The G-Rant : Grant's Rants on Adventure Racing

December 2006 - Posts

• The start of the Die Tan epic

  Dave Burden, the President of Southeast Expeditions (our partners on the Storm), is doing a cross-country trip this Winter; he'll catalog his trip online at Die Tan .net (www.DieTan.net).  He's also got some initial photos over at http://photos.DieTan.net.  Dave has a few early entries, so I'll just link to his "The Journey Begins" post; if you know Dave at all you'll laugh a lot, if you don't know Dave you'll certainly start to crack his hard candy exterior. Dave told me a few weeks ago: "Grant, my Jeep spoke to me in a dream and asked to be released from the captivity of my kayak store."  I said something typical like, "Right Dave.  We should really go get those O-Flags on Mockhorn Island some time" but Dave didn't hear me . . . he had a far off look in his eye.  Dave lives on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 'nuff said. Dave is always up to something off-beat (I know some of his plans for this trip), and this is one trip I'll probably tell friends about for many years to come.  For example, he's managed to get Point 65 kayaks on board as a sponsor -- you'll have to stay posted to his site to hear how they fit into things. Posted Dec 29 2006, 11:21 AM by gkillian with no comments

• Back from the beach

  Just back from a week on a sunny, sandy beach where people talk funny and I saw this in my email from a friend out in Colorado: Danelle Ballengee's rescue in Moab.  This might be old news, I don't know; I'm just starting to dig out from the emails etc. From the article: “To be a good adventure racer,” a former pro once said, “you basically have to be hard to kill."     Posted Dec 28 2006, 04:20 PM by gkillian with no comments

• HRAdventure Wall Calendar

  Will Ramos has an HRAdventure wall calendar now available.  Sweet photos!  There's also some HRAdventure stuff in their "Best of" and "Women of" adventure calendars.  Check it all out at the Will Ramos site (www.waramos.com). Thanks Will and Brian!  We'll see you in March . . .  racing this time? Posted Dec 16 2006, 04:08 PM by gkillian with no comments

• This past weekend . . .

  . . .  a good bunch of us met up outside of Charlottesville and enjoyed 4-5 hours of great elevation biking.  It felt good to crank the pedals, I've not biked much since the Moab race back in October so a trip like this was long overdue for me; I felt real good for the first 20 miles or so, but by the end I was up to my neck in lactic acid.  I also coerced some folks into a quick jog after the biking, but there was birthday cake to be had so the jog was very short.  The birthday girl was Beth, and her husband, Scott, was the cake baker.  Here are a couple photos: This is Sherry, Scott (with the cake), Beth, and Joel (aka Rojo: Robo-Joel). Here is a good one of Scott and Beth; Beth is sporting her new HRAdventure jersey (happy birthday!). I'm doing a race in late March 2007 with Beth and Scott so it's nice to get some training time in with them.  The March race is 30-hours and will be the first race they've done more than 12 hours long (their only 12-hour race was this past August).  We'll have fun. On a related note, I'm joining forces with the duo from the BrendaCohenJewelry.com team that frequents the HRAdventure events.  We're going to do the 30-hour mid January race from Odyssey so cross your fingers for mild weather.  Of course, if my track record holds, the race will either be cancelled or we're in for some extreme weather.  There are so few long races in the mid-Atlantic I can't pass up the chance to check out this one from Odyssey, despite my reservations about their planning.  I've got all the cold weather gear a guy could want, so I figure I might as well get it out and put it to good use . . . Posted Dec 12 2006, 09:19 PM by gkillian with no comments

• Newest HRAdventure Team Member

  You heard it here first, Bob "Tour DE France" Roll has signed on to a one-year contract with HRAdventure.  Maybe he wants to go to Croatia in Sept?  Here's a photo from the press conference: More truthfully, we had a chance to hear him speak (thanks to BikeBeat!) and snagged him at the end to make him an honorary team member.  What a character that guy is; in person, he is much much more animated and zany than during the Tour TV broadcasts -- they must hit him with bear tranquilizers or something before they start taping their Tour TV coverage.  I definitely need to pick up his books and enjoy more of his anecdotes.  For the record, Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and now Bob Roll can all enjoy a 10% discount on a future HRAdventure event. Posted Dec 11 2006, 08:02 AM by gkillian with 2 comment(s)

• The Beast of the East . . . Eastern Europe That Is

  It's true there will be no expedition race from Odyssey in 2007, apparently they're eyeing May 2008 for the next running of the Beast of the East.  I've been keeping an eye open for an expedition race to do later in 2007, and the pickings are slim with the Beast out of the picture.  No Appalachian Extreme, either, from the new management of Racing Ahead.  Things were looking bleak. Since, as you may know, the rumours are true about us relocating to Switzerland next year (I'll save those details for another time) . . . I started poking around for some European expedition races to do.  Low and behold . . . for a fraction of the cost of the Beast of the East . . . I found a Croatian "Beast" in the Terra Incognita taking place Sept 19-23, 2007 in Croatia.  The timing is great, the price is right (about $400 US per racer), no support crew is required, and the race organization has a solid track record.  The course sounds good and beasty, too, at  5 days non stop and a cornucopia of disciplines.  About the only problem is the official team format is 2-person, but that may end up being in my favor since the HRAdventure regulars aren't too keen on the idea . . . I may end up doing good to find one teammate let alone 3!   Posted Dec 07 2006, 08:11 PM by gkillian with 1 comment(s)

• Unsupported Winter Racing

  I've started looking closely at the Odyssey race in mid-January out at Natural Bridge, VA.  Call me a panzy, but the fact it's unsupported really concerns me.  I've done my fair share of races in the winter, like the "real" NGARs back when they were raced in January instead of March, and having a support crew isn't just a convenience -- it's a practical necessity.  Maybe it's because the events I compete in always seem to have the most intense weather, but here is my logic: Is Odyssey really prepared to fetch 40 or more teams off the mountain in the middle of the night?  That's what happened at my first NGAR where a night rogaine section bottled up essentially the entire race around this one mountain and teams were dropping like flies due to cold temps and wind (the onset of hypothermia).  Some teams were in seriously bad shape.  We nearly went to the ambulance at the CP near where we dropped because we couldn't stop shaking.  At NGAR, the safety solution was for the team to declare they were withdrawing via radio (or in person at a CP) and then the race organization would rally the support crew to go pick them up.  It's a 15-30 minute rescue scenario.  In the computer world, it's called a "multi-threaded solution" where each team has a support crew that can mobilize to see to their safety . . . much more effective and efficient than waiting for the one rescue vehicle to track down each team in need of help.  In planning a race, it's never just one emergency you have to prepare for . . . it's the multi-emergency scenario that requires the most planning and keeps me up at night.  In other words, counting on Odyssey and Ronny's 4WD truck to find and rescue teams is a lousy "plan" -- especially when there are two races going on at the same time to consume their attention.  Unless there is mild weather for the race, you can pretty much guarantee on a 50% withdraw rate over night as the temps drop. Is Odyssey planning around large heated buildings for teams to transition between race disciplines?  After the 30 miles of paddling through the wind and sleet at the race last year, Mike and Pam were in really bad shape.  They couldn't feel their hands or feet, or parts of their faces; I was a bit better off because I was paddling in front and got to get out of the canoe to run to the CP flags every so often -- it was enough to keep my circulation going (some might point out that I'm a bit more "sturdy" than my two skinny teammates).  Anyway, we got to the TA after the paddle and it took a good 15 minutes in a vehicle with the heat on full throttle to get limbs back into racing condition.  If we didn't have a support crew on hand with warm/dry clothes and a means to rejuvenate our body temperatures via that vehicle and hot food, we would have dropped from the race right then and there.  Sure, without a support crew I could've struggled to get a camp stove going to boil water and get some hot food into us, but it would never be as effective as having a dedicated support crew there to provide . . . support; we would've spent probably 2 hours in the transition area stumbling around with numb hands and dropping core temperatures.  I hope Odyssey has lined up some well-heated buildings for teams to transition in, preventing such a scenario, but I fear otherwise.  These winter races are wars of attrition, especially when the weather turns nasty.  A very effective way to be prepared for a mass-DNF event (like at NGAR a few years ago) and to rejuvenate during a frigid race (like at the Odyssey race last Feb) is to rely on a support crew; in the winter in the Virginia mountains, it's not about some macho "self-reliance" sort of thing . . . it's a matter of good judgement and safety and respect for a racers' entrance fee money.  Just because a support crew seems inconvenient on paper, doesn't make them unnecessary! Bottom line: I know why Odyssey doesn't want to use support crews for a race.  It makes the race less accessible to teams who struggle to find a support crew and Odyssey has struggled to get teams to the starting line of late.  For a mid-January race through the mountains, however, I think it's foolish to NOT require a support crew unless you've got some serious resources as a race organization.  The consequences of cutting corners on safety are just so much more severe at that time of year in the mountains. That being said, I'm still seriously considering the race . . . and with my bad weather curse it's likely we'll need all the support we can get! Posted Dec 04 2006, 03:29 PM by gkillian with 20 comment(s)