I t may be a slightly polarizing idea, but if you had to pick one event that truly embodies Bend, you couldn’t go wrong with the U.S. Bank Pole Pedal Paddle.

The multidiscipline race includes alpine skiing or snowboarding and cross-country skiing at Mt. Bachelor, followed by a cycling leg to town, a distance run, a paddle on the Deschutes River and a foot race to the finish.

But it’s not just about the athletes and teams, many of which adorn themselves in all manner of colorful garb. The event also draws in multitudes of spectators for a food and beer-soaked party at the finish line at Les Schwab Amphitheater. And as you may have heard, Bendites love their beer.

With the Pole Pedal Paddle — or “PPP,” in the local lexicon — turning 40 this year, Saturday’s event promises to be a special one. But if you want to see the elite men and women arriving at the finish line, you’ll want to be at the amphitheater by 10:40 a.m. — a little earlier if you want to see the paddle prior to the final sprint.

“I think the best thing and the most fun thing to do is go and stand on the footbridge in the Old Mill District, and watch (the elite men and women) battle it out for first and second on the water,” said Molly Cogswell-Kelley, of Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation, or MBSEF, the nonprofit that puts on the race to subsidize race training fees of more than 600 athletes who train every year in skiing and snowboarding.

“They’re the only ones on the water. So it’s fun. Your adrenaline’s going, and especially if it’s a close race, it’s pretty cool,” she said.

Inside the amphitheater, “We’ll have about 60 vendors, which is more than we’ve had in a long time, and there will be food and a beer garden,” Cogswell-Kelley said. Those festivities begin around 10:40 a.m. as well.

“It gets pretty exciting in the amphitheater; around 12:30 or 1 p.m. is when it’s really ramping up,” she said. The awards ceremony will be held at 3 p.m.

The race began in 1977. It was a little different in those days from its current incarnation. Without enough snow to include the alpine leg — just like last year! — the first PPP featured a 3-mile cross-country ski at Dutchman Flat, an 18-mile bike ride into Bend, 1-mile run around Drake Park and a paddle leg up and down Mirror Pond.

In 2005, the finish was moved from Drake Park to the amphitheater. To give you some idea of how much the PPP has grown, the 1977 race had 12 teams and 16 individual competitors. By 2014, it had 3,010 participants, 254 of whom competed as individuals.

The agony and the ecstasy

To get a little more perspective on the past, Cogswell-Kelley reached out to several of the PPP’s elite men’s and women’s champions to hear their stories of the agony and the ecstasy of competition.

“There are a lot of people who have done the race more times than the people I interviewed, but because they won and they have that intensity and desire to do the best they can, you know that there’s got to be some epic failures,” she said, laughing. “I was interested in the people who had won the most … and I also wanted to honor them, too, because it requires so much training and so much mental preparation. I think it’s a huge accomplishment, and to win multiple times, even up to six and seven? It’s crazy, and I wanted to give them the stage.”

Cogswell-Kelley shared those stories with GO! Magazine. Without further ado, we present to you this exclusive on the failures, foibles, trials and tribulations of past winners. (Note: Some athletes did not answer all of the questions posed.)

Have any epic failures?

Dennis Oliphant winner 1982-85

“(I) competed in the PPP over 25 times, (and) there are no shortage of memories, as in that many races there are hundreds of transitions and individual legs. You can almost be assured that in switching equipment during transitions things can and will happen. Ski boots ice up; equipment gets moved, blasted away by another competitor; flat tires, frozen bike cables, etc.”

Dan Simoneau

1986-88

“I have Bend’s all-time most memorable swimming performance. Leading into the paddle by seven minutes, I flipped my kayak five times. Five times I swam to shore, (emptied) the water out of the boat, and got back in. I did this three times before Oliphant passed me. Got out of the water, passed a few on the run and finished something like fifth. (I) figured out as I swam to shore that I probably should learn to kayak.”

Justin Wadsworth

1989-96

“I lost my alpine ski one year and crashed hard breaking my thumb and tearing ligaments in my hand. I raced with it the whole race, which hurt like hell, but still managed to pull out a win.”

Marshall Greene

2006-10, 2014

“(My) first year racing, I was on a borrowed bike and had barely practiced using aero bars. Midway down the ‘bowling alley’ (straight section near Wanoga and Meissner sno-parks) going 52 mph, I decided I would be more aerodynamic if I stood up out of the saddle and dropped my head even lower. This is while I was still in the aero bars. Turns out, it’s a huge mistake to stand up while in the aero bars. Immediately, I had speed wobbles and nearly crashed.”

Julie Sowerby

1995, 1997-99

“One year the weather was extremely miserable. The race had been delayed due to snow on the road and the wind was obnoxious. I had also been recovering from a nasty case of bronchitis and didn’t feel very well. Anyway, on the bike leg I usually like to ‘bomb’ down the top part of the course and have clocked myself at 50-plus mph on training runs. On this particular day I wasn’t in bomb mode, but the severe cross-winds still sent my disk wheel into a major speed wobble. I had never experienced such intense fear before and thought for sure I was going to be shredded on the pavement. Luckily I was able to stop before I crashed. I reset my rear wheel and then was on my way down the hill. It was devastating trying to get my head back in the race after losing all of the momentum on the fastest part of the bike leg. I never quite recovered and finished fifth or sixth that year. I was happy to finish, though!”

Suzanne King

2001, 2004-07

“My best and worst memories seem to be tangled tightly together in my first solo PPP. I was all worked up about how to be fast. I gleaned tips from the veterans. I used a stopwatch to time yanking my Nordic boots out of my downhill rear-entry boot shells and leaping into my Nordic ski bindings — with (my husband) Mark’s help, eight seconds. I rehearsed lacing up my running shoes whilst running and devised layers of clothing that could be shed incrementally while losing 3,000 feet of elevation. That all led to my first PPP being by far my fastest time and the greatest lead over my competition. An even better reward was that in the following years, I calmed down a little bit. Mark, my dedicated mountain transition specialist (tending to his snow duties one year on crutches), became more laid-back, as well. By my fourth and fifth time competing, I would come home from the finish and find him reading on the couch, not so much as raising an eyebrow to inquire of my result. In competition, as in marriage, confidence is a great thing.”

Stephanie Howe

2010-12

“My PPP experience hasn’t been too dramatic; I wouldn’t say each race has gone smoothly, but I’ve been pretty good at troubleshooting on the fly and remaining calm. Here are some examples:

The first year, I tipped my boat getting into it. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I didn’t have my support person hold the boat. I tried to get in, and it just tipped me into the river and filled up with water. We had to quickly empty it out so I could get going! Not a good start, but it turned out OK.

The second year, I forgot to take off my ski tights between the bike and run transition. I threw on my shoes and took off down the trail. I didn’t make it too far before I realized I still had them on, so I turned around and went back to the transition area. I was leading the race at that point, and my support person started frantically screaming at me, “What are you doing?!?!?” He couldn’t believe I came back to take off my tights. But I was like, “Hey — no hot legs.”

Sarah Max

2008-09 and 2013-14

“Epic fails is one that sticks out. As anyone who has ever done the race as an individual can attest, there is a lot of potential for epic fails. Even in years when everything went smoothly, I had recurring nightmares about getting to the mountain the morning of the PPP and forgetting an essential piece of gear. I also had nightmares about tipping my surf ski, and in 2011 (I think) that’s what happened. I was duking it out with Howe and dumped my boat — twice. She passed me going into the boat transition, and I passed her on the boat, just before the first buoy. Then I went swimming. I managed to get back in the boat and catch up to her, but rounding the second buoy I tipped again. Needless to say, she won that year. What was funny was all the speculation around why my boat tipped. My favorite: The helicopter got too close and blew me over. If only!”

Have any funny stories?

Simoneau

“1. The excuses (MBSEF staffers) Nils (Eriksson) and Coggin (Hill) come up with each May. 2. Meeting with the marketing guy at the Inn of the 7th Mountain back in the day and him getting this star-struck look and calling me ‘the winner.’ Not Olympian, not World Cup podium winner, not World Championship team member, ‘The Winner.’”

Wadsworth

“After I had done the race eight times solo, I was asked by friend and musician Mark Ransom to do a pairs team with him. We made a deal that I would be his partner for the race if he’d let me sit in with his band playing bass that night at the M&J Tavern. We had a great race, and I had a blast playing (poorly) with his band.”

Ben Husaby

1999-2004

“(There’s) a photo of me on the bike (in 2005) the year that Jan Spurklund was second. That year I chose to fashion my Nordic boots into bike shoes. I changed shoes only once — at the run transition. I think I beat Jan by less than a minute. Who knows, my dremel tool might have made the difference. As they say, equipment means everything in the PPP.”

Greene

“Twice I’ve left straight from the awards ceremony to other important events. In 2006 … I left straight for Walla Walla because my sister was graduating from Whitman the next day. Last year, Matt Briggs (third place) and I left straight for a wedding being held on the eastside of town.”

Max

“Another year, my race went smoothly, but (my husband) Kevin had an adventure. He skied the alpine leg on his Nordic skis — in shorts. He fell more times than he could count, cut up his entire body and ended up having to drop out. Because he was going to be doing the whole race, he didn’t have a car at the mountain. So he hitched a ride home, but then he was locked out of the house. He ended up getting dry clothes from our neighbor and making his way to the amphitheater for a much-deserved beer.”

Sowerby

“One year a friend volunteered to be my helper up at the alpine to cross-country to bike transition. The alpine-to-cross-country transition went super smooth but the cross-country-to-bike was a little different — my helper forgot to bring my helmet to the bike transition! When he realized his mistake, he went into ‘superman mode’ and practically flew over the orange fence and back to the car to retrieve the helmet. I will never forget that sight! Instead of panicking, I reminded myself that it is just a race and used the time to eat a little and drink some water (which I always neglect to do on the bike leg!) and eventually went on to win. Needless to say, I used two helmets every year after that!”

Howe

“(My) third year, I crashed on the Nordic leg and burst out laughing. It was like slo-mo. My skis got stuck in the frozen corduroy, and I just did a face plant and power slid on my stomach the rest of the way down the hill. I was seriously laughing out loud. It kept the mood light.”

What’s your best memory?

Husaby

“(My best memories are from) working with all of the leg captains and volunteers the weeks leading up to the event. It is truly a team effort to pull the race off.”

Greene

“So many good ones. 1. (One hot year) I was absolutely dying in the boat because I was so hot and thirsty. I was literally stopping my paddling to splash water from the river up on my face. As I went under the Columbia (Street) bridge, I very distinctly heard a spectator yell ‘What are you doing? Paddle!’ 2. Giving high fives to so many spectators through the finishing sprint.”

Sowerby

“My best memory of Pole Pedal Paddle as a Solo: 1999 — helping my friend Ken Roadman find his missing alpine skis at the start of the race. The poor guy was in panic mode and couldn’t locate his alpine skis. Realizing he was in flight-or-fight mode, I calmly helped him realize that the last pair of skis left were his only option and that someone must have taken his skis by accident. He finally tried them on, they fit his boots and he eventually finished first in his age group!”

What’s your worst memory?

Wadsworth

“One year it snowed most of the way down to town and was really sketchy on the bike — one of those times you forget about winning, and just try to keep the rubber side down.”

Greene

First year racing (2005, when I finished second), Andy Fecteau was rapidly catching me in the boat, and I knew from practice that my legs were going to be numb when I got out of the boat as it was too small for me. As I took my first two steps in the river on legs that I couldn’t control, I fell to my knees and was afraid that I would get passed right there. Thankfully, I still had a bit of a head start on the final sprint and slowly the life came back to my legs and I was able to run in a semi-normal (albeit slow) fashion.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com.