Our support crew feed us warm broth and food. We changed clothes and put on our Rollerblades. Tom and I choose to Rollerblade and Ted and Charles would use their Kick Bikes. We left TA at 7:52pm just as it was getting dark and raced down the bike path. We had a system worked out where I would stand behind Charles and push him on the Kick Bike and Tom would stay behind Ted. Our system seemed to be working because we passed several teams on this leg. This section ended with a huge climb up Donner Pass. It was too steep to use our Rollerblades, so we removed them and walked in our socks. Finally, with TA in sight, we put our skates back on and rolled on into the TA at 11:35pm.

We again filled up with warm fluid and food. The crew had our bikes all ready for us and we made a quick transition. We were excited for the bike since it was supposed to be one of our stronger events. We knew we had a long 110-mile leg ahead, leaving the TA at 12:21am. We also knew that it was going to be a very cold night. Since we had bike racks on the back we decided to bring along two sleeping bags. We had been cold so much of the race so far that we were more than willing to carry the extra weight in exchange for a little more warmth later on. We all took off on the bikes and raced past many teams on the jeep roads. When our slowest teammate Ted was falling behind, we hooked him up to a towline attached to my bike to help him stay with us. We biked until 4:30am and then decided to sleep. We looked for a soft place to spread out the sleeping bags and crash. Since it was our first night to sleep out in the woods, I was a little worried about the bears and decided to try and hang my pack from a tree. I had a hard time getting restful sleep because it was so cold and I kept hearing things in the woods. The noises were really from teams that were passing by us. I was anxious to get moving so I woke the guys after 1 1/2 hours and told them we needed to get going again. Once we were off the dirt road, I hooked Ted back up to the towline. We biked all day on logging roads with big hills. It was a long day and with not much sleep. I was tired and dehydrated. We stopped for a short snack break but nothing sounded good to me. I decided to try some Tuna and lay down for 15 minutes. We got up and started biking again. This time Tom took another turn at towing Ted so I could try and recover. Not far into the ride I threw up all my tuna and water. I knew for sure that I must be really dehydrated. I kept trying to take small sips of water but I couldn't seem to hold much down. When we got to the big hills it was too hard for Tom to tow Ted and I was worried about Tom getting burned out so we just had to walk. We didn't have to walk or ride too far before we spotted a little food store on the side of the road. There was a sign out front that said "free water to racers". We pulled in and the boys all ordered cheeseburgers. I bought some Gatorade and tried to get myself hydrated. Finally a place to eat real food and I was too sick to put one bite in my mouth. We spent about an hour here eating, resting and chatting with other teams that also stopped. I felt much better after filling up on fluids and once we left we didn't rest until 9:30pm. We found some bushes to block the wind and crawled into our sleeping bags. The boys were generous to give me my own sleeping bag that night since they thought I needed the best recover time. No need to hang the backpack this time. My pack became my pillow every time we had to stop now and I was always too tired to worry about bears. We woke about 4 hours later freezing as usual and got ourselves back on the bike. We made good time after that much needed rest and started passing several teams that had taken their sleep later and were still asleep on the trail as we passed. It is very difficult figuring out which way to go at night but we seemed to be very lucky at find people or cars to stop and point the way. Just when we thought the bike would soon be ending because our odometer read 110 miles we soon found ourselves on the worst section yet. It required us to hike with our bikes up steep washed out rocky trails. We passed one team that had been waiting for four hours for a medic to arrive with an IV for a racer that had become too dehydrated to continue. The 110mile bike was soon 130mile and we finally reached TA at 10:40am on Day 3.

We only spent 1 1/2 hours in the TA before leaving on our first trek. It started at the bottom of Kirkwood ski resort, which meant a huge climb to the top. We found our first check point right away and the volunteers commented on how quickly we got there. Many people had taking the long way around to the lake or attempted to get there climbing over the highest peak. The rest of the hike was long and rather boring. We hiked awhile with other teams but tried to keep a strong pace so we could finish the trek before dark. I think the mileage was off again because we were still out there when the sun set. We made it out to the road but had a long walk downhill to the TA. The downhill pavement was brutal on our legs. We sang songs and tried to keep everyone awake so we could finally crash at the TA and not on the side of a trail. At 11:35PM, the end of Day 3, we reached TA. We pigged out and took some much-needed sleep. The next section was orienteering and we planned on getting up at 5AM so we could be ready for first light. Orienteering is 10 times as hard in the dark.

We left the TA at 6:15AM on Day 4 with several other teams that had also waited until first light. We worked together with some of those teams to find the CP's. There were a total of 8 on the course but you were only required to find 5 to stay ranked. However for every CP missed your team would get a two-hour penalty. Since we needed to make it to the whitewater by noon the next day, we decided to only find 5 and take the time penalty, which would be added to your time at the end. We finished the orienteering course at 1PM, not bad for a rookie team.

After a quick lunch in the TA we again left on our bikes, this time carrying all of our rock climbing gear. It took us just under two hours to get to the bottom of the Calaveras Dome. There we left our bikes and only took the necessary climbing gear. The hike to the start of the rope ascent took us about two hours. It required some bushwhacking and bouldering up the hill. It was such a relief to find the start of the ropes course. We put our names on the list to climb and were told to would be about an hour wait because there were other teams in front of us, and they only had 5 sets of ropes to use. We were given the choice to walk around and take a time penalty but we were all too excited to ascend up 1000feet, I was picked to go first for our team. Before leaving I ate as much food as possible and poured out a little water, (which later will turn out to be a big mistake), but I didn't want to carry any more weight than necessary for such a long climb. It only took me about 1 hour to ascend the ropes and I was on the top by 9:30pm. I eagerly waited for my teammates to join me. Charles showed up about 10:15pm. We knew that Ted was going next and that it would probably take him a bit longer, based on our experiences during training. Since we were so cold waiting at the top, we thought it would be a good time to climb into our emergency bags and get some rest. Next thing I knew it was 1AM and there was still no sign of Ted. I tried to get some information out of the volunteer but he was not willing to give any. The only thing Charles and I could do was wait. We climbed back into our bags lying side by side and shivering ourselves to sleep. I awoke again at 3AM thinking "how could this be possible?" It is the first time in the race I didn't think I could wait any longer. I was out of water now and couldn't seem to get warm. I headed towards the volunteer to plead for some more information when I spotted Tom walking towards me. At the same time we both noticed Ted lying in his emergency bag. I couldn't believe that I had been sleeping and freezing only yards from my 3rd teammate. I'm not sure why he didn't come find us, but now my temper was flaring at him to get his ass up and get going. I had already spent more minutes than I ever anticipated on the top of that Dome. We all checked out at 3:21am and trekked across the mountain to find the rappel. We aimed too straight, descended too low and found ourselves pinched out by more boulders. Charles and I climbed to the top while Ted and Tom decided to play it safe and wait until light to make the climb. Charles and I laid between two rocks next to each other trying to stay warm. It was only about an hour before it was going to be Day 5. As soon as it was light I sat up only to notice we were sleeping within eyesight from the next CP, the site of the rappel. At least we will be doing the rappel during the light so we could enjoy the view.

Charles and I teamed up rappel since we would need to be hooked together, and we'd spent many hours training together for this section. The first 250 feet of the rappel was more work than fun. The rope was so long that we were forced to pull and feed it through our rappel devices. It wasn't until the last 250 feet of free hanging that we could let ourselves go freely down the rope. The view was incredible and the experience was amazing. I have never been afraid of heights so it wasn't scary, but every time I looked around I would get vertigo and feel like I was spinning. I tried to keep my eyes on Charles' face but he made faces at me and tried to make me look away. We made it to the bottom with Tom and Ted not far behind. After the rappel, we had to hike down the rest of the hill to our bikes. On the way we stopped at the river to get some water. It had been about 5 hours since any of us have had a significant amount of water. We arrived at our bikes at 10:08am and took a short snack break. We then loaded the bikes and headed out for the next TA.

The bike ride to the next TA was long and took us most of the day. We decided to take the dirt road along the river since we were using mountain bike tires. It felt like an eternity before we actually saw people. It was a PG&E worker. I clarified with him that we were on the right road and inquired about how much longer it would be until we reached the main road. A tree shredding worker also showed up and was interested in what we were all doing. We explained that we were on day 5 of this race, and have been gone from our last TA much longer than anticipated. We were very short on food and water. Both workers offered us the leftovers from their lunches. One had a huge Tupperware of the best guacamole we have ever tasted. No need for chips, we ate it by the spoonful. They also left us with granola bars, yogurt, and an orange. We scarfed down the food and were energized to continue riding. The PG&E worker informed us that there was a better way to get to the main road and said he'd leave a couple water bottles on the unmarked road ahead. We left shortly after him and later found the shortcut. It was another dirt road that took us out to the main road, and helped to avoid many more hills. Once on the main road, it was just a few miles to the TA. We arrived in TA at 5pm on day 5.

The guys were all exhausted and wanted to sleep at this point, but I knew we needed to get out of TA fast so we could at least start the orienteering in the light. We were also getting closer to the race cutoff, where we had to reach the whitewater portion of the race by noon on the 6th day, or else we would be rerouted to the "short course." This orienteering section also contained 8 points and we were again only required to find 5 to stay ranked. I was elected to navigate since I was the most alert. We left for our first point, which was a cave. Only two of us were required to enter the cave and punch the CP. Ted and I went together so Charles and Tom could get some rest. We were told it would take about 20 minutes. I rappelled first into the cave and Ted soon followed. We had to crawl through the cave in spaces that were smaller than I thought possible to pass. It was a tight squeeze for me and I wasn't sure how Big Ted was going to make it. He actually managed quite well. When we got to the end of the cave it was one more tight squeeze through a section they called the "birthing canal." I shimmied my way out on my back and quickly found Tom. I told him that Ted would probably need some help squeezing through the opening. Ted wedged himself partway through and Tom managed to help pull him out the rest of the way. We woke Charles up and headed out to the next checkpoints.

The trek to the next CP would be very difficult because of a landowner that was not so happy about the race or the racers that had bushwhacked through his property. The landowner told the race officials that he didn't want any more people on his land. That marked off a large section of land and a previously straight path to the next CP. Luckily for us on the way to the next CP we ran into a friendly neighbor that was very excited about being part of the race. He informed us that he had helped several other teams the day before and was really enjoying himself. He showed us an easement that went through the mean neighbor's property and a clear straight shot to the next CP. He led us to the top of a cliff and then said, "see there it is, but you're on your own from here." We said our goodbyes and scaled down the side of the hill. We had to bushwhack the rest of the way but found the second cave rather quickly. The second cave required us all to crawl though. There was water up to our thighs. We made it through there quickly and headed out to the last three CP's. The third was another tunnel we had to army crawl through and the last two were up in a field. We found all of them very quickly and were headed back to the TA within 5 hours. It was our best section so far. We knew our support crew would be so surprised to see us back so soon. When we arrived at TA they were all sitting in the truck watching a movie. We decided to get some sleep and head out in a couple hours on the bikes in the morning.

"The morning" meant waking up at 2:30am and leaving the TA on bikes by 3:20am. We knew we had to get to the whitewater TA by 11am, in order to be in the water for sure by noon (the cutoff). We biked 7 hours and arrived at TA ahead of schedule at 10:15am, despite two flat tires along the way. By this time, I was feeling the most tired. I had to say goodbye to my husband who had been crewing for the past week but would now be leaving to get home. Being distracted and not thinking, I forgot to pack the right amount of food and any warm clothing for after the whitewater paddle. I had no idea at the time that I would be spending the entire night on the water.

We started the whitewater section at 11:20am. It was a dream. We encountered class 3 rapids throughout the entire 22 mile leg. It was only scary once when I lost my teammate Tom out the back and only saw his shoe float to the surface. He was thrown out of the kayak and under the boat. I had no idea he was even gone until I saw his shoe pop up. He made it safely back into the boat and the rest of the trip was all fun. At the end of the whitewater, about 4:30pm we all stopped for a nap and some food. I did pack some MRE's for the team and we all enjoyed the hot dinners. Thankfully, Tom and Ted had extra clothes to share to help me keep warm.

Our next leg was on the open water. Since the wind was so strong, we decided to wait until 7pm to start paddling, that way we wouldn't waste so much energy paddling into the wind. Several other teams were there and it seemed like the best plan at the time. However, once we were out there in the dark, navigating the lake became a nightmare. We missed the inlet and landed on the far west shore. The team we were paddling with decided to stay and sleep since the wind was so strong but we wanted to move on. We started up stream by dragging our kayaks along the shore. We walked about 2 hours like this, crossing bays by paddling when needed. We soon found another team who had a fire burning on the shore. They were sleeping and trying to get warm before attempting to paddle up wind. The team was down to three guys and they were short one paddle. Apparently they flipped during the whitewater and their third paddle was never recovered. We decided to team up with them so we could help each other get back to the TA. Since Ted was too tired to paddle and wanted to sleep we gave his paddle to them in exchange for Ted. Their strongest paddler sat in the back of our kayak with Ted sleeping in the front. Tom and I paddled and Charles paddled solo in their other boat. We tried this for about an hour when finally the other team informed us they were ready to trade back. They realized they were better off with just two paddles and not sleeping Ted. We tried to stay with them for awhile but they ended up on the opposite shoreline of the river. It was the longest most difficult paddle. We continued to follow the shoreline so we could stop and rest when we needed and wouldn't be blown back any further.

When we finally spotted the TA across one more bay, we paddled like maniacs to reach the shore. We arrived at 5am and I needed sleep. I walked to our campsite woke up the support crew and crashed in a tent. It was the first time during the race that I didn't set an alarm for wake up.

We slept until 9:30am of Day 7. Our next leg would be a 42-mile hike. We left at 10:38am. The hike included lots of elevation changes, water crossings and rocky trail. It was the most difficult and hardest on our team. We anticipated the hike taking a maximum of 21 hours. After thirty-five miles we knew we were going way too slow. It had taken us all-day and night to reach the second to last check point. Ted and Charles' blisters were getting the best of them. We had a team powwow at CP26 to decide that if we were going to head out for the last 8-10miles that we would need to move more efficiently. Tom and I shared carrying Ted and Charles' gear and we only allowed them to carry just one water bottle. We knew we would be crossing several streams and could fill up as needed. We also were very low on food so we pooled all the remaining food together and I counted the calories. I would be in charge of dividing the food up among the guys. I still had a SPIZ drink left worth 550 calories and could make it on that. Every half-hour I gave the guys snacks as Tom filled up water bottles at the stream. We were making very good time and I became more generous on the snacks as we realized we would be there much sooner than anticipated. The guys were overjoyed at one snack break when they each got their own cereal bar to eat. We finally made it to the TA at 5:11pm - 29 hours after we started.

The name of the town was Cool but it was very Hot! We found shade under our EZ up in the TA, rested and had dinner. We all took turns visiting the 1st Aid tent. Ted was the first to return. He decided that his feet had taken enough abuse and he couldn't go on past this TA. Charles returned and said he could be ready to go. I had my blisters popped and I was ready to leave. Tom was packed and ready to go too. I'm not sure at this point why it took us so long to prepare to leave, but I don't think our support crew actually thought we would continue on as a unranked team since our captain was now sitting around drinking beer and calling all his friends to tell them Team Scree has gone unranked.

We finally did make it out of the TA as a three-person team. The last sight leaving TA for me was our captain hanging out drinking talking to one of the volunteers. I couldn't believe how little it seemed he cared about the rest of his team after we just spent the last 8 days towing and carrying his gear through California.

I ran in to Jason and Sheila on the way out of TA and they gave me words of encouragement to continue. I left TA with tear filled eyes. We had made it so far as a team and now we had to go on unranked. The feeling was so different. With a clouded head, I rode right past the turn. I hammered on my bike for 6 miles before I could stop crying and realize I was headed in the wrong direction. I assumed my teammate Tom would know the turn and he assumed I knew where I was going at such a high rate of speed. It didn't take long to get back to the right turn but as we arrived there Charles said he needed to talk to us. His feet were killing him and he didn't think he would be able to make the 50-mile bike ride. The swelling and blisters had him in great pain. If he did make the bike, he knew he probably wouldn't make the last hike to the paddle. The report was that it would be the most grueling and difficult on feet.

We voted as a team to return to the previous TA and call it quits. We all sat waiting on the road huddled in a circle crying. It was so emotional having to stop. If there had been any other teams behind us Tom and I could have joined, we could have had that option. But we were the last team out of CP27, with no way to go on.

Our crew was called and arrived shortly. We all got up, piled into our support crew cars, and headed back to South Lake Tahoe.

We spent the next two days sleeping eating and crying over the whole experience. I learned so much about myself and team relationships along the way. I made a great friendship with a teammate that I only met 3 days before the race. We got to know each other quickly and learned how important team dynamics plays in such a long race. I don't think we would have made it 8 days without such great relationships between teammates. When the going got tough we all stuck together and helped each other through our toughest moments. Although we did a lot of complaining and arguing during the day we always kissed and made-up by the next TA.

It was a great experience and I hope to participate in PQ next year.