HRC--Expect Anything

Our first High Rock Challenge (HRC) was a “don’t know what to expect” kinda of day. We had been stoked for months about this race, but things looked bad the week before the race. My teammate--Dog-- took a nasty mountain biking fall, followed three days later by an ill-advised playground incident that left him bruised and hobbling two days before the race. Doctor cleared him to go—but we didn’t know what to expect.


Two hour drive up from PA stiffened up the leg, and no amount of stretching seemed to get it better—so lower the expectations—walking through the woods is fun too
As we stood at the starting line on a perfect sunny day, all I could think was 7-8 miles of wooded trails on Staten Island? Really? Can’t imagine what they’ll be like.

Our wave goes off at the start, and we let the teams rush off—“Hold our pace. Loosen up the leg Dog. We’ve got a ways to go.” Obstacle course, seemingly right out of the gate. That was a fun way to get things going. Slog through the mud for a mile or so—did they hose this place down?? Everything else seems so dry—didn’t expect this much mud. Half hour in, we pass our first team. Didn’t expect that.

Get to the tunnel—what?!? This isn’t supposed to be!?! We can walk under this tunnel!! Awe man--that's not much of an adventure.

Headed down the stream we hear “up hear”, which saved us some slogging. A volunteer pointed us to what we actually were expecting –the Tunnel of Doom. What a blast! Here’s where my partner’s sub-5ft size and love of crud really gave him an advantage. I was able to keep up until the last 10 feet, when somehow the tunnel actually got smaller. Didn’t expect that.



Loved that the trail headed up through the creek. Felt like a kid again. Up, up, up, we climbed. Spotted volunteers, who confirmed, yes that’s High Rock. “It’s all downhill from there”. Liars (or just ill-informed). We later learned there was still a lot of climbing on the course.


I spy a mound of sand bags—oh crap. That I was expecting, or more like it, I was dreading. A volunteer handed us a map and said to find the 6 checkpoints. Orienteering? Sweet, the bag feelslighter already—or is that just the sand leaking down my back. Dog navigates us through the course without a hitch while I act like the mule lugging the bag—this was not part of the training routine, but I was still able to run almost the whole time (figured even with a gimpy leg Dog should be able to keep up with an old guy carrying a bag of sand). We shepherded several teams through. Thank you DVOA for the orienteering skills. Now it’s starting to feel more race party than race—another pleasant surprise.

Take a second to clean out Dog's shoes—need to take care of those young feet. The trails seem much lighter without a sandbag. Come up to a lake and we see kayakers—could it be?!? Yeah man. Didn’t expect kayaking on this race. Met back up with our orienteering “party”, and passed a few on the water.
Back to the trail. Are you sure this is Staten Island. This seems a lot more remote. Up the hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill. We’re really got a rhythm just as a lot of teams are running out of gas. Each team we see provides a little more bounce in our step. Everyone’s encouraging when we go by, but the one’s that are still partly jogging are not expecting to be passed by a kid.

Sensing the end, we come up to the final water stop/puzzle challenge. Dog fills the water bottle while I start on the puzzle. Word jumble. Was hoping for math, but this is second best. Got four out of five without hesitation. Then brain cramp—can't see a fifth. Dog walks up—"Isn’t that one TURTLE?" Bang baby! We’re out. Way to pick us up partner.

Back into the woods we pass a solo racer--she has been totally ditched by her partner. Then through the parking area of our earlier shuttle ride to the start—must be inside a mile or so now. Finish strong partner. Let’s finish strong. Downhill to the final challenge.

In the final challenge we had to dig through muddy pools to find tiles that matched our team racing number.  Again, Dog's love for crud comes in handy. I come up empty on the tiles, as he plows through the muck and finds all three numbers. That Dog rocks.

Down to the finish line. 2:25 finish time. Beat our race-day “gimpy-leg” target of 3:00. Even beat pre-injury target of 2:30.

Grab a desperately needed soda and some food--well sorta. We love salad, but we expected something with a few more carbs and protein after a long race.

But we weren’t here for the food. We were here for the race. And it was worth the trip. Had fun hanging out and chatting with the racers. Glad to hear the Hooter’s waiter and partner won best costume. That was a disturbing costume—and I don’t want to know how he got it.

As we checked the board, we found out we were in the top half of the racers—are you kidding me top 50% with a busted-up 11 year old?!? That’s crazy. Decided to hang around after Matt mentioned our time might be good for parent/child bracket. I was a bit skeptical because most of the kids seemed to be teenagers. Buy hey, we’re here, maybe we snuck into 3rd place. Looking at the remaining racers, I estimate 5th place. They call 3rd place. Nope a parent/teenager. Then 2nd place. Nope, another teenager. Oh well, we weren’t expecting to win anything anyway. Then we hear “First Place-- the Raging Red Rhinos”. What?!? Are you kidding me?!? That was the biggest surprise of the day.

A quick shuttle ride back to the cars with the overall winners. Young marathoners—go figure. Great guys, who were very encouraging to the younger Raging Red Rhino. A quick change into clean clothes, a quick stop for food, and a nice ride home with a chatty young boy who normally isn’t very talkative. Yet another thing I didn’t expect. Seeing him fall asleep halfway through the ride home—now that I expected.

Final numbers:
Time 2:25.02.1
Bracket 1st in parent/child
Overall Place 151 out of 331
(i.e. that Dog beat 180 adult/teenage teams)

Pros: Awesome race layout
Unexpected wooded trails on Staten Island
Incredibly well marked race course
Great mix of challenges
Friendly atmosphere to race
Challenges spaced apart well along the course
Cons: Salad celebration meal
Suggestions—Put a cover or flap over the end of the Tunnel of Doom so you’re only guided by glow sticks.