Softball's Oklahoma City Challenge Day Three Concludes
November 21, 2011 | Softball
Nov. 21, 2011
Just like every other morning, the text came, "Meet on the field hockey field at 6:15am" The options for what we could be doing for the third day of the Oklahoma City Challenge were limitless. Teena can construct countless combinations of events on the turf so we had no idea what to expect. As our whole team made our way up to the field hockey turf, we glanced over to the track and saw two huge semi tires, two sets dumbbells, four sleds, and cones...we then had a pretty good idea of what we would be doing.
Just getting started
When we met on the field hockey turf Teena took us through a new "warm-up" she loves to do this year. However, when I say "warm-up" I should be saying mini work out. Her warm up consists of sprints, pushups, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, split jacks, and lunges all at a very rapid pace. By the time we are done with this we are all huffing and puffing like you couldn't believe. Following the warm-up, Teena took the captains aside and explained to them what we would be doing. Our captains then relayed the message to us and we hustled down to the track to where the event would take place.
Today's challenge
Each team would work on separate sides of the track from one another and would have four different implements per team. One set of 40 pound dumbbells with "fat grips" on them, two sleds with 75 kilos on each, and one giant tire weighing over 250 pounds.Each team would earn three points for the dumbbells, five points for each sled, and ten points for the tire. The tire was worth the most points because it was the hardest and took the longest to complete, while the opposite applied for the dumbbells which was why they were worth less.
It was vital that your team plan your strategy for attack because it was important to go for the large items for big points, but at the same time if you could get lots of sets with the dumbbells worth less points, they could add up. Teena chose to make the distance we had to travel 80 yards per rep because 80 yards is the distance from home to home, the same as a homerun. She's clever. The team that could accumulate the most points after 24 minutes would be the overall winner.
During this event your entire body could feel it. Dumbbells was all arms, sleds was all legs, and the tire was a little of both. By the time the 24 minutes was up we were all definitely feeling fatigued because we had been pushing nonstop. Teena blew the whistle and informed us time was up. She then gave us four minutes rest before the second half. Wait, what? A second half? This was breaking news to all of us. We then hustled to the Marshall Center and upstairs to the stationary bikes where the second half would take place.
Part deux
The second half was an all out bike race. Each team had six bikes they could be using for nine team members. This meant that teammates could swap out as needed, however only three people per team could be resting at a time. We set our bike gears to 15 and started booking it for the next 24 minutes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the bikes in the Marshall Center, gear 15 is no casual ride through the park. It feels like you are pedaling straight up the side of a mountain for 24 minutes straight. As if our legs weren't dead enough from the sleds, this really pushed them over the edge. The entire ride felt miserable but we all knew we couldn't let up for even a second and let our team down.
Lance has nothing on us
As the 24 minutes on the bike came to an end I could have sworn we had been on there for hours. All of us were completely drenched with sweat and anxious to see who had won. Sophomore pitcher Caralissa Connell even gave us the privilege of showing us what she had for breakfast (if you catch my drift.)
Teena then added up all the mileage from each of the teams' bikes and calculated the winner. First she announced the winner of the first half. The totals were Black team 220 points, Red team 260 points. I may be a little biased, but I would have to say the Red team dominated that event. This win earned them 200 total points giving them a lead over the Black team of 300-200. Then Teena read the results from the bike race. These scores were so close it came down to the wire. The Black team biked 50.3 miles while the Red team was able to barely squeak by with 50.6 miles. Nevertheless that extra 0.3 miles was all we needed to earn us another 200 points. All I have to say is that I hope someone was filming when Teena informed the Red we had swept the day and earned all 400 points. We went wild.
Heading into the final day
The tables have turned on day three of the Oklahoma City Challenge. The Red team now leads the Black team 300 points going into the final day tomorrow. However, tomorrow's events are worth a total of 500 points so at this point it's anyone's game. I asked senior captain of the Black team Tori Collins her opinion of the challenge going into the final day and she had this to say, "Going into the final stage of the OKC challenge, our team is mentally preparing for anything. We know Teena will come out with something extremely tough, and knowing how closely matched the two teams are the more mentally tough team is going to come out the winner. And in case you were wondering, that would be the Black team." Well Tori, I agree to disagree with you on that one.
