Last week on the Interweb we got an urgent memo notifying us of the desperate cold expected in Quebec for the time period of the Coast Raid August 21-24. Water temperature is expected to be ~3C. Although weather prediction for the region is spotty, the weatherman guarantees this particular prediction by 100%. [Seems like hypothermia is on our agenda.] To take advantage of the high life I've been living for the past week in Alberta and British Columbia on a class geology field trip, I started training today for the challenge of bum-numbing cold.

The specific location for the training exercise, supervised by honk-happy truckers and snap-happy tourists, was the ice-covered Moose Lake in British Columbia off the Trans-Canada Highway. Snow-capped mountains bordered the lake on either side, which practically guaranteed the desired and dreaded single-digit water temperature. Much to the consternation of my geology professor, I gracefully removed my hikers, rock hammer, two-layer sock system, 5-day-dirty sports bra, and other fascinating clothing items in order to wrangle myself into my hot-pink bather and my pack. The pack was necessary in order to simulate racing conditions.

The training experience can be summarised in one exclamation: AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lesson learned: polar bear dip is for polar bears only.

salut.
tess

On April 20th, Team Salsa Jets tried out our summer adventure racing legs at the GOALS ARA-organised SAVAGE Adventure Sprint Race in Delaware’s Brandywine Creek State Park. [Fun trivia: Brandywine Creek was made famous in the classic text “Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology” by geomorphologists Leopold, Wolman, and Miller.] We met mad success at the SAVAGE, albeit separately, since we raced on different teams…who says competition can’t breed a little love? Disciplines included canoeing, trail running, mountain biking, litter-carrying, scooter-pushing, and knot-tying. Yes, I did just type scooter-pushing—and it was done blindfolded! Hurrah for bizarro team-challenges!

Andy shot like a silver bullet out of the starting gates (must be those shorts of his…) to be the first to nab a passport, while the rest of us clambered along the rough trail behind him and the rushing crowd of racers. I actually have no idea how his race went [Andy's note: full chronicle can be found here], beyond the fact that he probably had to restrain himself from outrunning his teammates, who were blinded by his glowing skin. James practised his “I-am-a-hardcore-adventure-racer” face throughout the day by posing for each photographer staged along the way. He’s got the look, but needs to work a bit on actually paddling forwards instead of backwards (see his team-bio photo). I think we’ll have that figured out by the time the Coast Raid arrives.

Team Tundra Terror/Aquatic Adventure (Tess + two roommates) conquered the winds of the mighty mighty Brandywine and some surly competition to claim the place of numero uno in the 3-person-all-female division, while Team Styrofoam Jackfruit (Denali + a very short friend) wrangled with stinging nettles and their mountain bikes to nab the silver in the 2-person-all-female division. Wahoo! The women went home with some badass hardware, free prize gear, and bragging rights.

Ok, I’ll admit it—our teams’ successes were kind of due to the tiny pool of all-female competition. But who cares? We are women…we are strong…we can race…and we can dominate! We now have an intense desire to spread the infectious (addictive?) love of adventure racing to the ENTIRE FEMALE SEX! Not quite sure yet how exactly we’ll go about convincing the women of the world to doff their jewellery and ballet flats and don protective eyewear and Camelbaks…but that’s a matter for another day.

Team Bios: TESS

Tess is a Canadian. Whoop-dee-do. The great-great granddaughter of a strapping woman who chased the bears off the land of her hunting lodge with a kitchen fork, she has stalked caribou across the tundra, explored for diamonds, and slept in an igloo. If you ask her about granite, she will wax eloquent for hours (don’t ask her about granite). Also, don’t ask her about the seal hunt. She holds some controversial and oft-neglected views. Not-so-fun-fact: Tess has tuberculosis. She intends to conquer it before dominating the Coast Raid. The TB is scheduled to die on June 25, 2008. As the mother hen contingent of Team Salsa Jets, she plans to make Andy wear sunscreen.

Team Bios: JAMES

James spent the majority of his childhood living in the canopy of various Amazonian rainforests and developing a killer menacing glare that has been known to make rivers and anacondas flow in reverse (see photo). Since perfecting the glare at the tender age of four, James has grown up (but only on the outside), keeping the glare (to use for good, not evil) but leaving the Amazon (for more terrestrial endeavors). James enjoys hiking with a minimum of supplies and eating macaroni and cheese at all hours of the day and night. He will be carrying all of the food for our team in the race, as well as speaking to any jungle creatures we encounter in their native tongue.

Team Bios: DENALI

Denali is as swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon. A tasteful hippie from Boulder, Colorado, she is glad that her parents didn't decide to call her Aconcagua, K2, Massive, or any other mountain names that might have seemed cute at the time. Denali's hobbies include making fun of Andy, scouting out new features of Princetonian architecture on which to hang her hammock, playing tag in the Library, and adventure racing (duh). Her favorite directions are west, north, south, and east, in that order. Her favorite teammates are Tess and James (tied), and Andy, in that order. Don't expect Denali to be too straightforward with the contents of this blog -- she is, after all, mysterious as the dark side of the moon.

Team Bios: ANDY

Andy Brett was born in Ohio, where he won the spelling bee in 5th grade. He is white as a ghost, and so will appreciate the long days of the Coast Raid in Quebec to work on his tan. Eager yuppie by weekday and a superhero adventure racer by weekend (see photo montage), his lifestyle is reminiscent of Batman’s. Like Batman, Andy has both the brains and the brawn—he will ensure that Team Salsa Jets survives the torturous physical slog of the Coast Raid. Unlike Batman, however, his uniform is not a form-fitting black batsuit, but a sleek pair of silver shorts, in which he performs his lightning-quick foxtrot. There is no doubt about it…Andy will be dancing along the trails and waterways of the racecourse, getting sunburned along the way.

Inaugural Post

Yesterday marked the more-or-less-official inception of our team for the "International Éco Endurance Aventure 2008," (English translation: International Eco Endurance Adventure 2008), also now known as the Coast Raid. We (myself, Denali, James, and Tess) be competing this August 21-24, as we mountain bike, canoe, kayak, trek, orienteer, climb, rappel, swim, and just plain run our way across 180 miles of some of the roughest terrain Canada has to offer on the Labrador coast.

The aim of this blog is to chronicle our adventure of preparing for, getting to, participating in, and recovering from the race in August. We are planning to have a grand old time and meet lots of crazy people along the way. We are even planning to do a little bit of training as well. In the next post we'll have biographies for each of us, and eventually we'll have each team member contributing their own thoughts and perspective on the race and our preparations from each of our far-flung outposts this summer.