Imagine hauling your butt across 400 kilometres of harsh terrain, through three scorching days and two freezing nights, as fast as humanly possible with next to no sleep.Adventure racer and Quest University conditioning coach Jen Segger-Gigg is leading by example by taking on the world's most grueling adventure races and winning. She and two other members of DART-nuun (Dart Adventure Race Team) traversed Mexico's Baja Peninsula to win the 2008 SOLE Baja Travesia over 17 other teams from around the world on March 27. The victory qualifies them for the World Championship in Brazil in October."Baja is just so rugged," she said hoarsely after returning to Squamish. "It's just a big, bad piece of land. And apart from the fact that just about every second plant you see is about to poke you or hurt you in some way, it's gorgeous."The Washington-based team, led by team founder and navigator Cyril Jay-Rayon and Aaron Rinn, trekked, biked, canyoneered, kayaked and traveled via desert car virtually nonstop from San Felipe to Ensenada to claim their third Baja title.Segger-Gigg has been adventure racing for six years and sees being one of the youngest competitors as both a challenge and an advantage, she said. "I love it. I love going up against some of the more veterans in the sport and people who have been doing it for a long time and I just see it as a huge advantage. "But my main strength is just being mentally tough and I love the challenge because I've got nothing to lose."The race started with paddleboarding as racers lay on their stomachs and used their arms to propel them forward. Although popular in the southern U.S. where it's warm, paddleboarding is rare north of the border. Nevertheless, Segger-Gigg was prepared after having trained on Alice Lake with her surfboard.DART-nuun got out to a good start and by the second day had earned a five-hour lead ahead of second place, which was held by the other DART-nuun team: the NW Kayaks.But even the best physical conditioning cannot prevent a navigational error. After drifting off course during a 91-kilometre mountain bike section, DART-nuun covered an extra 74 km and fell five hours behind NW Kayaks.Before continuing the race, Segger-Gigg and teammates decided they needed to sleep for one hour before they could continue. It was the only time they slept through 70 hours of racing."We were just worked, like trashed," she said. "I was super nauseous and we just needed to sleep or we were going nowhere really quick. If we have to take an hour's sleep we're going to come out so much stronger, and it takes a lot of discipline to do that. "One hour in three days does tremendous things."The shut-eye paid off. The refreshed team pushed hard and overtook NW Kayaks in a canyon. Their competitors were so exhausted from trying to maintain their lead they could hardly read their maps. Segger-Gigg, Jay-Rayon and Rinn helped the other team complete the remaining 55 km while claiming victory."You finish and it's very overwhelming," said Segger-Gigg. "You sort of feel like, okay now what? You've been so focused for three days and all of a sudden it's done and you're like [lets out a long sigh] now what?"Segger-Gigg is now preparing for the solo 217-kilometre Badwater Ultramarathon run through Death Valley, California in July. The race website states that it is "globally recognized as the world's toughest footrace." Segger-Gigg is one of three Canadians who qualified for the 80-person race out of about 2,000 international applicants. She will be the youngest woman to compete, and she gunning to beat the female course record of 27 hours.
