Adventure Racing 6:18:00 [5] **** 30.0 km (12:36 / km) +960m 10:52 / km
ahr:131 max:160 spiked:16/27c weight:149lbs shoes: Montrail GTX25
Fielding the original team of TD, KS and myself, Silence Beckons races in the tenth anniversary of this fall classic. The Masters category is quite competitive with younger team graduating upward while we gray with age with our long time counter parts, KGB. The race route starts near the Red Hill area of Hamilton and ends in Dundas on the other side of the DVCA. The weather is gorgeous, sunny and high about 15°C. All are wearing just one layer and the mandatory toque is redundant.
At the high school last minute instructions are received, we are assigned bib # 101 and load one of the mythical buses for the ride to the start. Three maps are received by each. The maps have the instructions on the back making coordination paramount with just one map case. I have trouble indoors seeing the detail on the map so take out my left contact. Later, this makes focusing on my feet blurry. Map #2 has both up and lower map sections that lead to confusion later as mental fatigue sets in. The theme of the day is hill climbs, my favorite but not of my teammates.
After a last washroom break, teams congregate adjacent to a new light ball diamond not on our map. Hammer promises that the little mud at the start line will be the last we will see all day!! The mass start begins along a wide gravel trail and over a bridge. The first control is up a left trail. Approaching, we note that already, teams are not all touching the flag, as in the instructions. Bearing south we soon hit controls 2 & 3, religiously all touching the flag. As usual, TD has the SI card, way too much responsibility for an absent mind scientist like myself. The Foreigners pass running from 4 to 5 apparently in the race leading position as is typical. Control 4 is the start of the first split. Three controls surround this point and members have to do an out and back to each. KS takes B up a reentrant, TD, our speed, C, the long river run surrounded by embankment and I the uphill A which looks dead easy except there is a scrambling climb at the end. I pass Bash returning from A and overshoot a bit but am still first back to CP 4. KS is next and TD can be seen next, scrambling out of the river bed, behind RC having passed a few others on that route.
There was a bit of discussion on the route to 5. I like the lower choice adjacent to the golf course but the route of choice seems to be the upper trail which I am happy to run. We get passed by Men of Constant Sorrow, the eventual Masters winner on this section. The downhill to 5 is tortuous and TD has the first of her spills. Down to the lower trail now, we head for control 6 which is a long run. With the change to map #2 and the 1:15000 scale, distances seem quite long. We go along the clearing to 6 and around the fence continuing on the Bruce Trial to the start of the Matrix. TD has a second spill. Tree Huggers are just ahead as we reach the split point. Here, my greatest skill of advance planning, fails yet again. TD goes to 6A and continues on to 6D. KS and I are supposed to take the next two on the uphill side but get to 6D and wonder where TD is. KS waits as I head for the next uphill control and return. On return I find the other two but I should have continued on the uphill trial to the next control. Instead, I climb, just passed a major stream bed but misinterpret the control location and walking passed it, only returning on hitting a trial junction. Yeech! Finally getting it, I run to reunite with the others at Control 7, with JL noting our time. We depart making another error. The punch control is beside JL but somehow we do not see it and assume the control is human only.
Next is the first stair climb, lots of fun, to traffic control by EP who aids team by pointing out the Bruce Trial blazes. Knowledge of the Hammer would help here as the instructions talk about this cut and that and they mean little to us. We end the trial at the top of one cut and run down the sidewalk and go under the bridge to the next cut and run up the side. We get confused here as the switch from the lower to lower tracks on map #2 was no seamless for us but we finally figure it out and head up to the top and down to the next trail, leading down and around to various sections of the Bruce Trail control 8, 9 and 10. Finishing 10 above Cherokee Golf Course we head for 11 on the trial just past the club house. TD does the nasty ski hill climb with spill #3 to 11A but is aided by trail just past it. KS does B up the trail and I get my favorite the stairs climb. A few exercisers slow my climb initially but I go up readily and hit a new high on my HR monitor, 160. The best I reached in IM training was 154 on a bike uphill. Ten years ago I used to run 10 mile road races at 161. Some thoughts are my low rate is a function of large stroke volume as the faster TD is 20 higher. The risers are numbered but I forget the total though I remember hitting 245.
Reuniting we continue onto the next three nasty controls, 12, 13 and 14. The first two are way down below the trail making the climb back cardio fun. Control 13 has an oval out of bounds area just before it to ensure you climb. The ravine there is quite steep. Control 14 can only be approached from above the cliff. We climb following RC’s lead but I drop my map and have to do it again. The control is in a nasty downhill with mud that TD has trouble climbing out of with her statute.
Walk-the-Line is next! We take the main trail and bear to 15 and start meandering up a stream bed on the line. Intent on my bearing, TD exclaims that there is a naked man ahead. The back of the mind says “What is up?” and sure enough a nude gentleman grey beard is hiding behind a tree at the control, trying to be inconspicuous. His mountain bike and clothes lies nearby. TD bears far off course as I do the honors and we continue. We see another team of bearing off line but no collaborators. On bearing we hit the field and check the hilled, treed edge before finding 15B on a hilltop. Across the field, SB hits the main trail and we head for the Hwy 403 crossing and road trail section to aid station #2. It is 1:48 and TD believes we have to get to the aid station before 2:00 pm to make the cut off so streaks (not like the gentleman in the woods) in front to encourage us. We reach the aid station just after 2 pm but study the map and find the cut off is 3:30 pm.
An all female team arrives as we feast on M&M’s and licorice. We head down a trail system on the edge of a field to 16. My Spidey sense is tingling though as the trial and map does not match. I head cross country for a junction that looks like the map one but it does not make sense. We heads NW which is wrong and enter a section of rentrants. The trail shifts to west and down hill and we stop. KS makes the correct call going east and we soon hit the control downhill. We have picked up a few tails, younger faster teams with less navigation sense. We play leap frog to 17 and 18. We know the trail system to 19 and use it instead of going through a large ravine, but leading a group. We get them confused with some field trail junctions and get a lead to 19. Cross country to 20 we catch another team and the all female team is again in pursuit. We are getting slow at hill climbing but pass a few teams at 20, heading for 21 and home. Control 21 is a complex cross country navigation but we know the routine well now and arrive with 2 junior teams. Two route choices home are possible, neither direct and both with advantages. The others go for the windy trail to subdivision choice with a circuitous route to the school. We opt for the straight uphill climb to the subdivision and a bit of a back and forth street route. We arrive a few minutes before both other teams and ahead of the top all female team. Good to see gamble paid off.
First ice day in a while after as joints were quite burnt out from the hill work. Muscles felt good though my quads had been abused and my calves wanted to cramp at one point. I was glad of my Montrails early on as the trials were rugged and the extra support has great. However, they were a little heavy compared to my Vasques and that may have helped nearer the finish.
Glorious day in the woods!! About 30 km total, 3500 kcal burnt. The race was a bit long for us but there was enough navigation to help our cause. As an adventure run, this was perhaps one of the best as introductory teams had a good time with long sections early on but late navigation sections helped orienteering teams. Thanks to Sudden, Hammer, the vintage HKF crew, and GHO for an excellent event, with the intrigue of the “Nude rider in the woods. “