Riders on the Storm
The Balance Bar 24-hour Adventure Race, and Mother Nature, Throw Racers Curve Balls, Hail Pellets and Challenges Galore
It’s 12 hours into the Balance Bar 24-hour Adventure Race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, and I’m crouched on a slippery rock just above a Class III rapid on the raging Colorado River with a boogie board on my head.
I’m trying to repel the almost dime-sized hail pellets that are hammering out of the sky, and figure the rubber of my boogie-shield might also help, should lightening strike. My teammates and I have gotten caught in this storm during the eight-mile whitewater swimming/canyoneering section of the race because, quite frankly, we didn’t move as quickly as Mike Kloser, or anyone else on the few teams who got through this section before the storm hit.
The frontrunners of the race literally outran this storm and were far enough into the course that, while they road off on mountain bikes and into the altitude, they felt nothing more than what Kloser called, “a light drizzle.” A few teams were paddling further downriver and felt some heavier raindrops, a handful of us were caught in the throes of the storm somewhere along Gore Canyon, some were just entering the river miles back, and some were still on bikes, trying to get to the river put-in before the cut-off.
One racer was in the middle of a rope traverse, but the “rope” was actually a metal cable, and he felt a charge from lightening that sent his back hair crawling. But the frontrunners? A drizzle. As if the $60,000 prize money for first place wasn’t enough reward for going fast.
The Balance Bar 24-hour Adventure Race was part of the Ford Adventure Challenge, a multi-sport festival — climbing competition, 24-hour mountain bike race, trail running races, obstacle courses and all — centered around the Euro-style resort village of Beaver Creek in central Colorado. It will all air on NBC on September 13 and 27 (and on OLN at a date to be determined).
The event had an exorbitant amount of sponsorship dollars behind it, including $110,000 in prize money for the adventure race alone. Of that, $100,000 was to be divvied among the top 10 teams in the elite division, making it one of the richest adventure races in the world. The other ten grand, as well as three two-year leases on Ford Explorer Sport Trac vehicles, was on the table for the co-ed division. Needless to say, there were some wide-eyed racers ready to rumble.
Thirty-seven teams of three would go for broke, although not all would be vying for a shot at the cash or a truck. Some simply wanted to survive.
“Our goal was to finish. And to have fun,” said 27-year-old Julie Meyers of Team Triple J, from Boulder, Colorado. The Balance Bar race was Meyers’ first 24-hour race, and her first event in the mountains (She’s competed in four sprint races in the Midwest). She and teammates Jeff Hoobler and Ryan Kohler took a long, unintentional detour on the first 14-mile trekking section. Kohler suffered from stomach ailments and dropped out at CP2. “During that first hiking section, we were thinking, ‘We’ll be happy if we can just get to CP9,’ “said Meyers.
There were 14 checkpoints in total, and CP9 appeared to be about halfway through the course. Meyers and Hoobler continued on the course unranked, but missed the cut-off time for the swimming/canyoneering put-in and headed straight for the kayaks. After completing the 15-mile whitewater paddle, the two called it quits. “Next time,” Meyers said.
The challenging course had it in for 26 of the 39 original teams, due to cut-offs (dark zones on the river enforced for safety reasons), injuries and general fatigue, and 78 athletes suffered the scarlet letters “DNF.”
“The course was hard enough as is,” said Race Director, Jonathan Denison. “You throw the elements of Mother Nature into the mix, and it makes it that much harder.”
Denison is right on that one. But the weather and even the tough course weren’t the only challenges in Beaver Creek. Before the race even started, teams were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to get through safety certifications, gear checks and gear drops; all necessary evils of a race. But for some reason, this was far more complicated than usual. This process took all day, including a gear and bike drop (after partially disassembling bikes) that required a 45-minute drive from Beaver Creek, leaving most racers thoroughly confused and exhausted…the day before the race.
After receiving maps and race instructions at the 7 p.m. meeting, teams plotted points, chose routes and organized gear, eventually getting between one and three hours of sleep before the having to make the 2:30 a.m. shuttle to the starting line.
Fast-forward 12 hours, and the race is on, full-throttle. While some teams were chilled by cold water and rain while they negotiated river rapids, the competition up front was heated. Kloser, Michael Tobin and Danelle Ballengee of Team Nike ACG/ Balance Bar 1 had been in the lead from the start, but had forgotten to load their gear box onto a staff truck at CP2/TA1. At the river put-in, they were told they’d have to sit out a half-hour penalty.
While the team sat watching the time tick, second-place Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar 2 (Ian Adamson, Sara Ballantyne, Dan Weiland) arrived and passed Kloser & Co. to enter the river in first. Kloser’s team then got in the water 10 minutes behind the new leaders, and chased them down the three-mile flat water section, with the goal of catching them before entering the technical rapids of the canyon. Mission accomplished, and CG/Balance Bar 1 took the lead and slowly increased it through the canyon, getting to the kayak put-in roughly 10 minutes up on their rivals.
Once on bikes, Kloser and teammates charged on, tackling the 4,000-foot climb up to Muddy Pass. Kloser, a Beaver Creek local, said that he didn’t realize the importance of having familiarity with the terrain until after the race was over. “I had ridden that section maybe two or three times in the past,” he said. “After the race, Novak (Thompson of Team Montrail) said he had to go through three maps and scrutinize decisions at every single trail junction while we just rode toward Beaver Creek Resort.”
They say that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it was a lot of local knowledge that eventually bit Kloser in the butt. Once the team arrived in Beaver Creek Village, which is where Kloser works every day as the Activities Director, the team had to plot points on a map encompassing the slopes of Beaver Creek Resort, and complete an orienteering course before heading back down to the finish line. Adamson and teammates were still within striking distance, less than an hour behind.
“I got so caught up in plotting points and hurrying out of there because I knew the mountain so well,” Kloser said, “that we left the tent, and went up the wrong ski slope.”
“I didn’t take a closer look at the map until we were 400 or 500 feet up the wrong hill. I said, ‘Oh my God, you guys, I screwed up.’”
The mistake only cost the team about 15 minutes, and they were back on track in time to hold their lead and cross the finish line in first place.
“Familiarity breeds contempt,” Kloser later said, chuckling about his mistake in his own backyard.
Kloser, Ballengee and Tobin of Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar 1 finished in 17 hours, 40 minutes, and were $60,000 richer ($20,000 each) for their efforts. Adamson, Ballantyne and Weiland (Nike ACG/Balance Bar 2) were second, 70 minutes behind. Team Montrail was third.
And what about those Ford trucks? The co-ed division competition was on between Boulder-based Team Minions (Molly Ellis, Mark Bockman and Bill Wright) and Team Timex of Pennsylvania (Toby Angove, Susan Flavey and Phil Lovalenti). After leading the co-ed field through the race, the Minions beat out a final charge on bikes by Team Timex and crossed the line in 29:19:59 (less than three minutes ahead of Timex), earning them each a free two-year-lease on a new vehicle.
Bockman and Ellis are getting married in September and say they both were driving “beater” cars before winning the trucks. Bockman actually hit a deer the night before the race and beat up his beater even further. The timing on the new truck couldn’t have been better.
But what about the other teams? Nine of the 13 elite teams, and five of the 12 co-ed teams finished. Was the course too hard? Maybe.
“I think it was a great, challenging, adventurous course for the elite teams,” Adamson said. “But it might have been a little too long and technical for most teams to finish.”
Denison admitted the pressures of creating a race that would be exciting for TV influenced the design of the course. “One of the things I had to continually remind myself of was that this race was going to be televised on NBC,” he said. “As a result, the course becomes more difficult.”
Still, most racers who weren’t able to finish the course, like Meyers, weren’t deterred. “It was nutty,” she said, “but I’m totally hooked.”
The jury’s still out. One thing’s for sure. There was no shortage of adventure in this one.
Balance Bar 24-hour Adventure Race
July 19-20, Beaver Creek, CO
Co-ed Elite 1. Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar 1 (Mike Kloser, Michael Tobin, Danelle Ballengee) 17 hours, 40 minutes, 09 seconds; 2. Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar 2 19:50:43 : 3. Team Montrail 20:40:56; 4. Team Epinephrine/Powerbar 21:16:23 5. Team Keystone Vail Cascade Resorts and Wilderness Sports 21:54:25.
Co-ed 1. The Minions (Mark Bockman, Molly Ellis, Bill Wright) 29:19:59; 2. Team Timex 29:22:55; 3. Strike Anywhere 31:35:32; 4. Team Explorer 37:25:16 (7-hour penalty for skipping swimming/canyoneering); 5. Team SPQV Night Train 38:49:36 (7-hour penalty for skipping swimming/canyoneering).
