Adventure Race race 7:35:00 [4]
RockstAR Adventure Race with 'Bent.
Bike leg went far better than expected, I was nervous about this - didn't want to get stuck mid-pack or be that guy that everyone was stuck behind.
In fact had no trouble at all, only stepped down once when the person ahead had trouble on the rocky climbs and also learnt early not to follow the same line on the downs as the 'Bent, that lead to a few scares early on.
However, Bessie did very well and coming back in 4th was a really nice surprise.
The trek/paddle stage went pretty much as we planned. Our one mistake was assuming the course would not be clearable and planning accordingly by dropping an 80 pointer, which allowed us to paddle a lot more than a 'clear the course' plan would have allowed.
Since the course was in fact clearable, because of this decision the highest we could have placed was 4th (which we did!). I'm on 2 minds about this - it would have been nice to place, but that would have meant a lot, lot more running on ATV trails and dealing with the FDFs (I now really understand the need for the first 'F'!) and it was much more fun paddling the lakes instead and it gave me the chance to practice boat navigation, which I've never done before.
Possibly could have saved some time being a little faster off-trail, but since we had a total compass failure, we were relying on 'Bent's pace counting skills and my 'gut feeling' and map reading a 1:35000 map. Fortunately, all the control were on mapped features - a marked improvement on my last adventure race. None of the off-trail controls were perfectly clean or fast, but we were conservative and didn't loose a vast amount of time on any of them.
All in all, a great day. 'Bent was a perfect team mate, making up for all my shortcomings. Having all the required gear and then setting me up with all the gear he told me to bring along and I didn't. Dudehas an awesome 'end of race' push and is a beast on the portage as well.