Berlin Bike Adventure Racing Team

2010-04-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a finish line photo from this year's 2 day Endorphin Fix Adventure Race held in Hinton, WV. The team members from left to right are Rafael Martinez, Monika Sattler, Ben Moore and Ernie Lawas.

YouTube of E-Fix 2010

2010-04-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

ImOnPoint.org did a great job with this video for the E-fix. It really shows you what we went thru. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxrhXEs3PLg

E-Fix 2010

2010-04-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Race Report- E Fix 2010
By Monika Sattler

For the 2-day adventure race challenge Endorphin Fix in Hinton, West Virginia, I joined up with Team Berlin Bike. As a relative newbie to adventure racing, I was delighted to be part of a team that was National Champion in 2007.
On Thursday, March 25th 2010, I was picked up by my three future teammates, Ben, Ernie, and Rafael, as well as Rafael’s father. The five hours drive to WV helped a lot to get to know each other, and after the drive I was pretty sure it would be a good race.

On Friday at 9:30am we got the maps and Ernie and Ben mapped out our course. (I don’t know how long each of these sections ended up taking, but you can safely assume each was long) First, we started with a bike prologue followed by a trekking section (15mi), canoe section (5mi), trekking (14mi), biking (long), trekking (ok long), biking (nightmare), canoe (relaxing), biking (nightmare again), and canoe (sprint to the finish!).

Team Berlin Bike before the race start: Monika, Rafael, Ben, Ernie

The bike prologue started out really well for me because I was able to impress my new teammates by falling into the creek, soaking my gloves and pants right from the start. Because 50 hours otherwise would be just way too easy, right? The following trek section almost killed me because Ernie set a speed that I would not even do in a 12 hours race. Also, the weight of my backpack felt like carrying my own weight. The ultimate icing of the cake was the snow, which reminded me of Snowmageddon just two months ago in DC. (Here is a video of us trekking in the snow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b_UuxXyKxY)

Nevertheless, after the four hour trek, I knew what to take (a mix of ibuprofen, caffeine pills, electrolytes, more ibuprofen, more caffeine pills and a 5-energy-shot would do the trick). The next leg was paddling. Usually, I am not the biggest fan of any paddling in a race, but this time I was looking forward to an upper body workout and a rest for my legs. We had to take our bikes apart and strap them tightly to the canoe so we wouldn’t have to fish for the parts if the boat capsized. 3 miles upstream, we dropped off our bikes pushing and carrying them thru the mud to the TA. Continuing on, after about two hours of paddling, we realized that our speed must have been 1-2mi/hours, so we exited our boat and resumed our way on foot. The orienteering part began. Up to that time (it was maybe 10pm and 8 hours into the race), our team was very focused on getting from point to point, but I warned them I can be very chatty. On the walk to the orienteering section I looked for a victim who could entertain me...and I found one.
Now it was time to find a checkpoint on a hill side, so we bushwhacked into the woods. After half an hour of not finding the checkpoint, we circled back and tried to find it from a different side. The thicket of briars made the walk not so walk able but eventually we found that checkpoint realizing we kind of aimed in the wrong direction.
We made our way back to the canoe to cross the river to find the next checkpoints. The navigation of the next couple of checkpoints by foot hit the spot. We skipped some optional checkpoints because the ‘energy output: point’ ratio did not convince us to get them. Mud up to our knees made our progress out of the water slower. The advantage of the mud was that it insulated our shoes (always trying to look for the bright side). Ben nailed the navigation for the next few points, so we made excellent progress on foot. The next checkpoint was also supposed to be on a hillside but having arrived at the site, we determined the "hillside" was more like a cliff. We concluded that Ronny, the race director, would never put the checkpoint on a cliff like that and we left without success. Talking to other teams later, we found out that the checkpoint was actually on the cliff. Conclusion: Never underestimate the evilness of the race director. One of the checkpoints was on the intersection of two boundaries on a hill side. Not knowing how the boundary was marked, we were looking for something that was out of place in the woods. After an eternity of searching, Ernie finally found a little plate on the other side of a tree (not visible for walkers on the trail) so we could follow the imaginary line of this plate to the checkpoint.
The next checkpoint tested my patience because our team decided (not unanimously because I did not participate in the decision making) to find one checkpoint by climbing three times down the same ravine (at least it felt like that) just to climb up that immense ridge again. I was borderline bitchy and then happy when we finally continued without another try. At that point it was daybreak (17 hours into the race) and we had to refill our water. We used the nearby spring to do that. That was the first time I disinfected water during a race and I was surprised it actually tasted better than the chloride stuff from the faucet in my house.

We made our way back to the bikes and found ourselves hammering the mud away from the bikes, which froze over the past hours. On the bikes, my favorite part of the race started: biking up the hills. This fun ended when one of my teammates, Rafael, a 230lb muscleman, broke his chain – four times. The break was caused by Rafael’s immense torque and so I volunteered to tow him up some hills to decrease the strain on his chain. Since there was a weight difference of 100 lbs, we had to watch out that we did not come to a dead stop otherwise he would have taken me right back to the bottom of the hill.
After an arduous bike section, we arrived in the park for the start of the orienteering section. It was around 11:30am and 21.5 hours into the race. We had four hours to get the checkpoints to beat the cut off time – we did it in three hours. The sun was shining and it was a great day to do some walking through the woods.
Back on the bikes, we had to return to the canoes. Our goal was to sit in the canoes before dawn. After a long downhill section (yes, there is downhill too), we had to cross a river. As any of my past teammates can confirm, Monika and river crossings are not a good combination. And of course, I was able to live up to reputation for clumsiness. Before we crossed the river, we took our shoes off so they would not get wet...or at least that was the plan. In my case one of them got wet because I lost my grip and dropped it in. After a panicked “F&@%, I lost my shoe”, Rafael performed a life threatening move in the water to save my shoe. (Ok, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but nevertheless, it took some energy to get that damn shoe back.)
Up next was a true hill climb. The elevation gain of the entire race was about 32,000 feet or 10km, and this section was no exception. It took us at least solid two hours to hike up the mountain/hill; it was steep and long. Finally at the peak, we were looking for a remote cemetery (strangely, a lot of checkpoints were on the cemetery) and were coasting the ridge with a beautiful view over West Virginia. At long last and still in sunlight, we made it to the canoes. The first 30 hours had passed. Up to this point in the race, I knew what to expect from myself since I have done several 30 hours races previously. The next 20 hours would become the interesting test.
Back in the canoe with our disassembled bikes, we made our way seven miles down the river to a dam. Arriving at the transition area, we had to fight serious mud (see picture) and struggled to get our boats out of the water.

After a gear check and two minutes at the bon fire, we hopped back on the bikes and headed to a checkpoint in another park. It was around 10:30pm and we only had 4.5 hours to get the next checkpoint to beat the cut-off time. In high spirits, we started riding with the goal to get there before 4am; however, the demanding hill climbs slowed us down so much that we had to accept we would not make the cut off.
With 36 hours into the race, I became increasingly tired and the seemingly endless hills did not help. Still progressing towards the next checkpoint, we saw a lot of teams in their space blanket sleeping on the side of the road. One team apparently managed to sleep in a house. However, my teammates did not seem to be tired at all and so I tried to fight my sleepiness. Eventually, we arrived at the campground, an hour too late for the cut-off. I was so exhausted that I asked my team to sleep for 5 min. Request was granted and I fell to the ground. While I was dreaming about more sleep, my teammates refilled our water bladders and got us ready to go. Because we missed the cutoff, we had to take the same way back. We were still in the race but were not allowed to try for maximum points. Later on, we were told that there was only one team that managed to beat all of the cutoff times.

Getting some rest at the bonfire
Despite the sleep and better mood, I was not looking forward to climbing the same mountains again. The first hill was so long (maybe an hour) that any benefit from my five minutes of sleep quickly wore off. The sleep monsters crept in and I managed to fall asleep while riding. Cracks in the streets became tree logs and I immensely slowed down, worried that I would hit anything on the street. Of course, my brain was playing games with me. Because I could not keep my eyes open any more, I made a deal with one of my teammates that when we arrived at the top of the hill, I was allowed to sleep for five minutes. The deal was accepted and I sprinted up that mountain hoping that I might gain six minutes out of it. When I woke up, two of my other teammates had apparently been tempted by the comfy grass on the side of the road and were taking a nap as well. I felt better with five minutes rest, but once again the benefit was short lived. After half an hour, I was a wreck again and I repeatedly fell asleep for four seconds at a time not even realizing that I fell asleep. This happened about 20 times. Since some of the sections we were riding were downhill and the side of the road was very steep, my teammates were increasingly worried that I would find an even faster way down the mountain-- the steep hillside off the side of the road. Trying to keep me awake, they asked me all kinds of questions. I was just in my own little world, trying to figure out how I can get some sleep. In my head I was plotting to come up with a way to get my teammates to stop so I could sleep. But I never got to put the plan in to action because the sun started to come up and the light helped to keep me awake.
What I did not know was the return route had more elevation loss than our original route. So after four hours, we were already back at the canoes. It was around 9am and we only had to make our way back to the finish line. That meant all we had left was 4.5 miles of paddling and then to portage the canoe up the hill. Paddling in the canoe would not normally be a big deal....for someone who is awake. However, I fell asleep again. There was a risk I might capsize the boat so Ernie engaged me in a conversation and we safely hit the ground after two hours. The portage up the hill seemed like a piece of cake and we arrived at 11:30am at the finish. It was a great race and it made it even better when we heard that we placed 3rd in the 4-person-coed category and 7th place overall.
Racing with Berlin Bike was a great experience. They are a lot of fun. Adventure Racing is all about personality and these guys have great personalities. I also had now the experience with sleep deprivation and know now better how to prepare for it. I can’t wait for the next race!

2010 Season Starts on the Podium

2010-03-08T09:05:00.001-08:00

The 2010 season started off Saturday March 6th at the Frigid Infliction. This year's venue was the Little River Recreational Area outside of Waterbury, VT.

Teams were treated to a nasty forray of steep climbs and gnarly descents on skis as late morning temps cooked us in our ski pants. Another 40(+) Fahrenheit day dried out a lot of racers and hydration was key. The race started with the post-hole section, but it turned out to be a run on crusty icy snow with our packs. This lead to some quick times at a blistering pace. The second stage was climbing, climbing and then some more climbing to get on a ridge and clear 3 CPs and then pick up a bonus while we were there. We transitioned into skis less than 1/2 hour back from the top 2 teams and only had 2 hours to get to the tyrolean and beat the 12:00 cut off for the additional time bonus. We made the tyrolean but couldn't get the bonus CP. We came into the tyrolean 13 minutes behind 2nd place and waited 19 minutes to get our skis...poop. The final 1:35 hours was spent trying to get back to the hotel to the finish on a difficult nav section which had teams all over the place. We finished in a respectable 3rd place thanks to Ernie and Ben pulling my butt through the woods for 9:15 hours.

This is why we race...Why?

Diggin in at World Championships in Portugal

2009-11-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

A short note to fill in anyone not following the team at worlds. It looks like a complicated, tough course. I know the ocean swim/surf was treacherous. Just look at Ernie. He's covered in seaweed!!

Jen and Fritz look great on day three. I think I would look dead. Jen is still smiling (?) This team represents the soul of adventure racing. Heart, strength and courage. GO TEAM!!

Ernie's getting serious now. I wouldn't want to be the team in front of him. I think he's going for it ! It's been hard to tell where the team is via the race website, but occassionally a photo pops up from the gallery that I recognize as our guys and girl. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this is from the long mtb into the night on day four before or after the 11:00 pm cutoff.

Success at GMARA's Bitter Pill 2009

2009-08-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

August 1st at the gorgeous Craftsbury Nordic Center brought another great race from GMARA. With a total of 42 controls to nail in 12 hours, Berlin Bike set off with the rest of the teams on an early morning swim in Lake Hosmer. Only Granite Racing thought ahead to the possibility of flippers for the swim, and as a result came out of the lake first. Berlin Bike and many other teams were not far behind. Unfortuntely, in the first TA I lost my mouthpiece from my drinking bottle (Ernie) and could have been miserably dry for the race, but the AR gods were smiling on me and my bottle stayed full through 2 refills. The first section was a foot-o with 16 controls, 2 of which were optional and worth 20 minutes credit each. We came out of the woods behind 3 other teams after getting all 16 controls and headed for the monster climbs of Northern Vermont's rolling farmlands. With Ernie still battling stomach nasties from Untamed, and Ben in the sleep deprived state he has come to know so well, I had to peddle the course on my own for the most part, which didn't speed us up at all. The bent front brake rotor didn't help either. Peddling downhill as hard as I could to stay with the boys was no joy. After retrieving controls on the backroads, we climbed to a remote foot-o to get 8 more checkpoints. We cruised through the first 2 and got turned around on the spur trail along with all the other teams out there. Thanks to the shout-out from team One Lucky Chick, we found the 3rd control and moved on to the next 5 with not too much ado. We cleared that section in 43 minutes and jumped back on our bikes to head back to the nordic center for some technical single track. When we arrived at the tent a quick gear check was performed and we hit the trails. Having only 5 controls in this section sounded easy. The trick was that all controls had to be retrieved in order and only on the one way trails. This section went smoothly between climbs and greasy corduroy...The last 8 controls were on the water. We cleared all of them in under 2 hours and trudged into the finish 4th overall and 2nd in the 3 coed. Final time = 8:35 - :40 =- 7:55.

Berlin Bike Qualifies for 2009 AR World Championships in Portugal

2009-07-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you that weren't glued to the Untamed New England website for the entire race, here's a quick note to fill you in. After falling into 40th place by a twisted turn of events; Fritz, Ben, Jen and Ernie used their experience and stamina to race to a third place tie with NYARA thus qualifying for the 2009 AR World Championships !! Woo Hoo go team!! Check out the race...http://www.untamedne.com/

Untamed New England 3 day Adventure Race

2009-07-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

Berlin Bike/Eastern Mountain Sports marks the marriage of two of New England’s powerhouse teams. Berlin Bike, winners of the USARA National Point Series Championships in 2007 and currently battling for the 2009 top spot, features team captain Ben Moore, Ernie Lawas and Fritz Palmeijer of Connecticut. Berlin Bike is consistently one of the “Teams to Watch” whenever they appear at the start line, always finishing in the top ranks.

Joining us for the first time is Jen Shultis, Captain of Team Eastern Mountain Sports, whose titles include 2005 USARA National Champions, 2006 & 2007 USARA National Masters Champions, and who won the 2005 Appalachian Extreme in the same territory that is host to the 2009 Untamed New England. This was the last ARWC qualifier held in the United States.
While it’s their first time racing together, all four have spent ample time together racing against each other on course and enjoying beer together off course. They are looking forward to finally racing together and not against each other!

You can follow us at Untamed New Englands web site: http://www.untamedne.com/
The race will start at noon Thursday July 9th.

Thank you to Berlin Bike and Eastern Mountain Sports for all of your support!

Please visit our team pages on the web:
Team Eastern Mountain Sports

GMARA's Frigid Infliction 2009

2009-06-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

Green Mountain Adventure Racing’s Frigid Infliction at the Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vt. would have been more aptly billed as the “Tepid Infliction” in 2009. With temperatures hovering in the 40’s and the sun beating mercilessly on the trails, the snow was mushy, wet and slow. But hey, adventure racers don’t complain, right? I know I was glad to have worn my lightweight ski tights instead of my heavy ones.
We began the race at 5:00 AM with a snowshoe to the start at the base of a steep incline where we opted to head further up to CP 5 while the other teams split away from the cliff face that the CP sat on top of. After a pretty tough ascent, we found the CP with not too much difficulty. As it turned out, this was a good route choice as the remainder of the teams came from the other direction and had some difficulty locating the cliff top. We were able to complete the rest of the first foot section in blazing time coming to the TA a half-hour before the estimated time that the first team would arrive and 30 minutes in front of the next team.(7:08 AM) Unfortunately, in a winter race with deep, wet snow breaking trail for the other teams was not in our best interest and not our strategy either. But, things being as they were, we went with it.
The Tyrolean traverse across a deep gully (7:43 AM)
lead us to the ski section TA , where once again, we laid tracks to the controls.( I swear…I didn’t have the glide I needed. I was inching along and it felt like there was glue on my skis.) We skied to the next section (9:27 AM) where we removed any support that would keep us from sinking into 3 feet of snow and head 2 km over a saddle with “Bwen the Postholing Monkey”leading the way. I believe I learned at least 5 new expletives during that 2 km. By the time we got to the TA 5 (10:04 AM) to put our skis back on, the second place team thanked us politely for the trail we had left and proceeded to ski past us and take the lead .
From that point we (Ben and Ernie) skied down a pretty gnarly backcountry descent while I fell over continuously for about 300 feet. It wasn’t pretty, nor was it fast. Those new expletives came in handy…We arrived at the final TA (11:01 AM) where we re-hydrated and decided to foot the first 3 CPs and ski the last 4, which was the opposite of what the lead team had decided. So once again, we broke trail into some pretty cool areas. I did manage to lose my mouthpiece from my drinking tube and thankfully Ben had an extra one, thus saving me from sure dehydration. The ski in this last section was quite difficult with some steep climbs and quick,tight descents, both of which I wasn’t prepared for.
We managed to finish the full course come in second at 9:07 hours. Even with my final “boot won’t go into f***ing binding!!!” 5 minute tirade with less than a mile to go.
All things considered, my first race with Berlin Bike was a really a great learning experience about the value of teamwork and humility.

As a newcomer to this sport

2009-05-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

As a newcomer to this sport, I am still fascinated by the level of intensity and endurance and suffering that the athletes who compete in AR undergo. My name is Becky Sutter and I did my first AR in 2008 at the Longest Day sponsored by NYARA. It was a 12- hour race, and aside from having a bike that was 4 inches too small for my 6 foot frame, I was sorely under prepared. Thus, I got my butt kicked, but…man did I love it!
I’ve been very fortunate to race with great people in 3 other races including the host of this blog, Berlin Bike. I’m enjoying the 2009 season partly because I can watch and learn and Ben, Ernie and Kerri have been more than willing to teach and assist. I have been graced with their experience and strength. So far, Berlin Bike has had a great season. I’ve only raced in 1 event with them, where we took second, but their other finishes have all been top five. No small deal especially when you’re playing with the big boys and girls.
My last outing with them was a training day sponsored by Racing Ahead LLC over in a state park in NH called Pawtuckaway. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and we met at the park a little late so we were appreciative that the organizers let us start anyways. They called the event a Trifecta as it were. It included a canoe-o course, bike-o and foot-o. All three courses had to be completed in an hour with 3 point penalties for each minute over.
We began in the canoe and Kerri and I used my stock racer (Jensen 18) so we were moving along pretty good considering we’d never paddled together before.

Ben and Ernie had the maps and basically pointed us in the right direction. We cleared the course (70 points in 57 minutes.) Next was the foot section. (51 points in 63 minutes.) I purposely weighted my pack with 10 pounds as this was a training event after all. We were running the whole time pretty much. It went by quick. With 8 minutes to go we were pretty far out and had to actually run at a pretty good pace. Ben towed me from the 5 minute point as I am definitely not the fastest of runners. The last leg was on some great single track and pretty challenging bike terrain. (65 points in 59 minutes.) I wound having to walk most of the single track and then whack out with Ben to meet Ernie and Kerri on the road. We hauled back to the start as pretty much the last team on the course. We wound up first overall with 186 points in 179 minutes. I had a great time and can’t wait to team up again in a few weeks for my first 24 + hours race!! I let you know how I feel after that one. Peace Out!!

Becky Sutter

E-Fix 3.5 day AR

2009-04-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

Off to W. Virginia for the Odyssey 3.5 day E-Fix. You can follow along @ http://www.checkpointtracker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.showDashboard&eventID=157
Give us a shout out or two we will need it 30-40 hrs into the race. check back for the race report.

Odyssey One Day Xtreme

2009-03-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

Odyssey One Day Xtreme 30 hr race in Hiwassee, VA started off in extremely cool weather for Jan. 17th. It was -8 F at 7:00 am when the whistle went off for the start. As we were driving down, all I could think of was "do I have enough warm clothes". We did stop and buy more clothing.

We were all concerned about our water freezing. We had to keep our bladder hoses and bike water bottles tucked into a couple layers of clothing. This worked well until you pulled the bite valve off and couldn't find it. Sorry Ernie, no Sustained Energy for you.

The race started on foot so we were able to get warmed up before heading out on the bikes. After coming into the TA in 2nd place and leaving on our bikes, I made a bad nav. error that put us on top of a mountain and 45 mins. behind. Come to find out that we would be back here later on during the last trekking section. There was multiple stream crossings that we had to do and not all of them were completely frozen. So carrying our bikes and jumping over icy rocks made it a bit challenging. It was a good thing that Ronny, the race director, had canceled the paddling section for this event. I, for one, was not looking forward to doing this section. If we or any team had dumped, the race would have been over. Trying to get warmed back up after that would have been next to impossible with wet clothes.

After a long while of stream crossings, we came to our next TA. Off on foot to get 4 CP's in any order. We manged to complete that before dusk. At the TA there was a fire. "Fire Bad. Stay away from Fire. Fire Bad." Half hour later, we were back on the bikes heading into the night. The cold was catching up to us. trying to stay warm on the roads, eating and drinking became a task. We made it back to the last TA where we cooked up soup and hot chocolate. After recouping from the cold for 1:45 mins., we headed out on the last trekking section. We were able to get 7 out of the 10 CPs, of course our last one was at the top of that mountain, before Ernie left the contents of his stomach on the mountain side. The weather had finally gotten to us, but we were able to still hold on to 4th place.