Training Log Archive: Goose

Event: Frontier Adventure Challenge - Fall Classic
 

Frontier Adventure's Fall Classic - Parry Sound

Harps, Dee and I teamed up for what was billed as a 12 hour race. Last year's version (with Leanimal) took us just over 6 hours, so we had no idea how long of an event to expect, but I guessed it would be a lot closer to the 12 hr mark.
The weather was forecast to be cool and damp, and it was pretty much bang on. Maybe it was a bit wetter than damp, and a bit colder than cool, but with a goretex jacket on and constant movement we were fairly comfortable for most of the day.
We started with a paddle, from Kellerman's resort. 3 people in a 16' canoe is never my idea of a great set up, but everyone had the same boats so at least we were all even; except that our canoe had a twist! It didn't matter what we did, I could not get the boat to turn to the right, and it took everything I had to keep the boat going straight. Two days later and I can still feel my left shoulder, from constantly sweeping to try to keep us moving in a straight line. My apologies to Dee, who got cuffed a few times with my paddle as I was trying to do a steering stroke with the other end.
It is not often that I am looking forward to the end of a paddling section, but that was the case in this race. We were the sixth boat off the water at the end of the paddle section. Unfortunately, one of the paddle CPs was not in place in time for the early boats, so after we had spent 10-15 minutes looking for it the assembled flotilla moved off pretty much together. One of the portages was a bushwhack, up and over a hill, between two lakes. It was "marked" with little bits of flagging tape that were somewhat difficult to find in the dark. The bush was remarkably open, so portaging a canoe was not as difficult as one might have expected, as long as you continued to go in a straight line. If you got off the flagged route and needed to turn around, things got interesting. The portage ended with a steep decent to the lake, and it was there that a number of teams (including us) got separated from the flagged route. I took the canoe off my head for the steepest part of the decent (luckily) and ended up getting to the bottom rather more quickly than I had intended. I slipped and slid down the steep pitch (roughly equivalent to the steepness of a water slide) and fell about two boat lengths. I landed at the bottom seemingly unscathed, and had to wait while my teammates negotiated a slower but safer route to the awaiting canoe.
Harps' nav on the trek was pretty clean, and we made up considerable time on teams that had been ahead of us, and ended the trek in second place. Again CPs were not in place in time which just undermines the confidence that racers have in the race organization. Generally, however, this was the best part of the day. We travelled through beautiful, wild, country; the fall colours were spectacular, there was a nice mix of open hardwood forest, runnable wetlands, a bit of cottage road, some good route choice options, and the sun even peeked out a few times.
The biking section was on ATV trails, and it would have been really fun if not for the rain we had had all day. Still, the uphills and downhills were firm and quite rideable. It was just the rutted, low sections that forced us off our bikes. The problem with the biking section was that we never knew where we were. We had plotted the CPs on our map, and had been told that ATV trails connected those spots, but very few (if any) of the trails we were riding were marked on our map. As soon as we left a CP we just hoped that the trail would end up at the next CP. We had no idea what the distances were between CPs, because we didn't know if the trail ran more or less directly between two CPs, or whether it looped north around a swamp, south around a lake, etc. In the end, the "error" we made in missing a turn at an intersection could hardly be considered an error as none of the trails that formed the intersection was marked on the map, and the trail that we were looking for (#26 I believe?) was not one of the trails that joined at the intersection. We rode a long way past before we had solid evidence from other sources to confirm that we must have missed the turn. A number of teams missed the same turn-off (RaidPulse went to exactly the same spot we did before turning around) but some turned back sooner than we did after seeing other teams coming back towards them.
As we were heading off from CP 14 to get the final checkpoint before the finish, we were met by a volunteer who told us that we didn't need to go to CP15, as it involved a swim with the bikes at a place where a bridge was out. The teams ahead of us had all elected disregard the volunteer, and had pressed on towards the bike swim. The temperature was dropping at about 2 degrees/hour, and the wind out of the north had come up quite considerably. The prospect of getting completely soaked, with about 25km of riding still ahead, did not appeal to me at that point. I think too, that I had just had enough of riding around seemingly aimlessly. The route back to the finish was quite a bit longer via cottage roads and old Hwy 69, but we were able to keep up a steady pace and finished in 4th overall behind two all-male teams (RaidPulse and Adrenaline Rush) and one male solo.

It was great to get out racing for the day, and to get a chance to race with Dee for the first time. I don't think she was not close to her 100%, with the remnants of a persistent cold and a nasty sounding cough, but she was strong throughout the day. Harps' nav was clean all day; I am just sorry that I wasn't able to be of more use to him the few times he sought my advice with the maps. The post-race dinner was probably the best post-event meal I've ever had! We had turkey, salads, seasonal vegetables and all the fixin's. It was a real Thanksgiving feast. There was great prizing from the principal event sponsor Salomon, and we won another year of free Frontier racing.
The rookie course designer had put together a really fun, interesting, and challenging course. Unfortunately, he is not an experienced racer, and he did not receive the appropriate mentorship to know what information racers need in order to be able to execute the task of navigating cleanly. My thanks to what seemed to be an overstretched group of volunteers who soldiered on, still pulling tired and cold racers off the course long after the 12 hour time limit had passed.

C • Rookie course designer 13

Holly and I headed out for an AM out-and-back rollerski on the Tecumseh-Adjala town line.
It has nice rolling hills, but by our return trip the traffic had increased considerably, making it a little less enjoyable. Mostly double polling, some kick-double pole, and a little bit of striding up the steepest parts of the hills.
A warm morning. I definitely need to sharpen the tips of my poles before the pavement gets any harder.

After it had been very sunny all afternoon, I was able o get out for a bike ride just as the clouds rolled in. The temperature was a bit cool, so great for riding.
I headed up to Albion and spent about 1hr10 riding single track, before heading back home on the road.
It's been a couple of weeks since I was on my bike, but after the first climb up Glasgow Rd (which always feels awful) I felt great.