2008 in Review

Well, 2008 has come and is almost gone. It is hard to believe that the year is almost gone. Here is a brief recap of the Thrive AR racing season, which was little bit on the back burners for a number of little reasons this year.

The year started out with monthly training days that most of the team was able to make. Our goal was to encourage each other where ever our fitness was, work on a few key racing disciplines (biking, nav, whatever) and prepare ourselves for the upcoming season.

Along the way Joe, Tiff, and Case did a few different Cascade Orienteering Events that were a lot of fun and definitely proved to show each of their improvement in that specific disciple. They are getting to the point where they can share the navigational duties during a race and feel confident in the decisions that are being made. For specific results on how they performed individually click here.

With May flowers, came the Mind over Mountain Adventure Race (MOMAR), that Case and Tiff entered. They traveled up to the Outdoor Mecca town of Squamish, BC. The race course was designed by Jen Segger-Gigg, (Dart/Nuun) and like last years course was filled with epic single track and a ton of leg burning climbs both on foot as well as the bike. The boys raced hard and despite a bent to heck brake (Case's bike), a sweet endo (Tiff) and some leg cramping, ended up finishing just ahead of the middle of the pack 13th of 29.

The next adventure was solo as Case was invited to travel with Team Kagome to the highly recognized Primal Quest that was held in Big Sky, Montana. The race was a tremendous learning experience and was a lot of fun seeing some of the best teams in the world race. It ended up that Team Nike won, again. Those guys and gal sure know how to win races.

With August approaching brought the next big adenture to the feet of Case, Tiff and Joe. They decided to run the Wonderland Trail, well 50k of it anyways. With Joe as their support Case and Tiff left Paradise around 7:00am hoping to be at Sunset in 9 hours, which would be 6:00pm. Joe was their support crew at a number of predetermined checkpoints and actually ran out to meet them towards the end of their journey. Both felt great and enjoyed some of the most beautiful views that Washington state has to offer, along with some of the hardest climbs either of them had done. In the end they completed all 31+ miles in just over 9 hours. What a triumph, considering there was over 16000' of elevation gain/loss throughout the day.

With only two actual events that Thrive AR was involved in for the 2008 year, we are already trying to map out our 2009 racing schedule. Some perks, is that Trioba is back, after a year's absence and Joe and Case have had some time to adjust to God's greatest gifts, children. Team Thrive is planning on competing in both Trioba races (May & September), as well as the Chuckanut 50k (March) and a number of other fun and exciting outdoor adventures.

A special thank you is in order to all of you that help us do what we do! Thrive Community Fitness, Nuun, Sea Kayak Shop, Pearl Izumi, Teva and most importantly OUR FAMILIES!!!! We'll see you in 2009!