Desert Rage Phoenix 2006

Dave Sewell / 07.02.2006

Bob Schmidt, Kent Keegan and I, Dave Sewell, drove down from Prescott to race in the DRI Adventure Race on February 4th.  I had raced before with each of them, but this was the first time that all three of us would race together.  We chose the fitting team name, \"Forty Something.\" We arrived at the parking area in the wee
hours of the morning and began to set up our TA by flashlight and headlamp.  It was cold! I know that sounds weird when talking about the desert, and even more so considering that within six hours it would be 80 degrees under the hot sun.

As always, Race Director Rick Eastman, his much prettier counterpart Kim, and all of the awesome volunteers were well organized and gave a brief pre race meeting where they handed out our itinerary and the first of 2 maps that we would need to complete the race.  On the map were 3 red dots indicating our first 3 checkpoints.  They also told us that we could get these points in any order.

The dawn was breaking as we lined up under the starting line where Rick and Kim held up a sign that said, \"How many parking spots are there in the immediate parking lot?\"  They told us that we would need give the answer to this question to the person at CP1. ?..4,3,2,1 and we were off!  We chose to get them in reverse order. Thinking that most teams would start out by counting the spaces, we started at a good jog down to the far end of the Phon D. Sutton Recreation Area.