I can't do that".  It's not being an expert at any single activity, but being well rounded in some, and having the courage to overcome the fear of activities you're not so sure of.  

On 3/19/05, 75 racers on 30 teams headed out for an adventure that would have them paddling down the Verde River (with about a dozen teams dumping), riding mountain bikes up a long wet mountain ride, having to climb over a waterfall, and many plowing through mud so deep that it cost 7 derailers to get everyone back in.  All but a handful finished.  Team Monster Energy showed us the way with a 3:25 first place finish despite a bad spill over barbed wire fencing by Butch Nelson.  Through most of the race team Backside and Adventure Racing Concepts.COM were in hot pursuit with ARC finishing in second.  For the first time in a year, the top 5 overall finishers were all in the premier 3 or 4 person coed division, with Kachina, Ascent, and Ruination rounding it out.  Hometeam Hot Chicks swept the field for a great finish. 

There was one person that caught the attention of many.  She had never done an adventure race before, though was surprisingly confident in her ability to do it despite others concerns.  She hadn't even ever kayaked on moving water, and had as recently as the day before received instruction on paddling in a lake.  But she did it, solo, in 45 degrees, rain, and a 25 mile per hour wind. Soaking wet, carrying her own kayak for a portage almost a mile long, and smiling the entire way.  Rachel, we salute you!  You inspire us.  

Thanks to everyone that participated in Desert Rage II.  You all struggled through a nasty day that illustrated how much perseverance you embody.   Adventure Racers Rock!  

Want to see some cool pictures from the event, click on the picture below:

And a special thanks to our volunteers and safety boaters who stuck it out through every bit as bad of a day.  This wouldn't be possible without you, and we know