2011 Urban Adventure Race

Another adventure race down in the books. And what better way to prepare for an adventure race than to get in at least 12 minutes of running the week before. Seriously, not joking. Bought some new kicks. Got on the treadmill, ran a total of 12 minutes since last year's adventure race. To add to all of that race prep, why not go to Cody's pool party the night before and drink? Then make a late night stop at Taco Bell? Sounds like an exact repeat of last year's race. Set my many alarms for four hours later, ready to rock and roll! We were gonna kick some sweet ol' butt!


This year's Activate Omaha Urban Adventure race took place at AkSarBen Villiage. Last year's was at Turner Park at Midtown. Which did I favor? Definitely this year's race. For one, almost all biking was done on the Keystone Trail. What that meant? No more having to cross busy downtown streets which made it alot easier and safer for racers. Also gone were the steep hills of Leavenworth and other downtown roads. Just all flat out speed of the slicks on the GF.

It helps to know where you are at! 

This is what AkSarBen Village looked like Saturday morning. Racers everywhere! 

He was obviously the team b*tch. 

This year, Team Ramrod consisted once again of Patty, Krista and myself. We decided to do the short course, aka Half Calf while Team KWK (Todd, Caryn, and Cory) did the Full Bull which was longer in length. So if you're gonna do a race, you gotta do it right! Right? Had the mohawk up, fruit mini wheats in the belly, and Chesty harness supporting the Go Pro HD on. It was gonna be a fun time. I just need to figure out how to get the hawk to stick up through the helmet!

We were runnninnggggg... 

And biking... 

We were goofing around (or at least I was)...

And having fun. 

Inside Brazen Head is where we really should have been. Fake poses anyone? 

Many friends, coworkers, and fellow bikers have heard us discuss the adventure races that we participate in. But the most common response is, "What is it?" Well let me school you quickly. Remember that show Amazing Race on tv? It is kind of like that. You run, you bike, you do team challenges, you might get wet, you have fun! Kind of like a scavenger hunt for all ages (there might be a min age requirement, but you know what I mean), levels and abilities. They usually take place in a certain area of town and all you get are clues for checkpoints. Sometimes you have to do the checkpoints in order, sometimes it is up to you which ones you want to do first. The whole strategy is to go to the ones with nobody there. That can save you some major time. Unfortunately for this year's race, we had to do them pretty much in order. Which was cause for some major waiting lines.

First event was to kick some balls inside of the driving range at Chili Greens

 

Oh these geese were angry at us! And Krista was scared and it was too funny!

Not sure who was the bigger baby about the geese? Just kidding Krista!

Our first assignment after coming out of the movie theater was to split up and find three clues. Find the host hotel on 67th street, UNO's Mammel Hall, and the host off of Center Street (BCBS building). Done! Run back to the transition zone and head out to Chili Greens on foot. I just wanted to hop on the bike! Running is silly! So we finally made it out to Chili Greens. I wish I could say that everybody was running, but nope. Tons of people walking their way there. Once inside, we were greeted by cones, a soccer ball, and a goal. Dribble the ball around the cones, kick the ball into the goal. Easy! Glad I played soccer while growing up! Back to the transition zone for your next clue.

We crossed paths with Team KWK. They were going to shove sticks in our spokes because we were so fast

These girls were dressed for dance lessons 

They gave us a card with a picture on it, match it to a sponsor that is off of the Keystone Trail heading north. Peak Performance! So we trekked it out there by bike, put our bikes down and the challenge was to find a pair of matching shoes out of 50 or so that were all over the parking lot. Man they all looked the same! Done. Head to Backwoods by foot to learn how to tie a teammate into a Swiss Seat Harness. They basically threw you a rope and handed you page with double sided instructions. Have fun figuring it out. I think that we got it in fairly good time. The bad part of the event was having to wait in line for our turn. Must have been about 20 teams in line just waiting for their turn. You rush out there to wait in line during a race. What is up with that?

Next clue was to head out to 90th and Maple to make something go round or something similar. But it wasn't involving a golf ball. Turns out that we had to go into the place formerly called Cheap Skate and do a lap on a little board on wheels. This was probably the most fun event if you ask me. Of course, I was more concerned about taking pics and video rather than helping our team. Sorry! Krista fell, I fell, we crashed into two other teams. It was all good. Back to the transition zone at AkSarBen!


This ain't no roller derby! from DJ Chi Wai on Vimeo.

 As you'll see on the video, I think our team was better off without me helping. As soon as I helped, our team was crashing into others, we had people falling off, etc. 

Somehow they allowed this silliness into the race. It counted as three bikes. My initial impression was how unfair was this? You could rest in between runs while your teammate pedaled you to the next event. But when it came to the small hills under the overpasses, suddenly the unlucky biker was hauling the weight of 3 people and a huge cart attached to a bike. So probably 350 lbs plus? They all had to get out and help push up the hills. Pretty comical actually.

Once back there, we get our next clue. We had to head out on 67th street towards the north end of Elmwood park where we would have to do an event with New Belgium. Once again, we waited in line. There was a pool event where you had to swim across with innertubes but the pool actually opened so they kicked the entire race out of the pool area! That was some seriously poor planning. Especially considering how hot it was. For the New Belgium event, we had to close our eyes, stand on one foot, and do different actions with our hands, arms, etc. Wasn't easy! Next, we ran up to UNO track field and had to run around the Maverick while two innertubes were placed around us. Forwards 25 yds, turn around backwards, loop, then back while your teammates were holding your innertube. Wasn't easy!

The innertube race! from Misterlime on Vimeo.
So this is what video looks like of running from the POV of the Chesty mount! And I thought our singletrack videos were choppy!

Boy it was starting to get hot out. Back again to the transition zone. I like how they break up the running with the biking. I would love if it was all biking, but you can't always get what you want. So you run, catch your breath while on your bike, then repeat. One more event if I remember correctly. We had to run behind the new BCBS building and find clues inside of the Reader newspaper. When and where is the first artist playing for the Red Sky Festival, how many fake votes were there in a certain election, and what is the name on the side of the food delivery truck in the picture. Found. Then we had to deliver the newspapers on these big bulky bikes with metal baskets on them. I've ridden quite a few bikes in my lifetime. But nothing as top heavy as these! I thought I was going to fall down on them! I'm guessing that these were bikes that you could rent for use around town. I can't remember who was sponsoring that event (the sticker on the bike says Omaha Bicycles). I do not recommend riding singletrack with them, even if you can fit your dog in the basket! Once done delivering four newspapers, it was a running race to the finish line!

Some paperboy delivery video below!

Speedy Delivery! from DJ Chi Wai on Vimeo.

Wow, congrats to Team PT Lawesome! Good work Natalie and teammates on a first place all female half course division finish!!! Team KWK finished 8th in the full course coed division. Awesome work guys and gal! We ended up finishing 24th out of 38 teams. Not too shabby for us either. We were there to have fun and that we did. We didn't yell at each other, nobody got hurt, and we got some good exercise in for a Saturday morning. Qdoba provided everybody with lunch and New Belgium had the Fat Tires going at Liv Lounge. Good times! The most funny moments of the race??? When Krista freaked out because the geese were on the side of the road hissing at us. Krista was about to have a heart attack. Also, there was this tight bridge on Maple shortly after 90th by the KFC. Pretty much just enough room for one person to go through. Patty was running her bike in front of me and somebody was coming from the other direction. Patty was paying attention to the other girl ahead and moved over just a little bit. Patty's petal clipped the concrete edge sticking out and her entire bike went flying behind her. But she kept running. Holy cow it scared me. Luckily nobody got hurt. I just remember Patty saying harshly to the other woman, "I was watching out for you!!!" Ahh...too bad I didn't have the video rolling at that time.

Full race results along with times can be found at Raceregister.net. Here is the link and thanks for posting those up! http://www.raceregister.net/raceregistercontent/events/27/urban_omaha_2011.pdf

Qdoba and some Fat Tire were waiting for us at the end of the race 

It was also a costume contest. This team was dressed in camo and he had a plastic rifle with him. There were also Mario Brothers running around out there with a princess.

 Just some random pics:

The socks. Can't forget about the socks! I wanted to wear bacon and eggs, but ended up wearing socks that actually got a lot of compliments. I guess if team KWK can wear them, then we can too!

The bacon and eggs socks, turned into the ones below! Picture by Patty.

 Picture also by Patty. Or at least by her camera since she is in them! Yes, they say "BAD A**"