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Race: |
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Gold Rush Chevrolet Race |
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Date: |
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April 21 2001 |
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Members: |
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Roy Malone, Ann Motekaitis, Kiviok Height |
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Crew: |
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Jeff Palmrose |
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Comments: |
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Beautiful Land, Gorgeous Day, Tough but fair course, 23.5 racing hours, Racing with friends
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"Although it looked ominous enough the night before the race with hail and thundershowers, the morning of, was merely overcast. " |
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"At a blessed 9:00 AM start we (Roy Malone, Ann Motekatias, and Kiviok Height) started off with a nine mile run out and back and then out again to the Canoe leg. We were in fourth place at the time. The kayak leg was a short five mile paddle upstream where we made good time and passed HotJobs.com and Tachycardia to move into second. Out of the Kayak, Team Sierra Creek was about 1 minute ahead of us. Up a steep valley split by a creek we raced on the heels of the team in front. Sierra Creek decided to take the right side, we thought that the left looked better. The mad dash to the top took us into the back side of a minimum security prison. After navigating our way off the prison grounds (with the help of a security guard) we got to the bikes just minutes ahead of Sierra Creek. Somehow, Kiviok's rear tire was flat (trench warfare by one of our foes I'm certain), so after a quick fix we were off for a 10? mile mountain bike/ navigation section.
Tachycardia, Sierra Creek and Bones were the first to the bike/ run transition with the speedy HotJobs a minute behind. Out of the transition (all of which were un-supported) we trailed Tachy and Sierra Creek in a 3 mile push to the ropes section. We raced hard, running all of the hills knowing that we had to reach the ropes first or lose precious time waiting for other teams to rappel. It paid off as we were able to pass those ahead of us and reach the ropes section less than a minute before pesky Hotjobs. The drop into the rock formation was a narrow, jagged wind tunnel where the wind howled for the 100 yard scramble to the short rappel. Once down the ropes, we were off again knowing it would be at least 10 minutes before the next team would be on us. The next hike/run took us over some good elevation gain/loss with the only excitement being a shortcut that we decided upon the night before, along the steep slope of a mountain. The one thing that was not on the Quad map was the forest of waist high, impenetrable Northern California poison oak. For those of us who don't get it, it was a matter of whacking our way through it. For the ones that do, I received a scathing review of our choice of shortcuts. I believe one of the comments to me today, two days after the race was "Is it possible to get poison oak ON your poison oak?". Back to the canoe and a return trip downstream back to the put in, there was no one behind us in sight. A four mile hike/run interrupted by a very cool old mine shaft exploration, and we were back to the start for the transition to the 45 mile mountain bike trek. As we were leaving, Laurie Bagley and her Sierra Creek team came running in.
The bike started with a pedal under a Highway 108 overpass. The rains the night before had left a "puddle" in front of the entrance to the overpass tunnel. Thinking that at most, it could be six inches deep I rode right in. Evidently there had been some erosion and the puddle was actually a mini-pond. After completely submerging my bike and swimming up to my neck, my teammates fished me out. That little surprise evidently got several teams as a couple of racers had to pull out due to mild hypothermia as the night was no mercy to "the swimmers". By the end of the 45 mile mountain bike ride we ended up at an orienteering playground for those who like that kind of nasty stuff. We were given three checkpoints to locate, covering 12 miles of mostly single track trails. As we hiked off, we saw bike headlights quickly approaching the ACP. Off we went, quickly finding the first CP, the second one was much further out. Along the way we were passed by Sierra Creek who looked strong, despite the late hour (around 3:00 AM). We were able to locate the second and third CP without too much problem and returned to the bike transition just as dawn was reminding us to wake up and finish strong. The final bike leg was approximately 10 miles (my odometer read 74 m for the whole race so I am off somewhere) to the finish where our attempts to catch the Sierra Creek was dashed as we crossed the finish line with them waving us in- having bathed and eating Sticky Buns.
Roy Malone
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