My First Bike Race Complete | Urban Assault 2015

Yup, that is right, I finished my first bike race!  The Urban Assault Bike Race is much more than a typical bike race.  During the Urban Assault you are biking to places all across the city, hitting 7 designated check points, 2 mystery clue check points, and completing a challenge at each check point, all of which needs to be completed in under 3 hours.

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I had never done this race before, but The Hubby had a few years back. He signed up with his friend and asked my cousin if he wanted to do it too. My cousin, Kyle, wanted to do the race but didn’t have a partner. The Hubby asked several of his friends to be Kyles partner, but he couldn’t find any takers.  I volunteered to be Kyles partner, having just bought a bike, and was loving putting on as many miles as I could.  The Hubby laughed at me, and said that Kyle wouldn’t want me as his partner.  To prove him wrong, I asked Kyle, and he gladly accepted me as his partner!  And with that I was signed up for my first partner bike race.

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In the weeks leading up to the race, Kyle and I worked to put some extra “training” miles on our bikes. We both started riding our bikes to work. Even though his rides to work were twice as long as mine, I would like to think we were both training pretty hard.

We also started our smack talk with The Hubby and his race partner, Thuyet.  Sort of expecting that we would not do better than them on their road bikes and us on our hybrid bikes, the banter leading up to the race was fun none the less.

Part of the strategy of the race was to stop at all the check points, but in whichever order you wanted. Kyle took to google maps and made us the most optimal {read: shortest} route possible. I was in charge of taking the pre-race quiz, that determined start time. If you scored in the top 50% of teams you started first, bottom 50% you started 2:30 minutes after, and if you didn’t take the quiz you started 5 minutes after the first races.  We ended up in the second wave. Lets just say the multiple, multiple choice quiz was super hard!

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Day of the race we were ready, pumped and took off with the second wave.  The forecast for the day was 90 degrees and humid. We were both hoping to get done as fast as possible to be out of the mid- day heat. The morning was hot and sticky enough without the temp hitting 90 degrees yet.

Our first obstacle was within 1 mile of taking off.  One partner needed to throw a rope with 2 balls attached at the other partner and wrap it around one of their arms.  I tried 3 times throwing the balls at Kyle, and each time it flew over his head.  We switched, and Kyle got a ringer the first try.  I guess you can call that team work.

There were 7 total obstacles including activities such as, riding on a skate board while being towed behind a bike, human wheel barreling around a large circle, sling shooting a shoe to your partner across a field to catch, putting together a puzzle, etc.  Additionally, we had to answer a mystery riddle, to find the mystery location. Once at the first mystery location, we had to complete another word challenge to find the last location.

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Starting the race I was really worried I would let Kyle down. His average speed while training was 14-15 mph and mine was more like 10-11 mph. However, during the race, I held my own by keeping up {most of the time}.  I may have huffed, puffed and cursed up a few hills, but I never had to stop. At stop number 8, I was feeling a little sluggish, but after a mini Clif bar and some water, I was refreshed and ready to finish the last few miles of the race. Also, the thought of a cold beer at the end really energized my legs.

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We crossed the finish line after jumping on big wheels and zigzagging our way through the final obstacle. We finished in 2 hours and 39 minutes, taking 41st of all co-ed teams.  After finishing we headed straight for the beer tent, even before looking for The Hubby and Thuyet.  We cheers-ed to our completion, and looked around for The Hubby. We realized they hadn’t come across the finish line yet, and then we cheers-ed again knowing we had beat them! Best feeling ever, proving The Hubby wrong. {Married women, you know what I am talking about.} Kyle and I waited at the finish line to watch them ride there big wheels through the final course. They finally came through 20 minutes after we did.

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I think beating The Hubby was the highlight of the whole race. As Kyle put it, “The race in my mind was only between two teams, and we came in 1st!”. Bragging rights really are a wonderful thing.

Also, spending the morning hanging out with my cousin, completing obstacles, and putting on 22 miles racing around town, was pretty awesome. I would do this race again in a heart beat, so much fun!

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What did you do this past weekend?  Have you ever done a bike race before? 

XOXO,

Rachel


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4 responses to “My First Bike Race Complete | Urban Assault 2015”

  1. Tammy Rome Avatar

    That sounds like a lot more fun than a typical bike race. You look like you were having a great time. What a creative way to be active! It’s been years since I did a bike race — and they were all bike-a-thons. It took me a long time to learn to ride a bike so my dad bribed me with a family ride to the Dairy Queen (about 5 miles away) once I learned to ride. That was definitely a motivator!

    1. Rachel Avatar

      DQ would inspire anyone to ride a bike! Have a great day Tammy!

  2. walkingtourist Avatar

    Beating Hubby must have been especially sweet, especially after he said that your cousin Kyle would not want you as a teammate.
    I’ve never participated in a bike race but my nephew does them all of the time. They don’t have all of that fun stuff, however.
    This past weekend, I helped at my church’s annual chicken barbecue. I served rolls. The trays came down the line and I put the rolls and butter on the trays. It was fast at times. Really fast. It felt like a roll and butter race. It was fun. At the end, I was hungry.
    The next day, I went to church. Everyone was silly. Well, sillier than usual. Applauding at everything and making puns and silly jokes.
    It was a very entertaining weekend.

    1. Rachel Avatar

      It felt really good to beat The Hubby! A Chicken BBQ sounds fabulous. I applaud you for buttering rolls and not eating them all, because that is what I would have done.