No ORDinary Adventure Race
Every Adventure Race on the Nebraska Sports Council’s schedule proves to be unique and Ord was no exception. Mike and his crew of volunteers set up a great course for the racers to navigate.
Friday night before the race we checked our gear and received our maps and coordinates. Adam, our top plotter, quickly set about figuring out where the check points were at on the vast map. Within an hour we were looking at the tiny dots, which represented check points (CP’s), and began to formulate our plan of attack.
After some discussion we decided we had better get some sleep before the big race. The next morning we awoke to find it had rained over night. We loaded our bikes and gear into the official BentVenture race vehicle (Adam’s truck) and drove to the bike drop off. The rules stated that we would have to run to the first 3 CP’s and then pick up our bikes a couple miles down the road.
At the prerace meeting, we were given final instructions and any changes that had occurred. Due to the rain overnight, Mike had to alter part of the course that would have taken us down a minimum maintenance road.
After the final instructions, and a few pictures with Princess THIS!, we were ready. Mike yelled ‘GO’ and we were off on an extraORDinary adventure.
We quickly found the first 3 CP’s in town and made our way to the transition area (TA) where our bikes were located. Once there, we found one of the CP’s hanging from a post in the middle of the river! Adam volunteered to wade out there and punch our card.
We checked out of the TA and began the ride to the next CP’s. The wet sand and gravel on the roads made for a very difficult ride. We were continually checking our tires because it felt like we had flats.
We rode to the Country Neighbor and purchased our stick of candy (and a couple extras for the team) as required in the instruction sheet. Then it was off on a run to
The old buildings in
A quick check of the map and we headed for the Elyria Flag Pole and our next CP. From there, we had a nice bike ride to the
The volunteer at the TA instructed us to grab three tubes, tie them together and head for the river. All three team mates had to float down the river with the tubes all tied together. This sounds a lot easier than it was! The river was just shallow enough that about the time you started floating downstream good, you would get grounded on a submerged sandbar.
We finally found a little deeper channel and were able to float effortlessly for a while. The CP’s were located on sandbars which were fairly visible as we floated along. After about two miles of tubing and punching CP’s, we exited the river.
A couple hundred yards from the river lay our next challenge. The land we were on held several sandpit lakes which we had to cross with our tubes. Our first attempt at crossing lake #1 was challenging as we tried to figure out the best and quickest method across.
After trying different strategies, Adam (who is a very strong swimmer) decided he would swim and pull the tubes. Matt and Matt assisted by kicking and paddling, all while sitting in the tubes and taking in the nice Ord Scenery!
Finally we got across the last lake. After dumping the sand out of our shoes and socks, we checked out of the TA and continued on our journey.
We headed to
We finished out the course finding the rest of our CP’s fairly easily. At the finish, we were met with one final CP and challenge. At the bottom of the Ord Pool lay several poker chips which each team member needed to retrieve. After a long day in the hot sun, it was welcome relief to jump in after those!
We would like to thank Mike the race director, all the volunteers, and the community of
Matt
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” Ralph Waldo Emerson
