A few weeks ago I saw a flyer up at work for an Army Adventure Race host by UCF ROTC. The race was made up of teams of 4 and covered 5.5 miles with 8 stations throughout the course. I immediately knew I wanted in, but I wanted to put a team together that would not just do good, but beat the Army at their own race. I asked around, and Capt Cueball decided he wasn't in shape enough; he was only going to slow us down. But there was one Capt at work, call him BJ, who is a really fast runner... like 18min 3 mile fast. He is into triathlons too, but he is like serious into it. He is on a triathlon team that trains together and stuff. Anyways, I asked him and he asked around his circle, and we eventually pulled 3 Marine Captains and 1 firefighter. So we entered the event. Team Marine was formed, and we all met each other just this morning.
There were 3 categories to enter into: Pro, Open, and JROTC (high school kids). We entered into the Pro group and were put up against 6 other teams. These teams were made up from members of the local CrossFit gyms. For those not familiar with crossfit it is the BEST exercise/fitness gym there is. Check out crossfit.com if you don't know about it already. Anyways, a crossfit team is pretty serious. There were a few teams of girls and stuff but each gym put together a superstar team. I figured I wouldn't mind losing to a crossfit instructor team. I could still respect myself if I lost to them.
Anyways, the race begins with a 5o yard dash to station number 1: sit ups... two members of the team do as many situps as they can in 1 min while the other 2 members hold their feet. After 1 min, switch. I did about 59 situps (not crunches but full hands-behind-the-head situps) and everyone on the team was about the same. After that you run a half-mile to the next station: carry station. There were a few backpacks with weights and a few sand bags that the team had to carry 100 ft and back without dropping anything. I carried 2 sandbags on my shoulders and when we finished the timer soldier said we were the fastest so far; a good sign. Next we ran a half-mile to pushups. Same scenario as with sit-ups but with pushups. I did about 50 in 1 min. Each member of Team Marine did a bit better but all within a bit of each other. Next a mile run to the pull-ups station. Max # of pull-ups in 30 seconds. I did 17, the firefighter did 21 and the other 2 Captains did 16. Next run to the downed pilot station...this was a stretcher carry station where 3 members of the team had to carry 1 member. I got there first so I was the "downed pilot" and was forced to be carried by my team. I hated every second. I hate being the one not doing something when the entire team is working hard. So I tried to call out any uneven ground as they ran. Next was the tire flipping station. 1 Tractor tire + 4 people = flipping the tire end over end for 50 yards. Next, run to the next station: the mental challenge. It was an interesting problem solving game with 4 tires. We took a bit to figure it out but once we did we executed pretty quickly. Now the entire time we have been running, the rest of the team was trying to keep a comfortable pace, not too fast, not too slow. I wanted to run faster, but they restrained me. After the mental challenge there was only one last run to the final station, which was where the finish line was. So we took off running hard. All these guys are in the kind of shape I am, so we were really moving. We got to the Hummv push station and pushed a hummv for 50 yards.
When it was all over, BJ when home so he could ride a bike for 2 hours and the other 2 guys and I did a CrossFit workout. After we cooled down we saw a CrossFit tent where they had a workout of the day posted. 2 rounds of: 500m on a row machine, 40 squats and 30 should press with 20 pound weights in each hand. This race was hard enough to break most but we finished and we all kept on working out.
When it came time for the awards ceremony we ended up winning the whole thing. We got a trophy and medals. I don't even know what the other prizes were we won, cause all I cared was that we beat the Army.
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