Wicked Urban Adventure Race, Portland, Ore.

Photos by Mike Bitton
These two photos are of Seattle-based adventure racing team Mergeo.com. The rainy one was in the morning. The sunny one was in the afternoon.

On Sunday, June 4, I covered my third annual Wicked Urban adventure race in Portland, Ore. The weather was just as zany as can be expected for springtime around here. We had rain, then bright sun, then torrential rain, then sun and wind, then more rain, then hot sun, then more rain, and the day ended with sun! It seemed like every 30 minutes, the sky simply changed its mind.

It's rare that real news comes out of an adventure race, but we had some today. During the in-line skate portion of the race, a freight train was blocking the route of Seattle-based team Mergeo.com. Mergeo waited 20 minutes for the train to move, then got impatient and climbed the stairs at the end of one of the cars to bypass the train and keep racing. A police officer was on the other side and detained the team. Arrest was considered, as were citations. In the end, the officer let the team go on its way.

I've been chipping away at a Mergeo team profile for a couple of weeks now. Today's incident will add a little color to the piece!