Adventure Racing and a Few Little Waves

my t-shirt from the race

Several months ago, a friend I bicycle with sent a notice to a few people asking if any of us wanted to participate in an Adventure Race taking place in Tyler State Park during September. I had heard him talk about his fun at adventure races before and had expressed an interest, so I'm sure it came to no surprise to him that when he posted the note, I was the first to respond. Adventure Races can be different from one to another but, for the most part, they usually include trail running, mountain biking and kayaking. I had done one short one with him last December, but this would be a longer one and would probably be a four-person team that included two of his male friends and me. I am nine years older than my friend, 12 years older than one of the friends and, finally, 25 years older than the youngest guy on the team. I wasn't sure they would want me on the team, but I didn't hear anyone complain. And, I'm so glad they didn't! I had a ball racing with team Dazed & Confused. The race was unlike anything I've ever done before. I left the navigating to them since it required using a topographical map and a little plastic tool that helped locate coordinates. It was nice to have them lead in that area so I could relax when it came to directions. I realized that I need to strengthen my mountain bike skills and my orienteering skills if I want to compete in another race. I know I can do that with practice. I have to say, though, that I had one of my best days ever on the mountain bike. Just as the size of the wave can be frightening when looking over my shoulder, so can a descent look scary when looking down a path from the seat of a mountain bike.

Because I drove up with my teammate to Tyler on Friday for the race, I didn't get to go surfing. It didn't look great on the webcam, but I'm pretty sure there were ride-able waves. By Saturday, the wind had shifted out of the north and the waves were beautiful. Of course, I wasn't there since I was competing in my race. I wouldn't have changed a thing other than to wish the waves would have gone from frumpy to fantastic on Sunday instead of Saturday so that I would have been home to enjoy them. From the webcam I looked at after my race, I could see quite a few surfers enjoying the fun.  A couple of friends sent Facebook notes or emails describing the fun. I was just hoping that there would be a few left on Sunday morning.

I was glad to get a call from my surf dude Brian who said there were still some small, surfable waves this morning. I loaded up Roxanne and headed down. I'm sure glad I did. When I first arrived, I struggled catching them. In fact, I got angry and almost packed up and went home. Because the remnants of yesterday's waves didn't pack a lot of power, paddling had to be fast and strong. Brian offered me his 10' board, but I knew changing boards wouldn't help. A couple of other guys were out trying to catch waves also. One young guy was making it look easy. I studied how he was doing it and realized that I wasn't paddling soon enough. I needed to go out a little farther in the water and start paddling the minute I saw the wave form. So that is what I started to do. I caught many waves after that and managed to turn a little. However, because the waves were breaking so close to shore, the rides were short. I prefer if I'm able to catch them out past the jetty. But, that just wasn't possible with the waves we had today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next weekend when I'm IN town, another front will push through so that I can surf some nice waves on the outside.