Clues and sweat and death by running

I've finally figured out my calling in this life. Besides motherhood and wifehood, of course! It is...... drumroll please.........

Urban Adventure Racing!!!!

No seriously! I'm not joking! I just need to get good at it... but I just know this is the type of race I was meant to run. There isn't just seemingly endless running like marathons... there is trickery and brain usage and copious amount of sweat! Okay, so that last one isn't exactly desirous, but it's tolerable because of the fun of the race.

Last Saturday myself and a friend of mine did the Twilight Town Trek in St Louis! This is the first year they have done it here so there wasn't a HUGE turnout (like 50, 2-person teams) but that was good because I felt it gave us a better chance. 

Us before the race: (oh and haha I just noticed I didn't explain the jolly ranchers pinned to our shirts.... our team name was the Jolly Mamas and it was our last-minute costume idea) 

We found 5 strangers to spell out "TREKS" 

After finding a sculpture at a park, one of us (guess who?) had to kiss one of the dogs that were up for adoption. The other dog was pissed that I didn't pick him, so he was pouting. I bet he wouldn't be so pissed if he found out he ended up in the picture after all!

Posing next to Dan the Man at the Cardinals baseball stadium

Not all the clues required pictures, so between the above picture and the below picture, we had gone to the museum, gone to a bowling alley and quickly bowled a strike (not me!), and did something else I can't remember. 

What I can remember is this picture below. You know why? Because instead of taking the metro to Central West End, we RAN! Idiots. And really, I'm just talking about myself because I was the one with GPS and convinced Becky that the next clue was just a few minutes away. Half an hour later, we finally arrived at the Cathedral Basilica and at this statue (I was on the phone with Bruno finding out the quickest route to the next clue):

Ah you naughty Pierre Laclede! It took us forever to find you, since you were painted on a freakin ELECTRICAL BOX by some famous apartments. Notice how I was "glowing" aka dripping with sweat. Those jolly ranchers became quite the treat, let me tell you!

More running, more photo-less clue completions, like building a puzzle, building a paper airplane to fly a certain distance, and a certain game of charades with yours truly impersonating the king of pop's signature moves. And might I add that while doing the moon walk and grabbing your crotch is embarrassing by itself, add to it being extremely out of breath, sticky with sweat, and little jolly ranchers jiggling around on your shirt every time you move.  Now that, that is the quickest way for your partner to guess correctly "Michael Jackson". 

Last picture. We had to talk to many-a-stranger to finally figure out where the heck the "oculus tavern" was. This was the one clue that could not be googled and truly needed a Central West End native to figure out. But alas, we finished. 

I figured out later, that we had run a total of 9 miles. 9 miles!! And none of it smooth-paced running.

But seriously. This is what I was meant to do. I can just feel it.