Olivia Brooks, 12, and Sadie Gorman, 12, are believed to be the youngest female competitors to complete the PPP as individuals, as their races in 2011.

Thousands of racers competed in Saturday’s 35th running of the U.S. Bank Pole Pedal Paddle, and each of them had a story. We take a look at a few of the stories from this year’s race:

Using his head

Jason Adams had a career-best day in the elite men’s race. The Bend resident crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 7 seconds, good for fourth place.

Adams — who had only once barely cracked the 2-hour barrier in about eight previous attempts — exceeded his goal of finishing the race in 1:55. Part of the reason for his breakthrough could have been the work he did for the past month with his friend Steven Davis, a hypnotherapist, who met him at the finish Saturday.

Adams said that in weekly sessions, Davis taught him about learning to relax while racing and visualizing himself performing well. Between sessions, Adams worked on his own with some compact discs Davis provided.

“I think the interesting thing is, when you are relaxed and you are thinking good thoughts, your body can be more efficient,” Adams said. “A certain amount of energy is spent worrying.”e_SClBAll in the family

One of the youngest competitors in this year’s PPP was Bryce White, of Bend.

Bryce anchored his Last Chance 2 team on the sprint run. The team also included his parents, Wendi Worthington and Roger White.

“I was kind of thinking, ‘Wow, this is short,’” said Bryce, holding an orange sucker as he talked about the sprint run shortly after he finished.

Though Bryce is just 5 years old, he is already a PPP veteran, having also performed the sprint portion of the race for his family’s team in 2010.

“Last year was his first year ’cause we had two kids and no baby sitter,” explained Roger White, who passed Bryce and his brother, Gavin, now 2, back and forth with Worthington during transitions a year ago. This time around, someone else was watching Gavin while the rest of the family competed.

As for Bryce, he is turning into quite the runner. In March, he completed the 5-kilometer Grin and Bear It road race in Bend.

“It’s kind of active, really active,” Bryce said of running. “You pretty much use all your body parts.”

Unicorns are real

The mythical unicorn made an appearance at Saturday’s PPP. Unicorn Magic, of Bend, placed second in the women’s 30-34 category, finishing in 2:32:21.

Unicorn Magic is no stranger to the PPP. One year, she dressed up as Wonder Woman. Another time, she competed in a pair with her father as Lisa and Homer Simpson.

“I’m kind of a costumer,” explained Unicorn Magic, who started using the name at races about three years ago.

At the PPP on Saturday, she had the costume to match the name. Friday night, Unicorn Magic’s mother altered a children’s costume so Unicorn Magic could wear a furry white top over her torso and a unicorn head, which she said she wore for most of the race.

“Not for the run and the paddle ’cause it was attached to my helmet, so my transition person had to detach it,” said Unicorn Magic, who donned the head once again for the sprint to the finish.e_SClBAge is nothing but a number

A couple of 12-year-old girls made PPP history Saturday. Sadie Gorman and Olivia Brooks, both of Bend and sixth-graders at Cascade Middle School, completed the race as individuals, Sadie in 2:45:27 and Olivia in 2:49:23.

Dan Simoneau, nordic director for the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (which puts on the PPP as a fundraiser), said that while age-group records are incomplete, Gorman and Brooks are believed to be the two youngest female competitors to finish the entire PPP course solo.

“Well, since last year, I did it with my younger sister and thought it was fun,” Sadie said of her reasoning for participating as an individual this year.

Olivia said she found some legs of the course more challenging than others.

“I thought the paddling and the biking were harder for me because I didn’t ride a road bike,” said Olivia, who rode a mountain bike for the cycling leg.

Politicians dole out punishment

A group of Oregon state senators made a return to the PPP in fine fashion.

Four current state senate Democrats, one Republican and one former state senator made up the team Capitol Punishment. Sen. Chris Telfer, R-Bend, put the group together and served as captain.

Charlie Ringo, formerly a state senator from Beaverton, got the team started on the downhill ski leg. Sen. Jackie Dingfelder, D-Portland, tackled the cross-country ski stage; Sen. Ginny Burdick, D-Portland, completed the cycling leg; Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, took on the run portion; Chuck Thomsen, R-Hood River, handled paddling duties; and Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, brought the team home in the sprint.

“I pushed as hard as I could. Everybody was passing me,” joked Thomsen, who said he had never been in a kayak prior to Saturday’s PPP, which was his first. “But that doesn’t worry me. We’re pretty old anyway, most of our team, and we’re just worried about getting done and not having a heart attack.”e_SClBQuick turnaround

On Friday, Zach Violett was in South Korea.

On Saturday, he was racing as an elite individual in the PPP.

Violett returned from a five-day business trip just in time to finish fifth in 1:55:17.

“I was in Korea yesterday, so I’m really happy with today,” Violett said. “I signed up for the race, then bought the plane tickets, so I knew what was going on.”

Violett, who works for a software company in Bend, said he was able to get in a training run on three of the five days he was in Korea.

“I was able to stay in shape,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting anything. I thought I’d go as hard as I could and have fun.”