SCRAT - It's all about the acorn - Adventure Racing

Today was the Orange County Adventure Race...with nearly 250 competitors...the largest AR in recent history for sure.

I raced with a team I hadn't raced with before. Team SCRAT (like in the movie ICE AGE "It's all about the acorn").

One guy was a guy I'd seen at races and even talked to a few time, his sister, myself, my friend Michael who I've been doing trail run/rides with regularly and a new guy none of us knew until today.

Anyway, we got together for the 5 person Co-Ed race - the premeir division and....smoked the field! We got 1st place for 5 Person Team, 1st Person for 5 Person Co-Ed and yes.... 1st Finishers overall.

We were happily surprised and felt good about the showing. Details of the race are below.

Ok, the race was sprint distance...it started out with about a 1 mile run to three checkpoints. The first you picked up a paddle 'handle' (4 foot stick), at the second CP you got the blade of the paddle (a 10" x 1' flat board with 2 holes drilled in it), and at CP3 you got 2 zip ties per person. Then back at the staging area you had to construct the paddles by putting the blade on the handle and zip tying it together. While that was going on you had to inflate your raft. As a 5 person team we had a 3-man raft and a 2-man raft so we inflated both and were off to the water.

The paddle was about 1 mile or so - short, but no easy task in a raft with funky paddles. The CP was a floating buoy out in the middle of the lake. We were the first team to get there and return to shore.

When we got back our team had to direct two blindfolded team members through a maze of sorts collecting rocks from buckets and then direct them out of the pen.

Now we were off on the Mtn. Bike section. 6 Checkpoints covering about 7 miles of trail. Not a big deal - nothing technical at all, just fire roads. We flew through it and returned to the staging area.

Upon our return we had to do an obstacle course of sorts - nothing to challenging and then off on the run.

The run was about 3-4 miles of trail running with some fire roads mixed in. We flew through it finding the checkpoints with no problems. We came in just under 2 hours for what was billed as a 4 hour race.

As I said - 1st overall, 1st in our division...1st, Numero Uno, Number 1, Tops, The Best, Fastest...should I go on?!

We had a great time, had excellent teamwork and that's what it's all about!

Ocean Kayak

I've been doing mtn. bike/trail run workouts every other day for weeks now and my legs were starting to feel seriously toasted, so I opted to take a day off both and go for a nice paddle. I usually head down to the lagoon and paddle, but decided to head down to the beach and do some ocean kayaking. I was in for a treat.

I paddled out through the harbor and headed south running parallel to the beach. I was about a mile from shore I'd estimate had been paddling about a 1/2 hour when I saw a few dolphins maybe 1/4 mile ahead of me. I hoped they'd stick around as I drew nearer.

Not only did they stick around, but they were breeching within feet of the kayak. I literally got splashed like a visit to Sea World! I almost rolled the boat. It was absolutely incredible. I've been in the water bodysurfing or boogie boarding when there were dolphins nearby, but nothing like this. I sat and didn't paddle for about 5 minutes while they played nearby. As I began to paddle again, I saw them skimming the water right next to me, below me, in front of me. There were about 7 of them I'd guess.

I continued to paddle South down past the Oceanside Pier and then turned around at 45 minutes. On my way back I saw them playing nearby but paddled a more direct route back to the harbor.

I was out for an hour and a half or so and probably did around 6 miles I'm guessing...no way to know for sure. I'm so glad I went to the ocean today and skipped the harbor. Very very cool day!

Rattlesnake at Calavera Lake

I was mountain biking around Calavera Lake with a friend the other day...look what we came across. This big rattler was close to 6 feet long and quite thick.

Competition And Learning To Lose

There's no doubt I'm extremely competitive. I'm not sure when it started or what made that intense desire to win a priority. But it's definitely there. I hate to lose at anything...I mean it's bad. I hate losing in games with my kids...seriously. How bad is that?

I guess it should come as no surprise to me that my son Jacob inherited or learned this behaviour from me. And while I think competition is a great thing...the overwhelming 'need' to win can have its pitfalls.

If you've read my Blog in the past - you'll remember that he's an incredible, natural athlete - specifically a baseball player. Since he was very young he could throw and catch. He has that natural smoothness to his play. Coaches are constantly telling me - 'he moves well' referring to his plays at second and shortstop.

For the past season Jacob's been playing on a Tournament baseball team - also known as "Travel Ball". It's a team we put together of the best 10 boys of the local league of 150 kids. I coach the team with another coach whom I've worked with for the past few seasons. They're a good team, and they've faired well in tournaments around Southern California.

This past weekend we had a tournment locally and the first day boys lost the first game and won the second game on Saturday. We returned to play Sunday in a do or die situation and the boys rallied in the last inning from being down by 3 to winning by 3 and everyone was pumped.

We advanced to the final Championship game against a VERY competitive team - a team that routinely wins every tourney they enter. It was tough going and our boys were getting beat pretty bad.

Then it happened...Jacob missed a groundball hit to him. Not the end of the world...certainly not for most players. But he'd made probably 20 incredible plays in the 4 game series and he is not used to missing the ball. He let it get to him. I told him from the bench to let it go.

"Don't let 1 mistake become 2" I coached. Let it go...but he was visibly upset. Another ball came to him - this time he scooped it up like a pro and... threw the ball wide to the second basemen allowing the runners to advance extra bases. He was coming apart at the seams now.

We got the last out of the inning and had our at bat. Jacob came to bat, still with tears in his eyes. I'd tried to reassure him and calm him but it hadn't worked and now he was supposed to focus on hitting. He was rattled and backed out of the box repeatedly and watched - without swinging at 3 strikes. Something he hasn't done before. He walked dejectedly to the dugout. It didn't help he was the 3rd out and we were headed back out to the field.

He was standing on the field sobbing and we had to pull him from the game. He was in danger at that point...obviously unable to focus, protect himself or make a play.

I wondered how it had come to this...he felt so pressured that he couldn't let 1 mistake go. No amount of reassurance seemed to help. Of course everyone and their brother reminded him of all his 'highlight reel' plays - diving snags to the left and right, turning double plays that no one at his age makes. But he sobbed on. It broke my heart.

I have to take responsibility for it. I don't know how I did it, but I made it so important to win that my 8 year old doesn't know how to lose. I've always tried to be supportive with the good and the bad. I'm not typically a yeller - certainly not at my ball players. I just didn't see it coming.

Anyway, not a great game. He's fine now and really was better within an hour after the game. Kids bounce back that way. We went to batting practice today and he wanted to stop on the way home and play catch - and we did. Just me and Jacob, playing catch at the park. This was my son, the happy, go-lucky kid. Hopefully we can bring this to the games and still win a few games.