High Profile Adventure Racing closed out the 2002 season in grand fashion by competing in the Balance Bar 24 Hour Adventure, 2002 National Championship in Los Angeles, California on November 16-17. The Team, comprised of Frances, Gerry and Randy, raced as Team Enviromark, representing our title sponsor.

This race was unique as it was the Team's first requiring air travel and was the first to have a Masters Division. The Team departed Quad City International Airport on Wednesday, November 13. Pre-departure preparations were quite involved. Making hotel, airline, and rental car reservations along with traveling with bike and race boxes were all challenging. For example, the AR Boxes could only be 62 inches in overall size (height+width+length) and weigh less than 70 lbs., the bikes cost $160.00 round trip to ship on the airline, and only one size rental car, a Grand Caravan would fit three bike boxes!

After arriving at LAX to a warm sunny California morning, the Team was met by Michael Ladaw, A.K.A. "Oki". Oki, a college friend of Frances, quickly became an intregral part of our team, and a god send. He truly made our trip easier and more memorable.

The Team spent Thursday, November 14, enjoying the hospitality of Frances' parents, sister and her family in beautiful Apple Valley, California. The time was spent acclimating to the altitude and temperature and getting much needed rest.

Friday, November 15, started with an early morning commute in heavy rush hour Los Angeles freeway traffic. Finally, the first stop in the day long check-in process was reached at the Malibu Creek State Park. The bikes were assembled and transition boxes organized. From there, the registration and skills/equipment check were conducted at the start/finish area located at Santa Monica Beach. The skills check consisted of ropes, navigation, and ocean kayaking.

The day ended with a presentation by the members of Team Earthlink, Robin Benincasa, Isaac Wilson, and Jason Middleton on "Surviving a 24 Hour Adventure Race" and a prerace banquet on the beach.

At 6:30 p.m. the race director, Jonathon Denison, addressed the assembled teams. He proclaimed that this race had established a new world record for the largest adventure race ever, with 100, three person teams. He then called each team forward to receive the maps, race directions, and passport. Teams were required to plot the UTM's of the checkpoints and transition areas and have them checked by race management prior to leaving. Ours were quickly checked and approved by Jonathon and we were free to go back to the motel to lay out our course.

With insight on the course by Joe Brown, another friend of Frances, and a local mountain biker, the Team plotted its course over the four USGS Topo maps supplied by the race and the Tom Harrison, Santa Monica Mountains East Trail Map obtained by the team at a local REI store. Unique to this race, was the ability to use any map available.

After a quick, restless night sleep, the Team assembled at the start line at 0630 a.m. The start consisted of a sprint to the kayaks. The kayaks were then carried/drug across the sand to launch in the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean. Teams paddled north along the coast for 5 miles to CP1 located at Topanga Beach. Paddling was challenging due to the strong downslope winds coming off shore pushing the boats out to sea and the strong off shore currents. Team Enviromark (Team) completed this section in 1:15 minutes, ahead of the other masters teams by a slim 1 minute.

Unfortunately, as Randy exited the boat to run to the checkpoint, another boat came to shore hitting him from the side. His foot was pinned against a rock and was fractured. Although he yelped in pain, the extent of the injury would not be appreciated until about 14 hours later.

CP2/TA1 was located 9 miles further up the coast at the Dan Blocker State Beach. This paddle was difficult due to the rising cross winds and the thick kelp fields. The Team arrived in 3 hours and 32 minutes, 4 minutes ahead of the next masters team. After a 17 minute transition, and now 6 minutes ahead, the Team began an 8 mile trek up from sea level to 1844' and back down to 540' at CP3 located at the picnic area of the Malibu Creek State Park.

The trek was over single track trails and fire roads, across a river and through dense chapparal. During this trek, made difficult by the elevation gain and the rising temperature ( in the high 80's to low 90's), Randy started to experience repeated bouts of dry heaves. Through patience and gut determination, he and we continued.

Teams were met at the top of the initial ascent by Eco-Challenge icon Dr. Louise Cooper who was checking on the competitors medical conditions. CP3 was reached in 2 hours and 39 minutes, 6:28 into the race. At CP3, four additional UTM's were given. After :26 minutes, the route was plotted and the Team took off for the ropes section located in the Malibu Creek Canyon.

The team was now in 5th place in the Masters Division, 33 minutes behind the leaders, Team Nozzles. Malibu Creek Canyon was the site of the MASH TV show. CP4 was located at the base of the ropes section and was reached in :26 minutes, at 7:25 into the race. The ropes section involved a free climb aided by fixed ropes up a rock face to the tyrolean traverse.

The traverse was across a valley to a chimney rock. From the chimney rock, another traverse lead to a rock face with a free climb down to the valley. The traverse was approximately 100' above the valley floor and 400' to the chimney rock and 200' back across the valley. Although teams got backed up at the traverse, it provided much needed rest and shade.

After an excellent ride across the valley and back, a short bouldering section around a rock face and above a pool of water was a challenge for Randy to toe hold with a broken foot. He took a swim as he made his way around it.

Now really cooled off, a 1 mile coasteering and canyoneering section up Malibu Creek Canyon to Century Lake was in the offing. This section was extremely slow going as portions of the creek had to be swam and large boulders climbed. The water was cold, deep and fast moving. Los Angeles County Search and Rescue Team members were standing by in some sections. An evacuation from this area would have been challenging and slow.

Upon reaching the Century Lake dam, the team followed single track trails and extremely steep fire roads for another 5 miles to CP5 located at an elevation of 1400', 800' higher than the Malibu Creek Canyon. CP5 was reached 11:07 into the race, 3 hours and 8 minutes from the beginning of the traverse.

Night had fallen and the temperatures began to drop quickly. Randy was beginning to have difficulty putting weight on his foot and was beginning to bonk. The terrain was rough and rocky. He had eaten only small amounts of Gu throughout the day, as it was the only thing that would stay down.

CP6 was reached by following the fire roads at the top of the ridges to a saddle. From there, a single track trail lead to another fire road, to a bushwhack up a ridge line to the Talapop trail. This trail was a little easier as much of it was down hill. The bushwhack was though sharp ankle high brush. CP6 was reached 12:31 into the race and 1:24 from CP5.

After following the Talapop trail to the Grasslands trail and a bushwhack across Las Virgenes Creek, where to add insult to injury, Gerry and Randy both got nasty cases of poison oak, the team arrived at CP7/TA2, the Malibu Creek State Park picnic area, 13:45 into the race, 1:14 from CP6, at 8:15 p.m.

At the CP/TA, Gerry and Frances prepared for the upcoming 43 mile mountain bike leg. Randy, now unable to weight bear on the fractured foot to put his biking shorts and socks on, was seen by the race doctor. After seeing the swollen foot and the black/blue bruising on the top of it, the doctor officially pulled Randy from the race due to medical reasons.

In the mountain valley where the CP/TA was located, temperatures had dropped to the high 30's from the low 90's. Although thoroughly chilled, Gerry and Frances began biking towards CP8, 43 minutes after arriving at CP7/TA2. CP8 was located at an elevation of 2163' on Calabasas Peak. The route included approximately 5 miles of hard surface riding on Mulholland Highway followed by 2 miles of extremely steep fire road. Over 1625' of elevation gain. The only positive was that the higher in elevation, the warmer it got, both in air temperature and body temperature.

CP8 was reached at 16:23, 1:55 minutes from CP7/TA2. CP9 was located approximately 7.5 miles further to the east on the fire road known as the Summit to Summit Motorway. It was rough, rocky, with short steep sections. CP9 was reached at 18:27 hours into the race, 2:02 from CP8.

CP10 was another 7 miles to the east following the Mulholland Drive fire road to the San Vicent Mountain Park and Nike Sike. From the Nike Sike, the route turned south on the Westridge fire road to single track trail leading to CP10. Nike Sike is interesting as it is the remnants of a Nike missile site, which in the past, overlooked and protected the City of Los Angeles.

CP10 was reached at 20:28, 2:01 from CP9. During this biking leg, the view of the Los Angeles area at night from above was breathtaking, (or it might have been the climbs), but either way, we kept commenting to each other, how beautiful it was, and how lucky we were to experience something that very few others would.

After negotiating a vertical climb up to and down from CP10, we continued to travel south and downhill 7 miles on the Westridgefire road to a residential area where we turned at Queensferry and Bayliss roads to intersect with a single track that would take us north and back uphill. CP11, located in Sullivan Canyon was reached at 21:03, 1:05 from CP10.

The single track trail leading to CP11, was up a lush green valley, starting at an elevation of 610' and topping out at 1890' over only 4 miles. The majority of the climb was on a 1 mile stretch of switch backs. The temperature was in the 30s, it was dark and the headlamps were getting dim. This was the low point, the most difficult part of the race for both Gerry and Frances. Once at the summit, and back on the fire road leading to CP11, the Team travelled 1 mile before taking a chance and hiking the bike, on a hiking trail.

A sign at the trail head warned of a mountain lion ambush area. Though no cats were encountered, we were able to cutoff approximately 2 miles of biking by taking a .5 mile trail. A number of teams were passed with this move.

Sunrise was approaching and spirits were rising. CP12 was reached at 23:29, 2:26 from CP11. The route from CP12 to CP13/TA3 was the final leg of mountain biking. It was a 7 mile ride starting on fire road, to single track on the Backbone Trail of which 4 miles were downhill. The view from the ridges overlooking the Los Angeles Valley at sunrise were awesome.

The ride ended at the Will Rodgers State Historic Park where CP13/TA3 was located. The team arrived at 25:26 hours into the race, 1:53 from CP12. 20 minutes was spent here eating and preparing for the final 4 mile trek to the finish.

The final route took the Team down Sunset Blvd. to Chautauqua, under The Pacific Coast Highway, to a final beach run to the finish. At 27:02 hours after the start of the race and 1:16 from CP13/TA3, Gerry and Frances crossed the finish line where they were met by Randy and Becky and an enthusiastic crowd of well wishers and race officials.

Although finishing unranked due to Randy's injury, the journey had been worthwhile. Our finishing time would have placed us 6th in the Masters Division. 1st place went to Nozzles who were 5:40 ahead of us, 2nd to Santa Fe who were 4:13 ahead, 3rd to Endeavor who were 2:34 ahead, 4th to 3rd Time's a Charm who were 2:38 ahead and 5th to Team Phoenix Adventure who were 1:52 ahead.

After crossing the finish line, all competitors were required to pass through the medical tent and be seen by the staff physicans. As we were both feeling good, we cruised through this section and went directly to the pizzas and cold drinks. Feeling momentarily refreshed, we went back to the motel for hot shower and a doze.

Overall, we were impressed by the quality of the competition, the speed of the race, the attention to details by the race management, and the course design. Having a Masters Division was attractive to us as we could gage our abilities against our peers. We plan on competing in the race series during 2003!

- Gerry