Berryman Adventure
Berryman Adventure
Press Release / 19.10.2007
It was a fantastic weekend for an adventure race, with daytime highs around 80 degrees and nighttime lows around 50 degrees, and a full moon illuminated the night for the 36-Hour racers.
The 36-Hour course featured about 30 miles of trekking, 70 miles of mountain biking and 20 miles of paddling through the rugged hills of the Mark Twain National Forest. Racers from as far away as California to New Hampshire made the trip to the Midwest's Premier Adventure Race.
The 36-Hour course started at 5AM on Saturday morning with an 8 mile Navigation leg, and team Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) showed why they are the current USARA Adventure Racing National Champions. They led the race from the beginning, and never looked back! The team from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, consisting of Jennifer Shultis, Dave Lamb, Chad Denning and Dmitry Drozdov had a fantastic race, and crossed the finish line 24 hours and 59 minutes after the horn sounded. A dominating effort and a huge congratulations goes out to the team from the Northeast!
Eastern Mountain Sports had little room for error though, because the team from Minnesota and Iowa, team WEDALI, were close on their heels for the majority of the race! WEDALI, consisting of Scott "Scooter" Lund, Justin Bakken, Molly Moilanen and Jason Nielsen, was the second team to cross the finish line in a time of 25 hours and 55 minutes, less than an hour after EMS.
Springfield Bike Co., out of Springfield, MO and Memphis, TN, crossed the finish line in 3rd place, respectively. A job well done by the team consisting of Scott Davis, Ryan Meschke, Anna Assenmacher and Scott Rogers.
The 12-Hour course saw over 120 racers line up at the starting line at 6AM on Saturday morning, looking to finish about 50 miles of mountain biking, running, trekking and canoeing (with bikes). Checkpoint 14 caused some trouble for some teams, and allowed an experienced team to take over the lead and cross the finish line in first place!
Veteran adventure racers Ken DeBeer and Vicki Vojak, both out of the St. Louis area, crossed the finish line in 8 hours and 54 minutes to be crowned the champions of the 12-Hour course! Their experience is what allowed them to take over first place while other teams were searching for Checkpoint 14! Great job to Ken and Vicki of the team Two Bad!
From there, the battle for second and third place became an absolute dogfight! Two "newbies", who are lightening-fast, were able to take home the 2nd place honors! Kyle Monroe, out of Springfield, IL and Jarod Milam, from Carbondale, IL, both first time racers on the team Directionally Challenged, were the second team to cross the finish line in a time of 9 hours and 45 minutes. A monumental feat for a couple of new racers going up against some very good competition! Congratulations guys!
Third place in the 12-Hour division went to two teams racing together, Performance Physical Therapy 1 and Performance Therapy 2. Nate Myers, Erin Wooley and Brian Drahota, all out of the Lincoln, Nebraska area teamed up with Todd Janssen out of Pittsford, NY to make up the two teams. The two teams crossed the finish line just three minutes after the 2nd place team, to secure a tie for 3rd place! Congratulations on a great race!
Top 5 36-Hour Teams:
1. Eastern Mountain Sports - 24:59
2. WEDALI - 25:55
3. Springfield Bike Co. - 27:01
4. Alpine Shop - 27:48
5. Monster Energy - 31:19
Top 5 12-Hour Teams:
1. Two Bad- 8:54
2. Directionally Challenged - 9:45
3 (tie). Performance Physical Therapy 1 - 9:48
3 (tie). Performance Therapy 2- 9:48
5. Tricycle Fury- 9:52
Thank you to all the racers that came and participated in the 7th running of the Berryman Adventure!
SleepMonsters
