Red Team Wins 2012 Oklahoma City Challenge
November 17, 2012 | Softball
Nov. 17, 2012
Senior outfielder Chrisanna Roberts reluctantly turns in the final OKC blog entry of her career as the U of L softball team wraps up the 2012 Oklahoma City Challenge at Louisville's Cherokee Park.
The Challenge
The last and final day of the Oklahoma City Challenge is always an exciting one and this year's event did not disappoint. Teena pulled out her bag of tricks and devised a complex adventure race through Cherokee Park that would combine both muscle and brain power. Both Teams were given a giant envelope with a map of the park and an instructions sheet. The first team to arrive at all six checkpoints, complete the physical challenge at each, and arrive back at the home base first would win the final day.
The Terrain
For those of you who are not familiar with Cherokee Park it's not just your local neighborhood gathering spot with a few swing sets and a play ground. It's a huge park full of dense wooded areas, hiking trails and creeks. The map Teena provided to each team was very detailed and included a marker where each of the six checkpoints was located. All of the checkpoints were within about a one square mile radius so choosing which order to visit them in was important. I think I can speak for most of my generation in saying that it was very unfamiliar to actually have look at a map and navigate our way. We are so used to just typing an address into a GPS and it doing all of the work for us. Luckily for the Black Team, we had Ally Vaughn on our team and her country instincts kicked in. She was able to navigate the forest like a pro, even utilizing a compass which is something I have never done in my entire life. Good thing they had an iPhone App for that.
The Checkpoints
Checkpoint one was to find hole number 8 on the golf course, build a human pyramid on the green, and hold it for 30 seconds. You can only believe the looks we were getting from the golfers. In fact the course ranger came over and had a little talk with Teena but of course she was able to talk her way out of any trouble.
Checkpoint two was to find the playground and as a team complete 50 pull ups from the swing set. Besides the challenge of completing all of the pull ups it was also challenging because the swing set bar was so tall. We all had to channel our inner cheerleaders and hoist each other up there up at a time so they could complete the challenge.
Checkpoint three was at a site known as "Dog Hill" which is a giant, and I mean giant hill. At the bottom of the hill there was a rope attached to a sled with 10 kilos on it. As a team you had to pull the sled all the way to the top of the hill and all the way back down to the bottom. I would say this was one of the hardest challenges but as a team we were able to get it done pretty fast.
Checkpoint four was located in centerfield of a softball field. There we found a 16 foot wooden pole and as a team we had to complete 50 consecutive presses with the pole coming overtop our heads and to the opposite shoulder. If for any reason you had to put the pole down your team had to start the presses completely over. This pole was not light by any means and by press 30 you were definitely feeling the burn.
Checkpoint five was located at the archery range and there we found a 325 pound tire. Yes, the same tire we used from Monday morning so we already knew what to do with it. Fifty flips as a team as fast as you could with only two people on the tire at a time. We were all very familiar with this, so we knocked those out pretty quick. The sixth and last checkpoint was at a wooden footbridge. As a team we had to complete 250 pushups. Unfortunately only one person of your team could be completing the challenge at a time so this one was a little time consuming. Oh and don't forget these are not your average girly push ups. These are Teena push ups, so up on your toes; chin to the ground every rep. By the end everyone's arms were dead.
Once you had completed all the challenges at every checkpoint, it was an all-out sprint back to the home base, Hogan's Fountain, to see who could get there first and win the 2012 OKC Challenge. The Black Team navigated the map very well and completed all of the challenges in a very timely manner. We felt super confident that we were going to make it back first, so you can imagine the shock and disappointment we felt when we ran over and saw the Red Team already relaxing on the fountain. I can't speak for their strategy or how they did so well, but whatever they did, it certainly worked and they were crowned 2012 OKC Challenge Champions.
Chrisanna's Last Hurrah...
Wrapping up my last Oklahoma City Challenge is a bittersweet feeling. I love being able to compete with and against my teammates, however I do not always love how my body feels during the process. I know the coaches were very proud of both teams and are looking forward to how we will compete on the softball field in the spring. I am not sure how Teena will come up with a challenge for next year to top this one but I'm confident she will. It has been a pleasure blogging for the past three years and I look forward to reading all about next year's challenge. The coaches have a tough decision next year in deciding who to hand the blogging reigns over to because they do have some big shoes to fill. Kidding, well not really.
