Training Log Archive: Bash

Storm The Trent - Trek Elite

It's been a long time since an adventure race has sold out around here, so it was exciting to see Storm The Trent hit its limit of 450 racers a couple of weeks ago. Sean Roper puts on a terrific, well-organized event, offering 3 levels of race distance/difficulty and supporting almost every type of solo or team category, including the only Female Solo Masters category that I've seen in adventure sports. (Luv ya, Sean.)

In order to take part in the Saab-Salomon Mountain X-Race qualifier, we entered the Trek Elite event (the longest race course) in a team of three. We knew that the Tree Huggers would never win the trip to France, but it was fun to compete against such a tough field.

'Bent and I have raced with awesome fun, fit teammates this year - 3PinJim, Slowrunner and Goose. We got lucky once again when VO2Max agreed to join us today. As a member of Canada's under-23 cross-country ski team, he trains fulltime most of the year, and we were lucky to catch him during some downtime when he is supposed to stay active before starting ski-specific training for next season. An unexpected bonus was that his tights from last year's National XC Ski Team Development Centre greatly improved our team's visibility in traffic.



The race started with each team opening an envelope that contained a map showing a few controls distributed around the village of Warsaw. One team member would race around to punch these controls, then we would jump into the canoes. VO2Max is an ace paddler, runner and cyclist with minimal navigation experience, but we just pointed out BobTheNavigator, Beowulf and Hot Shot Lawyer, with instructions to follow one of them. The first time we saw runners passing by the park, VO2Max was running right behind Hot Shot Lawyer - awesome! But apparently, he cut the corner to get to the 2nd control, and when they passed by the park again, he was in the lead with Hot Shot Lawyer falling behind. "Oh NO, who's he going to follow NOW?", I thought. But we needn't have worried - he's a better navigator than he let on, and he came tearing back into the park in 1st place. This was probably the only time in history that the Tree Huggers have been in the lead after 16 minutes of a major adventure race - YAY!!

We hopped into canoes (getting passed by several teams in a sloppy transition) and paddled 5 km up the Indian River to Warsaw Caves Conservation Area. Our paddling went well, and we passed two teams. We threw in occasional intervals of 20 higher intensity strokes to keep ourselves in race mode.

We dropped the canoes at the dock at Warsaw Caves, then we had about 12 km of navigation with 8 controls to find. Mostly it was trail running, and I put VO2Max to work towing me right away. There were some rocky sections, so I had to stay alert and choose safe times to look at the map so that I wouldn't do a faceplant. (Well OK, I did one.) There were a couple of minor things that we would have done differently, but this section went very smoothly. It is a *really* pretty little conservation area.



We paddled 5 km back to race HQ, then hopped on our bikes for a ride that ultimately lasted 85 km. We enjoyed this year's rogaine-style format for the race. There were only a few mandatory CPs and lots of optional CPs, including 5 of the 8 CPs we had already picked up on the first trek. During the bike section, there were many places where we had to decide whether to go off on side trails to find CPs of different values. We hadn't had much time to plan our maps, so it wasn't possible to apply any sophisticated analysis to the problem. Our strategy was the same as a lot of other teams - pick up all the controls along the way until it was time to cut and run for the finish.

It was fantastic weather, and there was a lot of fast riding on paved and dirt roads. Many of the snowmobile trails were quite civilized and road-like - I looked down at one point and realized that we were going 35 kph on a snowmobile trail! There were a few stretches later in the race where the trails got quite rough and rocky, and we had some powerline riding too. This happened when we were getting tired, so I walked some of the nastier stuff. Around the same time, VO2Max announced that this race would be recorded as serious training in his log - and that his rear end wasn't quite ready for 6 hours in the saddle this early in the season!

We only made one error, but it was significant and silly. We were riding along, looking for a sign that said "Brookwood Wildlife Area". At the crucial moment, two teams of friends passed us coming the other way. We turned to say hello, and thus none of us saw a sign that was about 2' wide. We ended up spending an extra 25 minutes looking for CP43, and actually we suspect that it was supposed to be about 100 meters further northeast, where we found an orange flag marked "STORM". But if one of us had seen the darned sign when we should have, that wouldn't have mattered. Too bad, because that would have changed our standing in the race by two positions - but everyone had problems today. That's typical in races this long, so you really can't play the "what if?" game. VO2Max towed me through much of the road biking section, earning his promised $25/km until he had totally paid off his debt for the race entry fee and accommodation!



As we approached the end of a bike-whacking section about 5 km from the next paddling leg, I realized that our time was running short. After the next CP, we had an optional section where we could paddle 2.5 km across a lake to pick up 1-4 controls in a nature preserve on the far side. We were looking forward to getting out of the saddle, but it wasn't meant to be. When I started counting the kilometers remaining, I realized that we were going to have to stay on our bikes at the next CP and head for the finish line, about 90 minutes away.

There were a few surprises at the paddling put-in. I'd been feeling a bit like a failure for wanting to abandon the paddle. But we learned that only 3 teams had transitioned to canoes there. Beowulf had left a short time earlier, continuing on their bikes as we intended to do. That was great news - and we also had a wonderful surprise when VO2Max's grandparents met us at the CP! Hugs all around. They were in the neighbourhood, and they'd only been told that VO2Max was in a race in a town starting with the letter "W". Somehow they found us. I expected that Leanimal or Phatty were involved, and sure enough - Leanimal had directed them to our CP. A very unhappy surprise at the same CP was running into Bender, AndyCam and Slice (Team Salomon XT Wings). Slice's arm was wrapped up, and she said calmly, "I think I've broken my wrist." This happened in a bike crash on the road long before the rough snowmobile trail section, but she had stuck it out. Wow, I'm in awe. I've always said that Slice could beat me in a race with one arm tied behind her back, and today she proved it.



After a short road ride, we were back in the woods on rough trails, riding with Team Salomon XT Wings and also with Team Running Free, who had gotten one low-value CP on the 2nd paddle, which meant that they could finish behind the rest of us who didn't paddle a 2nd time, and they would still be ahead of us. The trails got better and we came out to roads. Team Salomon XT Wings took off, since this terrain was much better for one-armed bikers. Running Free passed us, but we managed to pass them again and hold them off until the finish. By the end, 'Bent was towing me to give VO2Max a rest. Much appreciated by both of us!

We finished with 620 pts in a pack of teams with point values and finish times very close together. Team Running Free won today's race with 640 pts a few minutes behind us. It was exciting to be racing with some of the best racers in Ontario - and even Canada. It was a fun, tough, high intensity race with a couple of great teammates!



The biggest excitement was watching the clock after it struck 4 p.m. Teams lost 10 pts per minute after 4 p.m., and we knew that Team Urban Athlete (BobTheNavigator, Billy Wells and Hansel) had done some of the 2nd paddle/trek section. But... they were late. Team Salomon XT Wings had been tied with Team Urban Athlete in the MXR Canada qualifier coming into today's event, and when Team Urban Athlete rolled into the finish line 10 minutes late, having missed some CPs, we weren't sure how it would turn out.

In the end, Team Urban Athlete won the competition by just a few points. They will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the French Alps for the Saab-Salomon Mountain-X race in July.



By the way, Phatty is my hero. Not only did he orchestrate the exciting MXR qualifier, he also made sure that I came home with a beeYOOtifull baby blue Salomon MXR jacket and a vest pack. He's using his position at Salomon to do amazing things for adventure sports in Ontario, and I take my (Salomon) hat off to him.

It was great to spend time with a whole bunch of our adventure sports friends today, sitting on the grass in the sunshine, catching up and sharing race stories. Fun! We were especially proud of 3PinJim and his 8-year-old daughter Skye, who - with some friends - won the Coed division in the shortest race distance today - about 4 hrs.



Thanks to Sean (STORM) and all the fantastic race volunteers - Phatty, Leanimal, Flatfoot, Mique, Vin and so many others! This was a truly epic race. Really, really fun day!

After a fun race at FAR Deerhurst last year, 'Bent and I are looking forward to teaming up with VO2Max again at the Storm The Trent Trek Elite race this weekend. As a member of the Canadian Under 23 Cross-country ski team, he trains seriously for almost 11 months a year, but this is his annual break when he's just supposed to stay generally active and have fun. Since he's the fittest and youngest of all our Tree Hugger teammates, I expect to be *seriously* tired on Saturday night!

One nice thing about cash-hungry university student teammates is that they can be easily bribed. We've promised him $25 off his share of the race and accommodation costs for every kilometer that he tows me on bike or foot. I have a feeling that our young friend will end up racing for free... ;-)

With light to heavy rain for most of the day, it would have been nice to just hide indoors with my laptop and a steaming cup of coffee. However, I managed to convince myself (just barely) that I enjoy adventure more than comfort, so I went to Barrie to hang ribbons in top-secret locations for the Salomon Navstock Raid.

Since this is going to be a 6-hr race, I thought I might save some time by bringing my mountain bike and helmet. But that didn't turn out to be an effective strategy, given that my bike shoes remained at home detoxing from the weekend mud. :-( So I did some running, some walking and lots of hill climbing. There were acres of trilliums, and I confess that I eventually gave up tiptoeing around them all.

After our recent discussion here on good course setting, I was totally paranoid about the control locations, changing a number of them for various reasons. Still lots of work to do. It's not often that anyone has to set a marathon-length orienteering course!

After getting completely drenched during my outing on the final map of the day, I rewarded myself with a Lick's Homeburger - yum. My big sacrifice was skipping the cheese. Lately I've been purposely buying some nice clothes that will not fit well if I gain back even a little bit of the weight I've lost.

Trail run in the Humber Valley with Leanimal - partly on HVT and partly on the CSI trail, as recommended by Rocky. We ran into Slowrunner, who was keeping an eye out for the stooopid group of schoolkids who had littered our (actually Slowrunner's) beautiful trail with pop cans and water bottles - grrr. Nice cool weather and a good chat. It felt like a decent pace too, which is encouraging after our 6-hr race on Saturday