Ozark Greenways Adventure Race

I FINISHED!!!

This past Saturday I participated in the Ozark Greenways Adventure Race at Gasconade Hills Resort. The race is a 4 person co-ed event. Both my sister, Jill and I participated on different teams. My team's goal was to finish and we did finish in less that 10 hours and placed 42nd out of 77 teams. Jill's team was hoping to place in the top 10 and they finished 7th. The race course consisted of an 8.8 mile run, 6 mile canoe, 6.9 bike, orienteering, 1.27 technical run, 8.9 miles of technical bike, 8 mile road bike to the finish line. Nothing like starting off the morning with a nice 9 mile run. The first 1 1/2 miles were an uphill run from the resort to the highway. I enjoyed most of the race, but could have done without the orienteering portion and the technical bike. I hated being lost in the woods for over 2 hours hiking through the masses of poison ivy, creepy crawling ticks all while hoping not to step on any snakes while trying to find 3 small flag-like points. The 8 mile technical bike portion was on horse trails and much of the trail was not ridable so it was exhausting pushing a bike up and down the hills for a good portion of it. The technical bike ended by having to cross the river with your bike. The had a rope in a very swift portion of the river that was a little over waist deep. We had to carry our bikes across and still had to hold on to the rope. Looking back, I am really surprised that I made it. My sister's team was a little smarter and they took a more direct route across the river and bypassed the rope area. People told me that Jill just picked the bike up over her head and carried it across. By that time in the day, it was good for me to just be able to lift my bike off the ground. Jill is an ANIMAL.

I am truly proud of myself to have finished and hope to do another one in the fall. When I first started training back in March, I am almost embarrassed to admit that I struggled to run 10 minutes at a time. I have come along way since March. My reason for committing to this race is because I wanted to go in to my 30's being fit. I think this race was a great way to end my 20's as I will be turning 30 in 9 days. Who knows, Wes may even join me on the next one. He said that I motivated him and that if I could do something like this he should be able to do it. In other words, if an out-of-shape, stay-at-home mom can do this than a member of the Highway Patrol SWAT team should be able to finish one too.

These are pictures are from before the race. I didn't have any pictures on my camera from after or during the race, but hopefully I will get some in a few days and can post them too.