My Adventure Race Adventure

This last weekend Traci, Gigi and I completed the Renegade Dirty Adventure Race (a triathlon of sorts). What sounded like a fun idea six months ago, turned into a black cloud hanging over my head weeks before the race. Nervous about not knowing what to expect and knowing I'd have to push myself harder than I like to be pushed, I just wanted to back-out completely. But being the dependable person that I am, I couldn't let my friends down. So we arrived at Bonelli Park at 6:45 am in the not-so-comfortable temperature of 39 degrees and got ready to start. Our first leg of the race was the 3-mile trail run. Using our map, we had to find a handful of checkpoints, punch our passport and set off for the next leg of the race. I felt like I was on The Amazing Race TV Show.

This is one of the optional checkpoints we located off the main trail.

We completed the first leg in 1 hour 15 minutes sharing last place with another team who were also there just to have fun. Our next challenge was the 1/2-mile boat paddle pulling one member in an inner tube. After what seemed like forever, we carried our flotation devices through the beach obstacle course and finished at the rock climbing wall. Legs tired from running on hills, arms tired from paddling, now we get to use what little energy we have left to scale the wall. With that said and done it's off on the 8-mile all uphill, mountain bike ride from hell!



The beach obstacle course was one of the fun challenges along the course...teamwork was key. 



In the transition area getting ready for our ride, an event worker felt the need to remind us that we were entered in a race...we laughed and told him were not IN IT TO WIN IT, JUST HAVE FUN!

The riding leg of the race had some mental challenges mixed in with the uphill torture...a nice diversion from our pain. Rolling dice, putting together a puzzle blindfolded, and filling a holey tube with water to retrieve the ball put our mind to use instead of our muscles. We only stopped once to contemplate our sanity wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. Then, with God's grace and no catastrophes...we made it to the finish line as they were starting to clean up the event. We only got 5 points deducted for finishing an hour after the recommended finish time and best of all...we were not LAST...we came in second to last. But the most hilarious thing of all??? Take a look at the photo below.

Here we are holding our First Place Plaque. That's right...we placed first in 3 Member Woman's Teams. I probably don't have to tell you that we were the ONLY 3 Woman Team!  We'll laugh about this for a long time