TeamBONK - Desert Dash AR

	Last Saturday I competed as part of a team in our first adventure race in the desert just outside of Las Vegas (DesertDash) . My two teammates are Ron Sanders, a black belt and team leader, and Stuart Jones, an Iron Man and marathon runner. Understandable I was anxious about joining the team. The team became official when Ron read the name that received the most votes. "Team BONK. May God help us". (The term "BONK")
The first leg of the race was a 5-7 mile run over sand hills, through ravines, and over rocky terrain wearing a personal flotation device. If you check the pictures, you will notice the child floaty wings on my teammates arms. Thanks to Ron's pre race analysis and preparation, we did not have to run with a full life vest as most people did. I ran with the wetsuit vest hanging from the back of my shorts - sorry Ivan, but uhh, hey... Thanks for the loaner! Don't worry its clean.
At the end of the run, a person at the check point told us that we need to go back to the starting point anyway we want without crossing major landmarks. Ron the swimmer opted for swimming down the river, Stu and I -runners, opted for a roundabout road run. Ron convinced us to run along the side of the river. While running along the river, we realized the river was flowing about as fast as we were running, and we opted to dive in. One of the best ideas we had. Notice I took Ron's idea and made it a group idea. Floating down a river through the desert while everyone else was running was awesome. This was one of the best parts of the race that I will always remember.
During the run/float, Ron sprained his ankle. A potentially huge blow to the team, but Ron sucked it up and took us through the rest of the race! Thank God he did, otherwise Stu and I would still be running around that desert as we have little to no orienteering skills due to a lack of sense of direction. Coming out of the river Stu and I got stuck in Quick Sand! As I hit it, I spread out to try to slow my descent. My entire left leg was stuck up to my waist as I stood in 2 feet of water that was up by my chest. I was only able to move my leg out about 1-2 inches before Ron and Stu pulled me out. The three of us had to crawl commando style over ten feet of quicksand to a rocky shore. We celebrated by shaking fifteen pounds of mud and rock out of our shoes. How many people can say they have been stuck in quicksand during an adventure race? Definitely a cool story.
	We had a slow transition to the bike, but my and Stu's frustration was quickly replaced with feeling like an ass when we realized that Ron had the additional task of having to duct tape his sprained ankle to limit the mobility.
The 10-15 mile bike started off with smack talking common with many of my friends. Stu gave me a hard time about my biking when I was pushing the pace and laid over twice. Clips are not recommended for some of these races, especially when the trail or lack there of, forces you to walk or carry your bike for a quarter of the ride. Karma struck and Stu went down, once gashing his knee, and again, sliding down part of a hill, scrapping his leg. Stu sucked it up like a champ and kept the pace from falling off if Ron or I would start to lag. One of the best parts of this section was getting over the last hill, flying through the riverbed, yelling to my teammates when I hit soft sand, and not flipping as my bike as it would swerve through the sand.
	The last leg of the race was the water event where we had to find items stored in hidden buckets underwater along the coastline. With the use of a map Ron was able to point us to the general location of the buckets and we swam around until we found them.
Throughout the race there were mental challenges that we had to overcome as a team. This definitely added a twist to the event, but I will spare the details as you probably have limited time reading this. Hopefully you made it this far. We placed third in our division for the Nevada State Championship Adventure Race, which included people from as far as Texas and others with Eco race experience. Not bad for a novice team that sustained serious injuries.
	Looking back on the race I realize that we were successful because we exploited the strengths of each team member. Ron would always plot the best course and keep us from getting lost. Stu, the Iron Man, could keep us on a consistent pace and knew how to keep us motivated. I would say my skill is finding the quick sand! Ron would try to argue that my skill is beam holding. Ron got whacked with a beam and has pictures to prove it was because of me. Sorry :) In all these are great events that build friendship, team skills, and offer moments for personal insight and self-reflection. You never fully know how you will act until you are in that particular situation.
As a side note to this story, I learned what the phrase "That's a Weekend in Vegas" means coming from an airline customer service manager. And I was nearly left in a bloody mess near the freeway at 4 a.m. Monday morning, thanks to our friendly airport parking lot bus drivers. But these stories require impressions, and are best told over a beer! Like my Mexico trip, this trip was well worth the risks I was fortunate enough to encounter, I mean survive! :)