Note
Salomon Navstock Raid. I was the course designer for this 6-hr adventure run - the first time we'd tried this format. It was a challenge to come up with a race that should take 6 hrs for everyone. At our usual adventure runs, the finish times for 25K range from 3 to 8 hrs, and some teams don't even finish the course within the 8 hrs. So in a race with a fixed distance, some teams take triple the time of other teams. Thus in a race with fixed time, we might expect some teams to travel triple the distance of other teams.
But actually, we assumed that top teams would slow down a bit in a longer race, so the ratio wouldn't be quite as crazy as 3:1. The GHO Raid committee estimated that the course would need to be about 42K (marathon distance) to keep the top competitors busy for 6 hrs. We still had to get all teams to the finish line, so we decided to start with a point-to-point, then finish the race with a rogaine around the finish line. My personal preference is that rogaines shouldn't be possible for any team to complete, which forces everyone to solve the same problem of deciding which controls to do. Thus we needed a long distance rogaine, knowing that most teams would only see a small portion of it.
What we hadn't counted on was the extreme weather - the first weekend of the year with oppressive heat and humidity. Ironically, my course planning sessions often seemed to degenerate into hurricane conditions, and my biggest problem had been hypothermia. The hot weather seriously increased the difficulty of the race - especially the long road run, which was unfortunately hard to avoid due to all the development around Horseshoe. We were fortunate that most of our competitors took care of themselves pretty well, and the few racers who were having major problems with the heat and sun dropped out before things got too serious.
I'd made a comment in the pre-race info package that this race would be a bigger change from the norm for our top racers than for our mid-pack racers, who are accustomed to going out for 6 hrs in every adventure run. I'd wondered how top teams would approach the pacing, hydration, nutrition, sun protection, etc. There did seem to be more pain and attrition in a few of the top teams, but the vast majority of participants handled the difficult conditions amazingly well. Some of the teams with excellent results made a point of walking much of the course - in the right direction, of course. I'm a princess in heat, and I'm sure glad that I got to stay in the shade all day!
From the first time I saw Slice & Leanimal on the race course (just a few minutes out of the lead at the 1st aid station), the phrase "well-oiled machine" popped into my head. I see that Slice has used it in her training log, so it wasn't just my imagination! They gave the impression of being calm, organized, physically fit and totally on their game. We've all been waiting for the day that the Salomon Bobkittens would win a major event outright, and today was the day. Congratulations, ladies - rawrrrr!!!!
It was great to see so many friends out, and I continue to be blown away by the incredible support we get from our sponsors Salomon, Sojourn, Running Free and Axis Gear.