Good Samaritan Boys Ranch Adventure Race

Darren Helton was unable to race this one with us, so we picked up Ken Chappell who has experience with adventure racing already. Ken is a friend of Marc's that joined us at the last minute. He worked out great. Looking forward to racing alot more with Ken.
This was an 8-10 hour race near Walnut Grove, MO. We sent Jill Plassmeyer, Marc Fisher, Bryan Greaser and Ken Chappell on this race.
It was a semi-cold and rainy morning and it rained for probably at least half to 3/4 of this race. One of the highlights (or low-lights) of the race was when we were on the Frico Highline Trail. There was a bridge that crossed the river, but the map and race instructions stated, "Bridge out. Swim river or use canoe to cross river if provided." Hmmmm. I looked at that again, and again, and again. The bridge wasn't 'out,' but I assumed that it meant that we couldn't use it. Even though there were no race officials there, I thought maybe they were hiding in the woods or something and keeping track of which teams crossed the bridge illegally. Well there we go, down to the water's edge and into the river, despite a perfectly functional bridge that crossed right over the river. After some river crossing hoopla, fighting the current and hidden deep spots, we came out across the other side having to climb up a muddy slope. This whole deal cost us probably 15 minutes extra. At the finish, we asked other teams about that spot, and they didn't know what we were talking about. When they came to that same point they just ran right across that bridge. Come to find out, the bridge was actually 'out' and non-functional last year at the race and they didn't change the race instructions. Dohhhh.
There was an obstacle course that was pretty cool, and we learned that Marc might have better balance than Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luikin. We finished in first in our division, and 2nd overall behind the very strong all male team of Downhill Bikes of Branson, MO. They are strong racers and overall very good guys too, so there was no shame in losing to them. Nice race guys.
Our time was 8 hours and 13 minutes. We made some errors which we looked back on and laugh at, but every race is good experience and you always learn something, especially when our team is in it's infancy. Getting races under our belt is key and we are determined to continue to get better and better. We're already learning everyone's strengths and weaknesses, so we all know where we need to improve to make the entire unit a well oiled machine. My mountain biking background is helping me alot, but I need more miles on my feet.
Next up: Quincy, IL Monster Adventure Race, September 20th.