Beau Eastes / The BulletinBend’s Tosch Roy and Alyssa O’Connor of Rebound-East coed pairs team.

Jason Adams loves this race.

“This exemplifies everything that’s good about Bend,” said the 34-year-old Adams, who finished fourth in the men’s elite division in Saturday’s U.S. Bank Pole Pedal Paddle. “It’s a celebration of Bend.”

That passion helps explain why Adams, a 1997 Mountain View graduate, has participated in the PPP’s elite division for 13 consecutive years.

“Where else can you alpine ski, nordic ski, bike, run, and kayak all in the same day?” Adams asked. “The paddle is probably my favorite. I’m the best paddler in the (elite) group and usually I’m able to pass a couple of people there.”

Adams competed in the PPP as part of a relay several times in elementary school, but he never raced in middle or high school. Always wanting to do the PPP when he “grew up,” he left Bend for college but upon his return signed up for the 2002 race, the first of many to come.

“I thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m grown up now,’ ” Adams said about his mindset after college. “It was time to do this.”

Twelve years later, Adams is still a consistent top-five finisher and his time Saturday (1 hour, 52 minutes, 57 seconds) was his fastest mark yet, he said.

“I’m still trying to crack the podium,” Adams said about a top-three finish. “I’m getting closer and closer to the winners.”

Even if Adams never tops the elite field, don’t expect him to slow down. In fact, this could be just the start of a long, long PPP career.

“One of my heroes is Lew Hollander,” Adams said of Central Oregon’s 83-year-old Ironman triathlete. “Some guys talk about doing the PPP until they hit their athletic peak and then quitting. I want to win the 80-year-old division. Who knows? I could be doing this for the next 50 years.”

Cancer survivor meets her goal

Redmond’s Tanya Bruce, who is recovering from a mastectomy to treat breast cancer, finished fifth in the women’s individual 40-44 division Saturday with a time of 3:08:17, easily meeting her goal of 3½ hours.

“It was, like, three times better than I could have imagined,” Bruce said of racing the PPP as an individual for the first time.

“I was really nervous at the beginning, but at the top at the mountain, I just sort of took a second and looked back at the Three Sisters, and I actually got a little choked up. Suddenly, it became real to me that I was able to do this. It was really emotional.”

For Bruce, racing the PPP solo was a big step in her recovery from cancer.

Her husband, Gary, finished third in the men’s 40-44 individual division in 2:19:23. The Bruces’ daughter, Ashley Bruce, placed second in the women’s individual 16-19 division, just 20 minutes behind her father in 2:40:11.

Next time warmer clothes, longer shorts

First-time PPPers usually walk away with new ideas and lessons learned for the next time they compete. Seattle’s Damian Wylie and Jackie Logan, who competed in the coed pairs 25-34 division as BN Runs, were no different.

“Definitely wear longer shorts,” said Wylie, 29, who sported snug pink shorts and pink suspenders — and not much else — during the race. “Riding downhill with short shorts, they kind of turned into a thong.”

Logan, an experienced downhill skier but a bit of a novice on cross-country skis, also had some advice.

“Learn to nordic ski,” Logan, 30, said. “I’d been cross-country skiing twice and that was five years ago.”

BN Runs finished in 2:14:54, good for third place in their division.

Busy day for Buck Naked

Buck Naked, aka Tate Metcalf, placed 13th out of 13 entries in the men’s elite division of the PPP Saturday. But all things considered, just finishing the race was a pretty solid accomplishment.

Metcalf, the owner of Sisters Athletic Club and an assistant track and field coach at Mountain View, competed in the elite men’s division — the first group of racers to start — instead of the men’s 45-49 division so that he could make Mountain View’s district track and field meet Saturday afternoon across town at Summit. Metcalf also was helping his wife and a friend get ready for their individual races, and he was assisting a relay team from the Sisters Athletic Club as well.

“I was so busy I almost forgot my cycling shoes,” Metcalf said. “And I did forget my nordic boots.”

That led to a mad scramble for ill-fitting nordic boots at Mt. Bachelor’s Nordic Center. Before he even got to the cross-country ski leg of the race, though, Metcalf crashed twice on the downhill ski leg.

“It was a bit of a rough go,” said Metcalf, who finished in 2:25:01. “But I’ll be able to head over to Summit and watch the kids.”

Back in Bend

In high school, Bend’s Alyssa O’Connor won six individual state track and field titles at Summit and helped lead the Storm to multiple team championships in cross-country and track. Back in Bend after graduating from Cornell — she ran track and cross-country at the Ivy League school — O’Connor partnered with Tosch Roy, a former Summit classmate and standout nordic skier, Saturday in her first PPP. The former Storm athletes won the coed pairs 18-24 division in 2 hours even.

“I never got to do this during high school because we always had (track) districts or state,” said O’Connor, now 22. “My first year back, I knew I wanted to do this. It’s such a big part of the community, where weekend warriors and elite athletes get to mix.”

Wolves on the prowl

Oregon’s most famous wolf, OR-7 may have found a mate — but don’t tell that to Saturday’s PPP team, OR-7’s Brides.

“We’re women who run with wolves,” said Hilary Garrett, who along with teammate Tina Pavelic dressed as she-wolves while competing in the female pairs 55-59 division. “We howl for OR-7.”

Veterans of the PPP — “This isn’t our first rodeo,” Garrett noted — OR-7’s Brides competed with veils and tails as well as face paint and wolf ears.

“We’re trying to lure him out of Jackson County (in Southern Oregon) and back to Central Oregon,” Pavelic said.

PPP just not enough?

For those who are seeking even more multisport adventure in Oregon this spring, the inaugural Hood 2 River Relay is scheduled for May 31.

The event will be contested on a course from Mount Hood to the town of Hood River and includes a 1.2-mile alpine ski, a 2-mile nordic ski, a 7-mile mountain bike ride, a 27-mile road bike ride, a 6.7-mile run, and a 1.5-mile paddle on the Columbia River.

Like Central Oregon’s Pole Pedal Paddle, the Hood 2 River Relay includes categories for individuals, pairs and teams.

But the Hood 2 River appears to be a more grueling undertaking for endurance athletes. The total distance of the event’s course is 45.4 miles, while the total distance of the PPP is about 34 miles.

Deadline to register for the Hood 2 River Relay is May 28.

For more information and to register, visit www.hood2riverrelay.com.