A last-second decision, I am racing this weekend's Santa Monica SCOUT 12 Hour Adventure Race.
Since the race is being held on my "stomping grounds", I couldn't resist. Over the last year Christian, Tessa and I have logged hundreds of hours riding and running nearly every trail on the Backbone system of the Santa Monica mountains, day and night.
One of my original "A" races for 2008 was the ill-fated "Backbone Scramble" a 3 day multisport stage race connecting the Santa Monica Backbone trail from South to the northern tip, along with a 20 mile ocean paddle. Since that race never happened, the Scout race will be my Revenge race. I spent the winter and spring traininge extensively on this trail system, so hopefully some of that knowledge will be helpful in this adventure race.
The team will be ME, Christian Burke, Brazilian Tessa Roorda, and Jeff Vicario. Not sure what we'll call the team, since it's a mixture of DART-nuun and FeedTheMachine.com racers. DART the Machine? Feed nuun to the Machine?
Maybe just "nuun". Team FeedTheMachine.com is also sponsored by nuun. So you know we will be well-hydrated and won't cramp during the race. And it WILL be hot.
This will be a good hit-out before the Gorge Games 24 Hour Adventure Race in Oregon I am doing next weekend with my usual DART-nuun teammates, Glenn Rogers, Ryan Van Gorder, and Mari Chandler. The "hay is in the barn" and I feel supremely ready to help my team to victory in Hood River, Oregon.
The SCOUT race typically draws one of the biggest fields in adventure racing in California. We look forward to a challenging course and a fun day (and night) out on our favorite trails.
2 comments:
i love the santa monica backbone trail. ran the whole thing in two days last year at coyote 4 play. i am planning on being down there this winter to train.
maybe we'll put on a winter running camp down there?
Keep me in the loop! I'm down for that. Email me and we can make that happen.
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