I tried to recruit a huge group of sledders, but this Friday (the night before the race) it came down to the final four (me, Clark and our friends Bryce & Jessica). At about 9 o clock Friday night we got the whiteboard out and started coming up with ideas. After a little debating we decided on building a sled around a Jaws theme. We had ocean waves on the sides and a big shark fin in the middle. It looked awesome. I even attached tropical fish to the waves. I was so excited for the big race the night before I couldn't even sleep.
Ethan was very helpful with the sled construction on Sat. morning.
A picture of the hill.
The race took place at the Sleepy Hollow Sports Center. They call it a ski resort but the sledding hill is as big as the ski runs (I think it is the steepest hill in Iowa). We saw pictures online from last years race and it didn't look like many people showed up. So we were worried we had gone overboard, (especially with our costumes and theme music...we were wearing board shorts, swim caps, and goggles...we also downloaded the Jaws song, and Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid and had our speakers ready to blast our music) but there were about 10 entries and they were all awesome!
Ethan bundled up ready to watch his parents bomb down the hill!
Clark putting the finishing touches on the sled.
Clark & Bryce carrying our sled, named the "Jaws of Life" up the hill.
Once we got to the top of the hill I started to get nervous. Especially when most of the sleds in front of us rolled and the people were thrown out doing somersaults down the hill. One of the sleds was a giant pizza box, probably bigger than our living room. About 12 adults dressed in pizza slice costumes jumped in...unfortunately for them it was really bad engineering and they went about one foot and became completely stuck. Everyone tried to help push them down the hill, but that thing wouldn't budge. It was hilarious. We went towards the end and pretty much all of the sleds in front of us either wrecked really bad or didn't make it at all.
Our sled was pretty good. We started really fast and made it about half-way down before we went crooked and sledded onto the snow barrier separating the sledding runs. At this point the waves had been ripped off and there was a trail of tropical fish down the hill. We pulled our sled back to the middle and made it the rest of the way down. Aparently, the time I spent Sat. morning covering the entire bottom of the sled with duct tape was a good move.
This beer bottle did pretty well...it went fast, and then rolled about 4 times!
The John Deere tractor held up (this was taken after the race)
The National Guard had the coolest sled. They built a life-size tank. It went pretty fast. Unfortunately at the end it started to come straight for the spectators.
Unfortunately, when it hit the snow bank, it rolled!
Everyone survived!
The mighty sledders and what was left of our sled after the run. (Yes, that is a ruffled swim cap on my head from the 1950's - got it at a thrift shop for Girl's Camp years ago - it has come in handy over the years).
All in all an awesome day! We are already scheming for next year. We love Iowa! (And it was 50 degrees yesterday...MIRACLE!!!)
6 comments:
Ok, I don't know what it is about Iowa but sometimes I think I might actually want to live there. I still think it is random fun, but totally awesome. I mean I'm laughing and shocked at the same time. Glad no one got hurt!! Enjoy the summer-like weather.
That looks like so much fun. Love the John Deer sled.
Stephanie, I really enjoy you. You have such an infectious enthusiasm. Sounds like fun.
As one of the pizza slices mentioned I have to say your sled was very cool, not only because it made it more than 15 feet! Watch out next year.
Okay, as the one who put together the team "Tossed and Sauced" (the giant pizza box), I have to say something. First and foremost, the cardboard sledding event didn't get near enough local press coverage :)
Second, I loved your blog entry. And you were right, we had bad engineering. In our defense, though, we were all just hoping for a hill of ice. We pretty much knew it was over when we saw that Snow Cat coming up the hill.
Anyway, we have a lot of great pictures and video of the whole event. Definitely going to do it again next year, though we might actually put more focus on the whole, "making it to the bottom of the hill" thing.
Thanks for your post. We all appreciated it. Oh, and your sled was awesome. Got some good shots of it, too. I'll upload them and post a link.
It looks so cold!!! I don't know if I could ever live there.
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