Race Report!!! I love being able to share race reports, because it means I finished a race! Yesterday, some old high school friends (four guys and me as the solo female on the team) and I who reconnected on Facebook last year met up in Austin to do this crazy adventure race. Basically, it's a hub and spoke thing, where you get a clue, have to travel on foot or bike to a location, participate in a challenge, and go back to the hub for the next challenge. Three of us did this race the last time it was held in Austin, so we knew what to expect; the other two, not so much. I don't think they were expecting for three of us to be tied together while mashing an avocado into guacamole, but we did and they took it in stride. It was a blast!
Leg 1: We biked to a park, where one team member had to pull themselves up a hill on a wet tarp, and then slide back down the hill. Our team did it with style! Then we had to solve a puzzle to figure out where to go next, which was to a restaurant where we mashed up the guacamole. This was gut check time. Three out of the five of us are flatlanders. The hills in this leg were kind of nasty, but we had a local on the team who took us into account and said he kept us away from the really bad ones. We made it to the restaurant, made the guac, and took it back to the hub to prove we'd completed the challenge.
Leg 2: I had to sit this one out. My long run from Friday came back to haunt me just after we started. That swimmy feeling came over me and I thought I was going to pass out. The guys went on without me, and came back cussing me. They had to do a bootcamp and one of the exercises was carrying someone. Guess it's good to have one little chick on the team! Then they did a slackline course and came back.
Leg 3: I fueled up the half hour the guys were gone and was back in it. This was the LONG leg. We cycled about 6 miles one way to an indoor rock climbing facility. There were a couple of climbing challenges, one where a team member was blindfolded and the other where a team member had to swing from rings to get from one side of the room to the other. Then it was back to the bikes and ride 6 miles back to the hub. The flatlanders fell behind the leaders on the way back and they had to wait for us at the gate before we could all go in together. The hills got us again, but we made it back.
Leg 4: Back to the bikes, we rode over to a park where we thought we were going to do something pretty silly. Two team members were to carry a bucket of water to the top of the tower, where a third team member would stand at the base, blindfolded. The first two team members were to fill a cup held by the third team member. Local safety officials didn't show up for this leg, so we ran an obstacle course instead. Then we were directed to go to another part of the park, where one team member ran to the other side of the lake while another did a stand up paddle across. They switched positions and did the reverse coming back. Meanwhile the rest of us had to flip a 1/4 full water bottle over a table until it landed on it's bottom, upright. And back to base camp!
Leg 5: For the final leg of the race, we ran to a nearby park..... well, some of the team was starting to cramp up and limp by now, so it wasn't all running, but we made it..... where we did Parkour. This one was hard. We had to go up a staircase, backward and upsidedown, to a deck. Think feet first, like a crab. Tougher than it sounds! Then one team member had to run around the deck railing, assisted by another team member. Then, we all had to go over the railing and traverse the cross braces that supported the deck. Again, hard, and I was seriously worrying about splinters getting into delicate places. Once that was done, we went up a terraced seating area, using only the terrace walls. Finding your balance on this one so late in the race was hard. The we ran (walked/limped/shuffled) back to home base and we were done!
Team Brazoswood 88 ate the Oyster in less than 5 hours, covering over 30 miles and completing 7 challenges. I can still feel the burn in my quads and glutes, but put my 5 miles in this morning to start a proper taper for the marathon. Just three weeks to go!
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