The Desert Dash Heat Wave 1

Well, I (Daniel) just got back from an amazing weekend with Lina, Jason, and at the very end, Paul. To cut a long story short, we finished strong in first place at the Desert Winds Heat Wave 1, despite a pretty horrendous navigation error and a police visit in the middle of the night. We were "dirt-bagging it", i.e. sleeping on the ground outside of our cars, and the cops told us we would have to sleep in the car.  We emptied out my van and slept in the back (very cramped, none of us could stretch out fully in any direction).  In the morning, it was a fun, quick race in a very cool setting. It was set up in the hills to the northeast of Las Vegas, near Lake Las Vegas. The race started out kicking cactus, dodging golfing greens (very interesting trekking), then a straightforward arrow-following mountain biking leg, and a fun paddle on the lake to finish it off. The "senior" YogaSlackers team finished 1st at 5 hours, 5 minutes, and the "junior" YogaSlackers team finished 4th, at 6 hours, 6 minutes.

After the race, we were treated to a hotel room by the Junior YogaSlackers, and we blew a few bucks in the casino.  Over the next few days we climbed in Red Rocks, played and slacklined in a few parks.  We were sprinkled off our sunday night bed (a park in the eastern part of the Red Rocks basin), and camped out with Paul on the last night.  I drove home last night, and I'm off to school today.  This race is my first win, ever!  Sweet!