The race started out with a bike leg. The first 8 miles or so where all on the road. A loop around city island, a shot up the multiuse path along the river, and continuing on Front Street where it turns to 2 way traffic. Lots of police escorts/traffic controllers, but it still was an open road course, so we had to be careful. Rode past Fort Hunter and on towards Fishing Creek (we're 7 or 8 miles from the start now). At that point, the race turned to an off road, single track course with lots of walking sections. Well, walking sections for me... Unfortunately, about 12 minutes into the bike ride, my knee started acting up. I got the feeling it was going to be a long day. I was really hoping it would hold out and I would get at least 2 miles of running jogging on it. The single track to the first transition area was very benign, but rule number 1 of mountain biking is to not be a seat junkie. It's very important to be able to stand on your pedals and shift your weight around to suit the terrain. At one point in my life I was very good at this. During the race however, I felt like a complete poser pushing my really nice FS-MTB over rocks and trees that should not have been an issue... We got to the first transition area after a little more than an hour. I changed into my running shoes and we were off for our first challenge.

We had a triangular peice of wood about 15 inches across with three handles. We each grab a handle in the designated handle holding area while balancing a lacrosse ball on the wooden platform. Not so bad. What? We have to walk on this curvy, wavy spray painted line on the ground? The whole way over there? WITHOUT dropping the ball or we have to start over? Well, we took our time, worked as a team and what do you know? We nailed it on the first try. And we're off onto the run.

As we're jogging through a wooded trail, the lead teams are wrapping up the run section. One of our friends stopped for a second and told us that we would be happier once we finished it. Great. We get out into a clearing and see power lines. F#@k. Around here, power lines always seem to be run right over the nastiest, hilliest, most veritcal places one can find. And yes, we had to climb. Did I mention I tripped over some vines in the woods? No? Well, I did and managed to jam my bad knee when I landed. It didn't take much of the "climbing up the hill" thing before it really started to hurt. At this point there were still a couple of teams behind us and I was hoping we could keep that lead. Well, we got to a flattened out section where there was a puzzle challenge of some kind. Cool, were do we turn around to go back to the bikes? Oh, we need to keep going to the TOP of the hill first. Great. Long story short we made it to the top. The view was definitely worth the climb, but I knew I wasn't going to the able to run back down the hill. We punched the first checkpoint and started down the hill. No matter which way I walked (straight or sideways) nothing felt good. And not in a "I just need to push through this" kind of not good, but the "I think I'm causing permanent damage" kind of not good. Again, long story short, between dodging some cyclists who were wrapping up the puzzle challenge and starting the 2nd bike leg and getting behind my two teammates (and behind the course sweeper who was removing the marker ribbons as he went along - I got lost for a bit and I'll leave it at that) we got back to our bikes. Somehow even with getting lost, I managed to find the second checkpoint. Hey look at that, only 3 bikes left. I guess we're definitely in last place now.

On to the swimming pool. Yes a really cold swimming pool for the next challenge. We had to get a beach ball under two different submerged ropes. Andrew took care of that one quickly. A little too quickly for me because the cold water felt really good on my knee :) Finished the tripping/trekking/climbing/slogging leg in about an hour and 45 minutes (at least 3 miles, but probably not more than 4). Pool challenge took just under 7 minutes including making my way to the pool and back up to the bikes. After we got out of the pool, I was starting to feel nausea in a bad way. I guzzled a Mountain Dew in hopes of getting it over with, but no dice. As I would find out 90 minutes later it was a good idea, but poorly timed. Anywho, on to the 2nd bike leg.

Started out on the second bike leg and when I got dropped and couldn't catch up that quickly, I sat down. Yep, sat on my but and looked at my bike, then back at my knee and back at the bike and back at my knee and back... You get the point. "Do I quit here or do I try to keep going?" I've never had to actually mull that over during a race. I decided to throw in the towel if it was cool with my teammates. I was out here to have fun and my body had other plans. I felt like crap. In order to fullfill my "bright idea adventure racing fantasy," two other people had sacrificed a day and more than a couple dollars to join me and here I was quitting. Suck. Well, I got back up, caught up to them and we chatted with one of the course marshalls. He told us that the second bike leg was more technical single track. I couldn't do it. At least not safely or quickly. There wouldn't be enough time for us to make the time cut-off for the canoe portion. The course martial told us that we could go back the way we came in, do the rowing leg and whatever challenges we felt like but we wouldn't get an official finish. Thankfully, my team mates were OK with that and I don't think that they minded it. I felt bad, but I wasn't going to trash myself for something that was supposed to be fun. The team dynamic was something really different. Not only do your decisions affect you, but they affect your team mates too. Lots of heavy stuff. Well, we continued on and during the "big dip" by the pipeline, Andrew came back to help with my bike. It was kind of embarassing, but I needed the help, so I didn't turn him down. We finished riding out and eventually made our way to the canoes. The second bike leg took just under an hour.

We took about seven minutes in transition. We had about a quarter mile walk along the river to get from the bike drop off to the canoe pick up. We loaded up and pushed off. Andrew took point, Cathy was in the middle and I sat in the back. Cathy and I switched back and forth on the paddling for the first little bit (they only gave us two paddles). When we got stuck on some rocks, we got out and changed spots. I was in the middle with Cathy in front and Andrew in back. About 30 minutes down the river, I got that funny feeling deep down inside of me. I damn near capsized us when I went to the rail to scream at the fish. Not pretty. And I didn't feel better right away either so I knew there would be more coming later. Funny comment from Andrew - "How much did you drink?" Um, not a matter of how much I drank, but as I would find out later, it turned out to be how much didn't empty out of my stomach. Note for the future - Clif bars make a clean exit without tearing up your throat on the way back out. Yet another reason to love them... At that point, I pretty much sat in the middle and shivered a lot. It had been a long time since I had felt like that, but I know severe dehydration and heat sickness when I get it. I guess the exertion of climbing that hill in the direct sun was enough to do me in. Anyway, Back to the paddling. Andrew and Cathy pretty much escort my sorry butt back to City Island - about 5 or 6 miles total of padding. It took us about 2 hours for the canoe section. They only had to see me bark at the submarines one more time about an hour later. We all got out of the canoe to get it off some rock and I trudged about 10 feet away (yes, downstream) and had a moment of Clif bar and sports drink visual re-inspection by myself.

Since we came in unofficially, we were pretty finished with the race at that point. We skipped the rest of the challenges except for one. Knocking over a pyramid of three beer kegs with a firehose! That was actually pretty fun. We also found out that Cathy's boyfriend's team came in first overall!! Mike had a Rainman/Puzzlemaster moment and they got through the puzzle challenge in no time at all while the team that was 2 minutes ahead of them going into the puzzle challenge took almost half an hour to complete the puzzle and move on.

Even taking into consideration how much food I ate at the post race party, my best estimate is that I lost almost 10 pounds during the race. Not good...

Not sure about this one. I thought my knee would have been OK, but I also didn't anticipate having to deal with such a big hill (about 760 feet straight up). It was a great challenge, but mostly felt bad for my team mates for having to put up with my sorry butt. When whatever team I find to put up with me next year gets through the whole thing, I'll probably have a better idea of why I sucked so bad this time through. For now, I'll call it a good race because I didn't die and I was smart enough to throw in the towel before I did something un-fixable to myself.

They had a heck of a party for us. Lots of food, beer, water, energy drink. Consumed plenty of everything except the beer. That would not have worked for me...


If I filled this section in, I'd be in violation of the race rules - no whining in particular - so I'm going to skip it. Seriously, "No Whining" was on the waiver.