Drymax Sports: Kelly Ridgway Takes Impressive 3rd In Costa Rica

Kelly During Day 6 Of The Coastal Challenge

Drymax athlete and first time Coastal Challenge race participant Kelly Ridgway took a very impressive 3rd place woman and 9th overall in the 143 mile 6 day multi stage event through the oppressive jungles of Costa Rica. Kelly came in with a time of 36 hours, 33 minutes and 13 seconds.

Kelly's performance was steady throughout staying in the overall top 10 during the event. The caliber of athletes was certainly impressive with athletes like fellow American Scott Jurek finishing 3rd overall just 5 1/2 hours ahead of Kelly with a time of 31:01:20.

Here is a brief race summary from Kelly, "Coastal challenge was the hardest race I have ever done. They didn't tell us that we would be swimming and bouldering, and running up steep muddy rain forest trails. Actually they were not trails, we had to navigate straight up through the jungle looking for course markers. The heat and humidity was outrageous. We saw snakes, alligators, and lots of monkeys. They kept telling us that they had plenty of anti-venom in case we got bit by a snake. That was reassuring. One day we swam for 2 hours through a large river with our packs on before running for 7 hours more. On that day, I ran alone for 8 hours in the rain forest. It was exciting and exhausting all at the same time. Camping in the middle of nowhere is interesting too. There was no downtime and the spiders in our make-shift cold showers were as big as softballs. I came in 3rd, the two women who beat me are in the 30s, so I can't complain. If you thought I was skinny before, well baby, look at me now!! Wow, what 6 days in the jungle does to the bod!!"

As a side note Kelly, who is a nurse, lives everyday to the fullest while facing the additional challenge of Lupus which she uses as a motivational force not a hindrance. Lupus is a chronic auto-immune disease affecting mainly women. The immune system attacks the body's own tissues as a foreign substance, producing antibodies to fight it.

We cannot say enough about how proud we are to be associated with Kelly and her amazingly positive and go after it attitude! We also value Kelly's very important feedback and product testing to make our socks better.

Congratulations Kelly on such this most impressive achievement!

Kelly Ridgway's Stage Times
Stage 1 3:58:13 6th overall
Stage 2 6:18:10 8th overall
Stage 3 6:34:44 9th overall
Stage 4 7:07:15 8th overall
Stage 5 9:22:19 9th overall
Stage 6 3:12:32 7th overall
36:33:13 9th Overall 3rd Woman

To learn more about the coastal challenge to to http://www.tccadventures.com/ to read more about her adventure check out her blog: http://ridgrunner.blogspot.com/