Sea & Sand Adventure Race

Sorry I'm a little late in posting this but I've hardly had the energy to do anything except lay on the couch lately. You see, on Saturday I participated in the Inaugural Sea & Sand Adventure Race in Virginia Beach.

This was my first adventure race and honestly I didn't plan on it being so hard. However, I quickly realized I was in for...well...an adventure.

First thing on the agenda was a 5 mile kayak south along the beaches of Sand Bridge to False Cape State Park. As luck would have it the surf was huge that morning and while Tim made it out with relative ease Rob and I received a beating. On our first attempt out we got hit by a massive wave that filled the boat with water and turned us sideways. Then the next wave rolled us over. We had to swim the boat back to shore to get it emptied out and retrieve all our gear. I don't have to tell you how much I don't like water so being in the ocean, @ 6AM in November didn't make me happy. Our second attempt wasn't successful either but at least we didn't have to swim back to shore. Like the old saying goes; the third time is a charm. We were able to get out and get going even though we were the last team in the water.

When we arrived at CP1 (check point) there were still 4-5 teams milling around on the beach. We hit the shore without any issues but Tim fell victim to the wave this time, that made Rob and I happy :-) We had to transport our kayak and gear 1.5 miles to the bay side for CP2 and then we set out on foot to get CP3-5. This was probably the worst part for me. With a soaking wet pack that felt like it weighed 40lbs my knee started to hurt tremendously. At times I was almost in tears from the pain. I twisted my knee snowboarding a few years ago and it's never been right since...maybe I should have it looked at? Doh!

Next up was a long kayaking leg where we collected two more checkpoints as we headed north in Back Bay. We arrived back at the transition area about 1PM and got ready for the final leg of the race, on BIKES! This is our strong suite so we headed out with the idea that we could make up a lot of time and we did! Because the trip to the Virginia / North Carolina border consisted of a lot of riding on the beach we were able to make up a good bit of time. We arrived at the final CP located at the VA/NC border at 3:30PM and turned around for the trip to the finish. By the time we arrived back at the beach the tide was out and we were able to keep a steady pace and picked off a couple more teams. We finished 3rd in our category and 21st overall, full course!

In hindsight I really enjoyed it. During the race I kept asking myself what the hell was I doing out there but in the end I had a good time suffering and rolling around in the surf, being soaked and sore and tired. In fact I'm already looking forward to the next race in March!

That picture is Rob and i getting out for the third and final time:
The ocean moans over dead mens bones
Sneak Peak