Zip Lines in the US of A

And here I thought these things only grew in rainforests. This gateway adventure sport lets you fly without all those inherent parachute/kite risks.

They're everywhere. Colorado, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Texas, Utah and Hawaii all have lines in the "best of" category. Many places are only open during the summer months (especially true for ski resort lines).

So strap yourself into a harness, step off the platform, and remember to slow down eventually. Just don't slow down too soon. Pulling your weight to the next platform is especially fun if you're afraid of heights.

Caption: "Lindsay, stuck on a zip line"

"upside down crouching tiger, hidden dragon" pose:

Ninja Scuba Divers

As seen on Google Maps:

Relay Report

I first read about The Relay in Dean Karnazes’ Ultramarathon Man, where he describes running the entire 200 miles by himself, and, notably, ordering a pizza en route. I tried out The Relay in ’09 for its cocky name, great location, and perfect timing. The May 1^st start gave me just enough time to finish finals in Nashville, meet up with a team that needed a sub in San Francisco, and get to the starting line in Calistoga, CA.

Like other distance relays, The Relay is divided into 36 sections. Everyone on a 12-member team runs 3 legs, which range in length and difficulty. I was Runner 8, with an easy, medium, and hard leg over 18 miles.

Leg 1: As the eighth runner, I had plenty of time to worry before lacing up. I went from being excited to imagining having to be wheeled across the stage at graduation. As it turned out, the worst thing about Leg 1 was the light drizzle coming down on the picturesque, vinyard-coated landscape.

Leg 2: By the time my second leg came around, it was definitely dark out. The team van was littered with Clif Bar wrappers, Eye of the Tiger was blasting on our stereo for the thousandth time, and our most prized possession had become the rapidly emptying bottle of Febreze. Teams were spreading out more and more as the race progressed. After setting out from the transition area, it was just me, my headlamp, and some saintly volunteers for the next six miles.

Glowing gear plus a napping coordinator:

Leg 3: My legs felt like sandbags, but the looks of relief on my teammates faces after they’d finished and the mimosas they were drinking were enough to get me on the road again. Fortunately, the van had made a crucial 5am grocery stop; a double shot of espresso can work wonders, even when it comes in a can.

Next Time: I'll be packing waterproof clothing (would’ve been nice), Advil, Febreze, and caffeinated snacks. Can’t wait to do it again this year.

The team I crashed, aka Superfeet:

Best Endorsement: "The race was awesome, more awesome than you could possibly imagine. It was a wellspring of untapped limitless awesomeness. Nothing beats the view of San Francisco from Bridgeway under a full moon, or ghostriding the whip of a 15-person van in the middle of the night, or warming up for your run in someone else's bathrobe at 5am, or running downhill a winding road to the sound of squealing breaks because the truck's behind you and can't see you until you have taken up residence in their fenders." -Devin (whole report here)

Skibiking

Running across the "Federation Internationale de Skibob" website was very confusing for me. A) I don't know German, B) clicking their "English" button does nothing, and C) there's a skibike World Championship?

The sport has apparently been around for a while: the first race was held in 1954 and the first World Championship happened in 1964. Here's some more historical evidence:

Europe still takes this sport seriously, while the US of A has reduced its involvement to a couple of skibike festivals. Colorado's Purgatory Skibike Meet is in the Durango Mountain Resort (Feb 25-27, 2011), and Oregon's Spring Fling takes place on Hoodoo Mountain (April 2-3, 2011).

Compliments of the skibike cartoonist

See if there's a skibike-friendly resort near you.

Surviving an Expedition Race

Pretend that you see the Primal Quest video and decide that expedition racing looks like a great idea. What if you happen to be like me and couldn't navigate your way out of a cardboard box? Do you plod on, always wondering if you could have conquered the Gobi Desert or the Strait of Magellan?

Enter Adventure Racing Camps: these 3-7 day programs give you the skills to navigate, whitewater raft, mountain bike and climb your way out of whatever you've gotten yourself into. They're generally cheaper than the races, and they're certainly cheaper than a hospital bill.

So venture on, Adventurer! But check out this site first.

Hash House Harriers

This "drinking club with a running problem" takes over neighborhoods worldwide on a weekly basis. I was about to write, "I honestly don't know how they stay out of jail"; turns out they don't.

Most of the arrests have to do with the flour they use to mark trails. Apparently, a few officers in New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Beijing thought these oddball cohorts of buzzed runners were throwing around giant piles of anthrax.

Where: With 1,938 groups in 186 countries, you can basically find a Hash run anywhere. Type in "Hash House Harriers" followed by a US city, and something will come up (I tried out "Amarillo").

When: Usually starts within happy hours of the workweek, but differs by chapter.

What: The hare gets a head start and marks a ~4-6 mile trail with flour and chalk. A reckless, urban scavenger hunt follows, complete with checkpoints and false trails. Groups have beer checks along the way, at the end, or none at all. Things get complicated when you factor in the hasher vocabulary, their bizunches of songs, their history, and, hell, even a conspiracy theory or two. But that's for other people to worry about.

Notable Quote: "15 enthused hashers storm NAU campus, ride bikes and shopping carts through the union, break dormitory elevator"

-Hash Happenings

Viking playing a Train Whistle

you're welcome

Most Amazing Sport, By Far

Take paragliding, multiply your speed by 2 or 3, add skis and a cliff, and you've got the incredible stew of dangerous ideas that is Speedflying. It's perfect for someone like Francois Bon, who describes paragliding as "really boring."

Where: Although there are schools in Utah, Oregon, and there's a pretty intimidating club in Colorado, the best of the best is in Switzerland.

Aspen Speedriding Club logo:

When: Ski season, wherever you are

How: Step 1: Learn how to ski. Step two: add kite.

Name Game: I like "speedflying" because it doesn't explain how you'll fly speedily, and "speedriding" isn't much better. Don't confuse it with kiteskiing (more about tricks, less about falling), or wingsuit skiing (base jumping with a wingsuit and skis, which has only been attempted once in Norway according to these people).

Some insane videos:

Disclaimer: Half of the speedflying videos or websites I've seen have an "in memory of..." portion. One of the founders of the sport, Mathias Roten, died speedflying in 2008.

Rally Report

The Rally to Restore Sanity didn't really go as planned, despite the fact that my only plan was to see the rally.

Here's the original post.

Pros: the weather, the cleaner-and-more-polite-than-your-average-rally crowd, signs made by said crowd, sincere apologies for foot treading.

Cons: I could kind of hear Stewart and Colbert, and when I put my camera in the air and zoomed in a lot, I could take a picture of a distant stage and then look at it wistfully.

After spending a couple of hours just trying to get to the back of the rally, I got kind of hungry and thirsty and claustrophobic and bored and ended up just watching it on TV.

These were some of my favorite signs and ralliers:

Bosphorus Race

I believe this is the only cross- continental swim, unaided by hurricanes. The creator's friends tried to talk him out of it: "the Bosphorus is too dirty, its currents are too unpredictable, the giant tankers and freighters that traverse it are too dangerous. On top of all that, it is illegal to swim anywhere but along the shore." ...BUT... "I was not dissuaded"
Champion!

When: 3rd Sunday in July

Where: 6.5 km (~4m) along the Bosphorus straight in Istanbul. Start in Asia and end in Europe!

Noteworthy POV from a British swim team: "...there we were one boiling July day in Istanbul, standing on the Asian bank of the Bosphorus Strait, surrounded by really hairy Turkish men in speedos, wondering how we actually got there." - The Sisterhood

The Competition: In recent races, over 800 people from 40 different countries have attempted to cover the distance within the 2 hour time limit. A Turkish athlete won this year by finishing in 41 minutes, and was presented his award by ants (or aliens?) in tuxedos.


Thank you so much, Dan, for this idea, the great sources, and for making up 25% of my immense following! Cami - I'm researching your warrior dash next :)