 |
| Pole Paddle Paddlers strike the standard Team Nordic dinosaur pose |
From the office of Head Nordic Coach Jeff "el Jefe" Schloss comes the following Marmot news flash of SBA Alpine and Nordic skiers joining forces to sweep podiums:
Springtime in the mountains of California and Oregon offers a wide range of outdoor sports, from skiing to biking to kayaking and a host of other options.
The small city of Bend, Oregon has created a novel race to celebrate this diversity of outdoor activities called the "Pole Pedal Paddle."
The race consists of six different legs: first a downhill Super G race on Mt Bachelor, then an 8k Nordic race, followed by a 22-mile road bike ride, then a 5-mile trail run, then to the Deschutes River for a 1.5-mile kayak, and finally a half-mile running sprint to the finish in River Bend Park in downtown Bend.
The race can be contested by individuals doing all six legs, by teams of six people each doing one leg, or by the way SBA athletes choose to compete, as two person “pairs teams” where two teammates split the six events.
The SBA Nordic team paired themselves up and recruited two SBA alpine racers, Dylan Brooks and Scott Cooper to round out the teams. Nordic Coaches Ambrose Tuscano and Jeff Schloss somehow rounded up enough kayaks and bikes for the six different pairs teams and it was off to Bend for a fun weekend of racing and lots of equipment logistics.
With over 3000 people racing the whole town of Bend seemed PPP crazy. Everywhere you looked there were cars with bikes and kayaks on the roofs and fit looking people running around trying to figure out what to do with all of their outdoor toys. Eventually everything was in place and the starting gun went off on a cool cloudy day at Mt Bachelor. As expected the SBA alpine racers aggressively opened up some impressive leads on the alpine leg and then it became a race of endurance with teams changing places throughout the several hour race.
By the finish, SBA teams were dominating the pairs division with Austin Meng and Evan Dion winning their age division in Male Pairs, Cassidy Cichowicz and Scott Cooper winning their age division in Coed Pairs, followed closely by Danielle Nivinski and Dylan Brooks in second, and Bria Riggs and Alec Wiltz in third. Also representing SBA was the coaches team of Ambrose and Jeff, second in their category, and SBA alumni Corey Talbott second in his age group in the individual category. Even SBA parents were represented in the race, as moms Julie Riggs and Leisa Runyan paired up for the event.
All in all, it was a super successful race and was a great low-key way to finish the 2010/2011 race season. It’s a long way off, but its not too early to start thinking about the logistics for next year's event - what legs do you want to do?
Jeff failed to mention that Coach Tuscano was able to keep his whiskers after making a friendly wager with Team Meng/Dion. The Beard remains!
Thank you, Jefe, for this detailed report.
Way to represent, Marmot student/athletes, faculty, coaches AND parents!
