Well, a bummer this weekend, as we learned that the Ultimate 36, a 36 hour adventure race set in upstate NY, has been canceled. This race, the longest ever for us, was to cap our season, which has been pretty good so far. We haven't competed in as many races as I had hoped, but those we did went pretty well, and I feel we are making progress as a team. Not sure what the rest of the season holds for us. We may still make a trip to PA for the Edge (we took 3rd in our category last year, and may need to return to defend our title), which was a great race last year. We are also conteplating replacing the Ultimate 36 with a 3 day Long Trail hike, since we all had planned to do something that weekend anyway. More to come...

Well, training continues, in the gym and on the trail. I'll leave you with this funny pic of 3 of us (Justin, J, and I) doing our first ever swimming leg in an adventure race, swimming across a part of the Waterbury Reservoir during the Bitter Pill. As you can see, we had to swim with all our gear (including, thankfully, our PFDs), which was quite a challenge...

Stowe Marathon!!

Right, sorry for the delay in posts, we've all been pretty busy with work, training, etc. To complete the Bitter Pill narrative below, suffice it to say, we rocked the trekking section, entering in 6th place and coming out in 4th, even though we spent considerable time searching for CP8. But, we found it, had a great time on the rappell (70ish feet), and finished 4th, at just over 12 hours. A great race, looking forward to the next GMARA race, which will probably be the Frigid Infliction.

So, this past weekend (Sept 10), Team RWS competed in the team relay part of the Stowe Marathon. After searching and searching for a 4th, we got our buddy Biz in, and then Justin bailed. Not other 4th was to be found, so we ran as a 3 person team. I ran the first, 7 mile leg, Shaun ran the 2nd 6 mile leg, and Jason ran the final 2 legs which totaled 13 miles. It was a great time for all of us (my first running race, and Biz's as well), although Biz did get sent the wrong way by a volunteer, and ended up doing 8 rather than 6 miles. Still, we finished with a total time of 4hr 10min, which we were pretty happy with. And, it got us 2nd place in our division (of 3 person teams)!!!

All in all, it was a beautiful day, a perfect fall day in Vermont. Free beer and food afterward was also appreciated. For myself, never being a runner before, I really enjoyed my 7 miles, and I will definitely continue running and competing in running races. Maybe even a marathon next year? Who knows... A picture of the 3 of us before the start of the race can be found below: