Darin Fredricks, Kristen Fredricks, Peter Leander and Thomas Etter made up Team

Bigfork residents take part in 'Xstream' adventure

By FAITH MOLDAN

Bigfork Eagle

Extreme, by definition, is going to great or exaggerated lengths and exceeding the ordinary, usual or expected.

Some people may say that extreme is the adventure race three Bigfork residents participated in. After all, it was called the Adventure Xstream's Xstream Expedition.

Darin Fredricks, Kristen Fredricks and Peter Leander took an extreme detour from their day-to-day lives to participate in the race Sept. 24-27 in Moab, Utah. The race was the finale of a summer-long series of races. Along with teammate Thomas Etter, the Fredricks and Leander did not place in the three-day, 300-mile race but toughed it out over extreme terrain and hours of competition. Etter joined the team after Darin posted a need for a fourth teammate on the race's online bulletin board.

"I was in over my head," Leander said, adding that he enjoyed attempting something he had never tried before. Leander made it through 23 hours of the race, which included kayaking, repelling and 13 hours of mountain biking. The Xstream Expedition consisted of kayaking on the Colorado River, mountain biking, trekking and repelling.

The mountain bike portion of the race consisted of a 3,000-foot climb straight up a mountainside. Leander said the team wore headlights during the night hours along the trackless terrain, which forced them to push and carry their bikes more than they were able to ride them.

"We were on and off our bikes about 100 times," Leander said. He added that Darin's navigation skills helped the team immensely. "He saved us hours," Leander said of Fredricks' compass and map skills.

As to the repelling portion of the race, Leander said he went shooting down the rope as the teams had to repel down a 220-foot cliff. Leander just learned how to repel this summer, and said he trained for the race with lots of kayaking, running and biking. He added that his workouts at Crossfit Flathead helped in preparation as well.

Also making it hard on every team is the lack of sleep. Leander said they slept about one hour or so each day. Of the 33 teams that entered the race only two finished.

Team Big Sky, which Leander, the Fredricks and Etter competed as, was in second place after the kayak portion of the race. After Leander bowed out of the competition, his three teammates continued on to the 22-mile trekking portion. Darin said the trekking took them 12 hours, as they moved at a slow jog or shuffle to make the miles go by faster.

The Fredricks began competing in adventure races in 1995.

"I read about it and it sounded like a crazy challenge," Darin said of adventure races.

Darin and Kristen have competed in races all around the world, including Utah, Maine, British Columbia, Morocco and Australia.

"You get out where you normally wouldn't go on vacation," Darin said, adding that they've gotten to see a lot of different countries and cultures.

Kristen said that at first she had never mountain biked, but now it is her favorite part of competing.

"They're elite in this type of racing in the country if not the world," Leander said of his teammates, the Fredricks.

The Fredricks try to train five to six times a week, but find it more difficult to train these days with three kids and running their own business.

"Sometimes that means putting the kids in the baby jogger," Darin said.

They also get training in while working. Kristen is a pilates instructor and Darin a builder.

"When I'm home I'm on the bike trainer and we try to go for long bike rides or runs," Kristen said.

She also said that one of the main differences between the race in Moab and previous races was the amount of transition time between stages of the race and the short time in-between the transitions.

"When you leave the transition area you're usually gone for two-and-a-half days so you need to stock up on food," she said. "We were transitioning every five to eight hours this time. That was super-strange for us and not beneficial."

Etter, a cyclist from Missouri that once beat Lance Armstrong in a five-stage race, was a nice addition to the team, all agreed.

"It was a great race," Darin said. "It was fun to race with new people and to get as far as we did."

Though it was a good race for the team, Kristen said it was mentally challenging not being able to finish and place. With their competitive nature still flowing, the Fredricks are hoping to enter one more race before winter sets in, possibly in Arkansas.

Kristen said she wouldn't recommend adventure races to someone who isn't ready for them physically and mentally.

"It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't done it," she said. Leander added, "There's no easy adventure race."