The Team That Satisfies brings Home Bronze From Drambuie Pursuit

Here's just a short break down of the our trip. It was unbelievably awesome and I can understand how jealous all of you are of us.

Thursday (London): Bus tour of the city, take a quick run past Buckingham Palace, awesome dinner/Drambuie drinks with all the teams (including the dreamy Josh Dumel), out to the pub with Gregory and Meagen, getting Men's Health reporter so drunk playing Cardinal that he projectile vomits out the elevator...

Friday: much too early wake-up, travel to Scottish Highlands (city of Inverness), tour of infamous Culloden battlefield where the English defeated the Jacobite Scots in a revolution attempt in 1745, (1) archery competition (disappointing 11th place finish), barbeque and beautiful camp-out looking toward the Isle of Skye.

Saturday:

(2) bog run (wet!) up to a castle and zap cat boat race (wild!) lead to 3rd place finish. Justin caps off his post-run vom with the great one-liner: "those golden smacks from breakfast should be called golden yaks"

(3) mountain bike climb + mountain foot climb = 5th place. Ryan rides up 2 miles and 1,000 feet of elevation then tags off to the rest of the team for another 1,000 foot climb, this time on foot. Reach the top where we harness up and rock climb to the peak and absail (rapell) back down. Finish with a run back down the mountian to where we began.

(4) white water rafting disaster as all four members of "The Team That Satisfies" end up in the icy waters of the River Ness. We made it back in the raft and completed the course, but the 13th place finish all but washed away our chances at the podium.

(5) mountain biking = most fun event and a solid performance. 3rd place. no injuries, and a spectacular 2-flat performance from JB.

(6) the comeback continues. our local driver George's "let's get movin" mentality pays off as we arrive third to the dune buggy course and get in some good lap times before the course is shredded. our 7th place finish in the event puts us in 6th starting position for the final race. we use our down time to try out some traditional highland games like the old school hammer throw, the caber toss (awesome), and one where you try to throw a 50 pound weight over an 8 foot bar. Difficult.

(7) 1min to close on the Irish team (5th place), 2min to close on the leading American team (4th place), 3min on the Germans (3rd place), American flag in JB's pocket just in case. We shred through the tandem canoe course and pass the Boys from Belfast, then the Americans, then the Germans. James bites it hard on the steps up from the river, but recovers to toss the crate'o'drambuie over the fence to Ryan. JB turns in a fantastic run, Paul nearly obliterates an elderly woman on the streets of Inverness, and the team arrives at the finish with enough time to pull out the stars and stripes before crossing the line together in 3rd place. A fantastic finish to an incredible day, and that Bronze medal felt so good around our necks!

Drinks, dinner, more drinks, and some late-night shenanigans in Inverness completed an epic day. Sunday was less fun, as the volcanic ash delayed our return flights, but it's difficult to complain after such an amazing weekend.