This morning, my muscles are aching. Yesterday was the annual eco challenge race. I participated with 2 of the same team members as last year, and we had the same team name.
The race started in Chiniak at 8 AM and the first leg of the race was about an 8 mile bike ride, followed by rafting across Kalsin Bay. We got on our bikes again and biked to Middle Bay, at which point we rafted across Middle Bay. '
As we got into the raft, our team member, Tamara fell back wards in the water. She let out out a huge scream and we quickly pulled her back into the boat. After arriving on the other side of Middle Bay, two of the team biked and Chris and I ran to Cliff Point Road.
Somewhere along the bike ride, I got dirt into my eye, which caused painful tearing when I tried to open it. At one check point, the EMT guys tried flushing it, which didn't help a whole lot. At a subsequent check point, an EMT put a gauze patch on it, which helped tremendously as we started the hike up to Heitman Lake. Hiking felt really good after all the biking and rafting. After reaching the Heitman lake check point, we had to bush whack and trek down the other side of the mountain towards Womens Bay. The fog would move in and out and eventually we found a trail from the 50 people prior who had made their way down. There was lots of jokes and laughter going down the mountain, as we would fall and slide and fight with the alders. I made jokes about making up new yoga poses, such as a "full Alder" or "1/2 alder" pose, as we would fall and straddle alders. I am definitely NOT cut out for hunting or bushwhacking/hunting. Not fun.
With the patch on my eye, my team called me "Cyclops" (and one-eyed Willie from Goonies) and it did at times throw off my depth perception, especially going up and down the mountain. I think the patch looked much worse than I felt...The patch helped keep my eyelid shut, which felt great!
At the head of womens Bay, we got into our rafts and rafted the last leg to Nyman Peninsula on the Coast Gaurd Base where we participated in a paint gun activity--shooting at a target of a bear. That was fun-as I've never shot a paint ball gun before! (I didn't hit the bear. :( Sniffle, sniffle). Hitting the bear got time off of our score-I think one team member hit the bear.
The last 2 miles was walking to The Golden Anchor where we were greeted with a BBQ going and beers. Good finish point!
16 teams finished the race and we came in 13th. The race covered 37 miles and we did it in 9 hours. There were a few tiring moments in the race, but most of it was full of lots of laughter and joking. We all kept a VERY good sense of humor about the ordeal.
I"m already looking forward to next year...
Zoya
1 comment:
Great job Zoya!
I had to wear a patch on my eye as a child and it really does mess with your depth perception. It would be really hard to hit a target wearing a patch over one eye until you had lots of practice with only 1 eye.
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