Rick Sanders, Leader of Houston Adventure Racing Team (HART) and
GHORBA Sponsor



The 2003 USARA Sprint National Championship was nothing short of absolutely fantastic.  To the best of my knowledge this was one of the most
competitive fields in all divisions to date, and Houston teams did very
well.

Team Black/H.A.R.T., Wooch Graff, Kent Keller and Leslie Reuter, took and
early lead and never looked back for the 1st place co-ed win.  Dave Boyd of
Houston, Scott Hudson and Kathy Duryea the last years Champs finished 3rd.
Team Go Time, Tracy Jones, Rob Graham and Paul Terranova finished sixth.
Kate in Tow, Matt Kulow, Patty Kulow and Becca Marler finished eighth.
Team T& A, Andrea Snider, Tony Rike and Luis Villasor finished strong in
thirteenth place.

In the Female Division Team (well you guys look it up)/H.A.R.T., finished
second, Team leader Ashley Edwards, kept her team of Janet Raschke and
Jenny Waterson near the top the entire race.  Our own Rookie of the Year
Debbie Richardson capped off her first Sprint Series with Team 18-11, from
the Dallas area with a third place finish.

Only a couple of our friends from the Houston area competed in the Men's
Division.  With Marshall Herrin out with injury, Justin Burger of Team
Fujimo along with Todd Shoeman and Jeremy Collins, finished sixth.  Our
very own Jason Maloney got in on the action as a last minute team mate for
Team Cliff Bar.  Jason and his team finished seventh.

Best for last.  Co-ed Masters.  The strongest field ever assembled to date,
to my knowledge.  At the start of the race no one knew who was going to
win.  Just like in the regular co-ed division any one of about four or five
teams could have won. Of course at the start every one has an equal chance
to win.  And we all know anything can happen in Adventure Race.  Much to
the Joy of every one our dear friends on Team H.A.R.T. Too, Terry Daniels,
Glenda Warman and Tom Turnbull upset the field and finished in third place.
These three people raced their hearts out.  They out raced some really
strong, experienced and fast teams. The race for first and second might be
better told by someone else, but hey, I was there.  Team H.A.R.T. took the
lead after about the first mile on the run.  However we were just seconds
in front of Team LaAdventureRacing.com.  Their Team made up of three
seasoned athletes, David Poleto, Kim Chance and Jim Elmore never lost sight of us.  When leg cramps zapped me on the second bike leg my Teammates, Tammy Killabrew and Gil Ledesma really came through.  While in the water and just minutes in front we were discussing how to me back to the finish line, Tammy suggested me sitting on the tube and them pulling me.  As it turned out I was able to make the final run.  We won the race by a good
margin, however, the race was a lot closer than the final time will show.

We would also like to take a minute and thank Terrafirma and the USARA for
putting on this race!!
Check out these websites for more info on adventure racing:
www.terrafirmapromo.com  and www.usara.com.

Run, Bike, Paddle
Rick Sanders
http://www.houstonadventureracing.com/