Running race (Trail/Road) 5:40:00 [4]
shoes: Salomon S-lab 4 Soft Ground
Last minute race with Relentless in preps for Scotland. As usual STORM's completely dialed in with all the race details - cabins, food, easy registration, quick gear check, pre-plotted CP's and everything on schedule.
With it being rogaine style we planned to clear the course with a LOT of running. The usual leave-a-bunch near the end scenerios with a few bailouts.
Race start on the bike, as usual pretty wild start with most teams starting out a little too hot on the ATV trails. Within about 10 mins we had a nice gap on most of the field together with LSN. We came out on the roads just ahead of LSN but decided to wait for them to share the work together drafting to cushion the lead on the other teams. After 20mins or so of roads we pulled into CP2/TA1 together.
In the canoes it was a swift paddle to get the bouy CP and then took-out at the portage trailhead at the north end of Bark Lake, From here we did a figure-8 type loop based on both attackpoint features and getting the long road runs out of the way while still fresh - 63,90,100,110,111,80,82,81,70 and 40.
Back on the boat we got 43 and 22 before docking near 61. James did the inner tube CP with the kayak paddle which was a nice timesaver (vs those paddling with arms/legs).
We got back to the hub before 3:30 and set off quickly to get the camp CP's and towards the high point CP's in the SW area of the map. It was a bit of a risk due to the mandatory 4-6pm check in but we figured 2.5hrs was ample time to be back for that check in. The camp ones were fine but unfortunately the high value ones (120,121) gave us some grief - we missed part of the captains meeting that indicated the trails were NOT flagged very well. We blew 20mins running up and down verifying the trails around us before finally bushwhacking in and finding a sh*tty old ATV trail that eventually led us to our intended CP destinations. From 121 we took the Maka Ina trail to CP41, then ontpo Anoong to get 30,50 and 42. At 5:30 we headed back to camp before stopping at CP44 aka the infamous 'loonie slingshot' CP. Relentless took 3 miserable shots before I took up the shooter only to fail just as pathetically (meanwhile 3 or 4 other teams around us were nailing them like the side of a barn). WIth one last shot Relentless nailed it. Huge relief as we figured clearing the course was definetely possible.
Back at the check-in we let Ursela know we were on to the final section on the east side of the map. Picked up 20,32,50 and 33 before making it back to camp with 40mins to spare. We analyzed our route for a few mins making sure we had it all before finally punching (and verifying with Sean we did clear).
We had a good race, kept a solid pace on the run without overcooking ourselves in the heat. A few minor nav bobbles but nothing signficant. Happy with the win given how many strong teams there were, feeling good about Scotland in 3 weeks bring it!
Very classy move by Beowulf conceding 2nd to LSN - who also cleared - but don't have quite the sharpshooting skills failing to nail the slingshot target.
Great to see everyone, great race and great food. All you can eat sundae bar, doesn't get much better than that!