Team MotionBased

"I don't like easy races." That’s how Dan Barger, this years USARA Finals Race Director started his pre-race briefing at the Santa Barbara Double Tree conference center Thursday night. Dan continued to cover the race logistics, rules and answer racer questions. He described that the race would consist of 30,000+ foot elevation gain and 110 miles in length! 30,000 foot elevation gain seems impossible as even after plotting the checkpoints later that night I was still skeptical. Did he actually mean 30,000+ foot elevation gain AND loss? We were lucky that this year race was held so close to home. The course would take racers up into the Santa Barbara Front Country and surrounding wilderness as well as a bit of urban travel as well. The team requirements were 3 person co-ed teams. So the racers would be me (Adam Doti), Adam Armijo and Aja Cook. Or as Brian likes to refer to us, "The Triple A". We were going to miss DP our usual 4th. Who was going to keep us awake with his stories? A few other odd noteworthy specifics about this race. We were required to carry all of our gear and food and clothes for the entire race. Something that is not typical for 24 hour races. There were no official Transition Areas (TA) at all. We would not be able to refuel on water or food as we normally do. All water would need to be found on the course. In addition Friday morning before the race start we were required to stage our kayak on the beach and leave only paddling gear. We then had to take a duffel bag on our bikes and ride 5 miles east down the beach to Lookout Beach Park to the race start. We were going to run to the kayaks at the start of the race down the beach and kayak back to our bikes. It was at this point that I realized I had forgotten my TrackStick GPS! So no Motion Based reports or graphs for us! Bummer! After a few finals words from Dan and Troy at 7am sharp the race started. To spread out the teams they had us briefly run east down the beach around a flag and then turn back west and head back to the hotel’s beach to our kayaks. Along the coasteering route there were a series of sea walls. This caused a bottle neck and allowed the teams that were upfront and nimble on the rocks to gain even further distance on the rest of us that got to the wall late and were stuck in the middle of the pack. At one point we reached a stretch of beach with a high sea wall. The waves were crashing at the wall but would retreat to a decent distance allowing for what would look like if you really ran hard you could almost clear the beach and wall before the next wave came in. I knew we were going to get a lot wetter during the rest of the run and kayak, so was eager to pull the rest of the team down onto the beach and try and make up some time. After some quick inter-team debates, off we ran passing a few teams that were traversing the wall top. We got hit by one wave up to our knees, no big deal. We ran with the other DA Pits for a bit and then they eventually pulled away from as we regrouped and made sure we didn’t violate the distance rule. As we approached the kayaks we caught up the other DA Pits again and launched our inflatable Sevelyor kayaks into the ocean. The surf wasn’t bad at all and made for an easy entry. Waves must have been one to two foot. I took one kayak as a solo and “A-Bomb” Armijo and Aja took the second as a double. These things were maddening to try and steer. Because they do not have a rudder or a keel, either the wind or the current would take the boat and immediately spin it around in circles. We made out way west towards West Beach for CP1. After CP1 we paddled 6 more miles past the kayak start back to Lookout Beach to transition to our bikes. The total kayak was about 8 miles. We changed out of our wet clothes and transitioned to our bikes. We departed the TA just behind the DA Pits and made out way up Ortega Hill. At the top of the hill the DA Pits turned right and headed north down Ortega Ridge road. I decided to take us down the hill and up Sheffield Rd to Romero Canyon Rd. I guess we'd see which way was faster soon enough. We eventually caught up to a couple other teams but no Pits, weird. We transitioned onto Romero Trail. This small trail was 90% hike-a-bike and 10% rideable. At a river crossing A-Bomb recommended we refill on water since we did not know when we would come across another source. Turns out there would actually be more water sources than we thought and probably only need to stop for water about half the time we did. At about this time up come the DA Pits from down trail! Guess Sheffield was faster :) We made our way hike-a-bikeing up Romero and finally down onto the Romero Saddle for the next CP3 / TA 2 at 3050ft when we would transition to the run/trek. For the next batch of CPs we had the choice to hat CP 4, 5 and 6 in any order we wanted. We opted to do it counter clockwise and in order 4, 5 then 6. We took off as one big group on foot down Murietta Juncal Road to the valley floor. On the way down we caught up to a team that was running with Robin Benincasa, world renowned adventure racer. As I ran past the team and Robin I said "This may be the last time I pass Robin in an race!". We made our way down to the valley floor and then up onto the ridge line just before Blue Canyon Pass. We traveled northwest along the ridgeline towards CP4 which required us to scramble and bushwhack to the peak where the CP was located. We then made our way over to CP5 which was just an easy hop over to the next peak. At this point we had the decision to continue along the ridge line North and West and circle around south west to hit CP6 from behind, or to continue back the way we came about .8 miles to the trail junction and then down Blue Canyon Trail. Robin and her host team decoded to take the ridge line. Turns out later I found that they had not returned yet. Looks lie it took a lot longer than they anticipated or they got lost. We were all feeling really good on the run/trek running and jogging most of the leg. We made it down off the ridge and into the Blue Canyon. Along the Blue Canyon Trail we passed about a dozen teams that had decided to do the circuit in the opposite order. About half way don the trail we stopped again to refuel on water. While refilling we came across Mark manning and ARNavSupplies as well as Jan Klafin who was racing with her friends from back east as Wicked Pissah. They were remarking on how hard it was to find CP6 and insisted it was in the wrong spot. Mark had found it but Jen did not. Because of this we decided to remain on high alert and really pay special attention to our location and where the CP should be. We paced our travel and watched our elevation and surrounding features closely. We descended down off the trail where we felt the CP should be. We fanned out about 20 feet apart and canvassed the river bad until Brian spotted Galen and Oliver at the CP! It was great to see familiar faces! After CP6 we headed about .25 miles back down Blue Canyon Trail to Romero Trail. At Romero Trail we made our way back up to the Romero Saddle and the Trek/Bike TA. By this time it was very windy and cold! We transitioned back to our biking gear and put on all of our available layers of clothes. Our transition was a bit too long. Because if this I because very cold. We took off on the bikes down East Camino Cielo again still with the DA pits as one big happy family. The sun had set about an hour or so ago so it was dark by this time. Probably about 7-7:30pm. When we reached Cold Springs Trail we took it down to the valley floor at Forbush Flat. It was a rocky semi-technical single track that caused two crashes by Aja. Luckily she’s a tough as nails and there was nothing serious. But after her second crash her shoes poped off the back of her bike! We back tracked to her last fall only a few hundred feet back and lucky we found them. We finished the decent down to the valley floor and back up towards Gibraltar Trail. It was somewhere around the start of the Gibraltar Trail that we split up from the DA Pits again. We made our way on a double track and fire road westward on the south side of the reservoir past the Gibraltar Mine and towards the intake tunnel on the far west side of the reservoir. At this point we were exhausted and decide to catch a brief nap before we would continue on. We grabbed a nice spot beneath some trees off the side of the trail and pulled out the space blanket and lined up like sausages to stay warm. 20 Minutes later my watch alarm woke us and we quickly got on our bikes to get warm because we were freezing! We continued along Gibraltar down to Red Rocks campground and to a nice paved road. We took this windy road west through Live Oak, Falls and Lower Oso Campgrounds. At Lower Oso we turned north and made our way up to Upper Oso to CP. Finally! We again toped off our water and discussed the route that layed ahead of us for CP9 and CP10. There was another team here as well. It looked as if they were contemplating continuing on as well. They were lying on the pavement side by side getting some rest. CP 9 and 10 was a gnarly bike loop that was to take us about 4-6 hours. It was now about midnight. We were worried we would not make it out of this back country in time for the race cut off and would have along way to go just to get back home. Finishing with all CPs wasn’t our main concern. We wanted to experience most of the course we could. Scratching 2 measly points in exchange for not getting short coursed so we could continue onto the rest of the course was our goal. We were confident if we decide to try for CP 9 and 10 at this point we would for sure be short coursed at CP12 thus missing 5 CPs not 2. We decided to head straight for CP11. The hike-a-bike up the hill and own to CP 11 was brutal! Turns out after the race talking with Mark Manning, there was a trail that went around the hill and all the climbing was not necessary! We tagged CP11 and ate a Tina's Burrito and continued back towards Lower Oso Campground. It was here that Aja because exhausted and requested we stop to sleep again. We all needed it. We found a nice spot under a pine tree in the campground and took a 1 hour nap. This was plenty to recharge our batteries. It was now  about 5:15am and was getting light. We hopped on the bikes and made our way back to the Arroyo Trailhead and up the Arroyo Trail Fire road to the top of the saddle on East Cielo. We discussed briefly heading straight down toward CP 15 at the Orienteering section, but in the end opted for the nearest CP which was 12 to check in and see what the story was with the latest race cutoffs, short courses and general race status. Luckily we did because we made it to CP 12 2 minutes before the short course cut off! At 9:30am teams were being redirected directly down Gibraltar Road to the finish line. We were allowed to continue on to CP 15/16 and the O-Course. We rode west along the ridge on Camino Cielo to Painted Cave Road and bombed down Painted Cave onto Old San Marcos Road and down into the city. We rode along side Highway 101 and up to Lake Los Carnero Park. It was here that a quick 10 point orienteering course was set up. We made very quick time of the course hitting every point dead on and finishing the course in about 22-24 minutes. Apparently one of the fastest times. We transitioned back to bikes and rode down through Goleta by the airport and UCSB to CP17 on the bike path. We then turned east and rode the bike path towards Hope Ranch and Santa Barbara Point. We grabbed CP18 at the intersection of Cliff Drive and Las Positas Roads. We continued on toward State St and to CP19 where again Oliver Galen and Kent were waiting! They had us drop our bikes and do a mandatory gear check. We were required to show our space blanket and survival mirror. Turns out Aja threw away her space blanket at the O-course! We were going to get a 2 hour penalty! What were the odds that the one thing we needed to show was the one thing we doidnt have. I quickly recalled a mountain supply store just up on State Street. We ran back to the store and bought a space blanket and then returned to the gear check and successfully passed! Whew!, because not far back I knew there were couple teams we had passed on the O-course and they'd be catching up soon!. For the final push we ran down the lawn of the hotel and across the finish line to about 4 people and some random vacationers eating lunch on the patio. Was very anticlimactic. Not even a camera in sight to take a team picture! Turns out we were one of the few team that got stiffed on the team crossing the line photos due to the photographer having to go get all the previous photos developed. In all we did 15,674 feet of elevation gain and about 105 miles in 31 hours and 4 minutes getting a total of 15 checkpoints and taking 16th place out of about 50 teams from across the country. Photos: http://www.uinaction.com/arafinal.html DA Photos: http://www.dirtyavocados.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1026 Checkpoint Zero Photos: http://checkpointzero.smugmug.com/gallery/2106742 National Geographic Topo! route file: Download