Cornhusker State Games Adventure Race

One the way to work yesterday my phone rang, but not recognizing the number, I ignored the call. Shortly after hitting the office my hotmail popped up an email from Rock D. It turned out the call and the email were about the same thing, Kris and Rick has lost their teammates for the AR and needed a third.

I said yes to their invitation without really thinking about it. Finding teammates at the last minute blows so I wasn't going to say. I had a few misgivings. I hadn't run most of the summer and had a fear of twisting something and compromising next weekend, but all went well to the tune of 10th place overall. Apparently, we were in the Masters category, but I don't know the result.

I rode out to the start. Taking off at six-ish and enjoying a bit of sunrise. After an hour twenty of riding, I arrived at Area One, only to discover that's not where the race started. I was confused because Jeff, Corey and I had trimmed the trail back for the AR on Wednesday night. I followed cars with bikes around to Lieber's Point in plenty of time and thankful not to have missed the start.


The race went very quickly. Kris kept a strong pace on both bike and run, with Rick smartly keeping us from blowing ourselves up. It seemed to me that their was a fair amount of time turning pedals which I am sure worked well for us. The paddling section brought a split in the teams with Kris and I taking the inflatable kayak and Rick drawing the short straw with a tube. Kris and I were to paddle to one boat while Rick did whatever it took to get that tube out to a boat.

I was happy to be using a kayak paddle and Kris and I made good work of our time on the water, including watching our competitors, including those in front of us, paddle in all directions (some finishing in reverse). I don't envy Rick's time with the tube. There didn't appear to be any good way to swim with the. In hindsight, I wonder if you could have simply swam and continually pushed it in front of you?

Kris had the trailer there. We made good use of it while lounging back after the race. Ahhhh.

Things finished up with some of those silly games on the beach. Fill buckets with sand, fill buckets with water, tennis ball toss. It was like an elementary school Field Day. After a short run (which did allow one team to power past us) we jogged across the line, Rick turned in a foam flower (?) and we ate a little and watched the show.

The race was nicely put together and well marked by my account. I have to thank Rick and Kris for the last minute call. I really wasn't too excited about the race the nice before-hand. I just wanted to help out my friends. In the end, I had a great time in great company.

I like to call him, "The Pile Driver."