 brewer's Comments:
This was race #4 of the five race series...
We were a little worried about this race since it was
more free flowing than the others. There wasn't a
marked course just checkpoints you had to get to
basically anyway you saw fit. This was a big change,
and I had no clue how we'd do.
I've only been to Houston four times in my life and
usually try to get out as quickly as possible so I had
no idea what downtown looked like so I knew I wasn't
going to be any help. Luckily
NB lives smack dab
in downtown Houston and prowls the streets and bike
paths and knows his way around.
I showed up to his house around 6:30 Friday evening and
had dinner with his family. We jumped on the bikes and
made a quick ride down to the transition area (TA) and
met up with Scott and Kathy (Terra Firma race
organizers) had a drink and then headed back to his
house.
We were up at 0600 and out the door about 45 minutes
later. We got the TA set up and hung around for am hour
and a half before the race started.
During the prerace briefing Scott said to take our
running shoes with us on the bike and that the sequence
would be run, bike, run, bike, run, bike and run. Way
different than any of the previous races. Ten minutes
before race start, they handed out a page telling us
where to run to get our maps and directions.
We took off shortly after 0900 in a mad dash for the map
area. We were in the first wave to get there, and NB
grabbed our packet which contained a folded City of
Houston map and an instruction sheet on where to go for
the first three checkpoints. He new immediately where
to go and off we went following several other teams.
I got the CP1 stamp and off we went running along the
lower river path for about 1.5 miles until it dead ended
and then up six flights of stairs to CP2. I noticed
several teams were running along the road paralleling
the path meaning they missed the stair climbing fun.
Luckily the volunteer at CP2 sent them back down the
hill and had them come up the hard way.
CP3 was just down the hill and NB grabbed that. Next we
were too make our way back to the TA any path we chose.
NB found a hole in the fence which was a good shortcut,
and we took a slight detour to scout out the first
mountain biking leg. We hit the TA somewhere around 24
minutes and changed into our bike shoes, helmets,
stuffed our running shoes in our Camelbaks and took
off.
We headed back basically the same way we had run but
this time were on the other side of the bayou and rode
out to Spotts Park. This was about a three-mile ride,
and when we got to the park we had our first challenge
(mystery event). We changed into running shoes and ran
about 1/4 mile to the top of a big hill where we were
handed our next set of instructions. At the bottom of
the hill were three posts. Each post had a different
color poker chip at the bottom and a picture of a snake
on it. Each team ran down the hill to the first post,
grabbed a chip and looked at the snake. Then you ran
back up the hill to the table and had to identify that
snake out of 39 snakes pictured on the poster. If you
were right you got a stamp. And then ran back down for
the second picture and chip, back up for the ID and
stamp and back down for the third. I was hurting pretty
good at this point, and NB ID'd the first two snakes
before I really knew what was going on. I was just
following him up and down the hill and handing our
passport over to be stamped. I finally got my wits
about me for the third snake and helped NB make up his
mind on the right number, and we got our third and final
stamp and were off to the corner of Blossom and
Crestwood after getting our bike gear back on.
This took us right in front of NB's house, and I was
ready to grab the car at this point. But we kept
heading west right to the eastern edge of Memorial Park
which was another 2 mile ride. We stamped CP7 there,
and the directions said to head to the south side of
Memorial Park which was another 2 mile ride. We had to
follow the power lines down about 200 yards and got CP8
there. At this point we had to change back into running
shoes and go on a trail run through Memorial Park. I'm
really not sure how long this lasted. I'd guess 15
minutes or so. NB had a minor calf cramp near the
beginning but worked it out. I caught my foot on a root
and took a fall but remembered my judo training and
tucked and rolled and popped up without too much damage
other than a stiff neck and a spiked heart rate.
We made it back to the bikes and had to ride to back to
the TA anyway we wanted. NB took us down Memorial on
the sidewalks, bike paths and dirt paths. I was
starting to fade at this point. It was super hot and
humid out, and a couple miles back into the bike I
started to get the chills. I started sucking down more
HEED and water, and we backed off the pace a bit which
helped me recover. We made it back to the TA and were
handed our final instructions with two CPs still to go.
We dropped of the bikes and gear and put on our shoes
again to the next challenge which was just across the
park from the TA. It was the jellybean toss. One
person had a spoon and a jelly bean and had to toss it
to their partner about 15-20 feet away who had to catch
it in a plastic cup. This doesn't sound very hard, and
it wasn't... until you've been going all out for 1 hour
and 40 minutes. I got some decent tosses in but the
first few bounced out after hitting the bottom of the
cup. NB got the timing down on the third toss, and we
got the CP9 stamp. One more to go.
We had to run 1/3 of a mile to the Aquarium. There is a
waterfall in front of it that drops into a small pool.
CP10 was in the pool so we jumped in got the final stamp
and had to go under the waterfall and out the other
side. The water felt great, but it was over in a
second, and we were back running towards the finish
line.
Our final time was on the upper end of 1 hour 53
minutes. I was pooped. Not as spent as at Muleshoe,
but we had both given it our all and were proud of how
we finished... especially considering our concerns from
earlier that morning.
Next race is Glenrose, and the Championship hangs in the
balance.
BTW - We never opened the map the entire race. Way to
navigate NB!
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