Training Log Archive: Bash

CNYO Snowgaine, Day 2
Winona State Forest

It was another frosty morning but it was forecast to warm up so we dressed in lighter layers. It was sunny all day with a perfect blue sky and we felt really lucky to have such crazy hobbies.



I'd had more time to plan today's route so I knew where we had to be at what time. At the end, we hoped to have time to get 4 extra controls. We did a counterclockwise loop heading southwest to start.



We only had 7 hours today and expected to be slower. Yesterday was my first run on a hard surface in 3.5 weeks because I've been resting my injured heel. I was limping in pain this morning and felt it all day. Ugh. The weird thing is that by Monday, when I expected horrible pain, my heel felt better than it's felt in a few months. Maybe it needed two days of floundering around in deep snow? We'll see what happens after my next run.



Everything else went like clockwork other than a few minor 'Bent-gear failures - a frozen compass (again - but he had a backup today), a frozen bladder hose and a broken lanyard holding our punch card. His fingers went numb during the first half hour, even though he was wearing big mitts, so we may want to start him with hand warmers in future. (He got frostbite in a blizzard in Nepal and has had hand problems ever since.)



After a brief road run, we took a ski trail toward 75, then did 46-29-34, which were close together. If we did those 4 controls in less than an hour, I planned to add 30, which was harder to reach. We were moving well so we did the out-and-back to 30. It was slower going than I'd expected so I was a little nervous about the decision. During our first hour, we met Olga and Erin several times and they saved me from an unzipped pack pocket - thanks!



From 30, we had 4.5 km of travel on a mix of ski trail, snowmobile trail, ungroomed trail and a short stretch of road. It took an hour and there were no controls to visit. Then we were in the valuable northern part of the map where we picked up 32-45-77 and ran into Harps and JVD a couple of times.

From 77, we had to retreat 700 m southwest to a road to avoid private property. When we first saw racer tracks climbing up onto the road, I mistook it for a private driveway so we didn't follow them. We broke trail for another 200 m to a snowmobile trail, which proved that the other racers had been correct and we had bushwhacked extra distance for nothing. Oh well.



We put our snowshoes on our packs, 'Bent got me on tow, and we did a hike/run 2.3 km to the turn-off to 62. It was our farthest point from the finish and I'd hoped to get there halfway through our 7 hours. We hit it at 3:31 (pure luck!) then we were on the homeward stretch with a good chance of adding some extra controls. After a shorter road run, we put our snowshoes back on and visited 73, 35 and 19, which was our decision point about extending our day.



We had 2 hrs 19 mins left so we added 43-57-37 to the east. After scrambling up the steep slope from 43, we watched for private property boundary markings to the southeast but never saw them. We and a good American team went south a bit, then turned and followed a snowshoe highway that looked about right to avoid the little chunk of private land but I honestly don't think we (or a bunch of other teams) succeeded. I should have watched our bearing more closely on the steep climb out of 43 to stay in better contact with the map. :( Taking a quick look on Attackpoint and Strava, I haven't yet seen a team who avoided that error near 43, which explains all the tracks.



We met Chris and Chad (Team Twin Towers) on the road run between 57 and 37. 'Bent stopped to give Chad a zip tie to fix his snowshoe. Our final planned control was 64 with the addition of 15 if we had time. We did both and finished with 15 minutes on the clock. We *might* have been able to get 21 after 30 this morning but then we probably wouldn't have had the confidence to go for all the extra controls at the end, so I feel like today's route was the optimal choice for our abilities. Yesterday was OK but could have been improved with more time to plan.



Once again, we had a great post-race snack from a local food truck while chatting with friends about their days.

Teams from the Canadian contingent won every category in which we were represented - great job, all! Bob and Scott won overall, clearing the course with 2 hours to spare. Harps and JVD also cleared the course and were 2nd overall and 1st Male since Bob and Scott were Veterans (40+). Alex and Karine were 1st Coed, and 'Bent and I were given medals for 1st Veteran (no gender divisions). We were actually 2nd to Bob and Scott in a category with 12 teams, which is the best we could have hoped for. They are going to get an Overall award. Rootstock Female won their category and the incredible Eric and Mary Smith won SuperVet (55+) in their mid-70s with a very respectable overall ranking.

Here's Team Canada 2020. Absent: Dave and Will Hitchon and JVD. What a great time! We hope to go back next year with an even larger Canadian contingent.



Many thanks to Bruce, Gian and Russell for a fantastic event. They really knocked it out of the park on their first attempt! We're so grateful to have this terrific event back on the calendar.

Event: CNYO Snowgaine
 

CNYO Snowgaine, Day 1
Winona State Forest, NY
[Race time was 13.5 minutes longer because we started late.]

After a 2-year absence, the Snowgaine was back! Past participants Bruce Kuo, Russell Nordquist and Gian Dodici approached CNYO for permission to revive the event using the club's maps, insurance and expertise. As word spread, the winter-loving Canadian contingent grew steadily.

The forecast called for high winds and squalls on Friday with the potential for 3-4' of new snow at Snowgaine HQ near Mannsville, NY. The heaviest squalls ended up hitting farther north so we drove through white-out conditions on and off between Kingston and our hotel in Watertown, NY.



'Bent and I made our first nav error of the weekend by taking the wrong turn for the Olive Garden parking lot. Then we relocated and made a different wrong turn. The restaurant was next door so we left our car and walked across the strip of snow between parking lots, which turned out to be thigh-deep!



We enjoyed dinner with two speedy teams: Peninsula Adventure Sports Association (Harps & JVD) and Wilderness Traverse (Bob and Scott). 'Bent and I hoped that some of their talent would rub off.

Saturday morning was cold and cloudy. We could start between 8-9 a.m. and our official start time would be 30 minutes after we took our maps. Today's time limit was 8 hours. The variable start time was a last minute change to give teams more time to get to Race HQ on snowy roads.

Most teams waited a bit rather than break trail for everyone else. 'Bent and I checked the trail report and found that half the ski trails had been groomed yesterday. We decided to put on our ski gear and get completely prepared to leave before picking up our maps.

As soon as I saw the map, I realized that skiing would be very difficult. The snow was deep off-trail, and we would have to negotiate steep slopes and cross flowing streams to reach a number of control sites. So we used precious time to switch to snowshoeing gear and put our skis back in the van.

Because planning time was so limited, we weren't concerned about leaving right at 8:45, our official start time. If another 5-10 minutes with the map resulted in a better route, it would be time well spent. We ended up leaving 13 minutes late, which was too much. (Click on map to see full res version.)



We traveled on freshly groomed ski trails on our way to 70. They were soft and wide enough for skiers and snowshoers. It was chilly but we'd dressed for it. The snowy forest was spectacular. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop for any photos today.

'Bent has had some mid-race gear failures over the years but even by his standards, this race got off to an impressive start. The big metal arm of his homemade ski map holder snapped in half before the first control. After some adjustments so he could carry a map, I asked him to break trail heading south. He headed north and I calmly pointed it out. (OK, you *know* that's not true. We've been married a long time.) We showed our compasses to one other and discovered that the needle on his wrist compass was not moving. So I was our only compass person for the day although ‘Bent could check a bearing by pressing a few buttons on his watch. :(

Soon we hit a 4-way intersection of groomed ski trails that wasn't on our map. This missing trail was the only real map problem we noticed over the two days; otherwise, it was very reliable. We stopped to try to relocate. I questioned myself because I'd been distracted by the gear issues and hadn't concentrated well. We gave up after a couple of minutes and carried on to the next junction, which was recognizable and exactly what we were expecting.

From there, we went to 60, 58, 49. I didn't like the direction of the tracks after 49 so we broke our own trail east through deep snow to get to the trail where we could cross the stream on the bridge. That took 6 minutes and the trail we reached was ungroomed (which we knew) so it wasn't much faster going. If I'd known then that the tracks I’d seen belonged to Bob and Scott, I could have saved some time. :)

The stream crossing after 69 was the most difficult one of the race for us. I ended up with two wet feet and a wet shin and knee. With all my layers, waterproof socks and Climashield shoes, I stayed warm enough after the initial shock. We continued west to 71, where I refolded my map and realized that 54 had been hidden under a fold, and we were supposed to have gone 69-54-71. At that point, it was a tough call whether to just keep going. In hindsight, my error added about 25 minutes but I'm not sure we could have got the same number of points elsewhere in less time. In Snowgaines past, we have sometimes regretted skipping a moderately valuable control near the edge of the map on Day 1.

Next 'Bent put me on tow and we headed to 81-76-67, starting with a road run that felt surprisingly good, given that I haven’t been running. After 81, I had the first full-on nosebleed that I can remember in my life, which was awkward. ("Wait, let me wipe the blood off my map so I can check our route.") I think that was also the place where 'Bent's snowshoe broke so we needed a repair break anyway. After 76, we started following a set of tracks that looked like they might lead toward 67 but they didn't seem to be doing the right thing. The bushwhacking wasn't fast so we backtracked and went around on major trails - 12 mins lost.

At the far south end of the map, we kept running into good teams like Brent and Abby, Bob and Scott, Alex and Karine, and Chris and Chad. That made me worry that we'd bitten off more than we could chew. It was time to make our way back toward the finish: 39-36-79-20. We finished with 9 minutes to go so there was no stressful dash to make the deadline, which is a tradition that I've been trying to end.

We were pleased with our first day and had been pretty relaxed about it since we knew we weren't competitive in either the Coed or the Veteran (40+) category. When the Day 1 results were emailed out, we were surprised to see a 7-team Coed Veteran category, and we were in the lead. After a fun Canadian evening out at Skewed Brewing, I stayed up late revising our Day 2 plan since apparently we were racing after all!

Before falling asleep, I read an article where experts talked about how to prepare for a COVID-19 outbreak. A CDC official said she had told her family to be prepared for significant disruption to their lives including cancellation of work, school, public events, etc.

It's true what they say: never read that stuff at bedtime! I was wide awake at 4 am with wheels turning in my head.

I wouldn't say that I went Doomsday shopping today but our cupboards are much better-stocked now. I asked an employee where the hand sanitizer was kept and she laughed. There were only two bottles left. She said, "People buy it as fast as we can get it." I noticed some other empty shelves - maybe a coincidence or maybe a product that normally comes from overseas.

Apparently, some medications and other products rely on ingredients from China, including common things like Ibuprofen. I suggested that 'Bent renew a prescription and they initially told him to pick it up tomorrow. An hour later, they called back and said it would take a month.

So if you're getting low on anything you might really want if you're stuck at home for a week or two - possibly with a sick family member - consider a shopping trip soon.

Foothab