Note
THOMASS Scanlon Creek
Orienteering race 56:00 [4] ***
We started the morning with a surprise Skype conversation with Gazelle and Gazette in Tajikistan - awesome! Thus we arrived at the event with just enough time to get our shoes on and gear together, but not enough time to warm up. I noticed less than a minute before starting that I had accidentally grabbed my crappy old adventure racing compass that takes a couple of seconds to settle. Oh well. Most of us started the race with painfully cold fingertips, which were pretty distracting for the first 15 minutes or so. ("Is that the trail junction? Do you suppose that a person could lose all their fingertips permanently from doing a Thomass race?")
I felt like every fibre in my body was slow-twitch today, including brain neurons, although my legs got faster toward the end. It's crazy how long it takes me to warm up! Luckily, the nav wasn't difficult today, although I still managed to make a careless error at a trail junction, which forced me to change my plan for the Thomass Box.
I've been lucky that a couple of Thomass courses this year have favoured racers with higher handicaps and lower trail running speed. This race was not one of those! We ran around the area twice. The first map was the Thomass Box, and the second map was a course with 5 additional controls spread around the area that we all had to visit, plus the finish. I arrived at the 3rd last control with Slice and Leanimal. The next control was on the far side of a lake, and I decided to take the less likely direction around, since I knew that my only hope of squeaking ahead of those speedy women was to choose a different route and keep my fingers crossed. Well, my sneaky scheme didn't work, and my esteemed competitors tied for 6th overall - congrats! I came in at 16th overall, 5th woman. Fun event with lots of friends there.
XC Skiing (Skate) 1:15:00 [5] 11.5 km (6:31 / km)
Skate skiing at Hardwood Hills with BillyWells, Bender, BobTheNavigator, Leanimal, Phatty and 'Bent. Coach Billy shared a few pointers, and it was useful to just watch his graceful technique for gliding up hills. We went around the Pine Loop and all of its side loops. Lots of hill climbs, and much of the time, it was quite a push to keep up with such a fast crew. I can't remember the last time I went skiing in a group of 7 friends, and it was a gorgeous winter day too - so I'll rank this "A" for Awesome.
XC Skiing (Skate) 45:00 [4] 7.5 km (6:00 / km)
Normally, I would have called it a day after spending 75 minutes doing my first real skate-ski of the season, but I didn't want to be a total wimp - only a partial one. So I opted out of moving on to the more difficult Olympic Loop, and all of us except for Billy and Bobby took a drink break in the chalet. Then we headed out to the Meadowlands Trail, where the hills are gentler, and we had the luxury of working on our technique. At least that was the idea, but I was fatigued enough to have trouble staying consistent. 'Bent still seemed full of energy at the end, although he did have a spectacular crash on his final approach to the chalet, so perhaps even he was starting to feel it! Fun afternoon.