Beast of the East

June 5-8, 2002

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

The Race from Lisa’s perspective (thank you Lisa for keeping this journal)

The Beast started Wednesday at approximately 8 pm with a prologue sending teams up the mountain at Massanutten using one of the ski slopes. About 45 minute’s later we spotted Crew Zen running down ski slope number four coming back to the start area to pick up their bikes. The team wisely did not follow the example Paige displayed in Colorado on how to get down the slope. All team members were safe and had all limbs facing the correct direction.

The team headed out on the first bike leg (approximately 30 miles) in good spirits ready for the challenge. Twelve hours later they arrived at assisted check point (ACP) number 1. The last 12 hours had turned out to be a slow moving, bush-whacking hike-a-bike for most of the night. The team did well in the transition; eating, changing gear and within 50 minutes were headed out on their 30+ mile paddle down the Shenandoah River.

Eight hours later (Thursday at 6:10 pm) the team arrives at ACP #2, tired and soggy and very cold. A storm had passed over the area dumping cold rain and fierce, gusty winds. The team looked tired, but was mostly cold. Again they did very well in the transition and after only 45-50 minutes were heading out on a trek which in mileage (14 miles) appeared on paper to be short. However, this section proved to be physically exhausting for the team and mentally trying. The team came in ACP #3 Friday at 8:10 am very fatigued and frustrated. After Paige and I attempted to give some TLC and food the team took a 3 hour sleep break. After getting up, eating and putting on dry clothes, at noon the team headed out on a 29 mile bike section.

The team did extremely well on this section and arrived at ACP #4 at Friday at 6:57 pm. All members were looking pretty good at this point and the team ate some warm food, then slept for another hour and a half. At 10 pm they headed out for what will be the longest and hardest trekking section of the race. This trek was 35+ miles and included ropes and orienteering sections. This section turned out to be the make or break section for most teams and whether they would make the second time cut-off. Crew Zen along with about 9 other teams missed the cut off and would continue on in the “Adventure” class. This section took the team 27 ½ hours to complete. It was by far the longest section and from the look of the team when they came in, the most exhausting. Overall the team looked pretty good considering all they had been through. They simply looked exhausted through and through. They opted to sleep until 3:30 am in the hopes of being back on the bikes by 4am. They hit the road Sunday at 4:10 am. After a small navigational error, they reached ACP #6 at 9:58 am. They had on last hump over the mountain to the finish line.

In a race designed to break the racers on every section, the team did awesome. It takes enormous character, perseverance, and courage to continue on when it would be much easier to just stop. Crew Zen, true to their reputation pushed forward under pain, frustration and pure exhaustion. Crew Zen finished the Beast of the East 2002 at 1:10 pm Sunday.