What Matters

Each Adventure Race that I take part in, I learn something new. From navigation skills to training plans to paddling efficiency, there is always something to learn.

Here is what I learned this time;

Wearing an entire outfit of ONLY spandex does not mean that you will win the race ( a VERY common misconception).

Riding around on a $1,000 dollar bike does not mean that you will win the race.

Having experience running multiple marathons and going to spin class every week does not mean you will win the race.

Having great teammates that work well together, although may not guarantee victory, sure as hell makes the biggest impact.

I cannot say enough about how great my teammates are. It probably goes back to the fact that we are friends first that spend much more time hanging out and traveling together than we do racing together. That foundation makes for not only for us working well together, but having a great time and laughing through it all.

Each one of us has our own roll on the team. There is "The Spark Plug" that leads the way constantly keeps us moving and energized. There is the "Energizer Bunny" who has an endless supply of energy and is moving just as fast at the end of the race than the beginning. There is our "strategizer" who takes charge of the map and plotting our route.

Together with these three people, we make a great team. I didn't have a great race individually, but because my team helped picked me up, we were able to work together to not only win the race, but win by a huge margin.

And one more thing...

Not only do we race well, we talk awesome pre-race pictures also.