Saturday, May 13, 2006

We were up bright and early at 6AM to have a good breakfast and get ready for the race. It looked like it was going to be a great day with blue skies. My stomach was bothering me again. I figured it was nerves relating to having to navigate my first real race. I took a couple of pills and it settled down for the rest of the day. At about 7:15 we loaded the bikes into my SUV and headed for the bike drop off, which was a couple of miles away. The road leading down to the beach where we were to drop them was narrow and crowded with cars lined up so we cheated, parked up the road and rode our bikes down. Every minute we wasted here meant less time to study the map. We quickly found a place to leave our bikes, helmets and shoes and then headed to the start line which was back by the hotel. When we got there it was already busy with other racers picking up their maps. We found out we were to get two maps, one for the kayak and bike legs now and one for the running leg after we finished the other two. I took a quick look at the map and there were no real surprises. A long kayak, followed by a MTB leg, a trek up Mt Ozzard and then another MTB leg back into town with lots of stops along the way. All the CPs were well marked and you had to do them in order, but you had to find your own route between them. Lisa and I went over the map until we had a good idea of what route we needed to follow. After that we went down to the beach to find our kayak supplier. Fortunately there were no problems. We got the kayak I had booked (a fast Seaward Passat) and put the paddles and PFDs in it. The racers meeting was next and Brian T. had some last minute instructions for us. We then went back to the truck to get our other gear ready, take a last look at the map and have a bathroom break (except there were no bathrooms). Fortunately most racers are not shy. At about 8:50 we headed down to get in our kayak, a little late. I usually wear my runners in the kayak, but today as we were riding and not running in the second leg, I decided not to. The upside was that I would start the run with dry runners on. The downside was that I had to carry the kayak in and out of the water in bare feet while walking on the rocks (I ended up with a few cuts but nothing serious). I was also a little worried about using the rudder pedals in bare feet, but decided to risk it. I strapped my pack to the rear rack of the kayak and put my shoes in my lap, under the spray skirt. By this time we were really late and had about a minute to get to the start line. Shelley gave us a push off and Lisa paddled while I tried to get my spray skirt on. I never did get it pulled up tight enough which meant the occasional trickle of cold water down my front. I also forgot until the last minute that I had to straighten out the rudder before adjusting the pedals. It was too late and resulted in one leg being really bent and the other not as much. I wasn't very comfortable but I could live with it. It also meant the kayak had a tendency to veer left if I relaxed my legs.

At shortly after 9AM we were all lined up about half way down Ucluelet Harbour and the kayak leg started. As we had a somewhat lousy start position, we were near the back of the pack. The course was to the mouth of the harbour then back to the other end of it where our bikes were waiting. It was a beautiful morning and the ocean was very calm. That was both good news and bad news. It made for easier paddling but also meant they wouldn't shorten the course like they did last year due to bad weather. It was going to be about 12 long km. We started at a good pace and were soon catching up to other boats. Lisa kept saying things like " See that boat ahead, catch it and pass it on the left". I said" Don't get too optimistic", but we slowly caught up other boats. The theme of this race was "pirates" and there were a couple of racers in costume. One kayak was even decorated with a pirate flag and a cannon up front made out of beer cans, We passed them. Due to my problems with the rudder, Lisa had to keep calling out course corrections. I had asked her to do this at the beginning and she took it very seriously. At one point Lisa told me to pass between two boats that were side by side. When we started there was enough room, however when we got along side they started squeezing us. We had to do a quick sprint to get ahead. We finally reached the entrance to the harbour and turned around. By this time all the racers were pretty spread out. My arms were getting a little tired and we were only 1/3 of the way through the kayak section. Everyone settled down into some sort of a rhythm and there wasn't much passing going on any more. After well over an hour the end was finally in sight. In the last 15-20 minutes there were two guys in a kayak behind us who I heard talking about passing us. Twice they tried and both times we speeded up. Finally they gave up. At about 1:24 (my longest kayak in a race) we hit the beach, well back of the leaders. Lisa ran up to get our passport stamped while I helped the kayak people get our boat out of the water. This was CP2 and the transition to MTB.

Our transition wasn't particularly fast and we were getting passed by other racers as we put on helmets, bike shoes, packs and had a quick gel. I strapped my runners to my pack while Lisa had room to put hers inside. Finally we were on our bikes and heading out. Someone ahead of me dropped their map and didn't notice it but a teammate picked it up. Not a good start. Right away my legs didn't feel very good. I hoped they were just tight from the kayak. We were still on paved roads at this point and Lisa headed off in the lead at a fast pace. I thought "oh oh, either she's going to burn herself out before we get to the running leg which was our weakest, or she's got a lot more energy today then I do". During our training I always felt that I was stronger than her, but today she was going to be the one to pull me along. Her competitiveness was really coming out. I cranked it up and tried to stay right behind her. It wasn't long before we made our first turn onto a gravel road down to CP3 and the fish hatchery. I made one quick stop to check the map and we were soon there. This CP consisted of running along a wooden walkway and then onto a narrow bouncy plank in front of a waterfall. You then had to reach out to the passport punch while balancing on the plank. It would have made a nice picture, but I'm glad Lisa was the one doing it. We did this one very quickly and it was back on the bikes and up a moderately steep hill. We crossed the paved road we had been on previously and started a slight ascent up towards where the trek started. At this point I was still having to work hard to keep close and we continued to pass other racers. We then came to two short steep hills in a row with loose rock where a lot of people were walking their bikes. We both made it up the first one but I spun out on the second one while Lisa powered her way up it. I ran to keep up. CP4 was at the top of the second and the transition to the trek stage up Mt Ozzard. This MTB stage had taken us about 39 minutes.

We quickly changed shoes again and it was back on the bikes down the two short, steep sections we had ridden up. We were going pretty fast and at one point I felt something bounce off my leg. It was one of my water bottles, but it was too late to stop. Fortunately I had another plus my hydration pack and usually didn't have a problem with hydrating. At the bottom of the hill we took the first right onto another logging road and passed two racers stopped with mechanical problems. It was about 3km to CP8 and Lisa kept the pace hard. At CP8 we had to show two pieces of mandatory gear (which were at the bottom of my pack) and then we were off again. The road was fairly flat but the surface was rough, which made riding hard a little tough. Lisa was on a full suspension bike and had an easier time of it. I tried to draft her but the conditions made it a little tough. Lisa rode right by the next turnoff we needed, but I let her go as it only would have saved us a couple of hundred yards. We made a couple of more turns and then we were heading for the Hwy where CP9 was. A flag person directed us across the Hwy and we dropped our bikes where everyone else before us had. This CP was called "A walk in the woods" and the map showed the CP was a little ways in the woods beside a stream. Unfortunately the bush was very dense and we could hear people stumbling around in it. We decided to run up the Hwy a little further to see if there was any way in, and saw a big sign that said "A walk in the woods". It was an interpretative centre with a walk along trails and boardwalks with various informative boards along the way. It was our first mystery challenge and we had to answer three questions by reading the boards. Not everyone had the same questions and you might have to read ten boards before you found the right ones to answer your particular questions. We zipped through this one and after a quick pit stop were on our bikes again. This time we were headed along the Hwy for a short ride to the Pacific Rim Visitor Info Centre. There was a pretty strong head wind and I tucked in behind Lisa and let her pull me. Once there we had to line up two flag poles and take a NW bearing off of them and look for CP10 about 70 meters in the woods. It wasn't difficult to find as there were a lot of other racers around.

We then crossed the Hwy and got on the paved bicycle path that headed into town The next CP was back at the start area, 6.5km away and was the transition to the running stage. Lisa was going hard and we passed a couple of other racers. I drafted her and planned on taking a turn at the front after a bit. The road was up and down, and we got going pretty fast on some of the downhills. I think I may have even been in my top gear. I pulled out in front at one point but didn't have the legs to go as fast as Lisa and she took over after a few minutes. In no time we were back at the start area having taken just over an hour to do this riding section. Shelley was there to yell some words of encouragement and take a few pictures of us. We changed shoes again and got our new map. As expected it showed the run was primarily along the Wild Pacific Trail, and 10km+. Shelley mentioned something about a swim, but I didn't have time to think about it or look at any part of the map other than the first checkpoint, CP 12.

We started out running on the streets until we found the start of the trail after one wrong turn. My legs were feeling reasonably good, although I didn't have any speed. The trail we were on led us to the main trail along the ocean. The map was a little confusing and we weren't sure whether to go right or left to find the trail down to the beach and CP12. Unfortunately we listened to one of the other racers as there were lots around and went right. We took the next trail down to a cove but it turned out to be the wrong one, and we wasted 5-10 minutes on it. Eventually we retraced our steps and found the right cove to the left of where we were previously. There we had to find some gold coins in the sand and keep them for a draw later at the party. We took off towards the next CP and made another navigational error. After running on the trail for a while we thought we should be at the CP and kept stopping to look for a way down to the rocks. Unfortunately we hadn't gone far enough and wasted more time looking until we finally went far enough to see CP13 out on the rocks. One of the volunteers manning it mentioned something about the cutoff time for the next two CPs getting close. Hearing this we took off running hard and pulled away from the couple of teams that were around us. We were back on the streets by this time and had a ways to go before reaching CP15 (CP14 had been cancelled). The map showed a path leading to the next section of the Wild Pacific Trail but as it wasn't obvious to us we stayed on the road hoping to meet the trail further along and then double back. This ended up costing us some time. We passed the father and son team who had somehow gotten ahead of us and I told Lisa that no 15 year old kid was going to beat me. By this time my legs were getting a little heavy and even Lisa was slowing down. We found CP15 without much trouble and CP16 (by the lighthouse) and CP17 (by a red flowering plant on the trail) in quick succession. It was then time to head back to the finish line along the road with 4 CPs in between. I started to feel better knowing we were on the homeward leg and tried to push the pace a little. As we got close to CP18 I took a quick look at the map and realized we were going to be swimming soon. The volunteer on the road said to head down to the shoreline and follow it. As dense bush grew right to the edge this meant we were wading through thigh deep water. It was very cold and slow going. I was a little worried about my leg muscles cramping up. Around the corner we came to CP18 where they gave us PFDs to put on over our back packs and told us we had to swim the 50-75 meters across the water to the other side of the little inlet where CP19 was. We plunged in and it was freezing cold. You could hardly catch your breath. We finally got out, dropped the PFDs and started running down the shore. We were soon back on the road and passed another team as one of their members was cramping up. My shoes were so sodden it felt like I was wearing rubber boots. Despite this the cold water seemed to have invigorated my legs and they were all of a sudden feeling good. Unfortunately at the same time Lisa's knee started bothering her (she strained or tore her ACL last year) and we had to slow down a little. We navigated our way through the streets to CP20 on the docks and then CP21 on the Canadian Princess. From there we could almost see the finish line at the Tauca Lea Resort. We passed one more team and then it was a quick sprint along the mud flats to the finish line. I was tired but still could have kept going if I had to. Shelley was waiting with a cooler full of Red Bull and beer at the finish line. We had a quick drink and some food, watched a few racers come in and then headed to our room to put on dry cloths as we were getting chilled.

After getting cleaned up and having a few drinks we headed to the rec hall for the famous MOMAR after race party. A good crowd showed up for the barbecue salmon dinner and everyone was rehashing the details of the race. After dinner the awards were given out and although we didn't win one, Lisa and I got a $50 gift certificate from Ocean River Sports for one of the gold coins we picked up at CP12. Shelley wasn't feeling very well so I took her back to the hotel about 8PM and then returned to the party. Lisa and I called it a night about midnight.

Race Postmortem

We ended up finishing in 5:57, good for 22nd place out of 63 teams. We were in the most competitive category and finished 7th out of 19 teams. While I was very happy with our result, I was a little disappointed with my own performance. I had the endurance, but didn't have the speed on the bike that I needed. This may have been due to it being an off day for me, or more likely that I didn't train enough on the bike at race pace. This race was different than most of the others in that it had a lot of fast flat riding. Most of the other races involve more technical riding and a lot of hill work which is where I concentrate my training. My running could have been better but I know that is a weakness and something I have to work on. We made some costly navigational errors, but I'll take it as a learning exercise. Overall it was a well organized race and a lot of fun.