Training Log Archive: carbon

Event: Full Moon in June
 

This years Full Moon In June took place out of Panorama ski resort in B.C. 31 teams were registered including some experienced teams as well as a larger number of beginners than usual. It was great to see so many people raise their hand for this being their first 36hr race. We suspected that our main competition would be from the team Café Express, captained by Tom Zidek of Canmore. He had put together a team of elite athletes and we knew that they would be fast. I am always very nervous before a race and always question whether I have been training enough and if I can hold up against the competition. My biggest competition is probably my own demons. Preparing the maps at the race briefing we found out that the course would consist of following sections:

Trekking, including one advanced checkpoint
Mountain biking
Kayaking
Mountain biking
Rope section
Trekking, including one advanced checkpoint

Some of the sections were in-and-outs so we knew it would be a fast going pace.

A couple of hours before race start, Bart got struck by some form of GI bug; quite likely from the dinner meal served at the race briefing earlier that evening. He was shaking and looked quite pale. For a little while I was certain that we would not be able to start the race, but he toughed it out and came along to the start line. All the teams lined up in the rain, facing a number of different directions. Which way would they all go? Most of us went in the same direction and picked up the trail that we were looking for. We weren't able to run as hard as we normally would in a start with the fear of hurting Bart too much, but Bart recovered very quickly and soon he was leading the way. At one point he stopped on the trail. When the other teams running behind us saw Bart stop, they slowed down to a halt as well (obviously waiting to see which way Wild Rose would go). Bart looked at all of us and then gave us the "go" sign and we all jumped into the woods and off to a different trail. The teams tried to follow but as Mike said, after 30 seconds they were no longer to bee seen.

The trekking and navigating took us through the forest along side Toby Creek. There were a number of trails leading through this section so the hiking was fairly easy, although a number of steep climbs and descents. At one point when we lost the trail we ended up doing a bit of a bushwhack that worked us a little higher than we needed to go to get to CP1. We didn't really loose any positions but maybe a bit of energy. We managed to run many sections and despite falling a little behind in the start we had caught up and passed all the teams but one by the time we hit the first advanced section. This had us hiking up a mountain and back down again. As we were nearing the top the leading team, Café Express from Canmore, was coming down. They looked pretty energetic as they were running down. CP 2 was located at the top of the mountain and as we turned around to start running back down, I discovered that all the up and down running leading up to this point had my IT bands in a protest. I still managed to run down the trail but perhaps not quite as fast as if I was not hurting. The trek continued and we spent a little time looking around for CP 3, but eventually found it along a trail and could run on. The trek ended with a bike pickup for a short bike ride down the paved road to Invemer and Kinsmen Beach at Lake Windermere.

The paddle section would have us in the infamous FMIJ inflatable kayaks; a dream for the race organizers, but a bit of a nightmare for racers. Inflatable boats are not the ultimate flat water boat. They do not fit taller people very well and you end up sitting quite low in the boat which sacrifices the power you can get into the paddle stokes. I managed to sit on my bag and get a little higher up, but the seats kept sliding down and you constantly had to reposition yourself in order to keep going. The boats seem to have a maximum speed around 4km/hr or so and to push the speed up by just a little bit takes more of an effort than it might be worth. Mike pumped up the boats while the rest of us refueled and got changed, which made for a fairly efficient TA. Lake Windemere is quite long and we fought a headwind both ways (yes, it turned on us) and on the way back it was quite heavy at times. We were pretty certain that less experienced paddlers would really suffer on this paddle. I was fairly willing to bet money on many teams dropping out of this section. A challenging paddle for sure but we managed to keep a very consistent pace and only pulled over for a couple of quick bio-breaks. About 10 minutes shy of the lake CP we met the lead team again. The smiled and we smiled (but I'm sure we all felt the same pain of the long paddle, but anything to disguise the weaknesses!). Bart and I shared kayak from the start but after us falling a bit behind Mike and James we switched up so that I was paddling with James. James is a bit lighter than Bart so it was a little easier to keep this boat moving for me. Mike with a bit more muscle was able to paddle with Bart and still keep up with James and I. Towards the end of the lake paddle we started seeing other teams. Some of them looked very lightly dressed. Not sure how they faired out there in the wind. Once we had completed the lake portion of the paddle, we headed down the slow moving Columbia River. The boats moved a little bit quicker in here which was nice, but the water was super cold. I started shaking and rattling with a bit more than an hour to go. I was not in a very happy place, but I was trying not to complain too much since I knew everyone wanted this section to be over. James was a trooper and put up with my futzing in the boat. I think it took us around 8 hrs to complete this paddle which is long for being a section in a 36 hrs race. We had spoken to a number of teams before the race and it didn't sound like many of them had done any paddling at all this year due to the very cold spring. Mike and I got out a number of times and I'm happy we did because that sure helped. I wasn't hurting too much from the paddling motion more than just being very tired and a bit tight in one shoulder.

At the end of the paddle there was a 1km trek up to the TA. It was nice to be moving on land again and stretch out the legs. Our support team met us in the TA with warm ravioli and dry clothes. Our support was amazing. It's always nice to come in and have things sorted out so that you can go through efficiently. Good stuff! We ate and changed into our bike gear and planned for a rope section as well. The bike section was only 45km and was through some easy terrain, mainly roads and some smaller trails. It felt good to be pedaling. My bike is so comfortable and it was very good for the tight legs to be spinning it out for a while. Bart did an outstanding job navigating through this section. To me it seemed like there were roads and trails leading off in every direction, but he just kept pointing us in the right direction. Towards the end of this section we came upon a creek turned into a small river. The trail we needed continued on the other side of this fast moving water. Bart checked out the situation by walking across in the "safest" spot. We were questioning whether this really was the crossing since we couldn't imagine the organizers wanting the teams to do this, but we wanted to keep moving so we went for it. The boys, with Bart in the middle (thank goodness for tall people), got the bikes across and then we got ourselves across by the arm-in-arm trick. After our teams crossed this sections it was closed down and the other teams re-routed for safety reasons. Many teams would of course hit this section after nigh fall and would have made it even more treacherous.

At the end of the bike we had a rope crossing over a gorge which was quite uneventful. It was a pretty spot with some nice views. We all got across with me being a bit slower pulling myself the last bit of the rope. I left some of my upper body strength on the paddle leg I think!

We headed off on the last trek and most of the trek was backtracking what we had done at the start of the race. Despite that, we struggled finding the correct trail. For some reason we all thought we recognized a trail that we had never been on (fake déjà vu). We ended up finding two trails that we thought were the right one but we were too low both times. After bushwhacking up to a higher road and hiking up it for a while we finally found the correct trail that we could follow all the way to the last advanced section. We were going a bit slower than race pace in here. Sleepiness started setting in and I think we could all sense that our time looking for the right trail lost us the chance of catching up to Café Express. My sense was also that we had a gap on whoever was in third position. I find those situations a little hard in a race. You know you can't catch whoever is ahead and you are pretty sure no one will catch you so it is no longer a race really and you don?t push as hard.

The last section started at the bottom of the Panorama ski hill. We had to hike all the way up to the peak of the mountain for the advanced CP. It was hard to start what you knew would be a hard climb when just down to your right you could see the resort lights and the finish line. I was imagining all these teams that had done the regular course sitting in there with a hot drink, relaxing. The weather on the mountain was getting a little bit colder with frost and a bit of a cool breeze. James and I were both getting pretty cold hands but super Mike came to a rescue and pulled out a set of winter gloves for me and a set of hand warmers for James. Did this ever lighten the spirit! I felt so much better. This was the second time in the race Mike saved my hands. In an earlier section he gave me dry gloves when mine were soaked from the rain. I'm not sure how long it took us to get up to the peak; maybe 2 or 3 hours. It was steep and tiring but it was easy terrain otherwise. No real obstacles to work over or around. The team was fighting the sleep monsters but we kept moving. At one point I saw Café Express coming down. I saw two headlamps, but they turned them off when they saw ours. Sneaky! At the top of the main chair lift we made one last push up to the very peak of the resort and found our CP manned by a girl in a tent. It was really nice to see someone up there. It kind of made the trip more worth it. The views were also stunning; stars and a full moon over the high mountain tops. The trip down was a painful one and I shredded my first real tears in an adventure race when my IT bands started doing their thing. It was friggin' painful. After the first steep section I managed to figure out a way I could still sort of run/walk really fast down though. If my knees were already bent down enough when I started my stride and I kept them bent throughout the whole stride, I was in less pain. I wish I could sort this IT band thing out once and for all. They have been feeling great throughout all the hill training that I have been doing this spring. It just seems that any time I really start pushing the hilly running in a race they will start hurting. I am going to make one more physio attempt to get them fixed. Mike was also struggling on the steep sections. His feet were a bit rough from having gotten trench foot earlier. He wore some seal skins for the beginning half of the race and they leaked and kept his feet wet for the whole time.

Once we crested the roll about 1/4 of the way down the hill we could start seeing the resort lights. This made it easier mentally to keep going. The finish line was a bit busier that in previous races in that we actually got greeted by two of the volunteers. They congratulated us and took a finish line photo. It was so good to see them. In many of the races we have crossed the finish line and not seen anyone around.

We had raced for 28.5 hrs and ended up in second place behind Café Express, with an elevation gain and loss of 4500m (mostly on foot). Surprisingly none of the teams racing the regular course had finished yet. We found out, as suspected, that some teams had trouble on the water and either took a long time finishing that section or even pulled out. Many came off the water very cold and the support folks had some fires going to warm people up. I am very interesting to see the final results with time splits for each section and to see how many teams officially finished. It was a tough course but I hope it didn't discourage the newbies from the sport.

I was happy with our effort, even though I am also a little disappointed that we couldn't keep the winning team closer to us in the end. But considering that we started the race with Bart not feeling well and we spent a little extra time looking for the trail on the way back, we did really well. James fit into the team really well and it was fun racing together as a group. As always during these races I have moments where I question whether I will do another one or not. Now, one day later, I am just wondering how I will get my body better prepared for the next time. Nothing like a little racers amnesia!

Thanks Bart, James and Mike for being such great team mates and thanks Brent and Wakana for the awesome support! Also a huge thanks to the race organizer, Brian Gallant and his whole crew of support. A lot of work goes into designing these races.

C • Congrats! 6

I always forget how many little things there are to get ready for a race. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything. Looks like it will be a rainy one.

Some riding while getting som stuff done around town. I took my old Trek out and wow, was that ever fun. I still love that bike. But I can see now how it was holding me back riding in the rockies. The full suspension sure has its place.

Had a really awesome (and very painful) massage this morning. It's increadible how much better you feel after a good massage. Well worth the money before a race. Now I will focus on stretching and maybe a little jog or bike spin before Friday. Work is finally over for the week and I am off until the race.

Commuting to and from work. Shorter ride this week since I am ACH.

Run home from physio.