The biggest race in Texas just got better. Rattlesnake Racing comes through with a fantastic race adding several new twists and turns making the April 29 through May 1, Rock, Roll and Rattlesnake Challenge three-day adventure race the best yet!

Every team's progress was recorded on a GPS system developed and provided by TopoTrak. This unique feature allows post race viewing of routes, times and distances so you can see what you did and didn't do right...after you've already done it (see http://www.topotrak.com/). The total length of the RRRC was a grueling 180 miles.

There was every weather you wanted (or not). Huge West Texas South winds, hot sun, cold nights (lows in the 40's), rain, a cold front passage bringing huge West Texas Northerly winds, nearby Tornados and hail, and some starry nights to boot! Even the morning after the race was a cloudless sky with fog rolling off the river and floating between the huge surrounding hills.

Yes, I said hills. If you think Texas hill country is only down around the Balcones fault, and that West Texas is just big ugly flat...you'd better check out this incredible area just built for adventure racing. Major ups and downs all over the place. Winding rivers snaking between the hills, wide open lakes, steep bluffs, incredible flowers (to distract you from everything else that has thorns), incredible vistas in every direction from the tall hill tops, and famous West Texas hospitality from Haskell, Krooked River Ranch, the L&N Ranch and Rattlesnake Racing.

New this year was a mini urban challenge in Haskell with foot or wheel option, You could run or scooter or roller blade. The sight of runners, kick bikes and roller blades going up and down the streets of small town Haskell will be talked about by the locals for a long time to come.

Also new was a combination Bike/Trek on two separate legs of the race. One was a rogaine, the other, mandatory CP order. You could head out on your bikes (or not, if you just love to run) and drop the bikes at any point to head on out in the bush to get to the point. It allowed a new level of strategy which really changed up teams plans. This was a very creative way to effectively re-use a pre-raced area and still have a high level of challenge.

Omitted last year but back on the schedule this year was a paddle leg down the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. It's a beautiful section of river, wildly winding around the intense hill country. Many of the teams hit this section just before dark and finished during the night. At sunset, wild turkeys were roosting, high up in the trees on the banks around almost every turn. As we would pass by, they would fly off with incredible power. Didn't know Turkeys had it in them!

The first day brought ferocious winds out of the South that made mountain biking on the roads from Haskell to the L&N ranch very difficult. Later that day, after a long Bike/Trek on the beautiful hill strewn, creek divided L&N ranch, we headed out once more on bikes to Stamford lake.

This lake is a very long and somewhat wide lake associated with a major area power plant. Fighting the wind in our boats was easy compared to fighting the huge white capped waves generated by the all day wind. There was one point at one end of the lake from a centrally located TA and two more at the other far end (a little over 7 miles apart). Then there was one more point on the way back to the TA. Only the first two teams made the far end CP's before dark. Everyone else had to find them back in the tree strewn, shallow end of the lake without the help of daylight.

Next was a 35 mile road ride on our mountain bikes to the next ranch for the remaining legs of the race. For most teams, this was a nighttime section. Some teams slept on the side of the road while others just flew on by (I know because our team was one that slept while two other teams flew by).

After arriving at the Krooked River Ranch, a humongous 41,933 acre ranch sprawling over three counties, we hit our first pure trek, with mandatory CP order. Most of this was in the daylight and the trek ended many miles away where the boats had been staged for the next leg. This paddle leg would take teams back to the Krooked River TA.

On this second day, during the trek, a Thunderstorm started brewing midday off to the South. It stayed stationary and grew to an enormous size for several hours. We would get rained on from time to time from the fringes of the storm but stayed relatively dry. It never shifted to come our way but thundered like it would all afternoon. Good thing too, it had large hail and two associated tornados with it.

After the very long and challenging trek (and for our team, two VERY close encounters with rattle snakes and one skunk), we found the boats and started the river paddle section. However, it was more like a paddle/push leg. The Clear Fork of the Brazos River doesn't usually have enough water in it to paddle through any of the rapids on this 16 mile stretch of the river. Recent rains provided a swollen river but about 6 inches short of running every rapid without scraping a lot of river rock. Most of the shallow rapids found teams out of their boats pushing them through. This was an extra challenge that a lot of teams found very difficult, especially into the second night of the race.

The top teams finished the paddle during the night and then there was the question on each of their minds about sleep. One night without sleep is doable but two gets questionable. Then there's the added question of how much. Sleep ended up being a major factor in the performance of teams and the outcome of this race.

The next leg was a final bike/trek. It was long, for the lead teams it started in the dark and it also started to rain again. One question was to bike or not. West Texas mud is the stickiest there is. It would be far better on foot than with pushing mud laden mountain bikes. But the rain wasn't enough to get the ground soaked and most teams chose to bike the trek.

The first CP proved to be the most difficult of the race. Whether it was sleep deprivation, too far into the race, a night time start after a very hard paddle, or who knows what, CP41 was hard to tag. Three points later also proved to be a difficult obstacle with CP44. The clue was, "In the middle of nowhere". The point certainly lived up to it's name.

Subsequent points of this mandatory order bike/trek were everything from easy to moderately difficult. The real factor was what routes teams chose to get from point to point. That's what is so great about multi-day races. Strategy plays a huge roll. For teams like ours, a seasoned Master's team, it makes this race very appealing. The RRRC provides for plenty of strategy, especially with the bike/trek combination legs and rogaine style CP order.

Throughout the race, two teams remained far out in the lead. One was 4 person coed and the other was Master's 4 person coed. They were both very strong and it seemed hopeless to catch them. Three other Master's teams were neck and neck through the afternoon of the second day. The tail end of the long trek and the paddle during Friday night proved to be the mix up variable that turned the tables on ranking all through the night and the next morning, the last day of the race.

The weather remained cool Saturday morning and the rain had stopped with the rising sun. The race was on for first place. Somehow, our team managed to work up to second place and we finally saw the front runner of the entire race coming out of a CP valley as we were going in. That put them about 20 to 30 minutes ahead of us.

There were only two CP's left with 99% of it mountain biking to get to them and then on into the finish. Route strategy was critical. It turns out that both teams chose different routes. Our route gained us some good time on the leaders but not enough. They hit the finish line about 5 minutes before we did. But wait, an adventure race is never over until the passports are verified.

With the aid of the TopoTrack system, it was established that the lead team had barely missed one CP. They had to go back out and get it to be ranked with the other teams. After verifying our passport and the same missed point on TopoTrak, all at once we had won the race! The lead team that missed the CP went out and got it and then made it back before any other teams came in. So they managed to hold onto first place 4 person coed. It was truly an honor competing with such a fine team.

All the remaining teams finished the race or the last leg they were on all Saturday afternoon right up until one minute before the 9 PM cutoff. The post race dinner of Texas style BBQ brisket, beans, corn on the cob, potato salad and all the trimmin's was provided by the Krooked River Ranch and was incredibly good. The award ceremony was a first that I can remember for Rattlesnake Racing. 100% of the finishing teams were there. It made for a perfect end to a very great and challenging race.

One side note: there were 5 Master's teams at this race in a starting field of 13 teams total. This shows that Master's can and will do all levels of Adventure Racing and do them well. Four of the five lead teams for the majority of the race were Master's teams. If you're over 40, get out there, train, and get on a team. The more Master's, the better.

Our hats off to Rattlesnake Racing and all their crew for putting on such a huge event so successfully. If this race isn't in your plans for next year, CHANGE YOUR PLANS!!! If you consider yourself a real adventure racing team, then step up and do a 3-day race. Regardless the results, you'll have one of the most, if not THE most memorable race experiences of your AR careers.

I'd also like to give a personal thanks to our incredible support team of Gayla Harris, LaTreace Giles and Ben Wright whom without, we never would have stood a chance. Ben and LaTreace had never been exposed to an actual AR event...and they loved every minute of it. Gayla's on our regular team but had to withdraw due to an injury just prior to the race. Our special thanks also goes out to Tom Streety for graciously filling in literally on the day before the race. He was a great contribution to our success. The other dearly loved members of or team are Robyn Cantor and TSARCS owner, Richard McCormick

ROCK, ROLL, RATTLESNAKE CHALLENGE – The 2004 RRRC will be remembered as a success for Team GCAR. After dropping out of the race last year, Team GCAR Moosejaw 1, lead by Dennis Crosby with Dan Dagen, Charlotte Lindley and Chris Reeves, finished 2nd in the 4-person Coed Masters division and 3rd overall with a time of 54 hr 14 minutes. The winning time was 51 hr 50 min, which was secured by Team Dynamic Health.

The race started at 7:00 a.m. Thursday in Haskell, TX with a rollerblade/skooter orienteering section in town. Then it was to the bikes for a ride out to the L&N South Paint Ranch. The single leg on the L&N was a Rogaine your choice bike/hike get the points in any order. Then back on the bikes for a short ride to the lake. By this time the wind had picked up and the paddling was especially difficult. Two of the lake CPs were located at the SW end of the lake "Out In The Weeds", the brush undergrowth that was still in the lake from when they flooded it. These proved to be very challenging, especially in the dark. After the lake paddle, another bike ride to the Krooked River Ranch. Next the combined trekking/paddle leg would have us hike for several hours until we reached the kayak drop. Crews had dropped paddling and resupply equipment and then had to leave. Nothing could be left at the kayak drop so that limited the amount of gear that could be left there. Then a long paddle on the river back to the base camp. The last leg was a MTB ride on the ranch roads.

Thirteen teams started the race and twelve finished, a very high percentage for a 2 ½ day race. Despite a few navigation mistakes, GCAR 1 excelled with a 3rd fastest time on the L&N ranch hike/bike leg and the fastest time on the Krooked River Ranch MTB leg. They were one of six teams to hit all of the CPs.

Team member Jonathan Sutton was recruited for Team Rattlesnake Racing. Since Jim and Leiza were the race directors for this race, they had to find replacements and selected Jon and Gail Torbett of Pushin’ Up Daisies. Tom Lane and Doc Fletcher filled out their team. They finished 4th in the 4-person coed masters category, 5th overall with a time of 58 hr 30 min.

Jon said, "The team was in really good shape, very strong on the biking legs. Tom Lane did a great job acting as navigator for his third time in a race. We did a lot of more direct approaches, which usually worked out for us. The water crossings at places not indicated as such on the map proved to be challenging. The team worked really well together, which provided for a great race." They were second or third on all of the road bike legs between town, the ranches and the lake. They also visited all of the CPs.

Team GCAR Moosejaw 2, comprised of Mark Alft, Kim Fischer, Adam Crossan of TeamXperience, and Joe Gonzales placed 4th in the 4-person Coed class and 9th overall. They had the 4th fastest times on two of the road bike legs. They skipped the last seven CPs to get to the finish at 8:59 p.m., one minute before the deadline. Their elapsed time was 61 hr 59 min. Results are on the Rattlesnake Racing web site http://www.rattlesnakeracing.com/ and the event was tracked by TOPOTRAK www.topotrak.com .

The early finishers were treated to live music and a great meal and the awards were handed out shortly after GCAR 2 completed the course. And yes, even the late arrivals got great food.

TSARCS – Team GCAR signs two teams for the TSARCS. The Texas & Southwestern Adventure Race Championship Series is a consortium put together by Rattlesnake Racing, Eco-Oklahoma, Steel Sports Adventure Racing and TeamXperience Adventure Racing. This points series includes all their events and provides a lot of flexibility in accumulating points towards the final titles and prizes

Dennis Crosby is team owner and captain for Team GCAR Moosejaw 1 and Mark Alft is team owner and captain for Team GCAR Moosejaw 2. Having raced in just three out of seven races in the series so far, GCAR 1 is in 3rd pace and GCAR 2 is in 5th place. Prizes will be awarded to the first through fifth place teams. http://www.tsarcs.com/index.htm