I have known about this race for the last 2 years. Two years ago our friend Michael Stratton, the one who got Baker, Jennie and I into AR, won this race. Last year a Towson graduate who I have raced against won this race. The race is only about a 2 hour race and doesn’t even require maps. I always thought it seemed like a lot of trouble to travel across the country for such a small race. Last year I heard that the winners received a ton of gear and sponsorships galore so I thought it might actually be worth it. Baker had urged me to do the race with a friend of his who actually lived in TX. When I met Jen Perez last fall at Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals I decided that this was definitely doable. The race would also end up being a chance for me to check out TX for 24-hour Nationals in October.

Jen lives in Austin which is only 1 hour away from the race course and she was only 15 min from the airport. She arranged for me to borrow a bike from Jack and Adam’s bike shop in Austin, her sponsor shop. These guys hooked me up with a super light bike with great components and they found one that was actually big enough for me. Jen is a triathlete that does a lot of Xterra’s and off-road races. I told her this race was right up her alley. Baker and I actually tried to get her to race with us at 24-hour Nationals last year but she wasn’t available. She is also a sponsored athlete (EAS, Maxxis, BMC, Polar, Profile Design, and more). You may have even seen her EAS commercial with Matt Hasselbeck and Chace Utley on TV.

Preparing for the race I told Jen to be ready for anything as this was a little different than a triathlon and would not be cut and dry. I also told her that we had the potential to win the race and we were both determined to do so.

Wednesday night before the race I actually had friend through hiking the AT staying at my place and my friends and I were having our annual Tour de Franzia party where we ride around town and drink boxed wine. On Thursday I flew to Austin and Jen picked me up from the airport. She took me to the huge park right in the middle of Austin and we then grabbed some real Mexican food. The next day we drove out to the course. This gave me a chance to test ride the bike and we also got to see the course. There were a couple other racers there including a team from Miami. The start/finish was at these really cool summer camp with trampolines, ziplines, and stuff. We rode the bike course to the paddle put-in and actually got a chance to try out the boats which was a huge advantage. This was clearly something you could have screwed up had you not used the right boat set-up. I saw many boats off balance, weaving, and spinning. While out I managed to obtain a nice bib outlined sunburn on my back. I am definitely not used to the hot TX sun.

When we returned to the car we heard that the Miami girl had actually broken her arm pre-riding the course. This was real unfortunate as they were expected to be good competition. We headed home to put all our race stuff together. We were able to work it out were Jen didn’t have to carry anything but the bottles on her bike and I would carry her shoes and some extra water. We woke up early Saturday morning to drive back out to the race and were ready to go. The weather was cool and there was a nice cloud cover. We got to the starting line and ran the .5 mile prologue in our bike shoes so that we could zip through the transition area. This was a great decision. We were in the lead group on the bike and the paddle and pulled away from everyone on the run. After the entire lead group recovered from being pointed in the wrong direction on the run we made it back to the boats and across the lake ahead of all the other teams.

Jen was starting to hurt at the beginning of the bike and the two teams right behind us passed us. They were both iMOAT (1 coed, 1 all-male). This team won the 24-hour National Championship a few years ago. I ended up pulling Jen up part of the climb back to the finish which tired me out as well and when we made it back we were instructed to get into the water. Jen burst into swimming mode and took off around the small pool. I struggled to keep up and when we got out we crossed the finish line together in 1 hour and 59 minutes. We had finished 3^rd overall, 2^nd Co-ed, and 1^st collegiate. We had essentially also received 2^nd place at Sprint Nationals not even considering we were in the collegiate division. We hung around for awards and got tons of prizes, free entry into 24-hour Nationals, and a $3000 sponsorship from AIX along with Merrell, Suunto, and Native. We drove home and grabbed some Whataburgers on the way, wow What A Burger! On Sunday Jen took me to a sweet climbing area that was right on a lake where we could also do some cliff diving.

Overall I had a blast in Austin, at the race, and hanging out with Jen. There was a ton of stuff to do there and Austin is a great and “weird”, as they call it, city. The trip was well worth it, my first national championship, and I can’t wait to go back next year…we’ll see.

Link to Jen Perez’s blog, race review, and pictures (be sure to check out the rest of the site as well):

http://www.jen-perez.org/blog/

Hey guys, its Brian again. This recap starts about a week before the race. Baker and I got an email from Doug wondering if either of us was interested in filling in for him at EFIX as he had a lot of work to still do on the Veteran’s Challenge. Baker had completed the race last year fighting sleep deprivation problems. I volunteered last year and was hoping to maybe get in a 2-day race before jumping to a 3.5-day. I ended up taking Doug’s spot since the race was so close to me and I already had a couple days off from school. Unfortunately it was the anniversary of the horrible shootings that had taken place only two years prior. The school is still recovering. Anyhow Chris, J.D., Suzi, and I buckled down to prepare for the race. I was a little worried about how such a long race would affect me but I knew I had an AMAZING team with a lot of experience and they assured me that I would do fine. I would not only be a Greenhorn I was also the kid in the group. They didn’t let me forget either of these.

The race started in beautiful Pipestem State Park and Resort in WV. Chris and I showed up early on Wednesday to check-in and get the maps. We received 2 huge (1:35000, odd scale) maps and 2 smaller (1:75000 and 1:24000) maps. J.D. showed up not too long after and we spent the rest of the night preparing our gear and going over the maps. We felt confident and happy with all the work we had gotten done but were only able to bank 1-2 hours of sleep before waking up for the early morning start. Chris was able to test out his newly purchased RV.

The race started with a 50 mile bike south to VA. We took an early lead but soon lost it after we missed a turn and took a scenic tour of Eggleston, VA. This ended up being crucial as the next leg was a rappel and acted as a bottleneck of the race. We ended up having to wait about an hour to get on the ropes. Once we got down the ropes though we packed up our canoes with our bikes and then headed down the New River from Pembroke, VA for a 30 mile paddle. This ended up being challenging trying to get through some of the larger rapids with the bikes in the boat. We chose not to portage the largest rapids and ended up flipping our boats. The water was cold enough to almost send Suzi and Chris into hypothermia so we took about an hour or so to warm up by the fire immediately following the rapids.

We then got back on the water and ended up having to paddle into the night. Scouting rapids became much more difficult with almost no visibility. We were able to stay out of any real trouble and actually had to help another team (Team Angelman’s Syndrome Awareness, a great cause) get a fire started after they flipped in one of the smaller rapids in the dark. One advantage to the dark was we were able to navigate with the North Star, something new for me. We were able to make it to the next CP/TA. The combination of some mistakes, a bottleneck, and night paddling managed to push us back to the middle of the race and we had a lot of ground to make up. One awesome thing was one of the teams had 4 extra McDonald’s hamburgers that they gave us. We were very gracious. We realized it was a long race and decided to bank some sleep early in the race and warm up. After about 2-3 hours of rest we put together our bikes and left on our “Covered Bridge Tour” which was 80 miles long and consisted of over 21,000 feet of elevation change. This certainly proved to be a lot of climbing as we crossed about 4-1000ft+ ridges and finished with a climb up Mountain Lake. This is a 7 mile climb I know well and actually used to be a part of the Tour du Pont. This trek took a toll on J.D. and his rear. He was still pumping up the mountain at the end and we were able to make it. I think it might have been the 5-hour energy I gave him. When he got to the top he said he was shaking the entire climb. Maybe we’ll try to stay away from them next time. Katie, my girlfriend, was also able to meet us at the bottom of the last climb, since it was only about 15 minutes away from Blacksburg, VA, my hometown. She was able to offer some encouragement but unfortunately that was all since the race was completely unsupported.

At the top we switched to trekking mode and headed out for a 25 mile night adventure. We started the trek and had some friendly conversation with Team Yogaslackers and then decided to separate a little to work on finding the first CP. J.D. did some excellent pace counting to get us right on target. Yogaslackers missed the CP and we were able to pull away a little. We had to take a few naps again to keep our bodies functioning. I learned that body maintenance is such a key part of Multi-day races. We ended up linking back up with Yogaslackers in the middle of the night and finished the trek with them. They were having some troubles with Matt Bullington getting a fever and Sara having some problems with her wrist. She ended up dropping out of the race after the trek but Matt decided to keep on going and finish with the team unofficially. One day after all our mistakes we ended up passing several teams and regaining a good race position due to attrition and our strong pace. Banking sleep was a great way to prepare for the rest of the race.

We then saddled up again and headed down the steep backside of Mountain Lake (only a 3 mile descent) into the town of Pembroke. We stopped to grab lunch in town and then headed off to the next CP/TA. From this TA we had another 17 mile trek which we decided to run as much as we could. I had just found several blisters on my feet and realized popping them was the best course of action. My sock choice was poor and is something I have to fix. Shortly into our run we passed Berlin Bike putting us back into 4^th place in the premier division. I made a small nav error but other than that our time for this section was one of the fastest. When we returned to our bikes we had already missed the cutoff for the other trek loop which assured that 4^th place was the highest we could finish in the premier division. Either way we had to head back ASAP in order to make the finish cutoff which had just been extended 4 hours.

On our way back to the canoes we stopped at a gas station to fill up on water and a lady pulled up in a car. She asked if we were lost, we weren’t, and then offered to bring us food. To our surprise she returned 20 min later with turkey casserole, biscuits, eggs and apple sauce. This was an amazing treat and gave us enough energy to get through most of the night without a nap. Upon returning to the canoes we chowed down again with the food that was in our transition boxes and all took short naps. We also had to again load the canoes and plot the orienteering points to see if we could gather any on our way to the finish.

As teams began to arrive behind us we hurried to get on our way. We were able to find 2 O-points and then dropped off the canoes for our final sprint (~12 miles) to the finish line. We saw that one team was slightly ahead of us so we sprinted through transition and started the trek running. After realizing the other team had not gathered any O-points we decided to ease up a little and just keep a fast walk up the mountain to the finish.

We finished officially in exactly 80 hours and collected 2 orienteering points. We placed 5^th overall and 4^th in the coed division. The best we could do after missing the cutoff. Had we not had trouble early on we may have been able to make the cutoff and challenged the teams ahead of us.

I think we all had a blast and I can say that this race was something I definitely enjoyed. The race was super tough with as much climbing as you could possibly imagine (~80,000 ft total elevation change). The weather was beautiful. The only rain we saw was for a few minutes on the last day which was somewhat refreshing. Everyone got somewhere between 6-8 hours of sleep including the night before the race. That’s less than 2 hours of sleep/night for 4 nights. The team did well and aside from a few small mistakes we were able to keep up a great pace and take care of ourselves by staying ahead of the curve.

After grabbing some food and sorting through gear we all headed home for some well-deserved sleep.

Check here for results: http://www.checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.showDashboard&eventID=157

-Brian

http://www.checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.showDashboard&eventID=157

111 – Nature Cure – A Big THANK YOU to Nature Cure

posted Sun Apr 19 @ 5:12 PM

Team #52 stopped by HQ and told us that Nature Cure deserves a big shout out!  When 52 capsized in the dark Thursday night, they were very wet and cold on the bank, trying desperately to start a fire.  They were so cold that they couldn’t function and Nature Cure pulled over to help them out.  They started a fire, made sure it stayed lit, and made sure the guys would be A-OKAY.  A big thanks, and great sportsmanship, Nature Cure!

Hey all, Brian here. The team kicked the season off with an Adventure Race Academy in Ohiopyle, PA. This has become sort of a home base for the team. It is the home of all our Academies and several of American Adventure Sports Races. The town is a great little town. There are maybe a 100 or so full-time residents and the town is driven on tourism as it is at the center of Ohiopyle State Park.

Doug started the weekend off with the students on Thursday night and Friday. They got in some riding up to the fire tower and had a wet and rainy trip back down the mountain to the hotel. Baker, Brian, and J.D. showed up on Friday night and caught up with all the team news.

This year’s team goals are to get Top 5 in both the USARA rankings and Checkpoint Tracker Series. Doug is working hard to promote the Veterans’ Challenge. This is to bring attention and support to the Wounded Warriors and Doug is working with a lot of people to make this event a success. Check out the website: http://www.vetchallenge.com/

On Saturday morning Maggie Hamill the team’s female climber showed up as well as Kristen Dieffenbach. Baker and I started Saturday off with a training run. We ran under some waterfalls and through some freezing cold rivers. We came back soaked and cold. Everyone then headed over to Yoga class across the street. Many of the racers and students found themselves sore the next day.

After Yoga everyone headed to the river for some paddling practice on the Casselman River. Doug started the lesson off with some safety lessons and tips. After some guidance on how to paddle down the river we jumped into the boats. We had some one person and two person kayaks and we tried to get everyone to try a couple. The water was nice but cold. When everyone got back everyone either headed out for a run or bike ride before the dark settled in.

Everyone then caught some grub at the bar across the river. This was a great chance for the racers to bond as well as talk with the students and talk to them about our experience and give them some advice and share our knowledge with them. I really think this is the best part of the academy and can’t be replaced.

Sunday morning started with another run for Baker and I. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people in Ohiopyle. I would say the population easily tripled, probably more. Parking lots were full. We then all headed up to the rocks where the he Academy students got a chance to learn and hone their climbing, rappelling, and ascending skills. Maggie was a great resource here as this is her area of expertise. They also learned a lot about safety. One key thing I have learned in Adventure Racing is safety and risk evaluation is uber-important!!! This becomes harder and harder the farther into a race you get and the more sleep deprived you are. It is important to always keep these things in mind.

While we were on the rocks and “Duck” was able to get interviews to post on the team website. They are now up so check them out: http://www.americanadventuresports.com/aasraceteam.htm

That was pretty much it. We wrapped everything up in the parking lot and we all headed home from there. It was another successful academy and training weekend.

-Brian

EFIX: April 16-19 / Chris, JD, Suzi & Brian

Yough Xtreme: April 25 / Baker, Jenny, KD

Atomic AR: May 16 / JD, KD, Doug

Longest Day: June 6-7 / KD, Baker, JD

Equinox Traverse: June 12-14 / Jenny, JD, Brian

KG Memorial: Aug. 1 / Jenny, Baker, Brian

LIONHEART: Aug. 7-8 / KD, JD, Baker

SHAG: Sept. 26 / JD, KD, Brian

Black Beard: Sept. 26 / Jenny, Baker, Chris?

USARA Nationals: Oct 23-24/ Hopefully 2 teams TBD

Hey all,

Welcome to the Nature Cure Team Blog. My name is Brian. I’m on the Adventure Racing team. I am the one putting together this whole blog thing. We all have busy lives but thought it would be important to have a place for the whole team to update you on the team’s whereabouts, results, stories, and just tell you about anything we want to share in our lives.

We are going to try and all add some updates as the year goes on that way we get input from everybody. I would like to thank Nature Cure, American Adventure Sports, and Doug. Together they put on some great events and also allow us to spread the word about their companies and have a blast at the same time.

The first couple blogs are going to just catch you up on the team so far this year. It has been a busy year and a lot has already gone on so here we go.