Team Ragged Glory – Adventure Racing, Multi Sport, Friends

Today’s race was a blast. Jay Newlin always puts on a good race. I raced as Team Ragged Glory 2, taking one of Doug’s brothers-in-law, Joe Madren, as on of my teammates, since I was a late entry. (Should have been in Pike’s Peak but my calf has not been good!) Doug raced as TRG 1 with his brother-in law-Jeff. We decided we would stay together the entire race.

The race start was at Flat12, a beer garden on Dorman and New York. We left the start at 8am on foot to spread out the field. After about 20 minutes of running around in circles looking for clues, we returned to the start to collect our bikes. We proceeded on bike to the Fireman’s museum, Harrison Home, Field house, Monument circle, (where we had to climb to the 59th step, a race decision error that cost us hardware), and then to the Natatoriun where we jumped off the 3rd platform. From there we proceeded to White River for a short canoe. We should have known that something was wrong at this point because we were ahead of Garrison’s Team (they went to the correct step) and in 2nd place overall behind Dark Side. The challenge on the canoe was a choice between eating a cricket and running a mile. We all ate the cricket. Yuck! We gathered our bikes again at this point and went on a tour of parks to Bahr Park and Rhodius Park where the challenge was an Angry B ird slingshot.

I should mention that Doug’s city navigation was near perfect! We then proceeded on bikes to the canal where one team member walked/swam in the canal while the other member walked the bikes. We had to switch teammates in the canal at least once. Once we all exited the canal. we rode to the City Market and into the catacombs for a punch. From there we went to the Slippery Noodle and then into Gen Con to find a Princess Leah who would sign our passport. Interesting! The zip line was next, near a bridge at Kentucky and I70. From there we went to Pogue’s Run and trekked our bikes through 2.25 miles of tunnel.

At this point in the race we were leapfrogging between 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. This was a very tight race with no room for error. Now came the much needed relief of heading back to Flat12 for a drink of beer challenge! This is always my favorite challenge. The last segment of the race was a big bike loop from Spades Park to Brookside Park Church to Bethel Park (an Archery Challenge) to Lady of Grace to Garfield park (a build a dice challenge which was mentally challenging especially at this point in the race) to Hebrew Cemetary and then back to Flat12 and the finish. We were in 2nd place behind Garrison’s team leaving the last checkpoint. We decided to head up Shelby to the finish and got stopped by a cemetery procession and the Crit that was going on on Fountain Square. The two teams behind us made different route choices and passed us. We were also struggling with a nearly flat tire on Joe’s bike. Once we turned in our passport, I realized that I had failed to write down one clue on our passport, a rookie mistake that completely took us out of the running for hardware. All in all though, we raced very well, finishing in under 5 hours, a mere 12-15 minutes behind Garrison’s Rootstock Team. It was a beautiful day to be playing in the city.

Planet Adventure is hosting the 2012 Urban Sprint Adventure Race this Saturday, August 18, in downtown Indianapolis. Team Ragged Glory rides again in the form of two two-person teams: Jeff Boxell and Doug Theis on one, Joe Madren and Nancy Gawrys on the other. We’ll stick together on the course like we usually do. I’m pleased to be racing along side of two brothers-in law and Nancy Gawrys once again. See you at the race!