Competition Day. Waking up on Saturday morning, Bridget and I had one goal in mind… to go down in the history of Nevada as the best relay team the Run Amuck has ever seen. We ate a power breakfast, went over our strategy for the win, and as 2pm loomed, put on our headbands.
This was all good until Rob called and wanted to chug a beer before the relay. Okay… just one, but my focus remained strong. I could see the prize and I figured I could use the carbs. We then met with our sponsor, Twelve Horses, down at the Tap House. Again, another beer was offered, and I didn’t want to be rude. So two beers later, the start was about begin, but I still maintained my composure.
Bridget was going to lead the first part of the relay, and as soon as the gun was fired, she shot off the starting block… errr… street like a bat out of hell. Crap… that meant that I needed to finish my newly opened beer quickly and go to the bathroom. And before I knew it, I see Bridget. She tossed the bar of soap at me, our baton, and I began my leg of the relay.
I began to run my 6 minute mile pace, and I was passing people up as if my last name was Earnhardt. That lasted probably a total of three minutes… where I noticed there wasn’t a water station in the two mile race we were running. And the beer was not acting as Gatorade as I had hoped. In fact, it did quite the opposite, and I began to slow down.
Rob, with a helmet camera attached to his head, was not far behind, so we ran together. As soon as we hit Idlewild park, the obstacles came. We crab walked, hurdled hay bails, and then saw the reason why we signed up. … I belly flopped in the mud, and Rob, with his helmet cam, dove in backwards. A little wrestling pursued, and then we were back running home. I rounded a corner where Bridget joined me again to finish out the last block. (I think she wanted to cross the finish line before me again though.) I grabbed a balloon, put it inbetween my legs, and hopped past the finish line.
The bad news is that we would have totally won if I wasn’t tricked into having a few beers before the race, but either way, it was a good day to get out and enjoy the sun that’s finally arrived in Reno.
