Snowshoe Orienteering (Adventure Race) 35:00 [5]
Stars Winter Adventure Race - a very fun event on a chilly bluebird day. We got nice socks as swag, then we pulled on our thinking caps to figure out the complex "Nick-style" rules. Eventually, it all made sense, and it was an interesting race course design! The first discipline was Snowshoe-O. We ran together to #1, then we could split up and do the rest of the course separately, but there were rules about the minimum number of controls each teammate had to do, plus we each had to go up the escarpment for at least one control, etc. The teammate carrying the SI card had to hit the numbered controls in order. Lots of strategy, and it was different for every team. Fun.
Remembering last year's Tree Hugger disaster in this event, I marked 'Bent's route on his map for him with orange highlighter. I wasn't feeling good - lots of coughing - but I was determined to run as hard as I could to #1, then 'Bent would have the maximum amount of time to visit his controls, and we should make it to the finish around the same time. It worked - I got to #1 just behind 'Bent, Tiny and Nosnhoj, then we split up to find our different controls.
Unfortunately, Tiny knows 'Bent too well, and he played him like a violin. Instead of following my carefully-marked route, 'Bent knocked himself out to follow Tiny's path through the woods, which - surprise, surprise - didn't lead to all the same controls that 'Bent was supposed to do. Tiny knew it, and steered 'Bent around a bit.
To my surprise, I met 'Bent coming out of a control that only I was supposed to punch - and it was mandatory that I punch it. A little while later, close to the chalet, I realized that the guy running behind me was 'Bent. Great timing, I thought, but as the chalet came into view, it occurred to me that he shouldn't be with me. "You *did* punch controls 3 and d, right?" "Oh s&*t". That was the only point in the snowshoe section where I slowed down, walking for the next 90 seconds in a blue funk while he ran *way* back to the turn he was supposed to take. Sigh. I reached the chalet before Nosnhoj, but 'Bent was 3.5 minutes behind him, so the Milton Basement Racers had established a firm lead.
We had a mandatory 14-15 minute rest period inside the chalet. It was such a cold day that Nick wanted people to warm up for safety reasons, and I can't argue with that. For our team, it worked the opposite way, because we were warmed up and ready to take off layers for the ski-O, but instead we cooled down and felt damp, so I ended up overdressing for the ski-O.
XC Skiing - Classic (Adventure Race) 1:10:00 [4]
We did the first part of the ski-O together, then split up to do different controls. Such a beautiful day to be out on the trails! After skiing on and off-trail to our respective controls, everyone had to hit the final control about half a kilometer from the finish. There were no tracks when I got there, so I knew I was first. I visualized people coming up on my tail to make myself push hard for that final section. A few hundred meters from the finish, I glanced back and saw Tiny skating along strongly on his classic skis - eek! So I pushed a little harder and made it to the finish first. I imagined that Tiny and I would stand there waiting for our respective teammates with our fingers crossed, but Nosnhoj was only a few meters behind him. 'Bent came up behind and punched 7 seconds after MBR! When our different rest stops were taken into account, they actually beat us by 1:30. The 3rd place team was almost 40 minutes back.
Great race by MBR! They did a nice job of dividing up their controls for both sections, and they executed their routes perfectly. I'm happy with my race, since I didn't think I would be able to push hard today, but I did - and it's always an honour to finish anywhere near MBR. And hey, we had the fastest ski-O section! My teammate had to buy me a mochaccino and chocolate pecan tart on the way home to obtain (partial) forgiveness.
Fun, well-organized, interesting event by Nick and the Stars. Thanks for a terrific day out! Thanks also to Adventure Guide and Eugene for our prizes. Big congrats to Pixie, who had the fastest time on the snowshoe-O course - even though she didn't see the finish control outside until after she'd taken off her snowshoes and come inside the chalet, so she will place 2nd in the results.