Apparently, the five-second rule doesn't apply during an adventure race.

Maybe on occasion you've seen zip-lock bags of snacks lying along the trail, discarded or more likely lost by another team. I've often found tasty little treasures -- like bags of cookies, peanuts and M&Ms -- without an owner. Do you stop to pick them up? Thankfully, my teammates do.

We came across such a find deep into a long hike & bike section last weekend during the Goldrush Adventure Race. The tiny bag was full of Fig Newtons, a particular favorite of mine and most of the folks I race with. We asked another team nearby if any in their pack had lost the bag. Nope, it wasn't theirs.

Not wanting to leave litter on the trail, my teammate Zoid "Allen" McAdams picked up the bag and stuffed it in his pack. I didn't think anything more of our find until, running out of food a couple of hours later, I began begging teammates for whatever they could spare. Allen quickly offered me a snack. When I turned to accept, I saw him munching away happily and without a second thought on what I recognized immediately as the orphaned bag of Fig Newtons we'd found along the trail earlier. He was eating AR Road Kill.

Those Fig Newtons were good. I know, because I ate the AR Road Kill, too. To whichever team lost that bag of Fig Newtons ... I know you didn't mean to drop it, and I owe you a box. They definitely didn't go to waste.

-- Paul Cox