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Segger’s team second at 24-hour adventure race in California

One of the most magnificent natural wonders in the world - Lake Tahoe - played host to the 2010 Big Blue 24-Hour adventure race on July 31.

One of the most magnificent natural wonders in the world  - Lake Tahoe - played host to the 2010 Big Blue 24-Hour adventure race on July 31. Careful route choice and time management would be as important as speed on this course due to a hard cut off time of 24 hours. With the high altitude and challenging terrain even the best teams would be pressed to obtain all the checkpoints in the allotted time. In this Rogaine (non-linear) format, being first across the finish line is not a guarantee of winning.

Under an epic, bright morning sun, Team Technu joined 20 other teams of intrepid adventure athletes on the western shore of Lake Tahoe for the mass kayak start. Comprised of four veteran racers with dozens of expedition and international races on their resumes, it was the first time any of the four (Kyle Peter, Brian Schmitz, Jen Segger and Rick Baraff) had raced on the same team.

With a fast triple kayak towing a sleek single boat, Team Technu quickly got to the front of the kayak pack along with series rivals and national points leaders, Yogaslackers. Along the 15-mile kayak leg, teams would literally paddle over the state line from California into Nevada to beach at Sand Harbor on the eastern shores. After nearly two-and-a-half hours of paddling, Technu completed Leg One in second place.

It was here that all teams received the maps, checkpoints and instructions for the rest of the race. While Segger and Baraff took care of the paddling gear and prepped the bikes for the next leg, lead navigator Peter plotted the course with Schmitz. Team Technu got out of the transition in first place alongside Yogaslackers for the first of many long, slow granny gear climbs into the Sierra mountains. Within minutes, teams were 1,000 feet above the lake on the incredible single track of the Flume Trail heading for the next transition at Spooner Lake, several miles south of Sand Harbor.

At Spooner Lake, teams exchanged bike shoes for running shoes to tackle an 18-point orienteering course with thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss in a mere 15 kilometres. Teams were given four hours to obtain as many points as possible before incurring time penalties. With Baraff unfortunately succumbing to some stomach problems due to hydration and altitude, Team Technu had to forgo three checkpoints to make it back to the transition within the four-hour limit.

From here, the rest of the race would be a combination of biking and trekking loops with teams carrying their running shoes (and plenty of water!) all the way to the finish. It was also from this point that teams began to take their own routes to collect as many remaining points as possible in classic Rogaine style. Each checkpoint was assigned a different point value determined by the difficulty in acquiring it, so the team with the most total points - not the most checkpoints and not the fastest time - would ultimately win.

Team Technu decided to go for some of the most difficult checkpoints at the highest altitudes first. With trails climbing steeply into the thin air well above the 7,000 foot lake level, racers were often forced to push their bikes uphill. Topping out at nearly 9,000 feet in the heat of the late afternoon, Team Technu dropped bikes and donned trekking shoes to acquire two checkpoints on remote peaks before remounting bikes for a huge descent down the eastern slopes of the Sierras towards Carson City, Nevada for a handful of other checkpoints.

Night enveloped us as we made our way through a maze of overgrown four-wheel-drive trails and fire roads. At various junctures, we found ourselves bike light to bike light with other three- and four-person teams struggling with the navigation and darkness. After two more remote bike drops and sandy scrambles with the lights of Reno and Carson City as a backdrop, we had nearly 2,000 vertical feet to regain to reach the northernmost part of the course. Pushing our bikes up an impossibly steep fire road towards the Tahoe Rim Trail, we came upon Team Yogaslackers heading in the opposite direction! From the orienteering section, they had obviously chosen to do the remaining points in reverse of our route.

Around midnight, 16 hours after the race began, we were atop another steep scramble off the Tahoe Rim Trail, finally having maxed out the bike climbing for the race. On the scramble down, we again crossed paths with Team True Grit who were taking a similar route as us. And as soon as we got back to our bikes, we finally crossed paths with our other main rivals Team DART who like Yogaslackers were acquiring checkpoints in a different order.

Pointing back downhill, we jetted off for our second trip down the Flume Trail, this time in darkness. Next up was one more remote bike drop and the most difficult foot section that would take us up near Marlett Peak (over 8,800 feet) and to the northern shore of Marlett Lake - a lake surrounded by dense, scratching vegetation and deadfall. With Baraff still struggling with nutrition, Technu was able to knock off this section without navigation problems... but lacking the time to acquire the checkpoint worth the most amount of points (100) before the 8 a.m. race cutoff.

At around 6:30 a.m., over 22 hours after the start, Team Technu crossed the finish line, having acquired all but three orienteering points and the 100-point checkpoint on the bike/run section. It was now watching and waiting time to see if any of our rivals could gain more points and make the finish line before 8 a.m. With little room to spare, both Yogaslackers and Team DART got back before the cutoff... and both teams were able to get the 100 point checkpoint as well as all of the checkpoints that we had acquired, dropping Team Technu to third place overall and second in our division.