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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 |
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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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Intense bikes from sinking to the bottom of
the Colorado River. |
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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.
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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.
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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Ahhh
Sweet Success,
the bikes back on Terra Firma |
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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 |
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Human Sports Performance®
Athletic Director
Gary Wise
Cover
of this months
"On the Coast" Magazine
Gary
Wise
South Walton Fire District,
Beach Safety Director,
USLA
Southeast Region,
Treasurer / Certification Officer / Panhandle Representative
USLA Emerald Coast Chapter,
President
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