Posted by Monetta Roberts on May 13, 2007 at 21:48:49:
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Some Crazy Hot Fun In The Ol' Town This Weekend!
Guys: I know there were a lot of events from which to chose this weekend, but this one, part of a series of adventures races produced by Gulf Coast Adventure Racing, out of Louisiana http://www.laadventureracing.com/
was insanely fun (and hot). If any of this race report sounds even vaguely interesting, go to their website and look at their races still to come. I can't vouch for the next ones on the schedule, but these dudes did some serious preliminary planning and logistical work to pull off this first Mobile urban challenge, and it was killer!
Ya'll know how I can go on and on and on, so I'm going to just try to describe the basics of the race course before you get tired of reading! No editorializing, if (when...) I can help it!
The race began Saturday with a sun-high 9:00am start time (!) after we'd only had 45-mins access to the secret course maps (land and water), race instructions, and race "passport" that had to be marked at 13 or so individual checkpoints along the way.
The 50-something three-person teams first ran from one end of the Cooper Riverside Park to the other and back to shake out the crowd before we saddled up and biked south to the cruise terminal entrance which was to be our entrance and exit every time the race brought us back to the start/transition/finish area.
Once out on the mean streets, we headed first for Spanish Plaza for a check point, then for the Bankhead Tunnel. I have never known of anyone being allowed to traverse the tunnel under their own steam, and so biking it was worth the entry fee alone! It was quite a thrill to pass into that dim downhill run, hootin' and hollarin' all the way! Of course it was only moments before we began the thigh quivering climb up the eastern side, but it was short enough and soon we were all zipping towards Battleship Park.
Upon arriving at the park, we shed our bikes and received instructions to search for different things on the USS Alabama. Luckily for my team, a helpful park employee asked what we were looking for, and soon we had found the Crewmen's Memorial on another deck, had our passport stamped, and were headed down the gangplank. One team later told Tony they'd gotten confused, befuddled, and turned around and spent upwards of 45 mins on the ship searching for their stamp. Suckers!
Back in the park, everyone was running flat out across the park's grassy field (temps had to be similar to the Seregheti!) to where police were waiting to help us cross the causeway. Once across, we had the pleasure of carrying some extremely heavy canoes from the pick up area to the put in area and then we were off, paddling our way NNW across Pole Cat Bayou, all the while looking for checkpoints that were either cleverly placed in mucky, icky tall grass on the shore where swamp rats were probably a much greater danger than 'gators; or attacted to lone pilings stuck in the middle of the water. Our team even succeeded in not one but TWO death-defying teammember position changes, to give everyone a paddling break as needed. This was no small feat as one team member is over 6ft tall; one is under 5ft tall, and me, I'm as wide as a house! Ok, so the water was probably not more than 2 feet deep, but the bottom was maybe ten feet of spongy mush!
One returning from the far reaches of Pole Cat Bayou, we then had to pass by the put in/take out spot and proceed 'round the bend and southward to beyond the tail end of the battleship for yet another checkpoint on a two-foot wide sand beach--but don't look for any luxury condos to be built there anytime soon, I'm pretty sure I saw several rusted barrels of toxic waste washed up and crabs the size of VW bugs---then we beat a hasty retreat back to the original put in spot.
Back on terra firma, we raced back across the causeway and the grassy field to our bikes, saddled up again (and not for the last time) and made good time getting back through the Bankhead and back to Cooper Riverside Park, via the cruiseship terminal entrance. Nevermind that our map flew from someone's pocket. We ARE Mobilians, afterall!
Off the bikes again, and in the oh-so-sunny park, the sun was truly blazing, and we were momentarily off on a run to the Mobile Mardi Gras Museum where a mystery challenge awaited before we could get the passport stamped. Here, in a back room set up with a float and barricade simulation, two team members had to climb aboard the float while one went behind the barricade with a special throws "catcher." Teams had to stay here until the catcher could catch two different items that the throwers threw to him. It only took us 5 throws to move on. Did I mention the throwers had to wear masks that somewhat limited our ability to see where we were throwing?
Next we were on a dead run to a particular nearby intersection for five blocks in this direction; three blocks in that direction; two this way, some more another way, etc., until we arrived at none other than Three Georges Candy Shop on Dauphin Street where we had the mystery challenge of sticking our faces in bowls on warm, liquid chocolate to retrieve a worm that I can only hope was candy. Once all three team members were properly "wormed," we were both covered in chocolate and free to run back to the cruise terminal and Cooper Riverside Park.
Anybody else getting tired?? I am, just in recounting this stuff!! And before I forget: There were three designated areas on the course where there was hidden "treasure" in the form of gift certificates waiting for anyone to find and claim. We did a perfunctory search of Bienville Sq. for one; another search of Broad and Canal Streets for another; but elected NOT to go way off course in the canoe to search for the third. Our attempts were feeble, as were our results even feebler!
Back at transition, we again mounted our bikes and were off to Oakleigh to search for it's checkpoint. Once stamped, a mad dash took us back to transition where we left the bikes for good.
By now the temps were definitely just shy of 120, I'm sure of it(!) and we had been warned by the race that we had to carry all of our own liquids and refreshments. Oy! How did we forgot to carry any on this final leg?! Off on a run to nearby Ft. Conde didn't seem so bad, that is until the instructions we received led us on a wild goose chase with each clue leading us first to one fort site, only to find a sign instructing us to find another fort site, and then another and another. And yes, there was stair climbing a'plenty in the boiling sunlight.
By now, with lips parched and mouths too dry to lick them, we went straight to the Lafayette Plaza where a race worker waited with an evil glint in his eye, rubbing his hands together with glee! "You're going to like this," he said as he instructed us to c-l-i-m-b the stairs from that ground floor to the 17th floor and then descend them for the run back to to riverside park for the finish. Seventeen flights of stairs alone would not have been nearly so back had they not been the un-air-conditioned service stairs with teams of sweaty, hot, oxygen-sucking people both ascending and descending a stairwell that barely had room for two to pass. It's like they say, it's not the heat, it's the HUMANITY.
We were soon enough up, passport checked, and down and out and on our way back for the final leg. The heat emanating from the Russo's parking lot and cruiseship entrance was nothing less than a brick oven and it was only once the finish was really, really just around the next curve could I really pour on my patented finishing kick. Oh, and yeah, all teammates were required to stay within 50 feet of one another at all times during the race, which only added to the fun....
In the end, Team 29, ToMoLy (Here today, gone ToMoLy???) finished in 3 hours, 25 minutes, but we all agreed it felt nothing like three hours. We were very surprised that we'd been hard at it for that long. We were just about 30 minutes behind third place in the masters co-ed division, and so missed out on a really beautiful engraved plate award. But we were virgins at the event, afterall, and the learning curve is steep. I predict we'll only be 10-15 minutes behind 3rd place at our NEXT Gulf Coast Adventure Race! And after that? Look out, kids, Team "Hot" ToMoLy WILL have its day!
~~~The End~~~