The Winter Pineapple Classic off road team based adventure race, 5k WITH OBSTICALS, was a complete success for our team, “Teamramble.com”.

To read about the race details, the obstacles, our results or watch the video montage, see below.

Race Details:  Held annually in November the Winter Pineapple Classic is a 5k fun-run to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raise money.  As the name might imply, there is a Hawaiian theme to the race, any many teams dress up.  There all are manner of Hawaiian shirts and crazy hats. Last year I ran this race with a helmet cam. Unfortunately the helmet cam didn't make it through the adventure, so the footage didn't turn out. Point is, the guy with the video camera on his head, didn't seem that out of place....

Our gang the Pineapple Classic finish lineRace is team based, so most people join in either teams of 2 or 4, co-ed mostly but not required.  Your team is required to carry a whole pineapple through the course and have it when you finish, or I guess you don’t finish.  One team this year was even roped together, that was pretty impressive.

 Race happens one weekend in mid-November at Warren G. Magnusson Park in Sand Point, kind of by Children’s Hospital.  After the race there is a big Luau party with roast pig, hula dancers, and the

Georgetown Brewing Company provides beer.  Manny’s Ale, nothing wrong with that!

Cost for the race is somewhere around $55 per person, depending on team size etc.  Not to bad for a great cause and a fun day.  Of course the real value of the race is raise additional money for the cause.  So get on that!

The Obstacles:  The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does a great job of keeping up suspense about the obstacles. Tube Obstacles  I have run this race twice, and will run again next year, but have no idea what to expect as far as obstacles. 

I can tell you, that the 2008 edition of the obstacles was much improved from the 2007 version, and if these trends continue next year could be epic.  More walls to get over, higher walls to get over, many tires to run through, and even some monkey bars were added for this past year. 

Over here at Teamramble.com we are in pretty good shape, we like to go hiking and hit the gym etc.  Even with all of that you have NO IDEA how hard it is to cross monkey bars!  I thought this "will be easy, I used to do that all that time during recess"; I can recall skipping a bar or two, changing directions and having no issues at all…

Turns out they are way harder when you weigh greater than 70lbs and/or can’t rattle off Ninja Turtle names in your sleep.  Took some teamwork to get our team past this one, but it was a bunch of fun.

Wall obsticle Under and over obsticle Tires obsticle

The obstacles really help this event break through the clutter of fund raising fun runs.  You can run 5k for just about anything, but only here do you carry a pineapple over a wall and through a series of tubes.  The Hawaiian theme is fun, the team based set-up is cool, and Manny’s is always a crowd pleaser, but we keep coming back to run through the obstacle course.  Good job on a solid idea Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

A pint of Manny's at the finish line!Our results:  Did I mention this was for charity, and the whole point is raise money and not worry about results?  Yeah, ours were that good.

This year Teamramble.com placed 587th out of 595, 4 person co-ed teams, with a time of 59:13.05.

Last year Teamramble.com placed 276th out of 286, 4 person co-ed teams, with a time of 51:45.

Clearly we got slower as we got older, or maybe the massive increase in teams slowed us down, either way…we had a really good time and are already planning our assault on next year.

Video Montage: