In this Issue:
• Quote for the Day
• Bär Shoes: NEW Badwater Sponsor
• Newsletter Archives on our Blog
• Death Valley is Photo of the Week
• Rough Riding in Moab and Canyonlands
• More Risks for National Parks
• Furnace Creek Field Filling Fast!
• Check out the new 2008 AdventureCORPS gear
• 508 Veterans, Order a 508 Jersey and Vest now
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
"If you think you're going nowhere and you stop, then you're not going nowhere anymore." - Harrison Ford
______________________________
BAER SHOES: NEW BADWATER ULTRAMARATHON SPONSOR
We are pleased to announce a new partnership with an extraordinary Germany shoe company, BAER Shoes. They have a proven track record at the Badwater Ultramarathon which will expand greatly this year. This year, ALL Badwater runners will receive a complimentary pair of the Baer HighPerformance 2.5 shoe! Please visit the BAER website.
Here is the official press release: BAER HighPerformance 2.5 - "The Official Shoe of the Badwater Ultramarathon 2008 – The World´s Toughest Footrace!"
In 2003, BAER (high quality shoe manufacturer from Germany) was faced with a pretty big challenge in terms of material and functionality in the TransEurope footrace (3150 miles from Lisbon to Moscow). The know-how gained from this experience was channelled into a new generation of running shoes which was put to one of the hardest tests in the world in 2004: the Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles non-stop through Death Valley in the hottest month of the year). Otherwise you will only find leading automobile manufacturers testing their new developments here under these conditions. BAER decided to test its new developments under precisely these conditions (50C air temperature, 80C ground temperature, 135 miles’ non-stop tarmac, two mountain ranges and a total of 13,000' of cumulative vertical ascent and 4,700' of cumulative descent).
It was striking that a large number of runners (all of them top international athletes who had been invited to run because of their excellent record in the past) suffered from injuries and pain, particularly in the toe area. This often led to a runner having to pull out of the race, or at least having to have breaks and change his/her shoes frequently.
BAER has continued to develop its running shoe concept over the years with the experience made in various extreme races (Achim Heukemes across Australia in record time, Dagmar Grossheim Decatriathlon World Champion) always being included in new developments. The latest stage in this development is the BAER HighPerformance 2.5 worn by both Achim Heukemes and Dagmar Grossheim at the Badwater Ultramarathon in summer 2007 where they finished as the first male and female German competitor, respectively. Neither of them evr had to change their shoes once and both came home without having suffered any problems with their toes or feet, a top performance not only by the runners, but also by the shoes!
Due to this unique test result, both in terms of the material and the functionality of the shoe, the Badwater Ultramarathon and BAER decided to embark on a partnership in 2008 to make this concept more accessible to a greater number of runners.
Contact for detailed information: Heike Steingaesser
Phone: +49 (0) 7142 - 95 66 14 Fax: +49 (0) 7142 - 95 66 33 E-Mail: heike.steingaesser "at" baer-schuhe.de
Postal address: BAER GmbH – Premium Comfort Footwear Pleidelsheimer Straße 15 74321 Bietigheim – Bissingen GERMANY
Please visit the Bär website: http://www.high-performance-running.com
______________________________
THIS NEWSLETTER NOW ON OUR ADVENTURECORPS BLOG
- YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE FOR THE BLOG EMAIL FEED, TOO
We are now archiving this email newsletter on the AdventureCORPS Blog (right here!). You can also subscribe to our blog feed here (see the top right corner of this page). Thus, to "double up" your likelihood of actually receiving the email newsletter, we suggest you register to receive the blog email feed. The blog, when it comes to you via the email feed, comes through more neatly, appearance-wise, includes some photos and such, and has more links to the blog archive. It's pretty neat.
Note, we have a second blog called "Rough Riders: Any Bike, Anywhere" which you may also enjoy and for which you can also subscribe to an email feed. The Rough Riders content is 90 to 100% different from the AdventureCORPS blog / email newsletter content, on average, by the way. Check it out, and sign up for that feed, at this link: http://www.xo-1.org
______________________________
DEATH VALLEY IS "PHOTO OF THE WEEK" AT ADVENTURE CYCLING We are pleased to announce that a photo I took of two cyclists amidst a sea of flowers during the Spring 2005 Death Valley Century and Double Century has been chosen as the Photo of the Week by the Adventure Cycling Association. This is the same photo upon which our new Death Valley Cycling Jersey (available for pre-order now) is based. Here is the photo at the ACA website. And here is the jersey. And here is the order form. ______________________________
ROUGH RIDING IN MOAB AND CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK
In May, 2003 I joined an epic trip organized by Dan Dominy, the adventure video cameraman extraordinaire who shoots the Badwater Ultramarathon and Furnace Creek 508 every year. This trip was, and still is, easily one of the best and most memorable trips I've ever undertaken. It was visually breath-taking every single day. The cycling was fantastic. The hiking was peaceful and otherworldly. The campsites were spectacular. The natural curiousities were everywhere and innumerable. The pictographs were beyond words. I'd enjoy visiting this area every year. It would never get boring and there would always be new things to see and experience. Blog report. Full slideshow.
______________________________
PRIVATE LAND IN NATIONAL PARKS AT RISK FOR DEVELOPMENT
Excerpt from the article by Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2008:
Millions of privately owned acres in National Park Service boundaries could be developed into luxury homes or commercial enterprises because the federal government has not allocated funds to buy out these lands, according to two reports issued this week.
About 4.3 million acres of privately owned land lie within the 391 National Park Service properties nationwide, according to a National Parks Conservation Assn. report released Tuesday.
Of these acres, 1.8 million are considered priorities to be acquired for recreation and habitat connectivity at a cost of $1.9 billion, according to the parks service.
The national parks were set up by Congress to acquire and protect lands within their boundaries for resources preservation and public use. But federal appropriations to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the primary source of the National Park Service's acquisition money, has dropped by more than $100 million in the last nine years, according to the report.
As a result, in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the country's largest urban park and the most visited recreation area, about 1,300 acres of private land is developed each year, according to a second conservation association report. About 46% of the recreation area's roughly 153,000 acres are privately held. Some parcels are up for purchase, but the park has received no money in the last eight years from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
"The federal government needs to provide basically an infusion of financial support to the park, and not just this park, but to all the parks and the park system," said Ron Sundergill, director of the association's Pacific regional office. "Clearly, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is hurting because it has not been getting the level of support that it needs."
The conservation association reports focused on the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and on potentially developable private lands across the country that the park service would like to acquire.
In 2005, a couple from California purchased about 20 acres in the center of Zion National Park in Utah and, relying on a 40-year-old commercial use permit, developed a "mega-lodging and spiritual center," said Ron Tipton, senior vice president for programs for the conservation association. Full story.
______________________________
FURNACE CREEK 508 2008 APPLICATION AVAILABLE NOW The 25th Anniversary FurNace Creek 508 will be held October 4-6, 2008. If you hope to compete in The 508 this year, PLEASE apply TODAY!
______________________________
NEW 2008 ADVENTURECORPS GEAR
We are very excited about the new 2008 gear we have designed and which will be produced by our new garment supplier, Hincapie Sports. All of the new AdventureCORPS gear may be ordered when registering for the Fall Death Valley Century and Double Century via Active.com on June 2, as well as when 508 applicants confirm their entry in the 2008 Furnace Creek 508 in early May. The new gear may also be ordered by anybody else with a mail-in order form. All orders must be received by June 2 to insure delivery in October. Check out our new Death Valley jersey, Rough Riders jersey, Furnace Creek 508 jersey, Furnace Creek 508 vest, and AdventureCORPS arm warmers here. Order form.
______________________________
508 VETERANS, ORDER YOUR JERSEY AND VEST NOW If you are a veteran 508 Official Finisher from 1989 through 2007, you may order a 25th Anniversary Furnace Creek 508 jersey! (2008 Official Finishers will receive their free 2008 jersey at the finish line, so if you will be racing the 508 this year, do not order one!) Orders must be received by June 2 and jerseys will be delivered in October. If you have worn out your original 508 jersey, or just want a fresh new one to celebrate your previous Official Finish, and the 25th Anniversary of the race, this is your ONLY chance to get one. We don’t normally make the current jersey available to previous finishers, but we’re doing so this year in honor of the 25th anniversary of the race. Order one now! Click here .
Thanks for your support and participation, everyone! We look forward to seeing you out there soon!
Yours in sport,
Chris Kostman Chief Adventure Officer and Race Director
Copyright 2008 AdventureCORPS, Inc. Copies of this Internet posting may be made and distributed in whole without further permission. Please forward to a friend with the little envelope icon below.
