I picked up my teammate Melissa Bloom and her partner Marc Ellyn at 4:30 AM this morning. Melissa is a triathlete whom I befriended at the gym while recuperating from my running injuries on a stationary bike last year. She's the perfect teammate--in great shape, competitive and meticulous.
We are told to arrive very early at the race. We did as instructed, unlike the other competitors. After a long ride up a curvy road we enter the park, where we are told to drive into a cow pasture. There are no cows, but we have a sizable drive to the far corner of the bumpy field. I'm glad my Honda CRV has a little bit of clearance. This is the most off-roading I've done in this car since we bought it nine years ago.
Melissa and I sign some waivers, get our bibs, and decorate our bike to distinguish it from the hundreds that will share the course. She takes the bike to the start of the race to set the gears for the initial big climb. While there Marc Ellyn and I meet Ralph Gowan, whom I knew would be competing with Dave Luczynski from the Forward Motion race team. Melissa joins us after calibrating the bike. We're primed for a high performance race, but Ralph deflates my tires by saying the race is not competitive. I look around and see people in costumes while Melissa and I look like we're doing the Tour de France. I want to win, but I don't want this to be a joke.
At the start the announcer asks how many participants have done this before, and hardly any hands go up. This seems to be a one-time dalliance. The race is about 6.5 miles long, broken into five sections. Each participant runs and bikes, switching each leg. I'm the better runner, so I'll run the first, third and fifth leg, and Melissa is the stronger rider, so she'll ride when I run and then run the second and fourth legs.
Melissa goes to the very front with the rest of the bikers, while I stand behind with the runners. Not far from me is a woman wearing a lime green net outfit over black workout clothes. Ms. Lime Green Net looks ready to party. The bikes take off and a bit later the runners follow. Soon the runners start overtaking the riders. I'm in second place among the runners, and the bikes are having a tough time with the steep climb on the trail. A lot of riders are on foot, slowed down as they push their bikes up the hill. We pass Melissa, who's made a lot of progress, but I feel bad that she's walking. This isn't the kind of race she was expecting. Eventually the course levels off and the riders catch up with us. Melissa blows by me and I look forward to getting on the bike.
At each transition point we have to overcome an obstacle. The first one is a climbing wall about eight feet high. This is something that Maylee polishes off at the playground, so I have no problem with it and climb down the other side on a cargo net. Now it's time for me to ride. Melissa has left the bike on the left side of a mass of bikes. I guess you could call it a critical mass. Ralph advised us to determine where to leave the bike before the race to avoid losing time at the exchanges. I'm able to pick out the bike easily and I'm on my way.
Fear quickly overwhelms my excitement. Melissa is the primary rider, so the bike that we share is set for her proportions. We are exactly the same height, but she has longer legs so the seat is higher than I would prefer. We can't reset the seat every exchange, so when I ride I can barely reach the pedals. This isn't going to be easy and I wish I had my feet on something solid, like a pedal or the ground. The trail is bumpy and I have to avoid running over runners on the right while avoiding riders passing me on the left. I pass Melissa, who's now running, and I get to the second exchange area, a balance beam.
After about two and a half miles of running and biking, my legs are unprepared for the delicate movement on a balance beam. I fall off twice as I begin. On the third attempt I go extra slow. Reaching the halfway point, I turn sideways and slide my feet toward the end. I make slow progress, but get near the end and leap off.
I have another problem at this exchange. The race staff tells everyone to put their bikes on the left at this station, which conflicts with our planned bike drop position of always going to the right. I lean the bike against a sign so that it's the only upright bike, hoping that Melissa can find it. Back on the run, I continue to navigate past runners to my right while looking behind me to avoid getting run over by a cyclist. Melissa passes me and yells, "Keep the bike on the right!" Apparently she had a difficult time finding the bike.
The next obstacle is a climb up a cargo net followed by a trip down an inflatable slide. Just as I get off the slide Melissa shows up with the bike, so we have a seamless exchange. Approaching the last obstacle I gain on Ms. Lime Green Net. We crawl under a cargo net, which I discover I'm really good at. If someone ever invents a sport that emphasizes slithering through low spaces, I'd dominate it. Coming out of the net obstacle, I run past Ms. Lime Green Net, who tells me to go for it.
It's hot and I'm looking forward to finishing the race. I expect Melissa to pass me on the bike, but she never appears. I arrive at the last obstacle, the eponymous mud pit. Teams must go through together, so I find Marc Ellyn who's videotaping the event. Marc Ellyn asks me where Melissa is, but all I can say is that I'm surprised she didn't pass me on the last leg. A few minutes pass, and then Melissa shows up, drops off the bike and we go head first on hands and knees into the mud. It's a new experience. The mud feels pretty good but there are pebbles that scrape my knees. The pit has three deep sections that ensure that your entire body will get caked. After three drenchings we emerge brown.
Next stop are the showers, which are really a tangle of hoses. I take off my shoes, which are of no further use, and get a coupon for Columbia gear for donating them. Ralph Gowan yells to me from the road. He and Dave finished five minutes ahead of us, so he's already clean. He's wearing a towel around his waist. A shower cap and long scrub brush would complete the look. Melissa and I get as clean as we can without soap and with our clothes. We spray each other's backs and run the water down our own shorts.
After drying off and changing we head back to the race in search of the results. I ask Melissa if she was okay in the last leg, and she says she lost time looking for the bike. Our time of 50:42 is about eight minutes better than last year's winner in our age group, coed teams combined 96 years and older. Unfortunately, another team finishes two minutes ahead of us.
The event is extremely well organized, but the awards ceremony lasts longer than the race. The winning men are announced first, and the awards go five deep in seven age categories. Each age group gets on the podium for a group shot. The routine--name the team, wait for the team to show up, call the people in the Red Hook beer tent if the team doesn't show up, and take a group photo--repeats 20 times, that's five teams of two people for a total of 200 names--before our age group has its turn. By then pretty much everyone has left.
Melissa and I don't care who's there, we just want our medals. The winners, Kym Sterner and Jack Hollerman, are representing the downtown Oakland YMCA. They're really nice. Kym is Ms. Lime Green Net and Jack gives me a high five. Melissa and I are happy with our result, but we think we could take Ms. Lime Green Net and Jack in a competition that doesn't involve finding a bike lying on the ground. After all, they may be from the YMCA, but we're from the Harbor Bay Club.
Even though it takes longer than I'd like, this is a fun event. I can definitely see myself doing it again. Ralph is right. It's different, but it was challenging. And maybe next time we'll find our bike faster.
1 comment:
It seems the vent has so much fun from the picture in the post. i like the story. Keep up the good post.
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