My Sister is Hardcore

...so totally hardcore. Her boyfriend Greg is too. Not even a year ago they ran their first triathlon and now they do a triathlon like every Saturday just for giggles and then they hike some gigantic mountain on Sunday for their cool down. Seriously. What a bunch of sissies. They clearly need more physical challenge in their lives so they decided to do A TWELVE HOUR ADVENTURE RACE called the Bitter Pill. (The name alone makes me say no thanks!) It was in Vermont so I didn't tag along for this one. I've gotten bits and pieces from my sister and here's what I've put togheter about this race. You have to use your map and compass to navigate your way to 20 different checkpoints. Those checkpoints are on different legs. The legs include canoeing, swimming, mountain biking and hiking/running. If you don't complete one leg by a certain cutoff time, you can't go on to the next. And if you don't complete the whole thing in 12 hours then you're done. (If I wasn't done in 12 hours I think I'd just ask someone to go ahead and shoot me!)

So, I really have no idea what I'm talking about, but I'm gonna go ahead and give you a full race report (with pictures) just because I'm so darn inspired by them! Here goes:

This is the "pre-race mug shot". Everyone had to get one for the sole purpose of being able to ID their body should they pass out or drop dead somewhere in the vast wilderness.

This is the group of crazies gathered just before the gun went off. They had to report at 3:45am (That is an actual fact. And let me just say, that I can't even tell my own head from my own bum at 3:45 am, let alone read a compass bearing and navigate my way through a forest I've never been in!)

The first leg was canoeing. By the time they got done with this leg it was light enough outside to turn their headlamps off. (Oh darn! 'Cause I just can't get enough of canoeing down a river for hours in the pitch black in a place I've never been before!)

Then there was the mountain bike leg which Jen said was way harder than she thought it would be.

Here's Greg. (At this point I would have been like, "Dude! Help me hotwire this here tractor! We'll chuck our gear in the bucket loader and ride this baby as far as it'll take us!")

And this is the point where they both were just WISHING they had had my tractor idea!

But hey, at least they got to cool off after on the swim leg.... as they doggie paddled their way through this swampy, weedy, slimy mess!

Here's a nice navigation shot. I do believe the dialogue was something along the lines of, "Oh man, there's the camera guy. Thank GOD! That must mean we're at least still in Vermont!!!Let's look like we know what we're doing!"

"Yeah, good plan...I'll hold the compass...you point to something! Oh my crap I have no idea where we're going!"

And here's Jen finishing. I can't be positive but I'm 99.7% sure she's saying, "Oh my gosh I'm so happy I didn't die out there! I never thought I'd see another human besides Greg ever again!" and then she kissed the end timer guy.

And here's Greg as he finishes. Again I can't be certain but with 99.6% accuracy I can say that he's shaking his head saying, "I can tell you this now Jen...I kept a strong face out there, but there was definitely more than one occasion where I was convinced we were goners!" And then he kissed the end timer guy too.

But seriously. Here they are accepting their award because they won first place in their category! They finished in 10 hours and change! So proud of you two!!!

And then they went and hiked a giant mountain the next day.

I am not even kidding you.