Average Adventure Addict

Now that was a great race! It was great to see how a solid year of hard work paid off for me in this race. Rosheen and I came out to have a good time, (completed that), and missed out on top 3 for the short course by four and a half minutes! We came in fourth out of fifteen teams of 2 females and eleventh out of twenty nine overall. Not bad for team Marty’s Mountain Cycle first foray into adventure racing! We were absolutely stoked. Even the light rain ended up being great, just nice and cool enough to keep us pushing hard and not overheat. By the time we crossed the finish line the sun had decided to poke it’s head out so there weren’t any complaints.

For me, it was a day where I finally saw all my training come together. All my hours running and racing the trails around Victoria, all the time and practice on the bike, it was worth every moment, tear and drop of sweat. This is also the first time I’ve ever tried to put my pain or discomfort in my “pain box” while racing and although I was quite skeptical at first, it actually worked really, really well.

Rosheen and I managed to squeek out the second fastest paddle in our catagory, 30 seconds behind the leaders, which surprised us both because it was our first time ever in a double kayak, much less paddling together. I don’t recommend this practice normally, but our earlier attempts to get together and paddle fizzled because of our crazy schedules. We lucked out that we work really, really well together! We had a brilliant transition at TA 1 to the bike and were the only duo female team off with the lead pack, something that I’ve never been able to do before, (I was thanking my winter base miles!) Rosheen is super strong on the road and keeping up with her was a real challenge. Sometimes it took all I had just to hang onto her back tire and telling myself, “just 10 more seconds, you only have to hang on for 10 more seconds.”

As we got off Renfrew Rd into Burnt Bridge we started to see lots of racers from the long course coming off the old Burnt Bridge Classic course. We caught and rode with a group of them up the east hill towards the old Tressel until they all stopped at the very well flagged junction to check their maps. Having been in this area tons (and it being very obvious where the turn was due to the excellent flagging) I knew exactly where we were supposed to go and Rosheen and I left them all and started to blast down the Trans Canada Trail. The only problem about leading down the trail is now we had everyone breathing down our necks from both the long course and the short! Stronger riders began to overtake us, most were your classic friendly adventure racers, but a few were rude (and you know who you are - karma!) Our first experience with the unfriendly was 2 guys from the long course, one whom rammed my wheel until I pulled way off the trail so he could pass. He didn’t speak a word till he was passing Rosheen, (who was riding ahead of me), at which point he called out “On your right ladies.” Grrrr… I tried looking for him at the after party but realized my glass of cider was more deserving of my time! Next we enountered 2 very nice girls from the long course, one of whom, as she was overtaking us, slammed into Rosheen’s back tire and sent her flying. She then landed on Rosheen as she lost her own balance. It was messy. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Rosheen really hurt her left foot and is now ordered to not run by her doctor until further notice. You never would have known she was in pain, the whole rest of the race she had a big grin on her face.

We were passed by a number of teams until we came to a “choose your own route” section between CP 3 and CP 4. There was a hint on the map that the punch for CP 3 was about 100m from the trail junction and it was amazing how many people were just standing at the intersection looking in the immediate vicinity only. We rode down, found it, and made our decision about the route. The 2 options were “steep” hill ride to the top of the Tressel where CP 4 was, or the other was a very, very technical section of single track that continued along the river and ended at the brutal set of stairs where you would have to hike-a-bike up after to continue the rest of the race. Being better hill climbers, we chose the “steep” hill. Thank goodness we did. The hill turned out to be not steep at all, about 2 minutes of spinning, then mostly downhill and rolly till the CP. We were fully prepared for the CP to be at the bottom of the Tressel and planned to bail off our bikes, into our running shoes and burn down there and back up. As it turned out, the CP was at the TOP of the tressel (I nearly cried I was soooo happy!). All we had to do was ride right up to it, punch, turn around and burn rubber. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. We passed a number of teams that we never saw again till the after party, it was such a cool feeling!

Out of CP 4 we lightly tailed 2 guys from the long course until they missed the very well flagged turn and we never saw them again either. This is one of the things about adventure racing that I love: we weren’t the fittest or the most experienced team there, but little things like watching for the flagging and course markers can be a huge equalizer. Next was the much anticipated river crossing for CP 5 and CP 6. Although it was a perfect 19 degrees, overcast and lightly raining, I was looking forward to cooling off with a nice dip in the river. We rolled into CP 5, left the bikes, into trail runners, kept the helmets and ran/scrambled down the side of the river towards the next CP. When we reached it a volunteer informed us that we had 2 choices: swim across (shorter) or scramble further down and across some of the big rocks (longer). Being a big fan of shortcuts, I opted to swim across. I opened the map bag, took out the passport, stuck it in my mouth and jumped in. Thank goodness it was in my mouth too, because when I hit the water I wanted to shriek like a little girl. It was bloody freezing!! Instantly it felt like I had a metal band constricting my chest and I actually had to talk to myself in my head to keep from starting to hyperventilating. I paddled the fastest doggie paddle ever seen, punched the passport and paddled my butt off back. I think Panda, our shepherd, would have been proud.

I hauled myself out up the rocks and had to really focus on getting my breathing back under control as Rosheen and I made our way back to the bikes as quick as we could. I then noticed that the map bag hadn’t been fully closed when I jumped in and the map was disintigrating. Oh crap. Dumb, dumb move. I later found out that my phone, packed at the bottom of my pack in a ziploc baggie for emergencies, also did not survive the dip. I didn’t have time to vacuum seal it like I normally do, so overall it was an expensive mistake. Fortunately for us the trail was very easy from this point on: when presented with an intersection, stick left until we hit the Quarry. 2 more big climbs in the silty ground and we hit CP 7, posed for a photo, and it was downhill all the way to the Quarry. Once at the Quarry we punched in at CP 8, grabbed a proffered pool noodle, jumped in, swam across to CP 9, punched, and swam back. Back on the bikes, up the big hill on the north side of the Quarry right into CP 10 and TA 2 where we could ditch the bikes permenantly for trail runners and our compass.

Last year in my haste, I didn’t fully read the orienteering map that said “May be completed in any order” and lost a little time crisscrossing the mountain a few times. This year I made sure I read everything on it but it actually still made sense to do the controls in order, starting with “A” all the way to “G”. Rosheen and I scurried around and I kept a close eye on my watch, not wanting to take more than 15 minutes for any one control. This is where it got tricky, you could take a 20 minute penalty for any missed control and zoom to the finish line, but I really thought we could find them all if I didn’t make any navigational errors. We ended up finding all 7 in 1hr 14min 15 sec, the fastest out of all the duo female teams and 6th fastest out of the 29 other teams in the short course. I think we averaged around 10min 20 sec for each control and I was estatic. This was my second time being the navigator and I was petrified about making an error that would put us off course or get us lost. This year was a really good combination of trail running and bushwacking, a few more scars on my legs and a little bit of blood, but TOTALLY worth it!

The descent down to the finish line was a steep hill and we could hear the announcers talking and it sounded like a good party. We let loose and came screaming down to find the team Frog Power (a super nice couple both having flown in from Quebec on Thursday) just in front of us. Rosheen and I gunned it and just pulled in front of them by 11 seconds right at the line. We were done. At that point I didn’t care how we did, I wanted some food, a little water (having run out 45 minutes ago) and to find Kitt and tell him we had a great time. Almost immediately I was thinking about how this race was different for me: I hurt through it (as you always do) but this time I still pushed, I never gave up forward momentum. I later found out that if I had pushed harder still, we would gave made top 3 in our group and maybe top 10 overall. You know what? It gives me something to think about all winter as I ride and run all the more base miles.

I would be remiss of me to not mention anything about the classic killer after-party that Bryan always throws with one of these MOMAR’s. It was at one of my favorite places in the Cowichan, Merridale Cidery. The food was brilliant, I surprised myself with my fastest sprint ever to the the front of the line as soon as the buffet opened (and yes, I was the chick in line for seconds before they called for seconds…) and more importantly, so was the cider! I am a HUGE fan of the Merriberri and always seemed to have a glass of it in my hand throughout the night… We won some door prizes, had some laughs at the slideshow, but most importantly, danced our butts off to the great live band! When it did finally wind down, Rosheen, Kitt and I piled in the truck to go back down to Victoria. I don’t remember much of the ride back home, just trying to get comfy in my seat and catch a little nap! I’m positive I was asleep within 3.2 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. It was an amazing day and a great party. And best of all, Rosheen hasn’t disavowed me as a friend after talking her into racing!

I would have posted sooner but Kitt and I took off on a little canoe trip (cuz I hadn’t gotten enough paddling on Saturday) to Portland Island (with it’s maurading racoons! video to follow) with our new boat!

Is summer really here? 4 days of sunshine in a row must be a new record! Yesterday was picture perfect conditions for the annual Victoria Firefighter Trail Race at Elk/Beaver Lake. The field was small, about 45 runners, but the energy was high and the prizes were AWESOME! It was about as good as you could get: local venue, inexpensive race fee ($18 without T shirt), free post race food and tons of great prizes! Everyone who raced got a prize (ranged from Frontrunners swag bags with jerseys or new shoes to gift cards for Blue Fox and The Keg) and my gift card to the Keg did not last more than about 6 hours… I need to do more races like this!

The morning started at 0830 with Danielle and Rosheen coming over to our house for juice and a muffin, (or in my case, turkey bacon as well!) After some food in our tummies, we made our way over to the start line at the Beaver Lake parking lot. Kitt was volunteering, us chickies were warming up. The kids 1km race was so cute (except for the one poor kid who got lost and ended up running a 10km lap instead!) Our race started shortly after with the route going counter clockwise and took a turn right into the hilly side trails before settling out onto the normal track at the lake’s edge by the boathouse. Poor Danielle, she’d never been around Elk Lake before (or done a 10km for that matter!) and I had promised her up and down that it was going to be pancake flat! I think she’s forgiven me though. As usual, Rosheen was off with the front pack and Danielle and I made our way in the middle. The first 4 km hurt (as it always seems to lately!) but soon we realized we were actually exceeding our goal of 5:20/km and keeping a 5 min/km pace (for us that’s fast!) and thought we could hang onto it for a while. Initially this was supposed to be a training run for me so I could pace Danielle on her first longer trail race but she was game and it became a race. The shady parts of the trail were the perfect temperature but the sunny sections were brutally hot! It was good incentive to finish as fast as possible and jump into the giant sprinkler they had set up at the finish line.

We played tag with another woman from km 5 to 8 but then passed her and tried to reel in another couple that stayed about 50m out of our reach till the end. In the last kilometer we found Rosheen running back to see us and then we knew we were close. Danielle (she’s gonna be a great runner and I am so proud of her!) and I stepped it up and managed to run hard for 500 m, sprint the last 100m to the line. Danielle and I crossed it together and then walked right into the glorious sprinkler!

Finish time? 56 min 15 sec for roughly 11 km. Not too bad!! 10 months ago my fastest 5km averaged 5:20/km and I was gutted when I finished. This time I was roughly 5:10/km, felt solid, maybe could have even done it a little faster, recovered super quick and felt like I could have done another slow lap. It’s all one step forward! I ran up the observatory on Saturday morning with Rosheen and felt nice and solid the whole way up. Much to my astonishment it took me 12 minutes - my fastest ever in 2006 was 14:30. I LOVE this getting fitter thing!!

Next on the race list? Mt Doug Gutbuster short course on Sunday July 6th!

What they should have renamed the race was “Death to the Legs” but I guess no one but the masochistic few would have entered then! Today was the perfect day for it: sunny, warm and not too muddy. Danielle, Rosheen and I drove up from Victoria, fueled on the prospect of a post-race lunch feast at the local organic bakery and arrived with plenty of time to spare. We pulled into the beautiful Providence Farm off Tzouhalem Rd and realized we were an hour early. Sweet, tons of time to really warm up the legs and lungs! Having not ever done the Gutbuster series before, it was a little unsettling to have no idea what route we were going to be racing. Danielle (this was her first race ever!) looked around at the flagging, which led down a trail into the bush, and asked me where we were going. I tried to be calm and nonchalant by waving my hand towards the mountain and saying airily, “Oh probably to the top, but it’s the 6km race so it won’t be that bad and there should be a great view,” while secretly hoping I was ready for this!

It seemed like only minutes later the announcers yelled “Go!” and the 200 of us were off. Rosheen moved smoothly and methodically through the pack and soon was out of sight while Danielle and I stayed midpack and dodged a number of mucky puddles. The first few climbs were good, always lulling you into a false sense of security about what lay ahead by alternating between moderate climbs and flat sections. After 3 or 4 of these boosters and passing a number of people (the smarter racers were taking it a little slower!) we came around a corner and faced an ascent that appeared to rival K2. It was STEEP and, worst of all, I couldn’t see the end. All around us people came to a screeching halt and the race of the power hiker began!

Yesterday’s rain left a few muddy gullies and some slick rocks to skirt around, but overall, aside from the steep grade, it wasn’t so bad… Until you realized 30 minutes later that you were still power hiking, sucking wind and pleading with your screaming calves and quads that “what goes up must, at some point, come back down” is a real law. This is where Danielle made great use of her long legs and I worked on my sisterly rivalry by keeping up! I also created a new way to power hike: hunched over so far that your chest nearly touches the tops of your quads, swinging your arms wildly and grunting like a gorilla. No one came near me and we even caught a few more people before the 6km short course split from the 11km long course. As we came around the corner all you could see was people hiking up the steepest part of the trail seen yet. Some of the people around us began to groan, but then as we came closer we saw the beautiful signs that indicated short course racers to the left (with only about a 30% grade! Yay!) and the long course racers to continue up the really steep trail. Maybe we’ll hit the long course next year.

About 40 minutes in we hit the first stunning viewpoint looking west into the valley we had just come up from and the farm way at the bottom. From here the trail levelled off and we were able to start running again. Another 2 viewpoints later the downhill began in earnest. It felt so good to let your legs have their way and we started to fly down the trail, almost to the point where I forgot about the pain I was in just a short time ago. After passing a few more people I could see I was holding Danielle back, (she’s got really long legs and I only have short ones!) As she started to slow down to wait for me to close the gap between us yet again, I yelled at her to keep going, open up and really go for it. She could catch more people if she didnt have to wait for me every 200 meters. She later told me she nearly started laughing because it sounded so melodramatic, but it wasn’t meant to be cheesey! I just thought for her first race ever she should have her fair chance of finishing within her abilities. She took off down the hill at break neck speed and I started to think, “wow, she’s going really fast… If she gets hurt Mom is going to kill me!” I started to use as much gas as I had left in my tank to hang onto her in case I needed to dial 911 but she quickly widened the gap. Within the next kilometer I didnt even see her at the end of the straight stretches anymore. I was alone.

That was until I came around another corner and saw a young boy running a little in front of me. “When did he pass me?” I thought. I caught up with him and I saw he had a cast on one arm. We chatted for a few strides and I told him I thought he was a trooper and continued on down the hill. I couldn’t believe he was out running this race with its nasty slick spots in a cast! Good on him! Almost instantly the trail turned a corner and opened into what I recognized as one of the farm fields. The finish was close! About 50 meters of open grassy field and up a small rise and I could see the finish line. That 50 meters was probably the most treacherous of the whole race! One mistep and someone was bound to turn an ankle (which I found out a minute later that Rosheen had!) As I fought the urge to start power hiking again up the small rise I could hear someone coming up fast behind me. “Uh oh, has that brave guy with the cast decided to crush me at the finish line?” I thought. I kept moving and turned to see one of the elites from the 11km course streak past me and move effortlessly to the finish line in just under an hour. Cresting the hill it was only a last surge of 150 meters across more sneaky dangerous grass and I passed over the finish line and was greeted by Rosheen, Danielle and Sean.

I had just finished the hardest race I had ever entered. The power hike up the mountain was worse than anything I had ever done in a MOMAR but I had stuck to my 3 goals for the race: don’t ever stop moving, finish strong, and to make sure Danielle had a good time. Judging by the big grin on Danielle’s face I think I could safely say I succeeded! Within half an hour Danielle was already asking when the next race was and if we thought she could finish the next one. I think next time I’ll attach a bungee cord to her and let her pull me!

When all the dust settled from the 500 meter climb I came in at 1hr 1min 7sec, good enough for 28th out of 62 overall and 6th out of 13 in my group. Danielle was a little over a minute faster than me at 1hr 3sec, 27th overall and the solo athlete in her group. She got all excited when we told her she was first, but then she was disappointed to learn that she was only one person in her age group! Rosheen came in at a blistering 53 and a half minutes, 14th overall and 4th in our group. It was an amazing day! I was so proud of us, especially Tambra and my sister Danielle for taking on a new challenge with 2 weeks notice and no idea of what she was getting into. I am slowly knocking off all the races on my list for the year. The Royal Roads Gutbuster was amazing and really unique when compared with Tzouhalem, and the TC 10km was my first experience of running with a large group of friends amongst thousands of other runners. Definately some great experiences this year already!