GOLD RUSH 30 MACERA YARISI / GOLD RUSH 30HR ADVENTURE RACE

Turkiye’deki uzun yazin 3 hafta ardindan 30 saatlik Gold Rush macera yarisi icin tabi ki yeterince antreman yapamadim.  Daha dogrusu tum yaz boyunca dogru durust antreman yapmadim hergun biraz yuzmek disinda. Vucudumun daha hafif bir spora ihtiyaci varmis resmen, canim kosmak bile istemedi bir sure. Ama tatil sonrasi San Francisco’ya donunce gecen seneden beridir konustugumuz yaris gelip catmisti bile. 3 haftaya birkac kosu ve bisiklet sigdirarak kendimi en azindan zihnen hazirlamaya calistim. Ekip arkadaslarimdan Henrike de cok antremansizdi ama Tim yaristan onceki her haftasonu acaip isler yapmisti: 100 mil dag bisikleti ve24 saat dag bisikleti yarisi gibi. Ama beni ve Henrike’yi iyi tanidigindan bu yarisi kotarabilecegimizi biliyordu. Yaris yeri San Francisco’ya 4 saat uzakliktaki Sonora bolgesinde yapilacakti ve  Long Barn denen ve yaris merkezi olarak kullanilacak bir mekanda baslayacakti. Cuma ogleden sonra Tim ve ben yola ciktik, aksamuzeri yaris merkezine vardik ve check-in’imizi yaptirip haritalarimizi aldik. Daha onceden yaris organizatorleri tarafindan belirlenen kontrol noktalarini haritamiza gecirdik ve malzeme kontrollerimizi yaptirdik. Henrike vardiginda o da kontrolleri tamamladi ve gece 12:30a kadar hazirliklarimiza devam ettik. Sabah 7de yaris baslangic yerine bisikletlerimizle gittik, ve tekrar bisikletlerle devam etmeden once ilk kontrol noktasini bulmak icin daldik diger ekiplerle birlikte ormana. Ilk kontrol noktasini ilk bulan 3. ekip olarak bisiklere geri donup yarisa devam ettik. Yaris kategorileri su sekildeydi: bisiklet, kano, bisiklet, trek, ip, trek, bisiklet. Ipten onceki tum control noktalari mecburi (yani DQ olmamak icin) son iki kategoridekiler ekstra idi. Biz mecburilerin hepsini tamamlayip extralardan da birkac tane alarak 20 puan’la dorduncu olduk. Butun yaris boyunda kisisel olarak ve ekip olarak tasimak zorunda oldugumuz malzemelerimiz vardi. Bunun yaninda tabi ki yiyecek ve icecek. Suyumuz bittiginde derelerden ve su birikintilerinden doldurduk. Yiyecegimizi de planlayarak tasidik. 30 saatlik yaris boyunca her ekip gibi sadece 2 kere gorecegimiz bir malzeme kutusu da hazirlamistik. Bu tarz planlama bu tarz yarislarda cok cok onemli. 30 saat boyunca hic durmadan surekli kosusturarak, gece dolunay isiginda kanyonlarda calilara tutunarak acaip egimlerden nehir yataklarina kosarak inip cikarak, kayalardan atlayarak, bisikletlerle patikalari son hiz inip cikarak, kanolarimizda ayaklarimizi dinlendirirken kureklere asilarak, kan ter icinde, bisikletin son etabinda artik acidan ayaklarimizi hissetmez halde, ama acaip mutlu bir sekilde bitis cizgisinden gectik. 4. olacagimizi hic dusunmemistik antremansiz oldugumuz icin, o yuzden cok mutlu olduk. Hatta birkac tane navigasyon hatasini yapmasaymisiz cok rahat 3. oluyormusuz. Kismet bir dahakine! Harika bir yarisi harika bir ekip ile bitirebilmis olmanin verdigi inanilmaz huzur ve mutlulukla SFe ayni gun geri donduk.  Daha fazla bilgi icin: http://www.goldrushar.com/events/goldrush24houradventurechallenge2016.html

During the long summer in Turkey, I really never got to train for the upcoming Gold Rush 30hr race. As a matter of fact, I didn’t feel like it except I swam almost every day. I guess my body needed some low impact exercise and I was ok with it. However after I got back to San Francisco, it was almost time for the race that we have been talking about since last year. I squeezed a few runs and bike rides into 3 weeks at least just to get my mind in the game a little bit. One of my teammates, Henrike also couldn’t train too much but our third teammate Tim was a different story. One weekend he’d ridden like 100 miles on a mountain bike, another weekend he won a 24hr mountain bike race! But he knew me and Henrike well enough that we could survive this race. The race was going to be held in Sonora county and would start at the race headquarters in Long Barn, about 4 hours drive from San Francisco. Tim and I left Friday afternoon and got the race central on time to check-in and to get our gear checked. We also got the maps and marked all the pre-set check points. Henrike arrived later and after her gear check, we worked on our gear and bikes till 12:30am. The race started at 7am with a short bike ride to the start where we had to get one check point on foot. We run into a forest and came out as the 3rd team after this 1st check point. Then we continued on the bikes.  The race included (in order): mountain bike, kayak, bike, trek, rope, trek, and bike sections. All the checkpoints before the ropes section were mandatory with optional ones in trek and bike sections. We got all the mandatory ones with a few optionals adding up to 20 points and became 4th (out of 17).  Throughout the race, there was mandatory individual and team gear that we had to carry at all times along with our food and water. When we ran out, we had to fill up water from water puddles and creeks along the way. We also had a gear box that we saw only 2 times during the race like the other teams. So planning how much food and water to carry, along with other gear was of utmost importance as it is in every adventure race.  For 30 hours straight, we biked up and down trails and fire roads,  kayaked on a lake, trekked in a canyon going down on slopes holding on to manzanitas, jumping on granite slabs under the full moon, and our feet being completely numb from the pain during the last biking section, sweating big under the heat, we crossed the finish line with smiles on our face. 4th place was a surprise given our lack of training but after looking at what we have done, we saw that we could have been easily at 3rd place if we didn’t make a few minor navigation errors. Oh well, we were ecstatic at the end after a great race with a great team. More info on the race: http://www.goldrushar.com/events/goldrush24houradventurechallenge2016.html

MACERA YARISLARI / ADVENTURE RACING

Macera yarislari diye gecen yarislar birbirinden farkli disiplinler iceren ve her sporcunun hem fiziksel hem de mental kapasitesini zorlayan yarislar. Dag bisikleti, kano - korfezde, golde, nehirde - yani nerede su varsa :) - kaya tirmanisi, inisi, gecisi ve bilumum versiyonlari, yuzme, nehir, gol, vs gecme - yuzerek degil bu sefer yuruyerek :) -, dag bisikleti, kosu gibi bir dolu disiplinin bir arada oldugu ne ararsaniz bulabileceginiz turden. Macera yarislarinda, ekipler, yaris baslangicinda yaris organizasyonunun sagladigi topografik haritalar uzerinde, kendilerine sadece tanimlamalari verilmis kontrol noktalarini bulup isaretlerler. Her ekipte genellikle bir ya da iki kisi sadece yon bulmadan sorumludur (navigator) cunku sadece harita ve pusula ile ekip butun bu kontrol noktalarini bulmak durumundadir. Baslangic dudugu ile birlikte ekipler haritalari okuyarak en hizli ve verimli bir sekilde bir kontrol noktasindan digerine ulasabilmek icin dagilirlar. Bu yarislari son zamanlarin populer “camur yarislari” ya da “engel yarislari” gibi yarislarla karistirmak ve karsilastirmak biraz ayip olur. Ayni sekilde super steril triatlon yarislariyla da pek alakasi yoktur (2012de yaptigim meshur Alcatraz triatlonu ile ilgili ayrica yazacagim).

Yaris sureleri 6 saatten 10 gune kadar olabiliyor (staged degil, durmadan yapilan yarislar. Her ekibin kendine gore dinlenme stratejisi oluyor tabi ve bu stratejiler sonuclari cok etkiliyor). Yaris boyunca yetecek yiyecek, giysi, ekipman, ilk yardim malzemesi vs’yi sirtinizda tasiyorsunuz ama uzun yarislarda gecis bolgesi denen alanlara bazi malzemeleriniz sizin icin tasinmis oluyor. Ben genellikle 12, 24, ve 36 saatlik yarislar yaptim simdiye kadar. 36 saatlik yarislardan birinde 4 kisilik bir ekiptik ve nehir kisminda kullanacagimiz iki tane minik sisme bot ve kureklerini de tasimistik bir gecis bolgesinden sonra. Uzun versiyonlariyla ilgili olarak, 7 gunluk ve dunyanin en meshur ekspedisyon yarislarindan biri olan Primal Quest’te medya ekibinde gorev almistim (2008 Montana), gece gunduz ekipleri takip edip fotograf ve video cekmistim. Super bir tecrubeydi.

Neyse, en son Subat ayinda 24 saatik bir yaris (BaarBrawl) ve Mayis ayinda 12 saatlik bir yaris (Dawn to Dusk Adventure Challenge) yaptim ekip arkadaslarimla. Dawn to Dusk’ta 3 kisiydik. Okyanus’a giris sirasinda ve daha sonra cikisa yarim saat kala buyuk dalgalarda ozel yapim carbon-fiber kanomuz devrilse ve buz gibi okyanus suyunda neredeyse hipotermik olsak da, sonucta kendi kategorimizde 2. olduk. Neyseki kano kismindan sonra dag bisikleti vardi ve bisikletlerimizin ustune gecer gecmez kendimizi daha iyi hissettik ve yarisi bitirdik!

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Adventure racing involves multiple disciplines that push your physical and mental limits. Mountain biking; kayaking (in a lake, river, bay, ocean), rock climbing (or ascending/descending, traversing, etc); crossing rivers, lakes, puddles; running; trekking etc. are the main components. Teams find and mark the checkpoints defined by race organizers on the topo maps and the aim is to get them all. These races are not to be confused and compared with the popular “mud races” or “obstacle races.” Similarly, they have not much to do with sterile triathlon races (I will write about the famous Alcatraz triathlon at another time. I did it in 2012).

The duration of these races can go anywhere from 6 hours to 10 days (These are generally not staged races. Teams decide on their own resting strategy which impacts the results significantly). Every team member carries the food, gear, etc that is necessary for the whole race. In longer races, teams may be able to gather some of their food and gear at certain transition areas. I generally do 12, 24, and 36hr races. In a 36-hr race we did in Oregon a few years back, we were a 4-person co-ed team (3 guys and me) and we finished at 3rd place. Just to give you a better idea, after one transition area, we carried our inflatable boats and paddles on our backs to be used in a river section. About longer races, in 2008, I worked as part of the media team of the one of most famous expedition races in the world, Primal Quest (Montana). My job was to follow the teams day and night and get photos, video footage etc. Good times.

Anyway, in February I did the 24hr BaarBrawl race (it is actually our traditional training event in the bay area with all adventure racing friends - this is one video edited by another team) known to be super brutal and in May, I did the 12hr Dawn to Dusk, another classic race in southern California.  Even though the custom made carbon fiber kayak we had flipped right at the entrance to the ocean and later on also half an hour from the exit and causing us to get almost hypothermic, we still managed to finish in 2nd place in 3-person co-ed teams category. After the kayak section, we instantaneously felt better after getting on our mountain bikes.