I have to start by saying that this race went much more smoothly than our previous! The race began with a 2 mile trail run ending in the Kishwaukee River . Since race directors love to get everyone wet right at the start, we had to enter the river and run/wade about a mile down river. After we exited the water, we were given our race packet containing our maps, instructions, and passport. We took a few moments to read over the material while changing into dry clothes, and we were off to Rock Cut State Park (about 11 miles). At the park, we gathered our mountain biking checkpoints, one of which included climbing a rock wall. Once we were done with the mountain biking, we headed back to the transition/start area to ditch the bikes and head for the canoe put in. Although we probably could have grabbed some land nav points along the way, we were determined to reach the canoes before the cutoff. The canoe portion was about 4 miles long with a few check points and a couple Class II rapids along the way. We opted to bypass the portage fearing we might take too long and not make it to the finish in time. We completed the canoe portion and decided to head over to the rappel location which required us to cross the river on foot. After the rappel and crossing back over the river, we were on our way back to the transition area to once again change into dry clothes. At this point we only had an hour left, so we were going to try and get a few land navigation points before calling it a day. We managed to grab the three points we set out to get without getting lost, and made it finish with 6 minutes to spare. This was a great race, and I definitely plan on doing it again next year. We showed an improvement over our last race, got to experience a lot more, and didn't get rained on. The fact that you choose which check points you want to get and don't want to get made it all the more enjoyable for us.