Two weeks after Nationals I was back on the trails.  I ran one of the toughest 50 milers in the country.  This was also my first 50 miler.  I also hadn’t ran an ultra in over 3 years.  I was shooting for a time under 9 hours which I new was doable but it wouldn’t be easy. I was able to get in a few long (2 hour) training runs and did as much elevation as possible.  Think over one 3-day stretch I did over 5000ft of elevation gain.  With over 9000 feet of elevation gain this was a big help.

We arrived Friday night to a huge pasta dinner.  Baker was crewing for us and arrived as well.  I actually also ran into Ronny from Odyssey at the prerace meeting.  This is definitely his stomping ground near Lynshcburg, VA.

We woke up Saturday morning at 3am to drive to the race start.  It was COLD!!! The first 8 miles or so were along the road and I ran in the front pack at a good pace.  This was the plan as I knew I would die eventually.  I wanted to have a good time on this fast section.  After that we went into the woods for good and began our climbing.  Felt real good for the first 20 miles and then got a bad stitch which slowed me down considerable.  At that point I dropped out of the Top 10.  I pushed through the stitch but started hitting a wall about halfway in, right as I got to the biggest climb.

About halfway up the climb I decided to take a 20 minute break.  BAD IDEA!  So I cramped up real bad and was barely able to continue.  Once I worked out (walked) the cramps I slowly picked up the pace.  While I was walking I was just trying to keep moving so that I would be able to finish the race under the time limit.  There was no way I was going to get running again.  Once I started jogging a little again my old roommate Dan joined me for about 7 miles of the course including probably the toughest section of single-track.  This helped me get motivated again and get back in the mode of running after being devastated from the idea of how far my mistake had set me back.

As I started running on my own I was getting closer and closer to the finish.  I started feeling better physically and mentally.  I was really moving again.  I also realized I still had a chance to reach my goal time of 9 hours.  This pushed me even harder.  I was moving as fast as I could all the time.   For the last 10 miles or so I would say I was running around 8 min miles again.  Granted, there was a fair amount of downhill on this section.

At the finish I was greeted by our support crew, including my girlfriend Katie (who has decided to do her first ultra in February), and the race directors.  As I crossed the finish line I felt great.  I was willing to run at least another 10 miles.  The blood was flowing in my legs and my muscles were pumping.  It was a great finish. Official results 28^th place in a time of 8:54:13.

I also learned after my finish that I was the Fastest Fatboy.  This is a division for people over 200 lbs.  The last 2 ultras I did I won this division as well.  I usually have to work up to race weight before weigh in and eat a big pre race meal but I make the cut.  I am sure I lose at least 10 lbs during the race

I look forward to racing this race again in the near future with goals of finishing Top 10 and shooting for 8 hours.  A feat accomplished by Baker a few years ago.

Lessons learned: Once you’ve been running fast for more than 2 hours don’t stop moving for more than what you need to grab food.  Walk and eat and then start running again when you can.  Even if you get really tired just walk as slow as you need to to rest up until you can run again.  50 miles is a long way.  Taking a few minutes to catch your breath and rest your legs so they can recover is not a bad thing.  It will actually help you in the long run.

-Brian

The team got together in Ohiopyle, PA on the weekend of October 9-11 for some media shots and to get to know our new sponsor SOG!!!

We also welcomed a new teammate, Toby Angove.  Toby returned not too long ago from finishing a tour overseas with the military.

Adventure World Magazine was also there as one of the team’s sponsors.  We got to talk with them about our team as well as our new partnership with SOG and why we are so glad to have them as a sponsor (isn’t it obvious).

We had a great time and had some great non-race bonding.  It is really nice to relax with the team and get to know each other better (even though I think spending 24 hours straight is some good bonding).

Above are pictures from the weekend.  These pictures are courtesy of Sarah Averill who was there to photograph the team.

It was now time for the end of the year finale, USARA National Championships.  The team had been racing and training together for the last 7 months.  The time had come to put eerything on the line.  The experience we gained from racing together, bonding as teammates, and learning from our mistake was now going to pay off.  In addition we were about to defend our 4 month reign at the top of the USARA Nationals rankings and try to be named the #1 ranked team in the country.

Not only was this a great culmination to our year but it was also the beginning of something new.  We are just getting to know our new sponsor and develop a supportive relationship but all our experiences had been great so far.  They are clearly an awesome company that is excited about the sport and wants to share their enthusiasm with others.  We are glad to help and thankful for the support.

Due to the team’s success during the year we were able to send two teams to Nationals with free entry.  Brian earned a free entry as a Collegiate National Champion and the team had earned a free entry by being the #1 ranked team heading into the race.  Brian, Jennie, and Baker would race as TeamSOG and hope to add to the lead as the #1 ranked team.  Kristen, Toby, and Brent Freedland (a free agent acquired from GOALSARA) would race as SOGKnives.com.  Here are some accounts from each team.

TeamSOG

Not only was our race full of challenges provided by the race directors but we also encountered our fair share of obstacles both on and off the course this weekend.  This race was about finding ways to continue on despite the setbacks and keep fighting.

Baker and I (Brian) arrived on Wednesday afternoon in the middle of a rainstorm.  After we landed we went to pick up the bikes.  Challenge #1: 5 bikes for six racers.  After some scuffling by the bike shop and a surprising dinner experience at an unknown restaurant, the bike was located.  It was now off to the store to gather our last minute food and supplies and then time to head to the race hotel.  The race was about 1 hour north of Dallas.  Dallas itself is very flat but we were told that up north were where the hills were.  There were a few small rollers but nothing like the mountains of GA last year.  As we drove into the “hills” we continued to be poured upon.  We even saw a car pull off the road into a “puddle”.  I use the word puddle loosely because the puddle engulfed the car so much that we could no longer see the headlights.  This was a good rain.  We proceeded to the hotel and went straight to bed after the long travel day.

In the morning hours I arose to go pick up Kristen and Toby from the airport and Baker was left to begin bike building.  After I returned we faced Challenges #2 & #3.  Baker’s brakes were leaking and Jennie’s hub was too loose to ride.  Since no other teams had the tools we needed and we were limited to what we could ship in our bike boxes Baker was forced to drive the hour back to the bike shop to get everything fixed.  This time I stayed and made sure we got checked in and registered.  Teams were funneling in fast in Thursday and the hotel was soon buzzing ready for a race.

After solving the bike issues and getting checked in a quick nap and a nice pasta dinner prepared us for the prerace meeting.  It was at the meeting that we were told that the rainstorm we arrived in was not just that day.  Over the past two weeks North TX has received 16” of its annual 34” in the prior two weeks.  Not only were the roads flooded but so were the lake and the course.  This meant major course changes were in effect.  We no longer had to drop our bikes but instead would be starting on them.  Not too much more information was given at the meeting as our maps would not be given to us until the morning.  This meant a little more sleep but would mean a crazy rush in the morning.

You may be wondering where our last two teammates were.  Well Brent was waiting for Jennie, at the airport, who had to buy a new plane ticket to get to TX and back home (that’s #4 for those still counting).  They arrived at our second hotel to spend the night with Toby and Kristen.  They would ride over in the morning.

Morning came and we spent the first two hours working with maps and determining what the course would entail.  The opening section would be 20+mile road ride on our MTB’s.  A LeMan’s start helped split up the group but peletons quickly formed to help battle the windy weather, which would later be a factor on the paddle as well.  We found ourselves in the second group of riders probably about a minute or so behind the leaders.  A speedy transition allowed us to be one of the first 10 teams to enter the water.  We chose not to use kayak paddles because it made traveling easier and would also make racing simpler not having to deal with them at all.  This helped our transition but did slow us at time on the paddle.  I will say that we were mostly able to hold our own against teams with kayak paddles.

There was a lot of wind on the water which had forced the course to be changed slightly we were had to enter 4 coves to gather 4 CP’s in any order.  We chose the same order many other teams did.  We also chose to portage a finger from one cove to another to eliminate some paddling.  This definitely paid off since we would be using only the canoe paddles.  After gathering all the CP’s we had to paddle back to our bikes.  This meant fighting the wind with little protection and not much power from the paddles.  We worked hard as a team and again held our ground against other teams.  We exited the water in 7^th place.

Another quick transition got us back on the bikes.  We were then approached with a route option.  We could take the trail or go the long way on the road.  The trail was much shorter and seemed pretty smooth so we took that.  The trail ended up being really muddy and probably took about as long as the road but just required more patience in the mud.  At the end of the trail we dropped our bikes again to complete the first O-course.  This course was a quick navigation test on the edge of the lake.  There were little terrain features to navigate by other than the deceiving lake (which was probably 10 feet above average and not really even marked on the map).  This was a different challenge for me as a navigator as I am used to the mountains.  Not only was the terrain different but we also encountered some new trees.  These trees, which I nicknamed pointy trees, were exactly that.  They consisted of branches with 3 inch thorns that would dig into your scalp, arms, legs, and gear as you tried to fight through the brush.  When I was unable to find the first two CP’s right away I skipped to the next two.  This allowed me to get my bearings and we were able to grab the other CP’s on our return to the bikes.  This did set us back but only about 15 minutes or so.

After returning to the bikes we had to again navigate the trail.  This seemed the simplest option as we had traveled that way already and knew we could get back in a reasonable amount of time.  This was Challenge #5!  As our bikes caked up with mud we heard a loud crack.  Baker looked down and realized his derailleur was hanging.  Further inspection showed a cracked derailleur hanger.  This was certainly a disappointment but after having this happen already this year we came prepared with spare “universal” derailleur hangers.  I use the word universal lightly.  It would soon be discovered that these “universal” hangers did not fit on Baker’s bike.  This was not a good situation.  Without being able to fix the bike we would not be able to finish the race.  As teams rode by we continued to see if anyone had any hangers but no luck.  Our only option was to make the hanger fit.

This required the use of probably the most important peace of equipment we carry.  Our SOG knife.  Baker pulled out his FATCAT, a beast of a knife, and began to whittle away at the aluminum hanger.  After about 45 minutes of work, and the substitution of a screw from the chainrings, we were able to make it fit.  We had now lost over an hour in the race.  We were well behind the leaders that we were once racing with.  A flat on the way out of the trail required further assistance.

We continued to keep our game faces on.  We made our way to the next O-course which was much more terrain friendly and allowed us to move much faster without having to fight any “pointy trees”.  We finished the course just as dark set in and got back on our bikes.  Some exhaustion was beginning to set in.  I hooked Jennie up to my tow line and we began to ride the 20 miles back to the TA.  We did have one detour to make on the way back to grab a CP.  This was a very strategically placed CP.  You could not ride the bikes to it so we had to drop them and trek the rest of the way.  Unfortunately, upon arrival to the CP I realized that as I transferred the maps from my bike I forgot to grab the passport.  This was another blow to the team morale but we knew we couldn’t slouch so we ran all the way back to the bikes to grab the passport and then all the way back to the CP to punch and then back to the bikes again.  We covered a good 4 miles in just over 30 minutes.  But that was another 30 minutes lost.  We gathered our things and headed to the TA for a much needed regroup.

After grabbing some pizza, filling our water, and changing some clothes we were ready to go again.  We shortly found ourselves again navigating the mud pits formed from the recent rains.  This again slowed us down as we did not want to encounter anymore problems with the bikes forcing us to drop out.  Upon arrival at the next CP we found out that two teams had already done the long out and back that we still had ahead of us.  They were hours ahead and were not far from the finish.  This was a tough truth to follow but we continued on knowing that there were still teams that we were competing against.  Because of our success early in the race we were on a short list of teams that had gathered all the points on the water.  This meant if we could finish the entire course we would at least be ranked ahead of all the teams who shorted the water CP’s.  This was enough motivation to get us going.

We continued to pass more teams on their return including SOGKnives.com who were still in great position and were looking strong.  The out and back provided some more long pulls on a widened bike poath and allowed us to put the hammer down and keep ourselves in the race.  It also called for us to occasionally drop the bikes and trudge in the mud in our bike shoes.  Something we were getting used to.  A few of the highlights of this section of the race included trick or treating for some candy from one of the volunteers, climbing a 200ft “mountain” and learning that we would not be obtaining one CP because it was currently underwater.

It was now time to make our way back.  Another long pull on the bikes brought us back to where we had seen the two first place teams on the way out.  This was the site of our 3^rd and final O-course (the 4^th O-course had to again be cut due to the fact that it was underwater).  The course though proved to be just as wet as we walked through waist deep water to find all 3 points.  It was now time for the homestretch where we would again encounter the mudpits.  This time was a different story.  We held nothing back.  This meant flying through the mud covering ourselves in slime and slamming the gears.  Both us and our bikes made our way through battered but still kicking.  And we found our way up to the finish line.

It felt great to come across the line.  We had been through a lot as a team and had battled some difficult obstacles but we were able to complete the entire course.  This was a great accomplishment.  We cleaned up and joined all the other teams at the awards banquet.  Results showed that we had finished 20^th.  We were about 2 hours behind a large group of teams that included SOGKnives.com (9^th overall).  It was disappointing to find out we could have been in the mix for a top 10 finish but at the same time we had other accomplishments we were very proud of.  Fighting the looming threat of having to DNF was certainly something many teams could not say they did.  And we could not have done it without our SOG Knives.  We also realize we are a new and young team, the second youngest at the race.  This means we have many races ahead of us.  Constant improvements will continue to put us into contention with the best teams in the country.  We made sure to spend time talking over what we did well and what we can improve upon.

We all traveled safely home and are looking forward to another great season next year.  Nationals will be in our backyard in good ‘ole PA.  We plan to take advantage of our home field and bring home a National title.

SOGKnives.com

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 ran this race with his NoCrutch system.

Congrats, and way to fight the injury.  Show it you can do what you want.

-Brian

Recently back from his adventure organizing PQ out west and making sure everybody else is challenged and having fun Chris was able to have a little fun of his own.

Here is his recap of his adventures in the Shenandoah mountains of Virginia in one of epic trail rides, ON A TANDEM!

ODE TO MY TEAMMATE

Behind every succesful man is a great and powerful woman -

Truer words than these have never been spoken after Kristin Eddy and I completed the Shenandoah Mountain 100 race on my Tandem.

The SM 100 is a 100 mile MTB race that is known for being one of the hardest races in the East. We did the race on my vintage 1989 Cannondale Mountain Tandem (all original except a V brake upgrade and rear wheel due to over heated and cracked rim) so yes there are 20 year old chains and bearings on this beast. We threw the timing chain several times early on and broke it eventually but a great guy gave us 6 links to make the repair.

Even though we have very different riding styles, Kristin likes20a cadence of 30 – I like 90. she likes to go slow down hills – I like to fly, she likes to power up every inch of every hill – I like to walk up some of them. So some compromises needed to be made – Did I mention I had complete control of the shifters and brakes . . .guess how the negotiations went . . . they all ended in “yes mama” as I would shift or apply the brakes.

We raced for 13 hrs, during this time you’d think we’d have time to talk about lifes big questions . . . did I mention we are polar opposite in every major topic of conversation so out go the topics of politics, religion, crime and punishment . . .

Besides I was out of breath most of the time pushing the big gears Kristin “negotiated” with me – I am still hearing her devilish voice yelling “GEAR ME NOW”.

I have raced this course a handful of times in the past and done 100s of bike races but this was certainly the best one to date. It will be a memory I will cherish for years to come.

Did I mention this was only the 2nd time we have rode the Tandem together and the very first time riding it off road.

Cheers,

Chris Caul

Race Results from PQ are finalized.  Team SCAAR with JD and Suzi finished in 11th place, just outside of the Top 10.  It sounds like they had a great but tough time.  they finished in just under 10 days using almost the entire time allotted to them.

The team was featured in one of the race updates when they aided another east coast/Ireland team allowing them to use their maps.  In turn, Endurox/R4 helped SCAAR finish the leg after a broken derailleur.  All said and done Endurox/R4 was able to finish in 9th place overall, no doubt due to some help from SCAAR.  Check out the feature here:

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2009/08/17/day-3-recap/

You can see the rest of the results and news on the PQ website:

http://race.findmespot.com/spot-racing-ui/pqleaderboard.jsp

Congratulations also to Chris for putting on a great race.  Seems like everyone had a great time and was both challenged and able to enjoy the great South Dakota terrain.

We welcome him back to the East Coast and will enjoy having him back to race with again.

Stay tuned as I will try and get some more updates from the team.

-Brian

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!!!

Baker, Brian, and Jennie ventured to the Hamburg, PA for this up and down sprint race.  Unfortunately they did not have any beef patties of goodness but we had an awesome time at this race.  We arrived at about 11pm on Friday night.  Marc from GOALS asked us if we ever showed up to races at a reasonable time.  We proceeded to get our maps and updates on the course.  Bill told us he expected a winning time of about 9 hours.  After spending some time planning the course putting our gear together and setting up the tent we laid down for a couple hours to get some sleep.

An early morning wake up and some more preparation got us ready for the start of the race.  Conditions looked good.  We pounded out a prologue and completed the obstacle course before climbing a mountain to get two CP’s.  After returning to the camp and rappelling we headed out on the bikes.  This meant another climb (1000ft).  Athough as Baker would say “The best part about going up is coming back down.”  As we transitioned to canoes we now had a considerable lead on the pack.

The river was fairly shallow requiring us to get out and drag the boat on occasion.  This apparently better than last year when they dragged the boat and occassionally got in to paddle.  We tried using a third seat I bought for the canoe but had some issues with this.  After the paddle we had a short climb on the bikes to a few O-points.  This was the first of our troubles.  The clue for one of the points stated that it was 200m from trailhead.  So we traveled to the nearest road and looked for the trailhead.  Unfortunately the trailhead was located on another road which was questionably within 200m from the point and the UTM coordinates.  Either way after some searching we found the point.  At this point we saw that many teams had begun to catch up as they saw us come out of the woods from the CP and gave them a huge advantage.  So we ran back to the bikes and started going.

We now had to climb over 1300ft to a firetower.  Again we had a few issues finding the road crossing but were able to begin the sun soaked climb.  We got to the top and found some great volunteers offering greatly appreciated H20.  Now came the fun part, the down.  Unfortunately we had to grab 3 CP’s on the way down so we had to take it easy.  For one of the points we chose to leave the bikes and hike to it.  I accidentally forgot the map on my bike.  Baker and I thought we remembered the clue so we decided to search for it anyway.  After some dismay we had to hike back to the bikes and then back to the CP.  On the final return to the bikes we passed ARMD who we thought might be catching up with the mistakes we had been making.

We knew we only had 2 more CP’s and 1 more 1000ft climb so we had to take off.  Jennie and I were having trouble climbing due to lack of training on the bike so we really had to work together to get over the last mountain, finishing in just under 8 hours.  We were able to hold onto the lead winning by 20 minutes, putting 15 minuted on ARMD over the last mountain.

It was a quick and fast race but we learned a lot making a lot of small mistakes and using some new gear.  I also got to test my new Suunto Core which worked well.  upon return we were quick to grab some cold soda as the heat of the day had set in on the last two climbs.

A quick cleanup, some showers, food, more soda and awards closed out the race.  This was the second straight win for Nature Cure at the KG.  We look forward to returning next year to go for the 3-peat.

Baker, Brian, and Jennie ventured to the Hamburg, PA for this up and down sprint race.  Unfortunately they did not have any beef patties of goodness but we had an awesome time at this race.  We arrived at about 11pm on Friday night.  Marc from GOALS asked us if we ever showed up to races at a reasonable time.  We proceeded to get our maps and updates on the course.  Bill told us he expected a winning time of about 9 hours.  After spending some time planning the course putting our gear together and setting up the tent we laid down for a couple hours to get some sleep.

An early morning wake up and some more preparation got us ready for the start of the race.  Conditions looked good.  We pounded out a prologue and completed the obstacle course before climbing a mountain to get two CP’s.  After returning to the camp and rappelling we headed out on the bikes.  This meant another climb (1000ft).  Athough as Baker would say “The best part about going up is coming back down.”  As we transitioned to canoes we now had a considerable lead on the pack.

The river was fairly shallow requiring us to get out and drag the boat on occasion.  This apparently better than last year when they dragged the boat and occassionally got in to paddle.  We tried using a third seat I bought for the canoe but had some issues with this.  After the paddle we had a short climb on the bikes to a few O-points.  This was the first of our troubles.  The clue for one of the points stated that it was 200m from trailhead.  So we traveled to the nearest road and looked for the trailhead.  Unfortunately the trailhead was located on another road which was questionably within 200m from the point and the UTM coordinates.  Either way after some searching we found the point.  At this point we saw that many teams had begun to catch up as they saw us come out of the woods from the CP and gave them a huge advantage.  So we ran back to the bikes and started going.

We now had to climb over 1300ft to a firetower.  Again we had a few issues finding the road crossing but were able to begin the sun soaked climb.  We got to the top and found some great volunteers offering greatly appreciated H20.  Now came the fun part, the down.  Unfortunately we had to grab 3 CP’s on the way down so we had to take it easy.  For one of the points we chose to leave the bikes and hike to it.  I accidentally forgot the map on my bike.  Baker and I thought we remembered the clue so we decided to search for it anyway.  After some dismay we had to hike back to the bikes and then back to the CP.  On the final return to the bikes we passed ARMD who we thought might be catching up with the mistakes we had been making.

We knew we only had 2 more CP’s and 1 more 1000ft climb so we had to take off.  Jennie and I were having trouble climbing due to lack of training on the bike so we really had to work together to get over the last mountain, finishing in just under 8 hours.  We were able to hold onto the lead winning by 20 minutes, putting 15 minuted on ARMD over the last mountain.

It was a quick and fast race but we learned a lot making a lot of small mistakes and using some new gear.  I also got to test my new Suunto Core which worked well.  upon return we were quick to grab some cold soda as the heat of the day had set in on the last two climbs.

A quick cleanup, some showers, food, more soda and awards closed out the race.  This was the second straight win for Nature Cure at the KG.  We look forward to returning next year to go for the 3-peat.