Mighty Big Fish on the Verde

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Big Fish team that day.

I was paddling hard to catch back up but the others sped away.

Just moments ‘fore, a kayak’d come and hit me like a club.

Water poured into my open boat like from a faucet to a tub.

My back end was underwater, other paddlers began to pass.

Ron Birks joked “Are you sinking or is it just your heavy ass?”

Unfortunately I WAS sinking so Windy began to bail.

She was on my team, as was Brigid, I was the token male.

We pulled ashore and dumped the boat, but were losing precious meters.

Windy switched with me since she weighed less but could no longer see the leaders.

We did our best and moved up some, paddling through the water.

It was very cold when we first began, but was quickly getting hotter.

Windy began to overheat; since she wore layers head to toe.

I felt her pain, I really did, but still yelled “Told you so!”

Both Windy and Brigid paddled strong ‘till we finally hit the “beach.”

We left the water fifth or sixth; a win seemed out of reach.

A quick transition, complete with plotting and we took off on the bike.

We climbed and climbed this steep uphill, the kind I really like.

We passed some teams going up, then turned and sped back down.

We were sitting third behind the Yoga Slackers, but thought “We’re gaining ground.”

When we reached TA, we dropped our bikes and changed to running shoes.

We knew that we’d be fast on foot but still we’d likely lose.

The first point was past a waterfall up which we had to climb.

Windy nav’d it like her name was Ian* and saved us lots of time.

Back on our bikes, we headed out; hit the road and then turned right.

“We’re definitely moving up,” I thought, “the ‘Slackers’ are now in sight.”

We took a shortcut that turned out well, a turning point in the race.

As we reached TA for one last leg, we’d moved to second place.

With Mark Hawthorne still out in front but the “Slackers” now behind,

We set out for our final trek with 5 CPs to find.

With great teamwork and spot on nav, we did better than okay.

We passed Mark on the course somewhere; he said he missed point A.

So, unlike The Mighty Casey, who struck out that day I’m told.

We battled back and had great fun and even grabbed the gold.

That’s my report except for thanks to those who get OUR cheers…

the racing staff, our sponsors, and…of course…the volunteers.

The End

* A nod to legendary adventure racing navigator Ian Adamson.