We were ready to go. Training was over and our strategy was set. As of 9:00 PM Friday night, the team consisted of Mike Wilson, Gregg Marsh and AJ Dennis. However, AJ got sick with the flu the night before and had to bow out of the race!
This left us scrambling for a female teammate less than 12 hours before the race began!! We started making calls. My wife suggested calling Anne Betts, who is a Pastor at Radiant Church, which we attend. Mike made the call, and talked her into it, with a little help from her husband who agreed to take care of transporting their kids.
Race day forecast was supposed to be perfect, sunny and a high of 62, however, it ended up being a high of about 58, cloudy and windy. It turned out to be pretty nice though, as overheating was not an issue.
The race started at Mayor's Riverfront Park in downtown Kalamazoo. We began with a 1/2 mile warm-up run or so and then got on our bikes and headed out. We picked up 5 check points on the way out to The Adventure Centre and Pretty Lake, where we would be doing a High Ropes course and canoeing, respectively.
The ropes course was pretty sweet and required a fair amount of teamwork to complete. Simply put, we rocked it. Then we got in the canoes and picked up 5 more check points. Off the water and back to the bikes to hit one check point and then get to the bike and foot orienteering sections.
I could not have been more excited about these sections. They were staged in Al Sabo Land Preserve, which has essentially been my outdoor play place for the past 2+ years. Three points on the bike trails and then we headed off to do some orienteering on foot.
We took care of this section with relative ease, picking off the 11 check points in well under 2 hours. With Mike giving us bearings and Gregg, Anne and I following them and scouting, we were working as a well-oiled machine.
On the way back out we had to find two more points on the bike, which we did without a problem. We headed back into town to Mayor's Riverfront park to drop our bikes and head out on foot through the city for a little metro-gaining.
In my opinion, this section was harder than last years, due primarily to length. We covered approximately 7-8 miles to find 10 different spots across downtown Kalamazoo. We had just a little trouble on a point or two, but nothing that required any back-tracking.
We did discover that Mike is not the greatest at pinball, and I may have an aspiring career in the field of pole dancing.
We headed back to the finish line. We crossed the line with all points completed in 8 hours and twelve minutes. We covered approximately 40 miles on the bike, maybe 2-3 in the canoe, and somewhere between 12-14 miles on foot.
We finished 1st in the 4-person co-ed division, and won a pair of Oakley sunglasses!
In other awards, I am giving Randy and Anne Betts the co-MVP award, for literally saving team Goin' Postal.
Overall, our team worked wonderfully together. Each bringing something to the table to help the team. We also had an awesome unofficial support crew/cheering section consisting of the VanDyks, Wilsons, and my wife. It is always a big plus to have friends and family supporting you!
There are many details that I have left out to make this somewhat readable, but any of us would be more than willing to share if you want to know them. We also had a helmet cam for part of the race, and will hopefully have some footage put together soon. I will post that when I can.
In the mean time, here are a few pictures, and a post-race wrap-up video.
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| Getting on the bike... |
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| Planning our route before we head out |
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| Just about to start... |
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| Our sweet new shades |
