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Sammy Linebaugh ReportingIt's like summer camp on steroids, a 400-mile contest of skill, will and stamina designed to push the boundaries of human endurance and exploit man's natural instinct to compete and conquer.
For a foursome of U.S soldiers adventure racing is also a way to honor America's heroes.
Sgt. Bob Haines, Colorado Springs, Colo. Resident: “Every race that we do, we dedicate to a fallen comrade from the state we race in.”
This race, they say, this soldier's story, is different. His name is Staff Sgt. James Cawley, a Utah husband and father of two killed in Iraq last March during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Gayle Hoffmeister, Littleton, Colo. Resident: "My husband leaves a week after this race to go to Kuwait, and that's hard for me, reading his story, and knowing he left a wife and two children."
Maj. Marc Hoffmeister, Littleton, Colo. Resident: "Racing for a soldier who died a few months ago in an operation I'm deploying to in a few weeks, it's definitely a very emotional tie."
An emblem was presented to the Colorado team last night by Sgt. Cawley's former partner on the Salt Lake City police force. With the patch to remind them of their purpose, they join nearly 100 adventurers who this morning set out to tame Utah's backcountry -- trekking, climbing, even power parachuting across the state's rugged terrain.
For the next five to seven days they'll be on the move all but a few hours a night. They pack enough food and water to last them about 12 hours at a time, about four-thousand calories. Not a lot when you consider they're burning 10 to 12-thousand calories a day.
Capt. Michael Tschanz, Lakewood, Colo. Resident: "When we're really sucking things really hard we're gonna think about why we're doing this, and if for some reason we didn't finish the race and we're racing in his honor, it would almost feel like we had let him down."
And so, they push on mindful of the man they hope we'll all remember and the mission that lay ahead.
