Beautiful day for a crazy race in Austin, Texas. I'm calling the race distance equivalent to running 28 miles but that is an estimate of the race effort distance. The Oyster Adventure series is run in 4 cities in the United States: San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Austin. This was the first year in Austin and what a great race. Our coed team of myself, Karen F., and Karen H. took 4th place overall of all the teams (and some of the teams had 6 on a team so they took turns every other event) and we took 2nd place in the co-ed teams. We finished in 4hrs 23min and a few seconds. The 1st place coed team finished about 3 minutes ahead of us, a young team of two stripling men and one stripling young woman. Our team was the oldest in the entire race with our combined ages adding up to 150 years old. For our 2nd place finish in the co-ed division we each won a $110 gift certificate for Merrell sportsgear, and our team won a cash award for $250. They call this an adventure race because you have to do a total of 8 events (passports) in the race, but you don't know what the event will be until you finish the current event that you are doing. The pre-race information said we would be running, biking, in-line skating, kayaking, and using our mental powers to figure out how to get to the destination, and using maps of the city to figure out where the destination item was located. For example, the event card might have a picture of a landmark from Austin, and then we had to figure out where it was located and then go find it and then take a picture of us in front of the landmark to prove we had been there. We would get our "passport" punched either out on the course or when we got back to the race start area with the evidence of completing the task. Then we would collect the passports as there were key clues even in the passports.
1. The first event we ran for about 55 minutes to find a statue, a famous tree, and another statue. We ran at a strong pace and it made me wonder if both Karens would be able keep this up for the length of the endurance run. They both did keep it up and even dropped me in the bike rides. I was impressed.
2. The second event we rode bikes from the center of Austin up to the top of Mt. Bonnell and then back to the race starting area. Both Karens ride bikes a lot and it showed on this long bike ride. I kept falling a little back and when they would be stopped by a red light I would catch up. I thought they might get tired so I could keep up all the way, but it didn't happen. They said that biking helps strengthen running skills, but running does not translate into biking strength and conditioning. I think I will join them in some of their training bike rides.
3. The third event we rode bikes over to Townlake and while both Karens did the kayak challenge I rode over to Barton Springs pool and went out into the water and found the clue on a green card at the bottom of the pool. We used this clue in the 6th challenge. Then we returned to the race start area. 4. The fourth event we ran over to a gym and then we divided up the task. Karen F had to lift 10,000 lbs. She did 100lbs 100 times. Karen H had to ride the stationary bike for 3 miles. I had to run the treadmill for 1 mile. Then we ran back to the starting area.
5. The fifth event we had to in-line skate for about 30 minutes. We split up and each went to the designated destination, got our passports punched and then returned to the race start area.
6. The sixth event we had to go to a designated location and then walk down Shoal Creek in the middle of the creek. Both Karen's tripped on a big rock and cut their knees and fell down into the water up to their neck. The highest the water got on me was up to my chest. Then after about 200 meters of water walking we had to transport 30 rocks over across the creek to a designated area before they would punch our passport. Then we returned to the race start area. 7. The seventh event had instructions to have us go beg for money and to find diet Coke cans, and Pepsi cans, etc. We were just starting to run down the street as we read the instructions, and at the bottom of the instructions it told us that if we were reading this instruction, then we could ignore all of the above instructions and go back to the race start area. Thank goodness for good reading. 8. The eighth and final passport included interpreting some coding of asterisk words from all of the passports, and then figuring out what the code words meant. Then once we figured it out we rode our bikes through Austin to the landmark and got instructions. We had to pick up 8 drink coasters from local bars in Austin. We did this and rode back to the start area and we were done. By this time the legs were cramping and twitching. It was pretty wild. We were glad to have finished as well as we did. We had a great support group of my wife, and Joe and Angel, and Sean and Melanie. They sure made it fun to return to the exchange area and get ready for the next event challenge.
So it is impossible to truly translate how all of these events translate into "mile" distances, which is why I just put it at equivalent of running 28 miles. It took over 4 hours 23 minutes of continuous effort that left the legs spent and cramping and twitching. What a great feeling. My estimate of actual distances is that we probably ran 7 miles in the 1st event, rode bikes for probably 16 miles in the 2nd event (8 miles uphill and 8 miles downhill), rode bikes for 6 miles in the 3rd event and the K's kayaked for probably 40 minutes in the 3rd event, ran 1 mile and did the 10,000 lb lift / 3 mile stationary bike / 1 mile treadmill in the 4th event, in-line skated for probably 4 miles in the 5th event, ran 1/2 mile in the 6th event and made our way through Shoal Creek and carried rocks, 7th event included reading the instructions, and the 8th event included probably a 2 mile bike ride and running through bars in Austin to get the coasters. Total all that up and estimate the equivalent of a 28 mile run (my best guess).
Run4fun, Run4life, Run4adventures,
Paul
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