Training Log Archive: BrownerIn the 7 days ending Sep 11, 2016:
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Sunday Sep 11, 2016 #
Racing 9:00:00 [3]
DAY 3
Paddle - Bike - Trek - Bike - Trek - Bike Finish
For our final day we started at the wee hour of 5:15am in the boats, but this time across open water. I was nervous because we had a long way to go in heavy canoes, but as it turned out we had the wind and waves with us for the first 2 CPs. The last leg was tough as we changed direction and had waves and rollers off our side. I think we were about 5th off the water that morning and so felt very proud!
We took off on the bikes onto some muddy trails and sadly I wiped out when I switched divots at the wrong time. This fall really hurt my ego and my knee but the boys yanked me up and off we went up hill. We didn't have the best map of single tack trails up in the hills but the guys picked off the CPs one by one. The rain started around 8am and continued off and on for the rest of the race...I think I kept changing my shirt but was always wet but never cold.
What I remember most from this day was this...we had a final steep climb on the trek whereby we were to follow a flagged path up to a lookout. We were in a pain train climbing hands and knees and Storm pushed me up while I hung on to a tow from DD_11 to keep us all close. My heart was pounding out of my chest as we kept going up and just when I thought I couldn't keep going without a break the team ahead yelled down "we've lost the flagging". The pain train stopped and there was lots of cusing that we may have to descend and re-ascend. I was absolutely elated when someone noticed that we were only 50 metres from the CP that was located in "Yellow Birch". Yes, the CP was in a tree and we all walked right by it, but thankfully not far at all. That was the break I needed and we finished the trek before a looming cut off for the final bike. Whew!
The final bike started with a road climb up to Mount St Joseph - and this was probably one of the longest-steepest climbs I have ever done. We had a 4 man tow going for a big stretch and this caused a cameraman to stop his car while driving downhill and photograph us. I hope to find this picture at some point. The last mini trek to a CP at a lookout was cancelled due to the rain and we were turned downhill on trails immediately. The trails were in bad shape for the rain and were not really meant for mountain biking they were so rugged in places. By this point my derailleurs, both front and back, were wacked and changing gears became super difficult...I should really learn how to adjust these in the field better for next time. We traded places with Brad's team of a number of times that day but they squeaked in front of us as we rolled into town and across the finish line.
In summary - fantastic race, well organized, phenomenal local support, beautiful terrain, loved the staged format, fantastic teammates and tremendous crew support and comic relief by Reeder throughout.
Here's our finish line photo..we are hiding the awesome local brewery bottles they gave us.
The race web site has us with a time of 32:57 over 3.5 days, but I only estimate we raced for about 30 hours (3.5, 9.5, 8 and 9) - I wonder if they figured in a penalty for cancelled CPs on the last day. It doesn't really matter because there were only 3 teams in our category anyway and we would be in 3rd place regardless.
Paddle - Bike - Trek - Bike - Trek - Bike Finish
For our final day we started at the wee hour of 5:15am in the boats, but this time across open water. I was nervous because we had a long way to go in heavy canoes, but as it turned out we had the wind and waves with us for the first 2 CPs. The last leg was tough as we changed direction and had waves and rollers off our side. I think we were about 5th off the water that morning and so felt very proud!
We took off on the bikes onto some muddy trails and sadly I wiped out when I switched divots at the wrong time. This fall really hurt my ego and my knee but the boys yanked me up and off we went up hill. We didn't have the best map of single tack trails up in the hills but the guys picked off the CPs one by one. The rain started around 8am and continued off and on for the rest of the race...I think I kept changing my shirt but was always wet but never cold.
What I remember most from this day was this...we had a final steep climb on the trek whereby we were to follow a flagged path up to a lookout. We were in a pain train climbing hands and knees and Storm pushed me up while I hung on to a tow from DD_11 to keep us all close. My heart was pounding out of my chest as we kept going up and just when I thought I couldn't keep going without a break the team ahead yelled down "we've lost the flagging". The pain train stopped and there was lots of cusing that we may have to descend and re-ascend. I was absolutely elated when someone noticed that we were only 50 metres from the CP that was located in "Yellow Birch". Yes, the CP was in a tree and we all walked right by it, but thankfully not far at all. That was the break I needed and we finished the trek before a looming cut off for the final bike. Whew!
The final bike started with a road climb up to Mount St Joseph - and this was probably one of the longest-steepest climbs I have ever done. We had a 4 man tow going for a big stretch and this caused a cameraman to stop his car while driving downhill and photograph us. I hope to find this picture at some point. The last mini trek to a CP at a lookout was cancelled due to the rain and we were turned downhill on trails immediately. The trails were in bad shape for the rain and were not really meant for mountain biking they were so rugged in places. By this point my derailleurs, both front and back, were wacked and changing gears became super difficult...I should really learn how to adjust these in the field better for next time. We traded places with Brad's team of a number of times that day but they squeaked in front of us as we rolled into town and across the finish line.
In summary - fantastic race, well organized, phenomenal local support, beautiful terrain, loved the staged format, fantastic teammates and tremendous crew support and comic relief by Reeder throughout.
Here's our finish line photo..we are hiding the awesome local brewery bottles they gave us.
The race web site has us with a time of 32:57 over 3.5 days, but I only estimate we raced for about 30 hours (3.5, 9.5, 8 and 9) - I wonder if they figured in a penalty for cancelled CPs on the last day. It doesn't really matter because there were only 3 teams in our category anyway and we would be in 3rd place regardless.
Saturday Sep 10, 2016 #
Racing 8:05:00 [5]
DAY 2
Paddle-Bike-Trek-Bike-Trek/Coasteering-Bike-Trek
Today was our best day of the race. It started around 930 am after a long bus ride over to a different river section. We got going with a flat water paddle across a tiny lake into a shoe-horning of 40 teams down a tiny creek. The drone footage is pretty cool (see one of Randy's photos below). On the other side however, we had landed an excellent position for a long river section with some super fun rapids. We passed many male pairs who got swamped out in rapids but the water was warmish, not too deep and all the racers seems to be able to get to shore easily. Race crew was positioned in a few of the more dangerous spots just in case. The scenery was so beautiful, the smells so vibrant and with some sleep behind us (no headaches, no hallucinations, no nausea) we had a blast working our way down the river.
We transitioned to the bike and before long had to wade across a river with hip-deep water. I think we are in the drone footage of this as well. The trails were dry and I liked this section as well. We pulled into a TA that was inside a pretty covered bridge and headed out on a one-way trek up into the wind farm. The climb was brutal and Storm/DD11 got to tow me most of the way up. I suppose that 50k in Italy this past June just didn't do the trick (but I never got to use my poles which I see now I totally rely on for climbing).
We biked out of the wind farm and I think there is a nice photo of this somewhere. We rode like bats of of hell down to the ocean and got to do the coasteering section in low tide. There were a few wet sections here but nothing worth mentioning. Other stuff happened but we widdled our way through lots of easy CPs along the way to the finish and I think we all agreed as a team that this was our best day.
We thought based on the previous day that we would be out after dark but were done by 530 and had more time to lounge around camp. We ordered 12 hot dogs and one cob of corn from the Lions Club and had a second dinner at camp. We were nuzzled in bed by 10pm again this time dreading the 5am start. At least the start would be 250m from the tent!
Paddle-Bike-Trek-Bike-Trek/Coasteering-Bike-Trek
Today was our best day of the race. It started around 930 am after a long bus ride over to a different river section. We got going with a flat water paddle across a tiny lake into a shoe-horning of 40 teams down a tiny creek. The drone footage is pretty cool (see one of Randy's photos below). On the other side however, we had landed an excellent position for a long river section with some super fun rapids. We passed many male pairs who got swamped out in rapids but the water was warmish, not too deep and all the racers seems to be able to get to shore easily. Race crew was positioned in a few of the more dangerous spots just in case. The scenery was so beautiful, the smells so vibrant and with some sleep behind us (no headaches, no hallucinations, no nausea) we had a blast working our way down the river.
We transitioned to the bike and before long had to wade across a river with hip-deep water. I think we are in the drone footage of this as well. The trails were dry and I liked this section as well. We pulled into a TA that was inside a pretty covered bridge and headed out on a one-way trek up into the wind farm. The climb was brutal and Storm/DD11 got to tow me most of the way up. I suppose that 50k in Italy this past June just didn't do the trick (but I never got to use my poles which I see now I totally rely on for climbing).
We biked out of the wind farm and I think there is a nice photo of this somewhere. We rode like bats of of hell down to the ocean and got to do the coasteering section in low tide. There were a few wet sections here but nothing worth mentioning. Other stuff happened but we widdled our way through lots of easy CPs along the way to the finish and I think we all agreed as a team that this was our best day.
We thought based on the previous day that we would be out after dark but were done by 530 and had more time to lounge around camp. We ordered 12 hot dogs and one cob of corn from the Lions Club and had a second dinner at camp. We were nuzzled in bed by 10pm again this time dreading the 5am start. At least the start would be 250m from the tent!
Friday Sep 9, 2016 #
Racing 9:33:00 [5]
DAY 1
Pre-race cave CP for one team member-bike-mini-trek, swim across lake-trek, river paddle, trek, river paddle, trek, river paddle, trek - short course for us.
Day 1 start was strange because we busted it 2 hours away to stand around for an hour while all the teams had a rep get lowered into a cave to collect a checkpoint. The race didn't start until all teams finished this task, so it did seem somewhat pointless.
We set off on bikes for another blisteringly fast day but it started slow because the trails were pretty soggy. The bike seemed to take forever and we were glad to pull into the TA with Reeder and Greg Diamond there ready to help us transition to a trek that would start on the other side of a lake. We opted out of wearing wet suits and the water was just fine. I think there is drone footage of us doing this since Greg Diamond was there to help Randy film the race and we were the only team they knew.
The trek was fine too and before too long we were dumped out onto a beautiful, crystal clear river called Bonaventure. We forded the river and transitioned to the paddle. The paddle was where we spent the rest of the day, considering there were 3 places to shore up and run in for CPs. This was very time consuming and a tad tedious (all were up hills) but the river itself was absolutely gorgeous and fairly easy to navigate. There was some class 1 whitewater to bounce around and play in. We paddled in to what Storm thought was live Gowan, but it only turned out to be a recording. He was gutted.
We chipped away at this segment and finally paddled in to what Storm thought was Live Gowan, but it only turned out to be a recording. He was gutted. We missed the cut off by 9 minutes to go do another bike-trek section. It was 630 by this time and so I figured it was just as well seeing both other coed teams had already beaten us and we were better off using the last daylight hours to set up camp and eat dinner.
We later heard there was drama with some teams skipping the trekking cps to make the cut-off but we didn't really notice it and I don't think that played into our race with only two other teams who completed the full course that day. We never saw a summary of the overall results that may have ranked us higher up, but it doesn't really matter.
We made camp, ate dinner, joked around and got to bed by 10pm that night. There were no facilities to shower and so unless we wanted to hop in a cold river to clean off (which we didn't), we just went to bed stinky and muddy. So for everyone who thinks this is a princess race, well it wasn't quite that fancy!
I had fun swimming across the lake here. Greg put lots of air in my dry bag and it bounced across the water beautifully!
Pre-race cave CP for one team member-bike-mini-trek, swim across lake-trek, river paddle, trek, river paddle, trek, river paddle, trek - short course for us.
Day 1 start was strange because we busted it 2 hours away to stand around for an hour while all the teams had a rep get lowered into a cave to collect a checkpoint. The race didn't start until all teams finished this task, so it did seem somewhat pointless.
We set off on bikes for another blisteringly fast day but it started slow because the trails were pretty soggy. The bike seemed to take forever and we were glad to pull into the TA with Reeder and Greg Diamond there ready to help us transition to a trek that would start on the other side of a lake. We opted out of wearing wet suits and the water was just fine. I think there is drone footage of us doing this since Greg Diamond was there to help Randy film the race and we were the only team they knew.
The trek was fine too and before too long we were dumped out onto a beautiful, crystal clear river called Bonaventure. We forded the river and transitioned to the paddle. The paddle was where we spent the rest of the day, considering there were 3 places to shore up and run in for CPs. This was very time consuming and a tad tedious (all were up hills) but the river itself was absolutely gorgeous and fairly easy to navigate. There was some class 1 whitewater to bounce around and play in. We paddled in to what Storm thought was live Gowan, but it only turned out to be a recording. He was gutted.
We chipped away at this segment and finally paddled in to what Storm thought was Live Gowan, but it only turned out to be a recording. He was gutted. We missed the cut off by 9 minutes to go do another bike-trek section. It was 630 by this time and so I figured it was just as well seeing both other coed teams had already beaten us and we were better off using the last daylight hours to set up camp and eat dinner.
We later heard there was drama with some teams skipping the trekking cps to make the cut-off but we didn't really notice it and I don't think that played into our race with only two other teams who completed the full course that day. We never saw a summary of the overall results that may have ranked us higher up, but it doesn't really matter.
We made camp, ate dinner, joked around and got to bed by 10pm that night. There were no facilities to shower and so unless we wanted to hop in a cold river to clean off (which we didn't), we just went to bed stinky and muddy. So for everyone who thinks this is a princess race, well it wasn't quite that fancy!
I had fun swimming across the lake here. Greg put lots of air in my dry bag and it bounced across the water beautifully!
Thursday Sep 8, 2016 #
Racing 3:30:00 [5]
Raid International Gaspesie Race Report:
Storm Racing took the form of Storm, DD_11, Vince and myself. We picked this race because of its reputation, drivable Canadian location and most importantly for the opportunity to try out a staged race format. Legendary Randy caught me off guard at the check in and I made the dumb comment that my main reason for racing was for the "sleep". We laughed at this for the rest of the week but it makes perfect sense to my philosophy of balancing intensity with fun and minimizing suffering.
So we raced for 3.5 days covering 300km over a time of 32:57:50. There were only 3 coed teams of 4, and in this tiny field were elite level athletes, and so we knew to begin with that we'd land third in this category and would be mostly racing with male pairs. It's one thing I would like to see promoted more with this event to balance out the categories. In a nutshell, I really enjoyed this race and recommend that we send more coed teams next year if they get their funding back.
We got all the race maps the night before the Prologue which started at 1pm the next day. This gave us a good amount of time to plan our routes for the entire race so that we wouldn't have to do it at the end of day camps. The opening ceremonies were fun and as we poured out of the auditorium, the hallways were lined with family and volunteers who cheered us on like olympic athletes.
PROLOGUE
The prologue is always hosted from the lighthouse in town and with local kids doing a short race too. The format was Beach Sprint, Canoe, Bike, Trek, Bike, Trek with waterside and ropes, Bike, Manhole and run to finish. It was fast and furious. I have never been down a manhole before and so that was the most fun for me as we had to wear our head lamps and travel a few hundred metres in it as it drained out towards the beach. I think we were 17th place. Some commented that of all the beauty Gaspe has to offer, why would they send us into the sewer system. But I still enjoyed it (it was only storm water that was clear).
We were done in around 3.5 hours (I'm not sure about distance yet) and still had plenty of time to eat dinner at the pub, shower, work on maps in the motel and get some decent sleep before a 6am departure to the Day 1 start line 2 hours away from the host site of Carleton-Sur-Mer.
Here's our glossy before photo (check out the nice jerseys we got)!
Storm Racing took the form of Storm, DD_11, Vince and myself. We picked this race because of its reputation, drivable Canadian location and most importantly for the opportunity to try out a staged race format. Legendary Randy caught me off guard at the check in and I made the dumb comment that my main reason for racing was for the "sleep". We laughed at this for the rest of the week but it makes perfect sense to my philosophy of balancing intensity with fun and minimizing suffering.
So we raced for 3.5 days covering 300km over a time of 32:57:50. There were only 3 coed teams of 4, and in this tiny field were elite level athletes, and so we knew to begin with that we'd land third in this category and would be mostly racing with male pairs. It's one thing I would like to see promoted more with this event to balance out the categories. In a nutshell, I really enjoyed this race and recommend that we send more coed teams next year if they get their funding back.
We got all the race maps the night before the Prologue which started at 1pm the next day. This gave us a good amount of time to plan our routes for the entire race so that we wouldn't have to do it at the end of day camps. The opening ceremonies were fun and as we poured out of the auditorium, the hallways were lined with family and volunteers who cheered us on like olympic athletes.
PROLOGUE
The prologue is always hosted from the lighthouse in town and with local kids doing a short race too. The format was Beach Sprint, Canoe, Bike, Trek, Bike, Trek with waterside and ropes, Bike, Manhole and run to finish. It was fast and furious. I have never been down a manhole before and so that was the most fun for me as we had to wear our head lamps and travel a few hundred metres in it as it drained out towards the beach. I think we were 17th place. Some commented that of all the beauty Gaspe has to offer, why would they send us into the sewer system. But I still enjoyed it (it was only storm water that was clear).
We were done in around 3.5 hours (I'm not sure about distance yet) and still had plenty of time to eat dinner at the pub, shower, work on maps in the motel and get some decent sleep before a 6am departure to the Day 1 start line 2 hours away from the host site of Carleton-Sur-Mer.
Here's our glossy before photo (check out the nice jerseys we got)!