I got asked to do an adventure race with studly Olaf. Since I love these races, I could not turn the offer down. I warned him I have been sick, haven't done anything over 30 minutes in a month, etc... I should have made him sign off on the disclaimer. :) I truly don't know what I was thinking, except that I am full of myself just thinking I can "jump in" events.
The last time I did an adventure race, I remember it being so mild and mellow, I thought,
is this it???? So,
I thought I would just be spending another Saturday morning hiking
around the trails with Olaf. Low level exercise, right? I could do
that out of shape and recovering. No big deal. (I failed to remember that last adventure race I was in the best shape of my life after IM Wales).
Olaf and Damie Pre-Race.
Yea Right. I really underestimated the race and overestimated myself. The last adventure race, I think we ran maybe 100 yards- it was so easy. Saturday, we covered about 10 miles running, and I was miserably sure that I had a fever. Oh, and the easy mountain bike through the trails? Um, no. It was like 30 miles of time trialing. I was caught between being happy to be in the great outdoors with an awesome friend, and wanting to shoot myself for signing up like and idiot and putting my body through torture.
I would give you a blow by blow race report, but it would be hard to really write down every single mistake we made that costs us TONS of time. For example, we came into transition in the lead 2 different times, only to leave in 4th or 5th place. We lost a pair of shoes on the course. We incorrectly plotted a point. We underestimated my ability to swim with a life vest around my neck. We chose the long way to a point. Our map got wet and we couldn't read part of it. We couldn't get clipped into our bikes. (okay, that was really just me, but I am using "we" since this is a team effort. :)
I honestly was not expecting to have to put forth such an athletic effort, and I spent most of my day praying that Olaf would need to stop running and read the map, mainly so I could have a break. I had never been so happy to see a mountain bike in my whole life.
So, it was not my most brilliant athletic accomplishment, and I might have scared Olaf off for good, but at the end of the day, I still totally love adventure racing. It is the best. Olaf rocks and is a super adventure racer. It is awesome to race with the best. And the great thing is, you always win or lose together. There is no one person responsible for any outcome. It is a fun team sport.
Ahhhh....finished. Not quite the fresh daisy anymore. Who can pick out the fit athlete that has been training? * Hint, by using process of elimination, you can assume it is not the athlete with pale legs from sitting indoors watching the Kardashians and Honey Boo Boo Child.
We came in 2nd place by a mere 3 seconds. At first, I was so frustrated to have been so close and not win. It was a long day, and 2nd was frustrating-not to mention, we are capable of so much more. But, the more I think about it, we were so lucky we made it that close considering the enormous about of mistakes we made throughout the day. We didn't deserve to win on that day, and our ability to make it a race at the end was demonstrative of our love of the outdoors, respect for each other, and giving it everything we had.
And, I hope that Olaf will always remember that I love him so much that I ran about .75 miles with no shoes or socks on through the trails to try to pull out the win. I also promise him that I will a. get a bike that fits me for the next race. b. ride the mountain bike more than 2-3 x per year and c. stop borrowing bike shoes that are 2 sizes too big for me. d. will start training and getting fit again, eventually.....
the adventure continued through the next day-to be told on the next post. :)
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