BPN Adventure Race Team Takes 2nd at Vail

BPN Adventure Race Team Takes 2nd at Vail Adventure X-treme.

Well it was another beautiful day in Colorado on Saturday September 6^th for the start of the “Vail” Adventure Extreme 12 Hour Adventure Race. Using Vail as the destination city was a stretch since we were about an hour north of the resort town but nonetheless it was a beautiful spot and camera ready day.

Our team for this race was comprised of Stacy Moeller, Travis Macy, Shane Sigle and Scott Swaney. We all knew this was going to track meet since the navigation was pretty low and the course was set for speed but we still liked our chances at winning.  Our collective thought was that with the wealth of experience on this team we felt that all other teams had to get by BPN first in order to win this race.

From the opening start the pace was torrid. The bike race pace saw all teams, duo’s and solos fall to the wayside except for the 3 pre race favorites of Eolus, the Durango team and BPN. The Durango team had a few new faces brought in just for this race and we knew they could really cook on the bike and the run. After a super fast bike start that seemed all too fast for our slow twitch muscles we came into the 1^st Transition Area ( TA) in 2^nd place. The BPN team really proved it’s experience by leaving the TA with the trail running O points plotted and gear changed faster than most triathaletes transition in a road tri. We knew it was going to be a short race so we gave up niceties such as extra food/ fuel and changing any clothing for the entire race. After a few CP’s we still couldn’t shake the Durango team of pro triathletes so we had to try to play a cat and mouse game with them to see if they would blow up going so fast early on in the race. A personal highlight for me in this race was seeing our good friend Adam Chase on a county road trying to hand us a pack of cigarettes as part of a “gear pick up”. Nothing like a good laugh to bring you back to earth. We came into the 2^nd TA in second place behind the very persistent Durangoteam by about 2 minutes.

Once again Team BPN’s quick TA turn arounds came into play and we got into our Duckie kayaks on the river run in fist place. Racing with guys like Shane and Travis is always a joy for me but it’s particularly fun on water sections. Those guys can really make a boat move. BPN had a good 5 minute lead off of the boats and with the drop of the PFDs and change of shoes we were off on the bikes. During this section we experienced a 3000 ft climb and a really fun down hill. Along the way we couldn’t hold off the massive bike attack of the Durango team and took a chance on a possible navigational advantage that did not fully pan out. As usual I am in awe of Travis’ drive during a race – he is truly a race horse. Also along the way on the bike section we got to tour the nice county side and watch the locals partake in their outdoor activity of shooting things in fields. I honestly thought one campsite was a CP until the alpha male shot his rifle at a beer bottle or something threatening like that.

By the time BPN got to the final TA and jumped into the Duckie river boats for the final 40 minutes of slow river paddling our fate was sealed for 2^nd place. The last paddle was still enjoyable for us given that all members of this team seem to really enjoy each other’s company and we got to start plotting our next race in Moab. Stacy is a trooper and is always quick with a smile. Who could ask for anything more?

The Moab Expedition race is just around the corner and we all feel pretty confident in how well we will perform there. We all love to race with each other and enjoy every race but none of like anything other than 1^st place at the end of the day…..  

 

BPN Athlete Jeremy Rodgers Wins Col. River Race

BPN Athlete Jeremy Rodgers wins the Colorado River Race setting a new course record!!!!!!!!

 

It all started innocently enough loading kayaks at my home (see photo 1) in Boulder County Friday evening to make the drive to the 2008  Colorado River Race held on the class 2 section from Dotsero to Hanging Lake on the Upper Colorado River. I stayed the night in Leadville, Colorado Friday night to pace my patient Joy Robertson in the Leadville 100 trail running race on Saturday morning from Winfield up over Hope Pass to Turquoise Lakes. Nothing like running 27 miles at 10,000-12,000 feet the day before a race but the Leadville 100 race is truly legendary and paddlers don’t really use their legs anyway (actually I pump my legs quite aggressively while paddling and felt the fatigue immediately but they loosened up). I spread Clif Bar love the entire way on the Leadville course handing out my favorite Mojo bars to unsuspecting weary runners wearing my fancy Clifbar visor and KEEN pack. Rain, hail, and lightening was the word for this years Leadville 100 being under cloud cover and precipitation almost 75% of the time. I heard from the course medical director post race that only 30% of field finished this year to compared to usual 50%. 
 
I finished pacing Leadville at 10pm, slept for 5 hours, then drove to Dotsero/Vail for my own race. I was hell bent on breaking the course record I’d set last year on this same course as the race director put an asterisk besides last years time noting that the Hanging Lakes portion of the Colorado River was actually flowing slightly last year. Shoshone Dam below this section was under construction last year so the usually stagnant water of Hanging Lakes was flowing slightly but was only 6 inches deep compared to usual 6 feet deep. In that shallow of water the bow wave coming off my bow hitting the river bottom slows  me down more than the slight flow offsets so I was ready to let it rip this year. Regardless, I set my Garmin pacer 1 minute faster than last years course record and set off at 8am. Andy Hall, a jolly 200 lb power lifter from South Africa in a Fenn Surfski and Mike Lesnick from Missoula, Montana in a West Coast Boat Shop Thunderbolt gave immediate chase. South African’s are always a concern as they know how to paddle a surf ski better than any other country as a whole and surf skis are generally lighter than a closed kayak like I was in.  Luckily, Andy is a known sprinter and the 1 hour length of this race didn’t suit his strength but he sure made me paddle hard the first half of the course. My strategy was to get 0.5 mile ahead of my Garmin pace setter by midrace as I knew the slack water at Hanging Lakes would drop my pace significantly. The 5 class 2 plus drops were a welcomed encounter for this new wildwater paddler even though I was in my 23 ft JKK Supernova open ocean racing kayak from New Zealand. 
 
I did indeed finish the race in a new course record time of 1:04:32 almost 4 minutes ahead of 2nd place at 1:08:33. Mike Lesnick, one of my old mentors from my early days and now almost 55!, finished 3rd in 1:09. He reads water like no other and still amazes me with his pre-race drawings of every rapid on a notepad that he always shares with me demonstrating every minute detail of flow gradients. I also give special thanks to my wildwater mentors on the US Wildwater team as my paddle stroke efficiency and water reading skills were exponentially improved this year. 
 
Sorry in advance the photos are not close enough to show the KEEN, Clifbar, and IR branding as this boat has smaller stickers than my wildwater boats as I ran out of the super big ones. The race director took them and perhaps his lense wasn’t clean..kinda hazy but I was in all out sprint the last kilometer!
 
I’ll be sending out a professional 2009 promo video sometime in the late fall complete with slow mo video and summary of 2008 season. Wildwater national trials will be held late next year as part of FIBARK in June then world cups will be held in Aussie and Tasmania fall 2009. This will allow me to do alot more US whitewater festivals held in June every year. 
 
I have a couple of more regional races yet this summer including paddling the paddle leg for the Adventure Xstream Race in Vail next weekend with Adam Chase under Team Clif Bar (Mark, Adam is sponsored by Salomon and wouldn’t budge on Team Clif Bar KEEN but says he’s still a big fan of KEEN) I’ll use my wildwater boat in this race of 500 some racers so at least I’ll spread the KEEN brand!
 
Best, 
Jeremy

BPN Adventure Race Team Wins Adventure Xstream Breck

The Boulder Performance Network (BPN) team of Stacy Moller, Scott Swaney, Dave Mackey, and Shane Sigle competed in the Adventure Extreme 24-hour adventure race on July 26th. The race began with a fast start at the Frisco Nordic Center. Teams carried their paddle gear for a quick run to the boats before paddling and navigating their way in the chilly waters of Dillon Reservoir for no less than four hours. The navigation was challenging and first place was exchanged multiple times during the paddle. BPN exited the water after four hours of paddling with no less than two teams within minutes of first place. BPN raced into a 3 hour orienteering section to exit the o-course in first place followed closely by team Eolus. Knowing strong competition was close behind, BPN headed into the 6 hour mountain stage confident they could hold the lead with the strong legs of Dave Mackey and Scott Swaney. The mountain stage took competitors over twelve thousand feet with incredible views of the surrounding terrain and lung busting climbs. BPN attacked the rollerblade section with energy and teamwork but not without difficulties. BPN headed into the final mountain section knowing that up to six hours of pristine, single track would decide who would take the win at the race. BPN twisted, turned, climbed and descended before finishing the race after 19 hours of paddling, trail running, rollerblading, and mountain biking.

Rob Kelly – An Athlete’s Story

As many of you may or may not know, about 4 years ago I was 325 lbs.  I would eat at the typical fast food places 2 or 3 times a day.  My favorite drink was Dr. Pepper.  I would drink on average about a 12 pack a day.  Two years prior I smoked 3 packs a day.  What spurred the change was a simple promise I made my mom as she was dying of cancer.  I promised my mom that I would stop smoking.  So unlike her, I would be around to see my grandchildren grow and achieve life accomplishments.  I saw first hand what smoking leads to.  On October 30, 2002 I stopped smoking cold turkey and have never even thought of going back.    In the summer of 2004 I had enough of the way I was.  This may sound stupid but, in my old house, when you walked in you would have to climb a flight of stairs to get to the living room.  I would think to my self on the way home, “I have to climb those stairs again”.  This little flight of stairs would tire me out.  I thought about my mom and what she said.  I thought about my pre-mature son that was 14 ounces and how hard he fought to survive.  I made a goal.  I wanted to lose 30 pounds and not let those stairs tire me out.  30 pounds is a very little sacrifice compared to my mom and my baby boy.

Now in my 325 pound mind set the 30 pounds would be a hard goal to reach.  Realistically, 30 pounds is easy to lose at that weight.  I made a very difficult move.  No more “regular pop”, only diet.  I also stopped all fast food with the exception of Subway or Quizno’s.  I started walking at lunch and swimming at night.  In about 2 weeks I had lost that 30 pounds.  In my head it was too easy.  Not nearly the suffering my 2 mentors had gone through.  My next goal was triathlon.

The walking and swimming was not enough.  I bought a Royce union dual suspension bike off of eBay for $50 shipped to the house.  I rode this bike for about 30 minutes every other day.  The walking was not doing it for me so I would jog for 2 minutes and walk for 5.  I did this for a few months.  Soon I dragged in some of my co-workers to work out with me at lunch.  There was a 5k route I had mapped out from the jobsite.  I just wanted to be able to run that non stop.  My swimming increased to 1k non stop and I bought a wet suit and would swim in boulder reservoir and Chatfield when I could.  The Mountain bike could not provide the speed I liked so I bought a Fuji road bike. 

Pain and suffering.

This is when I really learned what it is like to suffer.  I started riding with Geoff Cooper and a few other roadies at work.  I swear these guys kicked my ass every ride.  I felt like they were “punishing the fat guy”.  In my head I thought they wanted me to quit.  Throw in the towel on the ride.  I never quit.  I remember walking back in work to shower and my legs were quivering.  I would sit at my desk and my legs would shake and ache.  In reality, these guys built my mental power.  I would say to myself, “one day these guys will fight to hold my wheel”.  As time progressed I got a little faster.  Notice I haven’t said anything about weight loss as a goal here. Remember I am focused on one thing, triathlon.  I didn’t care about weight anymore.  The only changes I made now were this.  No more fast food at all.  No crap food since it effected my training.  I also stopped all carbonated beverages.  I would only drink water and tea now with no sugar.  The weight dropped off quick as a by product of all my training. 

OCD is a good thing.

Now I am training about 40 hours a week.  I am working full time and every spare moment I was training.  I stopped watching TV all together.  I would pull my kids behind me in a cart as I rode.  I would get up at 5am and run, go to work ride at lunch and the swim at night.  I was addicted to this.  My friends told me I was training to hard and would burn out.  But I had a goal and I would achieve it.  I started doing these duathlons in the winter called chilly cheeks.  It is really fun but can be cold.  One race I will never forget was in February.  Geoff Cooper and another friend of mine Tony Pardoe signed up to race that day.  I woke up and it was 13 degrees and windy.  The temperature with wind chill was 2 below 0.  I looked at my cell phone looking for an email saying, “I can’t make it.”  Nothing!  Tony shows up and we carpool to the event.  The whole time I am looking for someone to back out.  Not happening!  Geoff shows up and we are really bundled up and apparently going to race.  Sure enough we race.  The bike section is first.  -2 and riding…  Not smart.  I had ice in places that were not meant for ice.  I saw Geoff in transition rolling in pain.  I started the run out and couldn’t feel my feet for 2 miles.  Geoff passed me like I was standing still and asked if I was ok.  At the end of the race I found out all of us were waiting for someone to back out of the race.  All of us were too stubborn to be the first to back out of the race.  Classic!

 In 2005 I started racing in duathlons and running events.  My cycling was getting better and it was now my favorite training.  I would just ride and ride.  Sometimes I would go out for 5 to 6 hours and not even realize how long I had been out. 

2006 I did my first Tri.  It was a sprint and I remember kicking but in the swim and passing 5 guys in the lane.  (Swimming pool)  I ran out and got on the old Fuji.  I hammered past 2 guys in full TT bikes with disks.  The course was more like a short circuit with lots of corners.  Then the run is where everyone passed me.  But I did it.  I got my tri.  To celebrate I went to Burger King and had my old favorite, double meat with cheese and bacon.  I ate that burger and in about 15 minutes it was right back up.  I guess I wasn’t used to that. 

What’s the point!

Yesterday I was talking to Jerry at the BBQ.  He made me realize what makes people successful. Goals!  Goals are the secret.  When you achieve a goal, go to the next and make it harder.  In the beginning of the season I told my wife I want BAR.  I was rather embarrassed to express that to anyone else.  Last year I had a great season.  I won a GC in a stage race.  I beat Gene Palumbo in a TT by 40+ seconds.  For some reason I didn’t have the confidence to tell my team my goal.  This year I want BAR.  I want to be #1. 

State Time Trial Championship!

Yesterday I did something I didn’t think was possible.  Everything was right.  I had a great nights sleep, excellent breakfast, good pre-race warm-up.  My wife as always helped me get ready so I could focus on the race.  With out my families support I would have nothing. 

I was placed the last to leave since I have had a good season so far.  I was put behind Horacio.  I talked to Ho before the race and he suffered a 2^nd degree tear in his shoulder from the Hugo crash. He told me not to settle for passing him but to go for it hard.  Here is my mental game I actually played.  Ho is now Jan Ullrich and I am Lance in the 2005 TT.  I start out cranking hard and put the image of Lance and Jan in my mind.  I can see Jan in front of me and I am closing the gap already before the first corner.  I still hit it hard and we come to a down section.  I maintain pressure and see him closer and closer.  We make the turn around and I am within 20 meters.  I hear Jerry in my head tell me don’t make up time on the corners but get up to speed fast after.  I make the corner and am back up to speed quick.  Jan is now 10 meters, I pass him commandingly.  Now I see 3 others climbing the hill.  In my head the Lance/Jan game is over but I picture Lance now trying to pass me.  When ever I feel tired I tell myself if you can beat Lance, you will have the world championships.  I pass 15 more before the end.  I cross the line and see 53:48 on my Garmin.  I see Colm at the finish and tell him my time.  Next I see Brian Milnick.  I stop and talk to him.  He asked how I did and I told him my time.  He said I had beaten him by 4 minutes.  One of the guys said I passed him on the hill heading back like he was standing still.  This made me feel good but I didn’t think I won.  I couldn’t go look so I had my wife go check.  She said she didn’t see my name and I needed to go look for myself.  She wanted to see my reaction.  I walked up and Brian Milnick said, “You did it, you are the State Champion”.  I could not believe it so I looked for myself.

It didn’t really set in until I had the Champion Jersey and the Medal. 

All the credit to my success goes to my mom, my son and Geoff Cooper for giving me the power to reach my goals and introducing me to Road racing and BPN.  Most importantly my wife Lisa for standing by me and letting me spend so much time on my bikes.  You all rule!

Pedal Hard,

Rob

Jeremy Rodgers qualifies for US Kayak Team

Jeremy Rodgers, BPN adventure racer, qualifies for USA Kayak Team at the 2008 Wildwater National Trials held in April 2008. He and 5 other team members will be racing the World Cup and World Championships in June in Austria, Czech Republic, and Italy. Jeremy overcame a disastrous deficit after day 1 sprint heats in rain swollen rapids of the Cheat River in West Virginia with a fantastic day 2 long course finish qualifying him for the national team. BPN’s elite adventure racing team now has 3 current and past members of USA Kayak team in it’s ranks with  Shane Sigle and the still formidable wildwater racer Mike Freeburn.

Adventure X-Stream Moab

Team BPN composed of Gretchen Reeves, Scott Swaney, Mike Freeburn, and Shane Sigle came out of the starting blocks at the early season Adventure Extreme Moab race like a fireball. The team battled out first place on the mighty Colorado River with Team Nike and pulled away from the world champions to take a one minute lead at the end of the paddle. BPN was not strong enough to hold off the world champion mountain bikers led by Mike Kloser and Team Nike slipped by BPN during the 1000 foot climb on the bike. BPN battled for second place with Team Four Corners but experience and rope skills allowed BPN to pull by Four Corners during the spectacular repel at Gemini Bridges. BPN kept on the pressure to finish in a solid second place working as a well oiled machine. BPN plans to complete the Adventure Extreme race series across Colorado and was happy to start the race season with a strong finish.

 

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