Salomon Raid The Hammer
This was an anniversary race for Hingo, 'Bent and me. Ten years ago, we raced our first Raid The Hammer together - the first nav race we ever finished. We had a great time, didn't run very much, wrote bearings and distance on the map for every single control, finished 44th of 82 teams and were absolutely thrilled with our debut performance.
Since then the Tree Huggers have attended most of the Raids over the years, racing with our original 3-member line-up whenever circumstances allow.
We have our routine standardized after all these years. We each work on our maps independently, and unless there is a particularly complex route choice, it's my responsibility to understand the instructions and plan our routes. I don't plan many legs in detail, and I rarely mark anything on the map other than control descriptions and route details that aren't obvious from the map. Hingo plans our Matrix strategy and assigns us our control(s). We may briefly discuss things like the sequence of scrambles (score-O sections). As we're running, all three of us follow the map and watch for controls and key features. We constantly remind each other about the instructions and our routes. 'Bent wields the SI card and carries the tow rope.
Today we started in Mount Nemo in warm weather. First we had a scramble where I messed up a little by starting to lead the team toward one of the Matrix controls by mistake. Then we spit up for the Matrix, and I ended up running to B with BugsinTeeth. This gave me a nice rest at CP1 as I waited for 'Bent and Hingo to return from their tougher assignments.Then we headed off to the controls at the south end of the map and out to the road toward the Brant Hills map. 'Bent towed me for much of the road section.
There was potential to get mixed up on the Brant Hills map so I was very cautious - counting creeks, aiming off, watching contours more than trails. We spent much of our time on this map with Topo Girlz and Boy (Ang, Arthurd and Matt). Our route choices weren't always the same but we kept ending up together. More surprising was the fact that we were passed by Team Salomon in this section - twice! We didn't expect to see them until the Meatball Truck.
Finally we snuck past Topo Girlz and Boy on the trail run to the final map. It was somewhere around this time (the 15K mark) that the top of my left foot started to hurt badly - the same thing that happened near the end of Oil Creek. I think it's a repetitive strain thing and hope it just needs some time away from long runs. After this weekend, I'm officially declaring it ski season, and I plan to stop running if this pain ever pops up. Today, however, I pushed through it and was gritting my teeth sometimes toward the end. I'm wondering if it may be related to the ankle bracing and taping I do for long events. In restricting the movement of my foot, I may be aggravating parts of it.
We were efficient on the final scramble, and when we went up to the aid station, we learned we were 2nd Coed which was unexpected and motivating. The rest of the forest controls went well, then we had another Bruce Trail run into Waterdown. After CP8 we lost some time when I was freaking out because I couldn't see the little park we were supposed to run through to get to Main St., and the map didn't have that much detail. In the end, we followed the other teams who took Union St. across. (Every GPS track I have seen, including for top teams, did the same thing.) Unfortunately, my obsession over detail meant that we just missed a slow light change that the teams around us made so in the end, we finished about a minute behind two other teams (luckily not in our category).
It was an incredible, sunny day - perfect for a run in the woods. It was great to see so many friends and to race with longtime teammates. This year's course had more trail and road sections that favoured speedy runners so on paper, I would have expected us to get crushed. We had a respectable result though - 2nd of 19 Coed teams (although the preliminary results show us in Masters). This was a great year for Female teams with Team Giggles (including two U.S. national team members) just a few minutes off the overall podium, and Dee, M&M and Morgan beating us nicely. Frankenjack's team took the overall win - congrats!
Thanks to all the people involved in putting on these major events for us. It's a huge job performed almost entirely by volunteers, and we are incredibly lucky to have people doing this for us.
Trav took this finish line photo. I'd forgotten to bring a brimmed hat and it was too hot for my Buff, so instead I went with the "fright wig" look! :) Thanks to Funderstorm who set me up with a much-needed ponytail elastic.