2011 racing summary.

That was the best year for the team (so far :-). We did 7 adventure races and one duathlon. Every event we did this year brought us to podium: 4 first places, 3 second places, and 1 third place. Team Calleva ranked first in coed-2 Check Point Tracker series, first in East Coast Adventure Racing Series, and #1 Ranked Adventure Racing Team in Maryland by USARA:



We raced as coed-2, coed-4, male-2 and female-2 this year and showed great results in all these categories.

For the next year we have new racers and new racing plans. The fifth edition of the Calleva Adventure Race is scheduled for August 5th, official announcement will be out in January. We wish everybody happy New Year!

See you at the starting line!

Canaan Valley Christmas weekend ride.

In order to burn Christmas dinner calories we decided to make a ski trip bike a loop north of Dolly Sods wilderness through the top of Cabin Mountain. Conditions on the top were perfect for extreme downhill ride. Here is 47 second of unedited GoPro video of ice and snow downhill:

The entire loop was about 40 km and took us more than 4 hours. It was hard to navigate on top, all trails were covered by snow and we had to carry our bikes around icy rocks and boulders. Here is Google Earth overview of the loop we did in counterclockwise direction (slopes must be white). Timberline ski resort is in the left corner, where we started.

Click the image to see the big map.
To get down from Dolly Sods we used famous A-Frame road. Very fast ride on patches of ice and snow. This accidentally nice image was captured with GoPro attached to my helmet. Amazing camera.

2012 Calleva Adventure Race

We have a preliminary date for the next year Calleva Race. Mark your calendar for the 5th edition: Sunday, August 5th 2012. We should have all main permits by the end of the week. It's all new and different from previous years. As for now enjoy the memories from this year race in "2011 Calleva Race" movie:

Championship race report. Part 2.

First I have to say that we are incredibly lucky to have such generous sponsors as Calleva Outdoor Adventure. Without their support we would never get this incredible result. Thank you guys!

The 2011 CheckPoint Tracker National Championship was hosted at Lake Barkley resort in Cadiz, KY. The race was covering northern part of the wonderful Land between the Lakes national recreation area. That was my first trip to Kentucky, but I did my homework and downloaded all possible maps of the area to my laptop. I also checked some previous editions of Bonk Hard Racing events and realized that navigation will be the key of this year national championship. Here is what I learned about Bonk Hard Racing O-courses:
1) Distance between CPs is 1 km or more. That means it is very hard to attack one CP from another.
2) Very complicated land surface combined with 20 feet contour lines makes it very difficult to follow any small or even medium size features.
3) Most of good attack points are located on roads, but running on roads increases the travel distance by factor of 3 or even 4.
With this knowledge, Google Earth and bunch of maps in my laptop I started late night quiz on the race strategy. We got maps at 9 pm, race start was scheduled for 7 am next morning, and every minute I spent on the maps was deducted from my night sleep. Fortunately, we got maps and rules of travel only for the first half of the race and I squeezed 5 hours of sleep into this tight schedule.



Race started with a short prologue, followed by 3 CPs O-course, and 1 hour paddling leg. Very fast and easy, except the fact that we came in 4th in coed-2 to the main O-course transition. I was surprised by the level of the competition. We had great season with Michelle this year and team Orion was the only one that managed to beat us at Equinox Traverse a couple of month ago. This time it was different and we were not in the lead any more… at least for now. I prepared very solid strategy for the o-course and the first half dozen checkpoints were acquired with no mistakes or delays. That next one was tricky, and we did a mistake trying to attack it from the merging point of two creeks, instead of the road. Merging was not a point, it was 400 feet wide area of dense bushes. Attacking from there didn’t work well and we missed our re-entrée. We lost 40 more minutes looking around and finally gave up this CP. Now, when we were behind the schedule, we decided to skip 3 remote CPs, and move closer to the end of the O-course, where many easy CPs were located. Here I beat my personal record and navigated 1.1 kilometer straight line from one CP to another within 10 meters precision! Last 2 CPs (out of 29) were located on the opposite side of the lake and we had only 1 hour and at least 6 miles of travel to find them. That was very challenging, especially after sunset, and we couldn’t find the second one on time. We ran back to transition and made the 10 hours cutoff within 5 minutes! Our total losses were 5 missed CPs and soar legs from 10 hours of running.



In total dark we transitioned back to canoes and paddled north, to biking transition area. That’s where we got maps of the rest of the race. We spent 10 minutes plotting CPs and possible routes of travel: the biking leg was HUGE; more than 60 miles, mostly in dark, and mostly on technical single track! And all this in 13 hours till the finish cutoff that includes 5 miles of paddling back to the finish. It was tough. Michelle liked the biking leg, I didn’t… So read her race report about the biking leg of the race, since I am going to skip it here. I couldn’t believe we are going to make it on time until our canoe hit the sandy shore of the finish line. Only 10 minutes left till the 30 hours cutoff and any additional mistake would send us behind many teams. Likely we did no more mistakes.

This year I had really great season and the best teammate. I learned a lot of new stuff and my navigation is much better now. The season is over, but we have great plans for the next year. See you then…
Dima

Results of the race are here.
All our photos are here.
Vlad’s photos from the championship are here.

Championship race report. Part 1.

This past weekend Dima and I headed out to Kentucky and an area known as the Land between the Lakes for the Checkpoint Zero National Championship race. The race was the final one for us as a team this year as Team Calleva/Halfwaythere.com and we were excited about racing in a new area and on new terrain that we knew would be challenging. Bonk Hard racing designed the race course for Checkpoint Tracker and after 30 hours of full on racing (actually 29 hours and 50 minutes for us) we can say that it truly was a championship caliber course. Going into the race Dima and I were ranked # 1 in the 2 person co-ed division and we knew that regardless of our race there was no way anyone could over take us in the final rankings for the year. However there were 12, 2 person co-ed teams and some great competition most notably team Orion from Minnesota. They beat us at the Equinox Traverse over the summer and we knew they would be our competition for this race. The race started at 7am Friday morning as the sun was rising over the Land between the Lakes. We were blessed with perfect racing weather for the whole 30 hours. Not too cold, not hot at all. Perfect racing conditions with Kentucky fall foliage as our playground.

7am and off we went first on a short and I mean short paddle prologue around Ian Adamson off the shore of the beach. Once we got back to the beach we started the race with a trekking leg in Lake Barkley Park. This leg had 3 points we could get in any order, followed by a trek back to the beach for the start of the first paddle. The trek took about an hour and soon we were in our boat for a short 5 mile paddle across the lake. We took out about an hour later at CP 5 and had a brief trek to CP 6 and the start of an epic orienteering section. There were almost 30 points on this O course spread out over 30k. All teams had 10 hours to complete the course and get as many points as we could in any order. We got our plan of attack together for the course and headed out around 10am for what would be a long, hard but very fun day of running around in the woods. Dima did an excellent job of navigating and after 10 full hours we hit all but 4 points on the course. The O course was one of the best I have ever done and I know many other racers felt the same way. Darkness moved in and we made our way back to the boats for a beautiful night paddle under a sky full of stars. There is something special about paddling out in a remote area in the dark with nothing but a few lights in the distance and a quietness that is hard to find anywhere else. Definitely a highlight of the race. By 10:30pm we had landed at the paddle takeout after getting two points on the water. We then made our way by foot to the TA where we got the rest of our race course which was primarily one big bike leg. We transitioned from foot to bike and after plotting the points and our route we were off for what would be about 10 hours of awesome mountain biking including some of the best single track in an adventure race I have ever done. The highlight of the race for me. By the end of the bike leg we were cutting it close for time after deciding that we were getting all the points on that leg, a decision that many teams did not make. But we never never stopped moving and we made it back to the boat put in for the last paddle of the race to the finish. We got on the water at 11:45am and had till 1pm to get to the finish. We were not sure we were going to make it and time got even tighter when we discovered we did not punch the passport at the put in. We had to turn around, paddle back and punch the point before heading out on the paddle for good. From there it was a paddle sprint to the finish and the beach of Lake Barkley State Park came into our sites with 20 minutes left on the clock. We paddled hard and hit the beach and finish line with 10 minutes to spare!! We were one of the last teams to finish due to our decision to clear the bike leg of the race. Many teams except for the top contenders skipped most of the bike section and we knew because of that we either had 1st or 2nd depending on how team Orion did. Well as we found out later they cleared the O Course and finished a few hours ahead of us. Kudos to them for running a great race!!! So we came in 2nd in our division but 1st for the year overall. Overall it was an awesome race with a well thought out and challenging course.
The year has come to an end for us and I would like to say a special thanks to Calleva for making it all possible this year. They have been great sponsors and it has been a privilege racing for them this year. We hope you enjoyed following us this year as much as we enjoyed racing. Dima, thanks for being an awesome teammate. I had a great time at all of our races and could not ask for a better teammate.
Until next year.........

Second Place

Team Calleva, Dima and Michelle finished in 2nd place at the CheckPoint Tracker National Championships in Kentucky this weekend!!!



Race reports and photos are coming. Enjoy this short video from Swiftwick Socks that we've been wearing during the race:

2011 Adventure Racing Championship

Summer is almost over and the last big race of the season is coming this weekend. 2011 Adventure Racing Championship at the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. Tomorrow evening Dima, Michelle and Vlad are taken South-West flight to Nashville. From Nashville it's just 90 minutes drive to Lake Barkley Lodge - the race host hotel, where we are staying till Sunday. Dima and Michelle are racing and currently ranked first in coed-2 division. Vlad is our support (before and after the race) and photographer. Check Vlad's last year works from the championship in Moab, UT. Calleva provides full sponsorship for all of us for this event.

Life coverage of the race will be available through the CheckPointTracker website (click leaderboard tab). We are not taken our SPOT with us, you cannot see us on the map. Our team is Calleva, our number is 9.

Last month we spent trying to get to the top shape, combining it with preparations for the 2012 Calleva race. New terrain, new area, new challenges, all new. Get ready and look at these thorns Dima and Greg found in the forest:

East Coast Championship

This past weekend Dima and I headed up to Seven Springs Resort in PA for the 1st Edition of the East Coast Adventure Racing Series Championship Race put on by American Adventure Sports. The race was 18 hours long and we were looking for the win in our 2 person Co-Ed division so we could win the series overall. The race started at Midnight on top of the ski resort mountain and after coming out of a warm summer it was a balmy 45 degrees with wind at the start. The race started with a mandatory trekking leg with 5 points and then an optional orienteering leg with 6 points. We made our way through the first trek and within minutes we were both warm after a chilly start. After looking at the orienteering map we decided to skip one of the points and headed out for 5 of the points. Unlike many other teams Dima did a great job navigating this section and we wrapped up both trekking legs in roughly 6 hours and headed back to the TA and a transition to bike. The bike leg consisted of several mandatory CP's as well as several optional CP's on the way to Hidden Valley Resort. We headed out on the bike for a very cold but brief descent down the mountain. The first few points we in the ski resort with several more on our way to Hidden Valley. Daylight was upon us soon after we got on the bikes so we were able to put the headlamps away making navigation a bit easier. We got all the points on the way to Hidden Valley and started the climb to the TA. At this next TA we transitioned to another trek/orienteering course within Hidden Valley Ski Resort. Once again several of the points were mandatory and several were optional. As we headed out on the trek we planned to go for all the points since we were making good time. We hit the first 2 and headed for the 3rd point located on the northern tip of a hill top. This point was tricky and we spent an hour and twenty minutes looking for it with no luck. We decided to call it a day and headed out of the woods to our next point and then back to the TA. Once back at the TA we had a quick transition back to the bike. We headed out for the ride back to Seven Springs. We had several points along the way as we headed back into the resort for the long climb back up the mountain to the TA. By the time we got back to the TA it was about 3pm and we had 3 hours left on the course. We had 2 legs of the race left, a short orienteering trekking leg and a final mountain bike leg on trails within Seven Springs. We headed out on the trek for a pretty easy leg. The highlight of the race was at the end of the trek when Dima decided that we should take the ski lift back up the mountain instead of trekking back up. We had overheard Doug the race director say taking the ski lift was not prohibited so we went for it. We got lucky and did not have to pay the lift fee. As we went up the lift which went over the downhill mountain bike trail system we saw many riders bombing down the mountain. We got to the top and headed back into the TA with about 1 hour left on the race clock. We quickly transitioned back to bike and headed out on the final section which consisted of 4 optional points. With only an hour left our plan to was try and get at least one point before heading back to the finish. As we were making our way to the first point Dima discovered that something was wrong with his bike seat. He got off to check it out which resulted in the entire seat breaking off the bike. There was no way to fix it and if we had continued Dima would have been riding without a seat. The timing could not have been better to lose a bike seat since there were no mandatory CP's on that last bike leg. So we headed back to the finish and turned in our passport for an official time of 17 hours and 30 minutes. Overall I think we had a good race, winning our division and winning the overall division for the race series. We walked away with some cool swag and it was a great warmup for the real National Championship Race in Kentucky the weekend of Oct 21st. That race will be even harder with some great competition in the 2 Person Co-Ed division. We are going to have to be in top form and run a fast race to win. Stay tuned........
Michelle

The Shag.

First I have to tell you: If you've never raced Shag, you don't know how good an adventure race could be. And it's not because of perfect organization, and not because of difficult terrain, these two you can see at some other races as well. But only NYARA provides this level of navigation challenge. This was my third Shag race, but it was my first time as Shag race primary navigator. Finally I felt strong enough to try it. My teammate for this race was Vladimir, good friend of mine. It was his first AR and not only he finished the race in one piece, he also enjoyed it (especially the medal at the end :-).



We started the race with 10+ kilometers of lake paddling, following by a short road bike section. Foot navigation o-course was next and biking o-course was at the very end before the finish. The race was in the best modified ROGAIN format and strategy was very important. Hurricane Irene was approaching and it was raining from the start of the race. Shag race is famous by its tough mountain biking trails and we decided to spend more time on foot and less time biking on slippery rocks of northern New Jersey parks. Despite very thick bushes of Rhododendron, it was right decision and we took all but 3 CPs of the first o-course. We did a very few mistakes, and Vladimir helped me a lot with navigation, especially at the beginning. Part of the navigation challenge was to collect a trash near Laurel Pond at the end of the o-course. We were the last team at that location and the place was sparkling clean. Fortunately 2 miles latter we took a wrong turn and found a big pile of trash left here from the pipeline construction. This mistake (and not having other mistakes) gave us 6 bonus points for the bag full of trash and led us to the 3rd place in the most competitive male-2 division of the race. We had GoPro camera with us on the course, all "good" photos from the race are here. For now I hope to improve my navigation skills and waiting for the next year Shag race.
Dima

Final race results are out. We are 3rd in male-2 (out of 8) and 6th overall (out of 37)!

Equinox traverse and future plans.

Written by Dima.

August is the busiest time for the team, especially this year, when we organized the longest and the toughest Calleva Race ever. There are 1000+ photos and links to some exiting race reports on the race website.
Finally I got a few minutes to write about 46 hours Equinox traverse that was almost 4 weeks ago at Ohiopyle park in Pennsylvania. Actually, Ohiopyle was pretty much start and finish of the race, while most of the course was all the way north beyond the Pennsylvania Turnpike! The race was epic! I don't remember last time I had to run so much, but we had to run. Competition was strong and team Orion from Minnesota beat us on every single stage of the race except the last O-course where we gained 2 extra points. As the result we finished 2nd in coed 2 (next time we have to run even more, because we have no chance to beat team Orion on bikes) and 5th overall (actually 4th, but they forgot to count ropes bonus for our team). The highlight of the race was my new Fenix light. It was so bright I had to dim it for incoming car traffic.

Now the plans for the rest of the season. Next weekend is the Shag. It's 12 hours and I am going there with Vladimir. He is doing boring triathlons and I hope to convert him into the "right religion". He already did his first mountain bike ride, not bad for the first timer:


In September is going to be East Coast Championship in Pennsylvania. And finally in October all North American Adventure Racing Championship in the Land between the Lakes in Kentucky. Both championships we are going to run with Michelle in coed-2. So far we are ranked first in both championship series and all we need now are victories!

Calleva race vetting team. First impression.

* There was a significant amount of foot travel not on trails (bushwhacking)
* We came across a ton of poison ivy
* Navigation can be tricky



Brain and Michelle did great job, testing the course, fixing small mistakes and prepare recommendations (coming soon on the race website).

The race is 80% sold out. Get your team together and sign in now, before it's too late.

USS Calleva.

USS Calleva sailboat is ready to leave the anchorage at National Harbor and sail down the Lower Potomac River. 5 days of fun learning about the riggings, charts, plotting, and sailing a big boat all the way to the Chesapeake Bay.
Team Calleva is jealous and wish a good luck to young sailors!

The Longest Day

After Rev3 Epic success Michelle and I decided to try another tough race – the Longest Day. I did two NYARA races in 2008 and 2009, but for Michelle it was the first race in Catskill Mountains. To go north we borrow big Suburban from Calleva and picked up Brain from team SOG Friday around 1 pm. Traditionally for NYARA races there was no Friday check-in and we spent the night in a very old, but stylish hotel 3 miles from the race start. Check in started at 5 am and was fast and very efficient. The race started at 7 am with o-course prologue where each team member had to find 4-5 check points at the slopes of the Belleayre Mountain ski resort. I manage to get lost near one of CPs and we left prologue within last 10 teams.
Next stage was long biking to the top of the mountain and down to the Ecopus creek, where we started the first hiking section. Rodney and Amy, the race directors promised 20,000+ feet of the total elevation gain and that’s where we got 2000+ of it. We bushwhacked to the mandatory CP at the top of the mountain, got one optional CP in the saddle and decided to skip two other optional CPs of this section. This race was all about navigation and strategy. Navigation was very tricky, but modified ROGAIN format of the race allowed us to choose the best set of CPs we could get.
After the O-course we descended to Ecopus creek downstream of the water releasing aqueduct and transitioned into whitewater raft. The raft was huge and it took us 30 minutes to learn how to control it with only 2 paddlers. When we came to the whitewater slalom site, we hit almost all gates, but judges were not impressed with our performance, as we couldn’t fit the raft into narrow gates -:).
From the raft we transitioned back onto bikes and started the longest and the steepest ascent of the race. It took us a couple of hours to get to the top, to Firewood tower from where you can see New York City (I guess). Downhill from the top was very rocky and technical single track, like our Gambrill, but 10 times longer. We managed to get both optional CPs of this section right before the dark and arrived to transition with all our lights on.
Next section was “The whole night O-Course”. That’s where we got the most of our optional points. We bushwhacked through the forest so thick that you cannot see the ground without touching it with your hands. It was very difficult navigation, as in most cases you cannot go straight line and have to detour around cliffs. We got the most possible number of point with the minimal elevation change (just about 4000 feet or so) and arrived to the Hunter Mountain right after Sunrise. Here was the rope course and the biggest surprise of the race.
It’s very hard to impress me with ropes after 20 years of vertical caving experience, but Hunter Mountain Zip Line was amazing. We did in total 4+ MILES of zip lines at up to 600 feet high wire stretched above the tree tops. That’s was the only point of the race I regret I don’t have my camera with me. If you have an opportunity, try it: the highest and the longest zip line in North America!
From the bottom of the zip line we hiked back up (+1000 feet) and then down (-1000 feet) to our bikes and ride straight to the finish. Straight line on the map was going through the last optional CP on the top of twelve hundreds feet mountain and we made it to the finish right before the race cut-off time of 1 pm.
We finished the race 1st in our category of coed-2 and 7th overall (out of 30 teams). 48 hours of Equinox Traverse is going to be our next race. See you Pennsylvania in one month.
Dima

Adventure Racing Astronomy and Botany

This Saturday is The Longest Day... and it will follow by the Longest Night... If you think it's wrong, you are an astronomer. If you think it's right, you are an adventure racer.

Here is report from a team of adventure racing biologists, local to The Longest Day area:

"We have started to scout the Longest Day area and have come upon two new (and little known) forms of plant life in the area....Rodney-dendron* and Amy-ryllis*.

Rodney-dendron (from Ancient Greek rhód "problematic", and déndron "tree")^[1][2] is a genus of over 1000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers. It includes the plants known to gardeners as azaleas.

The Rodney-dendron is a genus characterized by gnarly branches that are difficult to navigate and even harder to see through. The largest, R. giganteum, is reported to over 30 meters tall.^[3] The leaves are spirally arranged; and often contain a hidden check point (CP).  In some species the underside of the leaves is covered with scales (lepidote) or hairs (indumentum) and articles of clothing left by frustrated adventure racers.  They tend to come to full bloom between the hours of 1:00am to 4:00am.

Amy-ryllis (pronounced /ˌæmiˈrɪləs/)^[1] is also known as the belladonna lily. It is highly likely to find Rodneydendron and Amyryllis to be found growing in close proximity.

The genus has two species and the more famous of the two, Amaryllis belladonna, is a native of New York City and New Paltz, particularly the rocky southwest region near the Gunks.

Each plant is small but assertive. The plant is similar to stinging nettles if rubbed the wrong way."

___________________________________________
* Rodney and Amy are The Longest Day race directors and Course designers :-)

We are going north tomorrow, the 30 hours race starts 7 am Saturday. Team Calleva/HalfWayThere.com Michelle and Dima are ready for this astro-biological event. Looks like there is no life coverage for the race, but check CPT website, may be they will have something.

Wild and Wonderful Race Report

By Niki Markoff about her first 24 hours adventure race.

A few months ago, Calleva Adventure Racing Team leader, Dima, called to see if I would join him for a 24 hour race. I was hesitant but accepted the challenge. Whether or not I could complete the race was another question. My only previous experience with adventure racing was the 10hr. Calleva Race so I was more than a little nervous. I was worried about everything but mostly about not being able to keep up with the rest of the team. To take my mind off of not being as physically prepared as I would have liked, I managed to fret about forgetting something, what I should wear, being cold, rain, falling asleep while biking, the water being to big, the uniform giving me rashes, not having time to stop to use the bathroom, having too much food, having too little food, not having enough water and the list goes on.

I picked up Dima at noon on Friday and we drove to the New. For 5 hours, Dima entertained me with stories of 100 hour races in the freezing waters of New England and people being so sleep deprived during a race that they were asking directions from trees. By the end of the ride, I was practically paralyzed with fear. Karen met us at our cabin and helped me organize my bag for the race. Dima supplied me a space blanket, a knife and a lighter, items that were required, but in my frantic state, I had forgotten. I started to feel a little better. After the pre-race meeting, Karen and Dima worked on plotting our course. I sat at the table but since I could offer no help, I decided to go to bed.

We woke up on race day to a beautiful day. Rafting companies can only run the New River under 12 feet. It was 11ft on Saturday and we were treated to a 1.5 hour, 16 mile ride down the New's class III-V waters. Then the real work began. We headed up from the bottom of the gorge and along the Endless Wall, a popular climbing spot in the Gorge. We scrambled over slick rocks and waded through fields of poison ivy. I was still very nervous so I tried to focus on the beautiful views of the river far below. The course backtracked three times over one section. We bushwacked while trying to find a trail marked on the map but not where we thought it was on the course. The trekking section was quite long but we found all the checkpoints and were quickly able to move on to biking. This was the part I was most nervous about. It was a hilly 20 mile ride mostly on gravel or asphalt. We were chased by several dogs. We thought we almost ran over a snake slithering its way across the warm asphalt. Although the snake was real, it was dead. Some boys had chopped its head off, tied a piece of fishing line around it and were pulling it across the road in front of innocent bikers. There were some long hills, definitely the most challenging part for me, but we made it through and even made up some time on the other teams.

By the time we got to the O-course it was dark. Dima, with help from Vlad and Karen was able to find 3 of the checkpoints. I just stumbled along behind them. What looked on the map like a checkpoint that would take 20 min. to find often took a couple of hours. Somewhere around midnight, my knees seemed so swollen and sore that I started to wonder how I would make it through the night. Dima fixed me up with some drugs, Ibuprofen and caffeine, and I was able to carry on. We even finished the O-course before our goal of 3am. We grabbed our bikes and headed back up the mountain. After the first biking leg, I was really dreading this but it turned out to be my favorite part of the race. The dirt road was covered in large puddles and was pretty muddy and rocky. Despite all of our lights, it was very challenging but the moon was beautiful and the sky was filled with stars. It was a gorgeous night to be biking. The sun started to come up as we headed down the gorge and headed down the gorge and headed down the gorge. Luckily my brakes didn't go out until we were almost to the bottom and Dima was quickly able to fix them. We crossed over the New River bridge and headed toward the finish.

The race had one last treat in store for us. The second to last checkpoint was up a long hiking trail. We pushed our bikes up the trail and carried them over a steep, rushing creek. A little up the hill was the checkpoint. Was the race over? Not yet. We still had time to get one more checkpoint and that is what we did. Thanks to Dima's vision on the last checkpoint, we biked across the finish line 2nd place in our category! Many thanks to Dima, Vlad, and Karen for helping me get through my first 24hr race!

Brunswick Forest Duathlon

Karen's First Race Since Moving to North Carolina.

On Sunday May 15th, Karen and neighbor Andrea Mansfield competed in the
Brunswick Forest Duathlon, winning 1st place in the female team division.
Andrea began the race with a 5k run, posting a 23 minute segment. Karen
completed the next 16 mile biking leg in 51 minutes, and Andrea finished the
final 2 mile leg in 16 minutes. With transitions, the final time was
1:32.50.

Karen had planned on racing the entire course, but after a significant back
injury in February, she wanted to take it easy. Andrea, an accomplished
runner, wanted to compete, but isn't a biker. So a team was formed. Andrea
was spot on, with her unknowing choice of attire to compliment Karen's green
jersey.

This was a fast, flat course through the neighborhood. There were quite a
few serious competitors, especially in the individual categories. Lots of
expensive tribikes and aerodynamic helmets! The weather was typical for the
coast--nice and humid, with plenty of sunshine! With no map and compass, no
swamps to cross, no poison ivy, no Russian drill sergeant--there's not much
to tell. Just a great race and great prep for Wild Wonderful 24 this coming
weekend! See you guys soon!

Wild and Wonderful this year.

It's already tradition that every May we're going to Odyssey Wild and Wonderful race in West Virginia. Every year we are trying to bring a new racer or even a new team to this race. Last year Calleva's team UHB took 5th in their category. This year Wild and Wonderful will be challenged by Niki as her first 24 hours race. Niki, Dima, Vlad and Karen will trek with map and compass, ride mountain bikes up, over and around the New River Gorge, and whitewater raft on class V water. Life coverage will be provided by Checkpoint Tracker that put this nice photo in the front page slideshow



Dima thinks this photo needs a better caption... Any ideas?

REV3 Epic race report

Rev3 Adventures
Front Royal VA April 16th and 17th

This was the first big Adventure Race for the company REV3 adventures and with the event being so close to home on some familiar training ground, Dima and I decided to join forces and take the Epic on.
The race had a 26 hour cut off with over 100 miles of mountain biking, trekking and orienteering. Over the course of the week leading into the race the area received alot of rain and due to the Shenandoah river rising the race officials decided to cancel the paddle due to safety concerns. At first we were all disappointed but by the end of the day on Saturday I think every racer was happy there was no paddle. The river was raging, and with the wind, pouring rain, thunder and lighting all day even the most experienced racer and paddlers would have been in trouble.
So off we went early Saturday morning in a light drizzle with a promise of a wet and nasty day. We started off with a short trek prologue to get our first passport. Once we got back to the transition area we made a strategic decision to do the mandatory challenge immediately so we could get it out of the way and focus on the rest of the race. The challenge required alot of teammate work and we had to get ourselves and 3 huge barrels across a plot of land without either of us touching the ground. We quickly figured out the best strategy and within minutes we were on the other side. We later leaned that we had the fastest overall time for the challenge out of all the Epic race teams.

From here it was off on the bikes for a 50 mile ride on roads and fire roads in and around the beautiful Fort Valley Area. We had 3 great climbs and downhills to checkpoints and we were able to get through the leg before alot of the roads flooded due to torrential downpours. The ride was very wet but we stayed warm and got to the river transition area in a little under 5 hours. Due the paddle being cancelled and with no fast and easy way to the original paddle takeout 30 miles down river, we were transported by bus back to the paddle takeout, our cars and the TA. The ride back was a nice little rest with a chance to eat, get warm and dry out a bit.
Once back at the TA we had to head out on foot to grab 2 CP's. This trek took a little over an hour and on our way back the sky really opened up and we got our first real downpour of the day. We were soaking wet by the time we got back to the TA. We then got our next passport and points/map for the next section of the race, the Orienteering Course. We plotted the 20 or so points in Dima's car while it absolutely poured outside. We decided to let the rain pass us and started out on the O course. The O course was very long and challenging and overall very well laid out. We had 5 mandatory points we had to get with the rest being optional. We went for every point and other than not finding one we were able to get them all and got back into the TA at around 3am. We spent alot of time and energy on the O course but quickly transitioned, and left for the last leg of the race, a 10 mile mountain bike section on some of the same trails and terrain we did the O Course on. I was very familiar with the park and trail system and we were able to hit all 4 mandatory points in a relatively fast time. We had a great climb up Allen Mountain for one point and an awesome technical downhill in the dark on the way back down. Thanks to Dima's awesome bright lights for a smooth descent. By far my favorite part of the race!!!
We rolled into the finish at 6:00am, 22 hours later. We came in 6th overall out of 40 some teams and more importantly we won our two person CO-ED division.
We won some great swag (the best I have ever seen at a race) and after a nice shower, and a quick nap we enjoyed the breakfast provided by the race.

Overall it was a great race and thanks to my awesome teammate Dima on a great race and some stellar navigating on the O Course.
We will certainly be back next year.

See you on the trail!
Michelle

Rev3 Epic Adventure

26 hours race starts 7:30 am tomorrow. We are going to get big storm for the first half of the race.

Paddling is cancelled already due to a high water level.

Calleva teams up with TeamHalfWayThere for coed two division of Dima and Michelle. The race is part of The East Coast Adventure Racing Series and Checkpoint Tracker North American Series.

Live coverage is going to be on Facebook and Twitter.
Race website is here.

Patapsco Valley Park training.

Michelle Faucher from teamhalfwaythere.com put a nice training session this Saturday in Patapsco park. Three hours of fast riding at the first day of summer were a lot of fun and excitement:

Dima was a camera man this time and made this 3 minutes video from the three hours of riding.
Enjoy "First Day of Summer" starring Jared Macary and Michelle Faucher:

Calleva Race Registration is OPEN!

It's that time of year again. Time to sign up for the most exciting race in the Washington, DC area! Do you need a challenge, do you like wet feet and 90 degree heat? How about 10 hours of heart pounding, mind blowing adventure racing? Calleva Adventure racing is back with its 4th Annual Adventure Race August 7th, 2011 in Poolsville, Maryland. Trekking, mountain biking, paddling and navigation, not to mention the famous challenges will test your body and mind—this race is not your ordinary adventure race!

There are some major changes this year. Please read carefully--don’t say we didn’t warn you!

1) This year race will be a point-to-point format with less than the usual number of optional points. The Expert course distance looks like this: biking – 20-25 miles, paddling – 8-10 miles, running/hiking – 5-12 miles. If you get lost, the extra miles are free of charge. Sport category will have some fun detours and additional biking instead of paddling, but overall distance will be the same. This year sport navigation might be harder than in previous years.

2) Expert category will have teams of 2 and 4 racers ONLY. COED-4 is the prime division fighting for major prizes. Paddling will be 2 people per canoe with a chance of paddling with your bikes in the canoes (just short section). Canoes and paddles will be provided by Calleva, but racers must provide their own lifejackets. We will update the gear list soon.

3) Expert category racers will ride mandatory technical single tracks that are at least 5 miles long. No cyclocross bikes are allowed for the Expert category. Sport category racers are allowed to use any bikes, but many optional check points will be accessible only on mountain bikes.

4) Sport category will have no paddling this year, but racers must be ready for some other water activities. Calleva will provide all necessary gear--get ready for some extreme fun. This year Sport category will also have completely new challenges. Sorry Experts, you have no time for the challenges.

5) Check-in will be at the same location (Riley’s Lock) and you will leave your cars there. BUT start AND FINISH of the race will be at two remote locations. Racers will be bused to and from there by Calleva. Check the race schedule to see what time you will be brought back to your cars.

6)To save you some bucks, Calleva is providing its own secure online payment service, eliminating fees to a third party provider. Registration is $75 per racer till May 31, $100 from June 1 to July 31 and $125 after that. The number of spots is limited and the race is always sold out. Online registration will close July 31.

Click here to read the registration instructions.

Click here to access online registration.

Click here to go to the Calleva Race homepage.

We can’t wait to see you in August! Be ready for a challenge—finish if you dare!

Last days of February training.

Winter is almost over and it's time to start a new season. We started it too fast and got a few injures right before Soggy Bottom race. The best way to recover is a smooth training at warm, spring-like day. Vlad got his new bike from our Calleva sponsors and it was the first ride.

Now we have two almost identical Specialized Epics to race this season. We still working on racing plans and on Annual Calleva race. This training was used to shout an inspirational video for the race, check our news in a few weeks to see it.

I recently rejoined the US Navy as a critical care nurse and have been stationed at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, North Carolina since mid October 2010. Three weeks after arriving to the command, I was asked if I would volunteer for a deployment in support of the US Marines, I agreed with lots of excitement and happiness. My orientation to the command then was modified and now I'm on the verge of leaving for Afghanistan.

I miss adventure racing and the Calleva organization. I have been privileged to represent Calleva in races here and abroad, always taking the time to talk to racers about our organization and how it helps develop the kids from the surrounding communities. Now I speak about Calleva to staff members and even my deployment group. I'm about to take on another kind of adventure in a different part of this beautiful world. I will pass on the Calleva culture to the Marines, Sailors and Soldiers that I meet and hope to bring everyone back home.

The camaraderie, support and inspirational stories from my time with Calleva added lots of happiness to my life. Thank you Calleva staff members, especially Matt and Alex Markoff for your help and support in the past. So as I leave, please remember this...always make the most of your opportunities, especially those that inspire passion, desire, love and peace, for we never know when we will get another chance.

More stories to be shared when I return, until then enjoy the outdoors.

Valentin Chapa
LTJG, NC, US NAVY