The car-free Ski to Sea relay race was so much fun last May, that I think we’ve moved into car-free eventing any time the race start is in our county. So this weekend, that meant my husband and brother-in-law teamed up for a car-free Bellingham Traverse. The multi-sport adventure race involves a 5.5 mile Run, 6 mile Mountain Bike, 18 mile Road Ride, 3 mile Trail Run, 4 mile Paddle, and finishes with a .5 mile Team Trek (a jog/run to the finish line).
Thus there are a number of start lines, one of which the kayak must be towed to by bicycle, for example. The logistics become an entertaining pre-race planning aspect, and make for more community involvement too. That is, non-racing community members seemed entertained by Tom riding his mountain bike to Lake Padden while one-handedly pushing the road bike that Ben would use when he arrived from running the first leg. Or community members smiled to see me tandem bicycling my brother-in-law to the race start. Fun stuff, and outdoor adventure even for those of us not racing.
With dad calling in every other day to tell us of his progress across the USA on his solo bike trip, Noah thought of making a “Tom is Here” sticky note and moving it along our wall map of North America. The kids learned that Havre, Montana is said “Haver,” and wondered about all of the town names that are replicating places in other parts of the world, like Malta and Glasgow. He rode through animal-named places like Wolf Point, geographically influenced places like Cut Bank, unusually named places like Brainerd, and famous person-named places like Voltaire.
One way we do that is by taking goofy photos. A pose might be inspired by the landscape or architecture – have you seen those folks who pretend they are holding up the leaning tower of Pisa? Or we might add drama to a scene by pretending to be falling into a crack in the earth, chased by monsters, or exhibiting oh-my-gosh there-is-something-behind-you faces.