NB's Comments:

Well, shaggy was going to write this up, but he’s had other issues to deal with so I figure I will jot down a few words. If shaggy comes through, we’ll add it to the site, but he’s had a lot going on so he gets a pass.

This race started out like a lot of the rest: camping the night before, a horrible night's sleep, and getting up too early. My truck... AKA, the Adventure Race Transport Vehicle (ARTV)... serves as my tent. Problem number one was that I forgot my Thermarest sleeping pad. Problem number two was the mosquito that spent the night biting me in the ass. Then he’d buzz my ear just so I would slap myself in the head every so often. SOB!

Anyway, my Timex Ironman went off at 0530. I wish it had a snooze button. It doesn’t. I got up and ate a Power Bar and a peanut butter sandwich before dragging my gear to the transition area (TA).

The race began at 0700 with a three-mile run. shaggy and I had a pretty good pace... about 25 minutes.

Run NB Run! shaggy... you look at the camera!

Roots, roots and more roots!

The next leg of the race was a hike-and-bike. Basically, one person rides a bike while the other runs. We had to hike-and-bike around the lake...about a half mile. I ran about two-thirds of it; I took the bike from shaggy, and he ran the rest of the way back to the TA while I rode the bike.

The last leg was the mountain-biking section. Mountain biking at Rocky Hill is tough, period. We had a good pace over the ten-mile course, and we passed a number of teams. At some point, shaggy’s rear tire came off the bike--not literally off the bike, but shifted forward. shaggy put it back on, but then the disk brake started dragging... A LOT! But we were doing so well, we couldn’t fix it or other teams would pass us, so shaggy rode the bike with a dragging rear brake. The trails are tough enough; add to this a dragging rear brake, and you have an ugly situation. shaggy persevered!

NB coming down the hill looking for what's next...

shaggy close behind!

We crossed the finish line at one hour, 45 minutes and 49 seconds.

I knew we did well... what I didn’t know at the time was that we were only the second team to come in... right behind team iMOAT. That’s damned impressive no matter who you are (if you know the iMOAT boys).

NB and shaggy chillin' after the race was over... really waiting for the rest of the folks to come in.

2nd place in Male Open and 2nd place overall!!!

2nd place... we’ll take it!

By the way, if you are wondering what adventure racing is all about, Jeff and Rob are friends of friends... they did the race, and this was a picture they posted on Facebook... I LOVE this picture!!!

That's adventure racing right there!!!