DART wins USARA Regional Championships

Written by Cyril Jay-Rayon
Created Date: Monday, 02 August 2010 09:43

This past weekend, the team won the USARA Regional Championships in Lake Tahoe, hosted by Big Blue Adventures. The race also doubled as one of the Checkpoint Tracker National series race. The team was comprised of Mari Chandler, Jen Rinderle, Ryan VanGorder, and Cyril Jay-Rayon.

This victory was hard fought against the top regional teams in one of California's most beautiful landscapes. The combination of high altitude and huge elevation gains made this race a true test of our fitness and team work. The course was cleverly designed with plenty of variety and navigational challenges. The race started with a 15 miles paddle across Lake Tahoe. The team came out of the water 19 minutes behind the Yoga Slackers who raced as a team of 3 and paddled a triple kayak. They were strong paddlers and their choice of kayak proved excellent. We paddled 2 double plastic kayaks and, as a result, had to work mighty hard to keep the time gap to a minimal.

The next section of the race involved mountain biking from Sand Harbor to Spooner Lake along the famous Flume trail with it's gorgeous views of Lake Tahoe. Once at Spooner Lake, teams had to complete an orienteering course with 18 Checkpoints (CP) in no more than 4 hours (every minute after the 4 hour window, would cost teams 10 points, a hefty price to pay). CPs had different points value (with the more difficult given higher point value) so each team had to strategize which CPs to get and which to skip. We headed on the the orienteering section with the goal of trying to get all CPs. Ryan navigated brilliantly and we almost cleared the course. In the end, we had to skip one CP with the lowest point value as we got back to the Transition Area with only 4 minutes to spare. On the orienteering course, we caught up to the 2 teams that started before us. Although the CPs could be reached in any order, it was clear that one direction was faster and that the other 2 teams would have also opted for that direction. So, catching up to the to them gave us a good indication that we were moving through the course faster and would end up with the most points in the 4 hour window. With that knowledge, we headed out with confidence on the last but massive section of the race, the bike/trek section.

We had about 15 hours to get all the CPs on the that last bike/trek section which required us to ride almost 60 miles interspersed with foot sections where we'd leave our bikes by the side of a trail, put on our Vasque trail running shoes, and head out on foot in search of the CPs off trail. This entire section was scenic with many mountain top CPs and 360 degree views. The beautiful surroundings helped alleviate some of the pain from the shear distance and vertical ascent/descent we covered through the night and early morning hours. Every CP offered a scenic reward. During these 15 hours, we raced the 8 am cut-off time and succeeded with a mere 36 minutes to spare. We crossed the finish line after 23:24 hours of racing with a great sense of accomplishment and a deep appreciation, and respect, for Lake Tahoe's backcountry.

Next up is another 24 hour national series race near Sonora, CA, in 2 weeks. We expect another tough course with tough competition. But, as always we look forward to an incredible adventure together.