Oompf! Dat's a lot of cheese. Those were the word posted on a convenience store sign on the trip up to beautiful West Virginia. All we can say is Oompf! Dat's a lot of elevation - 42,000 feet no less. We rolled to the starting line of the 2008 Endorphin Fix knowing that the next 3 days would treat us to beautiful scenery, lots of climbing, and no doubt some pain and suffering.

The adventure began with some insanely fun whitewater rafting in the New River Gorge. What a treat! Next up was a canoe and portage leg to take us to our bikes. Several teams went up the wrong trail (including us) to make the portage a little longer. We also tested the limits of Paul's portage wheels by stacking two canoes on top of each other when one set of wheels collapsed.

After the next few legs of the race, some biking/trekking, we encountered one of the most brutal biking legs in the history of AR! It seemed that we kept going UP and UP and UP. I'm sure there was a downhill in the mix, but I don't remember that part. During the epic bike leg, we ran short on food and water. Not good when you have 3 hours remaining in 80 degree weather! Thankfully a kind local shared some refreshingly cool spring water with us to save the day.

On the whitewater swim, our legs were revived and the cool water seemed to breathe life back into us. Next up was an orienteering section and we still had some daylight to spare. Peter was on fire with great navigation and we were elated to clear the next section. We kept on moving quickly through the course, excited to be checking off the miles at CP's as we journeyed. We made it to the finish early Sunday morning (8:40 am) with a sense of accomplishment to have finished what we consider to be one of the most brutal races put on by Odyssey. Our support crew (Paul's dad and Peter's dad) greeted us with sausage biscuits in hand. Yummy!

Post-race buzz centered around the toughness of the course along with some discussion about the new rogaine format of the race. In the end, we cleared all of the checkpoints except one that was marked with flagging tape. It cost us the win as it was mandatory, but we still feel proud to have cleared the course in a race of this magnitude. Thanks to everyone back home for all the shout outs and motivation while out there. We'll be back for the Wild, Wonderful 24 at the end of the month to conquer the gorge!

-Jenn