Yo Mo Mini? Nah, Maxi

Day of the race.

I staggered out of bed looking like someone already ran me over, like a pair of pre-washed jeans after all night out clubbing. With a deft grasp of the obvious, Anji remarked, "O Jeez, is it pouring out." This does not bode well for racing, so I, in typical morning fashion, grunted noncommitally and lurched into the shower, a rather pointless move, as I would later discover.
We had a beeeooootiful Mini Cooper S loaner waiting for us, and all I could think about was, Do I have 30,000 dollars to buy the damn thing if we wreck it? The unfortunate answer was, as expected, Nope.
We progressed through our pre-race flurry of gathering: water bottles, maps, cell phones and chargers, reference books on the area in which we would be racing, etc, all getting piled into backpacks and purses. I walked the dogs on a pitifully short run, just out in the downpour long enough to get us all soaked, and let them pee out most of their tanks. (On a side note, I am INCREDIBLY proud of our young boys, they were perfectly behaved during our 7 hour absence!)
We gathered all our gear, and headed out to the awaiting Mini. When we reached the car (Anji is driving to the dealership, the starting point, I'm to take over after the race starts), we both noticed that opening any of the car's doors caused an unbelievable amount of water to pour inside from the roof. This is not a design problem on the Mini's part, it was simply raining THAT much. Hmmmmmmmmm. See note above about somebody else's 30k car, and getting the interior messed up. Not good for a race where 3 people will be lunging in and out of said car at many points along the way to collect clues and directions. In the rain.
Our teammate called just as we were heading out, saying she would meet us at the dealership, to our relief. Mo is a champion finder of short-cuts in our home city of Richmond, and was later to prove invaluable, navigating us to victory. Off we went.
Anji was feeling a tad nervous, to the point where her knuckles were white under the tension of driving this hotrod through what was now a torrential downpour. Halfway there, I offered up the option of simply returning the Mini, and using my Chevy Avalanche for the race, what with the 4x4 availability and the rubber heavy-duty floor mats - if we were gonna get a car wet and dirty, I'd far rather it be one WE owned. Anji instantly agreed. Much as we loved the Mini (see earlier posts for the fun we had the night before), we didn't want to be responsible for messing her up, and I wanted to be in a vehicle I knew well, and could trust, considering my somewhat rough driving style. The folks at Crown Mini were very understanding, and immediately returned my truck keys (surrendered the prior evening as a hostage to allow us to take the Cooper) and wished us the best of luck. I'm pretty sure they know we'll be back as soon as we can afford another car payment plan :D
By now, race nerves were showing, I couldn't even eat one of the bagels offered, and barely got half a cup of coffee down. I was ready to GO! But first, the rules had to be announced, waivers signed, and initial clues handed out.
The last was the (obviously, Duh!) most important to us, and when we finally recieved our dossier, we fell upon it like a pack of starving hyenas. Once we'd set our race strategy and course (there is no set progression of sites to visit, racers are able to solve any of them in any order), we were off.
We managed, amazingly, to solve 4 of the 6 clues in 45 minutes flat. This was a combination of sheer dumb luck, and an astounding visual memory of the City of Richmond, mostly owned by Mo, who had apparently discovered every back route and short cut this town had to offer. The next two clues were a bit rough, but we muscled through them, and Some really DEEP puddles (I remarked that if we'd brought the Mini instead of the truck, we'd need snorkels) and made it to the final clue site.
Which wasn't there.
Turns out, we'd run the race SO quickly that the organizer herself hadn't had a chance to get to the end location before us, and ended up chasing after our team to allow us to recieve, and subsequently solve, the final clue. Clue solved, our official time recorded, we returned to the dealership (the end party/award ceremony wasn't to occur for another hour) and dropped off Mo, with many heartfelt congratulations and thanks. Mo, you are ALWAYS welcome to join our race team!!!
We returned to the picnic/award area, and had a great time chatting with other racers, cheering them as they pulled in, team by team, hearing the mistakes, near-misses (several teams apparently got warning tickets from local police for erratic driving) and successes. The times were finally announced, and A2 Racers were named the fastest team, winning the 1st place trophy, (a mini Mini on a pedestal, very cute), and a nifty gift certificate to the Mini Accessories store.
We returned home, elated, drenched to the bone and exhausted, but very happy with our day's efforts.

We have our next race Saturday night, Anji's birthday, and I can't wait :D
-Alex