Saturday 29 August 2015

Nat's Raid pulse 4h and Cataraqui adventure trek week end-double win in the women categories.

August was a busy month with the K2O paddle race followed by an extremely hard 3 days of trail running racing at xc de la vallee. We luckily had the chance to escape to Mexico where we were able to relax for 4 days before racing again. After taking a whole week off it was time to get back into training but I just started a new job with AgriCan working on my feet all days lifting bags full of grains. So except from my 1h15 of commuting a day I had been able to do nothing but work.
On Friday just before racing I had been asked to do some overtime. Let say that I was fried before getting to the start line. Saturday morning I was feeling relatively ok but had heavy legs.
The Raid Pulse started in La Peche near Wakefield on the bike. From the start on James and Adam Malory left ahead and I tried to hang out with the next pack behind them. I manage to do pretty well on the first bike and did a quick transition on foot. I put on my altra shoes and I was gone. I don't know why but I always end up with the same duo male in the trek in raid pulse races. And once again I got to hang out with those guys. We ended up doing the whole trek together. First time that a raid pulse trek goes super well for me without me getting lost for an hour or so. I was very happy and left the guys while running to the TA to get on the bike. I did a super quick transition and I was gone...or actually I thought I was gone but realized my back tire was totally flat. This was a brand new tire tubeless and it was flat :(. After struggling to get the tire off I had to ask Tanya's help to put it back on with the tube. I am usually petty fast at changing flats but I could not get this tire back on. After lots of effort from both of us it was on and I was pumping as fast as I could. I was ready to go, turned around, put my helmet on and realized the tube went flat!!! That was it, I was out!!! Tanya convinced me to pump it up to the max that maybe it would work. So I did and it seemed to work. We heard the tire popping which meant it was getting back in place...so I thought. I jumped on the bike to do the 6km to the next transition and after 4,5km saw my back tire becoming flatter and flatter. I ran the last km or so to the transition. I saw the RD Thierry, explained the situation real quick and jumped on the kayak. I had missed the cutoff to make the advanced CP on the kayak at that point (which added about 2km all up of paddling). I went around, struggle a little with the under water CPs but found them thanks to other people, and got back to transition. Thierry had taken his MTB off his car and asked me if i wanted to ride it to finish the race. Thanks to him I was able to go get the last advanced CP and get to the finish a few kms further.
This could have been a very good race but ended up being challenging because of the bike. The course was great with just enough optional CPs to get everybody on the course for the full 4h. There was also a pretty cool part in the caves.
I still managed to come 5th in the solo category (1st female and in front of female teams and mixed teams too) and 7th overall.

Now it was time to go back home and fix the bike for the CATARAQUI Adventure Trek the very next day in Kingston.
We ran into MEC that was about to close and managed to get a brand new tubeless kit which ended up not working. Not sure whats going on with the valve but it doesn't work. James managed to put a tube in which seemed to not deflate (for once) so we would see the next day how it would hold up.
We drove to the race early with a very nice sunrise.


The race was more of an off road triathlon composed by a 2.1km trail run, a 800m paddle and 6.2km bike course. The aim was to do as many laps as possible within 4h. Any lap started but not finished within the 4h would not count.
We could both feel the fatigue from the day before but our 2XU shorts and socks helped a lot forgetting that. I had decided to try and do the entire race in my pearl izumi bike shoes since it was a bike heavy race and there was only 2km or so of running but it was foggy and humid and the cleats were making me slip a lot. 
The start was a Le Mans start on foot. We had to go and pick up 3 items in 3 different corners of a field then get into the course. Some people didn't listen just before the start that going over or under the fence was not allowed and many people ended up cutting up time by doing so. But most important for me I didn't know now how many girls were ahead. I knew that one girl was just ahead of me and she was the only one who had gone around but I saw a few pony tails entering the run course ahead of me. I decided to run hard the first lap to try to be in a good position. By the end of the run I had caught up all but two girls and after the paddle I only had one ahead that I passed as we were starting the bike section. The bike section was mainly twisty single tracks that would lead up to an open field that was hard to ride on then back to single tracks to the end of the loop.
By the second lap my running wasn't as fast. My paddling was strong and my biking was good in the field and ok in the single tracks. On that second loop I had a bit too much confidence and before I knew it I flew off my bike and landed on a tree. My shoulder was screaming in pain but nothing was broken so I kept on going. For the 5 laps I did I was surrounded by the same two guys who kept on passing me on the run and in the technical MTBiking but I would catch up paddling and in the field section. Phil from Strongbars saved me after lap 3 giving me a banana. It was hot and only fruits and water were going down. It gave me a boost for my 4th lap and the competitiveness in me made me start to accelerate. By the end of the run of the 5th lap I still had one of the guy I was racing against the whole race just ahead of me and we started the bike at the same time. He said "catch me" so I tried to hammer that last lap and managed to catch up to him in the field and put the hammer down to the finish line finishing a few minutes ahead of him. I was happy :). The last two laps were very hard physically as my week and week end were starting to get in my legs. I finished the race with 5 laps in 3h37. James did 6 laps in 3h40. He won the race and I won the women by one lap over second place. I also placed 8th overall (in the men) which included some relay teams too.
Very nice race..we will be back :)




Nat

Saturday 15 August 2015

James hangs on at XC de la Vallée

After a week of recovery from the K2O paddling race, it was on to our next adventure - a 3-day stage trail running race. Friday night would kick off with a 10km night race, Saturday would feature an epic 35km course, and Sunday would have a 21km race to finish off the weekend.

We opted for the camping option, which I was actually very excited for, since we have not had the time to camp all summer as of yet. Not the best for physical recovery between races, but still great to be outdoors. We spent the Thursday night in Quebec City at Nat's dad's place, so we were able to get to the race venue with plenty of time to get ourselves organized before the Friday night race.

Just as darkness was setting in, we were off on a 3-loop course that featured a pretty long and steep climb, an equally steep downhill, a few mud pits, and a little bit of road and grass to tie it all together. As expected, this race was way too fast for me off the start. I usually take a good 20-40 minutes before I'm truly warmed up in a trail run. And despite my warm-up jogs and stretching before the race start, right from the start of the race I was working harder than I should be. There was about 600m of road before getting into the singletrack trails, which helped a little to spread out the crowd, but when we got into the trails and the first climb there was still quite a bit of traffic. I was actually both frustrated and relieved at this - frustrated because I knew it was slowing me down, and relieved because it forced me to not be able to redline up the first hill by trying to run it. So I power hiked it with the rest of the people around me and tried to pass wherever there was an opening (and there were not many for quite a while). Once we reached the top of the climb, the rolling terrain allowed for a few more passing opportunities, so I was able to get a little more momentum going. The second loop felt a little better than the first and by the third loop, I was actually able to run most of the big uphill. I caught up to Dave McMahon just as we were heading down the last long downhill of the final loop. As I got right behind him we crossed a mud pit, which I thought was about knee deep - Boy was I wrong! With the speed I had I figured I would just take the hit and go right through the middle. Turns out the mud pit was over my waist and I paid for it dearly! I went full speed into the pit, put both arms out to protect myself once I was waist deep in the mud, and still ended up doing a full face plant into the pit (as it was deeper than my arms are long!). No injuries from it, but it took a huge amount of momentum and energy out of me. But I got up and hurried to catch back up to Dave. When I caught him, he signaled to let me pass and we proceeded to hammer the rest of the downhill at what felt like breakneck speeds. I was continually screaming "on your left" as we lapped many of the participants while Dave's light right behind me helped to light the way. A very fun descent! As we hit the last road section, I was pretty well cooked and sent Dave along his way to sprint to the finish. He finished about 30 seconds ahead of me, but we were both passed by some guy who ran past us like we were standing still... I stood in 15th after Day 1.

Day 2 promised to be the crux of the race for most of us. We were told to expect a tough technical course... Little did we know that this was an understatement. The course was very demanding both technically and physically and the wet/muddy conditions made things even worse. I love tough and technical trail races and this one really put me to the test. There were tons of boulders and mud pits to manoeuvre around each one of them required extra effort to get through, both mentally and physically. I did a lot of slipping and sliding and falling down. Most often it was not a question of how fast you could go, but more about how fast you were willing to go and how much risk you were willing to assume in the process. Also, there was so much humidity in the air that it was stifling. Sweat just poured out of me through the entire race. (Dave and I had agreed to run the first part of the race together, but early on it became clear that something was not right with Dave. He was overheating early on and his pace was slowing as we moved forward. I found out later that he had been sick leading up to the race, and clearly he wasn't quite over it yet).  I filled my 1.5L Osprey bladder at each of the 3 aid stations and I ran out of liquids way before reaching the next aid station.I was out of water for the last 5km of the race - and very tempted to drink out of the stream we kept on crossing. Instead I opted to stop and pour water over my head and face at each water crossing. I arrived at the finish line in 14th place on the day, battered and bruised, but still in one piece. I was 11th after the 2-day combined times. I spent the next few hours watching participants coming across the finish line with a look of relief that their day was finally done. The result later revealed that 36 of the 140 participants on the day did not finish the race.

The reports about the race course for Day 3 were conflicting. Some people had told us that the course was just as muddy and technical as Day 2 and others said it was still tough and muddy, but not as bad as Day 2. So I wasn't really sure what I was going to get. I was feeling tired from the 2 previous days and not sure how much I would have left in the tank for Day 3. It turned out that the trails were wider, mostly less technical (although definitely still many technical spots) and less muddy overall than the previous day's race. I started out with about 30+ people ahead of me, still feeling like I was pushing a little too hard out of the gate. It was a steady uphill climb and I just tried to hold my speed to match the people around me. The trails were actually very nice and took us to some beautiful lookouts. As the race wore on, I could tell that I just didn't have it in me to push super hard. I could feel that the previous weekend's 30+ hours of paddling and the previous 2 days of racing were starting to catch up to me. The most interesting part of it was that my fatigue was actually more psychological than physical. Sure I was exhausted, but I began to notice that as I was getting to climbing sections on the trail (one of my strengths), I would immediately start walking (like the other racers around me), telling myself that I just don't have the energy to climb anymore. But there were a few times where I pushed a little harder and decided to try and run instead of walk a climb. To my surprise my legs actually responded quite well and I was able to run. From this I started to understand that was actually the psychological fatigue I was feeling even more than the physical fatigue. My mind just didn't want to struggle to push at 85-90% effort on the uphills anymore, while my body still had the energy to do it (although it didn't really want to either!). When I'm racing I always tell myself that I don't want my mind to be what stops me - if I'm going to stop it's because my body can't go any further. Generally I am pretty good at following that rule, but given the effort of the previous 2 weeks, I just accepted that I was getting to my limits and opted to just try to keep a strong steady pace and finish the race.

By the final 5km of the race I was feeling like a rag doll bouncing my way down the last steep descents. With about 4km left to go, I slipped on a boulder and came down on my right knee on a smaller, sharper rock. I immediately saw the gash and blood coming to the surface. With nobody around and no water on me, I decided to pull up my 2XU calf sleeve over the wound and just keep going. I was pretty sure I would need stitches, but there wasn't much I could do out in the middle of nowhere. So I just plugged away to the finish line. It was such a relief to finally know that I could stop running once I hit the finish line. I waddled over into the nice cold river, sat down for a while, tried to clean some of the mud and sweat off of myself and then wandered over to see the medic for a good old fashioned wound scrubbing. Once taped up I got changed and then sat and watched a few friends and many strangers cross the finish line with an elated smile. Pretty cool to watch all those people celebrate their accomplishment. It was also great to see Nat cross the finish line with a brother and sister "team" that had adopted her for about half of the race, opting to stay together and finish the race together. It's nice to see teamwork like that, even in a solo event. Found out a little later that I finished 10th overall and I was pleased with that, given the strong field of racers.

In terms of gear, clothing, and nutrition for the races, I was pretty happy with all of them.I started my pre-race ritual with a 1L bottle of Nuun every morning. I went with the Osprey Rev 6L pack in the 35km and 21km races which was light and comfortable. I had a 1.5L bladder which I filled at every aid station, but ran out of liquids early every time, however I think going with a 2L bladder for races like this might have been too heavy anyway. I wore my 2XU compression shorts and calf sleeves, and as usual, they were fantastic. I tested my new 2XU XTRM compression shorts and Elite MCS Comp Calf Guards for the 35km and the extra compression was awesome. We didn't need to carry much food on the course because there were aid stations, but I did carry some Accel gels with me each day, which came in very handy when I needed an extra boost.

All in all a challenging but good weekend. Now we are off for a little R&R this weekend in Mexico!!! First "real" (non-racing) vacation since Nat and I met... I guess we were due.
        

XC de la vallee 2015 - Nat finished in 6th place in the female category

As we started to run I felt my lungs so heavy and I had, since the day before, a stitch that didn’t want to go away (I probably strained my diaphragm or an intercostal muscle during the event the night before with the asthma attack). The air was so humid that I could not push hard and it was climbing and climbing and climbing.
I had as a strategy to aim for the aid stations breaking down the distances in more manageable tasks. The first one was a little before what was expected but hey I wasn’t going to complain as I was short in water already. I had left with one liter and clearly needed to refill already after 9+km only.
I kept on going at a very slow pace in that very technical terrain and made it to the second aid station that was over a km off further than expected, totally dehydrated again. 19km done and 3L of water/nuun later and a few gels and I was on my way again after over 3h30 hours of suffering through the heat. I was putputting away when a girl passed me and said we had to hurry cause we were not going to make the cutoff. What??? A cutoff? I won’t make a cutoff?
I realised that our pace was barely 5.5km/h. we were at 20-21km in about 4h and we had about 6km to the next aid station where the cut off was at 5h after start.
On the way I saw a girl taking a face plant and stopped and stayed with her for a bit to make sure she was ok to continue then I tried to push it harder to make the cut off.
By then the temperature started to warm up and the humidity to decrease so I could start pushing a little more. I made the cut off with 15min to spare but I stopped too long there. I left the transition with the girl who told me about the cut off and thought we could do a way together but soon I realised she had given a lot to make the cut off and was going to slow down a lot so I took off.
It was a massive climb from there on and the 10km race was going that way which mean that the mud fest was just awful after all those racers going through.
I climbed well and passed many people but got passed back by a few later on in the descent where I kept wiping out on mud patches.
I was very relieved to see the gravel road and the signs to the finish after 7h of racing.
I could not believe that it took me 7h to do 36km. I ran my 50km in Utah in 6h20 and my 60km Ultimate xc which is a hard and technical race in 8h36. This didn’t make sense. My toes and body in general were bruised and sore. My diaphragm was hurting (I used the puffer once on Saturday morning and once during the race). I was not sure I would take the start the next morning. I was feeling so rough.
Celine from our group was in 2nd place in the women at the time and decided to not race the third day after wiping out and cutting her knee. Dave our awesome strong coach had stopped at the second aid station on the 36km due to trouble with humidity.
The next morning I learnt that a few more people wouldn’t start the day. I went to the physio tent and she tapped my ribs/intercostal muscles that were hurting more and more.
This was Sunday morning and this time we would be running 21km with the people who did the 10km the day before instead of the 36km but also with people doing the 21km only.
In the bus they announced to us that the terrain would be a little better than the day before but that there would be only one feed station and that it was hard to bring water there so we wouldn’t be able to fill up our bladders. WHAT??? I drank about 5L the day before during the 36km and I would be able to drink only 1L (that I had in my pack at the time of the announcement) and a glass after 10km??? for another 11km??
From the start on I took the puffer. It was as humid as the day before. I was scared of the outcome.
The cut off this time was on the finish line at 4 hours. I was worried to not make it if the terrain wasn’t better than the day before.
Thankfully the first few kms were runnable but it started climbing quickly and more and more. I was getting passed by many people but mainly by people who didn’t run the 3 days.
At the 4km mark I was climbing and feeling ok but a girl passed me and she was wearing perfume big time. Almost instantly the asthma started. I also started feeling nauseous which never happened before. I slowed down and took the puffer again.
After a while I started feeling a bit better and we got to the feed station. I tried to be conservative with the water but I had none left by the time I reached the aid station. I was allowed to half fill my bladder. I knew this wouldn’t be pretty as it was hotter and hotter and I would run out of water inevitably.
Soon after the feed station I hoped on a train composed by a brother (Stephane) and his sister (Louise).
Stephane had done the trans vallee like me and his sister the shorter one.
She was decided for both of them that they would make the cut off and kept being over positive the whole way. I liked it and asked if they minded if I jumped on the train.
They welcomed me and we worked as team to the finish. I wiped out again a couple of times, once two feet in the air and fell on the only rock around on my bum (still having trouble sitting right now).
They wiped out too. I ran out of water as expected 3-4km before the end of the race.
We passed the line hands in hands in 3h40 so happy to be done with that race and the mud.
I learnt looking at the results that I went from 10th place to 6th place in the women for the trans vallee which considering my health state at the time and the competitiveness of the field was a very good result.
My wolverine (James) cut is leg but still managed to finish 10th in the men.
And what really made my day was wining the draw price, a new suunto ambit 3 sport :D
Thanks to 2XU for keeping me alive and going during this gruelling effort as well as Altra shoes. I ran the entire 3 days with my lonepeak and I seriously doubt I could have done it with any other shoes considering the beating they took over those 3 days.
Thanks to Accel gels (PacificHealthLab) and stongbars I kept fuelled up and Nuun kept me hydrated as much as can be.


Saturday 8 August 2015

K2O 2015-200km paddle race Kingston to Ottawa-Nat DNF after 115.4km of hard paddling

James, John (his team mate) and I left on Friday afternoon to Kingston to participate in the 200km paddle K2O from Kingston to Ottawa. The boys were going to paddle a canoe and I had borrowed a light and fast surfski from a friend (a think surfski).
I had a lot of troubles last year with another think boat because of weeds getting caught in the rudder and the race had been cancelled last year half way due to the rough weather.
I had made it to the 72-75km mark and was nervous for this year although I had this year a weed deflector…so I thought I would be off the weeds.
My super awesome support crew, Joel Perrella from Breathe Magazine, met me on Friday night and we went through gears and food etc..


On Saturday morning we started the race at 6am.


From the start on I was stuck in a massive patch of weeds. To the point that I saw even the SUP going away at the distance while I was still fighting with the weeds. I begged ahead for help since there were no more boats ahead and luckily Rick, another racer, waited and took the weeds off for me. The first leg was hard as the weeds seemed to be everywhere.
As I was going along another surfski was struggling so we were de-weeding each other’s as we went.
Matt (that helped me out last year) did also a way with me taking the weeds every so often so we could keep a good pace.


We finally made some ground and went back ahead of the SUPs and other kayaks.
At the first lock I saw just ahead of me James canoe and Brad Jenning’s canoe from get out there.
 I caught up to James’ boat during that second leg and as I past them the weeds got me again. I asked if he could grab the weeds as I was next to the boat and James did but his team mate wasn’t happy and let me know that they would not spend their time helping me out…So I left them and went ahead.
I then caught up to Brad’s canoe on the next leg and they nicely helped me out as I was passing them.
The next few legs went ok but the weeds started to be more abundant again and after a little while I got caught back up by the two canoes (Brad and James). I did half that leg next to Brad’s boat chit chatting along until we reached the 69.7km lock.



That was the last lock I saw last year, being rescued a few kms later.
I made it through the lock and went on for the 30km+ leg. As I left I grabbed 3 gels, thinking it would be enough for 30km…big mistake. I think I was already really hungry by that point (despite the multiple sandwiches that Joel had prepared for me) and dehydrated a bit.
I had my first gel early on and by the time I got ti the 20kmm or so I was out of food. Just when I realise that I wouldn’t see my support crew until the 34km mark because they couldn’t reach the poonamalie lockstation at 30km. Hunger settled in. I had caught back to James’s boat by that point but didn’t dare asking for food after the reaction of his team mate earlier.
A few kms before Poonamalie I hit a patch of weeds and I was exhausted. I hit the wall big time. By the time I reached Poonamalie (101km mark of the race) James’s boat was 30min ahead (I was with them 2km before) and I was in a really bad shape. My stomach was burning from what I thought was a little bit of chaffing and the inside of my stomach was hurting by hunger. I am so lucky and thankful the volunteer in place gave me something to drink (an ensure) and I was off to Smith Falls.
The weeds were even worse than before and the 4km seemed to never end.
When I got to Smith Falls at 8h30pm after 14h30 I was tired.





 Most of the field would stop the race there (doing the ½ course). I showed to someone my belly and they patched it up and they made me stop for a bit before going again. My entire belly was red and some places more burnt than others.


The cut off was at midnight at Smith so I was way ahead of schedule and i was actually very decently placed in the 100km race if i had stopped there.
I left soon after (around 9pm) in the dark alone. By that point my friend Augusto had met up with Joel to give him a hand.
The next couple of locks went ok although very weedy. 


I didn’t see my support crew at one of the lock but saw the race director. I was then only 5-7km away from the next lock (Killarnock I think it is). That’s when things went wrong. I had nobody ahead or behind me. I was following my map which said to stay on the left shore but after a while I got in a massive swamp with lily pads all around and no room to even put a paddle in the middle….Just imagine what was going on in the back of my boat with my pretty long rudder getting literally stuck there. I couldn’t move much (less than a km per hour), the fog settled and I couldn’t see any buoys. Thanks to the headlamp the thousand bugs around me had decided to crawl through my face in my ear and nose. I couldn’t turn off the light as I really needed to find the navigational channel.
I then took my gps that I had tested before and that was working but I had to change the map for the second half of the race and for some reason the gps was telling me to go left. There was no left!!! It was lily pads and the shore. After what felt like a really long panick moment I decided to call the race director. I asked him if he could see me on his map explaining that I couldn’t see the navigational channel because of the fog and whether I was still in the right lake?? He told me I was in the right direction. “Keep left” he said. After telling him that left was NOT an option I started wandering on the right more and more and finally spotted a buoy far in the distance…on the other side of the lake on the Right-hand side.
I followed the buoys going all around the bloody lake to finally find the lockstation…It was now 11:30pm and I was at 115.4km. I had done the last 11.4km in 2h30…BRUTAL!!!
I knew the weeds wouldn’t get much better but I also knew there was only 10,5km left in open lakes before getting into the narrow canal where you can’t get lost anymore.
I asked the guys for some arm warmers and was going to continue when the race director came to ask me to stop the race. He was worried about my safety. He said all the other boats behind me (and there were many according to him at smith falls) had quit and he was concerned letting me continue alone.
That is the first time I get stopped from a race without missing any cut offs, being ahead of my schedule.
I had done 115.4km in 17h30 and I had 18h left to do the remaining 87…I could totally do it. But Hey he was the race director. He left and we started packing up my stuff. 45min later I was changed and ready to go when I saw a canoe at the lock, it was a team..and they let them keep on going…WTF???
The next morning when I woke up early I saw that two other teams had kept on going hours after I had been asked to stop. I wasn’t and I am still not happy about it. The race director sent me an email to apologies and told me that afterthought he should have asked me to just stop for a while…After all I had time…but all the apologies in the world won’t unfortunately make the failure feeling to go away.

James, strong as always, kept on going and finished a little after 30h of paddling.


I would never do this race again with a fixed rudder…maybe with a kick up rudder….If I can get over this year’s race.
I want to say that my support crew, Joel Perrella was the best in the world and that you all should check out his awesome magazine breathemag J

I also want to thank my sponsors for supporting me through this gruelling event, Nuun hydration, PacificHealthlab and strongbar nutrition. NRS and 2XU for the awesome gears to keep me moving and warm.


Nat

James and John Take on the K2O 202km paddling race

When I first decided to do this race, I knew that I would want to do it in a canoe with a team mate. I don't quite have the balance and skills that Nathalie has in a kayak so I would have either swam a lot or been in a very slow but stable boat. Instead I enlisted the help of my longtime adventure racing teammate, John Ranson. We've done many adventure races together and I knew he had a lot of experience paddling and boating on the Rideau, so he was an obvious choice.

We spent a fair bit of time trying to decide which canoe to rent for this race, and opted to go with the advice of the folks at the rental place. We picked up our boat in Ottawa on Friday afternoon and then spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to carry both the canoe and Nat's kayak on the car all the way to Kingston.

We started the race at 6am with the rest of the racers - a beautiful morning for paddling with what would be a steady, all-day headwind blowing in our faces. The first half of the race was actually somewhat uneventful - just a long paddling on a nice sunny day in relatively good conditions. We moved fairly well and were quite efficient at the portages around the locks. This was in part due to the fact that we opted to go without a support crew for the race, so there was no reason to stop at the lock stations, except to refill water and go to the washrooms.




As we moved into the night, things got quite a bit tougher. Not only were we tired from having completed over half of the 200km of the race, but night time made it harder to find our way through the snaking channels. We had good nautical maps with us, but we didn't have a GPS unit, so although we weren't all that worried about getting seriously lost, the difficulty of finding the buoys at night was a big risk for slowing us down considerably. We were very fortunate to have another canoe not far ahead of us, so this made our lives much easier as we paddled on into the night.

As the night wore on, we eventually ended up paddling completely on our own. After about 30 minutes of detours and playing in the weeds, we finally found our way back into the channel. The thick fog made it increasingly difficult to spot the buoys and fatigue - both muscular and sleepiness was adding to the challenge. As we crossed under Highway 416, it was a few hours before dawn and both John and I did a few head bobs as we nodded off briefly.

When morning finally came, we were finally in the narrowest section of the race course, which meant not having to focus too much on the navigation. Despite our tired muscles, John and I were able to increase our pace and have a strong last portion of the race. We finally arrived at the finish line after 30+ hours, weary and beaten, but very happy to have completed such a tough test of our mental and physical abilities. We ended up finishing in 8th place overall. Considering we were not well trained for this length of paddling and we were not in a racing canoe, we were happy with the result.




Going into the race, I wasn't sure what to wear, particularly on my legs as I knew I would be dealing with a whole host of changing conditions - heat, water, cold, wind, chafing issues, etc. I opted for my 2XU tights and a light pair of shorts over top - which turned out to be the perfect combination. No major chafing issues and I was never too hot or too cold (I did put on rain pants as well for the night). In terms of nutrition, I was very happy as well. Since we were unsupported, we had to carry all of our food for 30+ hours, so this wasn't much different from our usual adventure racing food selection. Once again, the StrongBars were an awesome and filling treat at various points on the course while the NUUN kept us well hydrated. I had also brought a few Pacific Health Labs Accel Gels and 2nd Surge gels with me for those moments when I needed a boost of energy and they delivered right on cue - I really like the fact that these gels are more liquid than most, so it makes it way easier to take.

So other than the brutal beating that comes with doing a repetitive activity (paddling) for so long, I was very happy with how the race unfolded. If I ever do this event (or any other marathon paddling event) again, I will definitely need to put in more long training hours beforehand. The Rideau River system is very weedy, but very beautiful nonetheless and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do the race and to get back in a canoe with John again.

James.