Training Log Archive: Bash

I had to head into town for a bunch of errands starting with a chiro appointment but my Subaru had turned into a Suba-won't. Grrr. After four full-day service appointments in Toronto and a lot of money spent - both by me and by Subaru under warranty - it remains seriously unreliable. I am one more full-day appointment away from buying a new car. The only thing stopping me is figuring out a way to get the car 60 km to the Subaru dealer. Oh, and figuring out a way to get myself home.

Anyway... I phoned Dr. Thumbs-of-Death to postpone my appointment, changed into running-in-the-cold-rain clothes, and filled a big pack with street clothes, dry shoes, purse, etc. Then I ran to 'Bent's dental office to steal his van. I caught him with one of his groupies - Slowrunner.



Dr. Thumbs-of-Death is a strapping 6'4" man with the nickname of "Moose". It was a wee bit difficult to take him seriously when he discussed my foot problem while batting his gold-encrusted false eyelashes at me. But he inflicted some pretty good pain on my gimpy foot in spite of his girlie appearance. Perhaps I'm imagining it but there may have been a few less truly excruciating moments today. My foot is making a comeback.



While I'm in a Hallowe'en mood, here's my favourite parent/child costume this year.



Light snow is in the forecast for Friday! :)

Here's a cool-looking new ultra. Leanimal, maybe this should be your first 80K? It's at the end of June and in Chamonix, same as UTMB. Scenery looks OK. :)

Teaser 80km du Mont-Blanc from MOUSS PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

In case you didn't see it last night, Adam Van Koeverden gave Rick Mercer kayaking lessons in Algonquin Park. Stick around to the end to see Rick in Adam's racing kayak (spoiler: not for long). Adam continues to come across as an impressive guy, and since he kept his shirt on for the entire segment (alas), I just mean that he's a great ambassador for Canadian sport - and heck, for Canada in general.

BulletDog and I ran around Palgrave West looking for downed trees and branches from Hurricane Sandy. Other than one nasty widowmaker dangling onto the trail to K-bash woods, it was all minor damage - less than we usually see after a wind storm. The forest is thoroughly soaked from the last week of rain. Naturally, this is the week we were supposed to get the siding replaced on our house.

Time to get back to this. My gimpy foot will benefit, and I'd especially like to work on glutes and hips over the winter.

Fitness promotion in our town

Turns out exercise makes you crave money less. Given the price of gear, travel and entry fees, this comes in very handy.

Toronto this morning after Sandy.


Photo by Frank Gunn of the Canadian Press

Added our official Salomon team photo to the Oct. 28 entry.

Pre-Hurricane Sandy Report

- 'Bent's dental office had no power this morning but it seems to be back.
- Wind warning in effect with the highest winds (90 kph) predicted to hit after dark
- Rain for much of the week although it doesn't look that heavy
- Drinking water containers are all filled (our well pump needs electricity).
- Generator gas can is full (we turn it on periodically to save our frozen food).
- Thermostat is turned up a little above our usual 14C in case the heat goes out later.
- About to fetch a big load of firewood
- Charging up electronic devices

Ready to hunker down! (If we have to.)

The Salomon team with Wesley Korir, winner of the 2012 Boston Marathon. Scott checked whether he was OK with posing in front of a Salomon logo while wearing his Nike logo!

The Salomon Toronto store was a major sponsor of the Monster Dash and asked their sponsored athletes to come out tonight. We didn't know what our costumes would be but we were asked to arrive wearing black bottoms and white shirts. It turned out we were doing the Running of the Bulls. Store manager Scott Burger was one of the bulls with a cardboard box strapped to his shoulders hanging around his body with a bull head on the front and four legs around the sides. Miles was the other bull. Josh, Solo, Brian C. and I were the four runners with matching red waist sashes and neck bandanas. With cold rain falling, we stuck some layers underneath our white shirts and added hats and gloves. Just because we run with bulls doesn't mean that we're stupid. :)



We were all supposed to run the 10K together but one of the bulls ran ahead with Solo and Josh a few kms in. Brian and I stayed with Scott, who just started running this year and did an awesome job wearing an awkward cardboard box that got heavier and heavier as rain kept soaking into it. It was a nice chatty run in the dark - lots of fun.

There should be a photo or two to follow, including a pic of us all standing in our costumes with Wesley Korir, who won this year's Boston Marathon in 2:12:40 - which may sound like a good time but it's 6.5 minutes slower than his marathon PB. (!!) His role tonight was to run the children's Spooky Mile - more than once, turning back at the finish line to join the slower kids in the event. When I shook his hand, I told him that since I did the 10K tonight, this may be the only time I'll ever outrun him. He seemed to like that. :)

Interesting fact from Wikipedia: "Korir is noted for buying two Subway tuna sandwiches before each race, one of which he eats pre-race and the other intended to eat post-race, but which he often gives to a homeless person instead."

'Bent and I left Palgrave in pitch blackness at 6:20 a.m. with cold rain slapping against the sides of the van. Lesser friends would have stayed home but we drove 90 minutes through the maelstrom to Dundas because we had committed to Pat-hectic that we would run SMT with him then help to hang controls for Peak-2-Peak.

He slept in. :)

Fortunately, Trav, Baloney and Trix were gracious hosts and took us for a beautiful run in the rain, skidding on bright yellow leaves and splashing through puddles. Possibly the Best SMT Ever. Well, actually, I think it's the *only* SMT I've ever done.



The others kindly dialled down their pace to avoid losing me. I was disappointed when both my knees began to hurt on the downhills. That had happened in the last part of the Oil Creek 100K but I hadn't felt it since. Otherwise, it was a fun autumn tour of the Dundas Valley with excellent company! Sherman Falls was thundering when we got back.



We capped it off with a trip to Domestique, the local bike-themed cafe with awesome lattes and bike-themed cookies.



With croissants and strong coffee in the equation - not to mention that it was after 10 a.m. - Pat-hectic eventually joined the party. A great place to hang out.

After dawdling in Domestique, Beanermunky's Chocolate Shop and Adventure Attic, 'Bent and I finally ran out of excuses not to return into the cold rain to hang 7 controls each for Peak-2-Peak. A couple of ribbons had come down and naturally I doubted myself so I spent quite awhile confirming a couple of the sites. Otherwise, it went well. It was surprisingly fun to be out in heavy rain, knowing that my layers were doing their job. Unfortunately, my lower left shin was hurting after this morning, which was my first long-ish run since Oil Creek. It's still early in the recovery from such a long race. Patience...

It's been a year since Goose tried to break my ankle (OK, maybe he was just a witness), and thanks to a couple of subsequent injuries, my left foot is messed up. It is willing to run long distances but I know I'm making adjustments to compensate for its inadequacies. It's time to get it fixed for real, then strengthen it.

Dr. Thumbs-of-Death noted today that the foot has shifted in the anterior direction, which explains the pain I felt in the inferior extensor retinaculum (where the shin turns the corner to become a foot) after 60K at Oil Creek. Also, both sides of my foot just in front of the heel are tight with scar tissue. The patient is going to live but HOLY CRAP, that treatment was the most painful thing I've voluntarily subjected myself to in my entire life! I thought I'd hit rock bottom the time I found bruises on my leg in the shape of Dr. Leanimal's fingerprints but I look back on that treatment session fondly now. I've never asked a chiro to stop ART because it hurts too much but I came really, really close today. I figure that if it doesn't hurt, it won't work so I must be well on the road to recovery now.

In the meantime, I'm going to need to work harder on mobility and strength. Here's something that might help.

Cruised around the Palgrave East single track in very warm weather. It was great but sadly, the trails in the north half of the conservation area are coated with horse feces from inconsiderate equestrians who would undoubtedly be upset if I failed to clean up after my dogs. There is a nearby riding school that likely pays nothing for the privilege of destroying trails built by the Caledon Cycling Club. We need to figure something out before our much-loved trails become useless, chopped-up horse trails instead of multi-use trails. No offence intended to considerate equestrians, Funderstorm - I know you would never allow your horse to ruin good single track.

Hard Core Live with Caron.

Power Yoga with C3 triathlon club. Great to be back! Some tough stuff tonight - too much for 'Bent's bad knee at times.

Thinking of my American friends after spending two weekends in the U.S.

While we were at NAOC this weekend, I was thinking that I'd really like to do the U.S. Ultralong Orienteering Champs next year since I enjoy longer nav races. This week I discovered that the 2012 Ultralong and Night O Champs still haven't happened yet. Hmm... Anyone up for a road trip?

BulletDog and I did a quick Tour de Palgrave on a misty autumn day. I meant to run longer but time was tight, and I got distracted trying to figure out Instagram. I'm definitely not an expert yet!

In Hamilton this Sunday, it's the Peak-2-Peak training event for the Salomon Dontgetlost Adventure Running Series.

Because Salomon Raid The Hammer always sells out, the Kids' Raid has been moved to coincide with Peak-2-Peak. This means that a few more volunteers are needed to help out. Pat-hectic is coordinating the charge, and volunteers can arrange to do the course before/after their shift.

Here is what is needed:

Registration (9:30-10:30am):
- Hand out SI cards, maps and get the waiver signed

Kids Course Marshalling (10:30-11:30am):
- Staff the road crossing and sweep the teams on the 3k kids course (all on trail).

SI Download & Results printing (11:00-12:30pm):
- Collect and download SI cards and print out results periodically. (Training provided - you only need basic computer skills.)

Control Collection:
- 1 p.m. onwards. Good navigation training opportunity for those who like to sleep in on the weekend! Bring your day pack.

I'm not sure but sometimes instructors are also needed for the brief mini-nav intro clinic at 10 a.m.

I'll be there on Saturday to help put out controls. Turns out Sunday is double-booked.

If you're able to help, you can put a comment on Pat-hectic's log or e-mail him directly at adventurerunningkids AT dontgetlost DOT ca.

If your kids age 6+ might enjoy this, check out the Kids' Raid event page. The youngest kids must have an adult accompanying them. Teams of two or three. Three levels of difficulty/distance.

I almost forgot to add this pic of DVOA passing the torch to the Ottawa Orienteering Club for the 2014 NAOC event. OOC meet director Anne Teutsch is on the right with the "torch" while everyone else has big sparklers. Lots of flames but none of the banners or orienteering flags involved actually caught on fire. It was a cool way to close off the awards. You can tell that OOC has a theatre director working on NAOC publicity! :)

North American Orienteering Champs Sprint
Pocono Environmental Education Center
Disaster in Sprintsville

It was a beautiful day for a sprint and an interesting location for it - a mix of forest, trails, buildings, recreational facilities and roads. The event arena was set up to give us views of several spectator controls as well as the finish line. The announcers were at work early to cover the elites who started first since many of them would be racing again in the national team relay later on.

There's no mystery as to what happened out there today. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a sprint, especially when you pass the spectator controls where people are yelling your name and you just want to move out of sight as quickly as possible, which sometimes means you don't think it through carefully. (At least, that's what happens if you're me!) It can be difficult to "feel" a 1:4,000 scale even when you try to prepare yourself for it. These are a couple of the things that got me today.

After an early spectator control, I lost my mind and went way off course on my way to #4 - looks like I lost 30 seconds there, which is huge in a sprint. But I got truly lost between #8 and #9 - the only time all weekend when I had no idea where I was on the map. In hindsight, I was aiming for a trail that I should have known would be hard to see with the fallen leaves - and I didn't need it anyway since the woods were nice and open. I popped out near the finish chute since I could hear the announcer and I knew I could relocate from there. Holy crap, that was a long way off the correct route to #9! Looks like I lost a good 2:30 there.

I'd been expecting at least one blow-out this weekend so I wasn't exactly devastated. It's funny how the numbers don't tell the whole story... Yesterday I was 6th and 2 minutes off the podium and really pleased. Today I was 7th and 2.5 minutes off the podium and knew I'd totally screwed up! Hey, we all have those days.



Meanwhile, my hotel roommate AdventureGirl! had an awesome sprint.





Then it was time for the National Relays - eight teams of three from each country: 2 Junior Men, 2 Junior Women, 2 Men, 2 Women. AdventureGirl! was representing Canada for the first time on Team Canada 2 for the Junior Women. She had to go into quarantine so she wouldn't see anyone's maps - including the relay maps and guide that we were able to buy once the athletes had been quarantined.



The relays were fast-moving and exciting. Junior Women started first and a new category started every 10 minutes. We'd see the runners at spectator controls, and they'd finish their leg after 15-20 minutes so there was always lots going on. I didn't envy the announcers trying to keep up with it all as well as the news from the radio controls in the woods!

Izzy B. led off the junior women with an excellent first leg.





Here are the men heading out on Leg 1.



There are some terrific crowd and racer shots on the main AP forum with some incredible action shots by folks with long lenses. Here's a pic of Cristina and me trying to start a rumour after her big "announcement" earlier this month on National Coming Out Day. :)


Photo by Ken Walker Jr.

AdventureGirl! did the anchor leg for her team and seemed totally calm before, during and after.





Her Dad had been more nervous than she was - and was over the moon when she finished her great run.



Here's Canada's #1 female orienteer at NAOC, Louise Oram.



Ken Walker Jr. powering into the finish. Mr. AP is not some deskbound IT genius!



Serghei (Runit) may have competed with a broken rib. He was really tough to hang in there after yesterday.



Canada did a great job, particularly the Junior Women's teams who finished ahead of both U.S. teams. Go AG!

Alas, the U.S. team took the Björn Kjellström Cup - the overall prize for the weekend. Canada has won this trophy in most years of its existence.



There was a tie between the U.S. and Canadian teams for the new Future Champions Cup based on junior results.



Great job by everyone involved in organizing this fun finale to the weekend, and congrats to all the racers who did so well!

GreenY - Sprint - Splits

North American Orienteering Championships
Long Distance - Egypt Mills

Gorgeous autumn sunshine, beautiful terrain, excellent map and a varied and fun course!

Two legs over 1 km long, mostly travelling off-trail. I really enjoyed this race. As it went on, I became more confident with the quality of the map and my ability to see features in this terrain. With the older, less-detailed maps available to us for most adventure races, I often take less risky routes but that wasn't necessary today. If I'd started out with that mentality, I would have made some different route choices early on. I felt focused from start to finish, which has not always been my strong point in long O races.


Photo by Adrian Zissos

I pushed harder than yesterday. If last weekend's 100K run was holding me back, I didn't feel it. Reviewing the splits, I was in the bronze medal position after 12 of 15 controls - and then I made a bad choice on the way to #13 which led to a slow slog through thick alders in a wetland. To add insult to injury, I emerged from the other side to see runners trotting happily on a lovely trail to my left. WTF? I moved my thumb to see a huge and extremely helpful trail that could have delivered me to the same spot. Oh well... That appears to have been a 3-4 minute error.

Then for my grand finale, I messed up the "go" control - the one connected to the finish line by a path marked with flags. I ended up finding the flags and running backward to find the control tucked in the trees behind a tiny hill. The go controls I've seen in the past have usually been out in the open and simple to find. I didn't give this control sufficient respect and lost 30-40 seconds on it. Lesson learned.

In spite of the bobbles in the late part of the course, I'm still very happy about today's race. In our category, former national team stars Pavlina Brautigam and Peggy Dickison are shoo-ins for the podium. (Pavlina didn't race yesterday, giving us all a break! :) ) So the only medal up for grabs is bronze, and today there were four of us who finished within two minutes of one another, all nibbling at Peggy's ankles! I ended up 6th of 21; hope one day I can be sharp enough to hit that podium!

It was so much fun hanging out in the arena afterward, chatting and cheering. DVOA did a fantastic job of organizing this event.

Hammer (who had an awesome race today, 1st/30 in M45) and Faceplant (Isak)



Eugene Mlynczyk



Ilona and Peter Dobos





Laura Smith aka Mrs. Mick



And Mick's #1 fan along the course, J-Lu.



And Mick - happy to finish this race after some troubles on the course.



Nev-Monster in the announcer's seat helping to make the experience more exciting by reporting on radio controls and current standings.



Clive Hayhow



Anton and Teo Mlynczyk



The unbeatable PeggyD (I've been trying to win just one race for 8 years but the difference between us is growing!) (P.S. Hi Peggy! :) )



This was the results tent with large flat screen TVs to track current standings in each category, monitor how long runners had been in the woods, track times registered at radio controls, etc. Extremely cool. There was also live video feed from the woods.



Mia Smith, AdventureGirl! and Faceplant



Ralph Lindzon and Don Ross



AZ and the incredible Valerie Meyer, SI results guru.



Here she is in front of one of the flat screen TVs showing results.



Here's what the results look like close up.



Barb Bryant - We've done a rogaine together and today we agreed that we should race together again since we are so well-matched. Our three races were all close, although she always prevailed - today by 17 seconds!



Cedarcreek in the finish chute



Sudden finishing up an excellent performance



Sudden, Pat-hectic and Hammer reviewing the M-Elite course



Bubo from Sweden - we'll see him at Vasaloppet 2014!



Cristina Luis - so fast she is blurry! She was probably in a rush because she heard I wanted to take home her awesome U.S. ski-O team jacket.



Mia Smith marking her route. She was mostly colouring in the control circles.



Charm (Charlotte McNaughton), Executive Director of Orienteering Canada; we sure are lucky to have her.



Wil Smith and Jon Torrance



Nick Duca



Nick and Val



Andrei and Serghei "Runit" Logvin (father and son). Serghei took the silver medal in M-Elite but may have broken a rib in the process.



PG (Peter Gagarin)



Pamtastic (Pam James)



Kissy (Kris Beecroft) - great performances during her comeback from knee troubles



Last but not least... a much-needed dinner! Alas, the restaurant didn't serve wine even though it would have gone well with my yummy shrimp pasta.

GreenY Long - Splits

North American Orienteering Championships
Middle Distance - Adams Creek

Fun day at Delaware Gap! It rained on and off - sometimes quite heavily - but it didn't dampen the awesome event atmosphere. The weather was warm, the people were friendly, the courses were great and there were a few tents to duck into when the rain got really hard.

It was so great to chat with old friends and new. I finally met my Swedish Attackpoint friend Bubo, and I had several nice conversations with athletes who introduced themselves after recognizing my messy hair from photos on my AP log! It was also nice to chat with Cristina after reading about her adventures in Norway.

My goal this weekend was to be in the upper half on average over the three races, probably with a disaster in one race; I haven't been orienteering competitively enough lately. Today's technical Middle Distance was the most likely candidate for the blow-out. It turned out to be very challenging nav with many areas of low visibility due to leaves on saplings crowded close together. Even when two controls were 100 m apart, I often took a bearing to be 100% sure that I was heading in the right direction. There were lots of controls in the woods that belonged to other courses so accuracy was essential. In many cases, there weren't big features to catch you if you made a mistake or to relocate from if you got disoriented. A lot of good orienteers had troubles today. The maps and courses were excellent; it was just really easy to mess up.

I moved cautiously - no hard running other than the finish chute. My nav wasn't perfect, e.g. I overshot #3 and arrived first at #4 a short distance beyond it, but there were no huge disasters. I was very happy with my result - 6th of 21 in my very competitive age category, and 6.5 minutes out of 2nd place. But I couldn't have touched Peggy's awesome 1st place performance - 16 minutes ahead of me! Ironically, if I had entered any of the next three age groups younger than mine, who all ran the same course, I would have won a North Am Champs medal but I didn't stand a chance against my talented contemporaries. (And it would be cowardly to hide from them!) Actually, it was a real treat to chat with Kissy and PeggyD in person - it's been a long time.

As expected, last week's 100K race played no role whatsoever in this race. Maybe I'll feel it in the Long or the Sprint but I think everything this weekend will be dictated by nav skills (or lack thereof), not the fatigue in my legs.

A few photos from the day...

Here's the view from our hotel near Delaware Gap. A good reminder that these maps have a lot of cliffs to watch out for!



Live results were displayed on flat screen TVs. In addition to finish times, we could see how long current runners had been on the course. Unfortunately, the heavy rain put a kibosh on the network after awhile but it was great while it lasted. Awesome work by the organizers to provide this for us in the middle of a field half a kilometre from the nearest road.



Sudden and Hammer both ran too fast down the finish chute for me to get good pics on a cloudy day. Serves them right.





Isak and AdventureGirl! were happy to finish.





And no wonder... Turns out they were both North American Champions in their respective categories!





Here are just a few of the many familiar faces. Sorry I missed getting pics of Valerie, Mick, Nick, Cristina, Clive, Kissy, Peggy and many other friends. Maybe tomorrow.

Glenn



Mia!



James, OOA Treasurer Extraordinaire



Cathy



Sudden and Isak


True to his ARK roots, Pat-hectic arrived at the finish line with his heel outside of his broken shoe.



He seemed pretty cheerful when I saw him, in spite of a race that could have gone better.



But had clearly lost his mind by the time he ran into Wil Smith later.



And last but definitely not least is a guy to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude: Ken Walker Jr., aka Mr. Attackpoint who works hard in his "leisure" time while juggling work and family to give us the best training log / social community around. Thank you Ken, and congratulations on your North Am silver medal in the elite category on today's tough course - yay!



Speaking of which... the control numbers from my course auto-magically appeared on my Garmin download. Cool! :)

Middle - GreenY - Splits

Event: 2012 North American Orienteering Championships
 

Such a beautiful autumn day that I had to do a brief tour in the Palgrave single track. Unseasonably warm, or - as we would have said a few weeks ago - unseasonably cool. I'm about to pick up Sudden, Isak, Hammer and AdventureGirl! for the looooooong drive to Milford, Pennsylvania (close to New York City) for the North American Orienteering Champs. 700 athletes from 20 countries - wow! And they'll have live results and live video coverage of the finish line - see the main AP forum for deets. They've even arranged to have wi-fi hubs at the event venues! This will be a totally new experience.

It's also the first time I've competed against 22 women in my 5-year age group, 4 of whom are past members of the U.S. national team. I'm not sure how many Canadian team members there are. This will be very humbling indeed, as in "arse handed to me on a platter" humbling. I could blame last weekend's 100K race but the truth is, this is a competitive field and I haven't orienteered nearly enough this year, or - let's face it - in my life. I've printed out the sprint map standards since I really need to study them in particular. I think a top 20 finish is achievable! ;)

With more than $600 million raised, this cancer foundation associated with an inspiring athlete hero is a model of how to keep administrative costs down and give the most to the research that counts.

That would be the Terry Fox Foundation, of course.

http://www.timescolonist.com/health/Terry+Foundati...

And it had to happen... Lance Armstrong has resigned as chair of the Livestrong Foundation, and Nike has severed its relationship with him but will continue working with Livestrong.

Btw if you haven't read the Outside article on Livestrong before, it is interesting to read about what the foundation does. Some people have felt that Lance shouldn't be punished because his charity does good work. Clearly, the distinction between Lance and the foundation needed to be made, and Lance has now done that. But what is less well known is that the foundation's work is not what many people think it is.

"If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the famous nonprofit donates almost ­nothing to scientific research. BILL GIFFORD looks at where the money goes and finds a mix of fine ideas, millions of dollars aimed at 'awareness', and a few very blurry lines."

I finished the Oil Creek 100K in the dark but it appears that the 6th place runner finished in time to get some important things done before dinner!

So... remember that 100K race I did Saturday where after 15 hours of pushing hard, I finished 92 seconds over the Western States 100 qualifying time? Well, haha, funny story... I last read the website in June and it said (and still says):

"In completing a qualified event, one of the following minimum times must be met:

a) 50 miles in under 11 hours
b) 100 kilometers in under 15 hours
c) 100-mile trail race within the official cutoff

No adjustments or modifications can be made to the qualifying standards to accommodate non-standard distances. For example, the maximum qualifying time for a 55 mile event remains as under 11 hours, the 50-mile maximum."

The Canadian Death Race was on the qualifier list but it is 125 km - a non-standard distance - and only a few top men finish under 15 hours.

But when I checked the list of qualifiers for the 2013 WS100 just now, it says: "Canadian Death Race - 22 hours". I was 21:45. I'm in the lottery, baby! :)

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility plus some Frog Pose, as per Ang.

I'm feeling good and if there weren't so much else going on, I'd definitely be biking; I even considered a short run today. My Inferior Extensor Retinaculum is improving but I suspect it would act up again if I tried to do a long run right now. After the North American Orienteering Champs this weekend, it is time to visit Thumbs-of-Death and talk rehab for my gimpy foot. Ski season is coming and I need my retinaculum to function flawlessly, now that I know I have one.

Drive home from PA. Lots and lots and lots of coffee.

Oil Creek 100K trail race
Motto: "Strike oil or move on!"

Run in the valley where the world's first oil boom began in 1859 when 'Colonel' Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well. This is how John D Rockefeller amassed much of his fortune.

I'm recommending this event up front. I've done seven trail ultras now (holy crap, how did that happen?) and would recommend them all. I'm sure there are ultra duds out there but I haven't stumbled on one yet. Each ultra has a distinct character with different highlights and advantages.

Oil Creek is super well-organized. All my ultras have had great aid stations but Oil Creek dials it up a notch. I didn't check out the full spread but each aid station had very helpful volunteers with coffee, soup, a variety of sandwiches, fresh fruit, other hot food (e.g. pizza, grilled cheese, mac & cheese, potatoes) and chocolate covered espresso beans in addition to the usual drinks and sweet/salty snacks. The course was well-marked with lots of feel-good markers even though most of the route followed a continuous hiking trail with yellow-blazed trees. Each marker had reflective tape so at night I could see a series of little white lights showing the trail ahead winding up and down hills, even though the terrain wasn't visible.

The trail itself is interesting and moderately technical. I've read race reports that describe it as highly technical but compared to some rocky sections of the Bruce Trail, most of it is runnable. The elevation gain/loss per kilometer is a little more than Hockley Valley so the feeling of constant up/down is similar. This weekend the trail was leaf-covered with lots of rocks and roots so I couldn't gaze at the scenery but it was fine if I watched where I put my feet. We mostly ran through mature, hilly deciduous forest with occasional views of autumn colours in the main valley.




Photo by Dennis Kavish (Osteo)

The race starts in Titusville, PA and runs southwest along the west side of the valley in Oil Creek State Park before descending and crossing a bridge over Oil Creek. There's an aid station at that point, a little less than halfway around the 50 km loop. That's the only place other than the start/finish where spectators and crew are permitted, and runners can send a drop bag there. Then the trail heads uphill and runs northeast along the east side of the valley back to Titusville Middle School where runners either cross the finish line or visit an aid station and head out to do it all again.

There are 50K, 100K and 100-mile courses. Registration opens in mid-March, and the shorter distances were sold out in 10 minutes (50K) and 1 hr 45 min (100K). Tim Grant (Tiny) and I got into the 100K event. Unfortunately for Cathy Gallagher (Mrs. Gally), she visited the website two hours after registration opened and ended up registered for her first 100-miler without intending to. Denise Rispolie (Dee) came along to support us all and pace Mrs. Gally on her final 60 km. Dennis Kavish (Osteo) was out there too, knocking his first 50K race out of the park, but we didn't see him. He graciously agreed to let me use some of his terrific photos in my report.


Photo by Christine Kavish

The weather forecast was "a little of everything", kicking things off with a frosty -3C at the start line. Mrs. Gally started at 5 a.m., Tiny and I started at 6 a.m., and the 50K runners slept in for a 7 a.m. start. There was mixed sun and cloud all day as the weather got warmer, then sporadic rain and wind gusts after dark. It rained heavily in the wee hours when Mrs. Gally and Dee were out, then by Sunday afternoon, it was sunny and almost 20C.



I had some trouble getting my mind and body into this race. I'd registered for it as a back-up plan to earn UTMB points in case I DNF'ed one of my other ultras - but since I didn't, Oil Creek was now just for fun. I'm still kind of new to the idea of doing a 100 km race just for fun. I like having some goal to motivate me and keep me focused. Although it wasn't a particular goal of mine, Ang had pointed out that a finish under 15 hours would qualify me for the Western States 100 lottery. However, in previous Oil Creek 100K races, only the top three women had finished under 15 hours so that was unrealistic. Mind you, I couldn't figure out *why* the times were so long on this course because 15 hours should be just in the ballpark for me for 100K with 3300 m of elevation gain, but there had to be a reason. Even the day before the race, I wasn't feeling inspired, and that's not good before a solo race of that length. I think part of my usual motivation had gone to Georgia with Richard. I would have liked to be there to support him at his first 50-miler, and it felt weird to head off in a completely different direction.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

The one idea I'd considered was to try pushing outside my comfort zone for the entire race and take the risk of a DNF in exchange for the learning experience. I'm not much of a runner but I'm good at pacing myself to a finish; what would happen if I went a little harder and tried to "race" for 100K? I'd had a taste of it in the first 60K of the Canadian Death Race when I had to rush to hit a cut-off, and it stressed me out. But I didn't blow up, and I was still running OK at the end. At Oil Creek, I'd have to start the race and make the call based on how I felt. It took about an hour to warm up, then I decided to go for it.

I ran much of the first section in the dark while chatting with Lesa Snider of Pickering, who eventually placed 3rd female. Over a kilometer of trail around Aid Station #1 at the 11K mark was set up like a Trek or Treat race with skeletons and monsters hanging in the trees, funny signs and tombstones with "punny" inscriptions.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

It was getting light but was still very cold. I grabbed a strawberry, thanked the volunteers and started up "Switchback Mountain". With the Death Race fresh in my mind, the hills at Oil Creek with signs like "Never Ending Climb" were quite manageable - just long enough to eat and drink while walking, then I'd start running again at the top. A lot of the hills had moderate slopes, and Dee had encouraged me to run as many easy uphills as I could. Somewhere around 15-17 km, I started passing the slowest of the 100-mile racers who had started an hour earlier.


Photo by Lee Ann Reiners

At 22 km, I met Dee at the "halfway" aid station, and she was awesome, filling my bladder while I dumped my headlamp, refilled my food and adjusted my layers. It was great to see Kristen Harrison (Mrs. Tiny) and Aubrey (Teeny Tiny) there.




Photo by Christine Kavish

I learned that Mrs. Gally was quite cold and that Tiny was in a lot of pain from a recent groin injury and was not certain he would finish. But they had both forged on ahead.


Photo by Lee Ann Reiners

I was offered a hot, gooey grilled cheese sandwich by the volunteers which I took with me as I headed back to the trail. How did they know exactly what I needed?


Photo by Christine Kavish

The next 28 km had one full aid station and a few unstaffed water-only stations. A Boy Scout troop was camping at one station and had posted a bunch of funny and inspirational signs along the trail for us. E.g. "Does your girlfriend know where you are?" A few trees later: "Does your wife know about your girlfriend?" And finally: "They're both waiting at the finish line for you!" Etc. Here was my favourite.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

Some of the top 50K runners flew past me in this section. I kept reminding myself to improve my posture - to think about tilting my hips forward, straightening my spine and neck, leaning forward from the ankles and kicking back toward my bum. This isn't how I naturally run but it really helps. Note to self: Do more planks over the winter. I took another grilled cheese sandwich from Aid Station #3 and ate it as I climbed the hill. Who knew that grilled cheese was ambrosia? In between aid stations, I ate my own Honey Stinger energy chews and drank a couple of Boosts to get quick calorie hits. A lot of ultrarunning is about getting food and drink down.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

We were reminded occasionally of the history of the area when small oil pipes crossed the trail.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

The last 2-3 kilometers of Loop #1 were on a paved bike path and roads leading back to the school - ouch, ouch, ouch! Dee had my drop bag ready. She refilled my bladder while I prepared food and gear for the next stage and got updates from Mrs. Tiny.


Photo by Denise Rispolie (Dee)

The first 50 km loop had taken 7 hours, and I had pushed out of my comfort zone on purpose so I knew the second loop would be slower. Alas, the 15-hour limit for Western States was not out of reach yet so I was going to have to keep working hard. I'd promised myself that if I took over 7 hours on Loop 1, I would put that silly idea out of my head but I was right on the borderline. (Arggh!)

I started Loop #2 with yet another grilled cheese sandwich in hand. On the trail about 4 km from the school, a runner approached. She had somehow missed the turn to the school at the end of her first loop, and now she was heading all the way back. Poor woman. I'd done this section in the dark the first time so it was nice to see it. It had seemed more technical in the dark than it actually was, and I'd also been in a conga line watching other people's feet most of the time. I looked at my Garmin and thought happily, "Yay, I only have 42.2 km left." And then I laughed out loud at how skewed my perspective has become.

I hadn't taken any photos yet so I pulled out my iPhone a couple of times and took three photos. I thought, "Wouldn't it be ironic if these two minutes spent on photography ended up making any difference in such a long race?" Hahahaha. At least I didn't send over 20 texts, take 20 photos and update my Facebook status twice, as I did in my first 50-miler.



In my first 50K race two years ago, I was concerned at how sore my IT bands were, starting at the edge of my hips and radiating down the outside of my legs toward my knees. In my first mountain race, I suffered from painful quads. In this spring's Sulphur Springs 50K, I was bothered by piriformis pain behind both my hips caused by poor posture. By the time the Death Race rolled around, those problems were largely gone but today a brand new pain appeared on top of my gimpy left foot. Dr. Mueller (Leanimal) says it sounds like the inferior extensor retinaculum. I could tell that the inflammation resulted from modifying my running form to accommodate my injury, and it eased up when I forced my foot to move properly - although I wasn't always able to do that. The pain plagued me until the end of the race (and is still plaguing me now).

When I hit Aid Station #1 for the second time, I got adventurous and had a piece of salted baked potato and some restaurant-quality potato and carrot soup. I still took some grilled cheese for the hill climb - no sense messing around when you've discovered a salty, high-calorie food that still tastes delicious as it goes down. By now, I was passing 100-milers on a regular basis, many of them hiking. Ultrarunners are a friendly crowd, and they often said something nice like "You're moving well". And since I didn't want them to feel bad, I would smile and say apologetically that I'm *only* running 100 measly kilometers, and they would nod knowingly (and maybe a little enviously!) as they chuckled about how far they still had to go.

I got to Aid Station #2 at 72 km, and Dee had everything ready for me again. It would be dark in 2 hours so I packed my lights and layers and grabbed some macaroni and cheese from the aid station - yum. I often feel a little spaced out on these long runs so I left the aid station with coffee and tried to drink it as I speed-hiked up a hill. It was sloppy but I felt my brain kick into gear soon afterward; I should probably use caffeine more often in long races that don't go overnight.


Photo by Dennis Kavish
Note: This is the trail - not a view from the trail.

When I passed friendly racers in the next section, a few of them responded to my apologetic comment saying, "Well, we're only running 100K too." Oh. So maybe I wasn't doing too terribly. I really had no idea since I'd started well back in the pack and I'd assumed that everyone I passed was a 100-miler. Shortly before Aid Station #3, I turned on my new BashBlaster light that 'Bent built for me. Even on level 3 of 5, it was bright enough to scorch leaves off the trees. Nice! I put on a light toque but didn't add any other layers, and that ended up being sufficient for the rest of the race, even through some rain showers and wind gusts. I grabbed Ramen soup and another half grilled cheese sandwich and guzzled it as I climbed out of the aid station.

Only 14 km to go and - damn it - there was still a slight possibility of breaking 15 hours so I couldn't relax. Headphones were discouraged so I started playing tunes through my iPhone speakers. It was dark and I was mostly alone so it was my "bear bell". I was running pretty well on the final kilometers of trail. As I approached town, the odds of the 15-hour finish got lower but the possibility was still there since the last part of the run is flat, and maybe my GPS distance on forested single track wasn't 100% accurate. As I started the Drake Museum loop - a grassy detour before the bike path - two men flew past me, probably aiming for Western States, and they made it by 2 minutes. I was thinking: how the heck could two strong runners like that be behind me for the first 97 kilometers? Do they enjoy sprint finishes?

I willed my legs to turn over faster on the final kilometers of pavement but it wasn't quite enough. I was around the corner from the school when my GPS said 15 hours, and by then, there was no point letting up so I kept running and crossed the line at 15:01:32 (gun time). And then I laughed and rolled my eyes at myself. The truth is, I'd be nuts to do Western States next June as my first 100-miler, even if I succeeded in the heavily subscribed lottery. The best way to qualify for WS100 is by finishing a 100-mile qualifier race, and the only time requirement is that I'd need to finish before the cut-off. It was just the principle of the thing...

After considering dropping out of the 100K early with his groin injury, Tiny roared back up in the pack on the second loop, finishing 13th overall of 85 starters in 12:51. After his strong, consistent performance at the Toad 50K two weeks ago, it was nice to see his preparation pay off even though he wasn't 100% today. About 25% of runners failed to finish the 100K.

I was 21st overall and - to my shock - 4th of 22 women and 1st masters. So it was an interesting experiment in my approach to ultras. There is always ebb and flow in these long races but my last 10K was the same pace as my first 10K so even though I went harder than I felt comfortable doing, I didn't empty the tank. I'd aimed to have a positive split but 7 hrs/8 hrs wasn't too ridiculous. (Not like my only road marathon - 2:00/2:49!) It's more fun to do an ultra without time pressure but if necessary, I can increase the effort a little. Maybe this will open up some ultras with time cut-offs that had previously seemed out of reach.

After picking up my very first belt buckle - the traditional ultra finisher prize - I stumbled around and chatted with a few Ontarians who were hanging around the school cafeteria. I was very, very tired and completely ineffective but now I was on duty. Mrs. Gally and Dee would be on the trail overnight so it was my job to get some sleep so I could pick them up at the finish and drive us all back home to Ontario.

I found where Dee had parked Mrs. Gally's van, somehow drove back to the hotel and took a ridiculous amount of time to change, shower and get to bed. If you've ever been truly exhausted, you will know what I mean. "Okaaaay, I've removed *that* shoe and sock. Now I need to, to...um? Oh yes, remove the *other* shoe and sock - zzzzz - whoops! Where was I?" Note the Bashblaster headlamp in this pic, which I'd inexplicably continued wearing for the past hour since I finished racing.



Of course I couldn't sleep, and I needed to get back to Race HQ around 4:30 a.m. Dee texted me updates when they got cell signal. They were moving slowly so I could stay in bed longer.


Photo by Denise Rispolie

I tried to feel sad about that for Mrs. Gally's sake but oh, I really enjoyed re-setting the alarm later - both times. In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Tiny, Teeny Tiny and I headed to the finish line around 8 a.m. and cheered the ladies in.



Mrs. Gally was amazing, completing an extremely difficult distance with less training than she would have liked due to work and family commitments. It was a great performance too - she was 7th of 33 women who started the race and only half an hour behind 4th.


Photo by Kristen Harrison

Congratulations! Dee was a rock star, getting up early to drive us to the race, supporting us all day, then spending 12.5 hours on the trail with Mrs. Gally while still fighting the remnants of an upper respiratory infection. Thank you so much, Dee!




Photo by Kristen Harrison



Post-race debrief: I'm happy with my relatively consistent pace and better-than-expected finish. All muscles are slightly sore but that's dissipating quickly. Feet are in great shape blister-wise; I just need to deal with that inflamed retinaculum (and google to find out what it is). And of course, I didn't lose any weight at all. Running doesn't do that for me - even 15 hours of it. Grrr.

So for the UTMB accountants, I now have 10 points including 8 earned this year, so I can enter the lottery for the 2013 or 2014 event. I am starting to work on my French already!

Mrs. Gally, Dee and I have arrived in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Gally keeps forgetting to include the "u" when she pronounces the town's name (seriously!), so we had to coach her carefully as we approached the U.S. border crossing. No sense attracting too much attention!

Nice pre-race pasta dinner, friendly people, a few familiar Ontario faces - it seems to be a really well organized event. It is definitely my type of event, given that every aid station serves coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans! Later in the day, the aid stations will even have AA and AAA batteries.

Mr. and Mrs. Tiny should arrive shortly but it's 9 p.m. and time for bed, so I'll see Tiny when we meet for the ride to the 6 a.m. start.

Supposedly, the organizers will be posting splits during the race - after the first few aid stations when runners have spread out. Check the race website at http://www.oc100.org if you're curious. They said they'd either post it on the Webcast page (see bottom of menu at left) or they would put a link right on the home page.

Mrs. Gally starts her 100-miler at 5 a.m. Tiny and I start 100K at 6 a.m. We will run two 50K loops. The splits in each loop are approximately 11K / 11K / 14K / 14K. The terrain is supposed to be similar to Hockley Valley - lots of up and down but the hills aren't quite mountains. It sounds like the trail is more technical - rocky and rooty but completely leaf-covered so the rocks and roots are hidden. I taped my ankle extra well and put a brace in my mid-race drop bag.

Dee plans to join Mrs. Gally for the final 50K loop plus an extra 11K side loop to bring the total up to 100 miles. Unfortunately, Dee is still dealing with a bad respiratory infection so she may have to start pacing at a later aid station.

Coach Dee has impressed upon us that we must drink, drink, drink today. Lucky for us, they were offering free samples at the Duty Free store at the border.



'Bent and Slowrunner are in Pine Mountain Georgia for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler. He said it's ridiculously hot but otherwise life is good; he had a Starbucks decaf soy mocha in hand as he was typing his e-mail.

Thanks for all the good wishes - I've passed them on to the ladies. Catch you on the other side.

Heading to meet Mrs. Gally and Dee for our girls' road trip to scenic Titusville, Pennsylvania! Mrs. Gally is going to rock the 100-mile Oil Creek trail race with Dee's expert pacing for the final 38 miles. Tiny and I are doing the 100K while Mrs. Tiny and Teeny Tiny cheer from the sidelines.

For some reason, I'm not feeling into a long race right now. The dogs made sure I had less than 4 hours sleep, and my bad ankle, legs and hips are aching as if to say, "Don't do it!" This is not like me. But maybe I just need more coffee and a better night's sleep. If I feel strong tomorrow, the plan is to push outside of my comfort zone a little more than I usually do in long races - just as an experiment since this race doesn't really count for anything. It doesn't even have age groups so there is nothing to lose! Coach Dee has given me some ideas on where to push. But at the moment, it doesn't feel like it's going to be one of those good days!

My thoughts are with 'Bent as he gets ready for his first 50-miler in Pine Mountain, Georgia. We'll be running at the same time, and fortunately Slowrunner agreed to go down and pace him for the last 40K. Fingers crossed that the knee surgery worked as well as we think it has!

Every once in awhile, I get a little carried away, thinking that my engineering education may have prepared me to do something practical in the real world using tools and things. Which brings me to this morning. I'd spent 90 minutes with my head alternately under the kitchen sink and inside a dishwasher that refused to drain, looking for clogs and bravely removing part after part, hoping I'd be able to piece it back together again.

I'd finally excavated about as far down I dared to go. There were some openings. I stuck a finger in one to see if I could feel an obstruction. It was a small tube with a curve in it and I pushed my finger further inside... and it suddenly occurred to me that 'Bent is flying to Georgia for 3 days, and I had a vision of myself stuck all weekend inside my dishwasher like some handyman version of Aron Ralston - yikes! I carefully extracted my finger.

I googled "Bosch dishwasher won't drain" and found an instructional video. I'd tried most of the stuff already but there was one last idea to try. I returned to my excavation and dug around with a fork handle until I discovered a pine nut preventing the drain pump impeller from turning easily. It's the sort of thing we appliance repair people see all the time. ;) The test run worked perfectly and I was almost as chuffed as when I finished the Death Race. Probably $200 saved that we can spend on something more fun! :)

Great news from the New England Journal of Medicine:

I think we've all heard some version of this:

"A subclass of flavonoids called flavanols, which are widely present in cocoa, green tea, red wine, and some fruits, seems to be effective in slowing down or even reversing the reductions in cognitive performance that occur with aging."

But the results of this statistical analysis are new and exceptionally encouraging:

"There was a close, significant linear correlation (r=0.791, P<0.0001) between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million persons in a total of 23 countries. When recalculated with the exclusion of Sweden [Bash's note: why does Sweden *always* have to be different? ;) ], the correlation coefficient increased to 0.862. Switzerland was the top performer in terms of both the number of Nobel laureates and chocolate consumption. The slope of the regression line allows us to estimate that it would take about 0.4 kg of chocolate per capita per year to increase the number of Nobel laureates in a given country by 1. For the United States, that would amount to 125 million kg per year. The minimally effective chocolate dose seems to hover around 2 kg per year, and the dose–response curve reveals no apparent ceiling on the number of Nobel laureates at the highest chocolate-dose level of 11 kg per year."

There is more and it is amusing.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMon1211064

Before this weekend's Oil Creek 100K trail ultra, I wanted to check one last time to confirm that my legs were working. It's been a busy few weeks, and there haven't been many non-weekend runs. There's also been a disturbing trend of bruises and goose eggs on my right lower leg. First, when 'Bent and I were moving a heavy jade plant back indoors so it wouldn't freeze, the pot smashed my leg into a concrete step. Twice. So I had a scraped and swollen calf at Run for the Toad. A week later, I slipped while hiking (hiking, fergawd's sake!!) across a slimy wooden bridge and smashed my shin against a corner of it as I hit the ground. More bruises and swelling. Then I banged my knee on something in Sunday's orienteering event - big, painful bruise.

Phew, everyone knows that bad things always happen in threes. Except for this. Today I stepped on a thick branch hidden under autumn leaves, and it flew up and smashed me in the shin again, right on top of the previous goose egg. Arggh.

Anyway, pain aside, BazingaDog and I had a nice run on leaf-covered trails at dusk in chilly weather with big raindrops just starting to come down, hinting that they may turn into snow.

It's *almost* cold enough to start course testing for Wilderness Traverse, especially the parts where we'll need to swim rivers or wade through waist-deep swamps. Sure, we could do this when it's warmer but Getawaystix ran off to France with a beautiful woman in September, and he has just turned his mind back to event organization. We roughed out the 2013 race course today, subject to what we find out when testing. Looks like another good one. :)

And it's official...

Wilderness Traverse will be held on August 17-18, 2013. You'll be racing in the Muskoka region but we will wait and announce the host venue after all permissions have been confirmed.

150 km of trekking, mountain biking and paddling with challenging navigation on the beautiful Canadian Shield. Teams of 3 or 4, open or coed. 24-30 hours.

Earlybird registration will open soon. Hope to see you there!

Note to Oil Creek runners from their Facebook page.

Safety Note - wear some bright colors during the race - brown or all black/grey not recommended. Muzzleloader Deer, squirrel and grouse seasons open this Saturday (race day) along with the ongoing deer archery season. Oil Creek State Park has 6250/7026 acres open to hunting. On a side note for those free range organic meat lovers, porcupines are in season and the daily limit is three!

Thanks to Hansel for stopping by with Bunk so we could tire our pooches out together on our neighbour's fenced property. Bunk was an excellent guest, BulletDog was well-behaved as always, and BazingaDog needs to work on his noisy company manners. Sadly, I only have pics of dogs - not of Hansel. But I'm sure there are a few recent pics of him floating around because he GOT MARRIED on Saturday. :)

Congratulations on the latest step in your journey together, Scott and Caitlin!

The Republican Party continues to confuse me. Apparently, it is possible to be pro-life when it comes to abortion yet also support the right of parents to seek the death penalty for rebellious children. (!!) WTF?

Ontario Orienteering Championships Long course.

I haven't done much individual start orienteering in the past couple of years, so it seemed like a good idea to practise before heading down to Pennsylvania for the North Am Champs in two weeks. I figured I may as well get the maximum possible amount of practice by entering the elite category instead of racing my age group. Glad I did, since even a 90-minute race didn't feel very "long".

I didn't spend enough time thinking about route choices on a few longer legs, and ended up making bad decisions. However, I executed those bad route choices pretty well, considering my longstanding issues with navigating Hilton Falls-type terrain. I overshot a small trail turn-off by a minute or so, but otherwise I think I always knew where I was within 50 m. I didn't enter F-Elite to compete but I feel OK about finishing within 15 minutes of winner Molly Kemp. I could have saved 10 minutes with better route choices. I bought new orienteering glasses with higher magnification immediately after the race. :)

Beautiful autumn day to be running at Hilton Falls. Fun course, great job by the Stars. Thank you all!

(Started and stopped Garmin a little late.)

Congratulations to my Salomon Flight Crew teammate, lawyer Adam Campbell, on setting a new Guinness world record for running a marathon in a business suit. Not only did he *finish* the Royal Victoria Marathon, he ran it in 2:35:53 and placed 6th overall! (Previous record was 3:24.) He raised funds for a charity that provides pro bono legal services to people in need.

Event: 2012 Ontario Orienteering Championships
 

Congrats to my Mom, Dorothy Campbell, on receiving a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for community service this morning. It even comes with a "Wearing Guide". It turns out there is *serious* protocol involved in wearing a medal - we had no idea! I'm very proud of her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Between the TRCA's Palgrave Forest and Wildlife Area Trail Opening event with Crash and some trail work on our property, I hiked about 7 km today - might as well log some of it. Could the autumn leaves and flowers be any more beautiful??

Hard Core Live with Caron. It's that time of year again - and not a moment too soon! Ouch.

C3 yoga class. Feels so good to be back building strength again. Much needed. Nice to see 'Bent able to do a couple of poses that his knee wouldn't allow last year.

Peter Thompson's name and face looked familiar in last week's news - but it's a common name, and why would I know the 19-year-old head coach of the Bow Valley Kayak Club? The teenager died in B.C. after paddling over a 6 m waterfall he had been over many times before. He was with a group of friends; neither he nor his boat resurfaced.

National Geographic photographer Gordon Wiltsie just posted this tribute, and now I remember. I took an adventure photography course with Gordon at the Banff Centre in 2008, and Peter was one of our "models" - local athletes who biked, climbed and paddled for us in exchange for a collection of photos of themselves in action. He stood out from the crowd since he was so young (only 15 then), friendly and talented. He just seemed to be having a whole lot of fun. Aw, such sad news. Rest in peace, Peter.

'Tis the season for Ontarians to become familiar with hunting regulations in the outdoor areas we frequent. MNR has posted a new web page to make it a *little* less cumbersome for non-hunters to find out when legal hunting takes place in different parts of the province. Note that the province is divided into many small "wildlife management units" with different seasons so you need to check the maps carefully.

In Caledon, we've got deer bow hunting season from this week until the end of the year. Coyotes and skunks can be hunted legally at any time. Turkey, pheasant and raccoon seasons start next week. Certain local masters athletes will be interested to know that squirrel season opened last week; note the maximum of 5 squirrels per day.

This web page tells you "when" and "which animals" but the more difficult question is *where* hunting may occur. For example, we live beside a large piece of conservation land where hunting is illegal but one of our neighbours hunts deer there anyway. Next to that is private land where we have permission to use the trails but the landowners invite deer hunters in. We spend more time on the conservation land at this time of year, and we wear bright colours and put orange hunting vests on our dogs when we have reason for concern. If we had kids, we probably wouldn't take them to some of these places.

There are many places in Ontario where bullets can whiz legally across the Bruce Trail and other trails that pass through private land. In the Milton/Georgetown area (e.g. the land north of Hilton Falls where many of us have orienteered), there is a gun hunting season for deer from Nov. 5-9 and bow hunting from October to December. Warning signs are rarely posted, It's our responsibility to know about this; it's not anyone's responsibility to tell us.

A few kilometers away from us in Simcoe County, much of the public forest is multi-use including hunting. A hunter who shot and killed a grandmother hiking on a Simcoe Country trail several years ago was acquitted because it could not be proven that he had broken any rules of hunting . Once again, it's up to us to find out where hunting is permitted so we can make an informed decision about whether to share the woods with people who can kill us without breaking any laws while pursuing their recreational pastime.

Power Yoga for Flexibility - Rodney Yee
Hurts so bad that it must be good.

Glad I kept my paper maps!

Fellow Salomon Flight Crew member Adam Campbell, a lawyer in B.C., is trying to set a new Guinness World Record time for running a marathon in a business suit at the Royal Victoria Marathon this Sunday. Yup, full suit, tie - maybe even a briefcase, according to his wife. As Adam says, "I hope it's worth the inevitable chafing." Current record is 3:24, and Adam's marathon PB is 2:29. The smart money is on him.

Speaking of smart money, he's raising money for Access Pro Bono, a non-profit charity that works to increase access to pro bono legal services. Details are in the article above.

Congrats to Revy and James, Mr. and Mrs. GHOSLO, and Eldersmith and Sharon for their excellent performances this past weekend at the North American Rogaining Champs!

Half the participants in the 24-team event qualified for the world champs. Only one team competed in each of the Open Women's and Veteran Women's categories, with the stronger team getting 620 of 2700 available points. (Arthurd... sigh.) A very experienced rogainer in another single-team category confirmed a berth in the Worlds with 50 points, i.e. the team likely visited one control in 24 hours. That's how the (crazy new) rules work so that was smart strategy. Or to be fair, maybe they were injured or sick.