The Furnace Creek 508 on October 11-13, 2003, drew a strong field. Sam Baugh, Reed Finfrock, and John Jurczynski were racing for the overall John Marino Competition championship. They were joined by the 2001 JMC champ, Jim Trout. Eric Ostendorff, who won last year and finished third in 2001 and Andrew Bohannon, who won in 2000 and took second in 1999 were also favorites. RAAM veterans Rick Ashabranner, Bohannon, Finfrock, Ed Kross, Andrew Otto, Harold Trease and Steve Winfrey were joined by 40+ solo riders trying to qualify for RAAM.

Women's Race
Despite all the strong men, the real drama was in the women's race. Lisa Marie Deerhound Dougherty, 32, from Los Alamos, NM, who finished the 508 in 2001 was joined by two rookies: Janet Osprey Christiansen, 42, of Poway, CA and Carol Chickadee Chaffee, 48, Arvada, CO.

Christiansen led through the first time station at California City (82 miles), with Dougherty only one minute back. Another minute and Chaffee raced past TS #1. Christiansen rolled into the second time station in Trona (152 miles) with a seven minute lead over Dougherty and only 24 minutes ahead of Chaffee. Talk about a close race!

By Trona the racers had climbed San Francisquito canyon, climbed to the Windmills and sweated up to Johnnesburg - and these were just warm-up climbs! In Trona, Christiansen was only seven minutes ahead of Dougherty, with Chaffee only 24 minutes behind the women's leader.

After the minor 1,000 feet Trona bump and the rough roads of the Panamint Valley, at 200 miles the riders faced Towne Pass (4,956 ft.), a 13 mile, 3,800 feet climb with grades of 10-13%.

After the climb and descent into Death Valley Christiansen reached the third time station at Furnace Creek (253 miles) with an excellent average of 16.87 mph. She had a 30 minute lead over Dougherty, and Chaffee was just an hour off the pace.

Veterans of the 508 know that the race south through Death Valley in the dark of the night is tough. The alluvial fans on the way to Badwater (-282 ft.) sapped the riders' strength. At the 300 mile mark the racers climbed Jubilee and Salsberry passes (3,315 ft.) to exit the valley.

Christiansen arrived at TS #4 in Shoshone (325 miles) at 3:42 a.m., the darkest, hardest part of the night. Dougherty was 55 minutes back, while Chaffee was over three hours back.

Christiansen kept up the pace to TS #5 in Baker (381 miles), where she had a 49 minute lead. After climbing Kelbaker grade and then up the Granite mountains, she had a 1 hour 17 minute lead when she arrived at TS #6 Nowhere (429 miles).

Then catastrophe struck. Many physiologists now explain fatigue as a problem with one system, e.g., digestion, compounded by a problem in another system, e.g., cooling, aggravated by a problem in another system . . . leading to catastrophic failure.

After the race Christiansen said "The 508 is a race the first 24 hours and a survival ordeal the rest of the way. How long you stay on the bike determines how you finish." Going over the Granite mountains "I fell apart. It was sort of long, slow, sneaky dehydration. Others have told me I should have been taking a lot more electrolytes. At first I noticed nausea. Then an extreme discomfort from the sun burning my arms and legs, not to mention my poor dried up eyeballs from wearing my contacts too long! Coming off Granite mountain [was the] descent into Hell for me. Oops - pass the 45+ sunscreen. I was never able to recover from this. By the time Deerhound passed me on the descent into Amboy, I was crying inconsolably."

Dougherty was the first woman in 35:36:41. Christiansen finished in 37:51:07 and Chaffee finished in 38:38:43

Men's Race
In the men's race Rick Akita Ashabranner, 34, from Livermore, CA led through TS #1. Eric Ostrich Ostendorff, 42, from Torrance, CA was 12 minutes back. Andrew Blowfish Bohannon, 41, from Sunnyvale, CA was just two minutes behind Ostendorff and Jeff Landshark Landauer, 36, from Fair Oaks was four minutes behind Bohannon. A fast start!

At TS #2 Ashabranner was still in the lead. Bohannon came through Trona 22 minutes later, with Ostendorff only four minutes behind him.

The climb up Towne Pass was dramatic as Bohannon chased Ashabranner. "I caught Akita just before the summit. This was only the second time as a racer that I was able to descend Towne Pass while it was still light. I was very happy about that, but I think that my buddy Eric Buschman, who was driving, was even more relieved."

At Furnace Creek, Bohannon had only a two minute lead over Ashabranner, with Ostendorff 22 minutes behind. Bohannon had averaged 19.18 mph for the first half of the race, over five climbs including Towne Pass.

On the way out of Death Valley, Ashabranner and Finfrock both dropped out. Sam Beluga Baugh, 45, Clinton, MO moved up into second place, reaching TS #4 one hour 45 minutes behind Bohannon. Landauer was in third, only one minute ahead of Ostendorff!

Bohannon kept up his pace and finished first in 29h 19m 18s. His time was almost two hours faster than his 2000 win. Bohannon said he followed a very disciplined training program this year, including seven overnight rides. "In 2000 I also utilized overnight training rides, but instead of being smart and recovering, I would go out and hammer 100 to 150 miles the very next day. This year, I made a conscious effort to take it easy after a hard ride and the most strenuous activity that I performed was grocery shopping."

Landauer finished two hours later in 31:19:22. When asked what it felt like to catch and pass former winner Ostendorff, Jeff Landauer said: "As far as the 'Ostrich thing', Team Landshark never approached the race from the stand point of competing against other riders for most of the race but focused on competing against the course and our strategy was geared towards this. It wasn't until Sheephole that we started thinking about the riders around us, then with 40 or so miles to go we knew we could use all remaining energy charging for the line and leave it all out on the course."

Ostendorff kept riding hard and finished only 20 minutes later in 31:38:39. Baugh took fourth in 31:53:22.

John Marino Competition
The 508 was critical for Baugh and Finfrock. Prior to the 508 both were top contenders for the overall JMC Championship; however, neither had completed an event worth three difficulty points, as required by the JMC rules. John Jurczynski had completed his three-point event with an excellent ride at PBP and was a threat to the two JMC leaders.

Finfrock, who has finished the 508 six times in the past 10 years, led Baugh through the first time stations; however, Finfrock dropped out when his kidneys shutdown 300 miles into the race. Jurczynski finished the 508 early Monday morning and earned enough points to elevate him into second place overall and second in the Senior Men category.

Afterwards Finfrock said, "With an endurance athlete, it is like a race car driver, the body is the car and the brain is the driver and I may have pushed the car too hard at Iowa."

RAAM Qualified
Earning an invitation to the big dance is the pinnacle of many riders' seasons. At the 508 ten riders qualified for RAAM and will receive the coveted Invitation to Participate in RAAM.

When she asked how it felt to qualify for RAAM, Carol Chaffee said: "WHEW!! Awesome, and at the same time, humbling. I hold RAAM riders in the highest esteem, they are such an elite group in my mind. They all have so much mental and physical spirit, that I really have to shake my head at the thought of having qualified for RAAM, and being anywhere near the 'elitest of the elites'."

Congratulations to:

Brandon Bruce

Carol Chaffee

Janet Christiansen

Scott Dakus

Lisa Marie Dougherty

Phillip Halpern

David Jones

James Kern

Jeff Landauer

Eric Wilson

Team Races
In the two-person relay divisions, Team Mountain Goat led from the start and set a new course record. Dan McGehee, 41, from Mesa, AZ (who won in the solo division in 1998) teamed up with Matthew Innes, 36, from Tempe, AZ to race to a 25:38:08 finish. The Mountain Goats finished less than two hours behind the winning four-man team, Team Action Sports Bison! The Bison, who finished in 23:46:30, included veterans Pat Tafoya, Kerry Ryan, Mike Wracher, and rookie Chris Hahn.

Records were also set by the two-women Queen Bees, two-person mixed Pegasus, two-men 50+ TwoCan, two-men 60+ Silver Foxes and four-person mixed Saluki.

Records Set!
After the race, Ostendorff compared conditions over the last three years: "2001 was typically hot. In 2002 [we had] an unusually cool, overcast day, very nice conditions except for a constant headwind up to Towne Pass. Sunday was much hotter than Saturday, but there were no headwinds. Temps this year were almost as mild as last year, without the headwind." The weather showed in the results - eight records were set!

Jewett Pattee, racing for Team Whippet, completed his fifth 508. He first raced in 1996, when he was 73 years old; he was 80 this year!

Bevan Brontosaurus Barton, 16, from Piedmont, CA, who raced in the solo division, was the youngest finisher ever, with a time of 42:37:38.

Complete results