Rise of the Tusken Raiders

I am so sore right now! Ok, so you're asking yourself what does that have to do with the title here? Standby and I will tell you the story...

Last week a friend of mine called and conned me into participating as part of a 4 man team in a race here at Beale Air Force Base, as part of the Recce Challenge Adventure Series. The race was called a Run, Paddle, and Bike. I came to find out that I had been duped into something much more intense than I had initially thought.

The race would consist of a 2 mile bike ride, then the entire team had to paddle a raft around a bouy (which ended up being .25 miles in distance), followed by a 2.2 mile run, and finishing up with a 5.6 mile bike ride, including climbing some pretty rough hills. Yes this was all off-road as well! So about 10 miles distance for the whole race.

As I arrived at the starting area my friend told me what he had entered our team as... The Tusken Raiders. Now of course I was stoked! But I was sure once everyone else heard the name they would think I came up with it, and not my friend. Anyway, our team ended up being in the third heat, which meant we sat around for 40 minutes before we started (so glad I got up at 6:30am for this).

As we started off everything was going well, then right after the first turn my bike chain came off... I knew right then that I was in for a rough morning! The rest of the race went as expected; every other team kicked our tails from here to there and everywhere in between. Like I said, that was kind of expected. I mean, we were going up against teams with people preparing to run marathons, people who bike avidly, and the undisputed fastest man on base (seiously this guy runs 1.5 miles in 7:30 flat!).

Despite the fact that our team did not perform as well as we had hoped, it was still a great victory for all of us. When you have people at the start of the race saying, "You guys are doing this?", and yet you are still able to finish the entire race, it gives you the ability to hold your head high and know that you have accomplished something. Not for a trophy that will sit and collect dust beside numerous other trophies... Not for the glory of winning... But for the simple fact that you can look yourself in the mirror while you rub ointment into your throbbing joints and muscles, moaning in pain and misery, and say, "I did it! I finished! I succeeded!"