Team Meeting

Team Meeting
Originally uploaded by kiwipete.

The San Francisco Big Blue adventure race was held in the Bay area last Sunday. Greg convinced Brent and I to join him in a 3 man team. The event included an 8 mile kayak around Alcatraz Island, a 25 mile mountain bike ride through the Marin headlands, and an 8 mile run through the Presidio. Brent and I have never kayaked before but managed to get the 2 person kayak out and back without incident. Greg drew the short straw and had to paddle a 1 man kayak the same distance. Due to a logisitcal error (forgetting the life jackets) we started the kayak in last place. By the time we finally got started the rest of the field had about a half mile head start on us. We managed to pull in one team and transitioned to the bikes in 2nd to last place.
The biking proved to be pretty tough. All 3 of us knew the trails really well but by the end of the ride we were suffering from lack of water and food. We finished the bike leg in 15th place (up from 52nd).
The running wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was more of a jog/walk with regular stops. Part of the race involved finding checkpoints on a map using either a compass bearing or a visual clue. We found all except one of the checkpoints and crossed the finish line about 9.5 hours after we started. Not sure how we placed overall. Good day though.
In the pic Greg and Brent are checking the map/directions to plot the best course to the various checkpoints.