Team GoLite Podiums Again!

Team GoLite Multisport
AXS 18 Hour Adventure Race
Summit County, CO, July 25-26, 2009
1st Place 2-Person Teams, 2nd Team Overall





Summit County always provides a great area for racing -- beautiful scenery, fun singletrack, and great trail access. With James out of the country and Boyd busy for the weekend, Brooks and Tiff headed up to the Breckenridge, CO area to put our training and navigation skills to the test. We’ve been training hard on our team navigation, participating in several orienteering meets put on by the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club (and they do an awesome job!). Brooks is getting to be one heck of a navigator, and this race would give us a good opportunity to do a lot of navigating and also test out our brand new Suunto Arrow racing compasses, which we were super-excited to receive before we headed out to the race. Always excited to help new racers out, we also had the chance to help some other teams out and do a little map & compass clinic before the start of the race with some of the teams doing the 12 Hour and Sprint races. We remember learning all of these skills in the beginning and it’s nice to be able to give back a bit.

The race started at midnight with a fast 1 mile run to get from the start to the Lake Dillon marina. After hopping in the kayaks, we tried our best to discern all the islands and inlets despite the moonless night, and found that we could track the lake well and came out of the water right with the the fastest teams. With the pre-dawn morning upon us and wet from the paddle, we shivered as we ran back to the Frisco Nordic Center attempting to warm our bodies back up on the way before the Orienteering course. Brooks was thankful for his recent practice and our ultra light and super bright Ay Up lights, and was able to move quickly through the O-course. With precision and skill, he pointed us directly to each control, making the orienteering a seamless and fast section. Off the course in just over two hours, we beat the next-fastest team in this section by almost an hour. With the trek looming ahead, we transitioned once again, keeping our headlamps on for just a bit more.

The most memorable parts of this race happens during the trek. We’ve often been directed to hit the summit of Wheeler Pass between Breckenridge and Copper, and the views from this vantage point never fail to be stunning. This morning was no exception. Our reward from the fast orienteering was the beautiful sunrise as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain (and we were so bummed we didn't have our camera with us!!). Running changed to trekking, and soon our trekking poles were pulled out for the final bid to the summit. Peaking out at over 12,500 feet just minutes after sunrise, we definitely felt the affects of the altitude, and immediately started running on the downhill to help our heads and stomachs recover.

Running out of the mountains, we descended to the bike path between Copper and Frisco. With Brooks sporting inline skates and me a scooter for the 7% downhill grade, I fought to keep control and constantly watched as Brooks confidently skated along -- let’s just say he’s a good skater, and I am a bit more challenged in this discipline!

I made it to transition in Frisco once more, very thankful to be alive as the descent on the bikepath always gives me a bit of a fast heart rate! But from here on is one of our favorites -- the mountain bike -- and for this race we get to have lots of fun on copious amounts of singletrack. Big climbs, swooping downs, and fast trails don’t always show up in the adventure races, so we
made sure to have as much fun as possible. A small tactical error on where to get on the trails simply gave us bonus singletrack, and even though in the end it cost us the overall win, we still value the lessons we learned, as well as never forgetting the “bonus singletrack” we earned. Ahhh, gotta love it when you climb a bit too far, but the prospect of a few extra miles of singletrack and making the best of it and fighting back is a fact of adventure racing, and we
handled it well.

We came off the course clearing all checkpoints and narrowly avoiding the evening thunderstorms. We rejoiced missing another torrential downpour (as we expected to happen) and also coming in 1st for our division (Coed Duo). It was an even bigger bonus to come in 2nd overall just a short bit behind the leading team, knowing that we were in close contention for 1st
place for all teams.

We continue to be really excited about our races and our great finishes -- and there’s still more to come!

-Tiffanie Beal