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