Training Log Archive: Bash

Biking to Albion Hills and around - mostly single track with some good hill climbs. Some race pace riding early on, since we had some other riders right behind. I was with 'Bent for the first 20 minutes, then he was swept away in the thick of a bike club group who took a trail turn-off that I didn't. Marital communication, ain't it grand! ;-) It was a great ride anyway - dry, sunny spring condtions, tiny fresh leaves on the trees just out of their buds, deer bounding through the forest, wildflowers - nice!

Pre-race paddling practice at Island Lake with Crash and Gazette, in preparation for next weekend's adventure race. Three in a canoe is always fun (NOT), but things went as well as one could have hoped. On a windy day, we managed to hold our line and keep up a reasonable pace with minimal banging of paddles and bashing of heads (I did bonk Crash in the noggin once, I'm afraid). Gazette led us in a couple of paddling intervals, and has promised to do the same in the race. Meanwhile, 'Bent and Gazelle practised 2-in-a-canoe, and looked very good.

First time I've been able to compare training hours for the same month in two years. Lots of O in both years. More biking and strength this year, which I've consciously tried to do, and less paddling, due to the lack of hydrospinning classes. I'm surprised that I did so much more running last April though. That needs to be fixed.

APRIL 2006 - 45 hrs, YTD 175 hrs
Orienteering 17.5 hrs, Cycling 9 hrs, Running 5.5 hrs, Strength 5.5 hrs, Trekking 4 hrs, Paddling 3.5 hrs
APRIL 2005 - 48.5 hrs
Orienteering 15 hrs, Running 12.5 hrs, Trekking 6 hrs, Cycling 6 hrs, Paddling 6 hrs, Strength 2.5 hrs

Brisk rogaine training hike with several members of the Wadd Squad and JeanW. Followed a scenic route through Hamilton area valleys and along the escarpment. I'm not that familiar with the area, so it was fun to come over a hill and suddenly recognize terrain from Raid The Hammer, O training nights or visits to McMaster. Dr. Wadd provided good history lessons enroute. My ankle still hurts a bit, but its strength and range of motion were thoroughly tested on rocky trails, and it survived OK. While we walked on flatter trails, Nina offered feedback on my route choices drawn on maps from recent races, and did her best to put a positive spin on my 13-minute error in the Pig Long. (Yikes.) We finished off by watching the start of Tio Mila, a luxury normally not available to us country bumpkins living in the dark ages of low speed Internet.

While watching the Daily Show. Today's insight: George W's approval rating is 33%, but George Sr's rating got down to 29%. Since George W is competitive with his father, they're predicting that he'll do something really bad to try to get down that last 4 points to match his Dad. The problem is, they can't figure out what more he could do. They put up a table comparing the two men:
"George Sr had a war in Iraq. George W. had a disastrous war in Iraq."
"George Sr's VP misspelled potato. George W's VP shot a man in the face."
Etc. :-)

Trail run in Palgrave West with ThunderDog. Hard not to step on violets - they're everywhere!

Around Island Lake with 'Bent in solo kayaks - gorgeous day, and nobody else was around. It was nice to just focus on technique, and we threw in a few intervals too. This was probably our only chance to practice solo kayak paddling before Storm The Trent. Wildlife watch: A bazillion irritated Canada geese, and the biggest snapping turtle I've ever seen.

Thumbs-of-Death told me that if running feels right, then my ankle is ready to do it. My foot is shaped like a normal foot again, and is much less purple. So... today was the test. BulletDog and I went out for a trail run around Palgrave West on a perfect spring day - wildflowers in bloom, ferns on the trail, the smell of wild leeks in the breeze. Our trails are not smooth, so my ankle had to contend with rocks, branches and horse hoof prints. It felt a little sore, and I was being a little cautious, but really it was no big deal. My legs felt light after 3 days of rest, so it ended up being a fast run with a few good hills. I wouldn't do a long distance run just yet, but it feels like I'm 80% recovered. Yahoo!

Cooled down with some ABCs

Visited Thumbs-of-Death with my sore ankle today, and he inflicted laser beams and torture on me before declaring that biking would be beneficial because it would keep my foot moving. So I biked to my Town Environment Committee meeting tonight, which seemed like a nice thing to do right after Earth Day. What Thumbs-of-Death and I had both forgotten is that removing my foot from the clipless pedal is pretty much the same motion (and sometimes almost the same intensity) as turning my ankle. The first time I did it, there was a blast of pain and I undid half a day's worth of healing. Then I perfected a way to remove my foot by turning the heel inside, toward the bike.

Other than that, it was a great ride - mostly rail trail with some forest trails and a short stretch of country road.

And then the ride back from the meeting... I'm disappointed to report that I'm not as brave as I'd hoped. I didn't feel safe riding the rail trail at night. It might actually be very safe, but unlike our forest trails, I have occasionally met people - OK, men - on the rail trail that I didn't feel comfortable around. There was a guy in camouflage carrying a gun, solitary guys a long way from anywhere who were clearly not dressed for hiking, etc. No biggie in daylight, but I just didn't like the idea of being 1 km away from the nearest road in pitch blackness and meeting someone tonight. Of course nothing happened, and I made it home safely - and in very good time, considering that the way home is more uphill, and I was using a lousy bike light.

Apparently, 48 hours after spraining an ankle, you should stop the RICE and focus on mobility of the joint to prevent scar tissue from building up, thus making you more prone to injury. It is suggested that you put your foot up on a chair, and keep your heel down while you write the letters of the alphabet in a big font with your toe. So that is what I did for much of today, with my computer on my lap. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever got past K because I would get distracted, then I'd have to start again. I ran into my sports chiro at a meeting tonight, and he assured me that my ankle will never heal if I don't get to the second half of the alphabet. ;-)

I think I'll be ready to attempt biking tomorrow. I should probably take a pass on running until the weekend - or at least until my foot isn't purple anymore.

Hard Core Monday.

I spent much of the day resting, icing, compressing, elevating and ibuprofening my swollen, colourful, painful foot - but unfortunately, the injury did not affect most of the body parts required for this core workout, so I still had to do it.

This morning I was uncertain whether I was looking at an injury lasting multiple days or multiple weeks. I could not push off with my injured foot at all, i.e. I had to keep that foot perfectly flat, which made it awkward to walk. After much TLC and good drugs, I'm feeling some changes for the better tonight, and I'm hopeful that I'll be back on the trails soon.

Rats - I've got to start allowing more time for a decent warmup. I couldn't cool down much for reasons I will relate shortly...

Mob Match at Mansfield - 90-minute Score-O. I love Score-O, but today was a good news / bad news day. On the good news side of the ledger, today's heavy rain lightened up to grey skies with occasional sprinkles during the event, then the weather turned nasty again on the way home. It was one of those days when I needed a long hot shower to get the chill out of my core.

And more good news... I was the top woman today in an event that included a couple of fellow GHO women whose abilities I respect a lot. I managed to fight my Score-O Achilles heel - greed for extra points when I really should be heading for the finish to avoid penalties. It was close, but I came in with 3 minutes to spare. I think I ranked about 11th of 45-50 runners overall, so I count today as a success from an O point of view. GHO's big heroes of the day were ThePiller, in 2nd place overall, and Invisible Sudden in 3rd (he managed to arrive, race and depart without being seen by anyone - almost).

But the bad news... Racing into a control at the halfway point (45 minutes), I saw 'Bent coming toward me, and I turned on a burst of speed so I could arrive just after him. Remember the showboating snowboarder in the Olympics who attempted a grab and lost her medal as a result? Well, as I looked at 'Bent instead of the ground, I must have stepped into a pit and my left ankle (on the leg that is always 100% healthy) turned with a serious cracking sound. 'Bent offered to stay with me, but I pushed him to continue the race, while I hobbled for the next few minutes in shock, wondering if I should go back. Then sheer foolishness and competitive spirit kicked in, so I carried on with the race. The ankle felt strange, but not excruciating - until later, when I was trying to cool down and get back to the car. Now it hurts a lot and is swelling up nicely. Lots of RICE for me for the next while, I guess. And Vitamin I.

Oh crap.

Trail run with ThunderDog on a damp, grey day.

After the warm-up lap, I dropped ThunderDog off at home and went around the same trail loop again - without the canine exploration time. It was a good steady pace, but not too hard because I've got a 90-minute score-O tomorrow. Focused on running form - posture, arms, knees, stride. It seems that I can only get two of those things right at a time.

First time paddling since the Raid The North Champs last September - boy, have we missed Bill Trayling's indoor paddling classes. Gazelle, Gazette, Padre, 'Bent and I went out on Island Lake and paddled in various combinations in two canoes and a kayak. Based on some simple paddling speed tests today, it looks like 'Bent and I will be paddling partners in the upcoming Raid The North race, and Padre and Gazelle will take the other boat. That makes it easier for training, as we don't need to synchronize four impossible schedules.

It felt good to be on the water again, but we are definitely rusty. I bought a season's pass, which will hopefully inspire us to get out more often. We'll also need some solo kayak practice before Storm The Trent, where 'Bent and I are both racing solo.

While watching the Daily Show. Today's target: Scott McClellan, obviously.

A mountain biking melange on a very warm day. First some rail trail and gravel road riding to get to a dental appointment with Dr. 'Bent. Then some twisty, hilly single track in Palgrave, which was in perfect shape after 6 days without rain. And finally some fast riding on the double track for a good aerobic workout. Wildlife Watch: 1 wild turkey (not an attack turkey) and a duck of unknown persuasion.

GHO Adventure Nite

So much for my new resolution to do longer warm-ups. I managed to do a nice, crunchy ankle turn about 30 seconds into it too.

I've recently been told that clinging to my image of myself as a slow runner is not helpful. It's never bothered me to be slow, but upon some reflection, I've had to acknowledge that I do use it as an excuse to stay in my comfort zone, especially in shorter events (i.e. less than 24 hours), which I don't view as my forte.

So... tonight's mission was straightforward: push all the way through the sprint, and go faster than feels comfortable. Navigation was not as important, just this once.

We got maps in advance, and I spent 5 minutes reviewing the course. I'm so unaccustomed to getting maps in advance anymore that this didn't help me at ALL, as evidenced by the fact that I visited #8 between #1 and #2. I wasn't lost. I really thought #8 was the second control on the map - until I touched the flag, and glanced down and noticed that the control circle was connected to #9. Luckily, it wasn't too far off the trail that I never should have left, so hopefully I only lost about a minute. So much for my new strategy of focusing on speed above all else - sigh...

But after that, things went not badly. In fact, compared to some of the stories I heard afterward, I guess things went pretty well. I was thrown off a bit by the 1:5000 map scale ("oh, there's the flag already!"). But other than 30 seconds of wandering through a thicket-infested ditch looking for a flag at #11, everything went smoothly. And on the bright side, I had no trouble finding #8 later in the race, since I'd been there already!

My result looked a bit too good, and I knew the time was correct, so I sat down with the map and reviewed it to make sure I hadn't screwed up and missed a control - but I hadn't. So the finish order was Sudden in 1st, MrPither in 2nd, and... me in 3rd??

Combination cooldown and rough/precision navigation exercise. Beautiful summer night. Hopefully we will have some more spring after this - I'm not ready to run in the heat just yet!

While watching the Daily Show. Today's target: Donald Rumsfeld.

Legs feel fatigued from the big day yesterday. I felt some hamstring tightness begin in the left leg after the first hour of biking, and it has continued into today. But the good news is, my knee doesn't hurt. For awhile it seemed that just looking at a bike was enough to make my injury flare up.

The Tree Huggers have decided to go with an all-female line-up for the May 6 Salomon Adventure Challenge. 'Bent will race with Team Hunger. Crash, Gazette and I will take on the formidable Adidas Divas. Looking forward to it!

This was really just shadowing, as I followed 'Bent and BulletDog around the Albion Hills contours-only section from the Giant's Rib Raid, going in the opposite direction that we'd gone in the race. I'd already navigated this section twice before - once in the race, and once in the opposite direction when I took the flags down. So this time it was 'Bent's job to lead the way, and my job was just to glance at the map occasionally without saying anything, confirm whether we were in the right (or wrong) place, and ask a series of pointed questions to help him relocate when he got off track enroute to the elusive 17A.

Rocky and Crash, we've put up orange flagging tape on 17ABC, so give it a try! When you're done practising, please take the flagging tape down - thanks!

After visiting all the controls, 'Bent, BulletDog and I went for a very hilly run in the NE corner of Albion Hills. We've realized that the only time I run faster than 'Bent is going downhill, so I was trying to pass along my kamikaze techniques. I'm not sure he's entirely convinced.

Woo hoo - they've finally opened Albion Hills for mountain biking! After 3 days of no rain, most trails were very dry and it was a great day to climb those tough, twisty, rooty sections without putting a foot down. Chico Racing has done an awesome job on the trails - new sections, rerouted sections, some trail closures in sensitive areas, fallen trees from our high-wind winter cut down and moved. They aren't finished everywhere, but for most of the ride, we had absolutely amazing conditions. It was a great day to be out in the sun, and my legs didn't feel like it was the first big single track ride of the season. I guess the winter aerobic conditioning and leg strength exercises have made the start of cycling season less traumatic than it used to be - yahoo.

Last but not least... Hard Core Monday. I think we get a lot more value out of our workout than the people who do it WITHOUT two 30 kg Lab Retrievers attempting to lie on their chests while doing sit-ups.

Around Rockcliffe Trails with 'Bent, scouting the sprint course that I'm setting for an upcoming GHO Adventure Nite.

Weather forecast said rain turning to thunderstorms, so 'Bent and I decided not to go paddling and not to bike too far from home. Just to be contrary, the weather turned rather nice while we were out, but I'd only brought a little water and nothing to eat, so didn't stay out as long as I would have otherwise. We rode gravel roads and rail trail, and made a point of keeping the pace up. Looking forward to dry weather so we can get out on the trails. Not much longer now!

I've been slack this week following the GRR, but it's time to get back into the routine.

Went for a trek with ThePiller, BulletDog and Superfly George to take down the Giant's Rib Raid controls south of Castlederg Rd. Went in the opposite direction from Sunday to get a different perspective on the navigation. Rainy weather, good company, lots of mud and a couple of extremely happy dogs.

The Giant's Rib Raid may be over, but the associated fun is not! Morning was spent paying race bills at the conservation area and pizzeria (50 pizzas!), then picking up a CD of Mike vdB's race photos for a newspaper article on the event that I need to write by tomorrow morning. Then I took down the controls north of Castlederg Rd. - started out running, then turned it into a hike when I found that my energy level was lo-o-ow and my blisters were unhappy. It was a gorgeous spring day - high 18C and sunny, with fragrant wild onions sprouting everywhere in the woods.

The whole outing would have been too much for ThunderDog at her age, but I took her along for the Albion Hills portion. When I left the house earlier, she had a pitful look on her face: "I know I'm not a puppy anymore, but I still want to have fun!" That's a sentiment I can identify with, so I just had to go back and get her. She had a great time swimming in marshes and romping through the forest while I gathered flags.

Hard Core Monday! As JT said in his log, just because it's a rest day for the legs doesn't mean it's a rest day for the midsection.

We've learned that Caron Shepley, the instructor in the Hard Core DVD, leads Hard Core classes every Monday evening about 25 minutes from here. We are going to have to attend in person one of these Mondays. Word has it that in class, she remains as smiling, unruffled, unsweaty and completely relaxed as she does on the DVD while doing crunch after crunch after crunch after crunch.

Finally booked Aeroplan flights to New Zealand for 3 weeks this fall to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Yahoo!

Event: Giant's Rib Raid Adventure Run
 

Giant's Rib Raid 25 km Adventure Run. Like last year, we had a perfect spring day, a fun course design, and a great field of teams. One CP in Albion Hills, then we headed down Duffy's Lane to the next part of the Humber Valley Heritage Trail.

The next section was the Matrix, but this time we only had one control card per team, so it was harder to split up. Although I'm usually the main navigator on the team, 'Bent and Hingo are better runners, so they shared the nav for the Matrix while I ran the trail. (In retrospect, I should have run the roads in both directions because it was shorter, but I really did enjoy my trail run.) It seemed like a few teams were expending a lot of energy trying to find each other in the Matrix so they could swap the control card around different team members. Our simple strategy worked well, and we were with several top teams as we left the Matrix. I did regret missing the nav, but I'll be taking those controls down, so I'll get to visit all the CPs eventually.

After that, it was fun to check out some nice places that are close to home that we've never visited before. I'd like to go back and do more exploring. Lots of sidehill running, so several good blisters tonight. I did a couple of face plants over some fallen, rusty fences - one of which left me dazed for a few minutes, but still staggering along. The only control we seriously blew was 10C - a bit of inattention. We were in the right vicinity though, and only lost a few minutes wandering re-entrants. Other than that, we could have fine-tuned our routes here and there, but we hit most of the controls without much trouble. I was really proud of the final advanced section - a contours-only section of map where I led the way, and we finally passed the all-male team we'd been leapfrogging all day. :-)

Big congrats to MrPither, Griz and ThePiller for finishing an awesome, close 2nd place. Rocky, Crash and Shannon made a spectacular debut to navigation racing by finishing the Regular course in plenty of time, finding all the controls along the way. It was excellent to race with 'Bent and Hingo, with all of us reasonably healthy and uninjured, for once!

Based on preliminary results, we were 8th overall - our best ever finish in an adventure run. :-) Too bad 'Bent and I can't do Raid The Hammer this year - it'll be our first missed adventure run since 2002. But I'm sure that the charms of New Zealand will make up for it - a bit.

Oh yes, I'd said I was sure that some part of my right leg would hurt after the race, but I didn't know what it would be. Turns out it's the back of my knee, very painfully chafed from my knee brace. Ironic or what?

Insufficient warm-up followed by insufficient cooldown.

Rest day before the Giant's Rib Raid. I'm regretting doing a new stretch yesterday. I'd always thought the IT band was just a knee thing, but that is not the body part I've been asked to stretch. The "bottom" line is that it hurts to sit down today - ouch.

My right leg has been so fickle lately that I'm certain something will hurt after running 25 km off-road, but I don't have a clue what it will be.

While watching the Daily Show. They had fun with Condoleezza Rice's comment that the U.S. had probably made "thousands" of tactical errors in Iraq.

Trail run in Palgrave West with 'Bent and BulletDog. Maybe a bit fast for a tempo run - more like my sprint race pace, with a few brief "intervals" where I raced past 'Bent just for fun. (Didn't stay ahead for long, though.) It was such a rainy day that we weren't inspired to run for long.

Definitely need a longer cooldown for faster runs. No time today though - had to be in downtown Toronto for 'Bent's dental class reunion, preceded by an all-too-rare, but always expensive visit to MEC. :-)

Around Palgrave West with both dogs. I was surprised at how fast they wanted to go, since ThunderDog loves to stop and sniff. They instigated a couple of unplanned level 5 intervals when they ran off to track down interesting smells. I managed to catch up with ThunderDog, but BulletDog beat me to the source of one nasty aroma, and rolled in it before I could stop her. Then they both rolled in some deep mud puddles like little flying pigs, then dove into a pond for a swim. Sigh... I'd planned some hill intervals, but ended up doing doggie baths instead. But hey, they had a good time.

Now that the snow is gone, I added some strides to the session today. To my surprise, they induced a new type of form exercise - a pale imitation of Hammer's famous grimace. I dunno - it sure seems to work for him, so I don't think I'll try to get rid of it.

While catching up with American politics via the Daily Show. I added hand weights to a few of the exercises today - also a new IT band stretch that Dr. LeAnimal recommended.

Just saw the Flying Pig Long course results from Sunday, and I'm feeling more positive, even though I made a real mess of things out there for a little while. I was 6th of 21 women on the Green course, which isn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. I was 29th of 73 Green course racers overall, so the men really put me in my place in this event! My nasty error lost me at least 10 minutes, but if I could have avoided it, I would still have the same rank among the women - the others are simply WAY more talented than I am. But... in saving 10 minutes, I would have passed 13 of those men. Next time!! :-)

Trail run around Palgrave West with ThunderDog. It was a cold day with steady flurries most of the day. This outing was intended to be a light test of my knee, which went squirrelly last night again - not entirely unprovoked. I'd been to the sports chiro for a treatment using different techniques that loosened up various body parts from my right foot up to my hip. I felt fine until kneeling on ceramic tile to build a fire in the fireplace - then when I got up, the freshly-loosened parts of my knee had rearranged themselves in a new, totally unacceptable manner. With a bit of Vitamin I and ice, it looks like I should be OK for the Giant's Rib Raid. I hate the fact that my right leg seems so fragile these days.

Unplanned rest day - my "to do" list was just too long. Not that it stopped me from getting injured - sigh... For some reason, my knee feels funny even to walk on. I'm hoping that I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be gone. (Not the knee, of course - just the pain.)

Hard Core Monday. 'Bent and I were both feeling a bit blah, but managed to talk ourselves into doing our weekly session. The DVD must be working, because all those crunches are starting to feel manageable. Maybe I'll have to move to twice a week (yikes).

I almost forgot to mention the most important victory of the weekend - the coveted GHO Flying Pig award. This is an actual battery-operated Flying Pig, which will be marked with the winner's initials and passed to a new individual each year based on their "distinguished performance" at the FP meet. There were good arguments to support giving this award to any one of our GHO members at the Pig, and Hammer made a particularly eloquent speech explaining why he felt he was worthy, then attempted to bribe the judge with a Roll-up-the-rim-to-win donut coupon. However, in the end, it was MrPither who prevailed, thanks to:
- his Sprint victory
- his muddy, face-first slide to the finish control in the relay
- wallowing in the vegetation enough to get a thorn in his eye during the Long race (which he wisely didn't finish)
- doing all of this at his very first Pig meet.

Flying Pig Long Distance

I'm removing myself from the Injury List with a modest amount of optimism, since I've finished races in the past two days with painful injuries, but after today's run, I felt like I did last Thursday. Not 100%, but no worse for the wear of the Pig, and that was my #1 goal of the weekend.

Oh yes, and the race. Well, overall, I suppose it wasn't too terrible since my goal was 75 minutes, but unfortunately, I had a disaster of Biblical proportions at Control #11 - The Rootstock In The Middle Of Nowhere. It's really annoying, now that I've had a chance to review the map with a vanload of O experts, one of whom called it a "Hail Mary" control, as the terrain was somewhat featureless, and there was nothing to catch you for a long time if you missed it - as I did.

We determined that the genesis of my error was hurrying away from a control too quickly, following an approximate SE bearing for 100 m to a trail where I planned the rest of my route, but ending up a good way north of where I'd wanted to be. I lost 10 minutes here - and some pride. I'm quite disappointed that I can still blow up that badly. There were a few other controls that were a bit ragged, but no other major league errors. Top female runners were around 66 minutes, so it wasn't a super-fast course for anyone. Oh well, maybe Barebones will be my first good Long Distance race at an A meet?

We'd put some pressure on Hammer to win this event to give GHO a gold medal sweep in all 4 events of the Flying Pig weekend. He came through, finishing almost 2 minutes ahead of 2nd place. Nice work! (Hmm.... he tells me that he is a Middle Distance specialist, but he seems to keep winning the Long...)

Flying Pig Sprint

It's not often that I say this, but I was pleased with my speed in this race. Too bad about the navigation. I had over 2 minutes of errors, which should be almost impossible in a sprint! All the same, I can't complain too much about my time. I was the 4th woman of 23 on the Green/Brown/Orange sprint course, and 24th out of 85 racers on the course, including men. That's good news for my North American Sprint Series rank. Sprint Finals Weekend, here I come! ;-)

Other good news is that my knee didn't hurt TOO much, and the injured foot wasn't a factor.

MrPither smoked his sprint course, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of 2nd place - who happened to be another GHO member, Hammer. Awesome!

Flying Pig Relay (U.S. Relay Championships)

So finally we got to the race that had given me butterflies for the past few days. It's one thing to screw up my own races, but I really, REALLY didn't want to be the one to ruin things for my highly competent teammates - Sudden, Griz and Hammer. Yikes, could there be more pressure than that? Racing with a Swede and two guys with a zillion North Am Champs medals between them?

Sudden led off with a good leg. This afternoon's race was the opposite of this morning. I navigated well to each control (with one poor route choice that cost me a couple of minutes), but I went slowly. Just as well - it was a very physical race, with lots of scrambling up and down steep, muddy sides of valleys. (As a result of today, Sudden has convinced me that I should at least try orienteering shoes.)

About 2/3 of the way through the race, I turned my right ankle, and my foot pain returned with a vengeance. EEYYOWWW!! I hobbled up a big, mucky hill, gasping in pain the whole way, then gritted my teeth for the rest of my run. I was too sore to cool down.

Meanwhile, Griz went out and had a great leg, followed by Hammer, who anchored our team with a stellar performance. (An honourable mention is due to MrPither for his cooperative response to our calls of "Slide, Patrick, slide!" at the muddy finish chute.)

Result - we were 1st overall, but not eligible to become the U.S. Relay Champions, so that honour went to the 2nd place team. Still, our Pig medals are pretty cool! Looking at the results for the race leg that I did, there were two F21 women ahead of my time, and I was 7th of 14 runners overall. I was extremely relieved to finish without doing anything TOO embarrassing.

Sprint O/Br/Green - Splits