A long, dark night...

All amped up before the race

On Saturday Lige competed in his only race of the year. Because Isaac was due around a lot of his events, Lige didn't really even train this year for anything. A month ago one of Lige's friends told him about an adventure race in Kearney. He mentioned it was a 3 person team and they only had 2...so would Lige be interested in being the third man? That was all it took and Lige was all in!

We had to do a little research about adventure races. We knew a little about them: think of the t.v. show Amazing Race, but on a much smaller scale. Each team was given a set of instructions that may include coordinates, directions, an obstacle, a challenge, or anything else along those lines. A compass was utilized. Teamwork was essential. There were check points, team challenges, and did I mention this race didn't even start until AFTER DARK?!

You might be wondering what a race like this looked like. Here's my abbreviated run-down:

• carry a 5 gallon bucket up a hill and back down on a wooden dowl.
• ride bike to another location
• drive a golf cart with a blind fold on, guided by the voice of your teammates
• run to different greens on a golf course to get needed punch for card
• ride bike to another location
• follow detailed instructions to several checkpoints within that location: included a team swim across a lake and back
• take the mountain bike trail
• ride bike back to start...receive new instructions
• take bike to new location: use compass, teamwork, and wits to retrieve a jug of water from location...transport it back to start
• receive new instructions...run from park in center of town to downtown
• while downtown find several additional checkpoints
• run back to start...this time to finish! :)

There was a short leg and a long leg of this race. My man's team chose the short course. There were 36 teams to start the race, but I'm not sure how many were in the short course versus the long course. The race started a little before 8pm and they finished around 11:30! The results of the long course showed the last team to finish took 7 hours! That was 3 o'clock in the morning! So glad Lige and his team went with the "long enough" short course! They finished 3rd in that division with a time around 3 hours 20+ minutes. There were 3 teams that didn't finish at all! Lige said it was the hardest thing he's ever done. And then with the next breath he said with proper training, they could do much better next year! I love that my man loves an adventurous challenge!

Look how exhausted, yet still happy, they look at the end of the race!

I'm sure proud of you guys!