You can probably count the number of American adventure racing teams that have recorded top-10 finishes on foreign soil on one hand. November 18, 2005

By Brian Metzler

You can probably count the number of American adventure racing teams that have recorded top-10 finishes on foreign soil on one hand.

Obviously, a few big names of the sport come to mind: Nike/Balance Bar, GoLite/Timberland and the team formerly known as Montrail.

But what about Team Nomad? Despite a seventh-place finish at Explore Sweden (2005) and an eighth-place showing at the Southern Traverse (2003), not to mention numerous top-10 efforts in the U.S. and Canada, this unique foursome from the U.S. has gained little fanfare. That’s just fine with them. For this group of Nomads, it’s all about the adventure.

“All of us race because we really like to be outside and have fun with our friends,” says team member Grant Sisler. “We can’t afford to do a lot of races, so we pick one big one a year. Our goals are different than a lot of the other top teams, yet we always seem to do well. It’s not about winning; it’s about going to great places, meeting great people and having a great time.”

Captain Scott Berk founded Team Nomad in 1999 and raced in the Southern Traverse with Steve Putnam, Lori Du Paul, and Bruce Genereaux (who later chronicled the experience in his adventure book “Beyond the Comfort Zone”). The team’s makeup has shifted through the years, but it is still driven by a common love for the outdoors, friendly camaraderie and the fun and growth gained from the sport.

True to their name, the primary team members are spread around the country. Among those who have raced with the team in the last two years include Sisler (San Francisico, California), Berk (Maine), Scott Cole (an American living in Sweden), Jason Shibata (Colorado Springs), Cary Kinross-Wright (Golden, Colorado) and Megan Gridley (San Francisco, California).

It is Berk’s fun-loving, adventure-seeking, nomadic lifestyle that has set the tone for the team. Although he currently runs Nomad Properties (a property management company), and is creating a café called Nomad Café near his home in Maine, the team’s ace navigator has lived all over the place.

He was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, but was raised in North Africa and various places around Europe. He’s also lived in Colorado and Massachusetts in the U.S. As a jackeroo (cowboy) on a cattle station in Queensland in the mid-1990s, he followed a path similar to the lead character in “The Man From Snowy River” by climbing Mount Kosciuszko.

Berk has extensive experience in climbing, skiing, paragliding, surfing and mountaineering. While in Colorado in 1994, he became the first person to fly a non-competition paraglider from Mt. Zion in Golden, Colorado, to the north side of Boulder, 28 miles away.

In 1999, he had made the mistake of making Southern Traverse his very first adventure race. Almost predictably, it ended on a sour note as his team, called Team Nomad, dropped near the end of the first day.

“I thought it would be fun to try a big race,” Berk recalls. “In hindsight, it was not the best way to get into the sport.”

Wiser from the experience, Berk spent the next couple of years getting more race experience and improving his skills and fitness level. He met Sisler and Cole at a race in Utah and soon Team Nomad was reborn. After a strong season of racing in 2002, the trio decided it was time to try a big race. They were the first team to email their entry to Southern Traverse race director Geoff Hunt, who allowed them to wear race bib Number 1 in 2003.

Their eighth-place finish in New Zealand ranks as one of their favorite moments and solidified their passion for the sport and to continue racing together. They’re looking forward to their first Primal Quest as a unit.

“Racing makes everything else so much easier,” Sisler says. “You push your body so far, and you go through so much in a race that life in general just seems easier. Traffic, work, little things that get most people riled up, are nothing compared to falling out of a kayak into 35-degree water at 2 a.m. in Sweden after only sleeping for a couple of hours the previous two days!”

Chris Sajnog has some serious payback coming. And when the captain of Team Gerber Gear is bent on payback, it’s probably best to get out of the way.

November 18, 2005
By Gordon Wright

Chris Sajnog has some serious payback coming. And when the captain of Team Gerber Gear is bent on payback, it’s probably best to get out of the way.

A 17-year Navy veteran, Sajnog is a long-time Navy SEAL who currently holds down a position as Naval Special Warfare Motivator, essentially charged with recruiting potential SEAL team members into what is widely recognized as the world’s finest fighting force. But even being in the elite Special Forces doesn’t guarantee a win – or even a finish – in the world’s toughest adventure race.

In the 2004 Primal Quest, Chris had a less-than-stellar result due to one of his teammates quitting the race. Chris and his other two teammates wanted to continue as a three-person squad, and even tried arranging a six-person team with squads in similar straits, but it simply didn’t pan out for Gerber Blades. As the race continued without them through the Cascades and San Juan Islands, the team was relegated to a six-hour training ride and pondering the squandering of a year’s worth of training and roughly $40,000 in sunk costs.

“We had lots of energy,” recalls Sajnog, “We had been in diesel mode and all we wanted to do was keep racing.”

This year is different. “The team isn’t about gathering a bunch of really fast people,” says Sajnog, “It’s about getting along together and getting to the finish line.”

As deeply motivated as Sajnog is to finish Primal Quest, he’s just as dedicated to the Navy, where his role as Motivator brings him in contact with hundreds of young men.

“We go to high schools and events throughout the country,” says Sajnog, “We talk with young athletes, attend air shows, make speeches and presentations; basically representing the Teams and recruiting people both within and outside of the Navy.”

Gerber does most of its training as individuals, and focuses on strengthening their weaknesses and trying to work on what Sajnog says is their most important challenge, getting along with each other, a task that should be easier with their current line-up.

Joining Sajnog for the 2006 Primal Quest is long-time teammate and fellow SEAL Ron Harrison, who is a “third phase SEAL instructor, focusing on land warfare, demo(lition) and weaponry,” according to Sajnog.

Also along for the ride is Duncan Monroe, a Canadian described by Sajnog as a “little ball of fire and energy.” The two met at the World 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championshiops in British Columbia. Monroe was the course-setter for the race, which no doubt was a small factor in the two of them (plus former Gerber teammate Bernice Pierson) winning the World Championships in the Three Person Co-Ed division.

The history of military teams in adventure racing is as long as the sport itself; Eco-Challenge founder Mark Burnett raced in just the second Raid Gauloises with members of the Navy SEALs. But in general, military teams have found that adventure racing and their war-making skills are not exact analogues. They both require navigation knowledge, but UTMs are rarely used in military navigation. Long slogs on foot are common to each, but military teams tend to carry much more gear and move slower than adventure racers. And while both activities have in common a reliance on small teams, adventure racing is much more inclusive (and co-ed) than Special Forces’ top-down and all-male hierarchy.

Gerber Blades has learned many of these lessons, and now has only to get to through the course intact to achieve redemption.