‘Fantastic Four’ unleashed on adventure race

The Cannon team competed in the two-mile raft race which was the final leg of the second annual Laughlin Race Saturday.

Greg Allen

Cannon unleashed Thunder, Turbo, Psycho and Raw on Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas as the Fantastic Four team completed 30 miles of bicycling, running and rafting through the Texas hill country Saturday.

The team, which billed itself the Fantastic Four after the comic book heroes, was composed of Capt. Mila French (Thunder), Maj. Alex Lee (Turbo), Capt. Art Miller (Psycho) and Staff Sgt. Angela Custer (Raw).

They are all from the 27th Medical Group, and finished 19th out of 51 Air Force and Army teams that competed in the second annual Laughlin Adventure Race, which is sponsored by Laughlin AFB.

The team finished fourth out of 19 teams in the Xtreme category. These were teams whose individual members all completed the 23-mile bicycle ride, 7-mile run and 2-mile raft race on Lake Amistad.

“The other teams competed with their members doing portions of each event,” said Capt. French. “As an ‘Exteme’ team, we had to be within 50 yards of each other at all times.”

“We just wanted to finish the race,” said Sergeant Custer. “For us, it was all about fun.”

The team finished with an overall time of 3:51.15.

The Fantastic Four did more than just finish the race, they were one of the few teams with an equal number of men and women, said Sergeant Custer. The Airmen and Soldier teams were mainly from New Mexico and Nevada bases, and mostly men.

Of the three Xtreme teams that finished ahead of them, only one had a woman on it, added Sergeant Custer.

Training for the event was done individually and Cannon actually proved to be a tougher area than Laughlin, said Capt. French.

“There’s more elevation in Cannon and there is the wind,” said Capt. French.

Speaking for the team, Capt. Miller said the most difficult leg of the race was probably the run, because it included an 80-pound litter carry midway through the seven-mile run.