Marc and I arrived to the race fairly early as usual. The morning was chilly, but bearable. We hung out by the fire until the race meeting started. During the meeting, I just happened to ask Marc is he had any bike tools with him. He said no, so last minute I decided to run back to my car to get some bike tools just in case of a flat. I rushed back to meet Marc, and a few short minutes later we loaded the buses so they could drop us off at the race start.
We started the race with a short sprint run for about 3 miles before jumping in a four person raft to begin our journey down the Niangua River. Since the rivers were above flood stage at dangerous levels, we were not allowed to go down the river in canoes. We happened to get into a raft with Amanda Glendenning (the wife of the person in charge of the race) and her partner. Amanda immediately instructed us on where to sit and how to keep count on our strokes. It was intense, but she led us exactly where we needed to go down the river. We actually went at a pretty good pace with the water moving so fast.
In the middle of the rafting section, we jumped out of our rafts, jumped in the water (about waist high, burrrrrrr………
It doesn’t get better than river water at the end of October) and began our hike up the mountain. It seriously felt like a mountain even though it was just a huge steep hill. In my opinion, this part of the race was pretty intense. I had to keep telling myself to keep my legs moving, pick one leg up, then the other. I am not sure how Marc felt during this part. There wasn’t much talking. But at one point, Marc did tell me to take a second and look at the view. It was an awesome view, not realizing how high we had hiked. Wish there would have been more time to relax and enjoy the fall scenery! Once we made it to the top, it was time to go down. Parts of this were a bit rough with the ground being muddy and slippery, but we managed to make it back down, back through the river (but this time chest high for me), and back in the rafts. Away we went for another couple miles or so with a different team. 
After the rafting, we arrived at our bikes. Our families were there at this point cheering us on. My parents even brought Cooper (my dog) down to the river. It was now time to complete a 2-lap bike course with an obstacle in the middle. We changed our wet muddy running shoes to our biking shoes and off we went. Near the end of the first lap, we were walking our bikes up a hill (yes, Bryan, we were walking) and I looked down to notice my front tire was completely flat! Uugggghh!!!! I was so upset, this was the second race in a row one of my tires has gone flat. Marc did an amazing job getting the tire off, tube switched, aired up, and back on in about 5 minutes! Thank goodness I took the extra minute before the race to get my bike tools!!! While Marc was changing the tube, about 3-4 teams passed us. It was so disappointing trying to play catch up the rest of the race. Five minutes in a sprint race is actually quite a bit of time lost. Marc even did an amazing job with the obstacle by splitting a piece of wood with one swing! We finished the race in 2 hours, 37 minutes finishing 10th overall and 2nd in the co-ed division out of about 30 teams. After looking at the final results, 5 teams were within about 2-7 minutes of our finishing time. It’s disappointing about the flat tire, but I guess that’s going to happen from time to time. Let’s just hope it’s not my tire AGAIN next time!
Post by Jill Plassmeyer
