Training Log: MHtrailvet

Garage intervals

Commuting in nice cool weather

Breezy ride home in dry air. Why can't race day weather be like this?

Event: Maine Summer Adventure Race
 

2nd annual father/son MSAR. Like last year, really pretty part of Maine. Weather was warm and fairly humid although this improved by the afternoon.

Race start was delayed by bus problems ~1.5 hrs. Once we got started, it was a long saltwater paddle in nice rental kayaks (sit-in tandem) out of Boothbay Harbor and north into tidal scenic Sheepscot/Back rivers, picking up a few CPs on the water and then a couple on land. Typical of a paddle start, there were a lot of teams around. We were in the mid (to lower?) pack, but cleared the section and did generally well. Reed held up nicely for this lengthy (13 mi) paddle. A cute seal checked us out halfway through, also saw osprey, herons and a loon.

Quick TA1 and then on to the trek, which was north on the River Link trail, with a navigational section halfway through where there were 4 optional CPs. This went pretty well except for the muggy/buggy conditions. We had our most significant nav delay at CP E. I had us pointed straight at it but the rock wall feature on the map never materialized (turns out it was faint/interrupted and we walked right through) and so I kept going forward instead of just reading the topo. We eventually hit a backstop and re-attacked successfully but lost probably 30 mins here. This 30 mins was spent in a lovely, cooling rain shower which everyone appreciated. The last optional CP of the section was at the edge of swamp. Tough going and LOTS of mosquitoes, but we did get to see a juvenile porcupine and a grouse. 2-3 mi of additional linear trail trekking brought us to the Foot-O section at Dodge Point Preserve.

We were running a little low on time and I made the decision to do a small loop which would encompass 3 of the 6 possible CPs here. Its a shame we didn't have a little bit more time because this was a good place to sweep up relatively closely-spaced CPs, compared to the other sections. This section went fairly well. We got a little unlucky on one CP in a small rock cave and lost ~15 mins, but the other 2 were no prob. Our friend Lee, who was a late scratch for the race b/c of a broken wrist was helping out at the TA here, nice to say hi.

The final section (bike) was very welcome - getting out of the Maine bush and off our feet - Ahhhh. We had a couple CPs over ~15mi, generally easy nav and moderate hilly roads through this pretty area. Halfway through was an optional CP on the MTB trails at Oxbow Brewing which was very fun.

When we rolled into the finish area, we only had 25 minutes to go after the 4 additional optional CPs, which limited us to one nearby CP which was a 10 min round trip and then we were done.

We had a nice day out there. Reed really impressed me with his stamina and lack of any complaints about anything other that the bugs. It doesn't seem like he suffers much from the physical component of racing. I had my usual ridiculous fluid losses. ~5L water consumed during race, plus a beer, more water and a 28oz soda and never had to use the bathroom until around midnight. Need to investigate some liquid fuel options for these summer races, or maybe just take the summer off and race from fall to spring

C • Congrats! 1