Back in February my company announced their plans to continue to support a Charity Fitness event and requested hopeful competitors and volunteers to sign up. At the time I was just a month into my weight loss journey and was still finding my focus to these dietbet games. However, at the same time I had just started turning myself into a runner, and weekend hiker with the family. So when this announcement found it’s way to my inbox, I immediately went to my buddy at work and said “there is no way I will be that fitness level by April, but, I would love to compete in it next year. What would you think about volunteering to help out in order to scope out the events and map out what we need to do to prepare for the next one?” My buddy was immediately on board so we signed up.

Finally, the much anticipated event came and last weekend we packed up our bags and drove north to experience my first ever fitness event. I must admit this became one of the highlights of my year and can’t wait for the next one. Despite the fact that we were standing out in the rain and snow for 7 hours a day to ensure all the competitors knew what they were doing, not cheating, and healthy I had a blast. That was the coldest I have been in 20 years. Man I have become a wimp as far as weather is concerned living in the Phoenix Valley for so many years.

The event we were at is called “Wild Canyon Games” (http://wcglostcanyon.org/) which began in Oregon a brain child of one of the Nike execs. It has since expanded to Arizona, Georgia, and I believe Colorado. It is a Charity event with all proceeds going toward Youth Charities. There just isn’t much better that playing hard, working hard, and doing so for a good cause.

So as to my second reason for going “reconnaissance” what are the type of things that I have to work into my training? Well the weekend was broken into 3 Main events for the teams of 6 to complete:

  1. Triple Race – Geocaching, Mountain Bike, Trail Run, and HiYak
  2. The Challenge (All team members race to complete as many  of the following as they can in a 2.5 hour time frame:
    1. Highlander: (Think highland games/strongman stuff)
    2. Log (70 lbs) Carry up a steep .3 mile trail and back down. (the event I worked)
    3. Truck Pull
    4. Mob the Blob
    5. Zip line targeting
    6. Rock Climbing
    7. Obstacle course.
    8. Canyon Swing
    9. Memory
    10. High Rope course
  3. Sprint Relay. Each team member had one leg of a six event relay race
    1. Hill Climb
    2. Tire drag (the leg I worked)
    3. Obstacle Course
    4. Mountain Bike
    5. Kayak
    6. Steeple Race to finish line

While I was only a volunteer I had a weekend full of hiking, running, carrying, and cheering. This was a glorious weekend. It was unbelievable to watch normal people just trying to complete each event, top athletes trying to beat the others, and people there just trying to help out. I was able to listen to a nice talk by a Nike executive. Now, after that I am ready to implement different items into my training schedule so that I can push myself to the edge and experience greatness!

My name is Travis and I am here to improve myself!