Team thisABILITY
Adventure Racing Teammates
Checkout the like-minded friends who race or have raced as Team thisABILITY.
We aim to help all imagine and realize what IS possible instead of what isn't!
Photo by Vlad Bukalo
Chip Dodd
Chip has created a lifestyle of pushing himself past his comfort zone. He has learned how to thrive while overcoming fear, pain, exhaustion and dehydration. To facilitate his adventurous lifestyle, he tricked out his cargo van and stealth camps over 100 days per year. These skills are not unlike those he has needed to survive the roller coaster ride of owning a $10M+ state wide human services agency, Support Services of Virginia. SSVA is a mission based, for-profit company based in Virginia Beach with divisions in 4 regions of Virginia employing over 200 people and 50 foster care families who provide personalized, community-based supports to over 185 individuals with intellectual and development disabilities.
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As a passionate entrepreneur, Chip serves on the board of the Southeastern Virginia chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization as well as the MyEO Global Committee. As the world’s only peer-to-peer network exclusively for entrepreneurs, EO helps transform the lives of those who transform the world.
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Because of the impact adventure racing has had in Chip’s life and career, he shares his story through keynote speeches and is even writing a book that will dive deep into Adventure Racing tips, tricks and strategy and how the same techniques have helped him lead his company through past challenges as well as those over the horizon.
Andrea Anderson
Andrea began adventure racing in 2016. Since then she has raced in a range of races and teammate configurations, from solo to a 4 person coed team, from a 3 hour family race to a 4+ day expedition race. She is an avid mountain biker and she includes climbing and paddling in the list of things she can't get enough of!
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Andrea is mom to 3 children, the oldest of which has Down syndrome. Much of her training has been through her day to day, real life experiences. As a parent of a son with Down syndrome, she has learned to look at the world from a unique perspective. Her son challenges and inspires her. Unlike most people, he has virtually no filter between his thoughts and actions. Unguarded, he is extremely authentic. He is a great example of the quote, “Do more of what you love.” Andrea appreciates that he has taught her to face her fears, push her limits and embrace her strengths. She applies these skills to her adventure racing.
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When not parenting and adventuring, Andrea leads the fiscal department of Support Services of Virginia, Inc. and is responsible for its accounting operations.
Brent Russell
Brent is originally from Mid-Western Michigan and has always loved being outside and active. He graduated high school in ’95 enlisted in the Navy and turned 18 in Boot Camp. A year later, he moved to Virginia, where he still lives, met his wife Natasha and together they have three amazing young boys.
Brent always played team sports in high school but after some transition, he started participating in individual sports. He started running to stay in shape, which led to mountain biking, then swimming, more biking, then rock climbing, kayaking and any other adventure he could find. He always tries to find the next challenge. That led to orienteering/rogaines in 2011 and adventure racing in 2017. During the 2017 Adventure Racing Nationals in Pennsylvania, he teamed up with Team thisABILITY for his 1st 30hr race and team event. Since ’17 Nationals he has competed in many solo and team ARs up to 30hrs and part of an expedition race (damn hurricane).
Between personal trips and the Navy he has visited 36 different countries and always tries to find adventurous things to do while there. Some personal successes have been hiking Mt. Fuji four times while stationed in Japan for two years. Completing multiple ultra-marathons, century bike rides, half ironman triathlons, and multiple day paddles on the James river. "Sometimes I want to race fast and solo against the course, sometimes I want to enjoy other people on a team and laugh at each other." His list of personal goals (while always growing) includes the SeaToSea AR, paddling the full length of the James River, and run the Western Ridge of the Massanutten trail.
Caitlin Thorn
As a former competitive distance runner for over 20 years, Caitlin took up Adventure Racing in 2016 to experience a new challenge. Since then, she has competed in events from 8 hours to 4 days, with multiple podium finishes and national championship qualifiers including 1st place Coed Coosa River Challenge, 2nd place Turkey Burn Florida State Championship, and 3rd place Blue Ridge AR. She completed Untamed New England and was part of team US Military in Eco Challenge Fiji.
Caitlin enjoys the physical and mental challenges that come with adventure racing, as well as the friendships and camaraderie fostered among teammates on the course. She enjoys competing on tough courses in amazing locations and hopes to expand her resume to international events in the coming years.
In her "spare time", Caitlin serves as an officer and engineer in the US Air Force and enjoys travel and outdoor activities with her husband and two kids. Caitlin is excited to be a part of the thisABILITY team and is looking forward to many more adventures to come!
Photo by Vlad Bukalo
Rachel Nolan
Rachel is a passionate globetrotter and adventure racer. Nine years ago while living in France, she started off with long distance trail running and cycling, competing in events such as the Marathon des Sables (a 7 day stage running race in the Morrocan Sahara), OCC (Orsieres-Champex-Chamonix ultra run) and numerous multi-day events.
Thanks to some amazing friends that introduced her to the adventure racing world and expedition style events, Rachel has competed in Slovenia AR, Belize AR, The Beast, ITERA Ireland, The Eco Challenge Fiji, The RACE Ireland, Coast 2 Coast Ireland, The Wild Atlantic Way 2100 km cycle, London Edinburgh London 1400 km cycle and many more.
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Rachel made her passion her job and started her tour company Rachel's Irish Adventures. If she is not taking on new challenges, discovering new places and cultures herself, Rachel loves bringing people off the beaten Irish paths to experience the best her home country has to offer.
J.J. Potasiewicz
JJ has been an avid adventure racer since 2008, when he was asked by a trail runner friend to team up for a local sprint race. After saying yes, his friend promptly backed out leaving him to race solo, and he’s been in love with the sport ever since. Over the last ten years most of the races JJ’s participated in have been as a solo, and he’s only discovered the joys of the team aspect in recent years. JJ likes to maintain a sense of humor out on the trails, and his experiences racing have certainly provided plenty of material! JJ met Chip and Andrea out in the jungles of Belize during the 2018 Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge, where he was racing as a member of the Belize national team.
When he’s not stumbling through the woods in the middle of the night, JJ is a freelance artist and designer focusing on the built environment. His work focuses on making businesses and institutions look and function better by creating aesthetically pleasing and functional signs and architectural features. His work appears in such places as Carnegie Mellon University, Phipps Conservatory, the National Aviary, the Carnegie Museums and the Pittsburgh Zoo. He also serves as Vice President of Sign Pro Architectural, a sign fabricator located north of Pittsburgh, PA. JJ is the proud father of two children, two guinea pigs, two geckos, a snake and a Toyota.
Photo by Vlad Bukalo
Nate Wood
Nate is the father of four crazy kids. An attorney with the Department of Justice and a Marine officer, Nate lives in Quantico, Virginia, with his beautiful wife, also a Marine. Nate likes to compete in all manner of athletic events, including local adventure races, trail races, and mountain bike races. He especially likes to race while pushing a kid or two in a jogger.
Nate began his adult athletic career as a rower at the University of Michigan. Go Blue! His athletic claim to fame is that he once handstand walked the flight deck of the USS Bataan while deployed. Nate is thrilled to race with Andrea and JJ at the 2019 Nationals!
Jenni Soutar
Jenni grew up on a farm in rural South Africa where she spent her days horse riding, bass fishing and building tree houses. Today that's graduated into mountain bike riding, trail running and climbing cliffs, not trees. Life has always been about sport for her and probably the only reason she attended school. At University she studied Sport Science, and graduated as a Physical Therapist. 14 years ago, after backpacking for a year in New Zealand, she and her husband settled down in a small town called Dundee, South Africa where they started mountain biking competitively. This turned into competing in numerous Xterra events, ultra triathlons and adventure racing (including Expedition Africa, 2011 & 2012). Jenni and her husband, Garren landed on the podium many times.
Jenni is now a mom of two small kids and not all weekends are about racing anymore, but they do always include a good amount of trail running, mountain biking and rock climbing. She now runs a whole lot slower so she can take in the scenery and meet amazing people along the way. In recent years she has competed in a few ultra marathons, shorter adventure races, multi-day mountain bike races and Wartrail (3 days, 60km trail run/120km mtb/ 60km paddle). Jenni is super excited about the adventure that awaits her on Rodrigues Island for Expedition Africa 2019!
Henk Van Aarde
Henk grew up on farms in the lowveld region of south africa and Zimbabwe. It was there that he developed a passion for the outdoors, adventure and exploration.
During his years studying as a mechanical engineer he was heavily involved in rock climbing, mountain biking, trail running, spelunking, rafting, canyoning and any other activity that adventure con offer.
It was then that he had his first taste of adventure racing when competing in the Swazi Extreme, a short, but intense event held in the kingdom of Swaziland. The experience stuck for life.
Of recent years his focus has been more on ultra MTB events as they offered the opportunity to suffer and be removed from the crowds. Competing in events such as the 36ONE MTB challenge, Trans Baviaans, Recce Mission, Karoo to Coast and To Hell and Back. All the whilst leaping at any opportunity for getting out and doing anything active.
It was with gratitude and excitement that he accepted to be part of and represent team this for the Expedition Africa race to be held on the Indian ocean Island of Rodriguez.
Phil Dawson
​Phil has been adventure racing for 15 years and came to the sport after doing triathlon for 14 years. He still gets in a couple of triathlons a year but now mainly focuses on adventure races. He has competed in events ranging from 6 hours to 3 days and loves the navigation and thinking required to do well. He loves the teamwork and quickly figured out that you really get to know people well at 4 in the morning on day 2 or 3 of a race! His claim to fame is winning the USARA Open Division Championship in 2014. He has also been race director for the Sportsbackers RiverRock Adventure Race for the past eight years. Phil is a pediatrician living in Richmond, Virginia with this wife Lisa. They have three awesome grown kids.
Daniel Rodriguez-Agudo
Daniel is originally from Spain and has been doing adventure racing for 20 years. He came to the sport to combine his passion for trail/mountain running, rock climbing, orienteering and mountain biking. In 2002, along with his team, he finished 2nd in the National Adventure Race Series in Spain. In 2003 he moved to the US and for the first 3 years focused on running marathons, rock climbing and paddling, until he found teammates for adventure racing in the US. Since 2007 he has been racing 3-4 adventure races a year of any length between 12h and 3 days. He was part of the team (with Phil Dawson and Eric Cone) that won the USARA Open Division Championship in 2014, and along with them, has been directing the SportsBackers RiverRock Adventure Race for the past 8 years. He has experience as a solo-racer, but he really enjoys being part of a team. In 2019 he was part of Team thisABILITY for the first time competing at the Massanutten Massacre 26h AR. Daniel is a PH.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry working at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), living in Chesterfield (VA) with his wife and three daughters.
Kathy Hoverman
Kathy joined Team thisABILITY for the 2018 Adventure Addicts 12 hour Adrenaline Rush with the specific goal of helping the team get an invitation to the USARA National Championships. Together with Chip and Sam, they won 1st place in the 3+ Co-Ed division landing them their invitation and $400 towards their entry. Kathy will be competing in 2018 Nationals with Andrea and Chip.
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Kathy has been a force to be reckoned with in Adventure Racing for over 10 years. She lead her own AR team in Maryland consisting of some of the strongest racers on the East coast landing them numerous podium wins and invitations to the National Championships.
Photo By Vlad Bukalo
Photo by Vlad Bukalo
Sam Prestidge
Like Kathy, Sam joined Team thisABILITY for the 2018 Adventure Addicts 12 hour Adrenaline Rush with the specific goal of helping the team get an invitation to the USARA National Championships. Together with Chip and Kathy, they won 1st place in the 3+ Co-Ed division.
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Sam has competed in numerous high profile races such as the 2017 National Championships and the 2018 Untamed New England 4 day expedition race. As an experienced outdoorsman, he is no stranger to the podium. Chip and Sam have competed in many of the same races, however The 2018 Adrenaline Rush was the first time they joined forces.
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