For the CMTR Winter Scavenger Hunt Relay Run, several of us on AP planned a 7-hour streak of orienteers from across North America. The virtual baton (a rolled-up map) was passed from Pennsylvania to Maryland to 3 runners in Ontario, then to Colorado and back to Ontario. We ran, hiked, snowshoed, bushwhacked, ran city streets and navigated with maps and compasses.
Jill and I were the only ones who met in person. We passed a Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch because the CMTR Relay challenge deserves the very best!
JanetT led off the relay at 12 noon EST with a 6.8 km hike in Pennsylvania. (The first photo is from another day.)
PeggyD was up next in Maryland: "I printed out an o map hubby made last year; I hadn’t run in the woods here. I didn’t have enough time to run the 7k course so I did a score-o. The woods are on the edge of a huge soccer complex (mapped!). The woods are mostly open but with a lot of thorny things. There are several former farm fields, overgrown and thorny. But there were a few areas of beautiful woods that were so fun to run through!
I found 9 control sites, running out of time to get more. I would have been overtime in a real event, but I just stopped, took my pics, and walked it in.
Legs are a little ripped up from the thorns! About 40° but gray, humid, and maybe even a few sprinkles.
SO much more fun than just going on a trail run (or heaven forbid a road run)! Go AP relay team!"
Peggy wins the prize for the Run Closest to 1 Hour.
My local friend Jill, who has done several Dontgetlost Raids, was next. She ran in Palgrave Forest, my back yard.
Our race swag arrived in the mail this week!
Jill's twin sister is Caron, our longtime yoga/core instructor, and they live next door to each other. Caron's husband, Barrie, has been an Olympic triathlon coach, including for gold medalist Simon Whitfield. He was invited to run in the Olympic Torch Relay for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics so there just happened to be a perfect relay baton lying around their place.
The torch exchange video took us 6 takes, lol!
I took my snowshoes into Palgrave Forest and did some fairly gnarly bushwhacking with a map. I followed deer tracks across a wetland I've never crossed before and I didn't get soaked. It was all very wintry and lovely - a nice way to explore a forest I know well.
I got to wear all my Olympic paraphernalia for the torch exchange!
Who can you count on in a pinch? Super, that's who! A man who understands the importance of a streak, Super jumped into the 4 pm relay slot on short notice, allowing us to extend our Orienteer Streak. I hope he had a surprisingly beautiful walk in Burlington.
To quote his AP log: "CMTR streak making with the dog. This worked out pretty well in the end since I wasn’t really up to much and the day was about to become a zero from the exercise standpoint. At the very least this got me moving without aggravating my neck and, at its best, it was heroic, selfless streak preserving at its finest. I’m just glad I was here to actually save the world and all the life in it as well as to keep my exploits and their impact within a reasonable perspective."
He didn't exactly use an O map.
He hiked with a family member.
He gets the Sticking To the Schedule Award after starting at 3:58 pm and finishing exactly at 5 pm.
Kissy picked up the baton next in her new home of Fort Collins, Colorado. She originally planned to run but the wind was howling so she settled on a hike.
Kelly Cadeau of Toronto switched her run with her strength training today so she could extend our streak to 7 hours. She did a great job as our anchor runner - probably the fastest of our team today.