We begin our third year as a United States Coast Guard team participating in the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay.
The race, originally started as a competition between the Los Angeles Police
Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, has grown into an international running event with more than 260 agencies participating. The race begins on the outskirts of Baker, Calif,. and finishes inside the LasVegas Hilton Casino and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Although the race has grown since its original conception, the fundamental ideals of the race continue: teamwork, camaraderie, physical fitness and competition.
The Coast Guard team includes more than 75 Active Duty, Reserve and Auxiliary Coast Guard members. The race is incredibly dynamic as it takes place in the flat Mojave Desert, high altitude mountains and the urban environment of Las Vegas. Additionally, the race is run through the night, so temperatures range from in the 90s at the start of the race down to the 30s at night. Because of this dynamic and complex 120-mile race, the support personnel for the race are imperative. They fulfill roles such as command center watchstanding, communications support, vehicle support,
catchers for the runner, public affairs and many more.
In addition to the run, our team is also sponsoring a 10th grader from Baker
High School. Our adopted runner will be wearing our team t-shirt and will be involved in a relay of 20 other student runners from Baker High School to the starting line of the Challenge Cup Relay.
This year our team is especially honored to be running in memory of the crew of CG-1705. We have a tribute to them on our team t-shirts as well as the CG-1705 crew being listed on the official race baton. This race baton is used by all of the teams through the duration of the race, and includes in-the-line-of-duty deaths from all of the agencies involved. Lastly, the crew will be featured in the closing ceremonies program in a video tribute with other fallen officers from federal, state and local agencies participating in the race. As fallen Guardians, the crew of CG-1705 will truly be our motivation, and will be with us there in spirit.
We hope you can follow us through the race tracking system or by blog posts by visiting the team's website: www.Team1790.us/.
The runners for Coast Guard Team 1790 (Official team number 161) for the
2010 Baker to Vegas team are:
LT Carter Fenstemacher
ENS Jake Ekmark
LT Brian Bruns
LTJG Min Kim
OSC Leslie Hearn
LT Theresa Brooks
SN Justin Olson
OS1 Eddie Foster
CWO Scott Epperson
LT Greg Duncan
LTJG David Bavencoff
CWO Ricky Sesman
EM1 John Dirschel
LTJG Josh Williams
LT Jim Hiltz
LT Greg Loveless
OS1 Tiffany Terrill
LT Richard Greenbauer
LT Brian Godkin
LTJG Stephanie Young
OSC Josh Mendez
MST3 Dave Scates
CWO Jack Martincavage
SN Meagan Arant
Very Respectfully,
Team Captains LTJG Stephanie Young and BM3 Mike Lesley