Three Ducks Flying (mostly) at Salton Sea

Team Huey, Dewey and Louie are recovering from their latest escapade, the Badwater Salton Sea.  Eighty-one miles from the western edge of the Salton Sea to near the summit of Mount Palamor.  This event is a team format where two or three-person teams must race the entire distance together, staying within 25 meters of each other the whole way.  So you can see you get to spend a lot of quality time together!

While not new to team racing (having done various events both officially and unofficially as a team), HDL (Brandon Petelin, Ken Letterle and Garth Reader; in no particular order) are mainly trail runners and thus the 70 plus miles of speedy road racing took their toll.  The moderate heat and excessive afternoon winds (20 mph sustained/50 mpg gusting head winds) didn’t help much either.  Despite all this HDL was able to pull down a third place overall and second place 3xmen team finish.  With a time of 17:03:00 we just missed the previous record for our age group (40+ which is based on the average age of all runners) by a single minute.

El tres patos crushed the mid-race trail section (about 8 miles/2,000 feet of climb) with the fastest time of any team there and one of the top times ever.  Not bad given that the winds were at their worst then with gusts literally stopping you dead in your tracks!  It wasn’t until the last ten miles up the mountain that waddling became dominate and the pace slowed.  It was then that team Chasing Jarred overtook the mighty ducks for the 3xmen win.

Not only did the runners reunite but our spouses as well.  Good friends and family rounded out the experience.  A lot of credit needs to go to our great support crew of James and Juanita Garner and Lisa Reader.  Compared to stage racing this was like flying first class with you own personnel steward/stewardess!  They were there with all the goodies, a fresh handheld and positive support the whole way.  They kept us moving!  Venessa Pena, Melissa Pena and Allison Sweene were also there cheering us on and providing the critical post-race support for the racers as well as the support team.

After a bit of R&R (rest and recovery) the three amigos/ducks will contemplate their next adventure.  Stay tuned!