bikes and boogie boards, canoes and a compass

Well...with the 12, no make that 7 Hours of Dauset behind me (I was on a duo with my fellow Sorella, Linda Demma. We came in 17th out of 18 duos...but as Renee noted they didn't break us apart into 2 men, coed, and 2 women sub-categories, so we consider ourselves to also have finished 1st as we were the only 2 woman duo), my sites are now set on this weekend's 12 Hour Ocmulgee Adventure Race.

The race involves paddling (flat water, but at night), river swimming (thankfully not at night...but there are snakes and wigglies in the water) on a boogie board (with or without flippers - depends on if we want to carry them around afterwards...but the swim is being bandied about as being 4 miles long), biking and hike-a-biking, orienteering (hence the compass), trekking and whatever other silly tasks they decide to throw in. Sometimes you have to sing, dance, do mental challenges.

We're required to carry two liters of water, but we also have to carry some sort of filtration system. Makes sense, because I went through two liters in less than two hours of biking at Dauset.

The big deal is going to be keeping gear to a minimum, while at the same time ensuring we have all of the mandatory items. We have to haul this stuff on our backs/shoulders throughout the event (through water, on the bikes, whilst running, whilst bushwhacking, basically all the time.

Then there's Mother Nature to factor in...the forecast calls for the chance of rain pretty much everyday for the next ten days. Murphy's Law leads me to believe it will hold off until 12:01 Saturday morning (perhaps I didn't mention this race starts at midnight and goes to noon the next day) and then let it rip all over us. We not only have to read and orient on a map at night...we also have to make sure the darned thing doesn't get soaked. They make rainproof mapcases, but still.

Nutrition is going to be key too. Since we're going to be going against our bodies' natural clocks, food is going to be extra important to keep us moving and "with it".

All that aside...I'm really looking forward to it. Right now my team is in a class by itself. We're the only three woman team. In fact we're the only woman team. All the other categories are co-ed or all men at this time.