FINAL RESULTS

Tie for 1st - Team DART/nuun and Team DART/nuun NW Kayaks

Tie for 3rd - Yoga Slackers and Team Extreme-Sports.dk

5th - Bosi Colombia

6th - Dancing Pandas

(7th - Eastern Mountain Sports - eXXtreme team - 1st place ALL Women’s Category)

7th - Dirty Avocados

8th - Kayak Lake Mead

9th - Gold Rush Mother Lode - Racing with Giants

10th - Lucky

11th - Dirty Avocados Too

12th - SuburbanRush.com

13th - Equinox

14th - El Rey Azul

*note… Team Extreme-Sports.dk received a time bonus.

All Women Category

1st place - Eastern Mountain Sports - eXXtreme Team)

Its a WRAP

The SOLE Baja Travesia has come to an end.  DART/nuun completes their 3-peat sharing first place with fellow competitors DART/nuun NW Kayaks and the 6 person teams wins a spot at the AR World Series in Brazil this fall.

Thanks to all of you who followed the teams through our cool new website and thanks to SOLE for making it all happen.  Thanks to TrackMe360 for the live tracking with SPOT so we could all get real time information on the teams as they completed the course. Thanks to Sleepmonsters for partnering with us and creating a site that integrated so nicely with the race website.  Thanks to all the people who worked behind the scenes (24 hours a day - Greg and Mats!) to make sure that the information on the websites and leaderboards was current and accurate.

Thanks to every volunteers and every team support crew who were having adventures of their own to make this race happen.

Thanks to every sponsor that supported the 2008 SOLE Baja Travesia and congratulations to every team who finished this course that racers are deeming the course the toughest Baja Travesia yet. We are so proud to have 15 or 18 teams make it to the finish line.

Continue to keep an eye on the website.  We still have many pictures, videos and stories to add.  We’ll keep doing so in the next days after we catch up on some sleep and watch for the GISTEC tracking of the teams to be posted as well.

Any teams who are missing gear, found gear or who still have their SPOT or GOPro Cameras, please contact us, karen@bajatravesia.com.

El Rey Azul Wraps us SOLE Baja Travesia 2008

El Rey Azul’s Paul, Ryan and Melissa were greeted by a small group of race volunteers and organizers at the finish line as they completed the 08 SOLE Baja Travesia course at 7 a.m. on Saturday.  They looked fresh when they arrived and there were plenty of big smiles and hugs all around.  The threesome took a sleep break at San Carlos hotsprings where some locals invited them in for some food and drinks before heading to the finish line.  Melissa had many patches of poison oak already making her crazy with the itching and her feet were quite sore, but otherwise she was fine and thrilled to be finished.  Ryan was equally happy to have made it to the finish line.  He seemed unscathed by the effort.  Paul was also feeling good and tried to arrange a small group to do the course in reverse.  He didn’t find any takers.  Instead the three and their crew went for a shower and headed to the restaurant for some hot breakfast.

El Rey Azul Still Going..

El Rey Azul has reached CP19 and is expected at the finish within the 30 minutes.

Team Equinox Finishes - El Rey Azul in the last canyon

Team Equinox finished the 2008 Baja Travesia in Rock Star style as their finish line was changed to coincide with the awards ceremony and finish party.  Their timing was impeccable finishing just seconds after the awards broke up and just minutes after two of the team members won raffle prizes.  Barry, Victor, and Mayte were all smiles knowing that they had just completed the toughest Baja Travesia yet.

Meanwhile, El Rey Azul were still in the last canyon and certain to take a bit longer in the black Baja skies and this tough canyon section.  We expect them to take their time and focus hard to navigate the right direction.

More Finishers

So you think you’re tough do ya?  Well let me tell you about Tania and maybe redefine your definition of tough.  Tania of Team SuburbanRush.com has been racing for the last day and 1/2 with a broken nose.  She crashed on her bike and suffered some pretty good scrapes on her nose and what she and the rest of the team think is a break.  Her crew told us she was pretty out of it on the last transition, they helped her to eat and drink and change her shirt.  But there was no quitting to be had or even to be talked about.  She was pushing on and her boys with with her every step and pedal and paddle of the way.

In the final canyon leg, Team SuburbanRush.com joined up with Team Dirty Avocados Too, they hike together and like Indy Racing teams they came to the transition from run to bike and exited at the same time.  So the six decided they should hang together and enjoy the rest of the race together.

The beach run was a real treat (except for the blisters on my feet that made every step hurt and it was all I could do to avoid screaming in pain) oh and the final paddle, oh yes the salt in the wounds was a nice touch, said SuburbanRush.com.

Sounds crazy and painful and not in the slightest bit fun…but these guys and girls loved every minute of it.  We especially picked up the pace when we were told that the awards and party were moved up to tonight to accommodate so many teams having finished the course.  We jogged a lot today, we really wanted to make sure we were there for the party.

Dirty Avocados Too and SuburbanRush.com Almost here!

The teams are traveling together and running down the beach.  They’ve got a whole fan club here waiting for them at the finish.  They are going to make it out of the water just in time as the sun starts to lower on the horizon and the cold wind is putting a definite chill in the air. Doesn’t feel like the Spring Break of San Felipe anymore.

Lucky Lucky Lucky and Sylvie too

Team Lucky and stowaway Sylvie made it to the finish line and there were cheers and tears of accomplishment.  Team Lucky had their share of bad luck throughout the race and frankly I think they were a little surprised to find themselves at the finishline at all.  Mila said her feet were so bad she could barely walk and mid way between CP14 and CP15 the team was seriously contemplating how to quit the race.  Then at that same moment, the SOLEmobile arrived with race directors Karen and Paul, checking on teams and checking on the checkpoint flags and staff.  Mila said to the boys…what am I going to do?  what I am going to do?  My feet are in so much pain, I can’t possibly go on.  Then we saw Karen and Paul and they cheered us up and gave us a few painkillers to ease the pain.  “At that point I knew I could make it to the finish,” said Mila.  There would be no quitting on this Lucky team.  And here we are and we were happy to have Sylvie along with us.  Jeremy was fantastic with the navigation.  We are so happy to be here.

Lucky Finally!

We’ve had a little glitch or two with the GPS, but Lucky is coming.. should be here (the finish) within the hour.

Local Team Shawii at the finish (sin Kristen)

The boys wouldn’t quit even though Kristen couldn’t accompany them.  Kristen stopped at the previous checkpoint and the boys were driven around to CP19 with their crew just to finish the course.  We wanted so badly to finish this course, but we just made some mistakes that really cost us.  We just wish there were more races around so we could gain some more experience, we just train for the Baja Travesia every year. We are getting better each year and learning more every time.  We’re ready for next year.