What a fabulous event this year! All the things we learned from changing the venue to Parker's Ranch last year fell right into place the day of the event. The Warrior's Society Team worked like a well-oiled machine. I have never seen such camaraderie within the Warrior's Society family. I was so proud to be part of this special family of volunteers.

The new venue with the finish under the warrior's feathers, the live band and all the families playing under the oak trees made for a spectacular day. We will definitely continue with the same venue with the addition of a bounce house for the kids next year. I love being able to give the families waiting for their loved ones a safe and fun environment to enjoy. These families have also made such sacrifices with supporting their family member training for the event.

Our Bob Haislett Award "For Perseverance and Inspiration" was a pleasure to give to John Potts this year. John has had a very tough year personally with the loss of his father. John has a crazy work schedule involving lots of traveling and he was still able to find the time and energy to train and participate in the event. John has also been spending lots of time with his family grieving the loss of his father. And with the event falling on his dad's birthday this year it made it especially important. John was riding in honor of his father and I truly believe this helped him finish. John was not having a good day right off the start on his bike but used the strength and power of his father to push through and finish the event. John knew his father was riding with him and that helped him on this emotional day of riding. As he was given his award I could see the emotion pouring out of him as he spoke about the honor of receiving the award.

Our Last Survivor Award is always given to the last rider to come across the finish line. This year we observed that the last two riders came across together at a time of 10 hours and 26 minutes. It was obvious that they committed to riding and finishing together. Then we found out they were brothers Daniel and Joseph Stevens and this was Joseph's 7th attempt to finish the VQ. He had tried 6 other times to finish the event and was never able to finish. But this year was different! He completed it and with the support of his brother they came across the finish together. Watching them support each other to the very end was very inspirational to watch. Both Daniel and Joseph received the Last Survivor Award for 2014.

We have a great group of club members and volunteers who, without their help, the event would not be possible. We also want to thank those extra volunteers that stepped up this year to help and really take charge of the positions we gave them with little or no direction. A very special thanks to: Beth Wolfe and Wendy Neria in timing, Jason Neria with parking control, Dave Allen with directing riders to the finish off Trabuco Creek Road, Carol Barger at aid station 2, Don McCarroll and Ron Sage on motorcycle support and Janet Schlee, Shane Vargas and Ryan Bogomolny with everything from start to finish! They worked hard all day just like what we expect from our Warrior Family.

It takes so much to put on this event, from the trail work to all the organization/logistics we have to contend with. We appreciate all our club members and volunteers/comm teams who spend 12 hours plus working the day of the event.

We also thank the SOARAAmateurRadio Club, whose members made up many of our Comms, for the use of the repeaters - which made Comm contact across the Santa Ana Mountains possible.

We truly appreciate the support of our sponsors, especially Rock N Road Cyclery and El Pollo Loco. Rock N. Road, who sponsored the band "Hot Tin Roof," has been with us almost from the beginning and we truly appreciate their many years of support. El Pollo Loco has been with us many years and we all appreciate the great food they provide.

We also thank the Parker family, especially Steve Parker Jr., for their support of this event.

After the event was over and Chris and I were reminiscing about the event we both agreed that this was a special year for the event and that our Warrior's Society Family made that happen! It is moments like we saw the days leading up to the event and the actual day that make all the work worth it. Seeing all the happy participants cross the finish line and watching the kids and loved ones cheering at the finish line make me realize why I am a Warrior.

A very proud Warrior Society Member,
Sherry Panttaja

Next year's event will be held on Saturday, April 4th. Registration for 2015 will open on Active.com at 8:00 p.m. October 1, 2014. The event sells out in minutes.