CHAPTER 6
THE RUGGED REAPER
The big day had finally arrived. Derek and Tanisha met up at the Newville Fields Park and Reserve early that morning. Before long, the stands were filled with Rugged Reaper fans, along with the families and friends of the contestants.
Derek and Tanisha took their places at the starting line. The rest of the contestants lined up as well.
“Can you believe the turnout? There must be hundreds of kids waiting to take this course on!” said an excited Derek.
“I had no idea it would be this big,” Tanisha said. “Look at all the TV cameras. This is wild!”
Just then a couple contestants walked up to Tanisha and Derek. “Hi, I’m Blake,” one of the boys said. “This is my friend, Austin.”
“I’m Derek, and this is Tanisha,” Derek replied. “Nice to meet you both!”
“Is this your first extreme obstacle course?” Blake asked.
Tanisha nodded. “How about you guys?”
“This is our third,” Austin replied. “When we found out that Rugged Reaper was coming here, we couldn’t miss it.”
“Any advice you can give us?” Derek asked.
“Accept that you’re going to get dirty immediately!” joked Blake.
“And never leave your teammate behind,” Austin added.
Just then the announcer made her way to the podium. “Greetings, and welcome to Rugged Reaper! Are you all ready?”
The kids all screamed, “Yeah!” in unison.
“Good! Now, because the top three teams will advance to the national quarterfinals, we’ve made this course extra challenging. There’s a special, never-before-seen final obstacle!” the announcer bellowed. “When the pistol fires, begin! Good luck!”
The starter pistol blared, and the kids ran to the first obstacle, the massive mud run. Tanisha and Derek took off through the quarter-mile of mud, dodging the dirt the other kids were splashing up as they ran.
A few kids fell face-first into the mud, causing a chain reaction. Even some of the cameramen got caught up in it. Staying upright, Derek passed them by, followed by Tanisha.
“Janet was smart to make us use those ankle weights!” Tanisha yelled.
“Definitely!” Derek hollered back. “We’re almost out of the mud!”
The two finished the mud run and ran quickly to the second obstacle, the baited belly crawl. It was a forty-yard ground crawl under a net.
Tanisha and Derek wiggled under the net and started crawling. Just in front of them, some kids got tangled in the net, slowing them down.
Maneuvering past them, Tanisha crawled quickly on the ground like a mini-locomotive. Derek trailed behind her.
“The net up ahead is hanging low, so don’t get tangled, Derek!” Tanisha warned.
“Gotcha. Thanks, partner!” Derek said.
After what seemed like an eternity, Derek and Tanisha exited from the belly crawl. They ran with the other kids to the third obstacle, the sit-up situation station. There were adults stationed there to make sure each teammate did fifty sit-ups.
Tanisha and Derek got to their station and started their repetitions. Tanisha flew through her fifty sit-ups. When she finished, Derek still had twenty-five more to go.
Tanisha got up and cheered her teammate on. “Come on, Derek! You can do it!”
Tanisha was really impressed with how far Derek had come. He finished his sit-ups, and they began running again.
“We’ve got a half-mile run until our next station,” Tanisha said. “Let’s go!”