Training Log Archive: Bash

Interesting... In last year's Snowshoe Raid, only 3 of the top 25 teams took a penalty.

This year 13 of the top 17 teams had a penalty.

I wonder why. Many of the same people were here last year - and the year before that. Everyone racing at that level is experienced enough to account for different weather conditions and to adjust their route as they see how things are going. I suspect this year's course design enticed people to head to the far north of the map where a bail-out deadline would seem so early that it would be tempting to extend it a little to pick up a control or two. Any other thoughts on why this happened?

Nasty, nasty drive to Horseshoe Valley this morning for the Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid. 'Bent, Crash and I almost turned back after getting caught in whiteouts. Finally things improved and we made it up there. The race was delayed by an hour and I hope most teams made it.The police were advising against driving so I know some stayed home and I can't blame them. It's really bad luck after all the work that goes into an event like this.

I teamed up with Dee for the first time and she was as awesome a teammate as I'd imagined. She started the day by presenting me with a black Salomon toque to replace the one I'd lost at the IceBreaker, and it only got better from there. As we reviewed the map, the available points and our piece of string, she presented several out-of-the-box ideas, one of which we adopted after a bit of analysis. (Warning: without seeing the map or doing the event, my race report will probably make dull reading.)

Our first instinct was to leave the south loop for the end. It was a group of 4 controls close to the finish, and it's always nice in a rogaine-style event to leave a loop to do near the end when you know how much time you have left. The problem was that this was by far the most "lucrative" part of the map and it would really hurt us to miss it. So we decided to do it first. Using the all-important string, we established several bail-out times and locations along the way - very important if we weren't going to have a loop to play with at the end.

Starting the race in chilly blowing snow, we set out on the south loop accompanied by a crew of other like-minded racers. For #61 and 62, we just stayed with the group. Moving on to #64, most runners took off to the west. We quietly ducked east where we reached the control just after Phatty and Harps and well before most of the others. It was kind of cool on the way to #63 and running north along the road afterward since we were still with a bunch of top competitors after 20 minutes of racing. Eventually they disappeared over the horizon, and normal order was restored to the universe once again. :)

We hit Horseshoe Valley Road at the same time as our biggest (and friendliest) rivals, Leanimal and Crash, the defending female champions. They continued north into the Matrix while we headed east, then turned north on the road that runs along the east side of the map. Keeping careful track of our location, we ran up the road until we got close to #75.

We ducked in at the right spot then used terrain features since we couldn't see the trails. Travel in the woods was physically tough today. There was a thick crust that would sometimes hold us and sometimes break and it wasn't always possible to predict when it would do what. Travelling in other people's tracks was sometimes harder because of the crust. Coming down one steep hill, Dee slid, her foot caught and her knee bent back 180 degrees. Yikes! Her foot was so totally stuck that I had to dig it out with my hands, then lift the toe of her snowshoe until she could escape from the crust. Wild stuff!

We said hi to Bender and Dr. Wells as we all made our way to #74 together, then they turned north to clean the course while we turned south to #73.

Then into the Matrix. We hit #72 together on our way in then split up. I did #71 and #69. We gave Dee a serious hill climbing assignment where she picked up #70 and #68. We didn't divide it up quite evenly. I spent 10 minutes in blowing snow at the aid station and huddled against an old ski building when my fingertips started to freeze.

Reunited, we checked our watches and decided that #81 would be too much of a push so we ran on roads to access the golf fairway that would lead us to #82. After that, most of our running was on hard-packed snowshoe trails or roads. We got #67 and, as it turns out, could have got #66 for 10 more points but decided not to take the chance because we didn't know how tough the ski hill climb would be. We made a beeline for #65 and the golf club, arriving at the finish with 5 minutes to spare. I'm bad for cutting my time too tight in rogaines so it was a treat to get back with a few minutes to spare. Nice to see Frankenjack at the finish!

During the 3-hour race, I drank about 1 cup of eLoad and ate exactly one of the many treats in my pack. This was very wrong of me. Please don't try this at home.

Contrary to my prediction (and my monetary bet with 'Bent), we managed to sneak ahead of the talented Salomon Bobkittens for the win in the female category and 11th overall with 500 points.

One cool thing about today's event was the large number of women who participated. I'm not sure how many teams stayed home due to weather but 86 of 204 registered racers were women, including 27 female teams, many of whom were happily telling stories in the change room afterward. Excellent to see that.

The only bad aspect of the day was pain in my right knee, the one that was inflamed in Coast to Coast last Saturday. I guess it wasn't quite ready to jump back into action - road running, specifically. Ice and Vitamin I are flowing freely tonight.

Big thanks to Getawaystix who always organizes a top notch event. Although we've been in the same location for several years, each Snowshoe Raid has had a different character. The smaller number of controls this year and the restrictions placed on GHO by the landowners made the route choices in this year's Raid quite different and non-obvious. We looked at a bunch of options before settling on our plan. I didn't talk to anyone else who went the same way so I'm sure there were lots of other good routes.

Great to see so many friends out there, many of whom were on the podium in their various categories, including Goose and 'Bent. Honourable mention to Hammer and AdventureGirl! who won the Family category with an amazing 400 points. Congrats to all!

Someone shoot me, please! I can't get the "Double Dream Hands" song out of my head this afternoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7yAWpX1Mc

The idea has been brewing for awhile and today I sent the Tree Huggers' deposit for the APEX Race, a 4-day non-stop adventure race in Interlaken, Switzerland (the area where the Eiger is). Disciplines are paddling (lakes and class II whitewater rivers in kayaks and canoes), running / trekking, mountain biking, canyoning, whitewater rafting and paragliding. We look forward to sharing the experience with our friends from Team Running Free. I think I'll *have* to carry a camera for this one!

Just added the closing report from Coast to Coast on Sun. Feb. 13, including photos of Jack on the podium.

Back in Palgrave and loving it! Tough run through heavy, wet snow but my legs felt surprisingly good.