Thursday, April 3, 2008

MedWars

So let me tell you about MedWars. It's an adventure race with a medical theme to it. This year it was held in Augusta, Georgia at an army fort there.

We left Nashville an hour late because V screwed up her schedule. We got there late, but I slept like a log on my wonderful thermarest.

The next morning, we registered and got everything ready. V hadn't brought a pack with her, but by some miracle, I decided to bring two, just in case I wanted to use a larger one. Then I saw V in jeans. She was the only one there with jeans on. I tried to get her to put on my spare north face pants (which would have fit her fine) but she refused. "If my jeans get wet, I'll put on my other pair of jeans!"

The race started at 11 AM. We got slightly lost, but not too bad. Three hours in, we had to cross a swamp - and the only way across was to wade (swim) through. I was up to my neck in water (and I'm 6' 2") and decided it would be easier to swin than to try to keep my pack dry by holding it over my head.

Afterwards, V changed into her spare jeans. I simply took off my shirt and hopped around to keep warm.

And then it started to pour. And it got much colder - into the 50's. V forgot to bring a jacket. All she had were her soaking wet jeans and a tank top. I gave her my jacket to keep her from serious hypothermia.

And then her hip started hurting. She walked slowly, and would sometimes simply stop and sit on the side of the trail. I ran in place to try to keep warm. At this point, I was shivering constantly.

At the last checkpoint, me missed the time cutoff my 15 minutes, and were disqualified. It continued to rain constantly. We walked back to the campsite. The tents were soaked. M had no clothes, so I put her in my car and warmed it up. My hands had trouble gripping anything.

And after 7 hours of driving, we were finally home, and I got to bed at 3:30 in the morning.