Newsletter
Number 10 - May - 2007 |
Romero's
Compass Leads Team SOLE to #1 |
The Bike Ferry
Paul towing, Ze paddling and Karenbalancing
$15,000 worth of Intense bikes from sinking to the bottom
of the Colorado River. |
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Hwy.
93, Milemarker 28?
Rosie's Cafe, BFE, AZ |
Continuing their warm up for the World Championships in Scotland,
Team SOLE joined the field of nearly 30 teams at the innaugural
Kayak Lake Mead 24 hour + adventure race. Karen and Paul,
along with Brasilian Ze Pupo made up the threesome that came
to the startline ready to battle the heat and the brutalness
of the desert landscape. "There is nothing soft out here,"
said Ze Pupo. "Everything I touch is hard and pokes or
scratches you, the bushes are so hard they can rip you off
your bike," he continued wishing for the lush ferns and
grasses of Brasil.
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The
race began at 4:00 a.m. with a quick prerace meeting and gear
check by race director Robert Finlay. "Everybody got
their gear? Check!" Then the maps were handed out and
teams had to plot 41 checkpoints with less than an hour to
the race start. At 5:00 a.m. on the dot, Team SOLE rolled
across the start line with just two other teams (the others
still working on maps and gear) for a tough, sandy bike section.
The navigation was tough in the desert landscape, but Paul
was spot on and we never took a single pedal in the wrong
direction. Our Intense 29er bikes were the bomb as we rode
off trail through the desert sand dodging rocks, washouts
and cactus, racing to the river before the desert sun threatened
to slow our pace. By the end of the bike we had more than
a one hour lead. |
From the bike we coasteered a short section of the Colorado
River eventually crossing the river on our rafts to pick up
our kayaks. The next task was to kayak to the spot we left
our bikes and somehow bring them back across the river to
our crew. We tried a couple of options but ended up strapping
all three bikes onto the top of one kayak, then attaching
that kayak to the back of Paul's kayak with a tow line. Ze
paddled the third kayak while Karen sat on the top of the
kayak behind Ze and balanced the bikes so we wouldn't lose
the bikes and the third kayak to the bottom of the river.
|
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Ahhh
Sweet Success,
the bikes back on Terra Firma |
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Successfully across
we began the upriver kayak section where we navigated into
several beautiful coves along the river and ran to find
the checkpoints. We had a strong tailwind and fortunately
we also brought along our Pacific Action kayak sails which
moved us up the river with little effort on our part. Ze
was just giddy as he used a sail for the first time.
|
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Karen,
Ze and Paul
ready to trek.
Photos courtesy
of Adalberto Avelar and Bernardo Rodriques |
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The
final leg of the race was orienteering. With no moon coming
up we hurried to capture as many checkpoints in the daylight
as possible.The navigation in this part of the desert was
technical and extremely difficult. There are many washes,
ridges, and hilltops that all look the same, especially in
the darkness of the desert, looking for a tiny 6" x 6"
navigation flag that we often found tucked into the branches
of a bush. We followed Paul's precise navigation, keeping
time, checking elevation, watching our pace and scouring the
landscape for checkpoints throughout the night. The trick
here was to gather as many of the 18 checkpoints and return
to the finish line by 9:00 a.m. We knew we'd have to collect
them all to stay ahead of the clever and fast DART/Nuun who
we knew was not far behind.
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It was a true adventure, we ran out of water, flagged down passing
cars to refuel ourselves, jumped over a 2.5 ft. Mojave Green rattlesnake,
and narrowly avoided a truck that plunged off the road into a ravine
where we walked just 5 minutes later. We kept it all together and
the team of Paul, Karen and Ze pushed on to get all 18 points and
arrive at the finish line at 7:15 a.m. 26 hours and 15 minutes of
racing continuing our winning streak on the way to Scotland. A big
thanks to our support crew who made us the fastest team through
every transition area and kept us fueled and happy, thanks and Happy
Birthday Kele, thanks Izzy, John, and Billy. And thanks to Bernardo
working as the team photographer and thanks to Beto from Ensenada
for helping us pre and post race and taking some great photos too.
YOU GUYS ROCK!
For
more information and to track the team, check out www.teamsole.com
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Paul
Romero - Team Sole Adventure Racing |
Copyright © 2007-2008 Human Maximum Performance |
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