Team Calleva Blog

Superbowl weekend training

2012-02-05T18:59:00.000-05:00

Tamir, Alex and Nick joined the A-List morning ride at difficult run and met Dima's race partner from several races last year, Michelle Faucher. While the A-listers headed off for pancakes, we decided to continue on and rode the trails into Great Falls. Great day for riding and a much needed stop at Trader Joe's for chocolate and beer on the way home! (6 pounds of dark chocolate should last a few weeks. The beer a night or two.)

At the same time Dima and Stephanie have been running at the Maryland side of the river. 15 miles of the Greenway trail was a good training for the next month Greenway 50k run.

Everything went pretty smooth until we lost the new unmarked section of the trail and had to include a little bit of adventure racing into our run:

Team Calleva general meeting and 2012 plans

2012-01-25T11:03:00.000-05:00

This weekend we got all (almost all) together with Calleva director to discuss plans for this year and preparations for the 2012 Calleva Adventure Race.

We also went over budget and proposal for new uniforms (yes!).
Here are our preliminary racing plans for 2012:

February - SBB Rogaine & Land Nav Challenge
March - Adrenaline Rush
April - Rev3 Epic Adventure Race
May - Odyssey Wild Wonderful
May - The Longest Day
June - Untamed New England
July - Equinox Traverse
August - Calleva Adventure Race
September - ECARS Championship
September - 2012 Adventure Racing Championship

Our race calendar and team members pages will be updated soon. See you at the start line.

2011 racing summary.

2011-12-30T11:52:00.000-05:00

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.

2011-12-27T10:33:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-07T23:06:00.000-05:00

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.

2011-11-03T15:38:00.003-04:00

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.

2011-10-29T19:26:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-26T15:27:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

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

2011-09-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-08-29T12:31:00.004-04:00

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.

2011-08-18T18:34:00.003-04:00

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.

2011-07-11T14:46:00.000-04:00

* 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.

2011-06-27T10:14:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-10T15:38:00.005-04:00

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

2011-06-02T11:02:00.007-04:00

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

2011-05-25T20:17:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-05-16T15:31:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-26T09:53:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-15T13:18:00.003-04:00

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.

2011-03-20T20:06:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-03-15T11:02:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-03-01T22:17:00.000-05:00

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.

2011-02-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

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

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

Checkpoint Tracker National Championship

2010-11-19T15:32:00.004-05:00

Moab, UT. October 29, 2010
Report by Dima Kaganovich, Photos Vladimir Bukalo.

It seems that every adventure race involves some sort of firsts. The Checkpoint Tracker National Championship in Moab, UT was the first time I had to fly to the race. Vlad and I took a plane to Salt Lake City, then drove to Moab. In just 9 hours we arrived at the race area. We might as well have taken the space shuttle to the Red Planet, as unworldly as Moab’s scenery is.

At 3 pm on Wednesday we checked in and I got my bike that was shipped directly to the Red Cliffs Lodge. The same day we drove to the La Sal Mountains for acclimatization. I also began studying the topo maps of the area. I was trying to predict the race course and was successful in guessing the locations of a few major transition areas. Thursday morning we went to Slick Rocks to practice mountain biking. My cross country bike was too stiff for this unusual terrain and one practice loop satisfied my curiosity. I didn't like it. Race check-in started at 5 pm and was the fastest I've ever seen. I even got a teammate for a team photo. After plotting all 3 checkpoints, we dropped off my paddle and the bike at remote transition areas. The rest of plotting was done during the race the next day...

Friday morning sunrise was chilly, air temperature close to freezing, and the water in Colorado River was just a little warmer. Not a good time for a 3K swim, but that's how the race started. I was ready for that with my Gore Tex dry suit and inflatable boogie board. At the end of the swim we exchange boogie boards for inflatable kayaks and kept moving down the Colorado River for another 40K. Paddling solo in a short kayak was slower than most tandems teams and I arrived at the first TA in the middle of the pack.

At the TA I received a good quality google-earth-image map and coordinates of 8 CPs for the next foot-navigation section. I plotted the CPs on both google and topo maps and spent next 3 minutes developing a good strategy for that section. Race instructions were clear and made perfect sense: use Via Ferratta to get to the top, use ropes to get down and back to TA. Do whatever you want in between. The ropes had a cutoff time around sunset.

As it often happens, there were two teams that decided to create their own interpretation of the race rules. Since I became a race director I have seen a team or two like this almost every race. They always ask a question from the rules, just to "verify" something. Especially for such teams, I instruct all my volunteers to give the most universal answer: "I don't know. Please read the rules". It is not surprising that during this race one of these "verifying" teams also had a very interesting interpretation of the river swim gear and paddled the entire “swim section” in their inflatable boats with hard paddles.

When I arrived at Via Ferratta, I found a long line of racers waiting to ascend the ropes. My 45 minute wait at Via Ferratta and my conservative solo racing approach forced me to skip two optional CPs. I knew that another long backlog was possible at the Tyrolean closer to the cutoff time and I wanted to get there in plenty of time. Navigation was easier than I expected; you can see miles ahead, and just have to figure out how to get around the canyons. Because of this easy navigation I got to CP11 - the Tyrolean almost 2 hours before the cutoff. 2 out of 3 ropes were free. I zipped fast across the canyon and down the rappel. 15 minutes after the rappel I was back to the TA. That was the best section of the race, with breathtaking views and wonderful arches.

At the TA I got coordinates of the next stop. I knew it was going to be Slick Rocks and I didn’t like an idea of riding there at night. Fortunately, volunteers at Slick Rocks TA told me that I have a choice and can complete this section without my bike. That was great news and I cleared all Slick Rocks CPs without any problem*. The bad news was location of next CP, or more precisely, its elevation. CP 23 was close to 9000 feet, just under the peaks of the La Sal Mountains. That’s where my fight for the oxygen began.

I don’t have an altimeter watch, it’s a useless toy here on the east coast, but in Moab I measured the altitude by the heaviness in my chest. The route from Slick Rocks to the finish was 4500 feet up and 5000 feet down with CP 23 at the highest point. I didn’t need a map of this section, since we drove exactly the same road the day before. All my effort was concentrated on pedaling. One team passed me, and then I passed them back, and passed another team or two. My goal was to stay on my bike until the end of the road. I did it, but couldn’t ride part of the way on the next trail; it was too steep, too technical, and I had too little oxygen in my lungs. The few hours I spent at this altitude the day before were not enough for acclimatization.

The 5000 feet of downhill from CP23 to the finish were one of the coldest experiences of my life. Growing up in Siberia, that is saying something. I descended in about 30 minutes, passing 2 teams, a few patches of ice, and one cow. At one moment my fingers became so cold that I couldn’t squeeze my brakes any more. Without brakes I couldn’t stop and put my warm jacket and gloves. At 5:55 am a solid piece of ice that once was my body crossed the finish line of the Checkpoint Tracker National Championship. 22 hours and 55 minutes plus 4 hours penalty for skipping two* optional CPs earned me 4th place in solo and 16th overall in this championship race. In my solo division I was beaten by 3 local guys from Colorado and Utah. This result was good enough to keep my leading position in Checkpoint Tracker series ranking, where I am first in solo and 5th overall (sharing 5th with team CheckpointZero).

It was not the most difficult race of the season, but it was the most breathtaking experience of my life. Thank you planet Moab, thank you Checkpoint Tracker and Gravity Play for this experience. Thanks to Calleva for sponsoring my trip to Moab, and thanks to my friend and teammate Vladimir for support and the amazing photos he took during the race.

And congratulations to the winner of the race soloist Jeff Chmielewski that cleared the course and was the first racer to cross the finish line without any penalties!

_______________________
*After reexamination of my passport Will Newcomer, the race director, credited me for CP15 that was missing in preliminary results. It doesn’t change my division rating. The final results are published on CPT web site.

Slick Rocks and 9000 feet of elevation.

2010-10-28T18:02:00.001-04:00

We're in Moab! Yesterday we went up to 9000 feet for altitude acclimatization. It's snow up there and La Sal Mountains in the background:

Today we spent a few hours riding Slick Rocks. There is no such thing on the east coast:

Race check-in is in one hour. I am going to get in line.
Dima, Vlad Red Cliffs Lodge.

Off to race in Moab!

2010-10-26T13:25:00.000-04:00

Odyssey Finale results are out long time ago, but we had no time to put an update. Dima raced solo and finished 3rd in solo and 4th overall.

The final O-course of this race was extreme and sadistic experience and almost cost severe injury to Dima. But everything is recovered now and tomorrow Dima and Vlad are going west to Moab, UT for Checkpoint Tracker National Championship. Dima will race and Vlad will provide support and photo coverage. Click "Live Updates" tab to follow team Calleva and don't forget to send your Shout-outs from "Shout Box" tab. The race starts Friday 8 am.

Time to be scared...

2010-10-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

It's almost HALLOWEEN!

Markoff's Haunted Forest: a 20-minute, terrifying hike through woods. Visitors encounter creepy characters, horrifying scenes and tight spaces along the way. Every year, the Markoffs add new twists and more intense scenes... brave souls can attempt our Death Jump or zip line in the dark as part of a night of terror in our haunted woods.

Markoff's Haunted Harbor: a brand new, spine-tingling experience from the creative minds behind the Forest -- will open at National Harbor, MD. Our haunted boardwalk has 17 scenes of mayhem and horror, pirates that will make you want to walk the plank, and shocking experiences that will haunt you in your dreams. Take a haunted hayride, decipher the twisted Legend of National Harbor, climb the rigging of our towering Ghost Ship and ride a swashbuckling zip line in the dark.

Tidewater traverse photos are finally here

This weekend is the last race before Moab, Utah Nationals: Odyssey Fall Finale.

Tidewater Traverse race report.

2010-10-05T12:54:00.002-04:00

By Dima Kaganovich team Calleva/JacksBoatHouse

First place in this race must go to the team Odyssey: I'm on Point. We worked together for 3/4 of the race and they definitely would beat me on paddling. Unfortunately they lost passport at the end of the biking leg. By staying close to this team I was able to see amazing tandem navigation work. Very impressive and efficient. Thanks guys for great experience!
The race started 8 pm (already dark) from fast plotting of first 11 CPs of the course. I was plotting alone, but left the start area within first 5 teams (out of 27 total). First leg was road biking with easy navigation to CP1,2 and TA1. At TA1 we started first and the most difficult O-course of the race. Many teams punched CP4 instead of CP3 (both CPs were in creek). We did the same mistake at the beginning, but Ronny figured it out. Second O-course was longer, but easier to navigate. All CPs had reflectors and my laser-light helped a lot. Long biking section through paddling transition area and night single track took us to 1 mile portage.
From here I moved alone and used my disposable portage wheels (<2 lb, <$3) to take kayak through town of West Point. I started paddling at sun rise behind 2 teams with almost 1 hour gap. First 10 miles of paddling were against tide flow and with strong side wind. Thanks to Anna and to Jack's Boat House for Andromeda. In first 9 miles of the paddling I gained 30 minutes and on transition to the last O-course I was only 30 minutes behind the leading teams.
This O-course was simple, with one funny catch: you have to use Google earth image together with topo map to find all CPs. For me it was easy, but both leading teams missed one CP each and gave me 30 minutes advantage. I gained another 15 minutes on the last 6 miles of paddling and finished the race first overall and the only racer that cleared the entire course.
The race was perfectly organized, the course was very interesting and fast. Chris did amazing job by putting on this amazing race. Race results are here. Photos are coming...

Dima's uneasy choice.

2010-09-23T10:39:00.001-04:00

There are two races this weekend: NYARA SHAG and Hampton Roads Tidewater Traverse. Both races start at dark and are 16-18 hours long. Both are in a modified rogaine format and have the same disciplines. Even registration fee are almost the same. Shag provides kayaks for all racers and it's nice compare to almost unrestricted personal kayaks of Tidewater Traverse. Shag terrain is very rough, navigation is the most challenging (2008 Safari, if you know what I am talking about :-). Tidewater Traverse is all flat and swampy that is also very hard to navigate. For 20 miles paddling leg of Tidewater Traverse you better get the fastest boat you can find, because you will see $10K (or more) watercraft with the most experienced east coast pilots. So what is my choice? This year I'll skip my favorite Shag. I did it twice, but have never tried Tidewater Traverse before. My paddling sucks and it's good reason to improve.

But for the future, Race Directors, please talk and schedule your races for different weekends.

This weekend I will paddle fast and beautiful Andromeda from Jacks Boat House. I was introduced to her last weekend:

By the way, that's very likely the area of Calleva 2011 race. Start guessing...

Shenandoah Mountain 100 miles race

2010-09-14T15:44:00.002-04:00

Report by Petr Minar, team Calleva.

The weather conditions was great since early morning (sun with around 75F during the day). Race start at 6.30 am, with racers lined-up at different performance level (around 600 racers) . Fast riders at the front of the start line , slower racers behind them. After the bell, all racing field started warm-up and heading to first asphalt road , soon to gravel road changing to single trail and grueling 100 miles full of sweat. We couldn’t ask for better support on all six aid station. On each station there were plenty of water, Gatorade and other drinks with gels and power bars. Some station provided simple sandwiches and for all those exhausted and hungry racers even tasty pica. (I ate 4 slices to get some fuel into my already sore legs). Race was well organized and marked. Elite racers finished around 7 hour mark, other racers finished hours and hours behind those crazy fast guys. Overall, this is a great event for all performance levels and huge achievement just to finish this race. Huge thanks to all those volunteers and organizers, park service and to all people make this happened.
Hope that everyone enjoyed that race and see you all next year.

Race results are here.
Petr finished in 94th overall in 9 hours 13 minutes and 14 seconds!

Untamed New England Race Report

2010-08-31T13:15:00.004-04:00

By Dima Kaganovich, team Calleva.

I feel really bad that we DNF this race. We had no chance to make even the first cutoff and stay at the full course, but that was not the reason to quit. We were strong team, but New Hampshire forest ate our navigator (that would be me):

We started the race in good spirit and paddled across the first Connecticut Lake all 4 of us in a canoe. Empty kayak we towed behind and this approach worked very well, as we landed in top 10 teams for the first portage.

Looking back I can say that we had long portage interrupted by some paddling, conservation projects, and orienteering relay. Grant, the race director, doesn't like long introductions and the first portage had a 3 k section through a forest so thick that our canoe couldn't fit between the trees. The check point was half way through the forest and we had to punch both canoe and kayak in addition to the main passport. The rest of the portage was on roads and I am not sure what words local drivers have been using to describe these muddy people rolling canoes and kayaks towards Canada border.
Orienteering relay we started in dark as was predicted in the last race bulletin. I went first for the long and difficult course and finished it in about 1 hour. It helped me to explain to Val, Vlad and Sara what the best approach to this area and in 3 hours we got back to the river. The water was fast and we almost missed one CP at the river bend. Sudden stop at the rock cost us one canoe full of water and short swim near the shore. In the middle of the first night we reached the first transition, our paddling bag and our bikes.

Transition area was at the local fire and rescue station where we got hot pasta and clean rest room (!!!) According to the map that was the last spot of civilization and the last time we see our transition gear for at least next 24 hours. We started our way north along the Canada border and turned into forest at sunrise. Trail ended as it was expected and our navigator (it's me again) decided to go straight down (idiot!). We ended up bushwhacking with our bikes for 2 hours in wrong creek and at the end had to cross wide swamp and river to get to the road. We got the check point on the gate, but I don't want to remember the nightmare we went through in order to get there.

The biking section was brutal, but the next hiking section (leg 3 of the race) was way worth. Significant off road travel and navigation in forest between swamps and bushes killed me. If you want to finish this race, look for the perfect navigator. Not a decent one like me, but absolutely perfect. In addition to that, if you want to finish the full course be ready to run every moment your legs are touching the ground. No hiking is allowed! At sunset we quit the race, because the navigator (guess who was that) was unable to find a trail to the top of the mountain and we already missed the first cutoff.

We'll go to Untamed New England race next year. I am looking for the perfect navigator. Are there any available?

More photos from the race are here.

Going north...

2010-08-10T13:12:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow morning team Calleva is going north to New Hampshire (and probably Maine) for 3 days and 3 nights Untamed New England adventure race. We will have tracking beacons and you will be able to see our real time location on map. Leaderboard will be also available, as well as race updates and race photos. Don't forget to send us trail mails, may be it will help us to find right way to the next CP. We will have our camera with us on the course. Our team is Calleva, our number is 32.

Right now we are trying to set all our gear for the race, and time is short. Last week and this weekend was the busiest time of the year for us. We did the Third Annual Calleva Adventure Race! It was a blast! Here is after race email from the captain of the winning team Jim Weber (we like getting such email):

As usual, you and your team of Calleva volunteers put on a FANTASTIC race again this year! I’ve been training and racing in this area for 10+ years, but in each of the three years you have run this race, you have managed to take me to new terrain, parks and trails that I have never visited before. Riverboarding thru the rapids was the highlight of the day, and we really had a blast on that section. I’ve kayaked that part of the river a few times before, but I never imagined myself going down it on a boogie board. I am glad you arranged for a little cooler weather this year, and I came across the finish line looking and feeling a LOT better than I did last year (as evidenced by the picture you selected for the race T-shirts!).

I know that this event would not be possible without the support of Calleva and the army of volunteers who helped out…so on behalf of all the racers, I wanted to send out HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who was involved with organizing and running the race. Congratulations also to all of the adventure racers who were out there on the course…we hope to see you all again next year!

The members of Team A-List / Too Many Kids are already looking forward to next year’s Calleva Adventure Race.

Thanks again!

Jim Weber
Team A-List / Too Many Kids

PS – Good luck at Untamed NE!

Calleva Race volunteers before the start of the race. Photo Oleg Litvinenko.

Odyssey One Day race report.

2010-08-04T10:35:00.001-04:00

By Sarah Reschovsky, team Calleva/UHB

My second 24 hour Odyssey adventure race was definitely a humbling experience. Phil and I raced as a team of two, but Dima (as a solo racer) luckily stuck with us the entire way. Not only did it take place on one of the hottest days of the summer, but the course proved to be virtually impossible; not a single team completed the course within the time limit. The biking section began with a killer uphill on a switchback mountain road. From the beginning, it was clear to Phil and I that we would spend most of the race staring at Dima’s backside and struggling to keep up with him.

We followed a logging road for a bit, which contoured around the mountain. We soon realized, however, that we needed to bushwack (with our bikes) up to the top of the ridge in order to get checkpoint 2. After several hours of bushwacking and pushing our bikes on unridable trails, we found checkpoint 2, then descended back down the mountain. Arriving at checkpoint 3 proved to be no less difficult; we spent many more hours gaining elevation and pushing our bikes across unridable trails. We reached checkpoint 4 at about 12:30 am, and were relieved to be able to refill our water supply and finally get rid of our bikes after spending over 12 hours on the biking section.

The trekking section provided us with a much-needed boost in moral. Phil and I enjoyed hearing Dima’s crazy stories, and we quickly got checkpoint 5. We then began bushwacking across a ridge in search of checkpoint 6. Navigating to this next checkpoint at night proved extremely difficult; not only were there no trails, but there were several cliffs interfering with our ability to move or see in the right direction. At this point in the race, Phil and I bonked, and struggled to keep up with Dima (who never seems to tire...) Once the sun began to rise, it dawned on us (tee-hee) that we would not be able to make the time cut-off. We began descending down from the mountain in hopes of finding a road to lead us back to civilization. The hike down the mountain took several hours, but eventually we were able to find a road, and we were able to hitch a ride back to headquarters.

This race proved to be much tougher than we expected, but it was a great experience nonetheless. Team UHB missed Swish’s presence on this race, but the team will definitely be coming back for more!

All race photo are here.

Virginia Commonwealth Games Mountain Bike Omnium

2010-08-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

Report by Michelle Lindsay, Roanoke, VA - 7/17/10 - 7/18/10

Saturday’s race was the uphill time trial climbing the 3 or 4 miles up Mill Mountain. I was near the last to take off since all the men went first, and I found myself racing a storm to the top! The singletrack wasn’t technical but it sure got my heart rate up by the finish. No other women came out for the TT, so I posted the fastest women’s time! I beat the storm to the finish but got soaked on the way back down to the car.

On Sunday, we raced a 20 mile cross country race at Carvin’s Cove. The expert course was the same as the sport course with the addition of one huge climb up and back down. I had fun - Carvin’s Cove has great trails! Apparently I just missed hitting a rattlesnake at the bottom of the Clownhead descent... another racer who caught up to me had seen it on the trail! It was really hot and humid, so the last climb back up Hi-de-Ho was brutal! As I began the last descent, another scary storm was rolling in and all I could think of was “get me off of this mountain!” I had a single crash - falling off the edge of the ramp over a log then getting stuck with my bottom foot still clipped in... within 2 minutes of the finish line :) All the other women raced the sport race, so I took the gold medal for the combined omnium!

Odyssey One Day

2010-07-23T09:47:00.000-04:00

Calleva/UHB are going west to fight the heat of Odyssey One Day 24 hours adventure race. You can follow the team on-line (we hope) at Checkpoint Tracker. The race starts Saturday 12:00 noon.

This busy time of the year updates

2010-07-16T13:22:00.000-04:00

1) Team Calleva qualified for the Checkpoint Tracker National Championship in solo male division. The Championship race will be in Moab, UT October 29, 2010.

2) This weekend is Calleva race pre-run. Vetting team: Brian and Monika will test the course in real conditions. We finally will get the answer to the main question of the year: is it possible to clear this year course in 10 hours or not?

3) Next weekend is our traditional Odyssey One Day race. Dima, Adam, Phil and Sarah will race in prime division as team Calleva/UHB.

4) August 8th is Calleva race day! Get ready for 10 hours of pain and suffering. The course is ready, the maps are ordered and the race is more than half full. Register now, before it's too late.

5) 3 days after Calleva race, on Agust 11th, team Calleva will go north to fight for a spot in a World Championship qualifier event Untamed New England Adventure Race. Dima, Val, Vlad and Sara will race for 3 full days in Northern New Hampshire together with 40 other teams.

XTERRA East Championships

2010-07-07T13:59:00.000-04:00

XTERRA off road triathlon in Richmond, VA on June 20, 2010.
Report by Michelle Lindsay.

I had a fun time racing and did pretty well! I focused on swimming hard and then just having a good time on the bike and run :)

SWIM (15:52, 2nd female) - Richmond’s James River is pretty shallow! I lined up along one of the giant concrete pillars so I had something to push off of. The course went straight across the current to Belle Isle where we ran 50 meters on the trail to a beach to get back in the water and swim back across the river. I got out to a fast start and was leading the wave with about 5 others. I was in the 2nd wave with all the women and the men over 35, so catching up to the 1st wave is like swimming through a minefield! I saw one woman ahead of me as I ran on the island, but I wasn’t able to close the 10 foot gap for the rest of the swim. I put on my socks and shoes at the top of the boat ramp and put on my jersey and gloves as I ran the quarter mile to the transition area.

BIKE (1:21.01): I was pretty excited for the mountain bike, especially after they reversed the course. This direction suited my style better - FAST, technical, as opposed to slow technical - and I really enjoyed how they changed the Forest Hill trails. I rode more obstacles than I usually even attempt, so I was pretty pleased with myself. I knew where Derek was planning to be stationed for photos, so I mad sure to smile for the camera. I also made a point to thank volunteers - it was really hot out, especially if you’re just standing there! My major mistake on the bike was not focusing on exactly how much fluid I was getting in, but that wouldn’t take an effect until during the run and after the race. I did my typical bike-run transition by taking my feet out of my shoes on the last stretch of the bike and had a quick transition to the run.

RUN (59:45): I passed a lot of people early on, and steadily picked off more and kept moving up until just before the boulders section when a nasty side stitch started digging into my abdomen. I thought I’d be okay since I had heard they shortened the run course. I saw a volunteer standing at the point where in years’ past we turned up the hill to the top of Belle Isle... oh no... they didn’t shorten the run! I sucked it up and kept chuggin’ up the hill, the side stitch feeling like a fork twisting in my side. My tight hips reminded me of how I felt at the end of an ultra! It felt really good to be done when I crossed the finish line. Turns out I was 8th overall and first in my 25-29 age group! However, since I had registered as Collegiate, they didn’t put me in the age group results, oh well!

Team UHB. The first 24 hours race.

2010-06-15T14:15:00.001-04:00

Report by Adam Swisher, team Calleva squad UHB.

Racing in the Wild and Wonderful 24hr AR was an incredible experience for our team, Calleva UHB (Sarah Reschovsky, Phil Raymond, and Adam Swisher). We are relatively new to the AR scene, but are already hooked. The three of us work as Instructors at Calleva Outdoors and last summer, when given the opportunity, we decided to participate in the Calleva Adventure Race. We did well, winning the sport division, and caught the eye of Dima, who asked us to race as interns to the Calleva Team. We were grateful for the opportunity and super psyched to test our abilities in some bigger races. Showing up to the Wild n' Wonderful we didn't know what to expect and were humbled by all the teams and the grandeur of it all. I remember as we started the first trekking section we didn't know if we should jog or hike. We decided to play it safe and save our energy, so we hiked. Soon after, teams started passing us so we stepped it up a little and after a short while we found a good groove that would carry us the duration of the race. As we paced along we worked out some of the kinks of novice racers and for most of the first day found ourselves sitting nicely in the middle of the pack. Our only goals were to finish the race and to thoroughly enjoy ourselves in doing so. At times we would get lost or take unnecessary detours, but worked through it together and never lost more than a hour. The scenery was incredible. At checkpoint 13, I think it was, we stopped and stood in awe on a rocky outcropping as the sun set over the gorge. As night fell we unknowingly started gaining time and at midnight as we transitioned into the bike time trial we were surprised to find ourselves well within the top 10. With the encouraging news we rallied through our transition and cruised into the single track time trial only to face the most difficult part of the entire race. Sarah counted the number of times she fell, 27, and was not happy about it. I was feeling nauseous and Phil ate it hard on an inside corner. This was the only time during the race where we were uncertain we would finish. We pushed on biking, then hikiing, then biking again, all the while feeling a little broken, but as the sun started to shine we caught what may have been our fifth or sixth wind. With about a mile to go to the finish line we saddled up our bikes and gave everything we had left. Crossing the line was a wonderful feeling and though our muscles were less than happy we couldn't help but smile and give each other a huge UHB hug. Now, a few weeks later the only question we have is 'Where's the next race?'

All photos from the race are here.

Wild and Wonderful.

2010-06-09T10:22:00.000-04:00

Report by Val Chapa, team Calleva.

The Wild n Wonderful 24hr race was a good experience for all of us, especially me and my navigation! Due to Dima's inability to avoid a stationary wall on his bike (he luckily only broke one rib), Team Calleva was down one member, our best navigator for sure. Vlad, Karen and I made the journey down to Ace Adventures outside of Oak Hill, WV. This is a very well established outdoor venue with wonderful whitewater, miles of trail running available, and some of the best single track around on the eastcoast. Odyssey race organizer Ronny Angell put together another great race course. At the start of the race, Karen did a great job with the swimming leg, and the land navigation portion of the race. Vlad and I basically supported her and helped with pointing out visible reference points to help us along. We finished this portion of course in the top 5. Midway through the bike leg we climbed up to first. On the bike legs, I navigated some and did okay but once it became nightfall I made a critical error in not counting the forks in the road! This would lead us to spending 2hrs. at the farthest lake trolling in beaver water for a phantom checkpoint!! Earlier in the evening we stopped racing to help a local man re-harness his dogs...this gesture would later help us as we then could use some advice. After learning of our missed turn we headed back found the checkpoint within minutes and then headed to the transition to learn that we had fallen way behind the leaders. Our last section of the race was a night orienteering leg that befuddled us because of the necessity to use local maps that were not orienteering maps, so the became confused in the wee hours of dawn when we realized we were much lower than required when trying to get one of the mandatory checkpoints. Disgruntled with our performance and with little time to get make it to the next bike orienteering section we enjoyed ourselves as we strolled back to the finish line. The bigest enjoyment of this race was racing with Vlad and Karen, some of the whitewater rapids, the beautiful views and the great single track. Hope to see ya'll racing.

Wild and Wonderful this weekend.

2010-05-28T12:12:00.005-04:00

The famous Odyssey race starts tomorrow morning. There are 48 teams, 124 competitors from 17 states and 2 of these teams are Calleva's teams. Our veterans Val, Karen and Vlad race in Squad Calleva, while Phil, Sarah and Adam are going for their first 24 hours event as team UHB.

The race course is about 100 miles long and includes whitewater rafting, mountain biking, trekking and navigation with map and compass at all times.
The race central is working on Checkpoin Tracker, the leader board and life coverage should be ON tomorrow morning.

Leave your comments on the race central to support our teams!

Take a look on our new uniforms:

That's Vlad taken photo with the team on-board camera before the start of the race.

P.S. Dima is out of commission for the next 3 weeks because of a broken rib.

9 hours of Cranky Monkey

2010-05-19T22:17:00.000-04:00

Race Report by Petr Minar, team Calleva/NCVC

The race took place in Rocky Gap State Park in MD on May, 15. This is a new venue from EX2Adventures for this year. Rocky Gap is beautiful place in MD surrounding lake Habeeb. Camping on the lake shore by the beach was permitted during the race weekend and I took the advantage of it and camped with my family for 2 days. We had very good time..
Race started on Saturday 11 AM and finished in the evening at 8 PM. Racers competed to make as many 8 mile laps as possible in the shortest time before the time cut off. Rocky Gap's mountain bike trail is smooth rolling semi- technical on the lake shore and very technical and difficult while riding on the slope of the mountain. The race consisted of crossing several water features (short section of riding in the water ), rock gardens and tough rocky descents. To avoid a mechanical as much as possible was one of my objectives. I did have a leaking tire and a bad crash but recovered from both with minimal time penalties and rode to a victory in my class and overall 15 out of 160 teams.

Overall great weekend of racing, camping and fun.

Results are here.

Muddy Buddy 2010

2010-05-03T12:50:00.004-04:00

This Sunday 600+ teams of two ran and biked their way through the hilly course of the Pocahontas State Park near Richmond, VA, stopping at intervals to complete obstacles that included a giant inflatable slide, a cargo net and the finishing mud pit. The Incredibles: Dima, Karen and mini muddy buddy Avery made it through the mud pit taken the second place in division! Last year we finished third, way to go!

Lake Training--1.3 miles in cold water!

2010-04-23T14:32:00.001-04:00

Earth Day updates.

2010-04-21T15:35:00.002-04:00

1. Join us for what Earth Day is all about!

Join forces with Calleva, Potomac Community Resources, Wholefoods, the C&O Canal Stewards and the Nature Conservancy at Riley's Lock at 13015 Riley's Lock Road, Poolesville, MD 20837. We need your help cleaning up Riley's Lock after a season of flooding! We will be cleaning flood debris, repainting fences & picnic tables and beautifying our park!

Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 10am-2pm or longer-- 'till we get all our work done!

SSL hours can be earned!

2. Couple of photos from this weekend training.
Phil, Ted and Karen at the top of the Woodstock Tower:

Karen in full lotus relaxation after 10 hours, 100 k training:

3. E-Fix race report
Written by our friend Monika (aka Sunika) from team Trakkers.
"Paddling in the canoe would not normally be a big deal….for someone who is awake"
Read the full story and smile!

Baker's Dozen 2010

2010-04-19T12:49:00.000-04:00

Report by Petr Minar
Team CALLEVA / SEAVS Racin

Baker's Dozen 2010 - Start from Tom Jackson on Vimeo.

The race took place by Leesburg town in VA on the private farm by Potomac River on April, 17. This is one of the newer races (put on by Plug Grove Cyclery bike shop) but quickly became very popular and this year sold out in record 50 minutes after the race opened for registration on Bikereg. The participants limit reached about 425 people that quickly. This is endurance type of mountain bike race. Participants could choose from solo racing, 2 person and 3 person of various combinations of male and female formats.
I raced solo, which was first time for me to do any such long race. Until now the longest riding experience for me was Shenandoah mountain 100 mile course in about 10 hours. The day of the race was chili and very windy. In the evening we got temperatures below 40. Race started at 9 AM with massive start of huge field. Each soloist and team had to make a many 8+ miles laps as possible. After 10 PM no more racers could start their new lap and all other racers on the course could finish their current lap.
Doing a long race like this (I rode for 13.5 hours and over 160 miles) is physical and mental challenge. I finished the race with 19 laps total in time over 13.5 hours and took 7th place out of 82 man solo racers. First 10 laps seemed to be OK as far as motivation goes. The most critical laps for me were between 10 and 16 when body starts feeling the fatigue and finish is still way far. I started taking longer brakes which cost me probably couple spots in final ranking. Last 4 laps were again a bit easier as the finish is getting closer.
I have learned new things during this race. Mostly what is good to eat during these long endurance races, when the body really does not want to accept just any food. For me worked... bananas, grapes, dried mango, dried pineapple, mix of nuts, Hammer bars, lost of Endurolite tablets and lots of Hammer Perpetuem...
Also it seems that longer brakes (20-30 mins) are not necessarily better than short 3-5 minutes brakes, as the body is not getting much desired rest anyway and only cools down in the excessive time. Camping/ sharing tent with friends also helps as they can give moral support but also can delay you in pit for longer time than necessary.

Overall this was tough race for solo riding but I am happy I have done.

Resuts by category can be found here.

E-Fix 2010 --Not your soloist's race! Part 2.

2010-04-13T09:20:00.004-04:00

E-Fix is well known as the toughest 2 day race in the country. During the pre-race briefing Ronny explained that only the strongest teams have a chance to clear the course, if and maybe. The list of these "ifs" and "maybes" was pretty long and included perfect navigation, no medical issues, no mechanical problems, no sleep, no extreme weather conditions, perfect strategy and good luck. Ronny says basically this exact same thing every single race, and many times even the strongest teams can not get all possible CPs. The ranking of these races is determined first by the total number of mandatory CPs acquired, then by the number of optional CPs and then by the total race time. Of course you have to make all cutoffs to stay on the full course. My minimal goal for this race was to get all mandatory CPs and to make all cutoffs. At least it was all I wanted rolling into my second night of the race.

I started to feel tired and couldn't seem to move fast enough. I knew that other teams were closing on me and at the last CP before Camp Creek two teams, Tecnu Extreme and Raging Burrito caught up to me. As a result I got good news and bad news. The bad news--I was not first anymore, while the good news was that I can worry less about the navigation. I jumped into line after the very fast Tecnu Extreme and in 20 minutes or so arrived to TA7. I was wet, cold, tired, hungry and sick of the energy gels I forced myself to eat for the last 33 hours. I pulled out the Camp Creek map and started reading the instructions for this leg.

The instructions were very confusing and included several cutoffs for my present location. Following my simple rule of never leaving the TA without understanding all the rules I went back to Joy for an explanation. Apparently it was pretty simple, I had to be back at this transition by 2 am with all mandatory CPs. With Tecnu Extreme 5 minutes ahead I joined forces with my old friends from Raging Burrito. We started slow and spent at least 10 minutes looking for the first cemetery. I still hoped to get some optional CPs of this leg, but time ran faster than the distance we covered and after the second cemetery I realized that the only way to get all mandatory CPs was to run.

Usually I don't run 35 hours into a race, but this time I decided to make an exception. I covered 10 k in 50 minutes and spent another 5 minutes looking for the CP. It doesn't sound too fast, but it was at night, with the backpack, on a really bad trail that crossed three deep creeks. I had no time to look for better crossing options and one creek was chest deep for me. I was back to the transition 8 minutes before the cutoff, shaking from cold and excitement. Here I got coordinates for the next mandatory CP and started to plot the way back to the finish. 10 minutes later I was ready to leave when I realized that I was the only racer in the transition area. No other teams made the cutoff, and now I was not only first in time, but also the first in the overall ranking. Now all I had to do to win this race was to finish it! (Not as easy as that sounds)!

I went to Joy to check out and she told me to be very careful: "You are going to be the only racer in this forest. Be safe, no other teams are following you". The real meaning of her words became clear to me only when I got to the top of the Nelly Knob. The well marked park trails ended here and I started descend on a muddy, steep ATV trail. It was bad and absolutely unridable. I had to walk with my bike and carry it across big creeks. That was the only section of the race with snow on the ground. And for the first time during the race I had to deal with complicated navigation problems. This area between CP 45 and 46 was the key section of the race. The whole idea of the race was clear now: Ronny wanted only the strongest and most competitive teams to make the cutoff and enter this leg. He probably never intended for any soloist to try it. When I finally came out of the forest and found the flag of CP 46, I just wanted to call Ronny and tell him that I was OK. Fortunately CP 46 was the only CP of the race with sign-up sheet attached and I put my lone time of 06:19 in the top line of the sheet. All I wanted now was sunlight.

40+ hours from the start. I was wet, cold and out of food. I had a few more gels left, but nothing could force me to put them into my mouth. My backpack was almost empty. All the clothes I had were on me and were wet, but I felt good, waiting for sun to come up. At 8 am I sadly realized that today there will be no sun. Dark gray clouds covered the sky and strong winds brought a rainy smell. And to make things even worse, the wind was blowing from the south, the same direction as the crazy current I had to fight during this last leg of paddling to the finish. Surprisingly, I paddled very fast, faster than most teams and finished the race just under 47 hours. I was the overall winner and only 3 teams beat me in total (mandatory + optional) number of CPs. I was sleepy and tired, as I did not sleep or rest during the race (not to mention the race was 50 hours long!), but had no pain and no blisters. After a hot shower, one hour of sleep and absolutely amazing after-race food, I was brought back to life and I even jumped through the hall for my trophy during the award ceremony.

Odyssey made another epic event we will all remember. Calleva Outdoor Adventure provided me with full sponsorship for this race, Dave let me use his light canoe, my wife and two sons gave me a few days of vacation, my friends and teammates supported me before and during the race. Without all these people I wouldn't have made my little story a big success.

Photos credits MadRaceMedia.com and ImOnPoint. Youtube video clips were done by ImOnPoint.

Training this weekend

2010-04-12T21:55:00.002-04:00

Come join us this Sunday for 12 hours half night, half day AR training at the Elizabeth Furnace.

Schedule:
We will start 2am (YES 2 AM) Sunday MORNING from the Elizabeth Furnace trailheads parking lot. We will leave the parking lot at 2:30 the latest. We will run and navigate at night, we will bike on forest roads and some simpler singletrack. We will train transitions from bike to run and back, and repeat everything during the day. The whole training will take about 12 hours, but you can leave earlier, if you want. You also can try to come later and wait for us at the parking lot, but it might be a while until we get back.

Directions

Gear:

Mountain bike with bright front light and rear red light. *
Biking helmet, biking shoes.
Pump and Spare tube for your bike.
Really bright headlight. *
Running shoes. 2 pairs would be better.
Spare socks.
Backpack with hydration system.
Racing food.
Water and water purification tablets.
Compass.
First aid kit.

* items with star are mandatory for night. We will not ride with you, if you don't have biking helmet. If you are serious about the race in May, consider to have all gear from the race list (click the gear tab).

Please let Dima know, if you want to have a topo map of the area (similar one will be used on the race in May), or just get National Geographic's Trails Illustrated #792 to have some navigational fun.

E-Fix 2010 --Not your soloist's race! Part 1.

2010-04-06T11:11:00.002-04:00

One person can not read 3 pages of instructions, plot 50 CPs, measure all distances and draw a possible course on the map in two and half hours. It's nearly impossible for one person to defeat the crazy current, while trying to paddle upstream in a canoe loaded with a bike and gear. It takes much longer for the solo racer to find 4 almost illegible headstones let alone the entire cemetery in the middle of a thick forest at night. Too many scary movies come to mind when you are alone in an old cemetery at night trying to figure out "What was the year Ms. Meadows died?" And finally your backpack is heavier when you are alone, because no one can share the mandatory gear you have to carry through the race. Combining all this, with the fact that this race had no support and no transition bins-that's right-50 hours of food and gear on my back at all times, I had a moment of panic looking at two 3x4 feet maps that I got at the check-in. Dozen of other race papers were scattered on my plotting table and I managed to work out only the first half of the race before the briefing.

The race started from Ronny Angel's style prologue: technical loop on bike, including deep mud and some water, followed by a 1 mile and 600 feet elevation gain roller coaster. I was between the leaders back to the start area and ready for the first relatively short (about 30 k) run. The leading teams were leaving together and I joined EMS. They helped me to set the pace and I have always wanted to see this team in action. The guys are amazing and very friendly, accepted me like a teammate. I kept their pace all the way to CP3, and finished the run 10 minutes after the leaders. Did I mention the heavy snow that started around CP1? Next stage was a long portage downhill to the lake and here my McGyver skills gave me some advantage.

Before the race I built and tested the system that allowed me to attach my canoe onto portage wheels and then to my bike. It takes less than minute to put it on and off, requires no tools and weights about a pound. Ronny even came out to see my contraption in action. The entire portage took me just a couple of minutes of very fast downhill to Blue Stone Lake. Before hitting the water I gave a short shout out for youtube and hit
my first big problem.

Blue Stone is normally a lake, but recent flooding forced the dam to open and the lake now had a current. And what current! I disheartenly realized that if I don't paddle at full power, I moved backwards. It took me until sunset to get to the first transition, where we were graciously allowed to leave all our biking gear before continuing to paddle upstream. From the take out point to transition was about quarter mile of knee deep mud. Here I made my first mistake--rolling my bike through this mud. I spent next 5 minutes cleaning my drivetrain and brakes. The temperature at night was well below freezing and I didn't want my bike to get frozen with this mud. I left the bike and was back in the water in total darkness. The current was crazy and I made it only to Dickenson creek (2008 E-Fix transition) to continue on foot to mandatory CP5. That was easy and I planned to take a couple of optional CPs of this leg. The easiest and closest one was CP6 on the "hill side". I was reminded of one of Odyssey's trademarks--no well defined attack point--and I changed my mind. I didn't want to search this quarter mile long area all by myself. The lights of two or three teams were scattered around the slope and I decided to skip optional CPs of this leg. I went back to my canoe and in 20 minutes made it back to transition. I spent only 2 hours paddling in the opposite direction. How fast was the current?

From this moment in the race I was first, no other racers in transition areas, no footprints, no blinking lights in front of me. Navigation was not difficult and the hardest part was to maintain the fastest possible pace. I solved this problem by removing one layer of clothes. Now I was cold at rest and had to work hard to stay warm. I made it to the transition in Pipestem State Park one hour before the sunrise. I decided to do the loop counterclockwise and approached CP22 with the first light. The trail was very technical downhill and a few hundred feet before the CP I was surrounded by very dense fog. It was so bad that I couldn't see my own legs and didn't move for 5 minutes. For the next 30 minutes to the CP and all the way back uphill, I crawled from tree to tree by feel, until the sun killed the fog. I made the loop with all optional CPs and was back to the transition for the next bike leg, followed by paddling and another very long biking section. The weather was much better than previous day: clear sky and light breeze. At the second sunset I left the part of the preplotted map and had to stop at most intersections to check directions. West Virginia rollercoaster continued into the second night. The hardest part of the race was in front of me...

First expedition SOLO!

2010-03-23T11:26:00.010-04:00

The coming weekend is the Toughest 2 Day Race in the Country, The Odyssey Endorphin Fix. This year it's unsupported and no gear box style race. Everything you need to survive the West Virginia wilderness must be in your backpack at the start line. That's why Dima is doing it SOLO!
I am pretty much ready: 700 miles of biking, 80 miles of running, 10 miles of paddling (including 5 with my bike in the canoe), and 5 miles of canoe portage (with bike). All this in the last 3 weeks. Now a lot of sleep, rest, carbohydrates, and yoga. You can follow the race progress at Checkpoint Tracker. My team name is Calleva-Solo, my number is 11.

Other updates...
Results are finally in, we finished 4th overall the Soggy Bottom Boys Race. Amazing result, taking into account that we almost skip the last section. "Race results", as well as "Team Members", "Contact us", and all other tabs on the top of the page are updated. Thanks again to Google for new possibilities.

MORE 2010 Winter Party video is finally online! This is must see movie, the guys are doing great job and Calleva is proud to be MORE 2010 Gold Sponsor!

Patagonian Race 2010

2010-03-11T12:04:00.006-05:00

Report by Valentin Chapa, team Eddie Bauer.

What a race! Those are my first thoughts when I look back at Team Eddie Bauer’s involvement. I had several highs and a few lows, but most importantly…I had a great time sharing my experience with my teammates, the organization, fellow competitors and with adventure racing fans everywhere. In my mind, this is the last and only wild expedition race available in the world.
Rob has written a lot pertaining to this race and our abilities. I second many of his thoughts when it comes to our racing and life experiences. I truly trust Rob and Druce with my life and when it comes to navigation, mountaineering and kayaking, I don’t really trust anyone as much as these two professionals.

Leg number one:
The kayak start, our kind of race start. It would not happen due to inclimate weather and the Chilean Navy’s desire to maintain safety at the start of the race. This was a huge blow to our race strategy. After crossing on the ferry, our strategy changed. We would march swiftly to the bike start instead of run the beach leg. We wanted to be fresh for the afternoon bike leg in the wind, plus we would still have over 500Km to travel! We passed the whale skeleton enroute to finishing the trek in 13th position. Not in front, but not last, and we were feeling good about the upcoming bike leg.

Leg number two:
While reviewing the mountain bike leg before the race, we knew we were facing a headwind. WOW. That’s really the best way to put my thought on how the wind blew our echelon left formation apart about 1/3 through the headwind section of the leg. I remember trying to keep inline with Druce’s back wheel and then just being blown sideways. I looked around and our entire team looked like we were each biking into different directions. Shortly thereafter, we spent a majority of the rest of the 2/3 headwind section of the bike leg walking our bikes and trying to keep them from being blown out of our hands.
Life was easier after we made our left hand turn and had the wind on our backs. I have to say the Eddie Bauer soft shell pants and primaloft jacket were the key to the entire team remaining warm during this leg…especially with the constant 30-40 mph winds and the 70-80mph gusts.

Leg number three:
Our first trek the beautiful landscape of Tierra Del Fuego was approximately 55km. The grasslands, subtle hills and the start of the slow elevation gains began here. We spent a fair amount of time here stepping out and enjoying the vast wonderful views of the grasslands. Wearing the EB base layer and the softshell pants were vital to our travel during this stage. Encountering the wind, occasional wet land, rain and nightfall kept us warm. The primaloft jacket was also great when the wind was too cool for just a shirt. I will say this about Rob’s navigation…spot on at every checkpoint.

Leg number four:
The long mountain bike leg in front of us was going to take us from checkpoint six to eight, about 180km of dirt roads. We packed up with about 24hrs of food, this later would become an issue as we learned that the bike leg was much longer than originally expected. We traveled along the “now very endless grasslands” that Rob mentions against the wind, hills and occasional woodlands. The navigation was pretty straightforward, so enjoying the beautiful landscape is what I found myself doing when not concentrating on our echelon biking. On our significant left hand turn in this section, a truck pulled up and started siphoning petrol from a 55gallon drum into it’s tank. It was funny to see because the drum was in the truckbed! Since I can speak Spanish I asked about a grocery store and I was told of a yellow house at an estancia. Ten kilometers up our path Paulette and I went up to the door to ask if we could purchase some food. After realizing that the lady was having difficulty speaking to me in Spanish I asked if she understood English. It was very funny to learn that she was from New Zealand! We spent an hour and a half eating, drinking coffee and making a new friend. We also learned of her encounters with the Brazilians and the Spanish teams the day before. There were some hilarious moments in her home.

Leg number five:
At the arrival of checkpoint eight, I was feeling very confident. Rob and Druce had done a magnificent job of navigating on the past treks and bike rides. Our times were not very fast, but we were managing our time. We had discussed being more efficient in the transition areas, and I felt that as a team we were very happy to be getting off our bikes and into the mountains. I remember hearing Druce talk about our confidence levels and inside I was so happy to be heading up, up into the mountains.
The trek leg started off nice. We went up a couple thousand feet along side a river making our own trail. Occasionally Rob would find a guacano trail and our path would become a little easier. A cameraman was following us for the first four kilometers approximately, it was funny to hear him tell us that no team had taken the same route up into the mountains and that had been his 7th trip up with a team. Talk about pristine wilderness in southern Chile. I will not forget this trip.
We arrived at checkpoint nine at about 0100 that evening. The staff were awakened with our arrival and were encouraged to let us pass through the rappel so that we could continue with the race. After about 1.5hrs of getting to the rappel and getting each of us off the rope we short prepared to continue on. The next 12 to 14hours became our most difficult to trek. As a team we ran into a few obstacles and just had difficulty finding a way to get ourselves moving fast enough to reach checkpoint ten by the cutoff. We eventually arrived and learned of end to this magnificent race. I was shocked. I didn’t know how or what to do. This was the first time I had not reached a cutoff. The next day the team traveled to checkpoint eight with two other teams, the Brazilians and one of the Chilean teams.

While having not completing the race is an unfulfilled space in my heart, I became a fan of those teams who pushed on and finished this magnificent race. My interaction with those of us teams left behind became a time of shared experiences and reflection of what “could have been”. New friendships were made and bonds were created amongst us that cross the line from spectators to athletes. Possible future endeavors have been discussed, but one thing shared with my friends from several teams is a common thought…we will be back next year.

Thank you to Wenger, Eddie Bauer, and Numa sunglasses. Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to compete in this year’s Patagonian Expedition Race. I hope our stories express the gratitude, and wearing your products show the world how great it is to be a part of your organizations.

Best regards,
Valentin Chapa

Soggy Bottom Boys Race

2010-03-02T11:45:00.004-05:00

Our trails are still covered by snow and training conditions are tough. That's why we couldn’t miss Soggy Bottom race organized by our friend Mark Montague. South of Richmond, close to James River all snow gone and almost all trails were dry. Dima and Karen left DC 4 am on Saturday, picked up Monika in Arlington and arrived to Pipsico at 7:20. Monika raced with Mark Lattanzi, Jenn and Susana, while Dima and Karen presented team Calleva in the longest 12 hours course. Our official start time was 8:10 and we got 3 hours to finish the first O-course. We decided to go counterclockwise and picked up all, but 2 check points. We manage to stay dry and switched to bikes around 11 am. We used our 15 minutes credit to plot 30+ biking navigation check points and started another counterclockwise loop. Only to 10 or so CPs were possible to bike up, while the rest required getting off the bike and bushwhacking. Many trails and small roads were not on the map and navigation was challenging. We spent about 20 minutes searching a Light Tower in the middle of a very dense forest, before realizing that provided coordinates were wrong, we dropped our bikes in somebody’s backyard to hike to the checkpoint that was hidden behind the house, and we had 15 minutes fun of searching misplaced CP in private junk yard:

Just before 6 pm cutoff we arrived back to transition for the night Rogaine section. Hot food and 20+ more CPs to plot shorten our remaining time to only 2 hours. We found 3 CPs, but got credit only for 2, because couldn’t find the puncher for the re-plotted CP in the forest. In this section we were supposed to get wet and to feel the real taste of Soggy Bottom, but we moved too slow and had hard time to navigate at night to make it on time to the swamps. We finished the race in 11 hours 51 minutes. Results of the race are not published yet, but in any case we had good time and excellent training opportunity. Thanks Mark for this great event!
More photos from the race are here.

Calleva Race Registration is OPEN!

2010-03-01T15:40:00.003-05:00

Official Race Site
Washington DC's most exciting race is now open for registration. The 3rd
Annual Calleva Adventure Race will be held on August 8, 2010 near
Poolesville, MD. The 10 hour race will have both Expert and Sport
categories for teams of 1, 2 or 3 racers. Expert racers will be challenged
with paddling, white water swimming, mountain biking, and trekking. Sport
navigation will be more obvious, biking will be less technical, and paddling
will be flat water. The course will cover brand new terrain and will
include NEW Calleva's challenges.

You can register online or print the registration form [.pdf file]and mail it to us, following the instructions on the form. Online registration charges small non-refundable fees. Additionally, every racer must sign the race waiver [.pdf file] and bring it to check in on the race day.

The registration fees include canoes for all teams, kayaks for solo racers, t-shirts, post race food, bus transportation to/from start/finish and the most exciting race in the Washington, DC metro area.

Register early to save big!

To read more about EXPERT and SPORT categories click here.

Snotcycle 2010 Race report

2010-02-22T14:50:00.003-05:00

Report by Petr Minar, team CALEVA / SEAVS Racing.
SNOTCYCLE (Presented by Plum Grove Cyclery); Saturday, January 30, 2010
Place: Leesburg, VA

As almost every race by Plum Grove Cyclery, the Winter MTB race Snotcycle 2010 was sold out. Winter enthusiast and hardcover mountain bikers came to have a good time racing and socializing after the race around the big bonfire at private farm in Leesburg. Almost 300 racers showed up overall. This year race course was 8.1 miles and CAT1 racers did 3 laps, CAT2 did 2 laps and CAT3 one lap. The weather was pretty snotty- cold- below freezing, around 10 AM started heavy snowing and the trails became really slippery and tested every biker's handling skills. Racing in freezing conditions can be fun but also very tough... One has to not only properly dress with many layers, warm (and heavy) winter riding boots, gloves and face protection. But there are other challenges too, such as freezing water bottles and camelbaks (mine froze after first lap out of 3) or derailleurs packed with snow and ice that will not shift properly. CAT1 race had 36 participants and started at 10 AM. My objective for this race changed dramatically a day prior to the race. On Friday, before the race I was going to pre-ride the course and instead ended up in the bed with hot tea and medicine to knock down the shivers and temperature. I did get some rest and the next day morning I was OK to come to the race. Not 100% ready but OK. Since the precondition my objective was to finish and try to have a good time. Race started with group start in the open field on the farm and quickly headed into the woods. Leesburg course is not very technical but plenty of bumps and sharp turns. There is very limited elevation. In my view a full suspension bike is a better choice for this course due to bumpinness of the course, but the field was probably split 50/50 with fulls and hardtails. I did ride a hardtail but next time I am bringing my full. After first lap it started snowing and trail became quite slippery. This is the time my drink in the bottle froze too. I do not race mountain bikes normally in the winter and was aware my drink could freeze in the bottle but I was hoping by drinking frequently and shaking it often I could prevent it - what a mistake.. After first lap I did get last sip of almost frozen drink which meant 2 laps without water. Not fun... (Some tips for winter riding: insulated water bottles may help and also another trick is to wear you camel bag under the top layer (or two) of clothes. To prevent camelbak hose from freezing use the insulated hose or blowing the air into hose and keeping all the liquids in the camelbak helps). So considering all the challenges with not feeling 100% , frozen camelbak, not knowing the course, coming in the 11th place out of 36 gave me satisfaction. The race was won by the Pro Jeremiah Bishop who surprised all the racers by showing up.

M.O.R.E. Annual Meeting and Winter Party

2010-02-21T10:53:00.003-05:00

Since Calleva is Gold sponsor of MORE - Mid Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts, we were invited to the annual winter party at Great Falls Grange. Founded in 1992, MORE maintains more than 250 miles of natural surface trails in 25 state and county parks in the region. MORE members contribute more than 3,000 volunteer hours annually and have constructed nearly 100 miles of new, sustainable trail. The club also leads hundreds of rides each year at local parks, ranging from beginner to advanced levels. MORE is committed to environmentally sound and socially responsible mountain biking, facilitating recreational trail cycling, educating about the sport of mountain biking, maintaining local trails, and advocating for increased multi-user trail access.

Almost all mountain bike sections of the Calleva Adventure Race are located on trails that are supported and maintained by MORE. Many race permits we are getting are possible due to the incredible advocating effort of MORE. Thank you guys!

Swamp Stomp race reports.

2010-02-16T20:56:00.003-05:00

Photo Meg Roberts

Monika:

Washington DC had never seen so much snow as in early February of 2010. Being forced to train inside, I only could wish for sunny and mild weather. I never imagined that my wish would come true until I received a phone call that the team Calleva needed a female racer because their female racer was stuck in snow. Without hesitation I got ready and 30 minutes later I was heading towards Tampa, Florida for the 30 hours adventure race: Swamp Stomp. The race consisted of a paddle prologue, three bike sections, two foot sections and a final paddle section.
And yes, the name of the race tells the story. The second bike section which was about 12 hours into the race and in the dark gave the race’s name all its proud. During the night, we entered a remote park. Not only the signs with “Do not enter, you will get shot” but electrical fences and swamps left and right with unfamiliar animal noises made this section an adrenalin-heightening experience.
The most epic part of the race was an hour or more (I lost the sense of time) of wading through knee-deep swamps….with bike. My inherited ineptitude for balance as well as my unsteadiness caused by seven Red Bulls (the race was sponsored by Red Bull which meant free drinks at the Transition Areas) made my graceless fall into the swamp inevitable. However, the thought of being stuck in the snowy DC made me appreciate the wet, cold and dirty conditions of Florida.
Although we finished unranked due to the loss of our intern, it was an invaluable experience. Before this race, all my teammates have been American. It is a new and fun experience to race with Russians. I recommend the adventure!

Fred:

When I received a call from Dima inviting me to a 30 hour race in the swamps of Florida I didn't know what to expect. I was quite nervous to be racing this competition with 2 crazy Russians and an equally crazy German. We got off to a slow but solid start in a five mile paddle section and after a short break, began biking. The section was primarily on the road so did not last very long either. It was the third section, however, that nearly killed me. Approximately 29 kilometers of running on trails and bushwhacking quickly took its toll as I attempted to follow my European teammates (who, curiously, don't tire like normal people). By the time we rolled into the next manned checkpoint that evening, I was spent. Sadly, at this point I dropped out of the race, wishing my teammates good luck and met them the next morning at the finish line. While I did not complete the race, what I did compete in was amazing. All that I can say is next year I'll make it through the whole thing if it kills me, which it almost did this year.

Dima:

This race was absolutely unique. It started for us from the record snowfall here in Mid Atlantic and very upset fact that Courtney can not make it down here from CT on time because of snow. 2 hours before our departure I got call from Mark. He was on his way to Florida and I explained him our sad situation. He promised to help and 30 minutes before our departure I got a phone call from Monika: “Dima, I want to go with you guys and I will be ready in 30 minutes”. That’s how 2 crazy Russians and one team Calleva intern teamed up with even crazier German female racer.
For Fred it was the first long race. I hoped that it will be easy in warm flat Florida, but it was as hard as it can get. The first 12 hours of very fast biking and running were pretty much warm up before really tough part during the night. The volunteer at the gate to the endless Florida swamp instructed us about a very limited rescue access to the area and extremely tough conditions after 3 days of continues rain. The temperature went down to 27 degrees when we entered knee deep water with bikes on our backs. The fun part began! For the next almost 20 hours we stayed wet or totally soaked, but always very cold. We finished strong and happy with only one little upset of missing all alligators that went into deep hibernation in this cold temperature.

The race was sponsored by Calleva Outdoor Adventure. Thank you guys!
More Swamp Stomp photos by Meg Roberts at TeamRacePhotos.com
Race results are here.

Back from Florida

2010-02-16T11:38:00.002-05:00

Swamp Stomp was great race. We almost killed Fred, our intern and finished unofficially. If we were included in the final results, we would have ended up in 7th place.

Race reports and photos are coming. For now some photos from our on-board camera at Facebook album.

Meanwhile there are very few updates from Patagonia, but looks like Eddie Bauer didn't make it to the finish. Updates will follow as soon as we get more info.

In case you can read in Russian... Couple of Russian Adventure Racing sites published Dima's interview about adventure racing in USA. You can read the full text of the interview here.

Patagonian Race started today.

2010-02-09T23:20:00.001-05:00

While we fighting record snowfall here in DC, 14 teams started they extreme journey at the end of the world.

The downside of this year race is absent of satellite tracking. SPOT suspended the coverage at the end of the world and we can not see real time progress of teams. It was very cool last year to follow team Calleva through great adventure. Race organizers promised detailed updates and the best place to look is twitter.

Despite big snow we still heading to Florida and hope to make it on time. Snow changed our plans a little bit, but we got plenty of backup options.

Patagonia Expedition Race 2010

2010-02-03T11:42:00.005-05:00

Good luck to Val, Druce and team Eddie Baurer! Tomorrow they are going to Chile to fight Patagonia dragons at the toughest 10 days Patagonia Expedition Race!!!

Photo from gearjunkie.com

Teams that will be racing Patagonia this year are

Team Helly Hansen-Prunesco (UK)
Team Eddie Bauer (USA)
Team East Wind (Japan)
Team Switzerland (Switzerland)
Untamed New England (Canada)
GearJunkie.com (USA)
Team Nord Water (Finland, Switzerland)
Fast and Light (UK)
Terra Mundi Lontra (Brazil)
Almas Patagónicas (Chile)
Team Herbertz (Germany)
Almost Famous (UK, USA)
BOE Ejercito de Chile (Chile)
Air Europa-Bimont (Spain)

We will try to keep updates for the race, but we are racing as well at that time. Dima, Vlad, Fred and Courtney are heading to Florida for the 30 hours Swamp Stomp February 13-14. We will leave February 11 and miss the first half of the Patagonia race. You can check for Patagonia updates at following websites:

What's up with our weekend weather?

2010-01-25T21:18:00.003-05:00

Views of frozen Lake Linganore during the run this Sunday:

Photo Karen Stump
That's not what we need for our next race! At Swamp Stomp near Tampa, Florida we will worry more about alligators and not safety of ice cover. Next 3 weeks trainings are about running on flat, running in swamps, and not getting lost when running in flat forest.

Who said this planet is round?

Train your reflection.

2010-01-18T12:04:00.001-05:00

The most miserable weather of the year didn't stop 6 racers from getting to the start of 40 k training at Sugarloaf mountain. The strongest rain hit us on bikes creating nice reflections on pavement.

Top of the mountain was covered by big cloud, but the rain stopped despite weatherman predictions. We finished the training totally soaked and cold in Pizza Hut in Georgetown. All photos from the training are here.

Team training and meeting.

2010-01-15T12:55:00.001-05:00

Sunday January 17 the training is on weather be dammed!
We are going to have fun at Sugarloaf Mountain. Prepare your bikes and running shoes. Trails are still covered by snow/ice, but creeks are not frozen any more.
We will start from the lower parking lot at 9 am. Plan for 30+ k of mountain bike and 10-15 k of trail run. After the training will be pizza and final 2010 plans discussion.
Here is photo from our previous Sugarloaf training:

New Year DIET

2010-01-03T12:08:00.009-05:00

Despite extreme weather New Year DIET turn out was great. 9 teams, 25 people made it to the start. We arrived 30 minutes before the start and learned very exiting info: we are not going back to our cars for transition. That means we have to carry all stuff in our backpacks for the entire DIET. Taking into account single digits temperature, gusting wind, snow and ice we started to fill our backpacks with more dry socks, spare shoes and extra food. The start was at 9 am, but we spent additional 30 minutes to prepare for the tough journey and were the last teams to leave the start area. No stress and good preparation paid off very well at the end. Such late start would be impossible a couple of years ago, when we had very stressful team management :-)
We started on bikes up hill to the trail that was crossing Conway run. Crossing 5 times! We had 2 conditions for crossing: 1st mandatory: bike must stay out of water, 2nd optional: we want to stay dry as well. First 2 crossings we manage to satisfy both conditions. On the third one we spent 20 minutes looking for any dry option and finally just walked across the river in the most obvious place. Our feet were wet from now on and two last crossing were fast. 300 feet before the transition Vlad broke his chain and we spent 120 seconds to fix it, since any longer stop would result in hypothermia. To the trekking section we arrived 4th team from the end. Michelle recommended very conservative approach to the trekking: always stay on road, go around and switch back to get to the last check point. We decided to have fun and went straight to the old cemetery. Apparently, there was a trail all the way to the top. We lost it many times, but it was going our direction and in one hour we made it to the top:

From here the rest of the trekking was obvious with one shortcut at the very end. We were the second team off the trekking with all CPs collected. The rest of the DIET was muddy roads, fire roads and paved roads riding. We past the leaders between CP7 and 8 and finished first in exactly 9 hours.
Thanks to teamhalfwaythere.com and to Michelle for the great training. We had fun and took bunch of photos with our frozen camera. You also can see these photos on Facebook.

Year end summary.

2009-12-31T12:16:00.005-05:00

Team Calleva was growing up in 2009. Still long way to catch up our friends from the team Too Many Kids, but we are getting close. Here are our new heroes Danil and Leon:

We also have new racers joined the team in 2009. They got hooked up by Calleva races and are ready for longer and more serious events. It doesn't mean that Calleva race is "not serious". We are now known as the toughest sprint around:

We're starting the New Year with a traditional New Year DIET hosted by TeamHalfwayThere.com

Happy New Year and good results in 2010

Roaring Plains

2009-12-27T23:21:00.005-05:00

Remember E-Fix 2007?... Via Ferrata, real white water, snow on the trekking... and night orienteering on the top of Roaring Plains. This year was the second Christmas we went through the E-Fix course, almost tradition already. It was at least foot of snow on the slops and snowshoes were the must to get up. Visibility was very limited due to the ice storm and it was very hard to follow trails. Roaring plains were... loud... like a jet plain. Now we know why no trees can survive up there: 60 mph wind with even stronger gusts keeps the plains bald. Here is the slideshow from the Flatrock creek waterfalls. To some we manage to get really close:

O-Marathon II report.

2009-12-12T21:56:00.004-05:00

By Dima
Running is not my favorite discipline and once in a while (no, once in a WHILE) I force myself to run a competitive event. I cannot survive “just running” for more than 1 hour. Running with a map is a little better; my brain is busy analyzing something else beyond slow moving reality. Delaware Valley Orienteering Association created my perfect event: Orienteering Marathon. This year was the second time they host the event. The first one was in November 2007 and I got 3rd place in division. This time turnout was much better and I finished only 13th out of 21 (25th out of 71 overall). This is not very impressive result, taking into account that really strong runners were doing full marathon. Navigation this year was easier than in 2007, but it didn’t prevent me from getting lost around CP9. Thanks to Bill for telling me were I am. Total running distance for me was about 25-26 km, but between CP9 and CP16 I was doing a very conservative route choice. My finish time was 2:55:48 that is faster than my result in 2007. And of course it was nice to see old friend:

I took this photo 30 seconds before the start, sorry for quality, winter sun is crazy.

P.S. I started the O-Marathon II with strong symptoms of cold; they all gone after I finished. Running in chilly weather is the cure!

First day of snow updates

2009-12-07T07:00:00.010-05:00

Posted by Dima

It was amazing white weekend. If you spent it in front of your computer updating your site or reading somebody's else news, you probably not a racer and reading this text by mistake :-). We spent both days outside with our running off-road stroller. Leon was happy to see his first ever snow and getting ready for West Virginia trip on Christmas.

Now updates:

1) Mark your calendar... January 24th, 2010 Quantico orienteering meeting at Great Falls, VA (scroll down to the 24th). Meet Director: Fedor Iskhakov; Course Setter: Marina Iskhakova. Yes, our guests from Red Fox will host this event. Don't miss your chance to test "Russian style" navigation. All levels (white to blue) will be presented.

2) Calleva Race 2010 is going to be a big surprise. We have the draft course ready and even the first working map is already printed. Now is the time to get all permits. We need 6 different permits from 5 different organizations. We got the first one this Friday. Official announcement of the race will be out this week!

2010 race calendar.

2009-11-20T16:26:00.001-05:00

Our racing plans for 2010 are HUGE! Today we had the final meeting with Calleva directors for budget and race schedule approval.We are good to go and we are going to make it full speed. Our race calendar is now online. Race results of 2008-09 season are updated as well. Looks like we are going to race much more next year!
Another great news: We now can announce the date for 2010 Calleva Adventure Race. Mark your calendar: August 8th 2010. Updates and detail will be published on the Calleva Race website in a week or so. We are working hard on a completely new course for 2010 and it's a good training for us as well. The new location is remote and rarely visited, so don't expect to see us on your regular training trails.
Our last event for 2009 will be O Marathon II in Fair Hill, MD. See you there in 3 weeks.

Don't let the season end!

It's a boy!!!

2009-11-13T20:10:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to Vlad and Alena on the arrival of newborn baby boy!

On the photo proud family on the way from the hospital. Everybody is doing great!
One more racer in team Calleva! :-)

Odyssey Rogain. Reports, results and photos.

2009-11-10T10:23:00.003-05:00

KAREN
True to Odyssey's reputation, the 8 hour Rogaine had many climbs, descents and bushwhacks. Russians must be part billy goat--for Dima, Fedor and Marina scaled the mountains with ease. Val was more of a pack mule and me, well maybe a tortoise, you know--slow and steady wins the race. Haha, there was nothing slow about this race. We cruised through the 8 hour course in less than six hours, at least an hour before the next team. Our speed was due mostly to our almost perfect navigators, Fedor and Marina. But we ran when we could and took "short cuts" straight up the mountains, and then straight back down. To and from the race we played "how many people can fit in a Mazda?" reminding me of high school and squeezing 6 people in my red Fiero. Perfect weather topped off the day along with the unofficial 1st place win. It was a treat to get to race with such wonderful people!

VAL
The 2nd Annual orienteering event was something very special for team Calleva. Last year we came to the event not knowing how or what was going to take place. We eventually won the event, but I suffered some major cramps and other teammates had various injuries blossom. So this year we were coming injury free, and hoping for the same results. But it was with a twist of sorts...
New to the team is a Russian couple (Fedor and Marina) who have an extensive orienteering and adventure racing resume. I kinda laughed at myself, because this would mean running!! Something I have not focused on in a few months! Now the twist is that Marina recently gave birth to a beautiful daughter, (Ariadna) approximately 5 months ago, and is breastfeeding! So Marina can't participate in a race over 4 hours because she needs to feed Ariadna. This is actually amazing that she can even race, this soon after giving birth. So the team decided to take on this race with Fedor and Marina each only participating in one leg of the race. This would allow Marina to still tend to her daughter Ariadna.
The race ensues with Fedor leading Dima, Karen and I. Straight up a hill! We were the first out of the starting house and eventually finished the 3hour 30minute course in approximately 2hours 15minutes, still in first. After about 15 minutes to plot the next course and prepwork, we set out with Marina. She led us around the course where the orienteering points were a little more difficult to find. Some bushwacking, more hill climbing and then some eagle eye vision from Karen brought us to the last checkpoint. The last checkpoint was already known to be tough one because it was located on a broad spur and teams had missed it. We all fanned out only to be met by another team. I just happened to be on the far left side and after about 12 minutes.... MARINA...KAREN...DIMA..I FOUND IT! A short celebration dance by Marina and then we headed to the finish. We had gathered all the orienteering points for both sections, we smoked the course. A little over an hour later when we left, no other team had yet to finish. Two years in a row now for team CALLEVA to come away with a victory. This time we did it in 5 hours and 45 minutes, very impressive for us as a team. I look forward to being a part of next year's race and representing team CALLEVA in this great orienteering competition.

MARINA
... 2.15 am. The time to get up, to eat very early breakfast and to start the way to the Odyssey AR Rogain! Outside is below 40 F. Great Calleva team is waiting for us - Dima, Karen and Val. The first loop - is for Fedor, the second one - is for me to navigate. Huge mountain ridges are all around us. We run on trails and go uphill. The good news is that only half of the way is up and the second part is down. On my loop we found all CP in 3:45 and took the first unofficial place at my first Odyssey event!

DIMA
Last year Odyssey Rogain finished my injured knee. It survived one expedition and two 24 hours races, but Douthat Park hills killed it: it was very painful limping to the finish for the first place. This year Rogain became a big test before the 2010 season. Five minutes before the start we got coordinates of 10 CPs of the north-east quadrant. 6 minutes to plot and Calleva is the first team out… or better to say up. This section was designed by our friend and teammate Mark and had no flat areas: up, up and more up, down and up again. All CPs were on well defined features. That was different from North-West section where Ronny put 2 CPs "in the middle of nowhere". Bushwhacking in his section also was "more brutal", or I just got tired running after Marina that changed Fedor for the second loop. She was in great hurry to feed her 5 months old daughter Ariadna, or just had so much fun dancing on the way to the finish. We finished first, but probably unofficially, because Odyssey "provides no child care :-)" and we had to switch our navigators between first and second loops. My knee was strong and declared full recovery for the next season!

Thanks to Calleva Outdoor for the sponsorship for this event!
Official results are here.
Dima had his camera on the course, all photos are in Dima's Facebook (with funny comments) or in Picasa.

Odyssey AR Rogain.

2009-11-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

We cleared the 8 hours course in less than 6 hours. Reports, results and photos are coming.

OUTSIDE Magazine about team Calleva and racing mom report.

2009-11-01T22:35:00.011-05:00

The OUTSIDE magazine has just released November Issue. Contents of this issue include a special SURVIVAL section along with:
"Know When to Say When
It's better to bail out than to pass away".
Very promising title about incredible adventures of team Calleva in Patagonia early this year. See the November Issue of OUTSIDE magazine on newsstands in your local outdoor store. The story is on page 85.

Now completely different experience. Do you know what this lady is doing on transition from bike to paddle? Yes, she is also checking the map :-)

Marina Iskhakova, captain and navigator of team Fight Club Girls during the last weekend EDGE adventure race by GOALS ARA. Her full report is published at RISK.RU in Russian. By the way the girls got 2nd place. Next weekend Marina will try to demonstrate her nursing and navigation skills with team Calleva on Odyssey AR-Ogain. See you there.

Team Calleva Halloween Party

2009-10-25T16:39:00.001-04:00

That's not happening too often, but Halloween party was a good reason to get almost all local team members together. We even had some race planning discussion before entering The Forest:

Everybody survived the dark trails and the bravest ones even went for The Death Jump:

All photos from the party are here.

Third weekend, third race, third podium!

2009-10-11T13:00:00.002-04:00

Dima and Shon raced Little-Big adventure race this Saturday in Black Hill park. Shon moved to the most competitive 11-12 years old category and our third place was determined by seconds. Weather was almost "perfect": strong gusting wind on paddling, wet rocky trail on biking and light rain on the run. We finished the 5.5 miles course in 47 minutes 14 seconds.

Click the image to see all photos from the race.

Calleva TRIs something new!

2009-10-06T11:01:00.002-04:00

Wanting to show off some mad swimming skills, but not wanting to complete the entire course a day after returning from Rome, Karen convinced Dima to sign up for the Brierman Half Ironman Lite relay. Karen swam the .85 mile leg in Greenbrier lake. Even with a wetsuit, her fingers, toes and face were numb in the cold water. Karen came out of the water in 3rd place 30 seconds behind the 2 leaders. First out of transition, Dima's took the extra long 45 mile bike leg next. Dima's first road race went great, with just over 2 1/2 hours on the extremely hilly course. In true adventure racer style Dima freaked out all the turn volunteers with his speedy descents and turns. They kept shouting "slow down" as he careened by them! Dima held his own on Karen's cyclocross bike, especially compared to all the $5,000 bikes on the course. Only 7 super fast triathletes were able to pass him. For the run, Karen recruited George Corbi from Middleton. George has blown through several triathlons this year and is running in the Marine Corp Marathon in a few weeks. George scored the fastest 7 mile run leg of the race making up 2 places and securing a 1st place in the relay teams and 5th overall! Awesome race for everyone! Karen hopes that the team can do more races that have swims, Dima wants a road bike, and hopefully we can keep speedy George in the loop!

Official finishing was 3:51.54 only 20 minutes behind the leader.

The race was sponsored and supported by Calleva Outdoor Adventure.

Brierman Triathlon. Results and first photos.

2009-10-04T18:21:00.004-04:00

It was HUGE!!! We are first in relay. Dima is thinking about road bike... to cover 73 kilometers of BIG hills in less than 150 minutes is really cool. Detailed report and more photos are coming. For now take this one from the podium:

Photo Debby Adler

Markoff's Haunted Forest starts... yesterday!

2009-10-04T18:07:00.002-04:00

Actually it started Friday with 2000 patrons coming at the first day. Yesterday was the staff training. Don't miss your chance to get scared ... Team Calleva covers the belay on the Death Jump, a little warm up before two dark trails in the Haunted Forest. It's up to you to decide which trail makes you "to feel better"...

Click the image to see all training day photos.

Official Shag results and first Calleva Triathlon

2009-10-02T21:20:00.001-04:00

NYARA published the final Shag results. Calleva/Red Fox is third in prime and tied 4th position with team NYARA in overall. Calleva/Red Fox official time is 11 hours and 5 minutes. Now we have to make the final decision about Nationals October 22-24 in Pilot Point, Texas.

This Sunday team Calleva will compete in unusual for us event: Brierman Triathlon in Greenbrier Park in Boonsboro, MD. We will race relay: Karen will swim about 1 mile, Dima will bike 45 miles (road bike !!!), and George will run about 8.5 miles.

National qualifier. This time no mistakes...

2009-09-27T22:13:00.008-04:00

Official Shag results: Team Calleva/Red Fox is third in prime and fifth overall. Dmitri Kaganovich, Michelle Lindsay and Fedor Iskhakov cleared the course taken all possible 95 points in 11 hours and 15 minutes. We were in 15-20 minutes lead before the last swimming-paddling leg of the race. One of sit-on-top kayaks we got had a hole below water line, but we discovered it only a couple miles away from the transition. Two stops to remove the water and to try to fix the problem cost us 30 minutes and two positions in the final ranking. ATP and GOALS ARA passed us in the last 20 minutes of the race.
The race was very well organized and navigation was very interesting. Mountain bike was mostly on technical single trail like Gambrill park in Maryland, and paddling was in river with maze of narrow swampy channels. Dima was trying to drag the leaky kayak through one of these swamps and got two leeches sucking blood from his leg. Fedor made a wonderful navigation job that kept the team in the lead for 2/3 of the race. Michelle made this tough race real fun for the team. Marina and Ariadna were our support and waited us on the finish line.

The race was sponsored and supported by Calleva Outdoor Adventure.
All photos:

Shag 2009

Shag training.

2009-09-20T21:33:00.003-04:00

Last year Shag race was so much fun that we can't afford skipping it this year. Unfortunately it's only 12 hours and we are going to miss night time fun. We also have to move fast to keep it in line with fast sprinting teams. Team Calleva is upgraded by Red Fox navigator Fedor, who proved his amazing skills on today's training. Michelle always brings luck and first place to Calleva and we hope for good result next Saturday.

Team Red Fox Russia in USA.

2009-09-13T22:49:00.003-04:00

Legends of the Russian Adventure Racing sport Marina and Fedor Iskhakov are here in Maryland for the next 6 months. Don't get surprised, if for the next few races you see team Calleva/Red Fox in race rosters.

Dima hosted a welcome party for the team Red Fox and little Ariadna.

First day of school updates.

2009-08-31T12:50:00.004-04:00

Val is back from South Dakota, telling amazing stories about PQ race. We will need more beer to listen them all!

Meanwhile we started scouting 2010 Calleva Race course. It's too much difference between August, when the race takes place, and any other time of year.

The season is not over yet and we have few more short races coming. Dima got good training in the last 7 days: 104 miles biking, 16 miles paddling, 4 mile river swim and 40 miles running. The last 24 miles of running were on the Green Way trail from Potomac to Clopper lake and back:

Val and Druce interview from PQ

2009-08-18T10:52:00.002-04:00

Val, Druce and the rest of the team are doing great! They are solid on full course and ready to finish strong:

Primal Quest starts tomorrow

2009-08-13T11:42:00.004-04:00

Just 18 hours to this big race. Val and Druce are in South Dakota with team FIVE TEN / NUMA. Mark jointed international Team Endurox R4 for this 10 days race through the Badlands (what’s a name!). Good luck guys, we will be watching you!

Unfortunately this year the PQ is less than half full. Only 32 teams are shown so far on the leaderboard. There are two reasons for such low turnout: the price tag and injuries that set back many racers. $10,000+ registration fees, plus race specific gears, transportation, accommodation… A very few teams can afford such expenses in present economical conditions.

Also we can declare 2009 the year of numerous injuries. Team Nike is out of PQ because of Mike Kloser mountain biking crash. Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure lost Robyn Benincasa due to hip injuries. Many racers, non-racers and just friends of mine had knees, hips, ankles and even head injuries. I couldn’t avoid bad luck as well and even participated in a crutches party earlier this year:

Team work makes a good race.

2009-08-10T14:23:00.007-04:00

The Second Annual is over. Today there are 90 people limping on their way to work. The race wasn't easy for anybody, especially for the team Calleva and Calleva staff that put almost 6 month of preparation into this event. Everything worked out very smooth. Dima directed the Expert course, while Karen took full responsibility for the Sport category together with her medical director duties. Vlad appeared at the most unpredictable locations of the race taken photos of the racers and checked that all flags and stickers are still in place. We managed to check-in all 40 teams in 45 minutes, thanks to our wonderful team of volunteers. We bused all racers to the start, we moved all boats to the beginning of the paddling leg, and we moved all bikes to and from transition areas. Total of 30 people spend 12 hours and more supporting this big event.
Thanks to all races for coming and taking this tough challenge. Thanks to all spectators for supporting our racers!

2009 Calleva Race is sold out.

2009-07-31T12:27:00.005-04:00

40 teams, 90 racers are crazy enough to spend next Sunday in woods and swamps. We are all ready to go and hope to have good weather next weekend. Here is one secret image from the start area of the race.

Are you ready for THAT?

Racing news.

2009-07-21T22:39:00.003-04:00

1) Mark and Sara are back from Sweden, where they compete in the Explore Sweden Monster Adventure Race 7 days, 1000 km. Read team YogaSlackers 18 pages race report here. It's absolutely unreal!

2) Jonathan Neely from GOALS ARA published a dramatic story about the team adventure in the Untamed New England Race week ago. Links to the videos from the race are on the Grant's blog.

3) This weekend Brian and Steven vetted the Calleva Race Course. Dima, Vlad, Karen, and Val did support and transitions. Report is here, photos are on the Calleva Race blog:

Back home

2009-07-13T11:56:00.004-04:00

OK. We kind of DNF New England race, even in leader board we are on ALT D short course. Only 2 teams finish the full course of this brutal race, but even theses two were far away from clearing it.
Here is slideshow of our team's on-board camera combined with a few shots from CP0 website and official Untamed photo galery:

Pay attention to the white water conditions. We were one of very few teams to make it without swimming :-)

Going North!

2009-07-07T11:02:00.005-04:00

Team Calleva (Dima, Karen and Vlad) packing up for the 3 day 250 mile Untamed New England adventure race starting Thursday. We managed to fit our bins into 30 lb limit and our next challenge is 12 hours drive to the beautiful Balsams Grand Resort Hotel.

The race has on-line coverage and every team will have satellite trekking device. To see our real time location follow this link. To cheer us up send us a trail mail.
This race we will care photo camera with us on the course and promise tons of photos after the race.
Our team is Calleva, our number is 41.

Team Calleva is sponsored by Calleva Outdoor Adventure. Thank you guys!

Impossible 30 pounds.

2009-06-27T18:18:00.002-04:00

Today was the final Untamed New England race training. We worked out different rope techniques: chest ascender - hand ascender, two hand ascenders, prussic - ascender, and heavy-back-pack-on-rope technique.

Untamed will provide ascending gear and we want to be ready for any configuration. We decided not to take our gear, because... we can't fit it into allowed 30 lb weight limit. Yes, most of today's training was not about ropes. It was about gear. Unlike last year, transition gear bins are limited not by volume, but by weight. Only 30 pounds are allowed. We took our last year 24 gallon Untamed New England bins, and filled it out for 3 days race... 41 lb was the minimum weight. Suppose, we will start on bikes, so biking gear are out... still 37 lb. So far the problem remains open and we hope the race director will increase the limit. Grant, please!

Patagonian race presentation at Calleva.

2009-06-20T21:53:00.008-04:00

This Friday team Calleva presented the slideshow about Patagonian Expedition Race. 150 people of the Calleva staff took a 30 minutes trip through the most remote adventure of the world.

The first part of the show is online now. Click the link and then F11 to see the full screen.

This small screen is also active, thanks to Google.

Rain, rain, every day...

2009-06-09T22:29:00.009-04:00

Val is trying to get ready for PQ in 2 months. South Dakota is a very dry place, 200 oz of water are mandatory on some PQ trekking sections. Here in Maryland for the last two weeks we had continues rain with short brake for the weekend. Trails remain wet and water fills our shoes. 8 miles of trail run and 8 miles of biking was a good warm up for the next month races.

By the way, this trail will be a part of the Calleva Race this year. Any idea where is it?

Calleva Race fills up fast.

2009-06-05T15:28:00.008-04:00

More than 2 month before the race and we are almost half full! It's nice to see last year racers comming back, new athlets are also welcome.

Register earlier to reserve your spot. Team roster is available online now.

The photo is from the 2008 Calleva race by Vladimir Bukalo Photograpy.

WW results and NE training

2009-06-01T12:46:00.002-04:00

Karen finished Odyssey Wild and Wonderful 25th overall and 5th in solo (first and only female solo). Missing CP6 cut off by 20 minutes was the story:
"The last bike leg took considerably longer than they told us it would. And it went through a very poorly mapped/marked area. I still don't understand where I took a wrong turn. Anyway. I felt great through the whole race. I wasn't tired until I missed the cutoff, I was upset for that. I am not really sore now, no blisters, feet are great, and my navigation was good. I felt very strong through out, so no matter where I placed, I had a great race."

We continue training for Untamed New England race. This weekend was about paddling and boat logistics:

Yep, there is a kayak inside this canoe and we are far away from water. After last year Untamed Virginia we have to be ready for any surprises. By the way, the race is 10 hours longer now: 70 hours...

Wild and Wonderful this weekend

2009-05-21T12:41:00.003-04:00

Karen will represent Calleva Adventure Racing on this weekend Odyssey Wild and Wonderful Race. Like last year she will be the only female solo to start the race. Way to go, Karen! The online coverage will be provided by the Checkpoint Tracker. Send your Shout Outs to support Karen.

Meanwhile, Dima is very busy taking care of this little guy:

Leon Isaac Kaganovich was born on May 7th and, according to speed he jumped out of his mom, he will be racer, no doubts about that. Now we have to make him smart as well.

Our next big event as a team will be 3 days Untamed New England Race in 1.5 month. We train hard to get ready. In the last 4 (working) days Dima had a wonderful commute: 105 miles of biking, 12 miles of paddling and 10 miles of running.

Muddy Buddy

2009-05-05T16:32:00.003-04:00

Dima and Karen raced funny Muddy Buddy Race this Sunday. We didn't win costume contest, but finished third in our division (out of 86 teams) and 58th overall (out of 1200+ teams). Our names are located on page 53 of results. We would have finished a little better, but my ballerina dress got a little heavy after the first river crossing and totally trashed after the muddy swim.

Perfect commute. AR style.

2009-04-27T12:17:00.007-04:00

posted by Dima.

I know quite a bit racer working 9 hours a day Monday to Friday. Yep, we have to work hard to pay all these registration fees and to buy expensive gear for races. I also spend 9 hours a day in the lab. I like what I am doing, and when results are good and keep going, I can stay overnight to collect them all. But eventually I have to go home and return next morning. And that’s the problem…

I live 14 miles straight line from my work. Straight line of North-South diagonal of Washington DC, the city of traffic jams, bridges across Potomac and Anacostia rivers, president cortège, wise-president cortège, secretary of state cortège… You cannot drive your car through there and my commute is 30-35 miles each way around the nation capital. The drive takes about 45 minutes in perfect conditions, but perfect conditions do not exist around the capital beltway. That’s why 2 years ago I switched to biking.

I still cannot go straight line because of the rivers, but 16 miles of trails and sidewalks is no so bad and take me about 55-60 minutes. I ride year around, including rainy days, snow and frizzing rain. I learned how to ride my bike in any conditions and have no more crashes during real AR events. But recently I started a new chapter in my commute, turning it into mini adventure races (two per day). Here how it works:

Stage 1: Biking on Capital Crescent trail from Bethesda to Georgetown – 7 miles.

Stage 2: Transition from bike to paddle at the Jack’s boathouse. Thank to Anna, the owner, for nice service of keeping my sea kayak there.

Stage 3: Paddling from Georgetown to BAFB (military base across the national airport) – 6 miles.

Stage 4: Transition from paddling to running at coast guards station (thanks to guards for letting me in).

Stage 5: Running to the lab – 1 mile.

Now my commute is a perfect straight line. And it takes me 90 to 110 minutes depending on wind direction and my spirit to work hard. I am still not doing it every day, alternating with bike only commuting, but as weather gets better, I will try it more often.

By the way, it’s a good training. Try it.

Web updates and snakes from the race course.

2009-04-10T22:23:00.003-04:00

We updated the Race Results and the Team section in the top menu. It's almost one year to the new Calleva team. We will skip big races for the next few months, but there are few short races in our plans.

Last weekend field work was highlighted by this beautiful snake

Three other sisters of this beauty absorbed sun light just feet from the trail. Hopefully they will go deeper into the swamp in August.