Challenge Nation is an urban scavenger hunt that goes from city to city. You are given 12 clues with a task to complete at each clue. You have to figure each clue out to determine the destination, get to said destination, complete the task it says and take a picture (you have to get 11 of the 12 clues). K and I lined up at the starting/registration location, signed a waiver, got our race bibs and t-shirts and waited. Since we had over an hour to kill before we had to be back to get instructions and start the race, we grabbed some coffee from a local shop and tried to plan some kind of strategy (again, even though we had no idea what to expect). The last couple weeks leading up to this event, we studied Cleveland history and landmarks, and made it a point to take our walks/jogs through the city as often as possible so we could put all the landmarks into perspective. While sipping our coffee, we decided that we would get the clues then run to the nearest semi-remote location to figure out all the clues and plan a route. We planned on giving ourselves 30 minutes to do this. After that, we had no plan....just run.
K was our team captain (she's not as afraid to push through a crowd as I am, so it was a unanimous vote from the two of us), so she went and got the clues envelope, and we ran to a secluded location (aka, a trash can on the sidewalk...covered in mini spiders....it was kind of gross, but we did what we had to do). I'm not really sure what we were initially thinking when we said we would need 30 minutes to figure the clues out. We had those puppies figured out and the route mapped out in 5 minutes flat. So, we started running.
There were over 1,200 people registered for this event with over 300 teams participating. A LOT of people showed up. We did the best we could. The shin splints really got in the way, but I felt as though we ran for about half of the race....doing block intervals (run 1 block, walk 1 block, etc). By the time we were running back to the ending location, the searing pain really took over and I felt like I had gone blind a couple of times, so I could only mostly walk at the end (my competitive nature was kicking myself and the stupid splints. I'm sure K's competitive nature was also kicking me).
Out of 300+ teams, we finished in 70th place with a time of 1 hour and 27 minutes. We had ZERO clue/location deductions. For this being the very first race that we've done, I'm pretty proud with how well we did. Plus, we had SO much fun! Mentally, K and I had this race in the bag. It was the physical part that held us back (But still, I don't think I did all that bad due to the fact that I've literally only been exercising for 80 days of my life and had a gimp leg). So next year, I feel pretty confident that we could place in the top 25 and go to Vegas for the National Championship.
I'm really glad I had the opportunity to participate in an event like this. When I first started with J, he gave us a goal sheet to fill out. One of my goals was to participate and finish a 5k. 80 days into this journey, I can officially cross my first goal off my list. I know a 5k isn't a full marathon or anything, but it's definitely something I never thought I would do. And I did it. And I did better than I thought. I feel proud of myself for accomplishing this and I can't wait to cross more goals off my list in the future :)
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