I am still savoring what may have been our last Oyster! Last weekend we departed for San Francisco
hoping that our 3rd teammate would work out and we would have a
great race. We stayed by the airport
Thursday night and then departed by bus Friday morning to downtown and the
Presidio area where we would be staying the next two nights. We figured that riding the bus would allow us
to get more familiar with the city. The
bus dropped us off on Market street where we could transfer to another bus to
get to our hotel but it was a beautiful day so we decided to walk with our
luggage. It was about 3 miles but we did
get to see a lot of the city.
We stayed in the Cow Hollow area and once we dropped our
bags off we were off to explore the piers because we thought we might have some
tasks down there. Then it was off to the
check in at the Sports Basement where they had a great map of the
Presidio. We studied it while we waited
for check in and then got our clue and worked on figuring it out. We thought we had it but we had to wait until
7 to get the sneak peak and to pick up our rented bikes so we decided to take
our map and ride the free buses that go through the Presidio to get a lay of
the land. The Sports Basement is pretty
far from everything and because of how
they are reconstructing the 101 highway it
is cut off from the other side of the Presidio as you have to run about
1.5 miles to get around the construction each way, so it would take quite a run to go anywhere
but the Presidio area. By the end of two
complete bus routes we felt we had a pretty good handle on the area and the
Golden Gate Bridge area. We picked up
our bikes and rode them home just in time to check out our sneak peak clue
which was 4 of the 10 hoardenger. And
then off to carb load at a really good Italian place called Parma!
After dinner we made our plan of attack knowing that we
should get a few of the Hoardengers before the race began at 8 and we also
needed to get to the transition early,
you know how I always like to be there first. I had to give in and get there later this
race since we need the light to get a couple of the hoardengers. This would make a huge difference in the end
so it was a great decision.
We got up at 5:30 and packed all our stuff and headed out to
meet our teammate and get the log sculpture in the Presidio and then we headed
to the beach to draw oyster in the sand and bring a handful of sand back. It was still a bit dark when we were taking
picture and it was in the woods so isn’t the best photo but it would have to
do.
So once we got all set up it was time to start but my bike
shoes would not clip into the pedal on the rented bike so I had to run into the
store and get them to switch my pedals out for ones with cages which really
sucked climbing those monstrous hills. But after that little SNAFU we were
ready to go. We got our first passport
for what might be the last Oyster.
Because of the generosity of our donors.
We got the benefit of getting our 1st passport given to us
instead of having to run 1 mile to get it! And of course I was first in line to get it. Once we got it, it was the Hoardenger that we
had already gotten 4 out of the 10 items and we only needed to get 8. So we quickly got to work rounding up the
other 4 items
1.
Picture
of Team and others doing the YMCA in front of a construction site
2.
99 cents exactly
3.
A beach picture with a pic of Oyster in the sand
and bring back sand
4.
One of Andy Goldworthy’s natural statues
5.
$10 donation
to make a wish (counted as two)
6.
Photo of
teammate holding the Golden Gate in their hands (and the weather was
great, no fog all weekend)
7.
Teammate doing an assisted handstand (Alla
rocked this, nice handstand)
We were the first team to check in for passport 1 and then it was off to passport 2
Passport 2 on Bike - 2 mystery locations (Throw back)
Mystery location 1 – Bike to this welcoming beacon that has been in the San Fran skyline since its completion in 1933. Alla thought it might be the Coit Tower, so I googled it and found that it was completed in 1933 and she said she knew where it was.
Mystery Location 2 – Solve a math problem to find which Pier
to head to.
(# of
remaining cable car routes x height in feet of the towers on the Golden Gate
Bridge) – Year the Giants moved to San Fran and take that answer and divide by
7. Our answer was Pier 40, the furthest
one from where we were.
Alla said she thought that we should go to Coit Tower first
so we headed off for the long climb up to the tower. Welcome to the hills of San Fran. Once we got to the top we had to find the
volunteer and she gave us a photo of the skyline and said we needed to find the
building that was missing from the picture and draw it in. It didn’t take us too long to find it and my
drawing was magnificent. I also noticed
the crane was missing but no bonus points for that. We got our punch and then it was off to Pier
40.
We rode on the road and the Embarcadero which was teaming
with people. It was like playing Frogger
all day. To make things even more
exciting, the Susan G Komen walk for
Breast Cancer (39 mile walk) was going on all day so add a few thousand extra
people walking on the paths! All for a
great cause.
We got to Pier 40 and saw that the Taints were ahead of us. When we got there we saw that it was a water
challenge. The volunteer explained that
two of us would be in a tandem kayak and the third would be pulled behind us on
a stand up paddle board. After our last
incident in Denver where Will kept telling me how heavy I was when he had to
tow me, I asked Alla if she would mind if we pulled her. She agreed.
So Will and I hopped in the kayak and started rowing. We had to paddle out under the Bay bridge and
the water was a little rough but we powered through and Will kept saying how he
couldn’t even feel Alla behind us. She
was a trooper getting wet and not making a peep and good thing I wasn’t back
there or I am sure we he would of noticed the anchor being drug behind him. When we were coming back in we noticed
another team just entering the water. It
was the Finnsters! They had won this
race for the last several years including beating the Taints and Nads. We had our work cut out for us.
It was back to the Transition area (TA) for passport 3.
Passport 3 – On foot – Mystery checkpoint (Spare me the
details)
We were given a puzzle with a bunch of scrambled letters and
we had to unscramble them to discover the location. We knew it was three words. I saw the letters for the Presidio and so I
pulled those out and then started looking at what was left and noticed that it
would spell out Bowling Center. So I
googled the Presidio Bowling Center and saw that it did exist so it was off to
the bowling center. It was about a 2 mile run uphill but we found It and when
we got there they said two people would be bowling and needed to get bowling
shoes on. Will asked Alla how she was at
bowling and she said horrible so the two of us would do it. Not that I am good at all, I usually only
bowl about 100. Anyway when we got to
the lane the volunteer told us that we would be bowling blind (with a bag on
our head), oh this should be fun. And we
had to bowl 8 pins. Okay Will was up
first and gutter balled and then got 1 pin.
Wow this might be tough. I was up
next and got 4 with my first ball and 4 with my second. Yes!
We were out of here. Funny thing
is, that I think I bowl with a bag on my head better than when I can see. Will kept saying how he could swear he was
going to get a strike with each ball and couldn’t believe he only hit one
pin. I think it has something to do with
my pour vision all the time that I am used to doing most things with limited
sight! We ran back mostly downhill and
we were ready for passport 4.
Passport 4 – On bike -
Lafayette Park (Buns of steel)
Well well, this would be a
test. To get to the park, it was only
about 2.5 miles away but we had to climb about 400 ft straight up in about
1/2mile to get there. It was the
steepest hill I had ever seen and there were stop signs every block so once you
got a good rhythm going you had to stop and remember I had to trade my clip ins
for cages so I was really struggling. It
got so steep that we all had to get off
and walk the steepest part. Once we got
to the top of the park we had to do two challenges. The first was put on by the local fitness
sponsor Basic Training.  |
| Up, up and up again! |
After the fun we
had experienced in Denver we were ready for
a full body workout. To our
surprise this one was much more mild and just required us to do a three man
weave with a medicine ball and then do a push up tunnel followed by team leap
frog. We performed like champs and were
one our way out when we noticed there was one more part. We had to do the old Oreo Cookie on your
forehead and get it to your mouth without using your hands. Will had practiced this for our other races
so I told him he was up but the Alla asked if we could all try and they said
sure so we all took a cookie and started working them down our faces! I somehow managed to get mine in first, not
sure how, I am usually not good at these things but today was my day. We got our punch and Will asked for my cookie
and then ate his and mine. He loves to
get fuel during the race. The Basic
Training staffer made some comment on how it might slow him down, but later he
told me how she must not of understood that this is how he trained so his body
was used to running on cookie and ice cream fuel. I can attest to this, I don’t think his body
would know what to do if he gave it something healthy to run on. It was back to the TA. Might I add that San Fran has some of the
roughest roads I have ever ridden on and going down the 400 ft in ½ mile was
way worse than going up. And don’t
forget at the bottom of each block there was a 4 way stop. I rode my front and back brake as hard as I
could the whole way down and still could barely stop at the stop signs.
Passport 5 – On Foot to Fort
Point (Here Fishy Fishy)
This passport had two tasks both
at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.
It was about 2 mile run each way right through the breast cancer walk
course. We were running through a grass
field when the Finnsters finally caught us and they are fast on foot, ultra
marathoners in fact, I gave them a little shout out as they passed me like I
was standing still and told them they were way to speedy. They chuckled and kept chugging. When we got to the Fort, we had to take a
quiz and depending on the result we had to carry a goldfish across the grass to
another tank using different tools. We
ended up doing well on the quiz and got to use a cup. However if we missed too many we would have
had to use our hands or mouth to transfer it!
Glad we are smarty's! The second
part of the task was for one teammate to stick their feet into a bucket of ice
water, literally it was full of ice and water.
Then the other two people would put sneakers without laces on the person
in the ice and lace and tie them up and then unlace them. I elected Will to put his feet in the water,
I thought Alla and I would have better motor control in the cold water with
smaller hands than him. We did it pretty
quickly and then it was off back to the TA.
Passport 6 – On bike (Orange you
glad you're almost done)
We got a puzzle to solve to
locate the last task. 
We noticed the
Finnsters were still at the TA when we arrived.
We solved the puzzle quickly and looked up the address of the bar we
needed to go to. We left before the
Finnsters. We set out for the bar and
then noticed the Finnsters were right on our tails. They passed us about ½ way to the bar as we
climbed once again on a more gentle incline.
They started to pull ahead of us and we just kept our heads down and
kept going. Then Will noticed they weren’t
in front of us and asked where they went.
I had no idea but maybe they knew a shortcut. We kept going and then all of the sudden I
look back and they are behind us. The
rode up on our sides and said they may be faster but we were smarter. Too bad this race didn’t have a really tough
puzzle like the weight stacking puzzle in Portland and Seattle last year. This is where we always make up time on the
speedy teams. So we came to an
intersection and the light was red and a trolley was coming so we stopped and
they rushed out right before the trolley and made it. Darn it, that would be the difference. We made it to the bar where we had to pass an
orange that was cut in half from one teammate to another down a line from neck
to neck not using any hands. This proved
tricky at first and that ½ cut sticky orange was quite slippery. We finally got it and then had to squeeze it
into a cup and pour it into 3 beers and then chug them. It tasted good at the end of a long
race. Now all we had was to make it back
through the traffic to the TA.
We finished the 31 mile race in
3:53 in 3rd place overall and 2nd coed behind the Taints
and Finnsters. Not too bad for our first
trip to San Fran and we were only 3 minutes behind the Finnsters! It was a great race and we could not have done
anything else to run a more perfect race except perhaps grow wings, so we were
happy with the result. After the race
Will asked the Taints if they made it all the way up the hills on bike. They said no, only their teammate who is a
level 2 professional cyclist made it up.
This made Will feel better, at least it wasn’t just the out of towners
who had to walk up part of the hill. Alla
was an amazing partner and we can’t wait to do another race with her. I am so excited that she did the race with us and she even said she would race with us again!!!! We didn’t scare her away and now we have a contact in San Fran.Thanks
again for putting up with us.
Also
thanks to all of you who donated and helped us get those ever so useful clues,
we couldn’t of done it without out and we raised $600 for the Make a Wish
Foundation this year.
To the folks at the Oyster, we
appreciate your support and love your races.
We are very sad to think of a race season without you and hope that you
can have at least one race a year and if you start producing other races please
keep us posted because we will put them on our schedule if possible. We love guys and your events!!!
