USARA National AR Championships
4th Times A Charm…
Earring Doug Judson-Tecnu Extreme Team Founder/Manager / 13.10.2013
After 3 consecutive second place finishes in the USARA Nationals Team Tecnu finally took the win this year. This is their account of that journey and the progress of the team over the past few years.
2010
This long, arduous journey requires a backstory, and really started in the fall of 2010 when we attended our first USARA Nationals as Tecnu Extreme adventure racing. I had worked hard with Tecnu’s team captain Kyle Peter to put together a team we could be proud of that mirrored each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and gave us great opportunities to podium at whatever races we showed up at. We put together a good team and two of our team members had won the National Championships before, and we felt good about our chances.
We led that year for much of the race, and had over an hour lead going into the last trekking leg when a mistake derailed us and gave the race to a more patient team. We lost that year in the closest race in Nationals history by a mere six painful moments, finishing 2nd and it was tough to watch a race we thought we had won slip through our fingers. Immediately after that race we began planning for the next year and a different result.
2011
We wanted to move up a rung on the podium, and were focused on doing just that. We had a good 2011 racing season with a lot of top 3’s, and a 12th place finish at our first try at the World Championships, and we were never far off from winning any race we showed up at in North America. Our team started moving some racers in and out as we tried to find the best chemistry for a winning combination which is the hardest part of forming winning teams that love racing together, and going fast for the top rung.
When Nationals came around we thought we were ready, and we were determined to get our team name on the perpetual trophy. During that year’s race we dealt with a lot of mechanicals, yet still the team battled through countless flats, derailleur issues, and more while still winning the King of the Mountain award for the fastest bike split. On the last leg, we were battling it out neck and neck with Team Sog going into the last trekking section, and the team was battling hard. You could see their desire to win in their eyes, and I knew that we were going to push the hell out of that last section, and we did.
Unfortunately we fell just short that year due to some stellar navigation from eventual winners Sog, and when Kyle ran down the finishing chute that year wanting to celebrate, but looking for a reaction from me that signaled to him that we had finally won, and he didn’t get it, I could see the disappointment on his face. He had pushed the team so hard, and made so many great decisions and despite our mechanical issues his determination had helped put the team in a position to win. Yet we didn’t, and that’s challenging to any athlete who dedicates his life to a sport he’s passionate about.
2012
The 2012 racing season dawned with us bringing on some new team-mates, and making some changes within the team to further define what everyone’s role was. We had a great year with more consistency than we had ever had before, and we finished on the podium at all 12 races we started. We felt that we really had our destiny in our hands, and that our experience at races was finally paying off, and going into the National Championships that year we had a great chance as long as we raced the course, paid attention to each other, worked cohesively as a team, that good things would happen. 3rd times a charm after all. We had even brought our good bud and cameraman Aaron to film the event to document what we felt assuredly was going to be a win.
The race started positively, and we got onto the biking leg, and assumed the lead when the team realized that Mindy had lost her running shoes out of her pack early on in the race. Now I want to point out that we didn’t lose the race because of that mere fact, but if anyone knows how hard it is to run a small way in smooth carbon fiber Sidi mt. bike shoes, imagine doing an entire 100+ mile adventure race with 28 miles of running/trekking in it including running down moss covered creek-beds, and rappelling 80 feet off a waterfall. It certainly affects the eventual outcome, and I have seen tough chicks, but Mindy ranks right up there powering through the pain of the race barely slowing down, and she could barely walk after finishing.
On the last defining trekking section of last year’s race Tecnu powered from 3rd to 2nd, and made up 1.5 hours in freezing temperature as ice covered everything in New York. They flew down the creek-bed towards the rappelling section off the waterfall to find they were 30 minutes back from Wedali who had run a solid race. The team never gave up because we know all too well that anything can happen in adventure racing, and you need to race to the very end, and teams that do make good things happen.
As the team rode across the finish line in 2nd place for the 3rd year in a row, I know they were disappointed because in many ways they had beaten themselves, but it was also a humbling experience, because even though you are the fastest team on the race course, doesn’t mean you will win the race. It’s the team that makes the least mistakes, and works the most cohesively that wins the race, and that was something we still were on the cusp of fine-tuning and using to our advantage. And so with a string of 3 consecutive 2nd place finishes after a really strong year, we decided that 2013 we were going to bring the 3 strongest racers in the most experienced and most cohesive unit that we have. We wanted to get the monkey off our backs, to beat it down forever, and lay it to waste.
2013
The 2013 season started strongly. We asked our domestic squad member Garret Bean to join our expedition squad, and we brought on one of the most experienced adventure racers on the planet and a logistics Goddess in Karen Lundgren (aka Super K). We formed this team around Kyle Peter our team captain and our ’Nav God’ and arguably the best Canadian adventure racer in Bob Miller. They had raced together in 2012, and knew that the chemistry was there between the boys and Karen. We knew entering 2013 that we had something special.
We had lots of goals, with our main focus being going for the podium in Costa Rica at the ARWS World Championships in December, so we planned our season around expedition races in South Africa and Wyoming, and finished 2nd and 1st there respectively. We did some other races to shake off the rust, then headed to USARA Nationals last weekend in Indiana with the three members that we felt would give us the best opportunity to not only win the race, but dominate, and finally show our adventure racing community what we felt we could do all along.
The gun went off at Abe Martin lodge in Brown County state park on October 4th, and the team began what I refer to as poetry in motion. I raced for many years from the inception of our sport in the U.S. till my last race the PrimalQuest Montana which put me in the ICU for a couple of days. I continued this team after I retired because I love the sport and our sponsors, and I wanted to continue to pursue excellence in sport even if I wasn’t toeing the line anymore.
I wanted to continue to be a part of forming a team that could do what we all pursued, running a perfect race free of mistakes and navigational errors. Free of team-mate breakdowns. Free of mechanical issues. Free of sleep deprivation and sleepmonster mistakes. A race where the variables where controlled and the team moved swiftly and cohesively and in the end the course was mastered and conquered. That’s why I continued to race for many years, and I know that was our pursuit last week as the team toed the line.
As the race unwound, and we moved from 6th off the short prologue run to our bikes, then biked into 3rd place, then 2nd off the bike, then caught and passed Dart/Nuun on the paddle for a lead we would never relinquish, I could see something special going on. The team wasn’t wasting much energy communicating to each other, they were just moving in perfect sync, mind, body and spirit. With determined and focused looks on their faces they went through the race course with controlled abandon, taking chances when they counted, and nailing each section almost perfectly. They all knew their roles and the expectations at hand. It was beautiful to watch 3 athletes master their craft, and finally put together a near flawless race when it mattered.
The details don’t matter because they are just minutia, but what matters was that when Tecnu Extreme adventure racing finally crossed the finish line in 1st place, finally, they had dominated the race course and the 55 teams who had started 30 hours earlier. Tecnu Extreme finished in 19:20 a full 2:05 before the 2nd place team, and had won the Blazing paddling section with the fastest time, and also had the fastest O course time as well.
This time when Kyle crossed the finish line with a smile on his face, he didn’t need to look for a sign from me that we had won, I could see relief that we had finally lived up to our expectations, and that the monkey was indeed off our backs forever. Our pursuit of running a perfect race had been for all intensive purposes achieved. And so as the team sat down near the finish line and let their bodies finally stop, I felt a sense of relief that a journey I had started so long ago, and all the hard work to try to put together something I could be very proud about had come to fruition. Becoming National Champions was a goal we all had, but it was more about trying to perfect a sport that we all are extremely passionate about. On that day Tecnu Extreme had accomplished that goal, and as someone who now lives vicariously through their pursuit to push the boundary of human endurance, I was extremely proud of them, and their accomplishment.
The perpetual trophy will sit in our sponsors corporate office for the next 12 months as the team now focusses on a podium spot at the World Championships in Costa Rica, and then we will once again turn our attention towards new goals for 2014, and defending our USARA National Championships. We will not let it go very easily now that we have tasted what it’s like to battle the course, and win.
[Thank you to Tec Labs, makers of Tecnu and Tecnu Extreme, products that rid us of poison sumac oils for your continued belief in what we do. Thank you to AMK/SOL for your killer adventure medical kits, and breathable biivy sacs. To Brooks for our amazing Cascadia 7’s and 8’s and Pure Grit running shoes, and to Darn Tough for making the best socks on the market. For Leki for durable and amazing lightweight trekking poles, to Light & Motion for the brightest bike lights in the Seca’s and Stella’s. Thank you to PHL for making our secret weapon Endurox R4, Accel recovery bars, and 2nd Surge gels. Thank you to Julbo USA for making our killer Trail and Pipeline sunnies that make us look good. Thank you to Champion Systems for making us look sharp on the course in our racing kits and to Headsweats for making the best performance racing hats on the market. Thanks to 2XU for their amazing compression gear, and Epic paddles for making the best paddles out there. Thank you Princeton Tec for making great headlamps, and KEEN for great racing sandals and pre/post race shoes. Thank you to Kinesys for their great, greaseless sunscreen. Without all of you none of this would be possible.]
See All Event Posts
