Saturday, myself and a team of three friends completed our second Adventure Race. This race, more than the previous race, had a big emphasis on Adventure.
The adventure began even before the race started when we where taking our team picture. We wanted to do something original, so we had one person climb up into a tree. Just as she got up there, we spotted two snakes just beneath the tree. It was a pretty quick picture after that.
The race itself started with canoeing, followed by trekking and finally biking. Less then two minutes into the canoe leg, we got stuck in a thick algae field and I had to get out in the knee deep water to dislodge us. From that point on, I spent about as much time in the water as I did in the canoe. (Remember that later.)
We breezed through the canoe leg in great time, and headed off for the trekking. The trekking was quick, and aside for one navigation error, we flew through it.
Next, we hopped on our bikes to begin the over 10 kilometer, off-road biking leg. We weaved in and out of dirt roads that framed several different swamp areas. Most of the checkpoints were just a few yards off the trail, but so were several alligators. We rode by one gator (very quickly) that had a head a foot and a half wide and a body approaching 10 feet. All of this just a few miles from the water we canoed/walked through.
When it was all said and done, we were able to clear the course and hit all 15 checkpoints with almost 20 minutes to spare. The official results are not in yet, but our best guess is that we finished 4th or 5th out of 51 team. Not too bad, but to be honest, we were a little disappointed. We were only 5 minutes off the pace of second place.
All in all, my teammates all did an awesome job and we all had a good time, which I guess it was really matters. But another trophy would have been nice also.
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