If you believe official sources, team Calleva finished the year 16th by USARA ranking and 10th in Checkpoint Tracker series. If you don’t believe officials, just know that 2008 was the best season ever. That was the year of the First Annual Calleva Adventure Race, the year of solid results, and the first year of our new team. We have great, ambitious plans for 2009. See you at the start line.
Happy New Year and excellent finishes in 2009!
The water in Potomac is really cold these days. My final paddling test was dedicated to small details: how to eat and drink during the paddling, where to put compass, so I can see it, how to stay warm and dry, and, finally, how long I can spend in cold water. Apparently, I can stay in cold water forever... Ok, may be only 30 minutes (that how long I tested it), but it should be enough. The main lesson: I am switching to my dry suit for Patagonia.
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I bought this paddle from the guy that never took it apart and didn’t care about it too much, except may be the price. First, I had to fix big crack in one of the wing blades. The paddle was perfect for canoe paddling, but a little too long for kayak. Two weeks ago I made it the right length by shortening one of the connection pieces by 6 inch. Both parts on the photo were originally the same length. Now it’s exactly right and ready for Patagonia. It was interesting and challenging project.
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Team Calleva (Valentin Chapa, John Ciccarello, Karen Stump and Dmitri Kaganovich) is the first coed-4 team to cross the finish line at the 8 hours course of the Odyssey AR Ogaine. Of course, we've been the only prime division team to start the race, but we got the first overall position as well. Thanks to John for fast navigation. And thanks to Odyssey for setting this great event in Douthat State Park. See you in January...
The USARA Nationals started today.
Calleva Patagonia Racing team is back from the first big training in Canaan Valey, West Virginia. Mark, Val, Dima and Sara closed 110 km biking loop around Canaan Valey, hiked 20 km in Dolly Sods Wilderness, and got 3 hours sleep, testing the new sleeping bags and tent. Conditions were perfect as 5 out of 9 inches of the last week snow melted down.
Three and half month till the start of thePatagonia Expedition Race. We just got our tickets to travel half of the globe to get there. We will visit capitals of 4 countries on the way to our destination at the end of the world: Washington, DC; Panama City, Panama; Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile. The final destination is Punto Arenas, the southernmost city on Earth. Click the map to see details. This weekend will be the first big training of the Calleva Patagonia team. We'll try to get tired in the first 24 hours in order to test our new ultra light sleeping bags and tent. The tent is a little small: "We better learn to get close fellas...."
Noelle Grosso put another great event in our area: 2008 Seneca Creek State Park Little-Big Adventure Race. About 100 parent-child teams started the race Saturday morning. It was the most competitive running kids event and the most technical one. For the fist time we had a single trail mountain bike. That’s where we gained the most advantage and passed at least 20 teams. Team Calleva was presented by Dmitri and Shon Kaganovich and finished 6th overall and 3rd in the age group.
Unfortunately we had no team uniforms for this event, because the only small size t-shirt we had, was never returned by the former team member. We are going to order a new set for 2009 season.
Friday and Saturday were BIG nights at the
This time last year in Dolly Sods, WV was very cold and windy. This weekend was better than perfect. Unique time of the year when cranberry and blubbery are all around, when sky are clear blue and water in small creeks is so warm you want to stay there forever. On the photo my son and his friend building a dam in Fisher Creek. There are no other "beavers" this year.
Last race I tested these two items and here are the results.
Cateye started headlamp business based on its famous Optocube technology. I bought Tora headlamp directly from Cateye for $45 + shipping. The specifications claimed that the brightest 1 Watt mode will last for 45 hours on 3 AAA batteries. The first thing I did was measurement of the current in this mode. I got close to 160 mA at 4.5 V that really gives about 0.75 W, but also means that even lithium batteries will last only for 4-5 hours. I prepared 2 sets of batteries for the race and it was hardly enough for the night. Another problem was the electronics of the magnetic switch that had not enough power to turn the light off at low batteries. The main advantages of the light are very compact size, very low weight (~100 g with batteries) and very bright beam. Tora can be used as a spare light for long races or for transition areas. For the main light I would recommend 3W Brunton L3 or 6 Volts version of Petzl Myo-3 with an external power pack. Both are almost 3 times heavier than Tora, but so far are the best lights I tested.
I got the Inov-8 Race 30 backpack as a trophy for the 1st place at Odyssey One Day race this year. 26 hours of “The Shag” race were the first real test for this unusual pack. Fortunately the weather was in comfortable 70 F and 2 liters horizontal bladder in combination with external bottle has been enough to keep me hydrated between water sources. The idea of horizontal bladder looks interesting, but after 15 hours in the race I realized that the center of gravity of the pack is too low and my lower back got too much load and no opportunity to rest, especially on bike. I also didn’t like the time I spent to refuel the bladder and install it back into the belt of the pack. The bottom line, I gave this backpack to Karen to test a theory of low center of gravity for women. I kept the bottle holder that I am going to install onto my Lafuma Active 30 - the best backpack ever created for adventure races.
I just came back from the Shag. The strongest teams of the east coast started this amazing and challenging race: EMS, GOALSARA, Berlin Bikes, NYARA, ATP... total 33 teams. 26 hours of rain, fog, and clouds so low you can touch it. Tens of miles of single trail mountain bike. Rocks and very long technical trails. Third place in prime division and National Qualifier for Calleva!
This race is going to be 26 hours training and test of new gear.
Untamed Virginia 30 hours adventure race official results and race reports:
Thanks to Masha - captain of Dancing Pandas for the AR course, "End of the World" looks less scary now.
Team Calleva tied the first overall place with team Nature Cure in 24 hours Odyssey One Day Race. Our racers (from left to right below): Michelle, Sara, Mark and Dima.
Thanks to Petr an Brian for 7 hours and 45 minutes of hard work. Vetting team report is published. Sponsors updates are coming.
On Saturday I was setting markers on the Calleva race O-course. As I approached wetland near one of CPs, I've seen three (!) of these nice snakes just six feet away from the CP. One big and two small Copperheads were catching sunlight that penetrates through a dense vegetation of thick, wet forest. I moved this CP 10 feet away into a shade of a big tree. It is harder to see now, but safer for the racers. On Sunday good friend of mine was vetting the course and saw no snakes. The final pre-run of the course will be in two weeks. We got very good and fast team to do it. Updates will follow.
Interview with Marshall Breite about success of team Calleva in the Untamed New England adventure race. How we survived 60 hours of that fantastic race.
full course. We skipped the last CP, but we got credit for it, because race officials forgot to tell us that we can use 6 more hours to get it.
Tomorrow morning I am going North. I will pick up Marshall in NY and from there we will continue all the way to northern New Hampshire. The race starts Thursday 12:00 pm. You can follow our progress online, and even track our location between check points. Don't forget to send Trail Mail to your favorite team!
Our team is Calleva. Our number is 3.
I just realize that now I am team captain without permanent supervision. I don't have to run for points, ranks and titles anymore. I can do stuff that is really cool. Terra Travers just lowered the entry fee and provided 50% discount on Air Canada airfare (too bad it is just 12 hours driving to Quebec and we don't need this discount). And there are no other good races in October. The goal is set. Lets do it!
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