Full Race Story from the ARNavSupplies INOV-8 win at the NORCAL-AR #4

Here is the link to the full story on our win at the NORCAl-AR #4 in
Whiskeytown, CA. This was our last major race for 2008. See you all
again in 2009!

http://www.arnavsupplies.com/news_articles/NORCAL_AR0101208_001.htm

Mark Manning
www.ARNavSupplies.com
1-408-420-3883

Race Report From NORCAL-AR #4 Whiskeytown, CA 10/11/08

NORCAL-AR #4 Whiskeytown Lake,  Redding, CA October 11^h 2008

 

Team Brunton by AR Navigation Supplies

 

As Whiskeytown is about 4 hours away from the Bay Area we decided to drive up on Friday afternoon and camp at the lake ready for the 9 AM race start.  We had 4 of us in the truck, the whole team, Andy Tubbs, Mari Chandler, Mark Manning and super supporter Hailey.  This meant that we had camping gear for 4 as well as 3 bikes, a triple kayak and a mountain of food and drink to sustain us during the race and keep the crew happy.  I have no idea how it all fit in the Xterra but it did with some room to spare.

 

 

We found a great camping spot about a mile from the start, had a small fire going in about 10 minutes so the team could relax while eating the burritos we had picked up on the way.

 

Another racer, Michael Miller arrived around 8PM and joined us by the fire looking for safety in numbers, as he had seen a couple of bears in the road less than a mile away.  Mike would be volunteering this weekend as he had broken his kneecap into 5 pieces on a fall a few months before and was not ready to be running on it just yet.  Michael spent some time trying to tease training secrets out of Andy and Mari but neither of them were giving much away.  You know what these Pro's are like.  "Yeah, we just go running when we feel like it".  Which translates to, "we run all day every day".

 

When we woke up in the morning it was freezing cold and Mike had already left for the start.  We quickly loaded the truck and made our way to the start to register and get breakfast.  Loads of teams were getting their gear ready and staging their boats for the kayak section.  As always this was a great time to catch up with friends and see who was racing the last event of the Norcal-AR series.  We had high hopes for a good finish as we'd already won the 2 previous editions. 

 

When we looked at the maps our worst fears were realized.  CP 1 was at the very top of the 6209' Shasta Bally Mountain, followed by 42 other CP's placed all over the map.  This course was going to be long and epic.  We were already cold at the start and it was going to get much colder for us and everyone else before the race was over.

 

 

We all lined up at the start to listen to the pre race briefing and get the details on the course.  We were told that there would be a 10 minute time bonus for the first team to reach CP 1.  Mari immediately turned to me and told me that I had to take things easy for the first few miles to give her a chance to warm up.  She said it was a long race and we needed to ease into it.   I told her of course I'd take it easy.

 

The race started and we rode as a group to the main road on the way to Shasta Bally Road, which would take us straight up 5000' of the dirt road.  We were at the front of the pack just rolling along as we made the turn onto the dirt road.  This is where we started to pull away from the main group.  We were riding with a 2 man team called Barry Fast.  Roy on this team had recently beaten Mari for 3^rd place at Primal Quest Montana so Mari wasn't about to let them beat her at this event.  The five of us were riding together and putting a big gap on the rest of the field while Mari and Roy chatted and caught up on the latest team news. 

After a couple of miles the talking stopped and we got into race mode.  Andy was dropping back a little while Barry Fast surged a little on some of the steeper sections.  I knew Andy could handle the pace and would dig deep to stay with the group so I started to up the pace on them a little at a time.  I could tell from his riding style that Roy from Barry Fast was starting to suffer a little as the pace increased.  Mari and I kept riding at the front and I kept upping the pace just a little bit more and pushed it over the brow of some of the steep little grades.  We came to a very steep section that Mari and I were able to ride but Andy hopped off his bike and started to push it up hill.  At that time both Roy and his teammate hopped off their bikes and started to walk as well.  Now Andy was in his element and back on his feet, he upped the pace on foot dropping Barry Fast.  At the top of the grade he was back on his bike and we were all riding together again.  This was just the push we needed to drop Barry Fast and continue on to the top in the lead.

 

 

 

About half way up the climb we were mobbed by a bunch of motorcycles having a blast riding on the dirt.  Shortly after, I looked back and saw my truck coming up the hill with super supporter Hailey at the wheel and our camping buddy Mike in the passenger seat.   Hailey was cheering, yelling and taking pictures while off-roading up the mountain.

 

 

Some of the sections of the climb were so steep we all had to walk but we always kept things moving forward.  As we reached the top of the mountain I was surprised at the number of people who were up there to support us.  We were the first to arrive and get CP 1 so we had an immediate 10 minute bonus. 

 

 

We quickly grabbed our jackets from our packs ready for the descent, as it was really cold at this elevation with the wind blowing.  After a quick bite to eat we set off down the hill just as Barry Fast were reaching the top with Scott Porter a few minutes behind them.

 

We had a long descent with many sections that we couldn't ride as the rocks and drops were just too difficult.  After we reached the Coggins Park area we were on a fantastic fire road descent that would take us on a really cool downhill roller coaster ride all the way to the trailhead at Crystal Creek and CP 2.

 

About half way down we were doing well when I looked back and out of the corner of my eye I saw Andy going over his handlebars.  He had hit a rock on some sand and lost it.  He got up and said he was fine but we would later find out that this crash would have a big impact.

 

We arrived at the trailhead and the parking lot where CP 2 was supposed to be but there was nothing there.  We were asking people if they had seen a orange flag and widening our search looking for the CP flag but it just wasn't there.  After looking around for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes a car drove up with a bike on the back.  The driver was holding the flag out of the window for us.  Apparently the flag had been in the wrong parking lot about half a mile back down the road.  We punched the passport and jumped onto the single track in an attempt to make up the lost time.  The volunteer had promised us that we would get a time credit but that was no reason to slow down and let Barry Fast catch us again. 

 

We found CP 3 without much trouble and were on the downhill to CP 4 when we went through a riverbed and a few hundred yards later Mari called out saying she had a flat tire.  We all worked together to change the flat and just as we were getting the tire back on Barry Fast came by us.  The chase was on again and I put Andy on the towline as we chased them back to the TA.  After a mile or two I could see them a hundred yards ahead and we were closing the gap. 

 

We came around a corner and found them stopped in the trail looking at the map.   We flew past and came into TA 1 two minutes ahead. 

 

 

We picked up the boat and grabbed some food while we ran to the water ready for the 18+ mile paddle on Whiskeytown Lake.  Andy was really struggling at this point.  The crash had injured his hip and back, he couldn't even bend down and pick up his paddle or lace up his shoes.

 

 

We managed to squeeze him into the boat but it looked painful.  As always, Andy was putting on a brave face.  We were paddling into the wind on our way to CP 6 and I was hoping that the wind would pick up a little more for the paddle back so as we could put up our new WindPaddle sail.  We were not so lucky, the wind was dying down as the afternoon went by but we were all getting very cold as there was enough of a breeze to create a serious wind chill with our wet clothes. 

 

It took us a few minutes to find CP 7 as we ran up to the road and dropped into the trail from above but we were soon on our way back across the lake for CP 8.  We arrived at the location for CP 8 but it wasn't where it was supposed to be.  We continued paddling along the shore hoping it was just in the wrong spot and not stolen but we reached the dam still without seeing the flag.   I even measured the distance back from the dam with the Speedcoach kayak computer but still couldn't see the flag.

 

We moved in closer to the shore and paddled slowly in case we had just missed it.  After a few minutes I spotted a corner of the flag sticking up from the sand behind some rocks.  It had come untied in the wind overnight and fallen down.  It was impossible to spot from the initial approach.  Mari jumped out of the boat, punched the passport and retied the flag to the tree it was supposed to be on.  We had lost another 5 to 10 minutes messing around with this CP and could see Barry Fast in the distance as we paddled away.  They wouldn't have any trouble finding it now that it was back in the tree.

 

We arrived back at the TA freezing cold and wet but ready for the long night ahead.  The organizers had hot soup and coffee waiting for everyone as well as baked potatoes.  It was now just after 6 PM and the sun was starting to go down.  Andy was still having trouble as we were getting on the bikes.  He still couldn't bend down and was visibly hurting.   We had loaded up our packs with hiking shoes, warm clothes and loads of food and they were bulging under the strain. 

 

We rode back out to the road and onto the dirt again.  We passed a hunter with a loaded rifle hanging out on the fire road.  Mari asked what she was hunting and she said deer and bear.  She asked us if we'd seen any bears…like we'd tell her if we had.  I told her that a whole bunch of people would be riding through here, hoping she would give up shooting stuff and go home. 

 

We know where the Bears are!!  This is the mother of 2 that Hailey and Mike saw on Shasta Bally Road.

 

CP's 10 and 11 involved a lot of climbing and we pushed our bikes for a while.  Andy was in a lot of pain and dragging behind us.  It was now completely dark and getting colder.  At CP 11 we made a poor decision.  We chose a trail that seemed to be going in the direction we need to go but after following it downhill in the dark for a while we hit the river.   This was really bad.  We weren't supposed to be any where near the river.  I heard it before I saw it and knew we were really in the wrong spot.  We looked around for a while trying to see if there was a way to get to were we needed to be without climbing back up 800' to CP 11 but there was no other way.  The trail appeared to dead end right there and we were cliffed out with nowhere to go but back the way we came.  We started pushing our bikes 800' back up the hill and this is where Andy's sprits began to drop.  It was obvious that we would lose the lead by the time we got back on track.   We had spent over an hour doing the drop down to the river and climbing back up.

 

The next 2 CP's went fine and we arrived at TA 3 to find out that we were now almost 2 hours behind Barry Fast and Scott Porter.   We made a quick transition to our running shoes and set out to chase down the leaders. 

 

We passed CP 15 when we saw Scott Porter coming up the hill towards us.  He was on his way to CP 20 but he told us that Barry Fast had got lost on the way to CP 17 and he hadn't seen them for a while.  Our spirits rose when we heard this.  We thought that Scott was about an hour ahead of us and he would have more trouble keeping a fast pace on his own as the night dragged on.  We might be able to catch him if we kept pushing each other through the night.

 

We arrived at CP 17 to a warm welcome of clean bathrooms and a big cooler of soda.  I threw down a couple of Pepsi's and found out from the CP staff that Barry Fast hadn't arrived yet.  They had lost 2 hours out there and we were now second on the road.  After some cold sodas and good news our spirits were high and even Andy was feeling better.  Just as we were leaving the CP we could see a couple of headlamps up on the ridge trying to bushwhack down to the CP.  We turned our lights off and sneaked away into the dark of the road. 

 

We had a really cool section with a steep climb up a rope after CP 19 that took us back to the ridge and on our way to CP 20.  Just after CP 21 Mari spotted something called a Ringtail Cat hiding in a tree next to the trail.  These are apparently very rare and only come out at night.  I'd never even heard of one before but it was cool to see it.  We had a little trouble finding the right trail that would take us down to CP 26 but only lost a couple of minutes before we were on the right path.  This is where the Waterproof Pedometer came into its own.

 

We arrived back at TA 4 to find we had pulled back 45 minutes on Scott but he had missed CP 24 thinking it was misplaced.  We had found it without any problems so he was now down 1 mandatory CP as well as one of the optional kayak CP's.  We were 2^nd team on the road but we were ahead of Scott in CP points, which put us in the lead overall.  All we needed to do was stay on course and get all of the remaining CP's and we could still win.

 

The next bike leg was the hardest part of the race for us.  As we rode away from the TA wearing all the clothing we had with us, we had a downhill section on the road to the bridge.  The wind chill was so bad that by the time we reached the river we were all shaking uncontrollably and our hands could hardly move to pull the brake levers.  As we arrived at CP 29 we were all very tired from the earlier chase and it was that really dark time a couple of hours before dawn when everyone struggles to keep going.  Everyone that is, except Mari, who was absolutely flying and pushing the pace on every climb and descent.  Both Andy and I couldn't believe how much power she still had after 20 hours of flat out racing.  We found CP 30 at Brandy Creek Falls and saw Scott again on his way out of the loop.  After a very nasty bike push on the way to CP 31 we hit the highly rated single track that we had been told about at the start of the race.  They weren't kidding, it was a fantastic trail that was fast and smooth as it swooped down the side of the mountain.  I was wishing I wasn't so tired as I would have really enjoyed it had I been more awake.

 

 

When we arrived back at TA 5 it had just got light and we heard that Scott Porter had pulled out of the race and gone home.  He had also missed CP 29 on the bike section and was now down two mandatory CP's and 25 points.   We also found out that after getting badly lost on the trek section Barry Fast had pulled out with a cut sidewall on one of the bike tires.  They were in a solid 2^nd place and our nearest competition.  We were told that the next closest team was a couple of hours behind us and a few had skipped the whole 3^rd bike section and just rode back from the previous TA. 

 

After some warm food and more Pepsi all we had to do was get the final trek CP's and get back to the finish before 2PM. 

 

 

We had about 4 ½ hours to do around 5 miles on foot, which didn't seem too bad.  I really enjoyed the next section as it was rogaine style and all the CP's were off trail requiring some serious bushwhacking to find.  This was fun but Andy and I were dragging while Mari was still on top running form.   She kept trying to make us run to the finish but we were resisting every attempt.   We still had the lead and plenty of time in hand.  After a lot of persuasion Mari coaxed us into running the last ½ mile down to the finish and Andy started coughing so bad we joked about having to drag him across the line by the straps on his backpack.

 

 

We finished the race and race director Rich told us that we had won the event as the only team to get every CP and take maximum points.  Everyone else had either skipped sections or missed optional CP points.

 

 

Everyone was relived to have finished.  It had been a long race with a huge amount of climbing.  We had taken 27 hours and 12 minutes to cover the whole course.  My Suunto had switched off after 20 hours of racing with its memory full.  Up to that point we had climbed over 17,000 feet with 7 hours of racing still to go.  I wish I had the whole download as I have the feeling it would have been over 25,0000' of climbing in the 27 hours.

 

This was a fantastic event with epic terrain, scenery and competition.  The organizers had done an excellent job in putting everything together including a wonderful post race meal with burritos and cake.  For their first 24 hour course Tom Thomas and his family had set a very high bar for other events to follow.  I'm looking forward to more events from this team in 2009.

 

As always Mari and Andy were perfect teammates and I hope we can all race together again in 2009 after such a successful season.

Suunto Download

 

Thanks to Brunton, INOV-8, Ritchey, Magura, Ellsworth and BooCoo Gear for providing Team AR Nav Supplies with the best gear for Adventure Racing.

 

Our CP Order for NORCAL-AR #4 for the final trek section

Trek: 42, 41, 40, 39, 36, 37, 38, 43

 

Team AR Navigation Supplies Sponsors Sites

 

 

AR Navigation Supplies Wins the Final 2008 Norcal-AR 24 Hour Race

Team AR Navigation Supplies won this weekends Norcal-AR 24 hour race with a time of 27 hours and 30 minutes in Whiskeytown, CA. As the only team to complete the whole course and collect maximum points within the time limit it was a strong finish to the 2008 racing season. A full race report with photos will be posted soon.

Thanks again to Inov-8, Brunton, Ritchey, Ellsworth, Magura and BooCoo Gear

AR Navigation Supplies takes 2nd place at Presidio 2008 Long Course

Team AR Navigation Supplies to 2nd place to a flying Steve Gregg by less than a minute at the 2008 Presidio National Orienteering  Day event this past weekend. Thanks to INOV-8 and Brunton for providing the best gear for the event and helping us post our highest place finish at an orienteering event in 2008.

Full results can be found at the following link.

http://baoc.org/wiki/Results/2008/Presidio

Long Orange Course  (7.6 km, 300 ft climb, 13 controls)     1  Steve Gregg                           1:03:50    2  Mark Manning                          1:04:42    3  Manfred Kopisch                       1:07:22    4  Devin Prouty, Matt Stimson            1:10:34    5  Brett Carter                          1:11:20    6  Bill Papendick                        1:14:54    7  Steve Harnoui                         1:15:05    8  Juha Koskenwo                         1:15:21    9  Alex Finch                            1:16:35   10  Philipp Kopisch                       1:18:30

New Navigation Aid by Nature

Here is a new navigation aid provided by nature...

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12001823

Morgan Fletcher's Trans Rockies Race Report

Follow the link below to see Morgan's race report from the Trans
Rockies mountain bike hike..

http://www.hahaha.org/blog/morgan/?p=29

Team AR Nav Supplies/Inov-8 runners Grant Sisler and Jon De St Paer are clawing their way up the leader board at the Trans Rockies Run. Stage 4 results show them in 15th place in the Open Mens division with a 13 minute advantage over 16th place. They've been running an 11:37 pace for for the 4 stages up to and including Thursday. Only 3 more days of running left!

You can see todays CG results at the following link..

http://transrockies.com/transrockiesrun/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/2008trr-stage-4-gc-results.pdf

Go get em boys!!!

Craig's TransRockies 2008 race report

TransRockies 2008 Mountain Bike Stage Race

It is quite difficult to find the words to describe the Transrockies experience so many come to mind.   Beauty, Joy, Misery, Agony, Suffering, Sore, Sick, Wet, Dirty, Elated, Dejected and on and on.

To put this race in terms that might resonate with some of you.   7 Stages, 58,000 feet climbing, 342 miles of technical off road riding.    Imagine the camping situation of Wildflower, but you have to break camp before you race the long course at 8 am every day - now do that 7 days in a row with 20x the elevation gain.   300 teams of 2 riders from dozens of different countries.

Other than the notions that this was going to be 'hard', I didn't have many expectations for the race.    I wanted to ride to the limits of my ability and face challenging terrain.   Little did I know that those boundaries would be stretched farther than I thought possible.

Stage 1; Panorama to K2 Ranch

Distance; 55 km (34 mi)

Elevation; 2200 m (7217 ft)

 

Mark and I lined up with much enthusiasm for Stage 1 after the long trip to Panorama and the many bike building, bag sorting chores the night before.    The sun was shinning and riders from dozens of nations waited anxiously to get going.   The gun went off for the parade lap and we set off to gradually, patiently pick our way through the teams ahead of us.    Knowing a massive climb leading to singletrack was ahead, we set the goal of moving up as much as possible without breaking my legs in the process.    We did well to clear the 'riff raff' during the hour + of climbing that ensued.   I was struggling on the climb as was to be expected, but felt OK once we started traversing the singletrack ridge.    Our fine weather quickly deteriorated as we crossed steep shale fields.    Within minutes we were riding in hail and snow!    At the sunny start line, we had elected to travel a bit light on gear (just jackets).   As if that wasn't bad enough, Mark sliced a 2.5 hole in his tire requiring a careful, fingers crossed repair job in the snow!   We took about 20 minutes to get back sorted out before we continued traversing and descending the mountain. We road well throughout the stage, but realized if this was a 'easy stage' we were in for one hell of a week.    We arrived at K2 Ranch to get our first look at tent city.   Each evening tents would be erected and available on a first come first serve basis, along with showers and bike washing. We settled in to what would become our daily choirs, tent arrangement, unpacking, bike wash, bike repair, shower followed by evening dinner and next days stage review.

 

Stage 2; K2 Ranch to Nipika Resort

Distance; 74 km (46 mi)

Elevation; 3000 m (9842 ft)

 

Waking up crusty and damp in a tent at 6 am knowing that we were soon to be climbing nearly 10k feet was quite difficult.   Still in the 'excited to be here' phase, we packed our bags and headed to the start line.    Due to our mechanical on stage 1, we were in start group 2 which put us behind 1/3 of the pack at the gun.    With a longish jeep road to road section ahead of us, Mark and I drilled it from the gun working our way through the pack like a road race.    We managed to bridge to the lead group just in time to start climbing.    I was a bit cooked from the chase so I had to insist on a casual pace even though Mark's legs were telling him otherwise.  We proceed to climb and/or traverse forever.   After aid station 1 we started to see people pushing there bikes up the trail and eventually we were relegated to the same strategy.   I started to suffer as the trail got steeper and steeper as unlike Mark as an adventure racer, I haven't spent much time pushing my bike.    Just when I thought things couldn't get worse we reached a plateau and saw an ant line of riders with bikes on their shoulders hiking up the steepest rock field you can imagine.    We resigned ourselves to getting it done and took our place in line.   After about 30 minutes, we started to hear people call down the hill asking if anyone could see a trail marker.   Apparently the entire top 1/3 of the race is off course!   We discovered with the help of other racers that we had climbed passed the turn off and were torturing ourselves for no good reason (the pros had probably gone an entire hour up the hike-a-bike hill!).   We bushwacked through the woods to rediscover the trail amongst the chaos of 100s of confused racers.    We then hit some gnarly steep singletrack which I enjoyed which lead to an even gnarlier section of sloppy, wet, creek crossing singletrack.    We emerged from the woods to learn the extent of the race chaos....we discovered that we were in the top 30 teams.     We decided to keep hitting it in the hopes that we could make up some time from the day before.     The pro teams eventually caught us on the run into Nipika.   It was actually quite surreal  getting passed by the pro who looked effortless as they danced by us.     We felt we road a great stage and would easily make up the deficit we created on stage 1.     Unfortunately we would later learn that this stage would not count on the General Classification b/c of all the lost riders.    While I appreciated the situation, I was a little disappointed as we road very efficiently and had in this tough stage (not too mention that we wasted time lost as well!).    Nipika was to be our home for two nights.    It is a great eco-lodge built entirely of products found on the property.

 

Stage 3; Nipika Resort to Nipika Resort

Distance; 44.2 km (27 mi)

Elevation; 1514 m (4967 ft)

 

Stage 3 was a first for TR: a time trial.    Rider were set off at 30 second increments on a shorter course (I should note that this short course still contained more climbing than almost all of our normal training rides).    Mark and I both felt good on this stage so we really pushed our limits.    We managed to catch all the riders ahead of us which gave us a clear look at the amazing singletrack course.     We road the ridgeline of a gorgeous river most of the day descending and climbing through the rocks and trees.     I think we were both enjoying ourselves despite the quick pace.    We've learned that Mark and I are one of the better singletracking teams in our division so this course suited us well.     One of the most memorable moments of the day was coming upon a motocross rider on a steep singletrack descent.    We were totally committed to a shoot, when we discovered the Moto rider, we yelled, he crashed and we rifled by him.     We finished the day in 9th in our division which was very satisfying.     Our morning start afforded us a leisurely afternoon in Nipika and some well earned 'ease' in our daily schedule.    Later in the day we learned that our friend Greg had broken his frame.    Ever the solution oriented thinker, Greg bought a new Rocky Mountain bicycle to continue the race the next day (more on that later).

Stage 4; Nipika Resort to Whiteswan Lake

Distance; 109.7 km (68 mi)

Elevation; 2567 m (8421 ft)

 

Stage 4 was the longest stage in KM so we knew we were in for a rough one after our efforts in the TT.     We had another very fast start which left Mark feeling a little winded, while I on the other hand was feeling quite spunky.   Today's stage was a bit less steep which suited me well and I quite enjoyed the long climbs and river crossings.   The team aspect of TransRockies adds and interesting dynamic to each day as it is as important for your partner to feel good as it is for you.     While I was struggling to stay with Mark on the first days he was now struggling to stay with me.     As good teammates and friends, we just did our best to keep moving and cover this long stage.    We cleared the toughest climbs and started a long single/double track descent.    At one of the last checkpoints we heard of a bad crash a couple of KM behind us.    A little investigation (and the arrival of his teammate, Carrie) led us to learn it was our friend Greg and most likely a broken collarbone.    We were totally bummed, but knew he was being as well taken care of as possible (he ended up with a helicopter ride home).    We push on through the stage and hit a long road section to the finish.   I was pulling hard, but honestly as cracked as Mark was with the long hours of riding.    We pulled into a beautiful field and headed for tent city.   We discovered a creek behind some trees and decided to soak our weary bodies, before tackling the chores of the day.      Whiteswan lake brought a welcome addition to tent city....a local MTB club cooking burgers.    Now we could have dinner #1 at 3 pm in prep for dinner #2 at 6 pm!      We continued to meet riders from all of the world and developed a crew of bay area riders that we spent most of our time with.

 

Stage 5; Whiteswan Lake to Elkford

Distance; 88.5 km (56 mi)

Elevation; 2147 m (7043 ft)

 

We knew from the course overview the night before that Stage 5 would be rough.   Almost the same amount of climbing as the day before in 12 less miles.     We've learned at this point that what that really means is 'get ready for a big hike-a-bike section.    Mark was still feeling a bit dodgy but as always he remained up for the challenge.    We hit the course and again for unknown reasons, my legs we magic (despite having picked up a sore throat).    I found myself riding many of the sections people were walking which felt great.     I think Mark recognized that I was probably going to pay a heavy price for this exuberance, but he let me go anyway.     Sure enough we hit the final aid station and got reports of a heavy duty hike-a-bike section in front of us.    We shouldered our bikes and got started with the frustrating task at hand.   After a LONG time, we finally crested the pass only to be greeted by the 'rock garden'.     The rock garden is essentially a descent that is 100% on 6-12 inch rock.    There is no possible way to ride other than picking your way on top of 1000s of rocks.    While not my idea of a good time, I relished the technical challenge of the section and pointed my Niner downhill.    The combination of gravity, big wheel and a little prayer helped me navigate the 5k of rocks.    Mark, with a look of shear terror, decided this wasn't his cup of tea and proceed to dismount and run/walk the section.    If poor Mark hadn't been tortured enough already after the rock garden we had 10k of technical dirt/rock descending to do.    I'm glad I was ahead of Mark as I'm sure he was cursing my name for a good 20 minutes as he picked his way through.   We finally hit a fire road into town and knocked out the remaining 10k.    It was so hot today that we were both totally fried.    Arriving in our first official town, the finish line spread was filled with treats that we hadn't seen all week (gold fish, chips, lemonade, muffins).    It was a little bit of a shock to the system to see buildings etc, but the comfort of tent city was just around the corner.    As a big bonus we learned we were next to the town pool and we were given free access for a bit of a swim (after finding the requisite mtn. stream to soak in first).    We ate dinner in a hockey rink and we greeted by the town mayor.     Mark discovered while inspecting my bike that my bottom bracket had frozen and looked at me questioningly as to how I made it all day with cranks that barely turned (I told you I had good legs).     I dropped the bike off at the bike shop that traveled with the race to have a new BB install over night.

  

Stage 6; Elkford to Blairmore

Distance; 102.4 km (64 mi)

Elevation; 2998 m (9835 ft)

 

Suffice it to say that another long stage was not what the doctor ordered for our weary crew.   My sore throat had gotten so bad that I could barely talk to Mark.   For some reason my legs were still good, but the voice was gone.    I felt bad because I couldn't communicate well with Mark to offer any words of encouragement along the way.    It was another hot and long day on the race course.    We did our best to keep moving efficiently, but I think we both new this was going to be a rough one.    We were greeted with some spectacular views and some amazing river crossing which took the sting off a little bit.    We crested one of the longer climbs and started a very fast ridgeline descent.    The film helicopter was off to our right with a camera man leaning out of the cockpit.   I felt like I was in an MTB video as the copter paralleled our fast descent down the ridge.    We hit the final aid station and knew we had another 2000ft of climbing and purportedly hike-a-bike ahead of us.   I was feeling pretty good in the legs, but I knew Mark was hating this stage.    We continued on as Mark comically stated he needed to soak his feet in the river (I had to admit I had a little of the Canadian hot foot myself!).      We found some water for Mark to soak it, but it didn't change the fact that we had a bunch of annoying hike-a-bike to get on with.     We slowly made our way through and crossed the finishline with our weakest performance of the week.    Despite all the good singletrack in the race, most of our conversations with fellow races was about the unnecessary hike-a-bike sections that seemed to always be present.    Its a shame b/c I think the organizers wanted it to be the toughest bike race in the world which took away from the racing aspect and made some stages more like survival stages.   Fortunately Blairmore had two things going for it that day.    A great soaking river and a pizzeria.    Mark made a b-line for the pizzeria after the race and ordered us a cheese pizza.   We did a 15 minute soak in the river, then sat on main street eating a pizza!   Somehow that Pizza started to change things for the better for Mark.

 

Stage 7; Blairmore to Fernie

Distance; 78.8 km (49 mi)

Elevation; 2101 m (6893 ft)

Knowing we were on our last stage (and having the boost of yesterday's pizza party), I think both Mark and I was in good spirits despite the growing all over body fatigue (and my cold which had now progressed to a cough).    We hit the start line determined to race again.     The race started with a  climb up a ski resort hill which we fought valiantly up to maintain our position going into the singletrack.    We hit a bunch of traffic, but patiently worked our way through the slower singletrackers ahead of us until we had clear trail.     We worked well together making sure we were pushing each other as hard as we could in each section.     The day had some mentally draining climbs in the middle.    At one point I think we were both head down and silent begging for the second aid station to appear.   We  knew once we hit that section we were blessed with a downhill ride (for the most part) to the finish.   We went ballistic down the fire road to find the singletrack and kept the gas on through the first of many sections of 'Fernie' singletrack.    For me, hitting the singletrack is like putting gas in the tank so I was ready to rip.    We emerged onto another fire road with a group of riders and took a right turn up a hill.     Now it is worth noting that when you study the course profile you tend to forget about certain things --- like this damn hill.    We started on this hot climb thinking we were almost done not knowing that TR had one more tough as hell climb for us.     Probably inconsequential compared to early climbs this one just seemed particularly nasty.   We finally made it to the top where local told us that we only had 6k to go and it was all singletrack.    Boy they weren't kidding, we hit one of the best, technical singletrack descents I've ridden.   It took everything I had to navigate the turns, trees, roots and drop offs they were throwing at me.    I finally washed out and crashed lightly which gave Mark a good laugh since I'd stayed upright all week previously.     We made it through the track and rolled into downtown Fernie to a heros welcome.    We had just finished the TransRockies!   We had a good stage and placed 16 in our category and moved up 6 spots on the GC to finish 24th overall.      We enjoyed snacks, drinks and a basket of fries Mark bought before landing a ride with all our gear to our hotel.     Again, we found a great river for a soak then enjoyed a late afternoon of Olympics viewing on our first beds in a week!

It was an incredible experience with many highs and lows.    I enjoyed the race format and organization, but felt they should have made better choices on the route to avoid some of the hike-a-bike.    I'd recommend the race format, but would advice looking into TransAlsp or BC bike race as you stay in hotel and you actually ride the course!

Craig

PICS:

http://www.me.com/gallery/#100024

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91469892@N00/sets/72157606824302599/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolface/sets/72157606800987689/

Day 5 Update

Hi Everyone, here is the update for day 5.
We finished the stage in 26th place after I had another really tough day. Craig was super strong even though he had seized bearings in his cranks. They're being changed by the mechanics right now.

Todays stage was sick. The first half was a super fast dirt road. Craig and I stayed with the pro's until the first control at about 10 miles. After that the climb started and everything broke up. We rode a great race until the final climb where I cracked again. Craig dragged me a good way until we hit a section where we had to carry our bikes up about 800 feet.

After that was a totally stupid downhill section down a dry riverbed full of rocks. Apart from the amount of bike carting we have to do, this was the most retarded part of the race. Some people liked it but it seemed most hated it.

I have no idea where we are in the general clasification but I think we mush have slipped a few places.

They're telling us about tomorows stage which will be about 60 miles with at least an hour of bike pushing and about 9000' of elevation gain.

Only 2 more stages to go!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers,

Craig and Mark

Fwd: Day 3

Subject: Day 3

After a HUGE effort on day 2, we were happy to learn day 3 would be a time trial format allowing for a little extra sleep.  We were slotted at the beginning of the first start wave.

We hit the start line determined to put in a good effort.  47km and 1500m of Nipka single track lied ahead of us!

The track was, in a word, awesome.  We enjoyed fast singletrack, technical shoots and spectacular views of one of the most beuatiful rivers I have ever seen.

We passed many teams in the first 10k which gave us a clean look at the singletrack the whole day.

On one technical descent we managed to scare the support motocross rider who promptly crashed and barely left us room to pass.

We finished in 3:45 which netted us 18th place on the day and moved us into the top 20 in our division.

We were both pretty sore after 3 days of racing so I was able to convince Mark to take a 15 min ice bath in the river.

Tomorrow is another long one.  We are sad to leave Nipika, our comfortable home for 2 days, but are eager to see more of this beautiful country.

Cheers,

Craig and Mark

Team ARNavsupplies/Boo Coo Gear

End of day 2!

Subject: End of day 2!

Well they didn't lie, today was so much harder than yesterday.  More carrying the bikes and a lot more difficult trails.  We finished in 7 hours 34 minutes and 9th place.  This fantastic placing was due to half the field getting lost and climbing an additional 1000' with their bikes on their backs.  We were the lucky ones and only added about 100' before we did a bushwhack through the woods to find the right trail.  Both Craig and I had bad moments today where we were suffering way more than the other.  Me on a really long technical downhill that I really hated, Craig loved it.  And Craig on the endless climbs with little oxygen.  But as a team we pulled each other through and finished strong.

Getting back with a high placing really had it's benefits today.  No line for the bike wash or the shower.

We're camping at a fantastic location for the next 2 nights as tomorrow start and finish are both here in Nipkta.

Tomorrow we have a 40 km TT which looks fairly flat but I'm sure will be technical.

We've had dinner an squirreled away extra food for the late night snack.  Now it's time to relax and watch the sun go down before we fall asleep.

No cell service out here so you be recieving a bunch of updates all at once.

Talk to you all soon.

Mark & Craig



Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: End of 1st Day

Subject: End of 1st Day

We survived day 1 but what a day.  I have thrown away one tire after it suffered a 1 inch gash in the side.  We lost about 15 minutes while we changed it in the middle of a snow and hail storm at about 8000 feet.

We finished 29th in the 80 plus group in 5 hours 22 minutes.  Probably pushed and carried our bikes for 2 hours cos it was too wet and muddy to ride.

So many people missed the cutoff but I guess they'll still be racing tomorrow.

The bikes survived the day without any major problems.

Tomorrow will be a big day with 3 times the climbing and probably a bunch more bike pushing.

The views are spectacular when the sky clears and we haven't seen any bears on the trails yet.

Now we're in tent city with bags of gear to keep us warm.  The tents are quite large so it's not too bad.

Craig is about to give himself a little massage so no pictures right now.

Hopefully we'll send another update tomorrow but it's an early morning so it will have to wait.

Cheers,

Mark and Craig.



Sent from my iPhone

Day 4 update

Hi everyone, Day 4 was a total nightmare for me. I cracked so badly I could barely peddle, Craig was pushing me along but we still managed to finish 24th on the day and only dropped 1 place on the general clasification. Aparently the scenary was fantastic but all I saw for 6 hours was the trail in front of me or Craigs cogset.

This race has so much climbing and big chunks where you have to sholder your bike and carry it for hundreds of feet up the hillside.

A number of people crashed yesterday including our friend greg Kidd who was taken off the stage via helicopter with a broken collor bone.
He broke his bike the day before and had to buy a new one from the guys at the race.

Tomorrow we have another huge day with about 8000' of climbing over 60 miles.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Mark & Craig

Sent from my iPhone

Day 3

After a HUGE effort on day 2, we were happy to learn day 3 would be a
time trial format allowing for a little extra sleep. We were slotted
at the beginning of the first start wave.

We hit the start line determined to put in a good effort. 47km and
1500m of Nipka single track lied ahead of us!

The track was, in a word, awesome. We enjoyed fast singletrack,
technical shoots and spectacular views of one of the most beuatiful
rivers I have ever seen.

We passed many teams in the first 10k which gave us a clean look at
the singletrack the whole day.

On one technical descent we managed to scare the support motocross
rider who promptly crashed and barely left us room to pass.

We finished in 3:45 which netted us 18th place on the day and moved us
into the top 20 in our division.

We were both pretty sore after 3 days of racing so I was able to
convince Mark to take a 15 min ice bath in the river.

Tomorrow is another long one. We are sad to leave Nipika, our
comfortable home for 2 days, but are eager to see more of this
beautiful country.

Cheers,

Craig and Mark

Team ARNavsupplies/Boo Coo Gear

End of day 2!

Well they didn't lie, today was so much harder than yesterday. More
carrying the bikes and a lot more difficult trails. We finished in 7
hours 34 minutes and 9th place. This fantastic placing was due to
half the field getting lost and climbing an additional 1000' with
their bikes on their backs. We were the lucky ones and only added
about 100' before we did a bushwhack through the woods to find the
right trail. Both Craig and I had bad moments today where we were
suffering way more than the other. Me on a really long technical
downhill that I really hated, Craig loved it. And Craig on the
endless climbs with little oxygen. But as a team we pulled each other
through and finished strong.

Getting back with a high placing really had it's benefits today. No
line for the bike wash or the shower.

We're camping at a fantastic location for the next 2 nights as
tomorrow start and finish are both here in Nipkta.

Tomorrow we have a 40 km TT which looks fairly flat but I'm sure will
be technical.

We've had dinner an squirreled away extra food for the late night
snack. Now it's time to relax and watch the sun go down before we
fall asleep.

No cell service out here so you be recieving a bunch of updates all at
once.

Talk to you all soon.

Mark & Craig

Sent from my iPhone

End of 1st Day

We survived day 1 but what a day. I have thrown away one tire after
it suffered a 1 inch gash in the side. We lost about 15 minutes while
we changed it in the middle of a snow and hail storm at about 8000 feet.

We finished 29th in the 80 plus group in 5 hours 22 minutes. Probably
pushed and carried our bikes for 2 hours cos it was too wet and muddy
to ride.

So many people missed the cutoff but I guess they'll still be racing
tomorrow.

The bikes survived the day without any major problems.

Tomorrow will be a big day with 3 times the climbing and probably a
bunch more bike pushing.

The views are spectacular when the sky clears and we haven't seen any
bears on the trails yet.

Now we're in tent city with bags of gear to keep us warm. The tents
are quite large so it's not too bad.

Craig is about to give himself a little massage so no pictures right
now.

Hopefully we'll send another update tomorrow but it's an early morning
so it will have to wait.

Cheers,

Mark and Craig.

Sent from my iPhone

Day 1 Start

Hi Everyone! We've had breakfast and now we're just packing up our
final bits and pieces before the start at 11:00AM. Everything arrived
ok and the bikes are all ready. There are over 350 teams from 27
different countries. This race is huge!

The course starts today with a 3000 foot climb straight out of the
parking lot and finishes with a 20k downhill.

We've already seen a black bear on the way to the resort so they're
really out there.

Hopefully we'll be able to send a report out this evening as the
finish is close to town. talk to you all soon.

Cheers,

Mark & Craig

Sent from my iPhone

We made it to Calgary

We're in Canada and just getting ready to crash out for the night. We have a 1pm shuttle to Panorama tomorrow. Catch you later. Mark & Craig



Sent from my iPhone

We're off to Canada and the Trans Rockies!

Today is the day we're leaving for Canada and the Trans Rockies stage
race. We'll be racing for 7 days over 342 miles and climbing 58,000
feet. Thats twice the height of Everest!! The bags are packed and
all the last preparations have been done. Check out the blog over the
next few days to follow our progress. The following link should also
have daily results and race reports from the organizers.

http://www.transrockies.com/trc/race/index.htm

Cheers, Mark.

AR Navigation Supplies/RWG Wins Overall at Ocean Blue AR

AR Navigation Supplies/RWG wins the Ocean Blue Adventure Race on July
26th 2008 at Half Moon Bay. Follow the link below to read the race
story.

http://www.arnavsupplies.com/news.html

Cheers,

Mark Manning
www.ARNavSupplies.com

AR Navigation Supplies Wins the NORCAL-AR #3

Link below has the full story from the NORCAL-AR event #3 in Henry W
Coe State Park.

http://www.arnavsupplies.com/news.html

Mark Manning
www.ARNavSupplies.com

Team AR Navigation Supplies Receives Support From Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles

Team AR Navigation Supplies would like to thank team Dirty Avocados
for helping secure 2008 support from Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles.
It is great to be finally riding one of the premier mountain bikes for
adventure racing that is both light and strong enough to survive the
punishment of the sport. Check them out at http://www.ellsworthbikes.com/

You can also find links to other great supporters of adventure racing,
Ritchey, Brunton, BooCoo Gear and INOV-8 on our team page at http://www.arnavsupplies.com/team.html

See you at the NORCAL-AR #3 event this weekend.

Cheers,

Mark Manning
www.ARNavSupplies.com

AR Nav Supplies Teams up With BAARBD.org for Norcal-AR #3

Team AR Navigation Supplies will be teaming up this weekend with
BAARBD

www.BAARBD.org to race the 3rd event in the Norcal-AR series
at Henry Coe State Park. The team this weekend will be Mari Chandler,
Galen Pewtherer and Mark Manning. This will be an interesting event
as a number of high profile team will be using it as their last tuneup
before next months Primal Quest.

See you out there!

Brunton by AR Nav Supplies Wins the Norcal-AR #2 Event

Here is the full story of the Norcal-AR #2 Race at Almaden Quicksilver
in San Jose. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did.

http://www.ARNavSupplies.com/news_articles/NORCALAR_042608.htm

Cheers,

Mark.

AR Navigation Supplies wins NORCAL-AR #2 at Almaden Quicksilver, San Jose, CA

Well the results are out and they show that we won the Norcal-AR #2 as
the only team to clean the whole course in 6 hours of suffering.
After a very fast 1st section where we were trailing Kent by 1 minute
we came back to win when Kent missed CP 7 on his way to the bike
transition. The last 2 CP's were a real struggle as we had ran out
of water and still has about an hour of hard riding to do. As always
Mari was super tough and kept us all moving along while Andy provided
the horsepower to tow me around the whole run at an insane pace.

Thanks to Brunton, INOV-8 and Ritchey for providing us with the best
gear. With the bike loaded with Ritchey carbon components the hills
were much easier and running the descents were super safe in the
INOV-8 shoes. I have to be honest I didnt break out the compass once
in this all trail event but Brunton were there if we needed them.

Look out for the complete story later this week.

Cheers, Mark.

AR Navigation Supplies Racing NORCAL-AR Sprint

AR Navigation Supplies will be racing this weekend at the NORCAL-AR Sprint at Quick Silver Park in San Jose.  Come see Andy, Mari and Mark race in their new team kit.  I'll post pictures and a race report next week.