Denver Oyster Urban Adventure Race– The Recap!

It occurred to me that I entirely forgot to share my Oyster story with y’all! This is a major fail because this race was a lot of fun and I think it is the type of event that almost anyone would enjoy!

The Merrell Oyster Racing series started in Denver in 2003. The name originated from the term “Rocky Mountain Oysters,” which is kind of a traditional yet bizarre western dish (more on that later!) The race eventually was dubbed a “Rocky Mountain ball buster” as it grew in popularity and spread to other parts of the country. Now, almost 10 years later, the race is all over the US with both urban and off-road events. I had been dying to try this adventure for years, so I was super excited when Cindy and Craig agreed to join my team this year!

Craig and Cindy in the transition area before the race

You see, each team has three people and can compete in the full Oyster or the half Oyster, depending on which distance they prefer to cover. Naturally, we chose the full course which could cover anywhere from 25-30 miles throughout Denver. Cycling and running are considered mandatory modes of transportation, but the Oyster also reserves the right to include creeking, kayaking, golfing, rafting, rock climbing, skating, canoeing, and bowling, among others.

The cool part of the Oyster is that the course is not revealed until the day of the race. For us, we were all gathered around, listening to the organizer speak and give us the race day introductions, when all of a sudden she announced, “Ok, the first clue is on top of that bridge over there— go!” I was totally not wearing shoes and hadn’t put on any sunscreen because I hadn’t been expecting this abrupt of a start…. but that’s how it is done, Oyster-style!

My “traveling gnome” shot: my Reebok SmoothFlex shoes before the running began!

The Denver Oyster was broken up into six different legs of the race. Each leg requested a different mode of transportation that required you to return to the transition area in between in order to change things out. For the full course that we did, this included:

• Leg One: Running Downtown to the 16th Street mall (3 miles)
• Leg Two: Cycling to an urban industrial area north of the transition area (5 miles)
• Leg Three: Running to the Pepsi Center, the arena where the Denver Nuggets play and practice (2 miles)
• Leg Four: Cycling to Berkeley Lake and Lakeside Amusement Park (8 miles)
• Leg Five: Bike and Run to Roo Bar outside of Five Points (3.4 miles)
• Leg Six: Cycling to the Denver Bouldering Club, south of the transition area (5.2 miles)

Cindy and me on the 16th Street Mall

• Shoe slingshot: They gave us each a massive slingshot and one teammate stood at one side of a park with a bucket. We had to continually shoot our running shoes towards this teammate until he could successfully catch two of them in the bucket (Tip: neon colored shoes are clutch when there are hundreds of shoes flying everywhere!)
• Basketball in the Nuggets training court: After we ran to the Pepsi Center, we had to find the training court that the Denver Nuggets use for practice. Once there, we had to make a 3 pointer, a free throw, and a layup. Each team member had to complete one, and Cindy and I weren’t quite thinking when we gave Craig the layup. I took the free throw, and poor Cin got stuck with the 3-pointer. We finally got them all in, but we are definitely not basketball players!
• Lakeside Amusement Park: By far, this was my favorite obstacle because of nostalgia! Lakeside is an old amusement park that was popular when I was a kid. These days, most everyone goes to Elitch’s, it’s more modern counterpart. However, I used to love Lakeside and was ecstatic when I saw we had an obstacle within the gates. Turns out we were asked to complete the Crystal Palace maze which is my most-remembered feature from the park! It is a maze made out of glass so it’s hard to tell where the path goes….without completely smacking into a glass wall! I got a bloody nose once when I was a kid because I was confident the path went one way…and I literally ran straight into a glass wall 🙂 They tied all three of us together and we were asked to complete the maze– total flood of memories!
• Berkeley Lake: We got to Stand Up Paddleboard in the lake– ’nuff said!
• Roo Bar: We were asked to complete a rousing game of beer pong (awesome!) and then try out Rocky Mountain Oysters. For those of you that don’t know, Rocky Mountain Oysters are fried up bull testicles. Swear. It was my first time eating them and they taste exactly like calamari!
• Denver Bouldering Gym: This wouldn’t be memorable for most except for the fact that I could not conquer my damn challenge! I was supposed to swing across this area on a rope swing and kick this stupid bell on the opposite wall. Well, if you are longer than 5’4″, this might have been an easy challenge…but I’m not! I literally tried it like 15 times and could not reach the effing bell! I started getting so tired that I couldn’t even hold myself up on the rope and was sliding down it while I was in mid-swing 🙂 Finally, the guy told me I could ask Craig for help….who came over and kicked the bell on his first try. Punk.

Craig finishing his leg of the SUP at Berkeley Lake

In short, the race was awesome! We finished near the back of the pack but that was largely because my knee went crazy within the first mile and I made Craig and Cindy walk every running portion with me (yay for great friends!) There was even one section where I rode my bike and they ran– talk about feeling like an abusive teammate!