John Grout, the winner of the inaugural PPP back in 1977, returned to Bend to race on Saturday with his two daughters and son in the family team division.

Grout’s team — “Git-R-Done” — finished 12th among 66 teams in their category with a time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, 38 seconds.

The Grout family was celebrating with some post-race beers at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.

“I don’t think we won, but it went great,” John Grout said. “We’re drinking beer now, so it’s all worthwhile.”

Grout, who lives in Portland, raced the nordic ski leg for his family team, and he chose to skate ski, a technique that did not exist in 1977 and that he picked up only recently.

“It was almost as hard doing the skate leg as it was doing the whole thing (in 1977),” Grout said, laughing. “I was brutalized by the end. But we had a blast.”

Grout, who turns 60 today — part of the reason for the family get-together — joked that he would return to race the PPP only if fly-fishing is added as a stage.

“He was a great athlete,” said John son’s Gordon Grout of his father, “and he still is.”

Helping hands

With more than 3,000 competitors taking part in the race and thousands more looking on, the Pole Pedal Paddle is Central Oregon’s biggest annual sporting event, making volunteers a crucial element in the smooth running of the race.

One of those helpers for Saturday’s 37th PPP was Pat Popplewell, a 65-year-old Bend resident and 13-year race volunteer.

“It takes hundreds of volunteers,” Popplewell said. “Even if there are ones who didn’t come back this year there are always volunteers that come back and fill the spots.”

Popplewell has helped at the boat take-out stage of the race throughout her years of PPP service. She likes her assignment, she says, noting that it is her opportunity to personally assist the racers.

Each year, during the week leading up to the PPP, Popplewell organizes race packets for the thousands of competitors. According to Carol Nelson, Popplewell’s volunteer team leader, she is one of the group’s most dedicated volunteers and knows how everything functions.

“She’s always there and always shows up early to see if something needs to be done,” Nelson said. “She’s just a great lady.”

Young racers

Amid a diverse mix of competitors at the PPP was a team of 10- and 11-year-old Bend girls from Miller Elementary School. Going by the team name Fantastic Four, the girls competed in the female teams 12-and-under class.

The girls ran into an unexpected snag when Olivia Pulliam, the team’s original downhill skier, injured her knee earlier in the week. That left Franny Rogers, 10, as both the substitute downhill skier and the biker, Lily Roslund, 11, as the nordic skier and runner, and Annika Paulson, 11, as the paddler.

The three raced together in the final stage, the half-mile sprint, and ran side by side to the finish line. The Fantastic Four finished third in their three-team division with a time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, 1 second.

“We could have done better, but we tried our hardest,” Roslund said. “We were exhausted.”

Hair in the air

The array of participants in the PPP is astounding, and there are always those racers who dress up in theme costumes for the event. Bend’s Eric Coughlin, 34, and Nick Stevenson, 28, raced Saturday in ’80s attire, complete with mullet hairdos.

“We both really love that this is an event that everybody can do, and that it can be fun,” Stevenson said, “and stuff like this can make it fun for people.”

The mullets — wigs, not their real hair — were a good idea until the first stage of the race, when Stevenson took off on the downhill ski leg and lost his mullet in a crash.

“I actually ended up falling around one of the corners in front of a bunch of people and the wig fell off and was behind me,” Stevenson said. “I actually had to turn around and go back up. Very humiliating.”

Coughlin and Stevenson, racing under the team name Redmond Therapeutic Associates, placed 16th in the 25-34 male pairs division with a time of 2:24:34.

Family matters

In among a throng of towering teens and adults, little 7-year-old Reese Riley took on the concluding sprint portion of the PPP for a Bend team consisting of her parents, Todd and Kristen, both 39; sister Maddie, 9; and an uncle, Dan Riley, 41.

“As a team, this is our first year,” Todd Riley said. “But we have 10 years of Pole Pedal Paddle in the family.”

A team composed of triathlon competitors, runners and skiers, The Riley Girls raced to the front of the pack in the family division. The two young girls started and finished the race for their team: Maddie as the downhill skier, Reese as the sprinter.

“It was close,” Todd said. “The next family team was right behind her (Reese).” The Riley Girls won the family team division with a time of 2:03:35.

Supporting cast

The overall winner of the 2013 PPP, first-time champion Santiago Ocariz, gave a great deal of credit to his support crew. One of the two men on his support team was an Anthony’s Restaurant co-worker, Eric Swanson, 36, from Bend, who competed in the PPP last year.

“It’s almost as good as winning it myself, maybe not quite,” Swanson said. “I did it by myself last year and wasn’t in the elite division, but I knew Santi had a good chance of winning it.”

Swanson aided Ocariz on Saturday at the alpine/nordic and nordic/bike transitions at Mt. Bachelor ski area. Because of the harsh weather on the mountain, Swanson had a difficult time finding Ocariz. But according to Ocariz, the transitions went smoothly.

“It was snowing quite hard and I couldn’t tell who was coming down,” Swanson said, “but he found me because he knew where I was.”

— Reporters: mmorical@bendbulletin.com; eoller@bendbulletin.com.