tahoeliz: Big Blue Adventure

So, I did this race yesterday called the Big Blue Adventure. Truly an adventure, the race included kayaking, running, and a wicked mountain bike course. This was a team event (we were team Pink Insomnia) that included following a map and other special tasks.

oh yeah... and an insane rainstorm to make it really interesting.

My personal photographer (mom) took a million pictures, so you have a play by play.

You can see the raindrops on the lake... we were waiting for the start. Fortunately the water was pretty calm. A few hours earlier there were big waves. I was excited for the kayaking portion... until we got in the rubber rafts! Yeah... rubber rafts.

So any experience in a real kayak is obsolete in a rubber raft. I understand why they had us all use the same boat, but this was insanely frustrating.

I thought kayaking would be one of our strengths, but we came out of the water at the end of the group. I had to resign myself to the fact that we might be last place. However, we were super quick in the transition area, and passed a couple teams there.

First transition - completely soaking wet - 40 degrees! Fun

We had to run from the beach to the highway to a trail to our bikes.

These shots are taken from the car as they passed us. Unfortunately, they couldn't get too many shots of us on the trails or off road. Also, we had to carry all our gear with us on every leg of the race, so extra shoes, bike pump, patch kit, helmets, water, food etc...

Second transition area. We had to check in and get our map signed.

The night before, we had to leave our bikes at the staging area. I covered my seat, but the bikes got the full effects of the storm. I didn't realize how much the water effected it, until I started climbing the hills. My gears were unhappy. Next time I have to bring goo... yes it was so fun... there will be a next time.

This is the beginning of the bike section. This shows the 100 yards of paved path before the 10 plus miles of real trail started. This was a pretty technical course... lots of single tracks, steep climbs, barriers (like fallen trees), puddles and mud from the storm. I had some near misses, but I thankfully didn't fully wipe out.

3rd transition. Midway through the bike course, there was a guy that we had to check in w/. He was sitting under a big umbrella and obviously cold. If you followed the trail or map incorrectly, you could miss him and get ranked lower for not completing the course.

This is happy Liz realizing we passed about 6 teams on the mountain!

Then we get to run again. According to the map, we saw that we were headed toward the beach and finish line. I was concerned because we had one more check point...

So we run another couple miles, and we meet this guy who gives us our first challenge. Find a special bridge and bring back info that is posted on a sign near the bridge. Fortunately, I'm a Tahoe native, so I got us there with out any unnecessary detours.

We thought this was really the end, but we were told we had to go back in the "kayaks" aka inflatable rafts. WE were not happy b/c there were teams close behind us, and we really struggled with these boats. However...