Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2021

 

Moonrise Over the Plovers, 0430 hrs March 8, 2021, 25.63 deg N, 81.32 deg W.

This is the EC 2021 story of IronBob and TheJuice aka Robert and Druce Finlay, father and son. We've completed twelve Everglades Challenges. If you browse the record book, you'll find only eleven finishes. This is because there was a dark year, everyone that year is listed as DNF. But, everyone wasn't DNF. Here is the story of that year. 

This year we finished with our second best time at 72 hours 38 minutes. It was our fastest time to CP3 at Flamingo. Yet, it was our second slowest time on the last leg across Florida Bay to the Finish. Our fastest year was 2018. That story is here. Every year is a good memory. In 2006, Druce and I found a WWII anti-ship mine near Highland Point. I jumped on it a few times. I'm not too smart. Druce stood on it for a photo op, sans clothes. Every year is a good memory. 

Endeavor Team Challenge 2015 : Race Report Team Ryan Ross, Robert Finlay

Overview Map, Endeavor Team Challenge 2015

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole, 

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul. *

* The first stanza of the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley, the other stanzas will follow throughout this report. This poem would follow us, all the competitors of the Endeavor Team Challenge, throughout the competition. Invictus is a good word, meaning; invincible, unconquered, undefeated, unconquerable.  

Friday night, 11/12 September, 2015, my teammate Ryan Ross, my wife Rebecca, and I have a room in the Bear Valley Lodge. It is midnight. I am nervous and anxious and cannot sleep. In the morning, Ryan and I will begin the athletic event known as the Endeavor Team Challenge. At 6 AM, after months of preparation, we start. I have never, in my entire life, been apprehensive before an athletic event. How did it get to this point?