Team SOLE

Team Sole's core partnership, California-based Karen Lundgren and Paul Romero, were racing in the Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert regions of British Columbia with New Zealand's Marcel Hagener (former GoliteTimberland, '05 World Champion) and Australia's Darren Clarke (long time SOLE runner).

Flooding throughout northern BC, due to high snow-melt this year, caused endless headaches for organizers with last-minute route changes. The race, originally programmed to take place on the mainland around Prince Rupert, ended up being switched to a twostage competition.

Stage 1 was moved across the straight, right out to Haida Gwaii (also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) for three days of paddling, trekking and biking. Teams were then ferried back to the mainland to start Stage 2 on foot. Team SOLE was out powered early on by the Yukon Wild team, (who are really the much feared Supplier Pipeline team that has edged out Team SOLE for the past 2 years, including two top 4 Primal Quest results). Co- Captain/Navigator Paul says "It was an immense amount of patience, solid navigation and 10 boat loads of teamwork that kept our team rock steady and applying pressure onto the Yukon team until they would crack from perhaps poor sleep management." Team SOLE managed a more than 4 hour lead following the first stage, plenty of time as long as the 2nd stage went smoothly.

"We kept to our own race and our own game plan for the second stage. We knew we had a good lead, but we still had to go hard and get to the finish line," said Karen. Team SOLE did better than just hold the lead, they increased it to more than 9 hours at the final finish line. It was a good race. The landscape, scenery and cultural experience sort of had the team racing in amazement the whole time. Marcel Haganer commented "this was like something I've never seen, and to race amongst this ancient society was shocking and humbling."

The Team returned to Vancouver just in time for a Canada Day on the Harbor, a most timely celebration. Now recovering back in California, the team will contemplate the rest of the '07 race schedule. Paul and Karen repack, grab Jordan and head to Russia for a trekking trip.