This is a collection of past news items that have been archived for posterity.
The team is getting ready for the Desert Winds 24+ Hour Adventure Race near Las Vegas on May 10. In preparation, the team is spending lots of time hiking and running, kayaking and canyoneering. The race will not have mountain biking in it (for which Michelle is very thankful for after so much sand and pea gravel riding in last year's race). The picture above is a view of the course.
The race is a Checkpoint Tracker Series Event and a USARA National Championship Qualifier. The race directors are billing it as "An Expedition Race in a Weekend." We hear therer are about 60 racers from all over the country coming out for this race. It's definitely a must do race if you live in the Southwest.
Posted by Michelle Kelly on 4/30/08 8 P
This past weekend Michelle and Tommy participated in the Tour of the Tucson Mountains on Sunday, April 27, in Marana, AZ. Windy conditions made for an interesting 71-mile ride around the mountains west of Tucson.
Michelle and Tommy finished the course in 3:24 to earn a "gold" finishers medal. I'll add a link to pictures from the race as soon as they're posted.
While we were out playing on our bikes, Bryan was out doing his field test, trying to get into the Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association. I hear he smoked the test.
Posted by Michelle Kelly on 4/26/08 8 P
The last two weekend's we've been out Canyoneering at Salome Canyon just North of Lake Roosevelt about 2 1/2 hours outside Phoenix. The trip on the 6th was Tommy, Michelle, Bryan, and Cody and the trip on the 12th was Bryan, Tommy, and Bruce of 360 Adventures on a guiding trip for a group of seven clients. It was Tommy's first time as a Canyoneering Guide and Bryan's first guiding volunteer trip with 360.
Everyone had a great time on both trips and the flow was just right to rappel down the center of the waterfall on the second trip. The link below is to pictures from the first trip.
http://picasaweb.google.com/team.redenergy/SalomeCanyon
The Canyon starts to tighten.
Bryan in the depths.
The waterfall into the Jug. First trip we rappelled of the overhanging rock on the left. On the second trip the waterfall was flowing a little less making a rap down the slot possible.
Canyon exit and hike out to the right.
Posted by Tommy Kelly on 4/17/08 8 P
A few months ago, Michelle started an after work Hiking Group for Women that slowly turned into a Coed group and then a regular Tuesday thing. See below for next Tuesday's hike.
Hi everyone!
Meeting Place: Southwest corner of 32nd Street and Lincoln in the shopping center parking lot (by the Russ Lyon Realty bldg on the corner)
Questions? Email me.
Hope to see you then!
Michelle
Posted by Tommy Kelly on 4/3/08 8 P
Michelle and I just found out a few weeks ago that we got into the 2008 Denver Post Ride the Rockies this June. It's a 7 day, 6 stage road cycling event covering 435 miles through the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. 2000 lucky cyclists are chosen by a lottery system. The event starts in Durango and finishes in Breckenridge averaging 50-80 miles a day and thousands of feet of climbing a day. Check it out at www.ridetherockies.com
Posted by Tommy Kelly on 4/2/08 8 P
The MS150 Ride was this past weekend in Florence, Arizona. 102 miles on Saturday and about 53 on Sunday. Perfect weather, decent roads and a great cause. I really enjoyed myself and found my first road Century to be easier than I thought. The last 25 miles was the toughest due to the slight incline for 12 miles and then when I made the u-turn to come downhill, there was a 25-mph headwind that kept the ride challenging to the end!
Thank you to everyone for your generous support and encouraging words. Multiple Sclerosis is such a debilitating disease and I'm proud to be a part of something that raises awareness and funding to support those with MS.
Professional photographers were at the event, and they captured a good one of me at the finish.
Posted by Michelle Kelly on 4/1/08 8 P
For living in the desert, we've had a very wet winter, which makes for some interesting races. In December it rained 3 inches in 24 hours - 12 hours of which Bryan and I raced our mountain bikes at McDowell in the Dawn to Dusk Race, and then, over President's Day weekend, we thought we were going to be riding in SNOW in Tucson!
Okay, so let me start at the beginning... 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo is a 24-hour mountain bike race in the beautiful desert north of Tucson at 4000 ft elevation. Tommy has done the event the past two years - the first year on a 4-man team and last year as a solo. Both years were cold, cloudy at times and very windy at times. This year, would be my first 24 HITOP, taking it on in the duo female divison with a friend (and adventure racing competitor), 
Jane Larkindale from Tucson, who races with ARC.
So, going into this race, which for many is just a mountain biking event, as a duo was a little daunting to me. I've done several duo 12-hour races and a 24-hour race as a 4-person team, but it's a different level of committment and pace as a duo team for 24 hours. So my plan was to do as many laps as I could at a decent pace and taking turns riding the full 24 hours.
So, Wednesday and Thursday night prior to the race found Tommy being the wonderful bike mechanic adjusting and fine tuning our bikes and me cooking/baking food for the race - pancakes, pasta, cookies and banana bread, and then both of us packing up our camping gear and all the clothes we'd need for riding. The packing was 95% done when we went to bed Thursday night, however when we got the call from our friend Eddie, who was already down at "24 Hour Town" (the camping site of the race) on Friday morning that it was snowing, we had to add a few more warm things to our bags.
Once on the road headed south, it started sprinkle in Phoenix and as we headed south the clouds got more ominous looking. By the time we got to the dirt road that leads to the race start and 24 Hour Town the rain was coming down steady. The road, which is normally a well-graded dirt road that allows travel at 45-55 mph was a muddy bog that we drove, and sometimes slid, down at 15-20 mph. It was a long 10+ miles...
We found our friends in "town" and proceeded to set up camp just 30 yards from "the rock," a rock slab decent at the end of the race lap that attracts spectators throughout the race. (That's our Maxxis tent - where we had all of our food and gear - with the rock in the background.)
Oh, and I don't think in addition to the continuous rain that I mentioned how cold it was when we got there (about 34 degrees). So we set up our camping tent and our transition tent, checked in, checked out "town" and then huddled around the firepit fire our friends had. Jane and her husband Jim, who was racing as a duo male team, joined us that evening as well. Tommy and I heated up some pre-made pasta for dinner and went to bed fairly early just to get in our sleeping bags and attempt to warm up, just as it started to snow.
Even with very warm slepping bags and a Nalgene bottle full of hot water in our bags, neither one of us stayed warm through the night. When I woke at 3:30 am on nature's call I walked out to find it still snowing and a fine blanket of the white stuff covering everything. Who says it doesn't snow in the desert? When we woke around 7:30 am, this was what we found...
Snow on our tent...
Snow on our Xterra and our bikes on the roof... 
Snow on the hedgehog cactus by our camp site...
and a beautiful view of the mountains with snow there too!
Professional photos can be found of Michelle and Jane here and Tommy here.
To be continued...
Posted by Michelle Kelly on 2/23/08 7 P
A couple of photos to add to Bryan's report on The MBAA McDowell Meltdown.
Michelle atop the podium in the Sport Women's class sporting her Red Energy jersey.
Bryan looking strong after 40 miles in the saddle.
Posted by Tommy Kelly on 1/26/08 7 P
So I was just online this evening ordering some things for Old Pueblo coming up in 3 weeks and found our picture up on the Ay-Up website from the Kayak Lake Mead night race last summer. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Pretty cool.
Posted by Tommy Kelly on 1/26/08 7 P
On Saturday January 19th 2008 The Mountain Bike Association Of Arizona Kicked off their Race season at the McDowell Mountain Park's Competitive Loops. This Race had a new twist The organizer's were able to convince the park to let them run the race in reverse direction. Two members of Red Energy stepped out of the Adventure Racing realm and gave Mountaing Bike racing a shot. Michelle handily won the Women's sport class by almost a minute and Bryan finished the Marathon course.
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