This race started off the season for us and it was a fun, challenging, and creative race. The terrain was rolling hills and the race had several good rope checkpoints incorporated into the race. The race started at 6 AM within a State Park that we used as a transition area. At 6AM, we had to tie ourselves together and run to a point to pick up the maps and then run to another point to pick up the coordinates, and then back to the TA. The next bit of the race was on foot. This led to an incredibly short canoe portion, which led us to more checkpoints on foot. We had a bit of trouble on this portion -- we had some blister prevention/repair due to wet feet from launching the canoe and also a more disasterous losing of the passport. The passport wasn't found after an hour of looking, so we decided to continue on for practice. So, the next section was the biking & back to the TA we went. The biking portion started off with a couple hours of good single track. Then, the checkpoints were in adjacent towns which had you put more miles on your bike. Brian had fallen twice on the bike and his hand was bruising pretty good. We came to a checkpoint on our bike at an abandoned bridge. This was a cool checkpoint because you had to get yourself and your bike to the other side of the river via traverse lines. That was pretty tough. After this checkpoint, we decided to head back to the TA early and call it a day. You had to be back to the TA by midnight. But, we got back by 8pm. Brian's hand was done and we knew the next couple checkpoints were ropes. Plus, we really didn't have a passport anyway!! So, this was a good practice race & workout. Need to concentrate on hydration. It was very hot & humid in Indiana today!