Team Indy Rootsprout
By Ryan Burke (official Rootsprout pit crew)

It was a chilly morning for mid-August but it made for great racing weather. Three fourths of the Burke family (Gabby was playing soccer) made our way to Horizon with what we thought was plenty of time before the pre-race meeting. We set up our TA and decided to check in. To our delight, we received most of our maps and instructions at that time.

Sidebar - I contend that some of the slowest hours of my life are those during the days that lead up to an adventure race. The anticipation of the race seems to make them just drag on. The shortest hours…are those that occur between when maps are handed out and when the race starts. Crimony time flies.

We had the better part of an hour to get and be ready and we were still. I don’t know how teams arrived later than us got it all done. If any of you are reading this, I’d love to have your insight.

I love races with a lot of variety, a lot of unknown, and a lot of surprise special challenges. You guys picked up right where Monty and Jay left off last week. The creativity continues to impress me.

Our pre-race suspicion of the orange & green wrist bands was confirmed. The event was divided into two different loops to spread out the field minimizing any log jams. This worked really well from our point of view.

When the “gun” went off, we opened our corresponding green envelope and quickly had to get oriented to find three specific clues before we could venture into the known sections of the race.

We overshot CP-1 but quickly recovered – a case where familiarity didn’t mean advantage. It seemed like people were coming to and from the first 5 cp’s from every direction imaginable. I assume that is because people had different courses, but I never did verify that.

We got to cp-6 about a minute after John and Erik got the ropes tied to the shuttle boats. Anytime you have to get in and out of those yellow bananas there is a high likelihood you’re going to tip too far and get wet…even in a foot of water. It’s always good to get wet early though, anything that happens to you after that, just doesn’t matter.

We popped out of the woods on the other side and quickly realized the lake was drawn a lot farther north than it was in reality. Subsequently, we aborted the southern route and went north. While on the trail we seized the opportunity to spread the gospel to some of the trail runners asking us what in the heck we were doing. (I’m optimistic we’ll see them racing next year.)

Toward the end of the quick little paddle section Tracy and Dylan decided they wanted to play with a couple of the resident pet spiders. I had to gently remind them that we were in fact still racing.

We got another stunningly coordinated green envelope with $.70 and a set of very specific instructions. “Kroger brand tuna in spring water!” Brilliant!!! Sweaty, wet, gross AR freaks diving into a grocery to get canned goods. We kept the receipt and squished our way out of the store. I didn’t bother looking around…I’m sure we were all a sight. Dylan saved the race here BTW – I dropped a quarter in the parking lot and thankfully he found it quickly. $.25 short doesn’t get you a canned product. Kim would not have accepted perishables.

After struggling to get one of the boats unlodged from a log at the Fall Creek river fjord, Erik popped out the other side and told us we could cross without the use of a banana. Thank goodness! Messing with the boats cost us several precious minutes though.

We had a quick Hammer gel on the way to CP-16, got out of the woods, and then got muddy with alphabet puzzles. Dylan grabbed letters and we placed ‘em. We raced back to the TA, got on our bikes and made quick work of the short bike section – 24 green fox elm five diamond…almost a typing exercise.

We planked our way around the parking lot like a true family - a couple of minor bobbles along the way. The scooter…that was another story. Any lead we had, quickly evaporated. When blindfolded…I assume “left” means my left. Again, thank goodness for our level headed son. “No mom, dad’s left.” We made it, and are still happily married to show for it.

I did get even right after though…I got the dart gun. It was an accident. A circus family we are not. (We did do much better than when we were shooting free throws however.)

At last the special challenge course. What a hoot it was to paddle out in the inflatable duckies, climb over a portion of the infamous cargo net pushing the boat over and kicking back. This made for some fantastic images published and not. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to watch other teams struggle as we did.

The zip line is always a thrill especially going into the water. It too provided some awesome images.

On behalf of Tracy and Dylan, great job IR Basal Shoot - Michael and Zach! Great job Planet Adventure - truly another amazing adventure! Thanks to ALL of the many volunteers. I am looking forward to repaying the favor at the Indy AR and No Skirts. See you all out there.