Dave's Northface Endurance Challenge

This was Dave's third year doing the Northface Endurance Challenge in Eagle, WI. It's a trail run that he has done before. The first year, I went with him and volunteered while he ran 31 miles. He did the same race last year. This year, he decided he needed the challenge of running the 50 MILE race!

The 50 milers can have pacers so we decided I would pace him awhile. Then there would be a problem of where the car was parked so he decided we needed another driver. He asked our friends the Adams if they would go to Wisconsin with us for the weekend and Tim could pace us too. They accepted! Our dear, dear friends never complained when we had to get up at 3:30 in the morning, wait for 12 hours in the car and drive all over the countryside for us! They said they had fun but I wonder if they'll ever go with us on a 'vacation' again:)

So Dave started at 5 a.m. in the morning.

We had an hour and a half before we got to see him at the first aid station. Then about another hour before we saw him at aid station #2.
We then had a couple hours to spare so we may or may not have made a Starbucks run.....while Dave was running hills in the woods.

Love, love, love this sweet picture of Tim and Teri.
The first three times we saw him, we were amazed at how fast he was going. He was keeping a 12 mile pace which is pretty amazing considering the terrain. Around mile 28, he was allowed a pacer so I jumped in and ran 7 miles with him. I was pretty nervous about keeping up with him but we ran and walked about half and half so I was fine.

Then it was Tim's turn. He was really nervous too since he doesn't run much but Dave was walking a bunch by that point. Dave took every opportunity to show how grateful he was for having us there to run with him. He feels like he would have given up if we weren't there to be the 'carrot' for him to chase. (I'm not sure he would have quit but I know how much better it is to have a running buddy.)
After Tim's 5 miles, I jumped back in and mostly walked with him about 9 miles to the end. I wasn't planning on doing that but when I realized he was hurting, I wanted to be with him and get him to the end. We just wanted to finish. Finishing was iffy for awhile when we got to mile 49.1 and Dave started feeling like his heart was fluttering. We had come down a really big hill and he said his heart didn't feel right. His heartrate, which had been 130-140 all day long, suddenly jumped to 188 and 190. We stopped running and stood on the highway for awhile, him leaning on my shoulder. I was totally worried and so was he of course. I wanted to flag down the sherriff parked down the highway a bit but he wanted me to wait because if he called the medic, his race would be over. No time. After all that work and it would lost. He could tell his heart was stuck in fibrillation. I looked at him and he was pale as a ghost. He had no color in his face at all. After about 10 min. of that he said "It's done. I feel so much better." Just like that it was over. His heart rate dropped down to 112 and his color came back and he was ready to go again. We walked, slowly to the finish line and we were so happy to be done!!

I am totally proud of him. He doesn't have any desire to do that race again and that's ok with me! But I'm happy for him that he could prove to himself he could do it and I know he's proud of himself too.

Dangerous Dreams

Dave had a guys night last night and I guess he told a funny story about us.
It got me thinking I should put it here.
Several years ago, shortly after we got the Hunting Channel on T.V., I woke up to a noise and wondered what it was. I was facing away from Dave so in my groggy, half-asleep state I slowly turned my head to look at him. He was up on all fours on the bed and as I turned my head, he went Whap! and slapped me upside the head. I yelped, of course, in pain. He immediately grabbed me and said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I thought you were a bear!"

Another Adventure Race

Warning: I got a little long-winded with this post and also a little gory. Read on if you don't mind!

Dave and I have gotten ourselves quite attached to adventure racing. We did one last Saturday with our friend Mic. We were feeling pretty confident after winning the last two races we did.

This race started out with a short (maybe a mile) run to the canoe portion. Since I'm slow, we got to the canoes last. Everyone else had started carrying their canoes to the river. So we followed them. Dave and Mic, being the strong guys they are, started running with our canoe. I followed behind with the three paddles and the crate that I sit on in the canoe. After awhile, Dave starts questioning out loud whether we are going the right way because we are going uphill. By this time, we have passed everyone and are in first place. But Mic says, "I hear a road, not a river!" So we decide we need to turn around and go back the way we came. Which puts us in last place! So then Dave and Mic decide to put the canoe up above their heads and start running past everyone again. We arrived at the river in first place!

So we started paddling towards the first checkpoint, but we found #2. Oops. On our way back to #1, everyone passed us, so we were in last place again. While we were at #1, Mic got out of the boat to push us out of the trees and the canoe tipped. I fell out and got soaked! The rest of the paddle was insignificant after that.

When we got on our bikes, we were going really fast and ended up passing a bunch of teams. Then we did a short orienteering course and ended up with the top teams by the time we got back to our bikes.

One part of the biking section was where they "hobbled" one of the bikes on each team and that rider had to be "towed" 5 miles to the next volunteer who would release the hobbled rider. Basically, they put zip ties on my pedals so they wouldn't move. Dave has a bungee cord connected to the back of his bike that hooks on to a hook on the front of my bike. Dave and I are used to towing because we do it often during races so we can stay together. But I'm not used to not pedaling. It's hard to start and keep your balance when you aren't pedaling.

Well we made it to the volunteer who was going to cut the zip ties with Dave pulling me and Mic pushing me up the hills. We saw the volunteer in a parking lot but we had to go through two big metal posts to get to him. As I was following Dave through the posts, he saw a car out of the corner of his eye. Instead of yelling Stop! to me, he yelled Unhook! but as I reached down to unhook, I was thrown off balance and my handlebars hit the post. My bike went down and I went flying. I survived the fall with a long list of bumps and bruises which I will chronicle later but the worst thing at the time was my wrist. I knew it was hurt but was afraid to say too much to Dave and afraid that if I didn't jump up and get back on my bike, the pain would overtake me and I would want to quit. So after a short period of being fussed over, off we went.

I should mention here that before I crashed, we were in first place again! But the four teams right behind us passed us up so we followed along to the last two checkpoints. Dave kept saying, "Can you make it another 15 minutes?" In actuality, we were on our bikes, on trails, for about an hour and a half. I could barely shift with my right hand and I must admit I cried a bit. But we finally made it to the finish!

Here's a list of my injuries (which I am posting here only because I know someday I will look back, when this is all a distant memory, and I will laugh at how banged up I was:)

1. Two big scratches on my right knee

2. A tire burn on my right knee (My pants have a hole in them now)

3. Multiple bruises on both knees

4. A big scratch on my right shoulder

5. Too many to count abrasions on my right elbow, wrist and hand. This is in spite of wearing a long sleeved shirt and biking gloves.

6. A scratch and puncture wound on my chin that seeped blood for the whole day. I always point this out to people who ask me if I wear a helmet. I always wear a helmet when I ride, but it does me no good when I land on my chin!

7. A sore right wrist and elbow

8. My favorite- I was all calmed down after my crash and happened to look at my left hand. What I saw took my breath away. The middle fingernail was bent completely backwards and stayed like that! I quickly swiped it down with my other hand and then looked up at Mic and said, "did you see that?" He was like, "Yeah, I was waiting for you to notice it." Ahhhh! That was yucky!

Dave and I were discussing two things on the drive home. First, how blessed I was, even though I was banged up. I mean I could have knocked some teeth out or worse! Second, should we go straight to the ER to have my wrist looked at? Or wait and maybe have to go the next day? Well I didn't really think anything could be broken so I decided to wait. But by the next morning when I was crying in the shower because I couldn't squeeze the shampoo bottle, Dave was asking if we were going now or later.

I decided to wait until after church. Dave called his parents and asked if they would come pick up the kids since they were coming to town anyway (thanks, Dave and Sue!) and we went straight to the ER.

The doctor had good news. No fracture was evident in my wrist or hand BUT he thought he saw something in my upper arm, above my elbow. So following protocol, he had to put a hard cast from my fingers up to my armpit! I hated that thing. It made my arm go numb and tingly and I couldn't sleep. By the time I got to ORA for my appt. the next morning, I was begging to have it off!

Well the doctor at ORA also didn't see any fractures, but because of my symptoms, he expected there might be a fifth metacarpal fracture or a radial head fracture. (Hand and elbow) I concur sir. So he wanted to put a cast back on me (would be above my elbow but not into my armpit) and then re x-ray me in two weeks. Because of my experience the night before, I begged him not to put me in a cast. He said he would consider it if I promised to be good and not bike and also wear a sling to protect it. I said, "No problem!" He also said that if this was all a memory in a few days, no pain and full range-of-motion back, I didn't even need to come back to the next appt. He was not thinking it was broken.

As of now, I'm feeling better, but not 100% so I will be going back to have it re x-rayed. I'm hoping it's not broken but who knows?

P.S. We placed third out of sixteen teams:) Not bad after having been last and then first and then last and then first....

And check out the article in the Dixon newspaper about the race!

Not Second After All

As I said in my last post, Dave , Mic and I did really well in our adventure race over the weekend. After we finished, the race director thought we might be in second place.

But he was wrong. When Dave checked the results tonight, we were actually in fifth place. But all the teams in front us were 2 person teams. And we were a three person team.

Which means that WE WON! We were the first place team in our division. Again!

Neither of us is really sure how this has happened. It sure is surprising. But I do know one thing.

We are winners! Yay!

The Conquering of an Old Fear

If anyone knows me , they know I'm NOT a dog person. At all. Not even a little bit. I got chased when I did a paper route a million years ago and the dog caught me and I got bit and had to go the hospital and was scarred for life. Emotionally that is.



Fast forward about 5 years. I had many conversations with Dave about what to do when chased by a dog as I was deathly afraid of all dogs. It was really an unhealthy fear. He told me to yell at it. Specifically, a short word like "no" or "stop". Also, to be prepared to throw something at it. I rehearsed those things in my mind over and over because I don't think well on my feet and hopefully, if a situation ever presented itself, I wanted be prepared.



Fast forward another couple years. I was walking with my SIL, Valerie here in Walcott. We came up to a house with two dogs. One was a big ol' dog and one was a little yippy thing. They came around the house in the shadows and I said something to Val like "Oh my word that's a big dog." Well she only saw the little yippy thing and thought I was crazy. But suddenly the big dog charged us, all the way out to the street. I did the only thing I could think to do. (This part is much better in real life when I can demonstrate.) I turned to the dog, bent over with my arms in a 'muscle' pose, and growled at the dog. It stopped, looked at me with it's head tilted, and walked back to the house. Then, I stood up in slow motion and turned around to look at Val, just in time to realize I really looked like an idiot. She was bent over laughing so hard that she almost peed her pants. We laughed all the way home and she has never let me forget about it.



Fast forward to this past summer. I was running on the gravel road where my sister lives in NC. There was a house with two pit bulls who decided to rush me. I was able to turn and yell 'no' and approach them to make them stop. One of them didn't want to stop and came right up to me. I had to keep telling it to stop but it eventually did and they went back to their yard. As I turned back to my run, I was amazed at how calm I felt and was so proud of myself that I had actually passed the test.


I've never really thought of it before, but when you choose an exercise habit like running, you are bound to run into dogs. Duh, but it never coorelated in my mind until now.


Fast forward to the past couple of weeks. There is another house here in Walcott that has two dogs. The house is down a street that is kind of out towards the country and therefore they don't keep the dogs tied up. They have a big ol' dog and a little yippy thing. The big dog is almost always outside and the little one is sometimes out but lots of times inside the garage. Dave and I have been out there together when the big one has come out close to the road. We think it recognizes us now because it stays up close to the house and hardly ever barks. The little one however, barks constantly, from the time it sees us until we are out of sight. The thing doesn't shut up whether it is outside or inside the garage. It thinks it's pretty tough. One day, it was outside and decided to rush me on the road. My friend, Brie, was with me and it came out to the street all running like it was going to get us. The thing is, it's a weiner dog and it is the fattest weiner dog I've ever seen. It's belly drags on the ground when it runs. So it's not hard to imagine this dog running as fast as it can but it looks like it's in slow motion as it lopes along with it's long ears all flopped back on it's head. It's hysterical to watch. As we had a good laugh, I said to Brie, "I know I'm not very fast but even I can outrun that thing." When I told Dave, we both laughed and he said "yes, it's true. Even you could outrun that dog."
The icing on the cake, however, was the other day when I ran out there. The weiner dog was yip, yip, yippeting as loud and fast as it could. It was just going crazy. As I got closer, I noticed the big dog just staring at me. It never did make a sound. I watched as it walked over to the weiner dog, bent down, and 'whispered' something to it. Then the big dog raised it's head and walked away and the little dog never said another word. As long as they could see me, they never made any more noise. As much as the little guy acts like he's in charge, that day proved it to me. The big guy rules the roost.

Race Update

So much to say about our race. I'll try to be brief.

Started out with a 1 mile run. I thought "I can do this". Did not figure in my 30 pound pack. Ran the whole way but that's all I can say for myself.

Got to the canoe and had to PORTAGE it! Yikes. This canoe was not meant to be carried on the shoulders. It had cup holders of all things that cut into my neck and bruised my spine. By the time we got to the water I was nearly crying.

Got in the canoe. Paddled 14 miles down stream. Passed one 24 hour team. Yikes for them. We did pretty well and only argued a tad. Realized that arguing in a race is over way quicker than in real life because you can't get away! You forgive and forget and MOVE ON.

Got to the bike. Could hardly get on it because I was shivering so bad from being soaking wet. Dried out quickly however. Being pulled behind Dave's bike on a tow rope at a million miles per hour will do that.

Stopped for an orienteering course. Did farely well, found all the checkpoints and moved on back to the bike. Dave and I hadn't biked as much as we should have but still felt we did well overall for the biking.

Back to the Boy Scout Camp to pump up the packraft. Wish I had a picture of Dave sitting in the back and me lying on my stomach on the front of the boat with my legs on Dave. But I don't have a picture. It was really hard to paddle straight out in front of myself but we did it. Took us 50 min. to go 1 mile upstream and 19 min. to come back. Hard paddle indeed.

Went the second 'O' course. This was tricky. We never did find number thirty four even though we searched for two hours. So we ended up quiting because we were at the 12 hour mark. Never got to do the ropes section which they put at the end. Although, I did get to practice ascending the night before. It was not as difficult as I had worked myself up over.

The best part?

We WON!!!!!

For our 2 person coed division we won!!!!

And all I have to say is Dave Huntley, YOU ROCK!!!

Our Weekend

Dave and I are headed to Oregon, IL for the weekend to do a 12 hour adventure race. It will be filled with firsts for me.

Packraft- in addition to canoeing, we have to fit both of us plus our packs into an inflatable boat and paddle to a specific point.

Climbing wall- I haven't even attempted this. This is the prelim. part of our race. They will time us and will determine our starting positions based on how we do. Dave already told me he expects we will be starting dead last.

Rope ascending- I didn't even know this WAS a rope event. You have to climb up a vertical rope with handles for your hands and feet. Not thinking this will go well for me.

All this is in addition to canoeing, biking, a zipline and finding checkpoints in the woods(orienteering).

I'm asking myself "And I want to do this why?"

Would you?

My question this day is would you?

Would you say yes when your sister and brother-in-law invited you to join them on vacation?

Without kids, for five days?

What about if you had four children and some are quite young?

What about if you know you have 4 wonderful grandparents in town that say "yes, we'll keep them" far more than you feel you deserve?

Would you drive 9 1/2 hours to get there?(Ugh)

Would you take a six mile hike around a lake?What if the scenery looked like this?


Would you enjoy 70ish degree weather and hearing loons right outside your windows?
Would you take a 12 mile canoe trek into the boundary waters?Would you portage a canoe 80 rods (1 rod=15.6 feet)?Would you visit a bear museum?
Would you still like your sister and BIL and want to do it all again next year?

Answer: We did! We do! We will!