Discussion: Salomon Adventure Running Series

Golden Horseshoe Orienteering is excited to announce a new title sponsor for our adventure runs. The 2008 Salomon Adventure Running Series will offer four great team navigation races in our four favourite seasons:

- Salomon Snowshoe Raid - Horseshoe Resort, Barrie, ON - Feb. 23
- Salomon Giant's Rib Raid - Rocky Ridge Ranch, Milton, ON - April 12
- Salomon NavStock 6-hr Raid - Barrie, ON - June 8
- Salomon Raid The Hammer - Hamilton, ON - Nov. 9

The opportunity to work with a great company like Salomon doesn't come along every day, and we are honoured that they feel GHO's events are worthy of their involvement. Plus it gives us a great excuse to buy more cool Salomon gear!

Our longtime supporters, Axis Gear and Running Free, have stepped up to sponsor the entire Series this year, and our Hamilton retail partner, Adventure Attic, will continue to sponsor our events closer to home - the Giant's Rib Raid and Raid The Hammer.

We'd like to thank these companies and our other sponsors for helping us take the Salomon Adventure Running Series to the next level, and we look forward to seeing even more Attackpointers at future events!

For further information, check out our website.

In addition to our exciting sponsorship news we have chosen terrain that will also excite the orienteering community.

Horseshoe Resort, site of the 1994 NAOC is the terrain for the winter
and summer races. The summer event is during NavStock and GHO will hold a middle distance the day before the 6 hour Raid and the Waterloo Stars will host a sprint and the NavStock BBQ the day before as well.

The Salomon Raid the Hammer will take place in and around Hamilton in autumn and believe it or not we have a new map that has NEVER been used for orienteering before to test our expected 300+ field of runners.

Registration for the Salomon Giant's Rib Raid is now open (race takes place on April 12th in Milton)! The challenging limestone pavement terrain of the 2006 NAOC and the awesome Rocky Ridge Ranch is the race headquarters. If you found the middle and classic distance races of the 2006 NAOC challenging then how about 25K of racing in that terrain on a course designed by Mark 'the Griz' Adams!

Hope to see many AttackPointers at the races.

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/raid

Over 60 teams of 2 raced through through deep powder snow in the woods surrounding Horseshoe Resort yesterday at the 2nd annual SALOMON Snowshoe Raid. Course planner Bob Miller designed an excellent 3 hour adventure run with 25 checkpoints scattered through terrain used for the 1994 Canadian and North American Championships. Racers were treated to awesome conditions, great weather and several $K worth of awards and door prizes. Extra prizes were up for grabs for the first teams to get to certain checkpoints which split the lead teams up.

Team Salomon-Suunto won the race with Salomon Bobkittens taking the top female category. Tree Huggers and Foreigners won the Masters and Coed categories respectively. Full results are here:

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/raid/snow.htm

The next race in the SALOMON Adventure Running Series takes racers to the limestone terrain of the Milton area.

The SALOMON Giant's Rib Raid 25K Adventure Run takes place on April 12th at Rocky Ridge - site of the 2006 NAOC. GHO will also host a 10K training race (Hardrock 10K) at Hilton Falls on March 22nd.

Full race details are here:
http://www.adventurerunning.ca

Snowshoe Raid photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24232244@N08/sets/721...

Over 60 teams of three raced through the technical terrain of Rocky Ridge and Scotchblock near Milton, Ontario at the Salomon Giant's Rib Raid today. Former North American Orienteering Champion Mark Adams set a grueling 25km course that despite being flat was very rocky and had challenging trail and woods running and navigation. Teams also raced through rock crevasses along the Niagara Escarpment and the recent snowmelt made for some deep water running at times. This race was a worthy first stage qualifier for the Saab Salomon Mountain X Race in France this summer. Together with that all expenses paid trip to France and the other awards, prizes and Salomon gear for MXR teams, today's prizing topped $10K!

For the first time ever in a GHO Adventure Run a coed team won the race overall. Team Salomon XT Wings (Chris Piller, Liza Pye, Andrew Cameron) ran a brilliant race and outlasted and out navigated the top three all male teams (Urban Athlete led by Bob Miller - Canada's top adventure racer, GHO Runners led by Hans Fransson and Foreigners led by Nick Duca). Their strong victory puts them in the driver's seat to winning the trip to France this summer.

Full results and photos are here:

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/raid/giant2008.htm

Next race in the Salomon Adventure Running Series is the Salomon Nav-Stock 6 hour Raid in Barrie in June.

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/raid

Next qualifier in the MXR Canada qualifer is the Storm the Trent Adventure Race.

http://www.stormthetrent.com

Saab Salomon MXR Canada qualifier race report (PDF) from the Salomon Giant's Rib Raid 25K Adventure Run at Rocky Ridge (check out that start and finish line Salomon banner!):

http://www.dontgetlost.ca/raid/SSMXRstory.pdf

Race photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25966801@N08/sets/721...

Next Raid is the Nav-Stock Raid on June 8th near Barrie.

A video of the Saab Salomon MXR Canada qualifier from earlier this spring is now available here:

http://www.mxrcanada.ca/

First half of the video is from the (very wet) Salomon Giant's Rib Raid.

We need more online video/slideshows like this to promote our sport.