08 YEAR IN REVIEW

I've spent more than a few hours wasting away on airplanes in the past couple weeks, during which I started a post I titled "Year in Review". In it, I went in depth on our races for the year and how we fared in each. It was long and boring to say the least. Don't get me wrong; the year has been successful but going over details of every race seemed a bit too much for some unsuspecting reader who might wander into this blog. I chose not to post it and gave the idea a little time to gestate.

I was just reading Mike Eglinski's blog and he recently posed two questions to assess the year. The questions and my answers are as follow:

What went well in 2008?

The last two years have been transitional for Off Road Fixation with some of our top teammates moving away with work and military service or out with illness. The team raced eight AR events for 2007 including Nationals but besides a 2nd place finish at the Ozark Challenge (one I did with team Inertia)and the resulting berth at Nationals, the team showed poorly for the remaining races.

2008 rolled around and the remaining team members started recruiting some new players and we came out pretty good if you look at the results. John and Amanda did the Bonk Chill and placed 4th. John and I did Sunflower 24 and took 2nd. John and Amanda placed third at the Dirty Duo while we added my son Matt and I for a four person coed that took 3rd at Dusk 2 Dawn. Justin Montgomery was a new add as well and he rocked his first duathlon, taking 1st place at the Berryman Adventure Duathlon. The Berryman Adventure 36 Hour race has always been our nemesis but John, Michelle and I were able to finally finish the race after four years trying. I teamed up with Nancy and Ryan of Inertia for the Milford race and took 1st overall. We finished out the season with the Castlewood AR. Adding Krista Patterson, we took 1st in the two person coed while John, Amanda, Justin and another ORF newbie, Maggie, finished 9 minutes ahead for a 7th place finish in four person coed.

In short, I think what went well was that the new teammates gelled and fit right in while the core guys stepped up to try and fill the temporary void as Captains and Navigators. While we did well in 08 I can't wait till everyone is back home and feeling well.

The following results are truly impressive.

Bonk Hard Chill (8) - Feb 2008 - 4th
Sunflower 24 - Mar 2008 - 2nd
Dirty Duo - Jun 2008 - 3rd
Dusk to Dawn - Jul 2008 - 3rd
Berryman Adventure Duathlon - Aug 2008 - 1st
Berryman Adventure (36) Sep 2008 - 14th of 24
Milford Challenge - Oct 2008 - 1st
Castlewood - Dec 2008 - 1st


What did you learn in 2008?

-Carry enough waterproof matches to start a fire for you and the seven other boats that might capsize in freezing water.
-It is a long way to KC on the Kaw River if you miss the take-out.
-Always check your bike light after you charge it before a race.
-The stars are really bright near VanBuren, MO when your bike light doesn't work.
-Never start a race with a hole in your shin.
-You will never, ever, ever be able to convince Michelle she shouldn't race with a hole in her shin.
-There are places that one should never bike whack.
-Stan's No Tube tire sealant does not last forever.
-Bike chains should be replaced before they break.
-Krista likes to take dirt naps beside the mountain bike trails.
-Ryan and Nancy are not human. I'm thinking they may be terminators or something.

Congrats on a wonderful year. Can't wait to see what next year brings.

Marathon Training

I've decided to add a marathon to my schedule early next year. The Eisenhower Marathon in Abilene, KS is a small Boston qualifier with a hometown feel. I doubt I'll be able to run a 3:20 but I can always dream on this one. It will be fun to see how I do in such a short time. Anyway, I'm adding organized training runs to my usual lifting routine. I'm going to jump into about week 4 of Hal Higdon's Advanced I routine and see how I do.

CASTLEWOOD PICTURES

Jason has the Castlewood pictures up.

Click here for more.

RESULTS

The official Castlewood 08 results are posted.

John, Amanda, Maggie and Justin placed 7th in the four person coed division and 14th overall with 45 of 49 CPs and a finish time of 9:31. Krista and I placed first in the two person coed and 15th overall with 45 CP's only eight minutes behind ORF 1 at 9:39.

Check out the image below for the top 30 overall with split info.

CASTLEWOOD PICTURE

Here are a few pictures from the Castlewood race.

The first is the canoe put in at the start. Krista was actually running with this canoe. Unbelievable. The next two show us just after nearly capsizing in freezing cold water. You can't see it, but I am in a butt pucker factor 10. We got completely sideways lodged against two submerged rocks. We eventually dislodged ourselves and came out backwards. The second picture is just after we spun it back around.

CASTLEWOOD 08

Full results are not in but both teams did well. Krista and I took first place two person coed. John, Amanda, Maggie and Justin finished ahead of us overall by about 30 minutes but they were in the much stronger four person coed division. Great job team!

I'll post more later but here are the maps and clue sheets.

Bike Mounted Map/Compass Holder

I mounted up my homemade map/compass holder to my bike last night. I stole this idea, somewhat, from David Frei's unique pie server design. I figure the spatula gets the map a bit further out of the way. The clamp allows me to rotate my standard map case any direction I want without adding a huge amount of weight. The compass is nice as long as you aren't moving which means it is useless. Too much vibration and the needle is all over the place. I thought about replacing it with one of those windshield mounted compass balls after it's inaugeral run at D2D this year but I epoxied the baseplate compass to the spatula and I would have to start from scratch. I'd hate to throw away a perfectly good $3 spatula with optional stationary compass.

All I need to do now is tape on a couple of cut out milk jugs to keep the wind off my hands and I'll have one sweet ride.

PACKING UP

I'm just putting the final touches on my packing for the Castlewood Adventure Race. I actually did the majority of the deed last night. I set up the bikes, got the pack and required gear checked out. I'm good. I'm sitting here typing at 10:00 PM and I'm ready to go and that was even taking time to watch Grey's Anatomy with the wifey. Surprising since I am normally running around frantically searching for my lost spandex something or other about this time. Feels good to be good. See you all in St. Louis.

ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!

I just registered our second team for the upcoming Castlewood Adventure in St. Louis next weekend. Teams will be as follows:

Four Person Coed

John Clausen
Amanda Clausen
Justin Montgomery
Maggie Conley


Two Person Coed

Kelly Sumner
Krista Patterson

There is some tough competition all around for this race but there is a large field of newbies as well. I look forward to showing them what this game is all about.

Castlewood Update 11/30/08 - 91 Teams are currently listed for next weeks race. Wahoo. Should be a bit dodgy at the start. I'm hoping they have put a little more thought into spreading teams out off the starting line than they did last year.

JOHNNY BE GOOD!

I just happened upon a photo of our own Johnny Woodward laying it down in the 2008 Vets Run back in November.

JERRY TABB ROAD TRIP

We had a good showing at the Jerry Tabb Road Trip this year. We added a few twists with an optional adventure duathlon but not many people bit. We had one team and a solo try the the duo, and both were teammates. John and Amanda got the official win with Ryan actually taking first place time wise but finishing second because he couldn't complete the team mystery challenges by himself. He was a great sport about it, knowing he had kicked every ones arse.

Attendance overall was a little down this year. A bright spot for the year was that we had a huge turnout for the boy scouts this year. In fact, boy scouts ended up beating out a two time national orienteering champion for the win, as Mike Eglinski opted to try the team event and was required to try his hand at a couple of non-orienteering skills such as a washer toss and a fun little game that required you to settle three tennis balls in some holes in a piece of plywood, something Mike hadn't practiced I'm sure.

I think the highlight of the event was when Ryan decided to shortcut a route to a checkpoint, a choice that probably saved him 100 yards at most, by busting across a small inlet of water to reach a sliver of land that held a lone checkpoint. Upon reaching the CP, he must have seen the well established trail that lead to it but still opted to swim back across the 15 feet of water to reach shore. Volunteers on shore weren't sure what to think of this guy crashing out of the water and brush. I guess it worked.

CASTLEWOOD VIDEO

I just did a new video from pictures taken by Karen Holtman during the 2007 Castlewood Adventure Race. Karen and Todd Holtman will be filling race director duties during this years race. Hope to see you all out there. Enjoy!

LUKE'S SKYWALKERS

I joined up with a friend at work to support a wonderful fundraiser last month. Dick Murray has been blessed with a wonderful grandson, Luke, who was born with Down Syndrome. They formed a team for the Annual KC Buddywalk and together we raised thousands of dollars for much need aid to the KC community. Luke's Skywalkers took first place for the largest new team. We had great weather and a wonderful time. I'll be sure to get in on this early next year as we plan more fund raisers ahead of the walk.

CASTLEWOOD ADVENTURE RACE

It looks like ORF will have two teams in the Castlewood AR in December. John, Amanda and Justin are pairing up with a new teammate, Maggie Conley for the four person coed division. I'll be bringing a two person coed team if all works out with potential teammate Krista Patterson. More stuff to follow.


Krista is pictured above running with her team during the 2008 Jerry Tabb Road Trip Orienteering Event.

MILFORD LAKE CHALLENGE

I threw in with Nancy Day and Ryan Slebos of Inertia for a new race this year called the Milford Lake Challenge. Set in a large lake near Junction City, Kansas, we didn't know what to expect from this first time race directors efforts. We were pleasantly surprised.


Billed as an eight hour course that would require one teammate to follow along in a kayak while the other two or three cruised along on bike and foot. Thankfully, this format did not occur as the winds on the lake were expected to pick up and the boat of choice was a cheap inflatable two-person kayak. It would have been impossible to make the eight mile paddling sections required. Thankfully the director recognized this and modified the course the week before.

The full team kayaked about four miles together on the lake, out and back up a small creek branch. Several teams had flats in the boats and some even had multiple flats. Not fun. We were lucky enough to get out front and didn't have any leaking problems. We had two boats with Ryan and I in the lead and Nancy tethered in the back solo. Some teams were all over the place in the boats but I think the tethered boat in the rear helped keep us running true and fast. Nancy said she felt like a water skier at one point. We ended up coming off the water in first place and headed into a bike section.

This was the last time we would see the TA as the rest of the race was made up of bike drops and orienteering sections. We made it to the first bike drop and took out on foot to nail the second and third CPs with no problems. The nav here was simple.

Jumping back on the bike, we hammered down a highway and into a small town. We were supposed to take a small road straight out of town but this is where our game plan fell apart as we ended up on the wrong road. We scrambled around looking for some signs of where we might have gone wrong and had finally given up and were headed back into town to try again when Ryan noticed a road that pinpointed our location just north of the actual road we were supposed to be on. We headed back out on our original road and ran right into the CP not 300 yards farther down from where we turned around. I also got a flat during this same period so we were sitting about one hour back from our lead we had as we headed into town. Argh!

Having raced with Inertia before, I knew what came next.....got to make up for lost time. I still wasn't back up to full speed with my training so trying to keep up with Ryan and Nancy was just brutal for me on foot. It was actually pretty hot for October and the heat took it's toll on me during the trekking sections. Ryan had me in tow and we would run the flats and down hills and walk the steep hills. Each time we transitioned from a hill to a flat, Ryan would just say "OK" and we'd begin to run again. I started to consciously wish for just one more minute before he spoke those ominous letters. Nothing doin. He'd bark and off we'd go. One CP was at the edge of the lake and I took a precious few seconds to jump in and bring my core temp down a bit. This was my saving grace. It was a whole new ball game for me after that dip.

The beautiful thing about this race was that every CP was a manned CP. They must have had 20 volunteers. This allowed us to check on how far back we were from the leaders at each one. We gained about five to ten each CP and ended up finishing 30 minutes ahead of the second place Team Greenhorn.

The post race party included free food at a local bar. We got back, showered up and ate a pre-party meal at the same bar and finished with their free pizza buffet. I loved this race.

I really had a great time racing with Nancy and Ryan again. It was eye opening for me how far I've fallen off my training in the last year and I've since kicked it into high gear on that front. Thank you both for pulling me through.

Picture to follow.

FINALLY FINISHING BERRYMAN

Off Road Fixation bucked the odds just to get to starting line at the 08 Berryman Challenge and went one step further and crossed the finish line with our coed team after four years trying on the Midwest's most treacherous 36 hour monster.

The hurdles were plenty. Ryan Netz cancelled on us this year due to work commitments. I was battling Mono and was unable to train till about two weeks before the race and Michelle had surgery on her shin for a brown recluse spider bite that got infected. We decided as a team to toe the line anyway and just do what we could. We started as a three person coed without Netz, Michelle sporting a hole the size of a quarter that went clear to the bone on her shin. Talk about guts.

The race started just before midnight on Friday night. Plotting was on the clock and we had to wade across the Current River before we reached our first CP. Ugh. Cold and wet right off the bat.

We couldn't run during the 20+ mile trek but power walked to save as much time as possible. Our nav was spot on thanks to John Clausen's great work. We could tell Michelle was in deep pain during the trek so John and I both assumed she might call it quits at the end of the trek but she decided to give the canoe a try when we got to the transition.

Since we did three person, we only had one canoe, which allowed the person in the center to catch a few Zzzz during the 32 miles section. This allowed us to stay focused later in the race. We held our own during the paddle but didn't set any records here. The paddle ended at the Start/Finish/TA and again we thought Michelle might give up the race in exchange for a cozy sleeping bag after a long night and day of pain and suffering. This girl is tuff as nails and decided to hit the bikes.

We continued to navigate well on bike and Michelle was stronger on the bike than she was on foot. We made a bad choice to bike whack a couple of times and paid a heavy time penalty. The clock was running down on us and we finally decided to skip the last two CP's on bike and head straight to the finish. We followed what looked like a well established jeep trail down into a ravine and thus began the worst bike whack I have ever experienced. We couldn't turn around and each step further seemed to bring thicker and thicker brush. I was never so happy to see pavement as when we stepped out the other side of the ravine just miles from the finish line.

We cruised in to the finish with five minutes to spare. Yup, that's right; 35 hours and 55 minutes into a 36 hour race. It would have been fine to have finished the race without all the hardship but finishing with everything stacked against us just made it that much sweeter. Well done team. I was proud to race with each one of you.

JERRY TABB ROAD TRIP

I'm putting the finishing touches on the Jerry Tabb Road Trip Orienteering Course this week. The annual fund raiser is always a fun and fast event. This year's Score-O event will include an optional bike-orienteering section for an unheard of $15 entry fee. 24 normal orienteering points on foot and an optional 8 points on bike make for a fun day in my home town of Harrisonville, MO. Register the day of the race. Minimal gear requirements. A great prize raffle and BYOB cookout at my house after the race. Come on down and enjoy the fun at this wonderful scholarship fundraiser. Check em out online here.

BUMMIN ABOUT BERRYMAN

I'm bummin big time about the Berryman Adventure Race coming up next month. Seems I've got an enlarged spleen and my contact sports must be avoided (upon pain of death) so I'm out of action. ORF is on the lookout to fill my spot so talk to John Clausen if you are interested and possess superhuman strength, endurance and charming good looks (I've got big shoes to fill, I know) A nice singing voice is an added plus. :-)

BERRYMAN OFF ROAD DUATHLON

Where better to showcase the talents of the Off-Road Fixation Team than the Off-Road Duathlon at Berryman put on by Bonk Hard Racing last weekend. Justin Montgomery represented us and did us proud with a first place finish in the six hour team division. Great job Justin!

Check out the full results here.

NEXT UP? BERRYMAN!!!

Which race is the biggest, baddest mamajamma in the midwest? Which one sends shivers down the spine of every racer who has survived it? Which race do I look forward to the most each year? The answer to all of these is the Berryman Adventure and it is only two months away. Off Road Fixation will be sending a four person coed team, consisting of John Clausen, Ryan Netz, Michelle Elliot and I. Personally, I don't have any dreams of winning it all with all the top notch talent that has been showing up there in the past few years. My goal is to navigate well as a team, stay energized and complete the full course of this 36 hour monster. If we happen to surprise a few teams in the end, so be it. To my team mates, train hard. This is the year that we go all the way!

TRAINING RIDE

Took a long training ride with Ryan, Nancy and friends around KC yesterday. We ended up doing 75 miles or so on paved roads. This was my first long miles since I was .....uh.....er......in high school or so. All that traffic reminds me why I love mountain biking so much but I was also reacquainted with the added scenery you get while pouring on the miles. We started about 6:30 AM and finished near 11:00 AM, just in time for some burgers and brats on the barby. There were beers to be had as well but I passed as usual...training you know. OK, I just don't like beer. I think Nancy got some pictures I'll post later.

OFFROAD FIXATION TAKES THIRD AT DUSK TO DAWN

Team Off Road Fixation took third place in the premier four person coed division in the Lake Perry Dusk to Dawn Adventure Race with a time of 9:43. Our time was also good enough to place us sixth overall against all teams combined (37) including the all male divisions.

John Clausen and I shared navigational duties with John at the helm most of the time. This was my first race with John's wife Amanda as a teammate and I was pleased throughout as I never heard a peep from her as we bush and bike whacked through poison ivy infested forest on our quest for gold. She pushed through some severe cramps at the end of the race and helped to beat out one of the two man teams in a sprint to the finish line. Well done girl.

My son Matt notched his first race here and got the full meal ticket in my book. He was lucky enough to enjoy all the things I love about adventure racing, all in one race. The thrill of night navigation on a surreal trek through backwoods and then meeting a friend from another team in the middle of nowhere looking for some obscure CP. He also commented more than once on the beautiful moonlit paddle we took over Lake Perry, blindly paddling up to fishing and pleasure boats on the dark waters. He also got a taste of some splendid singletrack mountain biking, although it was a tad short.

Jason of Bonk Hard Racing put on a great race as always. I'd have to say these were the BEST maps I've ever seen. :-)

Many thanks go out to our friends and fellow racers, Team Inertia. Ryan and Nancy donated a bike and light for my son and some signal flares to the team. The Dinotte Light was everything that Ryan brags about. It was the only torch burning when we finished the race. Luckily it was bright enough to light the way for all four of us until the sun came up.

Fellow ORFer Justin Montgomery turned traitor for this race and joined long time racing legend and friend of ORF/BAMF, Mark Alf of GCAR. Mark was still recovering from a recent finish at the Primal Quest race in Montana. It looked as though his toes were just starting to mend. Tough as nails, that guy is.

We also bumped into Todd and Karen Holtman of Team Subaru out on the trekking section. We shared some thoughts on navigation and then went our separate ways. They later beat us out of the bush and hammered it on the bike to beat us by about 30 minutes. Always great competitors and great friends those guys.

Great job Team! I'm looking forward to the Berryman.

Check out the result at Bonk Hard Racing.

Here are some pictures from the event.

D2D Training

I went out to Lake Perry for some training and to reacquaint myself with the terrain and trails prior to the Dusk to Dawn race on the 19th the other day. I have the week off and have been bumming around the house and decided to get in a few miles instead. I picked the hottest day of the year and there was absolutely NO wind to help cool me down in my mid-day ride. I expected the worst as most trails suffer from overgrown brush and grass during the summer months around Missouri. I slathered on the bug spray and hoped for the best.

I started out biking on the State Park trails with plans to ride all of them. I did the Wild West and the Great White Loop and then headed up the shore on Logans run before I was overcome with the heat. I popped out on the service road and and road pavement back to parking lot. I got eight miles on bike. Seemed like 30.

I was pleasantly surprised that the trails were mowed back and trimmed to immaculate condition. Props to the trail managers. If there was poison ivy out there, it never made it near the trails.

The ticks were another story. They were thick enough to carry me away and they tried on several attempts. A large one actually tried to steal the keys to my car. I stopped regularly to pull them off. They seemed to have grown resistant to DEET.

I juiced back up and decided to go back out on foot to map out the remainder of the trails near the trail head. I hit the Skyline, Willow and the Mad Mile and had racked up another 5 miles before calling it a day.

I've done the D2D twice before and this had to be the first time I've ridden these trails during the day. I can't say that I look forward to crashing through all the spider webs while picking my way in this maze of trails in the dark later this month...but training sure was fun, even in the heat.

THAT'S MY BOY!

Off-Road Fixation is gearing up for the Dusk to Dawn Adventure Race at Perry Lake State Park on July 19th. I am very proud to announce that we will be sporting a new young gun for this race. My son Matt will be giving adventure racing a go for the first time. He has done some light biking and has always been an endurance junky with cross country, track and soccer. He is also a fairly proficient navigator in his own right but his experience is limited to short orienteering races in the KC area. John, Amanda and I will fill out the rest of the team. I can't wait!

GETTIN DIRTY

Off-road Fixation fielded two teams for the Dirty Duo at Shawnee Mission Park last weekend. Bonk Hard racing has put together another big hitting race as 123 teams of two showed up to toe the line. The race consisted of a six mile course where the two person teams took turns running or riding, exchanging the bike after completing a mystery challenge at each mile marker. The race ended with a 25 yard mud pit that the athletes had to crawl through. Fun stuff for sure!!

John and Amanda took third in their age division for coeds and placed about 12th overall. Amanda's brother Augey and Justin Montgomery entered the all male division. They must not have raced under the ORF name as I couldn't find them in the results but they looked like they did well when they passed me about mid race.

Nancy Day and Amy Elmore raced together for Amy's first adventure since I did my first race with her back in 2005. They ended up taking 1st in their age group and 2nd overall female team. Nancy's daughter, Hannah joined in the fun and did the Jr race. You guys rock!

I ended up volunteering for this one, putting my camera to good use. I also roped racing newbie Pamela Diego into volunteering. She was hooked and this isn't even a real adventure race. Check out the full results and links to all my pictures and more at Bonk Hard Racing.

TANDEM RIDES BEGIN

John, Amanda and I volunteered with Campfire USA today to pilot a few of the their older athletes around the bike trails of Longview Lake. We got to put the first miles on the new tandems that were purchased recently from Precision Tandem of KC (913.962.8866). Much thanks to them as they gave a hefty discount for the Campfire USA and we were able to buy five brand new KHS tandems for under $5000. Sweet rides for sure. It was John and Amanda's first time volunteering and they had a blast! It was really nice to make it all the way out and back without something major messing up with the bikes, something we always have struggled with on our past rides with our old bikes. Riders included John, Amanda, Dan Jackson and I. Stokers were Casey, Chris, Bryan and Kansas City's Campfire USA director, Andrea. Dan's son Corey rode solo.

A funny side story....I gave Corey a Gu pack during one of our rest stops and he offered to tow us all back since he had so much energy to burn after eating it.

Anyway....here are some photos of the group and three of the new bikes.

OFFROAD FIXATION (aka Inertia 2) MEMBERS IN ADVENTURE WORLD MAGAZINE

I found a new adventure racing magazine last night online. WWW.ADVENTUREWORLDMAGAZINE.COM This type of magazine has tended to come and go as people quickly realize how much work goes into filling pages and acquiring advertising. I was excited to see that they had a short article on the US Adventure Racing National Championships that were held in Potosi, MO last year. I was even more surprised when I saw the article lead off with a full page (page 15) image of Shalom Shoaf and I (I'm sure John Clausen was up ahead leading the way) riding the Berryman Trail. I'm the blurry one. We struggled through some medical issues in that race but finished the full course in 30 hours and 31 minutes in 49th place out of 77 of the top teams in the nation. This reaffirms what I tell my kids, it doesn't matter how fast you are, just how good you look while you are going fast. :-)

Kelly

CHRIS AND I AT THE STARTING LINE

Chris and I discussing R&B at the starting line.

MORE TROLLEY RUN PICTURES

This is the whole Campfire USA crew with a few Kansas City School for the Blind thrown in the mix.

TROLLEY RUN

I did the KC Trolley Run today. This is my third time for this four mile run that takes the competitors from 75th and Wornall down to the plaza. It is listed as the fastest four mile run in the U.S. since most of the course is down hill. The event is a fund raiser for the visually impaired. While I've enjoyed giving to the trolley run charity, Children's Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI), I've never really known anyone first hand that has benefited from it...until now.

The Campfire USA group that Offroad Fixation has been doing tandem bike rides with the past couple of years has been running in the event every year and many of their members are either current students or alumni of the school.

So this year instead of just running the event for time, I volunteered to run with a visually impaired partner. What a blast! I paired up with Chris at the starting line. I've ridden tandem bikes with Chris before but this was my first time as a running partner. He quickly filled me in on the deal.

We stood side by side with our arms almost touching, our hands clutching a short length of fleece cloth rope. As the fleece made a nice loose loop between us, Chris could tell by the tension or lack thereof, what direction I was in relation to him. I picked our way through the crowd of more than 10,000 runners and made sure he had a clear path and Chris did the rest. He was amazing! He was whooping and hollering at every down hill and he made sure to pour on extra speed as we cruised past three or four live bands, watering stations and mile markers that dotted the course. He brought a smile to everyone watching including myself. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a run more than this one.

We talked as we ran along and Chris filled me in on his school and other stuff going on his life. He is a vibrant 18 year old high school senior that could not stop talking about his prom (and prom date). Oh and we talked about music. Chris is a serious music fan. He has hundreds of CD's and could not only list the names of each but could tell you how many songs were on each one. He is very bright.

This was Chris' fourth running of the Trolley and his best time to date has been around 1:10. As we passed the first mile, I did some quick calculations and told Chris he was on a pace to break one hour and he set his sights on that as we went along. About mile three he was struggling with his breathing as the cold air of the morning had kicked his asthma in gear and we slowed to a walk for a bit but he picked it back up for the final mile and we jogged it in to the finish. The crowds at the finish were enough to pump him up for a final sprint and I struggled to keep up and guide him through the ever present crowd of runners. His father met him at the finish line for a hug. We ended up finishing just over one hour in a 1:03 and change, cutting seven minutes off his PR. Chris was stoked!

If you are needing a healthy dose of good karma, come on out during the weekends of June and July and I'll introduce you to these amazing athletes for our tandem bike rides for the visually impaired. I guarantee you a wonderful time.

Orienteering at Fleming Park near Blue Springs, MO

John, Amanda and I had a wonderful day at the Fleming Park Orienteering Meet near Blue Springs, MO last weekend. The weather turned out beautiful and the day was enjoyed by all ages. I was nursing a swollen knee and bruised ego from a soccer match ealier in the week but decided to walk the Red Course and take the camera along to record the fun.

Check out the pictures online at the link HERE.

SUNFLOWER 24 HR ADVENTURE RAPEL

AMANDA AND JUSTIN

I finally got the pictures downloaded from the camera and found a picture of Amanda and Justin that Dave Shultz took.

Sunflower Adventure

We took two teams to the Sunflower Adventure Race in Lawrence Kansas last weekend. John and I did the 24 Hour course while Justin and Amanda took on the 12 Hour course. We figured we had the bigger challenge but it seems the wind picked up on the 12 hours first lake paddle and swamps some canoes. We started an hour later and did a trek to their canoe take-out to put in ourselves but were diverted to another trek when they didn't show on time. Everyone was eventually pulled from the water safely but you could cut the tension with a knife as we came through that CP not knowing if Amanda and Justin were one of the teams that required rescuing.

They ended up alright and were diverted back to shore after helping some of the swimming teams.

I can't speak to the short course but I know the long course had close to 95 total miles split between biking, trekking, three orienteering sections and canoeing on the Kansas River. We had three rope elements; a 11 story rappel, rope bridge and a zip line. Very cool indeed. One of the highlights of the entire race was the CP placed at the 24 hour donut shop in Lawrence. That cinammon roll really hit the spot.

John and I finished in 2nd place in the two person open division and 8th overall with a time of 16 hours and 43 minutes.

Amanda and Justin finished 13th out of 24 teams with 25 minutes left until the 12 hour cutoff.



There are more pictures at the link below:

Sunflower 24 Pictures

Bonk Hard Chill

Off Road Fixation had two teams for the Bonk Hard Chill. John and Amanda Clausen teamed up for the Chill, the race that brought them together for the first time. The way John tells it, if they can make it through the Chill without ripping each others throats out, their marraige is good for at least another 75 years. They finished fourth in the 8 hour division.

Justin Montgomery raced with another team under the Green and Gold name. This was Justin's first adventure race and they finished the full course in just over 8 hours without missing a CP. Great job out there!

I ended up volunteering for the event but didn't get around to taking many pictures as I planned.

Catchup Time

I've been posting like crazy on my daughters soccer blog and have left my entries here slip. So it is catchup time.

Rockin the Paceline

Team Offroad Fixation in action. The team formally known as "BAMF" works a tight paceline for the Ozark Greenways Adventure Race.

CAMPFIRE USA

I just got word from Campfire USA that they have $5000 to spend on new tandem bikes and they want me and another bike volunteer to help pick out bikes for them. Needless to say, me and Dan are like school kids on Christmas morning. His son is one of the visually impaired that we take out on bike rides in the summer. We've been using their old broken down bikes for the past couple of years and it will be great to put these kids on some new steel. Looks like the Bike Stop in Blue Springs is going to check on some prices for us. I'll add pictures when we get delivery. More later.

Kelly

Blue Springs Adventure Race

We are waiting on all the details to get worked out but just wanted to let everyone know we will be promoting our first adventure race in Blue Springs, MO. The date will be April 26th.

NEW NAME - NEW BLOG

Hey all,

Just wanted to welcome everyone to our new blog.....under our new name. Team Offroad Fixation (formally BAMF) has already begun our 2008 season with the Bonk Hard Chill and what better way to kick off the season with a new blog. Welcome and come back often.