Last weekend was the culmination of a wild and crazy collaboration between LbF and Citybiz BNI(specifically President Kristen McCormick)!  After roughly 7 weeks of training on the sand and in the studio, roughly one-third of our networking group took on Bold r Dash’s Inaugural Beach Event.

Since the event took place on the shore, we practiced at a local urban beach.  Though the water may not be suitable for swimming, and fisherman definitely want to catch and release, Gorton Pond served its purpose of getting us acclimated to running on the sand.  We played indoors as well when mother nature advised.

Here is the run-down of the big day as I remember it:

Right from the start we grabbed our miniature “bolders” for a short run on the soft sand.  After dropping them off we headed down to shore where we had to battle the tide and some rocks to pass around a sea wall.  This was probably the most treacherous obstacle we faced.  It looked even harder for those who started later than us, as the tide was still rising.  From there we cruised down the beach to be a kid again and fill up buckets with water and dump them in larger buckets.  After more time on the soft sand we entered the parking area of Misquamicut where we encountered several different obstacles: 8′ walls, tire walls, 5′ high tire hurdles, a see-saw (awesome touch!), and some low hurdles.  Also parked in the lot was a moving truck.  We had to hop up, climb up and over some of the steel channels for separating/securing furniture, and squeeze through a tight area made by pallets and plywood.  Again, nice touch!

Back to the sand we went for some more running, wall climbing, and perhaps the most mentally challenging section – over and under the walls while carrying an orange buoy.  There were probably 5 walls to get over (about 4′ high) and 5 to crawl under (about 2′ off the sand).  Sounds like no big deal but we had to bring our 30# buoys with us.  It was at this time when I started to hear some extremely hilarious and colorful language from Vinny Blue Jeans, a teammate and fellow networker of mine.  He provided the entertainment, I provided the step stool (i.e. my knee) for him to pass over the hurdles.

Eventually we found our way back to another section of the parking lot where we hurdled about a dozen +/- more 4′ walls, crossed a balance beam with a slosh tube, and scaled a couple more tall walls (7-10′).

The home stretch took us back on the soft sand for some running, crawling, up and over some large rocks, and finally across the finish line!  It was a big accomplishment for our group and the energy carried over to a fun after-party!

Nice work Laid-back Bizness!