Steep, Technical and Fast: Miracle Mile near Eugene, Oregon

With only one week left in the Eddyflower Total Vertical Challenge, Susan continues to push to keep her top 10 position. In addition to reaching more than 20,000 vertical feet of challengeing Class III-V whitewater throughout the Pacific Northwest, this TeamSOG member has also managed to raise over $700 for First Descents.

Check out the Standings throughout the next few days to see how she finishes out!  Don’t forget to show your support and make a tax-deductible contribution to her team as well!

Members of TeamSOG traveled over the mountains and through the woods to get to Ohiopyle, PA this past weekend to come together as a team and get psyched for the upcoming season.

Of course, you can’t expect a group of athletes to come together to just talk about things like adventure racing, kayaking, climbing, running and playing outdoors. One of the greatest parts of being a member of such a diverse team is enjoying multiple sports throughout the day.

Team members rolled into town on Friday to find chilly weather around the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle.  No matter though.  TeamSOG finds ways to enjoy any type of weather.  Julie and Jennie ventured into the woods with Doug’s American Adventure Sports mountain biking clinic.  No doubt the girls were able to provide helpful insights into biking techniques for the clients, as well as serve as an obvious inspiration for the future adventure racers.  Susan grabbed her kayak and hit the loop section of the Yough with some old friends, enjoying familiar waves, eddies and rock slides

We woke to beautiful blue skies and a warm sun rising on Saturday, a true sign of a day packed with adventure.

Saturday morning the ladies headed out for a morning run before Team Media festivities began.  Julie, Jenny, Susan, Alisa and Ellen traversed the Great Gorge and Beech Trails through the Ohiopyle State Park.  Susan led the girls on these two trails, some of her personal favorites from days of living and guiding in this small river town.

The entire group then came together for an intense Yoga class with Katie.  Moving through sun salutations, balance and strengthening poses, the group gave some much needed oxygen to their muscles while sweating out toxins (most of which were received at the pub the night before).  Katie provided a challenging class while also reminding us about the key element of mental awareness we need for our races.  Thanks Katie!

Then the cameras arrived!

We all suited up in our awesome TeamSOG apparel, gathered our gear and had a great photo shoot by the truck and trailer.  Sitting in the back of that truck and smiling at the camera, I couldn’t help think about how amazing it was to be around such an amazing group of athletes.  Our diverse backgrounds all seem to overlap somehow, providing supportive connections for the participation in every sport.

The afternoon was spent maneuvering through the currents of the Youghiogheny River.  Susan, Julie and Doug provided key safety information for the AAS participants, as well as valuable information about paddling techniques.  The river gave us plenty of opportunities to practice paddling, as well as bask under the warm sunlight, breathe fresh air and smile with gratitude for the opportunity to be a member of TeamSOG.

With still several hours of daylight remaining, Brian and Maggie grabbed their bikes and headed out to the trails.  No reason to waste such precious sunlight!

That night our sponsors, SOG Knives & Specialty Tools, topped off the evening with food and drinks at the local Pub…a proper celebration for such an awesome day.  Busy times at the pub even forced Susan to relive her days as a server and serve the whole group as well as some other diners.  She was an excellent Waitress!

Sunday the group headed back out into the woods for work with ropes.  Doug again gave the Academy group some necessary instruction on safety and general rules around ropes and climbing while the team setup two rappels and a climb.  JD, Doug, and Brian led the rappels getting some academy participants over their fears and allowing others to build up valuable experience.

Next the group split between ascending and climbing.  Our expert climber Maggie led the climbing instruction teaching essential climbing knots as well as belaying and climbing techniques.  This also allowed for some climbing practice on the crag.  Back on the rappel lines Doug was teaching the very unique skill of ascending.  This is not typically a skill that most people learn but these lucky adventure racers got to learn from some of the best as Doug spent years in the military as a paratrooper and teaching rope work.

While out in the beautiful weather and scenery the team was also able to shoot some more video footage to help express what TeamSOG is all about, our Mission Statement.

After another successful day Doug wrapped the weekend up, we took some pictures, and everyone said there goodbyes and grabbed one last bite to eat in the park before heading out in our seperate ways.

These are some of the best weekends and we are lucky to have a sponsor that supports us and Doug who is able to bring us all together to share some great experiences in one of the greatest outdoor adventure areas in the region.  We are all looking forward to a great competition season, already underway.  Thanks again to our awesome sponsor, SOG Knives; our team manager Doug and everyone else who came out to make the weekend such a success.

Keep an eye out for TeamSOG this season!

Race Start Photo: Adam Elliott

I’ve always liked biking and running, but when combined with winding, technical trails and a kayak race I found that I LOVED biking and running.

Finishing the Mountain Bike Leg and Crossing the Finish Line Photo: Adam Elliott

Keeping up with the Boys Photo: Adam Elliott

Last Sunday was my first race that involved more than just kayaking.  Clemson’s Off-Road Endurance Triathlon was made up of a 5 mile trail run, a 4 mile kayak and a 10+ mile mountain bike ride.  Starting off on the run, full of adrenaline, I immediately pulled ahead.  I knew that if I could keep up with the top runners and pull ahead in the kayak, I might be able to hold my place through the bike leg.

The end of the 5 mile run is where things started to get really fun.  The course fed us through Clemson’s downhill biking course, giving us hills and a rad luge course that had me shouting and wahoo-ing my way toward the kayak leg.

Catching up to JP, a fellow Wildwater Kayak racer of mine, I knew that I was nearing the top of the Endurance crew.

This might have been the only moment I wasn't smiling. So serious! Photo: Adam Elliott

Well, pretty obvious to say that if you throw me in a kayak, my spirits and enthusiasm will skyrocket.  No difference here.

Flying past the other racers in their slow, plastic kayaks, I set my sights on the other boys in fiberglass boats and pushed ahead.  The four of us pulled into the transition station one after another, making us the top 4 in the Endurance class.

As we geared up for the mountain bike leg, I knew that I needed to maintain high speeds whenever I could.  The biking course was by far the MOST TECHNICAL and LONGEST mountain bike ride I’ve ever done.  I knew this going into the race, having had to borrow a friend’s bike and only riding it once before the race.  I was, sadly, passed by some of the guys, but held my position as the first female.  At least I know what I need to work on.

Despite being difficult, the bike was super fun.  Flying through the woods, making sharp turns and avoiding steep embankments into the lake kept me on my toes.

The Wildwater Racers taking on a Triathlon...and Winning. Photo: Adam Elliott

Crossing the finish line was great and celebrating our wins was even better.  JP won the Endurance class overall and I took home the Women’s Division 1st place medal.  I even took second for my age group in the Sprint division, despite having doing the longer endurance course.  Ben and Steven, the other races pictured above, each won for their respective age classes.

Looking forward to more multi-sport races in the future!  (After I work on my Mnt. biking skills a bit of course!)

Way too much fun. Photo: Adam Elliott

Thanks to Adam Elliott and his amazing camera skills, driving me to the race and helping with transitions.  Couldn’t ask for a better crew on my side!

TeamSOG training in the southeast on the Nantahala River

How often do you get to genuinely feel like a true beginner again, after practicing a sport for nearly a decade? Almost never.

You can fake it, like letting a 6 year old catch you in a game of tag, or…

You can fudge it, like using only one arm to shoot hoops.

But rarely do you get to feel the excitement and anticipation of square one again.

If you have been kayaking for as long as I have try sitting in a wildwater boat and you’ll know exactly what I mean.  Throw everything you know about the forward stroke, torso rotation and edge control out with the trash.  Get the slate as blank as possible, you’re going to need it.

Perhaps this doesn’t sound like a very good idea?  You spend years developing skills and techniques and reach a fairly advanced level within a sport.  Why would you want to throw it all out the window.

To get better.

It also makes class III really REALLY exciting again.

The boat is going to teach me a lot about kayaking that I might have assumed I already knew. Just trying to get a proper forward stroke is sometimes too much for me to think about. I find myself returning to taking it in pieces, just like how I recommend my students approach learning to paddle.

I continue to struggle finding a sufficient level of comfort in the boat so that I’m not just using correctional strokes the whole way down. A little padding here, a new seat from the Czech Republic and many, many more days on the water should help out a lot. I can only imagine what this is going to feel like when I have my ducks in a row and can work on paddling as hard as I possibly can.

My sister did comment that the boat looked like a torpedo. I answered “that’s because it is.”

Toby just flew down to GA for Army Ranger Training.  Basically a 60 day long adventure race extreme.  We’re hoping to get him back safe and sound at the end of April and get him back in shape to start racing again ASAP.

Two pieces of news.  First, it was anounced on September 26th that the team has will have a new title sponsor, SOG Specialty Knives.  The team will be racing under the name TeamSOG.  Sog makes specialty knives for the adventurers, military, police, fishermen, hunters, and anyone else just looking for performance and quality in a well made knife.

Check out their website and their products here:

http://sogknives.com/store/index.html

The team is excited about this new partnership as well as a few other new sponsors that have joined.  The team will be getting together this weekend to learn more about the company and their plan to promote and become a part of adventure racing.  It will also allow us to start learning how we can help SOG and promote their brand and their products.  I am just excited to use one of these crazy knives.  This will also be a great time for the team to bond and train together.

The other great news is that the first race as TeamSOG we came out on top. TeamSOG took first place at the Blackbeard Adventure Race put on by American Adventure Sports.  There were some crazy winds out on the coast but the team pushed through for a solid win.  This was the last race for the team before Nationals.  The team will now focus on that and look to solidify their place as one of the best team’s in the country.

Keep your eyes open for more info about SOG and the training weekend.

JD and Suzi are currently racing in Primal Quest 2009 out in South Dakota.  Primal Quest is advertised as “The World’s Most Chellenging Human Endurance Competition.”  It is a600 mile 10 day race with over 120,000 ft of elevation gain and loss.  They are racing under the team name SCAAR.  You can track their progress using the SPOT trackers they are carrying by going to the Primal Quest website.

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/

Cheer them on!!!

We had an awesome weekend in middle of June with a solo win from Suzi and a win at the 2-day inaugural Equinox Traverse, put on by our very own Chris Caul.  The race was a super success and all the teams were competitive.  I was able to watch a lot of the race from a volunteers point of view.  Something much different for me but it was nice to be able to cheer our team and others every time I saw them.

Getting to the point of the post, it is to recognize that after the results of Equinox Traverse were posted Nature Cure was the #1 ranked Adventure Race Team in the country by USARA!!!

http://www.usara.com/current_rankings.aspx

It was a season goal of the team to be in the Top 5 for both the USARA and CPTracker rankings (currently 4th).  This accomplishment does not go unnoticed and the team is very proud to represent ourselves and our sponsors in such a strong manner.

We plan to continue to race hard and fair to hold onto our #1 ranking.  We’ll keep you posted.

-Brian

It’s been about a month since the last update.  The team has been busy racing and we have some great race reports and awesome news coming in the next couple days.  Stay Tuned.

Team Nature Cure did have to withdraw from the Longest Day & Night.  We were unable to find an available female to race with the team as all our usual racers were unavailable/injured.

Brian

A couple updates.  The team will be mixing up the schedule a little.  Kristen will not be doing the Longest Day because of an IT injury.  She should be fine but needs to give her need a little rest.  Baker and JD are looking to find another female that will keep us eligible for the premier division.

Another note is that JD, Suzy-Q, and I will be racing the Cradle of Liberty 24 hour race in 4 weeks.  This race is put on by GOALS and should be a fun and challenging race.  We hope to represent Team Nature Cure well with a strong finish.

-Brian