Training Log Archive: EcoIn the 1 days ending Aug 17, 2013:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||
| |||||||
| Sa |
Saturday Aug 17, 2013 #
Event: Wilderness Traverse
Adventure Race 16:00:00 [3]
Team TA3 (Myka, MooPoint and myself) were joint by HubNukin' for our first attempt at an 24 hour race. The goal was to have fun, enjoy the experience and possibly finish the short course. Which we did:).
8am start on the bikes. As biking isn't my strongest discipline I was happy to get this one out of the way first and in daylight. Nice trails to start with some swampy and overgrown sections to CP1. Unfortunately MooPoint had to drop out at CP1 due to a previous injury acting up, smart decision but still sad to lose a teammate. Andrew Reeder of Team Angry Seagull also had to drop out at CP1 due to bike problems and after a quick discussion jointed out team! Creating Team TA3-CP1 :).
Off we went along the hydrocut towards CP2. The smooth rock was fun to ride on, at least for a while. Then things started to drag on and on and on...this was the longest I had ever been on a bike. Quickly learned that asking for a distance estimate does not work for me, better just to keep going. Finally reached CP2 and were greeted by Jackie and Shane. So nice to see familiar faces along the way! Quick snack break and time for Myka to whip out her awesome stash of popcorn chicken bites, samosas and pizza. I was having stomach cramps on and off all day while biking (a first) which made food intake an issue. I knew there would be many firsts over the course of the race so I tried to work with it.
Food in general: I didn't know what I would feel like eating and took along small bags of 'real' food, junk and sports bars. In the end real food was best. Although when DD11's Dad handed me an ice cream bar at TA1 it was the best thing ever!!
We got into TA1 some point after 7pm - yay - so happy to ditch the bike! Quick change and re-fuel to get ready for the next section. Very exciting as I was looking forward to the night trek. Interesting how a change in disciplines made us all more chipper.
We started the trek on the gravel road around the lake and towards CP4. I am not a strong swimmer and had huge concerns about being unable to get warm again at night temperatures (previous experience). Therefore no planned swims in our route choice - thanks team! Turns out bushwhacking generates quite some heat so I didn't need the extra two layers I was carrying - oh well better safe than sorry - this would have looked differently sitting in a canoe all night.
I was feeling well on the trek for quite a while. Enjoying the moonlit lakes and just the beauty of it all. HubNukin' found an awesome back-up navigator in Andrew and as much as I was hoping to pay more attention to the navigation all my concentration went into not slipping off rocks or getting stuck in Alder bushes or other non cooperative stuff. Sadly the knee I have been trying to rehab for months wasn't up for the challenge which made for some frustrating and slow going early morning hours. Eventually the sun came up making things look much brighter, including the death march to TA2. At some point along that road I realized we had a really good chance of finishing!!! I didn't know how I would feel on the bike but with 4 hours left for about 20km to the finish line I was going to walk the bike if I had to. Yep, being stubborn does come in handy at times.
Great to see more friends at TA2 and being cheered on by cottagers. I dropped all non-mandatory stuff, had more Ice cream (thanks GStix) and we were off. Surprisingly I felt fine being back on the bike. Even pushed the pace a bit for a while, then suddenly with about 10km to go I started to have a difficult time breathing (wheezing literally), thanks again to Andrew R. for helping me though this! It was a bit scary as I didn't know what was happening...
Finally after close to 28 hours, 128 km we crossed the finish line!!! 24th out of 34 teams.
Hugs thanks to HubNukin' and Andrew R. for being awesome navigators, patient teammates and getting us through our first 24 hour race! Thanks to Myka for training together, putting up with my pre-race stressing and being an awesome teammate! We did it!!
More thanks to Bash, GStix and all the volunteers for putting on an amazing race experience while looking out for us all night!
8am start on the bikes. As biking isn't my strongest discipline I was happy to get this one out of the way first and in daylight. Nice trails to start with some swampy and overgrown sections to CP1. Unfortunately MooPoint had to drop out at CP1 due to a previous injury acting up, smart decision but still sad to lose a teammate. Andrew Reeder of Team Angry Seagull also had to drop out at CP1 due to bike problems and after a quick discussion jointed out team! Creating Team TA3-CP1 :).
Off we went along the hydrocut towards CP2. The smooth rock was fun to ride on, at least for a while. Then things started to drag on and on and on...this was the longest I had ever been on a bike. Quickly learned that asking for a distance estimate does not work for me, better just to keep going. Finally reached CP2 and were greeted by Jackie and Shane. So nice to see familiar faces along the way! Quick snack break and time for Myka to whip out her awesome stash of popcorn chicken bites, samosas and pizza. I was having stomach cramps on and off all day while biking (a first) which made food intake an issue. I knew there would be many firsts over the course of the race so I tried to work with it.
Food in general: I didn't know what I would feel like eating and took along small bags of 'real' food, junk and sports bars. In the end real food was best. Although when DD11's Dad handed me an ice cream bar at TA1 it was the best thing ever!!
We got into TA1 some point after 7pm - yay - so happy to ditch the bike! Quick change and re-fuel to get ready for the next section. Very exciting as I was looking forward to the night trek. Interesting how a change in disciplines made us all more chipper.
We started the trek on the gravel road around the lake and towards CP4. I am not a strong swimmer and had huge concerns about being unable to get warm again at night temperatures (previous experience). Therefore no planned swims in our route choice - thanks team! Turns out bushwhacking generates quite some heat so I didn't need the extra two layers I was carrying - oh well better safe than sorry - this would have looked differently sitting in a canoe all night.
I was feeling well on the trek for quite a while. Enjoying the moonlit lakes and just the beauty of it all. HubNukin' found an awesome back-up navigator in Andrew and as much as I was hoping to pay more attention to the navigation all my concentration went into not slipping off rocks or getting stuck in Alder bushes or other non cooperative stuff. Sadly the knee I have been trying to rehab for months wasn't up for the challenge which made for some frustrating and slow going early morning hours. Eventually the sun came up making things look much brighter, including the death march to TA2. At some point along that road I realized we had a really good chance of finishing!!! I didn't know how I would feel on the bike but with 4 hours left for about 20km to the finish line I was going to walk the bike if I had to. Yep, being stubborn does come in handy at times.
Great to see more friends at TA2 and being cheered on by cottagers. I dropped all non-mandatory stuff, had more Ice cream (thanks GStix) and we were off. Surprisingly I felt fine being back on the bike. Even pushed the pace a bit for a while, then suddenly with about 10km to go I started to have a difficult time breathing (wheezing literally), thanks again to Andrew R. for helping me though this! It was a bit scary as I didn't know what was happening...
Finally after close to 28 hours, 128 km we crossed the finish line!!! 24th out of 34 teams.
Hugs thanks to HubNukin' and Andrew R. for being awesome navigators, patient teammates and getting us through our first 24 hour race! Thanks to Myka for training together, putting up with my pre-race stressing and being an awesome teammate! We did it!!
More thanks to Bash, GStix and all the volunteers for putting on an amazing race experience while looking out for us all night!