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!