Mud, Sweat, and Tears

Sunday was TATUR's Mud, Sweat, and Tears Adventure Race. Tulsa has not had an adventure race for a few years, and it was an exuberant crowd that drug their mountain bikes and running gear over to the Westside YMCA early Sunday morning. The course consisted of a 4.5 mile run, a 17.5 mile bike ride that had a 2.5 mile canoe expedition sandwiched in, and a few surprises at the transition areas. Close to 100 brave adventure hungry crazies toed the line for the 8:00 start on this cool drizzly fall day.Watches ready, Garmin's cleared, and then the blast of the shotgun!The trail wound around up and down hills, through creek bottoms, over craggy rocks, some slick from the rain. There were a few falls, some bumps and boo boos, everything that makes a great trail run.Toby Smith and Tim Davis make it look easy, clicking off what must have been 7 minute miles.

Jimmy Jones leans into the turn before heading up a nice climb.

There were 23 checkpoints along the way, and one team member had to punch their passport card at each one. Missing one would result in a penalty. Most check points were in plain sight as this was a "beginner-friendly" adventure race.

Glen Kerr and Karrie Garriott finish their run, and head into the YMCA gymnasium for a series of physical endurance tests. Each member of the two-person teams were assigned a letter, A or B. The A's had to do a series of exercises: 10 pushups, 30 jumping jacks, 25 hops on the right foot, then the left foot, several crunches, and then....they had to cover the length of the gym doing the crab crawl. But that's not all! They then had to scoot the length of the gym and back on a small wheeled cart. Their partners, those with B's had a slightly easier task: they had to ride an obstacle course the length of the gym and back on tricycles....and then shoot a layup, a free throw, and a three pointer.

Then it was on to the bikes. About 2 miles of the ride was on trails, and there was a lot of climbing to deal with, as well as some technical downhills. Then, the bikers were treated to a little over 5 miles of nice pavement, all downhill or flat. Nothing like giving those trashed legs a rest! The bike ride took them down the west bank of the Arkansas River to the Tulsa Rowing Club boat house. Off the bikes and to the water! There, the teams boarded canoes and paddled a mile up the mighty Arkansas, across to the east bank, to the 23rd Street bridge, and down the west bank to the transition area, all the while picking up 4 checkpoints.A quick landing to grab check point #15.

Front-runners Scott Ostrem and Steve Lee were the first out of the water.

But there was another surprise task to be done.Teams had to find 11 words in a word-find puzzle!

From there, it was about 8 miles of easy biking, and 2 miles of technical trail.

The finish line, wild cheers, hot pizza, and cold beers.




The winners: in the coed competition: 3rd place went to Rob Johnson (pictured in the white shirt) and Jacquelyn Erbacher (not pictured.)



2nd place went to the duo of Glen Kerr and Karrie Garriott.



1st place went to John Stanfield and Amy Crawford.

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3rd place in the ladies division went to Tiffany Brown and Becca Brant, pictured at the top.





2nd place went to BOMBs Melanie Biskup and Ginger Renshaw.




1st place honors went to Dee Smith and Julie Ladehoff.

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The men's winners were: in 3rd place Jordan James and Ron Haveman.




In 2nd place and only ONE SECOND behind the winners, Toby Smith and Tim Davis.




Winning this event for the men, the team of Scott Ostrem and Steve Lee.

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Congratulations to everyone who participated in this great event. It took a lot of work, and a lot of great effort by the volunteers to pull it off. From all I have heard, everyone had great fun! Don't miss it next year!