Dear Kirk's Freetime Blog,

This is Matt; first time blogger, long time reader. I had a great time racing last weekend. As Kirk has already written a race report, I'll just give you some of my impressions of how things went...

I’m going to start at the end, with things that I learned. First, just because the compass is required gear, doesn’t mean you should throw it in your bag and let your teammate do all the navigating. Sorry Kirk, I’m new at this game. Second, leg protection is key during these truly off-road races. Third, it’s not enough to make sure you’re at the right checkpoint if you don’t actually then punch the correct spot on the passport. Finally, no matter how long the race or how well or poorly you’re doing, if you’re with the right people, the pictures will prove you were having fun.

All right, now for a couple of fun moments along the way. This will be in any order that I think of them, and most probably not chronological. In fact, let’s start towards the end of the race. We’re out of the canoe getting the last two checkpoints (or so we thought) and I’m like the kid who forgot to take his Ritalin because a) I have some extra energy to burn and b) I can smell the finish line (again…or so we thought). So I’m bouncing off the walls (we’re outside so not literal walls) and streaking ahead to get the punches. As I’m heading back I see that Kirk has turned around, and I think he has caught a little bit of my excitement and is running even though his ankle is obviously bothering him. I look down to put the passport away and when I look back up Kirk is on the ground. It seems like he is doing his best supermodel laying on the beach impression, and I’m about to yell at him to stop taunting me and get up, until I see the sheepish grin on his face. He totally wiped out and I missed it! 12 hours of racing together and I didn’t even get to see him fall. Maybe next time.

Moment number two was on the bike leg. We’re on a pretty big downhill, and I’ve gotten it in my head at this point that even as fun as the downhill’s are, it inevitably means we’re going to have to ride/push our bikes back up it. But as we come around the turn, there is a beautiful view of Brown’s lake. I love that adrenaline rush you get when you realize you’re doing something you really enjoy. That picture definitely hit me that this is why I enjoy the outdoors.

Moment number three was as we were just starting the second trek leg. We’ve just run up and down the hills that take you out of the TA area and a team in front of us takes a right turn in the exact opposite direction of all the checkpoints. This normally would be a minor concern and you just let the other team make the mistake, but this happened to be when yours truly had (like a speed demon I might add) plotted all of the checkpoints without supervision. I can’t quite remember what Kirk was doing, but I just flew through the 5 or 6 checkpoints. The team turning is obviously bothering Kirk. Where could they be going? So we pull out the plotting tool and check the closest one. Hurray I’m right. This seems to ease Kirk’s worries a small amount, but not enough that he definitely wants to check the other one’s. We do almost all of them and are left only with 21. I say “let’s trust me on 21” in part because I want to get going, but also because I’ve mostly relied on Kirk for all the navigation and I think it’d be fun to actually be a part of the team. Kirk concedes and we get ready to go, but doubt kicks in for half a second and my “uhhh” kicks Kirk back into plotting gear. The only consolation was that I actually did plot all of the points correctly.

Ok, time for one more moment before this becomes a full blown race report. On our way to the last few canoe checkpoints, we see a three man team that should probably have training wheels on their canoe just so they don’t injure somebody. Well as we’re getting back in the canoe for our “last” stretch, we see the team is some 300m ahead of us. Kirk says something to the effect of “my goal is to try and catch that team.” Remember how I said earlier that I had some extra energy oozing out of my pours? Well this time I harness it all (later Kirk even mentions that it’s the only time during the race I stopped talking), and focus on paddling as consistently hard as I can. We do eventually pass the team (even after I misdirect us to aim at the wrong shore….hey they were really bad at the canoe and I thought they were landing), but with only a short stretch to go. As this is the “last” segment of the race, Kirk and I are full steam ahead. We beach the canoe and jump out. The stupid canoe rental people (I say stupid because they hadn’t even moved the canoes by the next morning) insist that we carry the canoe all the way up the hill to put it by the trailer because they’re leaving soon. My arms are really tired after burning them on the paddle to catch the drunken sailors, and I even drop the canoe at one point (don’t worry it was made of titanium…or some other indestructible and heavy substance). The team is bearing down on us as an extra set of hands makes moving the canoe easier. Gear check time before we run back to the TA, everybody find their head lamps. Damn it, mine is all the way at the bottom of my pack inside another bag. I’m tearing stuff apart and finally find it. I try to shove stuff back in the bag, but it’s really just going everywhere. Kirk takes off with the first member of the other team on our 100m dash uphill to the finish. I bear hug my stuff and grab our kayak paddles and take off after him. Unfortunately the bear hug isn’t tight enough and my gloves fall out. I don’t know this until people behind me yell “hey your gloves.” Damn! So I run back to the gloves, scoop them up, bear hug again and turn to see that the other two members of team swervy are a good half way up the slope. I dig deep and really sprint (none of this trekking stuff) up the hill. I catch them just as we’re turning onto the wooden bridge, but the form a two person wall and I can’t get by. I, as politely as one can in these situations, say “excuse me” but they don’t budge. Never fear as I have the kayak paddles, and use one to guide one of the runners to the side. I sprint passed him and even though their first guy gets to the tent before Kirk, I show up right behind. We beat them!!!! But then the guy starts putting in their team number first…..what?!?!?!!?!@#$ As he hands us the piece of paper for the last surprise leg, I can’t help but let the lady also sitting behind the table know that even though they’re going in first, we had our whole team here and technically would be ahead. She grins, the race director looks confused as to why I care and we go about our business. So that was really only the set up for the moment which is as we’re out there getting the two checkpoints we can before the hard cutoff (DQ if you didn’t return by 7), we see the other team and they look upset. Turns out they forgot to “check out” of the TA and have run all this way without their passport. We win!

Anyway, thanks to Paul and Lori for riding in the back seat up to Tennessee. Thanks to blogspot for sporting such a fancy blog. And a huge thank you to Kirk, without whom I’d have only gotten checkpoint 1.

Matt-hew “Hefner” Abbrecht