Locals qualify for national adventure race

Spending 30 hours straight in the mountains hiking, biking, and kayaking with nothing but a map and compass to find as many checkpoints as possible is impressive.

Finding a way to turn the competition into a fundraiser for child cancer patients makes the excursion exceptional.

Bigfork’s Peter Leander, Kalispell’s Brian Miller and former Flathead Valley resident Kristen Fredericks are competing in the USARA Adventure Race National Championship in the Catskill Mountains on Oct. 11-13. But, in addition to competing, their team, No Surrender, is gathering donations toward Camp Mak-A-Dream.

The camp is located in Gold Creek, with a staff of volunteer doctors and nurses. It provides children and teens with cancer a chance to spend a week enjoying Montana’s outdoors. They offer everything from hiking and fishing to archery and rock climbing while building relationships with fellow patients and cancer survivors.

“These are frequently self-centered endeavors, but we’re expanding our mindset to a bigger team concept, thinking about those kids who can’t, or never be able to, do these fun things in their life,” Miller said. “And we would like to support an organization that makes these possible for kids with illnesses.”

The way Leander initially got involved with the camp is through their annual 130-mile bicycle ride fundraiser, RATPOD, which ends in Dillon. At the end of the ride, kids from the camp speak to the riders. This is where Leander got the idea for turning the adventure race into an additional fundraiser for the camp.

“It is the most powerful thing you can hear,” Leander said. “I always leave with tears just streaming down my face, not in sadness, just energized by their spirit.”

Riding for charity isn’t Leander’s only connection to cancer patients’ struggles.

The team’s name comes from Leander’s deceased friend, Marc Budoff, who lost his battle with liver cancer about three and a half years ago. Leander is a fan of Bruce Springsteen, and when Budoff was in chemotherapy he gave Budoff some of his music to listen to. Later, in a letter to Leander, Budoff signed off with the lyrics “no retreat, no surrender.”

Leander has since had the handwritten note tattooed and printed on t-shirts, in addition to naming their team after that letter and song.

“It’s a reminder that no matter how tired I am, it is nothing compared to what he went through with cancer and that is the tie-in also with Camp Mak-A-Dream,” Leander said. “His window closed too soon, there is no guarantee as to how long my window will remain open in the picture or athletically.”

The camp’s fundraising bike ride wasn’t their only form of preparation for the upcoming championship race.

In order to qualify for the championship race the team had to place second in the Grizzly Man Adventure Race in Missoula last spring. This was a 12-hour version of the national competition that consisted of 65,000 acres with 60 checkpoints. At that time, the team consisted of Leander, Miller, and Dani Coffman. However, Coffman is unable to go to the national competition, so Fredrick’s filled her space as a seasoned adventure racer, some of which lasted up to 10 days.

“It’s all I can do to stay up with Kristen’s piston’s,” Leander said when talking about his teammate’s athletic abilities from running ultra marathons.

No Surrender finished The Grizzly Man in 11 hours and 16 minutes with 23 checkpoints reached. Scoring is based on the number of checkpoints reached, but if the same number of checkpoints is reached, then the winning team is decided based on time.

“It’s less punishing in some ways because you take frequent breaks, but more mentally grueling because you can go longer than planned if you miss a checkpoint,” Miller said. “I love the challenge, I love the physical and mental challenge, this event is as much physical as it is mental.”

For more information about the competition or to make a donation to team No Surrender for the camp, go to www.firstgiving.com/camp dream/no_surrender- usra. For all other questions, contact Leander at 250-4149 or peter@leande rlaw.com.