Stony Creek Metropark – Stop #2
Detroit welcomed MESP and
the Hi-Tec adventure race series with beautiful facilities and perfect
weather. The race got underway with the
return of the Marco-Polo start where one teammate had to race to the water, swim
and locate the other two teammates waiting in the sea of kayaks. Following the two-mile kayak we were
instructed to abandon ship and swim the remaining 100 yards to the shore with
kayaks in tow. We were in really good
shape after the first event in third place with Red Bull leading the way and
team Timex in our sites. Our only
mishaps were having our kayak towline break (twice).
Reaching the shore, soaking
wet we set out on the 6-mile trail run, but not without swimming another
100-yard section of the lake. The trail
run was a blast with lots of winding trails and a few water crossings. The run ended with the same 100-yard swim we
started with. We entered the transition
area still in third and right on the heals of Timex and Balance Bar in front of
them. Before mounting our bikes we had
the marine hurdle special test where each team member had to get over a set of
4 seven-foot hurdles.
We managed to push into
second, grabbed our bikes and were hit with the tube exchange special
test. One bike was chosen to swap tubes
from front to back. (What if all 3
bikes had tubeless tires?) After the
tube swap was the final event, the 11-mile mountain bike ride. After Timex passed us back, we rode the rest
of the ride in third place. In the last
half mile, Team Sobe caught us and remained right behind us into the transition
area. The last two special tests
included the double spider web and the wall.
The double spider web had both the vertical and horizontal webs. The vertical web is where each teammate has
to pass through without touching the web and once a hole is used it remains
closed to the other teammates. The
horizontal web has to be crossed without touching and one teammate has to cross
without touching the ground. Sobe did a
great job at this test and reached the wall just ahead of us. We got over the wall and finished in 4th
place for our first ever podium finish.
It was a tight race as only 65 seconds separated 1st-4th
place.