County Law Enforcement Teams to Race through Desert

Runners race through desert in the 2011 Challenge Cup Baker to Vegas Relay Race. It’s fun with a competitive edge. Who are you rooting for in the Challenge Cup “Baker to Vegas” Relay Race this weekend? San Diego County Probation and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department are both competing in a grueling 120-mile race through steep terrain and punishing temperatures.

This year, 260 teams are running, which amounts to roughly 10,000 people, including support staff and family who attend, according to Chuck Foote, race coordinator. The Baker to Vegas run started in 1985 and is split into 20 segments. The race is open to law enforcement teams throughout the world.

With so many teams running, the start times are staggered. The Sheriff’s Department will start at 3 p.m. Saturday and Probation will start at 4 p.m. Teams of 20 runners each take a relay segment and run through the night in the desert until they reach their destination.

In last year’s race, extreme temperatures sapped most of the runners and certainly affected team and runner times. Temperatures climbed to 113 degrees in the day or roughly 127 degrees on the blacktop in 2012, but this year temperatures should be right around 95 degrees in the day, said Linda Yoakum-Latimer, Probation team captain.

The Sheriff’s team came in just under 10 minutes after Probation last year.  Probation ran the relay race in 17 hours, 10 minutes and 13 seconds and the Sheriff’s team finished at 17 hours, 19 minutes and 59 seconds.

Sheriff team captain Denese Deal expects their overall time will improve considerably this year because they timed everyone who wanted to be on the team and took the top runners for the course. Probation has used this strategy for years, but until last year, the run was more about fun for the Sheriff’s Department than a real competition.

Deal said after nine years of a more casual team, she wanted to step things up and she has had a very positive response from the department as a result. Last year, without timing everyone, the Sheriff’s team shaved 2 ½ hours off their time. This year, all but four of the runners are new, she said.

The star runner on the Probation team this year runs a 6 minutes 30 second mile and the top runner for Sheriff runs a 6 minute 21 second mile.

Both teams have been training going up steep hillsides and mountains. Deal notes that there is no way to truly simulate the terrain and temperatures in the California-Nevada desert.

Probation Chief Mack Jenkins, who ran as an alternate last year, will not be running this year, but he and Assistant Sheriff Mark Elvin will be joining their teams as support staff.

“It’s definitely teamwork and a chance to meet people from around the world. We’re a family. When you have a badge, you’re part of a different family,” said Yoakum-Latimer.

Yoakum-Latimer said this will be the second year Probation helps gather supplies for the Hamberg, Germany police SWAT  team since they can’t bring water, flares or other supplies with them on the plane.