Training Log Archive: Bash

Today was the big showdown between Dad and me at the Rotary Brantford Classic Run. He crushed me in the fundraising department, gathering about $6,500 in pledges, more than 10 times my total (and I thought I did really well!) Btw, thank you to "Anonymous Donor" from this morning. Your support is much appreciated.



'Bent was feeling good enough after STORM that he offered to pace Dad in the 5K. I knew this act of disloyalty would make it very difficult for me to beat Dad's time, given that I was doing 10K.

I was feeling a little self-conscious in my new Salomon gear, knowing that people would look at me in my fancy duds and expect me to be a faster runner than I actually am. I'm next to the wheelchair in this starting line photo. (He kept up for a few kms - impressive!)



The weather was cool and sprinkling with a little headwind in some directions. For the first kilometer, I looked at my pace and worried that I had started too fast. But I felt good so only pulled back the effort a little bit. My second kilometer was also faster than usual, maintaining a pace under 5 min/km. But I still felt good so I started focusing on running form, leaning forward from my ankles, pushing my hips forward, pushing off and kicking my feet up toward my bum. At 5K, for the first time ever, I was under 25 minutes (24:20).

There was a turn-around and I realized that I'd moved into 3rd place among the women. There was a young woman just ahead of me and we stayed about 20 meters apart for most of the race, passing men as we slowly moved up. I kept waiting for things to fall apart but at 8K, I was still averaging under 5 min/km and realized there was a chance to break 50 minutes. Holy crap, I'd never thought *that* would happen in my life. This was only my fourth 10K over the past five years and my PB was 52:15.

At 9.4 km, I passed the woman ahead of me but only managed to stay ahead for a couple hundred meters before she surged back to beat me by 6 seconds. I didn't care because my time was 49:44 which is still unfrickinbelievable to me. :))) 3rd of 46 women, fastest woman over 40, 2nd fastest over 30.

But in the *real* competition - the one against my Dad - I lost miserably. 'Bent paced him to an amazing 41-minute 5K. Brantford is a small town and there was a lot of talk about the bet between Dad and me, even a few comments on the PA system. The Rotarians seemed very pleased to see him kick my butt.



He actually ran! And he doesn't run.



Here's his first finisher's medal.



There is an asterisk on his win - in fact, a couple of asterisks. For instance, while I've been tiring myself out with adventure racing and athletic training, Dad has spent the last 60 years tapering, resting and carb loading in preparation for his first running race since high school. How can I compete with that? And then he confessed that one of his chemo drugs increases his metabolism, so technically he was doping. I never really had a chance but I was gracious in defeat.



Congratulations, Dad! He's already talking about coming back next year and trying to improve his time. I won't even try to beat him.

I volunteered for the Salomon STORM The Trent Trek Elite race. 'Bent had planned this to be his first race after knee surgery last fall. His recovery had been progressing well until March when he strained his ankle. Although he is physically fit, he hasn't been able to do any long bike rides or runs. I tried to get him to switch to the shorter STORM Trek course but he's a stubborn guy. (Takes one to know one!)

The race began with an 11 km paddle on Rice Lake. I was managing CP1 at Sunivale Resort where racers transitioned to biking. Patty and Kathie delivered the bikes by truck and we unloaded them. After all the teams left, we packed the trucks with racer gear bags and personal boats.



To our great surprise (!), Frankenjack was first to arrive by 11 minutes. Lots of time for photos.





'Bent was 16 minutes behind Frankenjack, still in the lead pack. At that point, things were too busy to take pics but he was looking good. Awhile later, Laidback Dave arrived. He had come by our place a few months ago to examine 'Bent's bike and he'd just finished building his own. When I say "just", I mean that he'd only had time to ride it 6 km before the race. As 'Bent and I have learned over the years, a recumbent bike will suffer catastrophic failure several times before the bugs are ironed out and it becomes reliable. Unfortunately for Laidback Dave, his bike cracked apart near CP3 so he arrived at the finish line by truck - but he was smiling. It didn't come as a huge surprise when his maiden voyage ended early.



His wife, Wombat (on AP), arrived shortly afterward. She's been recovering from injury and her doctor didn't think she'd be able to do the race even 36 hours earlier. It was awesome to see her later in the day, crossing the finish line looking strong.



When all the racers had gone through CP1, we packed things up and helped Algonquin Outfitters load the canoes. Patty deserves a medal for bravery!



Back at the finish line, I helped Mark VB set up the Salomon display.



At about 4 hrs 50 min, Frankenjack flew under the arch, then spent some quality time with the friendly peeps working at the finish line.





Then he faced the difficult quandary of choosing the best place to park his bike. Ooooh, decisions, decisions... He was 40 minutes ahead of 2nd place. Whatta show-off!



I stationed myself at the junction where Trek racers biked in to pick up canoes and Trek Elite racers biked directly to the finish line. In the excitement, they didn't always get it right.



Most teams biked in quickly and some of the Trek racers didn't see the nearby CP until volunteers flagged them down. This was the cause of a minor bike collision I witnessed that involved none other than Mr. and Mrs. Gally (who were laughing pretty hard about it). [Edit: Mr. Gally says I caused the crash by pulling out my camera. Mrs. Gally couldn't resist posing and he rear-ended her. Oops.]



Since 'Bent had been near the front on the paddle, I kept watching for him hopefully and I started to have a sinking feeling. I knew he was still in the race but he must be going very slowly. A volunteer told me that 'Bent wasn't doing very well. I worried that he might be trashing his knee when he should be dropping out of the race. Then a racer told me that he'd seen 'Bent going the wrong way and that cheered me right up. "Oh, THAT kind of 'not doing very well'."

Back when 'Bent had healthy joints, he had the occasional navigational disaster. I would much rather see him delayed because he took a wrong turn than because he'd torn his meniscus again - and fortunately, that's what happened. I must say that 'Bent did not share my joy at this situation. The lad would like to be able to run *and* navigate. *And* have cake. *And* eat it too. That will come with time. Having finished the Trek Elite course without limping, he is fit enough to start practising his nav skills again, and that is awesome progress for a guy who's been on the sidelines of racing for many months. I'm looking forward to getting my teammate back!





'Bent and Wombat were the STORM Trek Elite Masters champions.



Hodgepodge and Jokeysmurf were 2nd Coed in the Trek race. Awesome to have a mini New Zealand reunion at STORM, although Nelvia was missed.



Oh yeah, they gave a medal to this other guy too.



Fun day in spite of cold rainy weather. The competitors were troopers, most of them racing with wide smiles. STORM is a super well-organized event and that made it a great day for racers as well as an awesome volunteer experience. I was even handed a terrific bag lunch as I headed out for the day. I don't think anyone has packed me a bag lunch since I was 12! Thanks, STORM, for all your hard work to provide the adventure racing community with a high quality set of races in Ontario, each with a different character. It was great to see so many new racers out this weekend and to know they would leave with a positive impression of adventure racing. That is a huge benefit to the rest of us who organize events.

Update for tomorrow's 10K Rotary fundraiser... Starting on Wed. at 4 p.m. without bothering to register online and attract online donations, Dad has raised over $6,000. He wins on that count. He also defied his personal trainer's warnings (he is 77, after all) and jogged 5K on a treadmill in 46 minutes yesterday, so he may win on time as well. (I'm doing the 10K and need to go twice as fast to "win".)

In other news, Frankenjack smoked STORM The Trent Trek Elite with a 40-minute lead over 2nd place. Wombat was top Masters woman. Hodgepodge and Jokeysmurf were 2nd Coed on the Trek course. 'Bent won Masters Trek Elite but his navigation stunk so he didn't do as well as he'd hoped. The good news is that he is complaining about his nav errors and not about agonizing pain in his knee or ankle (yet). It's almost like having the old 'Bent back!

Put up some checkpoints for the long trek navigation section for Salomon STORM The Trent. Time deducted for control hanging (SI + O flag + sign).







While I did that, Frankenjack and 'Bent spent some quality male bonding time together. Seems like the boys had fun... When I got back, 'Bent's leg was shaved and Frankenjack had wrapped meters of tape around 'Bent's ankle. Looks like it should be helpful.



This will be 'Bent's first adventure race post-knee surgery and post-ankle strain. Everyone please cross your fingers and hold your breath.

After biking less than 14 km in 2 hours yesterday, Bob and I drowned our sorrows with dessert. It worked.



Today we were testing part of a Wilderness Traverse bike leg that we expected to be hilly and super fun - and we were not disappointed. We'd tested other parts of this bike leg last October so we had a good idea of what it would be like.



You might wonder, "What the heck is she doing with a pack that big for a 3-hour bike ride?" Training for the Alpine Expedition Adventure Race in Switzerland, that's what. Actually, our packs are always stuffed full when we go course testing. It improves the training value plus we both have survival gear in case we get separated, lost, injured, etc. in a remote area. There is nobody waiting for us at the next TA.



Not much else to say about today except that the ride was every bit as wonderful as we were hoping. This is the type of riding and the type of wilderness landscape that adventure racers love; we can't wait to share it. It totally made up for yesterday's slogfest! I guess we could complain about the black flies that came out today but they were only in a few places and couldn't catch up when we were moving.

















We played around with the video setting on my little waterproof Pentax and got a couple of decent clips. I'll have to post them to Youtube or Facebook.

So at this point, Bob and I have been over the entire Wilderness Traverse course and have done some fine tuning of our original design. If schedules can be coordinated in July, we're hoping to do a full run-through from start to finish to give us an idea of how long the Tree Huggers might take. It'll be a good check of our cut-offs, short course options, etc. We have detailed route/distance/time data from course testing but it has all been in daylight so far. Hope it works out - that would be cool!

Tested part of the Wilderness Traverse paddle section with Bob. We started someplace nice. So nice that I blotted it out with Photoshop.



It was chillier than we'd expected and Bob had bravely worn shorts. I was flinging water all over him with my kayak paddle - and vice versa as the wind changed. I went back and forth with my layers all day as the wind and sun came and went. I was loving my new stretchy Salomon Quest rain jacket with the Pete-zips (which exist thanks to the campaigning of an anonymous Salomon manager who is a past winner of Wilderness Traverse).





There are few more pleasant ways to spend a day than paddling on the Canadian Shield before bug season.







I looked back regularly to make sure Bob was still paddling. Didn't want him to get away with lazing around back there in the stern.



It's spring so it's no surprise that we found some whitewater. WT racers won't be paddling any though.





We portaged - but not as many times as last year.





Note that I had to carry a whole bunch of things.



Bob only had to carry one thing.



Sometimes he didn't even make it all the way to the water.



The forest was sunny, open and beautiful. It's so bright before the leaves come out.









There was still a little snow and ice in shady places.



But wildflowers were popping up everywhere!



It was a fun and beautiful day although for some strange reason, my sore shoulder didn't improve with 6.5 hours of paddling. Go figure.

Some teams may do part of this paddle at night so I hope they enjoy these photos!

Part 2 of our Wilderness Traverse course scouting. Ho hum, here I am waiting for Bob in transition.



Today's session was a great reminder of why event directors need to do the courses themselves before sending racers out on them. It was also a great excuse to have a hot brownie with ice cream and fudge sauce afterward in an attempt to alleviate the post-traumatic stress.

It started out all sunshine and roses, smiles and rainbows. Pleasant riding on scenic trails.







The first sign of trouble was a section of trail with some very technical rocky bits that Bob could mostly ride with his Spiderman skills but I had to jump on and off my bike way too often. Grrr, gotta work on that.



Then it became clear that the rest of our trail had been built through a wetland.



We wouldn't want to send racers through several kilometers of this crap on bikes, and this "connector" area could be traversed by paddle or trek instead. So we were no longer really course testing - but our car was on the other side of the muck so we had to go that way anyway.







At one point my bike and I even got sucked into some quicksand. Yay. Note that my instinctive response when I started sinking was to toss my camera to Bob.





So in case anyone thinks that course testing is always a blast... it isn't! Although we did laugh a lot in between the grumbling.

No shower at the cottage we were staying at, so we had to go for a quick bath in the lake to get all the mud off. Wow, if our canoe had tipped today, we would have been in big trouble. The water was *frigid*.



So racers will be *not* be doing this section on bike. Lucky you!!

Unbelievable! It looks like we may hit 30 teams for Wilderness Traverse over the next few days. We'd thought about what our approximate sell-out capacity might be but to be honest, we hadn't analyzed it in great detail. Looks like we'll have to, and what a great problem to have! Thanks for the tremendous support and a special huge thanks to Dee who has agreed to be my co-pilot at Race HQ. (Please, please, PLEASE don't go into labour while Logie is out on that 30+ km trek.)