Soggy Bottom Boys Race

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!

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

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.