Prelude to war...the birth of a bet

Last weekend a little war went down at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, our own Virtus Civil War...teammate vs. teammate, brother against brother (granted, we don't need to be on separate teams for that particular matchup). The North and the South had Fort Sumter, but Team Virtus - Clydesdale Edition (Bob and Casey) and The REAL Team Virtus (Kate and Luke) fired our opening salvos across the internetz.

Picture the scene.  Three days after our return from Thunder Rolls, Team Virtus (and friends) gathered around our computers for the Virtus League fantasy football draft.  I skillfully parlayed my 9th position in the draft into a 10th-best grade (though I'm currently sitting in fourth place *pats self on back*), and after the draft closed conversation continued on Facebook.  In a remarkably short time, we had our next race planned and just as quickly were discussing the terms of the newest bet.  Houston, we have a (gambling) problem.

BJJ = Brazilian jiu jitsu (I had to ask).  "Regained" = Bonkhard'sPerfect 10 Rogaine

*Let the record show that having teams was Bob's idea...and he picked Casey ahead of me.

By the tenth comment, we have ourselves a bet, and Casey quickly begins angling for a handicap because he knows he's going to lose.

http://youtu.be/El1kgCqD7Xk

Casey suggests each teammate do half of the orienteering.  Being navigationally impaired, I don't like that idea...

Luke has to be up around 4 a.m. for work, so he goes to bed before the rest of us and wakes up the next morning to see what he's missed...

We set about figuring out the terms of the bet...

Basically, I refuse to agree to anything that involves eating gross food or cutting my hair.  Thankfully, nothing approaching the speedo bet ever comes up, but I'm prepared to turn that down on the grounds of being a first grade teacher.

We briefly get distracted by fantasy football talk, and Casey "autocorrects" my name from "Kage" to "Large" one too many times.

We discuss injuries (my gimpy knee from the fall at Thunder Rolls, Casey's torn hamstring) and grammar...

...and eventually return to terms of the bet...

We've already established that I'm not eating anything gross, but the ideas keep coming...

...and wow Casey with our facebook-assisted ESP before hitting on a winning idea...

We work on refining the terms...

...but are distracted by typos...

Don't miss that Casey just referred to Gerry "King of Pain" Voelliger as Ferry.  I'm sure he'll blame autocorrect for that, too, but if I were Gerry I'd have a special ascending wall set up just for Casey.

Casey believes the odds favor Luke and me; we disagree but still profess confidence...

Bob finishes washing his hair and finally joins the conversation with an idea of his own...which we promptly shoot down as impractical...

More ideas... 

...and more....

Our WTFAR friends Todd and Brian, caught in the conversation like unwilling spectators at a trainwreck, can hold their silence no longer...

It's true...Luke did admit that...sort of...because he'd lost a bet

Casey complains that Luke avoids racing with him, forgetting that Bob actually picked the teams....

I suggest that I must be the brother Luke always wanted since we've raced together several times, but am firmly put in my place...

...and we all have to get ready for work.

In the end, the terms of the bet were as follows: the losing team must perform a skit -- written by the winning team -- to be filmed and posted on the blog and youtube for eternal public humiliation.

Having a bet definitely motivated me to get out training more often, and I had a blast with all of the smack talk leading up to the race.  Neither Luke nor I were quite as confident as we let on, though.  Bob had been running pretty regularly, and Casey is a bit of a machine when he's determined.  We thought we could beat them, but we knew that anything could happen.