Denali, Alaska – At 6:59 PM on Thursday June 19th 2008, Jordan Romero of Big Bear Lake, California, summited one of the most difficult peaks in the world at the age of 11. He is one of only two 11 year-olds to have ever summited the mountain. Due to its northern latitudes, it ranks as one of the longest and most arduous climbs, weather often putting teams on hold for days and weeks at a time. Team Jordan Romero did the climb in record time. We are still awaiting details of the amazing feat.

TrackMe360.com provided GPS safety and tracking gear to the expedition, and via periodic location messages sent via satellite, fans, family and friends all over the globe could follow Jordan’s adventure in real time at www.jordanromero.com.

A team of recreational (plus!) cyclists from Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley, CA finished the gruelling RAAM 2008 on Thursday evening June 19th at 8 :15 PM, after over 3,000 miles of riding from San Diego, CA to Annapolis, MD.  TrackMe360.com provided GPS tracking for the team so that fans, friends and family could follow their journey online in real time.  Every 10 minutes, our satellite beacon would send the team’s location coordinates to an online tracking map, courtesy of TrackMe360.com.  Detailed team results are here, and the team’s web site is here.

A four-person team of everyday folks from Valley Presbyterian Church will ride in what is known as the “world’s toughest bike race.” They hope the drama generated by the coast-to-coast race and their own relative inexperience in the event will draw attention to a worthy cause: Peninsula Habitat for Humanity. The “ultra-distance” riders hope that their endurance will raise $50,000 for an eight-unit family complex on Lincoln Avenue in Redwood City. This project will provide affordable ownership homes for eight low income families.  Team web site is here.

Coast to coast in nine days from June 11-20, 2008, Race Across America’s 3,000-mile route begins in Oceanside, CA, and concludes in Annapolis, MD. Unlike a stage race, riders pedal twenty-four hours a day in a relay format that keeps one team member on the road while the others rest. None of the Team H4 riders are professional cyclists. The ultra marathon will test them physically and spiritually and serve as a two-wheeled vehicle for generating funds and awareness for Peninsula Habitat.

TrackMe360 is providing real-time tracking of this team along its journey.  Check out the live map at: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=020phDI4p7QU3OyJdQelyRgTVzMJGh7cV

During the month of May 2008, twenty four bay area adventure racing, rogaine and orienteering teams embarked on the inaugural TrackMe360 Mountain-O Training Race at Mount Diablo.  Some encountered 95+ degree temps, some dense patches of poison oak, and others suffered empty water bladders a little longer than they had hoped, but all walked away with an appreciation for the remote and rugged terrain that can be found so close to home.  Here are some of the comments we received:

“This was  a blast. Looking forward to the next one. Hopefully we can fit it in before PQ. Otherwise well just do Julys.”

“We just wanted to thank you for putting together such a great event. We had a great time and enjoyed all of the varied terrain and route choice options. We chose to do a lot of bushwalking and it was a blast.”

“This was so much fun!  I can’t wait for the next one.”

“We had a great time yesterday, a fantastic course!…We had a blast, and a very full day. Lots of wildlife, plenty of bushwack, good times.”

Long course podium

1. Dirty Avocados (Adam Doti, Donato Polignone, Brian Schmitz) (5:19:14)
2. Aquan/RWG (Thomas Bastis) (5:38:47)
3. Dos Lobos (Phil Lovalenti) (5:50:02)

Short course podium

1. Saturday Warriors (Geoffrey Benton, David Parker, Curtis Pickering, Jared Peterson) (4:08:47)
2. VanderKitten & WanderDog (Chris Bark, Cindi Choi) (5:05:13)
3. Cumbria (Penny DeMoss, Mark Blair) (5:20:08)

Congrats to these teams and everyone else who finished these challenging courses.  Dirty Avocados earns a free race entry at a future training race.

GPS Tracks are online now!

All teams’ GPS tracks are now viewable at SleepMonsters at:

http://www.sleepmonsters.us/racereport.php?page_action=gps&race_id=6421

See how your route choice and route execution differed from those fast teams.  Dirty Avocados took a chance and grabbed CP4 before 5 and hoped they could find a way through the brush at the bottom of the spur – it paid off.

…and the winner is…

I consulted my 8-year old daughter Emma to do the official raffle draw, and it was team VanderKitten & WanderDog that walked away with a SPOT satellite messenger.  Congratulations – it will be mailed out shortly.

June race is on – 100 Lakes, near Yuba Gap off Hwy80

A few people have already tackled June’s Mountain-O, and race central will soon be up on SleepMonsters.  Learn more about this training race at:

http://trackme360.com/blog/?p=27

Your virtual race director…Mats

Race Central

Once the starting gun goes off, the racing is non-stop for up to 60-hours. Teams choose their own routes between race checkpoints — meaning teams are responsible for their own race. There are no official aid stations, no support crews, no specified “rest” periods; it’s just your team, totally self-sufficient, against the Untamed New England course.

The winning team is expected to complete the course in around 55 hours. There are mid-race cut offs where slower teams will be routed onto a shorter course, preventing them from being out on the course for 3 days or longer. The Untamed New England Adventure Race will be challenging for first time racers and experienced teams alike; with a course combining the outdoor disciplines of paddling, mountain biking, trekking, ropes, and orienteering we promise a race to remember!

The Untamed New England Adventure Race will feature a variety of disciplines to test the mettle of every team.

• Mountain Biking (100+ miles)
• Ropes (1-2 courses including rappelling, ascending, and traverses)
• Trekking (40+ miles)
• Paddling (30+ miles)
• Orienteering (throughout the race, including specific orienteering courses)

TrackMe360 is providing GPS tracking devices to Untamed New England.  For live coverage between June 12-15, turn to this link.

Registration is open! To register your team, click here.

Event Sponsors:  iRule and SleepMonsters

June 1, 2008 – Folsom, California. TrackMe360 today announced the second Mountain-O event in its quasi-series of “virtual races”.  The first event took place at Mount Diablo in May, and as the snow is melting in the Sierra, we are taking the June race to the sub-alpine area on the Western slopes of the Sierra near Emigrant Gap off Hwy 80.   I tried getting a permit here for a “normal event” two years ago, but got stuck in the National Forest red tape, so change of plans – here we go!

What is a TrackMe360 Training Race anyway?

Consider it an opportunity for a fun and challenging work-out in an amazingly scenic place – a place where you’d normally never get a permit approved for a race.  The course will bring out the best this area has to offer.  It’s a race, but not in the traditional sense.  The main difference is teams don’t race simultaneously, and that’s what allows us to race without permits, but a nice side benefit is that people can decide when they want to race (within the race month), to fit their busy schedules.  CP markers will be minimal, just a small piece of flagging.  No pre-race meeting, no finish banner – just you and the mountain.  Could it be any more authentic?

How it works

• -Register for the “race” online at TrackMe360.com
• -Receive the map and a GPS recording device before your chosen “race day”.  For safety and redundancy in CP marking, you also get a SPOT satellite tracker.
• -Receive CP coordinates by 5 PM the day before “race day” via e-mail – plot your map.
• -On race day, go race, and the GPS device records your route.
• -Next day, mail back the GPS device and SPOT to TrackMe360.com
• -As soon as the GPS device is received, your results will be posted on the SleepMonsters leader board, “ladder style”, meaning as other people race, the leader board will reflect the order from fastest to slowest teams.
• -After the last day the race is “active”, the winning team is crowned, and all teams’ routes will be posted online in Google Maps, for “post race analysis”.
• -This is all done under the “honor system”, and is considered a training race “with benefits”.

Race #2: 100 Lakes Mountain-O

Our second TrackMe360 Training Race takes place on the Western slopes of the Sierra, near Yuba Gap off Hwy 80 between Auburn and Truckee.  Two courses of varying degrees of challenge (short and long) have been designed to showcase the best the area has to offer, with moderate vertical gain and significant cross country travel.  The navigational challenge is less about route choice this time, and more about cross country navigation and efficient route finding across complicated terrain.  The venue is nothing short of spectacular.  It is not as alpine as the high Sierra, but is just about ideal for Mountain-O, with lots of intricate topographic features and many lakes sprinkled throughout the course – water will not be a problem here!  There is snow still on the course, but it will gradually disappear (except on north facing steep slopes) through the month of June, and it is totally dense and consolidated and easy to walk and run on without snow shoes.  In many cases, the snow makes for easier traveling  Both courses will feature some non-technical ridge traversing with stunning views.

-General Location: Near Yuba Gap off Hwy 80 between Auburn and Truckee, CA
-Race is active: Month of June, 2008
-Disciplines: Foot only.  Some trail, some cross country, non-technical ridge traverse
-Topo navigation on tear and water proof MyTopo maps – 1:24,000
-Approximate distance: 10 mi. (short course) and 16 mi. (long course)
-Approximate duration: 3.5-6.0 hrs (short course) and 6.0-11.0 hrs (long course)
-Approximate vertical gain: 2,500 ft. (short course) and 4,500 ft. (long course)
-Course designed and pre-run by: Mats Jansson (Aquan/RWG)
-Divisions: Mixed open (any combination of gender and age), team size 1-4
-Registration: $49/team ($39/team if you have your own SPOT)
-Prize: Post race raffle among all “finishers”: iRule inVest (a $120 value)

Parting comments – it is essential to be able to “stay found” by reading the terrain as you travel.  If you do this, the navigation is not difficult.  The lakes and topo lines provide ample assurance of where you are.  Altimeter is essential at times.  There will be some hiking up snow fields.  Ideally, your shoes should have “sticky” rubber, for safe travel across granite slabs and rock hopping (Salomon’s or notoriously non-sticky).
To register your team, click here.  If you have any questions, please e-mail mats@trackme360.com