First place?? No way!

We did an adventure race yesterday. It was supposed to be 8-10 hours long and we finished in 6 hours and crossed the finish line first! Of course we didn't get two of the checkpoints so we didn't win. Dave said he has never been so happy to finish without getting all the checkpoints. They were canoeing checkpoints. We were on a big lake, it was windy and the water was VERY choppy. We were with a few other teams who also didn't brave 2 of the 3 checkpoints on the water. The first one was okay because we were somewhat sheilded from the wind by an island. But we went around the corner and say a team paddling forward but moving backward! It was my first time paddling so that pretty much scared the crap out me. I also almost lost Todd's paddle. The canoe was being blown to the left so Dave tod me to dig my paddle in on the left. But the canoe moved over the paddle and I lost it. But then I reached in on the right side and got it again. That was close. That was all at the end of the race so we were happy to be done.

During the first hour, when we were hiking in the woods up and down hills, I learned a lesson the hard way. Never forget to look up. I ran smack into a fallen tree and hit so hard that I fell back onto my rear end and my glasses fell off. Not my most shining moment, to say the least.

All in all, it was fun and a great experience for my first race. I'll decide later if I want to do another one or not. It's best to let these things soak in for awhile.