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Pole, Pedal, Paddle……Party by Abigail Elder

Take a few willing women, throw in skis, a bicycle, a kayak, running shoes and plenty of food. What do you get? Pole Pedal Paddle —the complete relay event.

Held in Bend in May, Pole Pedal Paddle (PPP) is a cacophony of events: downhill and cross-country skiing, bicycling, running, kayaking and an all-out sprint to the finish. With more enthusiasm than common sense, members of the Gallagher's Cruising Cats signed on.

Sue Gifford (now Sue DeVore) was the only experienced member of our team. Not only was she the only one who had actually done PPP before, she and our runner were the only ones who had ever competed in their events. Crusin' Virgins might have been a more apt name for our team. Any hesitation we had evaporated when Kathi Worley announced that she had access to a house in Sunriver. As part of our rigorous training before the event, we acclimated by skiing at Mt. Bachelor, cooking huge meals, drinking plenty of alcohol and sharing our darkest secrets. (Don't ask because we'll never tell).

The traffic in Bend, bad on a normal day, was horrific. Every SUV had a kayak on top, a bicycle on the back and a driver who was lost. Fortunately, our vehicles instinctively knew the way to the nearest Starbucks.

Kathi Worley was our first skier. However, it was not a simple matter of skiing down Mt. Bachelor at breakneck speed. First, Kathi and her competitors had to run, in full ski gear, up to the starting line where their skis waited for them. The day was warm, and the snow was closer to a slushy, muddy river than pristine white powder. Somehow, Kathi swam up that stream, threw on her skis and rushed down the mountain where Sue was waiting.

Sue skied the cross-country leg of the race. The course was mushy, but with the added fun feature of icy patches. She moved quickly in her cat-print shorts, somehow managing to remain upright around the first turn, where so many others had gotten a close-up view of the rapidly melting snow.

Sue triumphantly handed off to Abby who was confined to the bicycle holding area. Abby was the link between Mt. Bachelor and Bend—twenty-two miles of mostly downhill cycling. It was a beautiful ride, and Abby spent her time sightseeing—both at the beautiful mountains and drooling at the cool bikes that passed her. While Abby was cycling, support member Shari Hice was driving Sue and Kathi back to Bend, via Sunriver since Century Drive was reserved for cyclists.

In Bend, Lois Loop waited in the heat, which had climbed into the low 90s. Hay bales surrounded the exchange area, since the cyclists wanted to pull a Lance Armstrong like sprint to the end and not slow down as instructed. Somehow, Abby and Lois found each other in the hay-maze and then Lois was running through the streets of Bend for the five mile run.

After five very hot and sunny miles, Lois handed the by now very sweaty wristband to Ann Beier. Ann had been taking kayaking lessons for less than a year when she was called into service for the team. She's lucky that the rest of the team loves her, since that kayak was a lot of work. First, it had to go to the kayak parking lot the day before, and then it had to be picked up after the race. Next time, we will arrange for valet kayak service!

Ann's task was not a simple ride down the river. She had to paddle a mile downstream, turn and paddle upstream half a mile to the take-out point. From the shore, all of those kayaks looked alike and we feared for Ann's safety. The wind was fairly strong on the river, and plenty of kayak and canoes didn't make the turn around, or worse, turned around and around and around. But Ann made a beeline to the marker, swerved to avoid those in a permanent spin cycle and headed back up river. She made it look easy, and quickly came to shore where she handed the soggy wristband to Kathy Naegli.

Kathy probably had the easiest and yet most stressful task. She had to sprint 500 yards through Drake Park to the finish. The distance was short but the grass was slippery and the entire route was filled with people. Running the gauntlet took courage, as many before her had slipped and been humiliated. She bravely took the wristband from Ann who was standing in the river, and flashed to the finish.

The finish line was a massive crush of people, food, and music. After re-uniting, the team headed to a nearby restaurant for a well-deserved lunch and a debriefing. While we managed to Pole, Pedal and Paddle in one day, I must say that it took us all night to finish the fourth P of the relay—the party!