We're Off!

The Team ACSO Follow Vehicle shadowed runners the entire 120 mile race course.

Race day began at 0500 hours for Team ACSO. The first shift of follow vehicle drivers and runners met at "Base Command" to get last minute details and head out to the race start in Baker, CA. The starting gun sounded at 1000 hours and runners were off! D. Durbin started us off with leg one run of 5.2 miles. C. Haendel took the baton at exchange point one and headed off on an 8.2 mile run, the last four miles of which were uphill. This leg is ranked a difficulty level one and is the most difficult leg of the race. Haendel attacked the leg completing it in about 1 hour 7 minutes, an 8.17 minute mile!


C. Kolos takes the baton at exchange point 4, while C. Haendel "catches" D. Freligh and offers him water at his leg's end.

Legs 3-8 averaged around an 8.30 minute mile and were run by R. Wilson, D. Freligh, C. Kolos, L. Thuman, G. Durbin, and M. Saldivar.


G. Durbin offers L. Thuman some well earned water.

As the sun set, runners slowed the pace a bit due to the lack visibility. Temperatures dropped to around 32 degrees heading into the pass from Parump into Las Vegas. Although runners averaged between 8.30 and 10 min miles, the majority of runners remained around an 8.30 min mile. These legs were run by C. Sass, J. Worley, S. Majoros, S. Crew, D. Covington, H. Nguyen, C. Comfort, A. Theobald, and R. Gaitan.
J. Worley runs an 8.4o mile as the Nevada night sets in.

Bringing us home to the finish line inside the Hilton hotel was legs 18-20 run by A. Ha, A. Palmer, and J. Arone. Lt. Arone was even interviewed by ABC News at the finish! Overall, Team ACSO finished the race averaging a 9.37 min mile and came in 28th place in our division! Official leg times will be posted at http://www.bakervegas.com/ after Monday March 23,2009.


J. Arone at the finish line, 0514 hours.

Inspirational speaker "Mr. T." spoke at the awards banquet. It was a pleasure to experience a room full of first responders exude excitement and glee as he took the stage and paid homage to the work we do every day. After the ceremony, Mr. T took photos with Race participants.

Team ACSO is very proud to have accomplished our goal of forming a team and participating in the 2009 Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Race. All participants had an amazing time and are keyed up and ready for next year. With a new plan to conduct formal training runs and training races, Team ACSO intends to dramatically reduce the overall time on the course improving to an average 8.30 min mile across the race in 2010. We are anticipating bringing two teams to next year's event.

Fundraising efforts and team meetings for 2010 will begin in early April. Check back often for news and updates. For more information and to become a part of Team ACSO in the Baker 2 Vegas 2010 as a runner or support staff, please email TeamACSO@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued support and see you on the road!

Greetings from Las Vegas

Race day is only one day away and Team ACSO is ready to rock n roll! We are excited to be on our way to the start line.

Many thanks to the Freligh's as they graciously hosted a welcome dinner in their hotel room for all of the Team ACSO runners and support personnel as we went over last bits of information and hammered out any remaining kinks.

The follow vehicle passed inspection and rule and regulation changes were addresses. Runners finalized leg assignment and start times. We spent a little more time getting to know each other as many people work at different duty stations. We were joined by three recent academy graduates who were eager to take on the challenge and help out Team ACSO on the road. One, Dep. Haendel, was assigned to the hardest leg of the event at 8.2 miles, the last half being a 700 foot climb over four miles!

We connected a GPS device to the follow vehicle in order to track real time progress along the course through a dedicated website, and make adjustments to our schedule of runner and follow vehicle relief shuttles as needed.

Time to get some rest...tomorrow is the big day!

Last Meeting!

We are almost at race day!

Just a reminder that we are having our last meeting before we head off for Vegas, tomorrow night, Wednesday 031109, 6PM at the Regional Training Center (RTC) Computer room.

We are giving out runner leg/team assignments; follow vehicle teams, shuttle teams and our initial race plan. I will also need to confirm how many vehicles we will have to use for the event.

See you there!

T Minus 7 days....

The big day is fast approaching!

At our last meeting we were able to hammer down some of the particulars. Team ACSO will be staying at Circus Circus. The hotel is located just one block east of the Hilton where the race end and event banquet will be held.

Sunday starting at 9:00 AM, the LAPD Homicide Bureau is hosting its annual Baker to Vegas BBQ in the parking lot of Czarnowski Industries. Food and beverages are free to anyone associated with the race, but donations are welcomed and appreciated.

This is the break down of runners and support staff as it stands today in no particular order.

Runners
Lt. Thuman, Lt. Theobald, Dep. Freligh, Dep. Majoros, Dep. Gaitan, Dep. D. Durbin, Dep. G. Durbin, Lt. Worley, Dep. Crew, Dep. Covington, Dep. Comfort, Dep. Wilson, Dep. Heandel, Dep. Kolos, Sgt. Sass, Disp. Palmer, Lt. Arone, Dep. Nguyen, Dep. Saldivar, Dep. Ha

Support Staff
B. Comfort (event volunteer), Disp. Wiggins (driver), Disp. Palmer (driver), L. Freligh (driver), A. Majoros (driver), Sgt. Realph (photo/video), S/T Croghan (photo/video), S/T Reddy (driver), C. Miller (driver).

As you can see we are right at 20 runners. So if you know of anyone who would like to run, let us know! We can always use alternates in case someone can't run last minute. Email Teamacso@gmail.com.

Again, if you'd like to support our efforts, donations are greatly appreciated. Please click to "donation" button to the right. You will be directed to paypal where you can show your support for TEAM ACSO!

Runner and Support Staff deposits may also be made through the "donate" button. Simply add your name and the word "DEPOSIT" in the comment box in pay pal.

Runners and support staff have also given funds towards their participation, however many of the event requirements in equipment and incidentals have put us over our budget.

For those of you wishing to donate, the following is a list of some of the costs associated with the race:

1) Rental vehicle to follow runners on the course. The event requires a "Follow Vehicle" stay behind the runners for the entire Race! This vehicle does need to be a van to hold support staff, alternate runners, water, granola etc.

2) Radio support there is no cell phone coverage in the desert so FRS radios are required and must be configured by the race event staff so that teams and event staff can communicate with one another

3) Required event equipment such as flashing vests for night sighting of runners, "caution runner ahead" signs for follow vehicles and team number etc.

4) Water and food for runners on race day (to rehydrate and replace nutrients during the run through the desert)

We are meeting one last time before we head out on Wednesday March 11th at 1800 hours, location to be determined.

Thanks for your continued support!

We are almost there!

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