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MaureenW
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the ATC, and thanks to Dean for providing us all the opportunity to represent Alteryx. I was especially thrilled to see all of the Alteryx volunteers along the course, taking pictures, cheering us on, helping feed us and providing support. It made the event really special for me. I can’t wait to hear your perspectives on the event.

 

The camping had its usual challenges, one of which Catherine forgot to mention… which was 360 degree snoring! It came from everywhere at night!

 

I am very proud of my team, Team Detour, and how well we did, even with a few unintended detours 😉 The short Prologue on Saturday provided us with an opportunity to see what to expect in the race and how we would work together. We quickly found out that although Jake, our handcycler, was a strong climber, that a lack of tow systems was going to hold us back from being competitive. It also showed me how well we all collaborated and worked together though along the course. It was a great start as we finished in the top 5, which set the starting line-up for Day 1.

 

On Day 1, after our fire-starting fun, Dean and Brett ran along a treacherous and underwater trail, passed two other teams to meet Dan, Jake and I at checkpoint 1. From there we set off on bikes and started our racing adventure all together. With the tow lines now setup, we were booking! The hike-a-bike section was really hard and I felt elated to see Liz as a volunteer to help out by pushing one of our bikes along a section of it. I also felt bad for Liz … did she know that she had signed up for this hard labor?!?! Later we saw Kirk and others along the trail and it was so wonderful to see happy, friendly and familiar faces. And similar to Seth on Team Terrorific, Jake, who builds off-road hand cycles, was killer on the downhill, also popping up on two wheels and almost giving me a heart attack! To be honest, things are a bit of a blur to me but from what I remember, we jumped into a raft and separated from Dan and Brett while they hiked the scary trail to the abandoned mine. When we picked them up, a little down the river, we then headed to the zipline where the guys carried Jake up to the top. We rafted to the other side, Jake ziplined across and we were off on the raft to the ropes. When we got to the climbing part, Dan and Dean scaled the rockface without a hitch, then Brett and I had our turn. Brett, an accomplished climber, was up and down in an instant but I, unfortunately, got stuck in a crevasse. I was wearing my lifejacket and not able to see where to put my legs. After some maneuvering and help from Brett, I made it up. After the rock climbing, we decided to take an alternate route to get to checkpoint 9, via checkpoint 10. So we ran towards checkpoint 9 along a road, passing Team Terrorific coming the other way. We got to a trail that we had to climb when Jakes handcycle broke down. Jake quickly pulled off the bent derailleur which was causing the problems, shortened the chain and turned the bike into a singlespeed. We pushed, pulled and did all we could to get Jake up the hill and not tip over. The trail was pretty off-camber. At the top, we found a smiling Wendy... another friendly face. We turned around and cautiously descended again making sure the handcycle didn't tip over. Kim bid us goodbye at the bottom of the hill and we headed back to the rafts. Back in the raft, we paddled against the headwind and had a blast. It was the first time white water rafting for a few of us.

 

On Day 2, we had a small mechanical issue at the start and then went too far down a road, which put us a bit behind but we were not deterred. We rode along a trail with huge rocks that Jake handled incredibly well with his handcycle. Dan, our team Hercules, and former Marine, was a huge help doing a large part of the towing, although everyone did their fair share! I really struggled with getting the tow lines caught up in my bike though. When we got to the boat launch, Liz and Adam greeted us and we started the run. Dan and Jake took off in the front and although we again had some trail navigation issues again, we made it to the boat launch, jumped in and started our paddling adventure. While the second day's rafting portion was longer, I found it easier without the headwind. Dean sacrificed his legs to the scratchy brush as we stopped at the wrong spot looking for our first checkpoint but we got back on track soon enough. The rafting portion was great fun and with some strategic decisions, we passed a few teams and had Clarissa's team in our sights ahead of us downriver. They kept their lead though and with a crazy finish that had us drifting past the finish line and several of us jumping out of the raft, we finally pulled up to shore.

 

Thanks again to Dean, Brett, my two great Alteryx teammates, Jake and Dan, our other two Team Detour teammates, the volunteers and everyone who supported us, even if you couldn’t make it out!