Team “Bring It” Wins Wild Miles Adventure Relay
Olympian and Heroes Form Winning Team

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By Patrice Malloy
Posted Tuesday, 1 May, 2007

DEL MAR, Calif. – Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, team “Bring It” brought home a victory at the third annual Wild Miles Adventure Relay held April 28-28, 2007 in Southern California. Fifty-one teams of five-to-10 runners each covered the 179.2-mile course in temperatures ranging from the mid-50s to over 100.

Bring It covered the course’s 30 legs in 20 hours, 25 minutes, edging out LA Frontrunners Team Hermes, the defending champion and runner-up, by just seven minutes.

“We named the team Bring It because we are all super-competitive,” said Todd Velazquez, team captain and retail supervisor for Road Runner Sports. “The name was meant to be a challenge to the other teams to bring their best game, to bring it on.”

Bring it on, was exactly what Velazquez and his teammates did despite a frustrating and harrowing first day of competition.

Bad karma set in from the get-go when one of their 10 teammates did not show up at the start. “He had committed to being on the team but never showed up,” said Velazquez. “It was a guy we didn’t know very well.” A major snafu was averted, however, when other team members volunteered to run the no-show’s three legs.

Leg 2, a challenging 10.3-mile trail section, proved to be setback #2 when a teammate reached a fork in the road and asked a well-intentioned but mistaken emergency medical technician for directions. “The EMT pointed me in the wrong direction and it took me a while to get back on course,” said Josh Denz, of his ill-fated leg. “I estimated we lost about 45 minutes because of that.”

Trouble heated up again during Leg 5 when one of the Bring It teammates started to wane considerably while running uphill in temperatures hovering near 95 degrees. “It felt like my legs were going out from under me,” said Geoffrey Cox, the afflicted teammate, who was running his first leg of the day at a 6:30 pace. Cox’s teammates whisked Cox off the course to a fire station for immediate medical treatment. Later transported to a local hospital, Cox was treated for heat exhaustion and released at 1:00 am. “If it wasn’t for my team being there and knowing what was going on, who knows what would have happened. They are my heroes.”

Another teammate picked up on the course where Cox left off and finished the leg, all in accordance with the event rules.

“The race was definitely a challenge,” said Nick Rogers, a 2000 US Olympian at 5,000 meters. Rogers, who works for Nike, ran Legs 3, 11, 23 and 30. Roger’s third leg, a 6.4-mile trail run, was originally assigned to the AWOL team member.

Rogers, a three-time US World Cross Country Championship team member, covered Wild Mile’s final 9.2-mile leg in 53:18.

“It is a really unique experience to be on a team with a bunch of guys that don’t really know each other at first and, in a couple of days, you are the best of friends,” he said.

Starting just outside of Temecula in Riverside County, Wild Miles took participants on a wildly diverse route on trails, past vineyards, along the Pacific coast before finishing in San Dieguito Park in Del Mar in northern San Diego County.

Wild Miles was the second event of the Avon Foundation’s Need for Speed Against Domestic Violence series, a national 10-relay series, that is raising funds to help children who are directly affected by domestic violence. Funds raised at Wild Miles will benefit the San Diego Family Justice Center and its Camp Hope, a camp which helps children whose lives have been affected by domestic violence and child abuse.

“Running down the coast was awesome,” said Kristina Saavan of Team FRB, the winner of the All Female – 10 Person division and top fundraisers for Camp Hope.

“It was so fun. We were out there cheering each other on. All of the teams were so supportive,” said Liz Douglass, also of Team FRB.

For full results and information on how to reserve a spot for the 2008 Wild Miles Adventure Relay, visit www.wildmiles.com or call In Motion, Inc. at (760) 692-2900. For more information on the Avon Foundation’s Need for Speed Against Domestic Violence series, please visit www.needforspeedrelay.org/series

Top Finishers:

Overall Winners Hours/Minutes
Bring It (All Male) 20:25
LA Frontrunners Team Hermes (All Male) 20:32
NaCL Episode 5 (Mixed) 20:47

Division Winners
All Male Open – 10 Person
Bring It 20:25

All Female – 10 Person
Team FRB 28:01

Mixed Open
NaCL Episode 5 (Mixed) 20:47

Mixed Corporate – 10 Person
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 25:06

All Male Military – 10 Person
MCRD 25:07

Mixed Military – 10 Person
MAWTS-1 Thunder and Lightning 27:01

Mixed Public Service – 10 Person
Slow & Steady 29:54

Mixed Running Club/Store – 10 Person
Razorback Ratz 29:41

Mixed Masters – 5 Person
Liquid Carbs 24:31

All Male – 5 Person
Team Why Not? 24:13

Mixed Open – 5 Person
That’s Hot! Now Run It Out Son 23:41

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