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Crouched at the starting line, the wind appeared to be the biggest obstacle to the 37 teams competing in the 2010 Red Bull Land Run.
However, it didn’t seem to slow down Family Force 3, a trio of OSU students who won the competition on Saturday.
“But that’s Oklahoma,” said Drew Reese, an English education senior and Family Force 3 team member. “We’re Oklahoman boys. We know how to handle it.”
Drew Reese teamed up with his cousin, aerospace and mechanical engineering senior Isaac Reese, and aerospace and mechanical engineering senior Luke Zsiga.
The Red Bull Land Run is an adventure race that requires the competitors to complete a series of challenges set up along a trail beside the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City.
The prize for first place was an all-expense paid trip to Copper Mountain, Colo. with their teammates and friends.
Red Bull voluntarily changed the format for the race after last year’s automobile version raised some eyebrows. However, despite rumors, no competitors were put in jail in connection with last year’s event.
The change in format worked in favor of Family Force 3, Zsiga said.
“Last year it was a 100 mile race. This year’s different. It’s a whole new ball game,” Zsiga said.
The challenges set up along the course included kayaking, potato peeling, finding a needle in a haystack, sewing and breaking large chunks of ice with Red Bull shots in them.
The sewing station dubbed “Quilting Bee” was almost universally considered the most difficult challenge. Drew Reese received a pin prick during the event, the only injury of the day, and OSU student Ross Hendricks had similar hard feelings for the stage.
“I never want to sew again,” said Hendricks, a business management junior.
OSU students comprised six of the 37 teams that participated and claimed first and second place, ahead of teams from universities from around the state. The field included last year’s champions, “A Team Divided,” for the University of Oklahoma who lost their OSU teammate for this competition.
Luke Zsiga of Family Force 3 noted the irony of Sooners competing in a Land Run based competition.
“We’re not Sooners, we’re Cowboys,” Zsiga said as his team crossed the finish line. “We don’t cheat, we win,”
But after a hard day’s work, the boys of Family Force 3 were ready to get back to work.
“This was a breeze compared to mechanical engineering,” Reese said.
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