We saw the team in front of us. Trea was on my rear wheel. We had been playing leap frog with them the entire race and now it was going to came down to a sprint to the finish.

Two and a half earlier team MountainZone.com (only Trea and I this evening) had started the BEAST #2 race. With no flash and flare at the BEAST series there was no big count down to the start. Instead in it went, 3..2..1..go; and some teams went left, some right, some across the parking lot, while other down a trail, some even ran out to the street, and a few teams simply socked at the quick start because they had not finished plotting their route. Ourselves, we took the across the school parking lot route. It looked good on the map and I felt even better after we hit CP 1 and saw teams coming up the hill we began to descend.

Running down hill for me is not bad, because I have gravity as my friend; and walking up steep hills is not bad either because I am good at that. This is pretty much what we faced from CPs 2 until CP 7, which happened to be on the beach. Now a nice stroll on the beach at sunset is fine, but a 7 million mile run along a beach with knee deep sand, house size boulders, ranging rivers, man eating slime, crashing surf, blistering sun, and headwinds no matter which way you face is what lay in store for us between CP 8-10. Oh, did I add we had to build an inhabitable pueblo village once we returned? Note:(I might have exaggerated the difficulty of this section, ever so slightly if at all, but you get the point)

Along the beach we kept trading places with this other 3-person co-ed team (later to be determined it was team Mud and Flesh Wounds.) as we finished off the trekking section we crossed paths with them several more times. I guess there actually were multiple route choices because each time we seemed to be going different directions.

At a quick TA it was on to the bikes. For this race we were aloud to bring road bikes, so we did. This was the first time I have ever raced on a road bike and I would soon find out it limitations. The good thing was since we were on road bikes we could go real fast, and most of the time it was in the correct direction. The bad thing is when you are in tight areas looking for specific things, it is easy to fly right by them.

The first bike CP was under an overpass, we ended up on top of the overpass. Throwing Trea over the edge to go get the clue was not a real viable option, so we circled around. We hit the next two CPs fine. Had passed two or three teams, one of them being the Mud and Flesh group. We were flying down a nice straight away increasing the distance between us and the other teams, when I blew a tire, rear to be exact. After one of the fastest tire changes ever we were back on course. Hit the next two CP and were back in the flow of the race. But then bad side of the fast bike issue appeared.

We went right, left, right, straight, then right. Wait was right? I mean correct. Should we have gone right? Did we miss a turn? Why do all these houses look the same? Where is this stupid school? A look some guy taking out his trash, let's ask him. Hay look a three person team that looks so familiar up the hill in front of us. Quick let's catch them.

So we did and then we were back on track, for a few minutes at least. We found the school; we found the clue, it was a race to the finish. Wait, every one is going a different way again. As we neared the finish line the road deadended??? What it appears to go through on the map. I can see the road we want behind the house at the end of the road. Quick take a left and then the next right. Another dead end?? Who planned this neighborhood? Were they drinking when they did it? We found a main road and started up a hill. Look to the left, that is where CP one was at. As we turned the corner for the final stretch who did we see?

It's Mud and Flesh Wounds (Again).

We sprinted to catch up. We were almost on them before they noticed our lights. O did they speed up now?
There was one left turn to make. I had the inside edge, but I saw headlights coming towards us. I tapped the breaks, and crossed the road onto the sidewalk (note to self: road bike + sidewalk = not as fast thanks to bumps and no shock). Then everyone in the group flew around the corner in front of me. Apparently the car turned or something because I never saw it again. There was a mass skid into the finish line and two passports were whipped out. One second too slow. Well ok the first place team beat us by over a half hour, but the first co-ed team only beat us by a second.

Congrats to Glenn and Don for winning the race and Mud and Flesh Wounds for taking first in the co-ed division.

Once again the BEAST put on a fun race with a fast course with multiple route choices. Next time there will be boats, that should slow those runner types down.