Training Log Archive: OutdoorsMama

Event: South Coast Adventure Race
 

Est. on time for now.

The 2019 SCAR was billed as the Championship Course. A.k.a. "the highlight reel" from past events. When I signed up, I don't remember any mention of a 3:30 am bus departure. But a dark start is an awesome way to get the day rolling.
B agreed to do the event with me. It would likely be her longest (duration) event of any kind ever, and certainly her longest multisport event ever. I haven't done an AR since 2017. And wow, do I miss them!

We dropped out bikes and canoe off 1.5 km from my house Friday night. I had booked a rental canoe, but was afraid that since this was a "best of" event, there might be some portaging. Those Scouts Canada canoes can be beastly, so I opted to take Paul's trusty Scott canoe instead. We had the race briefing at the arena here in town, and got our maps. Including a giant map of 2/3 of our county! That's a keeper. There were several other smaller maps for specific segments of the course. I had full confidence in our paddling and biking abilities, but knowing some of the icky woodlots we have explored before during these events (downed trees, brambles), I wasn't so confident in our ability to tackle all the trekking sessions within the time limits. There were a couple time cut offs in place that would automatically move racers onto shorter courses (plural).
We packed our TA bin and bag after the race briefing. Due to the highest water levels ever on Lake Erie, and the persistent on-shore winds, the route was changed so that all our TA stuff would actually be at one spot, and after the first 3 segments of the race, we would not see it again until the finish line.
The 2 am alarm clocks rang soon enough. It was too early for even me to eat oatmeal, so we opted for a travel mug of coffee each and a Carnation Breakfast Shake to go. By 3:30 we had the cars parked, the TA bin/bag dropped off and were on the bus. Funny story…..there were 3 school busses and the lead bus made a wrong turn into a tiny subdivision instead of on to a main county road. Imagine 3 school busses backing up/doing 14 point turns on a normally quiet street at 3:45 am. Yes, people were looking through their curtains.
We were then a bit late getting to our bikes in Kingsville, and about 20 minutes late starting the race. We biked on the Greenway, headed west to the Arner Townline. Then down to the Scout camp where we transitioned to trekking. There were 8 controls to find (all were mandatory, which I found interesting). 4 were in the newly created Provincial Park which is a mess of downed dead ash trees and brambles and stinging nettles and poison ivy and horrible muddy creeks/small rivers with bottomless mud in the bottom. The other 4 were in a private woodlot, also interspersed with brambles and an amazing crop of poison ivy. But much more civilized terrain. I opted to do that one first, in the dark, jogging east on the Greenway to reach it. The first flag was literally hung so that the punch was over my head….so obviously the flag part was higher still. It was a bit discouraging to struggle to find it, but once it was punched, we were fine with the 2nd and 3rd. The 4th required some bramble bashing. Then a jog along the Arner and the 3rd concession to the Provincial Park. 5 and 6 were fine, then after taking a while to find a decent place to cross a branch of the creek (crossing a log, cowboy style), I realized we had gotten too far east and were on the edge of a newly forested field. But that helped orient us, a bit…. we headed roughly SW, but ended up too far south, and again, seeing the bridge where Cedar Creek crosses under the Greenway got me re-oriented. By now, it was fully daylight, we were scratched and ripped by brambles, and walking through water half way up to our knees on a regular basis. Another cowboy style log crossing over and back across another branch of the creek to punch the control (there was a bit of a line up shimmy across the log), then a relatively easy trek to get the last control. Thank goodness we did that part in the daylight. The raccoon I saw on the far side of the creek was probably perturbed that so many people were using his/her log.
Then it was back to the TA, grab the paddling stuff, and paddle down to the mouth of Cedar Creek. Cedar Creek is quite wide. And chocolate brown. I shudder to think of falling in. There were strong gusts of wind blowing crossways to our paddle route out, making it a bit of a challenge to keep a straight line. B must have thought I was paddling with my eyes closed, due to our zig zags (honest, on our test paddle a couple weeks ago in a light breeze, I was able to keep the boat straight!) On the way back, we were more into the wind (it had changed direction a bit), so I could see the ripples from the gusts coming across the water and make steering revisions on the fly, so to speak.
Then we had to take everything we needed with us for the rest of the race. Bike stuff and trekking stuff and food. We made a quick stop at the gas station on the corner for B to grab an electrolyte drink, and then we were headed north to the town of Essex. I know those roads very well, as it is a route I often take on my bike. A few km out, B realized she had forgotten her running shoes, but figured she could do the treks in her bike shoes. After making the next CP in good time (it was the first one with a time cutoff), we continued to ride north. We had to use an old railway bed, that is still railway bed stone. Rough railway stone.We had passed a couple teams on the gravel roads, and passed a few teams on the old railway bed as well. It was a rough section! I would not ride it for fun…..just sayin’. We passed a couple more teams then arrived at a small wooded conservation area that I have never been to. There were 2 flags in there, but we had to go down a long gravel laneway to get to the shortest point to cut into the woods. Not a nasty woods to traverse, once you got down and up out of a massive drainage ditch, and ignored the poison ivy. B’s bike shoes were not good for climbing steep clay banks. And jogging wasn’t happening either. I started thinking about how best to manage our time for the rest of the event. We would make the next cutoff, and that section not only had a long (straight forward) bike section and a team bike time trial event (both good for B and I), but also an orienteering relay section (maybe not so good for B this time around). I would have rather done that section than the final, mandatory trek, but that last trek through more mud/brambles/poison ivy/downed trees was well, mandatory. So even though we had a good 30 minutes to spare to the cutoff, we opted to skip the fun bike section and tackle the icky trek section. Did I mention mosquitoes?
We got some drinking water at the CP. Then we headed down the Greenway to McGregor. The beauty of the Greenway is that with a SW wind (and we were headed south and west), there are enough sumac trees and other bushes to block the worst of the wind. At the River Canard ATV club property, we hiked along some ATV trails and did a bit of bushwhacking (poison ivy whacking) to get to the controls. It tried to rain a few times, but we were moving well and it was warm enough that we didn’t get chilled. Then it was back on the bikes to ride back to the finish. I had mapped out a route that was about half gravel and half pavement, but once we got riding, opted for the full pavement route, thinking it would be easier and therefore faster. I will say that riding on rough pavement is worse than riding on the gravel roads I had originally planned on. Bump bump bump bump. We finished not long after the fastest of the full-course teams. Once the results were tabulated, we were 3rd team of 2 female. The organizers admitted it was a contentious decision. I haven’t seen the official results yet, so I won’t comment on that.
Regardless, everyone got their money’s worth out of the event! Rob and Andrew wanted it to be a 14 hour race, and the winning teams were 13-something. The original course design had us paddling east into the sunrise on Lake Erie, but with the loss of the local sandbar due to high water levels/winds, that just wasn’t in the cards this year. B was an absolute trooper, slip sliding through the Essex county clay in her bike shoes, and remaining positive all the way through the event. I don’t think I scared her off too badly. And I remember why I enjoy AR so much, and I hope not wait two years before doing my next one.

Only found one tick each (we changed/inspected right after the race!) and a week later, I have no poison ivy. One day it will catch up with me.

C • Can't wait to hear about it! 3

Damn work got in the way of noon hour boot camp today. So I thought I would do the 5 pm session but was still chained to my desk at 5:45.
But I do appreciate the paycheque so will carry on with the day job.

I just can't get to a 6 pm ride so Paul and I did our own ride starting at 6:15.

Damn work gets in the way.....it is USDA report day so I got there late, but did some heavy lifting once I got there.

Very pleasant evening ride. Paul had left a half an hour before I got home but we met up part way through. Lotsa gravel.