Training Log Archive: Bash

Caledon Navigators Mansfield Mountain Bike Adventure

I was the race director for this event, so no training today. Because there haven't been many mountain bike orienteering races before, this was a complicated and sometimes frustrating event to organize. I'm soooo relieved that all the riders came out of the woods safely, and that things went relatively smoothly.

35 racers came out on a sunny but chilly day. In contrast to almost every other task leading up to this event, everything that mattered went like clockwork yesterday and today. Lots of volunteers showed up early and pitched in to help in various ways. All of yesterday's controls were still up, and it didn't take long to send out riders to put out the final 9 controls and get them turned on. (Except for #14, which is either broken or else didn't turn on properly.)

We knew things would move like a runaway locomotive from the time the maps were distributed at 9:30 a.m. until the final starters went out at 10:45, and we correctly guessed that the first finishers would return and start the Advanced course before the final starters went out. But we'd talked through the craziness in advance, and it went fine. Unfortunately, the free Irish SI event software crashed and burned, but Nick and Goose managed to extract our results manually. We had phenomenal support from our sponsors Axis Gear and Salomon, along with a number of private donations from CN members to make the prize table look worthy of the entry fee. Rocky put out a spread of excellent treats, including Crash's famous brownies (as expected, there were leftovers of everything but those).

There were interval starts, and we'd separated Milhouse and Tiny, the two guys I'd expected to battle for the win. Tiny started earlier, but it was Milhouse who appeared first, pedalling hard toward the finish, looking really fit and fully recovered from his injury. He had up to 3 minutes off the clock to download, clear and check, and review the short list of control numbers to visit for the Advanced section. (Not a separate map - just several controls from the Regular course to visit in a specified sequence - longer legs than before.) He headed off, and Tiny flew in looking strong. Turns out he'd had a great race except for forgetting to punch control #1, so he'd had to retrace his steps from control #3 and start over at #1.

The results were closer on the Advanced section, but Milhouse prevailed to take the win, with Tiny in 2nd place. Nick de St. Croix put in an awesome performance to take 3rd overall and the Masters Male win. Leanimal won the Women's category, although she admitted to taking a couple of scenic routes. The Scooby family did very well, with Scooby Junior #2 taking the Junior division. Barbara Steele took the Masters Female prize, but Rocky coulda shoulda taken it, given her awesome finish time - except she didn't see #3 on the bottom of her map. (She picked it up after the race for practice!) 'Bent had a good day on his recumbent bike, finishing 6th of 35 overall. His prize was his own bottle of wine! I'd just bought it for him, then I took it back over his protests, concerned that we might not have enough prizes for the table.

It was great to see people there whose names I didn't recognize, and I'd be interested to know how they got there. The newbies seemed to enjoy themselves. The atmosphere seemed to be laughter about silly mistakes, rather than frustration - and it can go either way with beginners. Probably reading a trail map is more intuitive for novices than cross-country orienteering.

Anyway... it was great to have so much support for a new type of event - thanks to those of you who came out. And now I am going to sleep for a few days...

After a couple of days of race organization hell, I still didn't really have time, but decided to sneak out for a run around Palgrave with 'Bent and BulletDog anyway. I've already taken 3 days off training in prime racing reason - grrr. We did double track and single track - lots of hills. Gorgeous day. I'm feeling OK these days, but slow.

Coach LD, Goose and I went up to Mansfield in mid-afternoon to put out SI controls for tomorrow's MTB-O. Really glad they were willing to change their plans to come up there, as the two originally scheduled volunteers were unable to come at the last minute. Not sure how long we rode - my bike computer says longer than I'm logging, but that seems hard to believe with all the stops we made to put up controls.

We put out 17 of 26 controls today, and the others are in more visible locations, so we'll wait until tomorrow. A problem with MTB-O is that all controls are along trails, so they're more vulnerable to theft and vandalism.

Looks like we'll get some "weather" tonight, then it should be sunny and cool tomorrow - perfect weather for the event. The Mansfield trails aren't overused, and they're in awesome shape. I've got my fingers tightly crossed that we don't hit some unforeseen glitch, but racers should have a great time tomorrow.

Yesterday was a craptastic day thanks to event organization issues, but it had a nice finish as I went to a reception at a Stouffville winery to pick up my first award in a professional photography category. (Their definition of pro vs. amateur is too strict, so I was required to enter as a pro.) This was selected as the best in "The View Down There", one of 5 professional categories in the annual Oak Ridges Moraine "Moraine in Focus" contest.

Interesting to see who has signed up for the Caledon Navigators' mountain bike orienteering race. Unfortunately, the costs of insurance and trail fees are so high that the club will lose money if registration stays at the current 27 racers, even with a $33 entry fee for adults and $25 for juniors. (Which I know is driving some people away, but nothing can be done about it other than not hold the event.)

Here's the interesting part... I don't know *how* many times I've heard people complain that entry fees are keeping families away from orienteering. They say juniors should be allowed to orienteer for free or for $5 to keep the sport affordable. People who point out the high costs of kids' soccer and hockey - and the popularity of those sports compared to orienteering - always lose the argument. But so far, over a quarter of our registrants for this Sunday's event are juniors, and that's pretty unusual for an Ontario orienteering event - especially one with a $25 junior entry fee.

Yay, my family doc has given me permission to pursue my stoopid athletic hobbies for awhile longer in spite of passing out cold on the trail a few weeks ago. But next time, I'm supposed to lie down instead of trying to tough out a dizzy spell. (In other words, "Don't be a Bonehead, Bash.")

Tuesdays are now Quality Running days - I'm doing penance for my Sulphur Springs result. I did most of Bruce Loop - the long way through F&M's, down Raspberry Hill, up steeeep Hawk Hill (1st big hill in the run), then back to Mad Dog Meadow. Then I did 4 repeats of the longer hill running from Mad Dog Meadow to Thinker's Hill Bench. The only rests were the runs downhill at the same pace, but less effort. My knees twinged very painfully in the first two minutes of the run, but that went away and was replaced by leftover quad pain from Saturday. It was short, but felt intense compared to what I usually do, which I suppose is the whole idea.

Team Beowulf Tree Huggers (Mrs. Gally, Rocky and me) went out to Island Lake to practise our 3-in-a-canoe technique for ESAR. It went very smoothly even though it was a windy evening and harder than usual to steer the canoe. Conveniently, the arc of my paddle stroke swishes through the space over Rocky's head, which means that she has little risk of getting clocked if I get careless. (When I race with Goose and sit in the middle of the canoe, I wear a helmet!)

Afterward, we had a strategy dinner where we toasted our race, agreed on a team hairstyle, and decided the colours of hats, shirts and pigtail ribbons we will wear.

I think we're pretty much ready to go.