MEXICO: Behind the Scenes at Baja Travesia

Team DART-nuun/NW Kayaks in the Baja Car, which took us from the desert run to the mouth of the first canyon, just below the 10'000 foot Picachu del Diablo.

We won, tying with our brother team DART-nuun (Cyril, Aaron and Jenn)!

CHECK OUT VIDEOS OF OUR TEAM ON THE COURSE HERE

We have literally thousands of photos to sort through and hundreds
of stories. 3 days after finishing, my limbs covered in bruises scabs. My legs are still severely swollen from edema. My mind is still at 50%. I still have dozens of cactus spines stuck under my skin, all over my body, from the deserts and canyons.

As Mr. Rinn said, "We stepped into the GNAR"... Baja is a big, bad piece of land. All I can say is I never hallucinated so badly in my life. We waited too long to sleep and were caught by our friends in the last 12 hours of the race. It was arrogant to think we could finish this race without ANY sleep. Cyril's team banked an hour early which allowed them to think more clearly. That would be the difference in the end.

My fueling was spot-on for this race. I used Vitargo S2 as my primary carbohydrate, always carrying two double-scoop bottles with me into every leg. That proved to be my 'security blanket', making me bonk-proof throughout the race. I never tired of the taste, which is subtle. In fact, I looked forward to downing a bottle whenever I could. As soon as I hit each transition, I had instructed my crew (Ryan Fleming) to have a double-scoop bottle ready for me. I would slam it and then pack up for the next leg. I know this is what kept my glyclogen topped off throughout the 70 hour race. For electrolytes I kept 3-4 tabs of nuun in my 100oz bladder as usual and added occasional Clif Bloks in the Margarita flavor. Those have 200mg of sodium per serving which helped up the sodium levels. nuun has been a life-saver in hot dry races like Baja Travesia. Dehydration in the desert sneaks up on you so you have to constantly take in electrolytes. nuun makes that simple.

We decided to split the 1st ($3,000) and 2nd ($2,000) prize money and free entry to the Adventure Racing World Championships at Eco Motion Brazil (worth $8,000). It was a win-win in the end, literally. The racers who do not go to Brazil will represent DART-nuun at the USA Adventure Racing Championship.

Standby for some funny stories, photos. Thanks for tuning in. Let me know what kind of photos or stories you want and I will post them, both my own and those of the other DART guys and gals.

I have an appointment with an urgent care MD friend to remove the rest of the spines out of my body and to clean up some of the nastier wounds on my legs and feet tomorrow. I'm bringing Starbucks and pastries into the office. Hope that helps!!!

Today's song is Dare by Gorillaz