Tuesday, March 31, 2015

SWAT TEAMS, FBI AGENTS, DEA AND LA COUNTY LIFEGUARDS!





SWAT TEAMS, FBI AGENTS, DEA AND LA COUNTY LIFEGUARDS!

This just in from lifeguard, paddler, Wahoos! devotee and County Recurrent freelance correspondent, Adam Sandler.

Hey Will:

Imagine 5,200 police officers and 20 LA County Lifeguards battling each other for supremacy in the extreme heat of the desert while wearing only running shorts.



No, it's not the latest TV show from Greg Bonann. It's the annual Baker To Vegas Challenge Cup Relay Race, which was held this past weekend. It's where 262 teams run 120 miles -- broken into 20 legs ranging in distance from 3.7 to 10.7 miles -- while traversing flat terrain, slight hills, not-so-slight hills and hot highway asphalt in a quest to be the fastest team to complete the course.

As you know, the "B2V" race is the brainchild of two LAPD officers who started it 31 years ago to foster camaraderie among the various law enforcement departments. I volunteer as a Medic for the race each year. (More than 200 medical personnel cover the race, among the thousands of other volunteers).

Typically, one of the LAPD Teams boasts the fastest time. This year the top time was 12:53:17. That's 12 HOURS, 53 minutes, folks!

But, perhaps just as impressive was the team of LA County Lakes Lifeguards who clocked in at 15:01:33, landing a 2nd Place finish in the Invitational Category, and nabbed a 15th Place Overall finish.
LA County Lakes Lifeguards - team members at checkpoint 13 at 0120 hours Sunday. Safety First: all runners wear lighted (red blinking LEDs) reflective vests.
That's 15th out of 262 teams that were comprised of gun-toting bad-asses from the ranks of numerous teams from the LAPD, LASD, CHP, FBI, DEA, Secret Service, Border Patrol, and many others! Runners from police Departments from Queensland, Calgary, South Wales UK and the RCMP (Mounties) also joined the fray. (Link to Results Page: http://bakervegas.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FLOFFCat-2015.pdf).




To be fair, and in the interest of full disclosure, we should also give kudos to the California State Parks team, which also boasts some lifeguards among its gun-toting, peace office ranks. The team landed in 5th Place in the Open category and 6th Place Overall with a time of 14:33:04.

We should extend a sincere WELL DONE to our lifeguard brothers, and to all the teams.

Best,

Adam

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Wow!  Many Thanks to Adam for sharing this story with all of us!  The gauntlet of content creation, production and distribution for the year 2015 has been thrown down by Adam!  Who is up to the challenge next to provide our readership with entertaining stories, photos and content?!...   Just sayin'...

10-4

Until next time.....

"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com

Story, text, photos by, courtesy of and Copyright Adam Sandler 2015. Used here with permission.

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1 comment:

Nick said...

One of the hazards that was not mentioned in Adam Sandler's article are the rattlesnakes that come out on the road at night. So not only must you run on the hot asphalt you also have to dodge those pesky rattlers!