Big Chill race

Too Cool's "Big Chill" 24-hr adventure race lived up to its name last weekend. Team Vignette (me, John, Dave, and Kristi) endured some suffering but eventually started to enjoy the later parts of the race. Not so much that we weren't glad when it was over, though!

I've got a full race report planned, but in the meantime here is a summary of the legs:

Prelim = Amazing Bastrop race: Goats, opera, a word search, and beef jerky - FUN! Our team sped through the streets and got to the boats first.

Leg 1 = A Really Long Paddle: This could be the longest Too Cool paddle ever. The low river kept us entertained as we had to constantly look ahead to figure out how to stay out of the shallowest parts. But that lost its allure after a couple hours. Team AAR blew by us in their 4-person canoe, smokin'! Cold headwind! Fun special test in the pecan grove near the end. Finally - the takeout!! Team Knights of Ni were right behind us. Then the coldest part - biking over to Rocky Hill Ranch (RHR) - major brrrrr....

Leg 2 = Biking: I love doing nav at RHR on bikes. Once we were in the trees on singletrack we warmed up a good bit. Passed Team AAR on the northern end of the ranch. Saw a bunch of teams heading up the fence trail as we were going back down. Rode the long, hilly paved road back to Bastrop State Park - didn't get as cold as we thought we might, except for our fingers and toes.

Leg 3 = A puzzle! Cool. Well, cold, actually, but we worked together and finished it. Finally on foot! It didn't take too much running for all extremities to finally un-numb. Nice nav loop, hit the points right on and ran back to TA. Looked like we had 30-60 minutes lead on teams AAR and Knights.

Leg 4 = Back on the bikes, a shorter leg than expected (yay!). I changed gloves and added bags to my feet, and all of us stayed warm this time. Fun little ropes traverse across a ravine - hi Rooney! One interesting CP in a creek, another in a culvert, then back up the hills to TA. Maintained our lead, but you can never count out the teams on our heels.

Leg 5 = The last one, and not as long as normal, excellent. We trekked to 4 faraway points, messed around in a couple dry ditches, still had running legs to get back quickly. Finished in first place, yay!

OK, so I'm not very good at short summaries :)