Red Dirt Adventure Challenge 2010

Last Saturday the ACU Outdoor Club hosted its 5th Annual Red Dirt Adventure Challenge and Lake Abilene in the Abilene State Park. Months of preparation, hours of effort, and gobs of time paid off as the event went off without a hitch. In years past we've had course problems up the wazzoo: racers not following the marked course, not going to all the checkpoints, high winds, cold temperatures, high or low water levels... This year's curveball: rain and mud! It rained pretty hard the day before the race and a pre-Race Day ride made us conclude that much of the proposed course was impossible to ride or run. However, we didn't get rained on heavily on Race Day, just had to swim through a misty drizzle all day long.

I have to give a big thanks to all the volunteers for making this event possible. We had an amazing planning/organizational team that was willing to put in a lot of time and effort. Thanks to my good friend Laura for the phenomenal pictures. Enjoy the colorful montage:

Me manning the Biking Challenge Checkpoint: the Chocolate River. I'm standing in front of my "Flying Diamond" lean-to (Thanks Dad!) set up in case of heavy rain.

Group photos of the volunteers and helpers after the race was complete. What an awesome crew!

Asa and I handing out the "Special Award" at the Awards Ceremony. Robert had raced almost the whole course with a flat tire... What a machine. By the way, the awards ceremony was a ton of fun: we had a lot of prizes to give away and it was easy to get really enthusiastic about it all.

Carrying a heavy load wrapping up the race. I rode my bike back from the checkpoint out in the "boonies" and picked up the course markers along the way. One racer asked me how I got stuck with the "short end of the stick" and had to be out by myself at the check point. I told him that I had volunteered for it because I feel like I probably have a higher propensity to suffer than most!

Ready, set, GO!

A number of International Students raced this year and even had some supporters come out as a cheering squad.

Even with the rain, mud, and fatigue everyone was having a great time. Mark's (on the left) bike even broke because of the mud...