Seagate Win Final Balance Bar 24 Hour Race

Rob / 26.11.2003

New Zealand’s Team Seagate lead the final Balance Bar® 24-Hour Adventure race from the start over the weekend of November 15-16th in Los Angeles. Nathan Fa’avae, Kristina Strode-Penny and Haydn Key were well ahead of some high profile US opposition, finishing nearly 3 hours ahead of Ian Adamson’s Nike ACG/Balance Bar.

Although the race officially began at 6:45 am on Saturday, everyone met 2 hours earlier at the Santa Monica pier where they were bussed to an undisclosed start location. Five minutes before the race began, racers were given coordinates for the first PC checkpoint to plot on their maps. Then with a forceful shout of “Go!”, 300 racers set off on the 91mile course which included trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, ropes, coasteering and navigation. Over the next 24 hours the teams of 3 battled the Pacific Ocean and the rugged terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains in abnormally bitter weather conditions.

They began trekking through the first four PCs. Seagate took an early lead with Salomon-Smartwool following closely to PC1. After an early rappelling section came a short mountain bike section to PC5, then the teams embarked on the 10-mile kayaking course on the Pacific ocean, battling the tide and winds through the floating PC6 and PC7.

The longest mountain bike section was on the Backbone Trailhead from PC8 through PC12, where team’s faced rain, wind and increasingly colder temperatures. By PC8, pre-race favourite and winner of the first two Series races, Team Nike ACG/Balance Bar had jumped into contention and was closing in on EarthLink and Salomon-Smartwool. Seagate’s lead just grew as the race continued. Balance Bar® Adventure Sprint Series Champions, Team Balance Bar was also within close contention.

After trekking through some very difficult terrain, from PC12 through PC16, teams would face one last mountain bike section en route to PC17 where they dismounted their bikes and made the final trek to the finish line just north of the Santa Monica Pier. Fans, friends and family saw Seagate cross the finish line, almost three hours ahead of their closest competition, at 7:45 pm on Saturday.

“We got a quick jump at the start and kept pushing full-force the entire race. We made a few mistakes but we didn’t dwell on them,” said Seagate Captain Nathan Fa’avae. The course was very tough but we know our capabilities. We stayed focused, kept moving forward and had some luck on our side as well.”