Marathon Week 3, Day 6

I joined Ryan, Kate, and Lauren as part of TCA #2 – Chaos Theory for the 6th Annual Scout Adventure Challenge in the Santa Monica Mountains today.

The marathon training schedule called for an 8-mile run at “Marathon Pace + 45 Seconds”, but we instead completed, by my estimate, about twelve miles of hiking and running (with food and water on our backs) and over fifteen miles of mountain biking on a variety of roads and trails.

Highlights:

• Working for so many hours with my team. They were so generous in putting up with my repeated stories about Lilian Jegou’s bike crash into a tree.
• The other teams from the Academy. It is fun to be part of such a large group of inspired racers.
• The support crew. Kellie, Vanessa, and Lisa made our base camp the place to be.
• Seeing a beautiful rattlesnake cross our hiking path. It looked like an Arizona black rattlesnake, but I am not sure we have those here in California.
• Hearing “Ughh!” as I approached a curve on mountain bike. When I slowed and came around, all I could see was an upended bike on the trail ahead of me but no corresponding rider. I found my teammate just off the side of the trail as the rest of the team came up carefully from behind. After the fallen rider got up, climbed back on bike, and tore further along as if nothing happened, the rest of us watched even more carefully for obstructions in the trail.
• The Radioactive Ratz! That group finished an hour ahead of any other of our four teams!

I confess that leading up to the event I had some ambivalence about participating. Once the event got rolling though, I was immediately happy that I got to play.