Closing Ceremony Celebration

It's hard to believe that it was almost 4 1/2 years ago when J sent out a seemingly innocent email asking friends if they'd want to try out all the Olympic sports with her.  Six of us started and four of us finished.  We didn't really know each other when it all kicked off on a cool February afternoon, playing "ping pong" in a church rec room.  A few weeks later, we were throwing each other to the ground in judo.  That's definitely one way to get to know someone!


We decided to really get into it and started reaching out to more experts in our area.  What was most amazing to me was that we were able to do every one of these events pretty close to our own back yard in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  I mean, we have an Olympic sized velodrome less than an hour away!  We met some amazingly giving, patient and talented coaches and experts whom we never would have been able to complete this adventure without.


With new found respect and admiration for the athletes, a few of us traveled over 5000 miles to take in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!


We had some minor injuries to overcome - a reminder that, although we are awesome middle-aged women who can accomplish anything, we still had to take care to know our limitations.  We also had some fears to overcome - from one who managed to jump off that 5m platform, despite her fear of heights, to another whose stomach turns at the thought of distance running, to all of us seeing those 45 degree banked turns at the velodrome.  We supported each other.  We encouraged each other.  We didn't let anyone give up!


It was great to learn so many new sports and push ourselves to do every single one of them.  Although we had some folks think we wouldn't physically be able to do something (or tell us we were just plain crazy), we did it.  Best of all?  We became friends.


The day after our last event, we met for a Greek lunch.  As a memento of our journey, we each will now proudly display a replica gold medal from the 2016 Rio games.

The Fort Worth do the Olympics adventure is complete!

To those that have followed us on this journey...  Thank you!  We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure as much as we enjoyed doing it.

Heptathlon - 7/13/18

It's looking more and more like our one sailing lesson will be it, so we decided to go ahead and hold our grand finale event - the heptathlon!


As the name implies, this event consists of 7 track and field disciplines:  100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m.  Traditionally, the first 4 events are held on one day, with the final 3 held the next.  Starting in the 1960's, women in the Olympics competed in the pentathlon, but in 1984, the javelin and 800m were added to become the heptathlon.  There is a scoring system that uses different equations and factors for each event.  As engineers, we had to take advantage of the math!  In order to make it work for us, we created another factor for each event, to get us as close as possible to real scoring.  That way we could get a feel for our overall ability at this event.  We had a simple grid to keep track of our raw scores.


We had previously done all of these disciplines on their own, so we had some knowledge about each.  We met at a local middle school track to set up our version of this test of skills.  Again, we took some creative liberty to make sure we competed safely and to our ability.  First up was the hurdles - homemade, short versions.  We took turns running, with one person timing us at the end.

RA has pretty good hurdling form!

Next was the high jump.  This was the only thing we couldn't do on-site, so we swapped it out with a standing vertical jump - using J's daughter's finger paints!  We first marked our static reach, then made our 3 jumps and measured the difference between the static and highest jump point.

J's impressive jump

Final vertical jump marks

For shot put, L1 had purchased one online and we headed to the sand pit used for the long jump.  This made for easy marking and didn't damage any grass.

J's first shot put attempt

Then we ran our 200m "sprint", followed by the long jump.  We were glad to have a sand pit and stuck with our initial method of jumping from the edge of the pit instead of off the board usually used (not sure I would have made it to the sand otherwise!).

L1 always has the best jumping shots

After our long jump, it was javelin.  L2 crafted a homemade version, as close to spec as possible using a dowel rod, metal spike and cording.

L2's first throw

Finally, we ran two laps of the track for the 800m.

We used quite a bit of gear for this one!

Our crafty heptathlon

It was a tiring day, but a bit surreal when we finished and realized we were done.  Done with our final event!

Event #111 complete!

Cross Country Mountain Bike - 6/15/18

We are getting down to our last few events!  L1 has been cleared for activity after having her baby and we had to wait out some spring weather, but we are now determined to wrap up this adventure!  While we continue to try and schedule our last sailing events, we decided to get out and finally do our Cross Country Mountain Bike event.  We've had this scheduled several times before and it kept getting rained out.  So on a hot Friday morning, we headed out to Lake Mineral Wells State Park where they have a great back country hiking/biking/riding trail. 


CCMB is generally run on a combination of track surfaces - from dirt to pavement - of varying widths - from narrow "single-track" to wider "double-track".  For Olympic CCMB, riders complete laps around a shorter track.  In Rio, the women rode 6 laps around a 4.85km course (totaling around 18 miles).  A couple of us had ridden off road before, but the other two had not, so reading that this location was "good for beginners" had us feeling confident.  It consists of 4 wide (double-track) loops that can be combined together into one larger one.  Initially, the plan had been to do a few laps around the first loop, but...  Well, plans change.


Once we geared up, we rode off along the trail, water and emergency supplies in tow.  Nice large gravel.  Easy!

J and L1 start the ride

Then we quickly found one thing that makes riding bikes very, very hard.  Or should I say soft?  SAND.  We had to ride off to the side or in the grass - and even walk at times.  Then we hit some pretty hefty rocks which we rode over when we felt it was safe to do so, but ended up walking again. 

Taking the safe way down

By the time we hit the decision to continue the first loop or move on the second, we were debating.  We chose to take the risk and start the second loop.  Luckily, the terrain became better.  More packed dirt or grass.  We also rode the third loop, but decided against the fourth, which was listed as the "most difficult".

L2 glad to be on dirt

We enjoyed some nice scenery and even though it was hot and sunny, there was enough tree cover to keep us mostly shaded.  By the time we got back to finishing the end of that first loop (back to the sand), a couple of us managed to power through, but walking was needed again - at least for me.


In total, the ride was just over 5 miles, in around 80 minutes.  Definitely a work out and it became quite obvious why they call CCMB "technical".  Just riding on such ground is hard work, but racing on it???

Event #108 complete!