K2O 200km Paddle race

K2O...I registered to that race thinking it would be a great challenge, a 200km paddle race from Kingston to Ottawa as a solo surfski. After a lot of thinking on which class I should register I decided to register as an Adventure class, which meant starting a couple of hours early and having the opportunity to use my support crew not only for food and water but also for carrying my boat around the locks. Indeed along the 200km we would encounter about 22 locks that we would have to portage and we had 32 hours to finish it.

My support crew, Joel Perrera and Peter Dobbos from Breathe Magazine and my partner James all did an outstanding job at support crewing during that day.
As an adventure class I had the option to start either at 6am or 8am. I opted for the 8am start thinking it would give me people to chase. That would be my goal of the day.
We were about 23 vessels all up, 5 in the competitive class and the rest in the adventure class. When I got to the start at 8am I learnt that most people had started in the 6am wave and that we would be only 3 of us starting at 8am.

According to my calculation I should be able to catch the slower people after roughly 14 hours of paddling if they were paddling 2km/h slower than me.
I had a great start but realised very quickly that something was slowing me down. I saw a canoe on the way and asked them to check my rudder...it was full of weeds :(
I had borrowed a think uno max from my friend Jodi. It is a faster lighter and more tippy boat that what I was used to but for speed I thought it would be worth it. The only problem is that this boat was a prototype and they didn't place a weed deflector. I never had this problem before and would realise very quickly that it can wear you down a lot. I made it to the first lock in a good time considering. Joel was ready with food etc. I was first of the 3 who started at 8am and was well determined to go and catch those people ahead.
After about 50km of paddling or so I caught up with the stand up paddle boards (they were two of them). They both one after the other helped me with my weed situation when I could barely be paddling anymore due to the dragging behind the boat.
James had met up with the guys by then and it was good to see him at the locks.
To follow the route I had printed maps of the course and I also had a gps in case I couldn't see the navigational channel to help me find my way.
The first 100km were not straight forward and the gps or maps were necessary. After that it wouldn't be too open anymore and it would become channel like so much easier to navigate.
The open sections with all the big lakes was a little scary. The weather was pretty bad all day with lots of rain but by then the wind had picked up a lot and the waves were starting to grow considerably on the lake. Thanks god the wind was in my back most of the time so I could stay upright.
I started panicking a little knowing that I didn't have my leash so that if I had tipped I could have lost the boat very quickly. There was also no safety on the water which made me pretty nervous.
When I reached the 70km mark I wasn't happy. I was tired and terrified and didn't want to keep on going.
I decided to keep on going after the race director told us it should get sheltered and a lot better after...It didn't..I started what was supposed to be a 30km section without seeing my support crew very very stressed. The waves were bigger and bigger with reflective waves coming from the side and the winds picked up to 60km/h sometimes. I decided to wait in a little bay for the next boat to come and paddled with him as I was more than scared. We paddled together and some of the boats from the 10am wave (the competitive class) caught up to us. After about 5km of bracing I fell in. My PFD wasn't tight enough and I struggled to keep my boat, my paddle and everything else floating around with me. The other kayaker helped me and held onto my boat and paddle for me as I was trying to tighten my PFD. Unfortunately within seconds they were blown away just a little too far for me to reach them. I tried desperately to reach them without success and he couldn't paddle anymore since he was holding on my boat etc...As a last resource I used my whistle and some very nice people came out of their cottage, took their motor boat and went to rescue my boat as I swam to shore...What an experience :(
A pro canoe had stopped at the same place than us and we all decided it was too dangerous to keep on going.
We called our support crew from the cottage and called the race director who told us he was cancelling the race due to the weather.
I ended up doing about 75km in 11 hours (with at least 30 to 45min spent in the water trying to get rescued).
The race director made a tough but right call by calling the race off. If it wasn't for the weather (and the weeds) I think I would have done pretty well. At the last lock I went through I was apparently 15-20min behind 4 boats that had started 2 hours ahead of me so I was catching up.
There will always be next year..and this time I will be more prepared. I will have my revenge!!!

Nathalie

Finding silver on the Canadian shield at Wilderness Traverse-2nd overall

[My apologies for not getting this race report written up sooner! Amazingly, two weeks have already passed! A few days were just for recovering, then life got in the way. But without further ado, here we go.] A mere three weeks before this race, I was tackling the toughest race I had tried to date, the 4-day Untamed New England. However, being slightly shorter, at 24 hours in length, does NOT make a race easier. In fact, racing with my ‘semi-pro’ competitive team actually made this another really tough race, thanks to the relentless pace, and the taste of podium pushing us hard the whole way.

Two weeks out, we had a good look through the roster, and figured we had a legitimate shot at winning this race, which is one of the toughest fought adventure races in Eastern Canada (if not Canada). It attracts top teams from all around, and this year even had 2 teams from France competing. However, a day later, I noted that a new team had signed up consisting of Benoit Letourneau, Alex Provost, Vincent Meunier, and Liza Pye. Yup, pretty much the dream team, and technically 3 time returning champions.  They usually win by huge margins, so victory was FAR from assured, but we had to go in with a strong positive attitude, which we did.

With the race featuring a remote start early Saturday morning, we all converged on race HQ Friday evening for gear checks and race briefings. Maps were distributed around 8:30pm, and were pre-plotted with CPs and TAs. Harper then got to work on the important job of route determining. With tethered laptop we scoured Google Earth and Bing trying to make sense of the terrain to find the ‘hopefully best’ route. In AR, you are always taking a bit of a gamble when the course is predominantly raw wilderness. As the name implies, this race has that in spades. Race director Bob Miller never holds back, spending the better part of an entire year designing a kick-ass course. The asses being kicked of course are the racers’! Back at our hotel room, we wrapped up map prep and gear sorting and were in bed before midnight to get a solid 4-5 hours of sleep before rolling back to HQ to catch buses and start the race, knowing we wouldn’t be back there until sometime the next day (although we hoped for a quick finish by racing hard).

Stage 1: The Paddle

The first section of the first leg of the race was meant to put water navigation to the test, as it featured a canoe paddle amongst thousands of tiny islands to pick out a ‘needle in a haystack’ with a CP on one of the islands. You could either pick a direct route, or use a ‘handrail’ by sticking closer to the mainland and having visual cues of where to turn. We had chosen the ‘safe’ route as shown above (click to see full size), but unfortunately had our boats improperly balanced. Nat and I were in one boat, and James and Harper in the other. They were the stronger boat, so we had mismatched speeds. We arrived at CP1 to see many other teams had grabbed it and were on their way to the next CP already! Oh well, chasing from the  back is easier, right? The full splits had us as 14th to arrive there!

We also delayed further at CP1 by shuffling the boats, now putting James and I in one boat, and Nat and Harper in the other. We all agreed it was ‘hammer time’, and set our goals on re-capturing the front of the race. With speed balanced out better, and fire in our paddles, we raced off. In short order, we had passed a number of teams, and were continuing to pull ahead. We then got a break further into the paddle when all the lead teams got tripped up in a ‘blind bay’ where the route back out to a river we wanted to follow was not obvious. We saw all the leaders, and even compared notes before we all set off en masse again.

We noted that Benoit (Team O-Store) and his crew opted to take a gamble and try for a portage rather than look for a tributary. However, we saw them just as we were actually starting the completely navigable stream, which in theory should help us. We traded paddle strokes with the other leaders, including the teams that had arrived at CP1 in 1st and 2nd. By the time we hit CP2, we were sitting in 4th overall, and held that placement until the first transition, where we were gearing up for the trek. All told, after the initial delays, we were pretty pumped with our position, especially knowing that our strength is in the trekking leg, which is what we were about to tackle. To buoy us even further, O-Store was still on the water, and we were leaving transition just as they were arriving. Their portage idea had hurt them, but they pushed hard to make up time.

Stage 2: Trekking

This section was where we knew we could pull ahead of many of the chasing teams by pulling off a solid trek. On the water, there is not much room to get ahead, as all teams are limited by hull speed on boats, as well as limited route options. With only 1 real portage, it had been just a straight up paddle. However, on the trek, there are many route options, and teams all have very different speeds when traversing real bush. We are fast on our feet, and have a top navigator to guide us. With over 20km of bushwhacking ahead of us, a LOT can happen.

We set to work on this section with a vengeance, with Harper leading the charge on a mission. Our first CP was a nice remote checkpoint where the staff had actually arrived by float plane on the lake! We crashed out of the woods to find out we were now sitting in 2nd place, and had arrived less than 10 minutes behind first place. We also learned that O-Store were now the team we were chasing! Yes, Benoit, the AR trekking legend, was working his magic once again and his team had completely overcome their earlier paddle snafu. As you’ll see, this is the theme that would define the rest of this race. O-Store in 1st, with use chasing hard, and a slightly longer gap behind us for 2 teams battling it out for 3rd.

The terrain had been [relatively] forgiving on the trek. Sure, we hit a number of swamps, but the bush itself was not super thick, which meant we were able to maintain a very good pace. At the end of the trek, Nathalie informed us this was the fastest  she had ever moved through a bushwhack in a race. From CP4 to CP5, we veered NE to look for some features, deviating from the proposed ‘ideal route’ we saw later, which was a more easterly route. It resulted us in hitting a river, and following it for a while before catching on to an ATV trail that we’d revisit on the bike. Harper noted that we hit the river much further west than he’d hoped, but on arriving at CP5, and looking at the stats, I would say that didn’t hurt us, as we were holding steady at 2nd place, under 10 minutes behind O-Store. More notably, for the trek between CP4 and CP5, we were a mere 24 SECONDS slower than O-Store! That is an amazing stat for a race where you are literally crashing through the bush and everyone takes a slightly different route, hitting swamps, deadfall, etc.

The final leg of the trek was a straight bushwhack between CP5 and CP6/TA2. There were no good features or possible trails, so we just got to work on it. With more solid footwork, we emerged at the transition zone to see O-Store still there, with Benoit actually sitting down eating and resting. Imagine their surprise at seeing us so close! We had been only 2 minutes slower than them, and emerged still a mere 10 minutes behind them!  They left in a hurry, but not fast enough, as we had a smell of blood! We pulled off a remarkably fast transition for trek to bike (fastest, at under 11 minutes), and left the peace of the transition zone now a mere 5.5 minutes behind the leaders.

Now, allow me to whine for just a moment about this type of racing. Transition zones, especially between two long legs, are a great chance to fuel up, change, and recharge. However, when you are racing at the level we were here, it is sheer panic and pandemonium. We are going through everything like a well-oiled machine, but you have to forego things like eating and sitting for a moment. O-Store had spent over 16 minutes in this transition, and the slower teams? They spent over 45 minutes there! Obviously, this is what you HAVE to do to be competitive, but inhaling two poptarts in 30 seconds is an impressive feat, but starting the bike with a mouth full of dry pastry and still putting gloves on can be a bit of a mental challenge! I seriously questioned whether I rather this kind of race or the more relaxed pace I had experienced at Untamed New England. Perhaps something in between?

Stage 3: The ‘Hydro Line’ Bike

Man oh man, what can I say about this leg of the race. It was by far the mentally most difficult, and technically pretty challenging as well. We were lucky, as we did 3/4s of this section of the race with daylight, and in dry conditions, but it was still a HELL of a slog! The beginning of this section was easy enough. About 12km of clear road riding.  We formed a paceline, and just hammered. arriving at the next CP still about 9 minutes behind O-Store. Unfortunately, we were aware that the next, and super-long section of biking could be our weakness. As a team, we knew we’d be slower on the technical power line section than O-Store. We were also unsure how far our nearest competitors were, nor how fast they may be. All we could do was push hard, and maintain our pace.

We literally spent much of this leg glancing behind our shoulders, expecting to get passed at any point. Our nerves were also severely tested by a completely unforeseen foe. DEERFLIES! OMG. I have no words for what these bastards did to our spirits. Even Steely Harper completely lost his shit with them. Our speed was simply not fast enough to out-run them, and they kept flying directly into the vents on my helmet, eating chunks of my ‘head buffet’ as I battled the tricky riding, with both hands on the handlebars. All 4 of us were unanimous in our loathing. In a tough race, you do your best not to complain or be negative, but this was simply too much for us, and we basically were all whining like little babies, at times cursing at the top of our lungs at these buggers. Harper said he had NEVER experienced bugs this bad in ANY race he’d done (hint: he’s done LOTS, including in jungle climes).

Ok, rant over. The point is, the riding was tough, our going felt painfully slow, the trail was long, the terrain endlessly undulating, and our nerves shot from the bugs, AND spirits worried that we’d be passed at any moment. The hallelujah moment was at the next CP, where we were STILL in 2nd place, albeit trailing by almost 45 minutes :-(. This wasn’t the end of the bike though, and we were now continuing on in the dark, and the rain, for the final push to the next transition zone.  Without the bugs though, this didn’t seem quite as miserable (yes, even in the rain). It was about another 12km of ATV trail riding.

On the closing kilometers of the bike, we passed by a slightly tired-looking team O-Store, who were starting the next trekking section. We knew the transition wasn’t too far ahead, and this lifted our spirits, knowing they were not super far ahead of us. They were also WALKING which had us surprised. Emerging at the TA, we discovered why. Apparently, Benoit was having some GI issues, and was periodically ill. Small blessing for us I suppose. By executing another blazing transition (over twice as fast as O-Store), we managed to leave that transition about 30 minutes behind O-Store, and not willing to give up the victory just yet.

Stage 4: Final Trek and Bike

Well, this is it! The final push, and location of yet another ‘close call’ for Mr. ‘Zero percent body fat’ Meyer. We left that transition running hard. So hard that we momentarily set off on the wrong trail. D’Oh! We recovered quickly, but were annoyed at this trip-up. Our plan was to run the entire section where possible, in the hopes of closing the gap to O-Store, and ensuring we kept the 3rd place team safely at bay. Unfortunately, they did to us the exact same thing we had done to team O-Store. Namely, we crossed paths with them at nearly exactly the same place O-Store passed us. This meant we only had about 30 minutes on them too! Damn! That meant we had to keep pushing hard, in spite of starting to feel the effects of a long day racing at 100% output.

At this point, it was raining, but nothing too hard yet, so the terrain wasn’t too bad. For this section, we had about a 10-12k trek to pull off before the final bike leg. As part of the trek, we also had the ‘option’ to swim to a couple checkpoints rather than taking a long trek around. Of course, it wasn’t really an ‘option’ for us, as we knew we had to do this to keep the pressure on. Armed with that knowledge, I had put a dry shirt and rain paints and raincoat in a dry bag in my pack with the intention of changing directly after our swim.

We made good time on the lead-up to the swim, and wasted very little time in ‘taking the plunge’. Our progress was only slightly nerve-wracking in the fact that we were tackling this in the depths of the darkness. Although it was supposed to be a full moon, the rain and clouds meant no visibility. Luckily, the volunteers at one CP had lit a fire, so we essentially had a beacon for the first swim.  The distance was likely around 300m. Had we had daylight, I suspect we could have chosen a spot just a bit further that would have made that 200m. Regardless, off we went, swimming out little hearts out.

Unfortunately for me, I started cramping about halfway into the swim. These were leg cramps that I couldn’t get massaged out. I have to be honest, this was a bit frightening, as we had no flotation, and not a lot of chance for any sort of rescue, so I knew I had to suck it up. Luckily, my years of swim lessons (and lifesaving lessons!) kept me relatively calm, and I just focused on using my arms only. It made for slower progress, but I got there. Once at the CP, I hopped out to take a minute to attempt to massage out the cramps, before we hopped back for the next swim.

Harper estimated this swim at 100m, but in reality, it was as long as the first, and I guess 300m.  Looking at the maps, it was painfully clear that we *could* have cut that to between 50 and 100m by going a little way around the point, but in the darkness, we opted to just head straight towards our landmark, which was a stream on the other side. By the time we hit the far shore, I wasn’t the only one getting a big cold, and we took the time to ensure we’d stay warm for the next bit. For me, that meant stripping off a layer on top and bottom, and swapping out for a dry shirt and putting on my rain gear. I instantly felt better. Well, except for my legs, which were left rather sore from the cramping. I wolfed down as much food as I could while everyone else finished getting set. Then off we went, back in pursuit.

This bit wasn’t too bad, and we managed to hit a good stream that took us basically straight to the final trekking CP. Elated with that, we bushwhacked quickly back to the ATV trail which we’d follow back to the road. Guess what we did once there? Yup, RUN. Ugh. I was feeling pretty beat, but didn’t dare say anything, and just joined in. Within a very short time, I was then overheating with the extra layers, AND had to have a nature break, but had nary time to deal with either. Eventually, James helped by carrying my pack while I peeled off my jacket and pants WHILE RUNNING. It was tricky, but allowed us to not lose much time. For the nature break, try as I might, I was unable to do the ‘running pee’, and eventually pulled off, did my business, then had to run twice as fast to catch back up. Double ugh. But, these are the things you HAVE to do to win. We were also paranoid that team Epitact from France would emerge behind us at any time.

This effort did net us the fastest split on the final run from that CP to the transition, and ready to mount up on our bikes for the final push. On arrival at that TA, we learned that O-Store was still exactly 30 minutes ahead of us. D’oh! Apparently they found their mojo again. The final leg was a biking leg, and was supposed to only take about an hour, which meant catching them would likely not be feasible. Despite that, we left quickly, in order to keep a gap on 3rd place. At that point, we had no way of knowing they’d eventually fall over 1.5 hours behind us at that transition! Soggy and tired, we mounted our bikes, and pedaled off into the darkness, aware there was one final ATV section, before grabbing roads to the finish.

This final ATV section is where something interesting happened. THE SKIES OPENED UP! And I mean sheet rain. It was the heaviest rain we’d ever raced through in Ontario, and it lasted. Not just 5 minutes, but for HOURS! Knowing O-Store was probably out of the ATV section by then, we were totally sunk. We had to navigate the final bits of the race in rivers that were forming on the trail. Eventually all we could do was laugh. We knew everyone else was stuck in the same shit, so it would be a great equalizer, and guarantee our placing basically. Luckily, it wasn’t too cold.

Emerging at the 400, all we had to do was jump on the access road to town, and ride the big hill back to the finish area. Our time on this section was the worst of the 4 teams that eventually actually did it (only the top 4 teams did the full course including this ATV section, the rest of the ‘full course’ teams were allowed to go by roads the whole final section. We lost another 15 minutes on O-Store, meaning we finished off 45 minutes behind them at the finish. Despite this, they all told us this was the hardest they had to race to ensure their victory in this race in their last few years, which made me feel pretty good. They were nice enough to still be up to greet us. Apparently they had been quite surprised to see us in the transition zones where they did. We gave them a good run for their money (both figuratively and literally, given the $1500 cash prize on offer!).

When all was said and done, we’d raced nearly 21 hours non-stop at full throttle, and had a great result to show for it. All our gear and nutrition worked perfectly in this race, so big shout out to all our various sponsors and supporters (Xact Nutrition, 2XU, North Face, Nuun, Milk2Go Sport, and Osprey Packs popping into mind right away). 3rd place was another 1.5 hours behind us, and 4th place another 1.5 hours behind them! Amazing race. Undoubtedly, much of this likely had to do with the extreme rain that had taken over the course. As we went to sleep for a couple hours, it was insane how heavy the rain was falling down.]

Once we were back up, we dealt with gear, had a first breakfast, then a BBQ lunch, and finally the awards ceremony, and time to catch up with our fellow competitors. All agreed that this was yet another epic Wilderness Traverse for the books. Bob always puts on a great race, and it seems every year, the weather also plays a starring role. We’re already looking forward to returning next year for another run at Bob the Beaver (the winner’s trophy). But till that time, there’s still lots more racing. For me, next up is the Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race, which I’m really looking forward to. For that one, I’ll also be filming, so keep your eyes open for that report! Till then, hope everyone is having as much fun this summer as I am!

Steve

Untamed New England Expedition race-10th overall

Back at another Untamed with James (Relentless) and John (threeputt) with new addition to the team Natalie (Frenchie). Check in, maps, all went fast with minimal checks, pre-plotted maps. A++ for Grant and team making this part of the race lead-up pain free. 

 

Race start was using some iffy maps for a prologue rogaine foot section. Kept a good pace with the lead teams and got off around 7th onto the boats. With Nat being a strong paddler we were able to get ahead of a few teams catching up to Columbia tied for 3rd into the run to Little Kineo. This was key as getting to the ropes was crucial since the backlog kept teams waiting hours. Even though we were fourth team in, we still waited near 20mins as only a few ropes were being used. Not sure why RD’s still put these things in races?!?!? 

 

Of the rappel we navigated to the closest road and ran back down to the canoes, paddled to Kineo Island obtaining two more CP’s, the last of which was a little tricky. Raidlight passed us during the run but then missed the last CP, asking us if we found it after we already had nabbed it… ughhh… uncomfortable… I played the ‘I don’t speak French’ card but unfortunately on this team that card doesn’t play well since Nat had already spoken French with them at the ropes and we eventually told them we found it back where it was. They shouldn’t have asked us but what can you do when asked… 

 

Back in the boats we paddled to the first TA which we reached in good time and were given some nice chili by Good To-Go sponsors. Transition out and onto the bikes where eventually Sweco catches and passes us through the night. The nav goes well but our pace isn’t very fast; perhaps we are still recovering from hammering the run/paddle for the first 8 hours. We hit the bike bushwhack and aren’t one of the fortunate ones who find a trail; we just whack for an hour or some; pretty miserable going. 

Eventually we pop out to see Clinique has also passed us as they found a good trail. We continue to move on the bike, albeit fairly slow and by the time we get near the Orienteering section at Gorman Chairback lodge John’s feeling rough. We re-strategize our order slightly so John can get some rest while Nat does the short/hard, James the long/easy, me the long/hard and pass over to John for short/easy at which point he’s feeling tip top again. We try to get some sleep but no one gets anything more than a few mins – we are still only 24 hours into the race. Pancakes and Kool-Aid are awesome. After we all finish our o-sections we make short order of the wood stacking and are off on the ‘monster’ bike again. 

 

We continue to ride along without any nav issues and make it to the (dreaded) Abenaki Lost World. We inflate our packrafts and immediately it’s apparent that John and I have not practiced our layout in our newly purchased $800US Alpacka. While we’re stumbling along the shore, we’re passed by Clinique and MadAthlete teams who blaze along with their $1500 Alpackas that have about twice the hull speed of ours. Eventually we settle into our uncomfortable positions while trying to manage the high winds on Third Roach Pond. The winds are brutal and we have to paddle straight into them at maybe 2km/hr. It’s painfully slow and sucks. We deflate and bushwhack after looking with no avail for the stream connecting Second and Third Roach Ponds. Back on water at Second Roach Pond and even more headwind. By the time we hit the CP on the lake Nat is near hypothermic and we make the decision to abandon the packrafts as we don’t feel safe in the high winds, cold water and no signs of a safety boat. We make for the south shore where we deflate and pack up while hiking the trail around the lake. It’s nice to be warm and hiking again but the time it takes transition isn’t pretty and we soon realize we probably should have just sucked it up and paddled the lake. We lose a lot of time here I suspect and we even flub the peninsula CP on Second Roach Pond as I assumed it was on the very end instead of the middle. O-store.ca passes us here and told us they just decided to run most of it vs packraft. 

We trek on and arrive at the final CP before the First Roach Pond crossing. It’s night and the wind is back up, it feels extremely unsafe again with no safety boats and us crashing into high waves. We eventually make the crossing and are happy to be done with the packrafting (for now). 

After taking a little while to change and eat we head out to start the big trek. It’s night number two so we decide we should take our first rest of the race. The temperature is cold, we can see our breath, feels like 5C or so. We cram into the ‘cozy’ tent, set the alarm for 1:45 time of sleep and roll around cold and uncomfortable. I think we all maybe got 20 minutes? Maybe an hour? Who knows but it wasn’t quality sleep. 

We are now on the big trek and hike up the first mountain taking all roads/trails to play it safe and manage the first one without any issues. Had a terrible route to the next CP taking the ridegeline instead of descending to the parallel trail, I have no idea why I marked that; stupid. It’s now daylight of Day 3 and we take the ridgeline to the trail and make our way to the second mountain top which ends up OK. One final mountain and we’re done, right? We are thinking about our free sleep at the rafting already, however, the last trek CP is ABSOLUTE SHIT, the worst I’ve experienced. About 4? 5? 6? Hours of painfully slow whacking through tightly packed spruce trees, ripping away at our skin, packs and clothing. We lose an hour trying to make sense of a flagged trail near the saddle near the summit praying to the Abenaki gods that this trail will take us to our CP but it just meanders around. When we finally are near the summit we run into a cameraman who was about to turn around to his car, frustrated and beaten by the bushwhack but he follows us up to the mountain CP (see us on the Untamed Youtube at 5mins into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-yWb0lrLYM&list=U...) with John highlighting how lovely the last CP was. Like most teams we were without water for all of this section from the last mountain (maybe 8 hours). 

Thankfully there was a trail leading down out of the CP (it was glorious not to have to bushwhack down) and we slowly made our way back to the TA. We moved slow on this easy (but buggy) road trek, a section we probably should have ran but were feeling pretty beat down by the trek and very dehydrated and hungry. My feet were starting to blister as per usual even though I felt like I took good care of them. On the plus side we actually didn’t think many other teams would have fought that hard for the last CP; alas we underestimated our AR colleagues and learned we just maintained our position near 10th spot. Was demoralizing to hear how fast Benoit on o-store.ca did the trek in, less than half our time although we did sleep. 

When we got to the TA we learned the paddle was cancelled. Even though it seemed to be our strongest discipline I was happy to hear we’d be biking to the next CP. My chafed butt wasn’t enjoying though. Perhaps I should mtn bike a few times before doing an expedition race to get my ‘body’ adapted... Regardless it was much quicker and we arrived at the urban o-section in Greenville quickly. We did a run/walk for most of the section and were able to order a delicious meat-lovers pizza just before the shop closed. We washed it down with coke and ice-cream sandwiches are were off again to start the ascent up Moose Mountain range. We took a 5 minute nap on good trail then found a nice buggy marsh to do another 20-min nap; not very well executed. The climb up went well for us and eventually we made it down the other side to the ski area where the long descent was painful on our sore feet. 

At the ski lodge TA we plotted a few more CPs. I knew one these would not be as easy as it seemed because the last Untamed we did in 2010 Grant threw a knuckleball in for the last bike where the trails weren’t on the map or were not matching. After our best nap of the race - 20 mins on the side of the road in the glorious hot sun - we got the first CP on Indian Pond with ease so I figured the next one would be the tricky one, which it was. However, we played it relatively safe and didn’t try to force any routes, stuck to our bearings and make sure I knew exactly where we were on the map. It proved successful as we nailed the CP with relative ease and finally picked up our bike speed pacelining to the rafting put-in. 

 

The rafting was fun, a lot of big water and eventually some lesser class rapids which we guided on our own. At The Forks we transitioned to the final trek/packraft section. Like many others have reported, this section was a slog; the bugs were bad and the little trek just seemed to go on and on. Eventually we made it to the area where the CP was, descended down to the river and inflated our packrafts. Earlier we made the decision John and I would packraft on our own because fitting the both of us in the Alpacka just didn’t work well so John braved his $80 Canadian Tire Sevylor while I took the pimped Alpacka. Nat and James stayed in their NRS. We pushed off and were thrown into the rapids immediately. It was a white knuckle ride and we were trying to navigate while staying afloat. John was a rockstar in the Sevylor where he had to pull over after each rapid and dump his boat but was having a lot of fun. Meanwhile on the river it was carnage with hypothermic teams littered along the shoreline. We pulled over with MadAthlete to help ActiveSteve get warm at one point but had to leave (him with his able team) as fear of our teammates getting hypothermic was also a concern. As for the checkpoints - for some reason the CPs were hidden in the forest; personally not sure why as this was a packraft section and along the water would have been more appropriate. Each CP took several times getting out checking, etc as there wasn’t any distinguishable features to go off on the map. 
There was a portage featured along the map which we planned to take but no sign and apparently we went down the rapids of concern. No safety guides along the river either pointing out appropriate lines or helping stranded packrafters. Maybe I’m not as comfortable in whitewater as many but it just didn’t seem very safe and I was very happy to get out luckily just before sunset. I couldn’t believe while taking out I saw teams trekking up to the packraft put-in – at night!!?!? We took out a few kms from the take-out as we hoped to get warm running it in to the TA, however, I just got eaten alive by bugs by the side of the road while trying to change into warm clothes and fend off yet another bout of shivering and hyperthermia in the race. 

The last TA featured us biking up to a mountain top CP before going to the finish line. I set up a conservative route using a ‘black-line’ which at this point of the race could have been a trail, doubletrack or road; it didn’t seem consistent. But this one had a road name so I thought it was a safe bet for us. It wasn’t too bad although I think it was slower than the obvious recommended route on a brown line but I didn’t want to take any chances. Once at the final CP we descended down the brown trail line directly to the finish line which thankfully went the way marked on the map. We made it after 4 long tough days! 

It was just before midnight, I was praying the kitchen was still open – it was – apparently all night!!! BEST FINISH LINE SPOT EVER. We immediately ordered chili nachos, 4 lbs of wings and burger/fries for everyone while drinking awesome free beer and chatting with our fellow competitors. Eventually our eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer and we crashed to our cabin. 

Final results have us marked as 10th which is fair given the level of competition. We could have done a bit better had we managed the packrafting/big trek a bit better but also could have fared worse had we made any big nav mistakes. The team worked well together although the dynamic and usual strengths of our team changed; racing with a ‘couple’ (Nat and James) and not being as fast on our feet as usual (but being better paddlers was nice). 

Next up is Wilderness Traverse - can’t wait for such a short race!

Harper 

Steve Loses Passport, Snags 3rd in Solo at Raid Pulse

If there is one thing that can be said for adventure racing, its that you never stop learning, and you never give up. Actually, I guess that's two things! Well, at any rate, as mentioned in James' race report, I was also at the Raid Pulse race going solo. Unofficially, racing AGAINST James and Nat :-). Of course, I was pretty sure that I would get my butt kicked by James. He has been on an absolute winning streak. Congrats! However, that didn't stop me from trying!

I was not only racing, but also getting some footage to put together a video race review, which you can see below. Sadly for me, I lost my passport in the big trekking section (it was [lossely] tied around my neck). Spent about 15 minutes backtracking, which in an 8 hour race is an eternity. This lead (unknown to me) to a drop of several rankings in the overall standings, but I did maintain my 3rd place solo, clearing almost the entire course (only missed the final 2 advanced CPs, which only 3 teams nabbed). To read my whole blog post just head over to my site.

As for the video, check it out here:

Racing Solo at the Raid Pulse 8 Hour Adventure Race

On May 17th, Nathalie, Steve and I (James) headed to Camp Air Eau Bois, near Lac-Ste-Marie, Quebec for the Raid Pulse 8 hour adventure race. We all chose to race solo for this race, giving each of us the chance to test our mettle and navigation skills. Nathalie and I had acquired new Spirit surfskis late in the fall, so this would be our first chance to test them out in a race. With the lingering cold through April and early May, we didn’t have as much practice as we had hoped for on the boats, and quite nervous about the risk of dumping into the very cold water - particularly once we found out the race would be starting on the water.

James on the first trek section

Once we saw the maps, Nathalie and I (and a few other teams) chose the unconventional option of portaging our boats a few hundred metres across a point of land to the first CP, while Steve chose to paddle to the CP with the rest of the teams. It was a tough climb to get up from the shoreline, so Nathalie and I agreed to help each other portage the kayaks to the other side. It seemed like a great plan, as we arrived on the other shoreline to see a bunch of teams still off in the distance approaching the CP we were heading to. Nathalie hopped into her boat and sped off, and I hopped in mine, ready to give chase. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized that when I slipped on a mossy rock while portaging the boats, I had actually cracked the blade of my paddle at the heel. So when I took my first full paddle stroke on the right side, the blade of the paddle gave way, and I promptly rolled into the water - not the start I was hoping for... soaking wet and with a broken paddle! My only option was to hop back in the boat and paddle exclusively on the left side, using the rudder to keep me straight. 

As I arrived at the next CP, I was extremely lucky to see a familiar face - a fellow athlete who wasn’t racing and had paddled in to the next CP - who saved my race by offering me his paddle. What a relief! The rest of the paddling, which included both mandatory and optional “advanced” trekking CPs, went relatively smoothly. I arrived on shore to see a number of boats, but since not all of the CPs were mandatory, it was tough to know one’s actual ranking in the race. After a quick transition and a slightly tricky “marked trail” section over a big hill, I was off on the first bike leg. Overall, the biking was a lot of fun, particularly thanks to our new Cannondale F29 Carbon 3 bikes, which both Nathalie and I are loving! There was a great mix of gravel roads, trails, mud, and even a fair bit of bike whacking too! I had a few struggles with the navigation at a few points, but eventually managed to find my way. I was really doubting my navigation when I lost the overgrown trail as we approached the first bike drop, but after a couple hundred metres of bike whacking, I came out on the road - very relieved!

Steve hammering toward the finish line

The next trek was the crux of the race for me. I figured it would be some of the tougher navigation and, as such, would be my biggest test of the day. I wasn’t sure if the course was clearable at this point, but I decided I would try to get all of the CPs in this trek section and deal with the potential fallout afterwards. I opted to start with the simplest navigation - straight up to summit of a huge hill - the highest CP of the day, and what looked like the highest peak in the area. This was a real grind for me, as I was trying to push the pace, knowing that if my navigation was poor on the rest of this section, at least I could make up some time here. The view from the top was amazing! Back down I went and off to try and find the rest of the CPs. I was very happy with my navigation through this section, not having made any major errors and having corrected my mistakes fairly quickly. 

I transitioned back onto the last bike section as quickly as I could and tried to put down the hammer. Around this time, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to do something very important up to this point in the race... eat! I had chugged a Boost and gulped as much Nuun as I could at the 2 transitions, but otherwise was so focused on the map and not making big mistakes, that it hadn’t occurred to me to eat. Now I was starting to feel the effects. So I began the challenging task of trying to eat while biking on some pretty gnarly trails. I managed to finally get a Fruit2 and a granola bar into me and chased it with as much Nuun as I could ingest. Again, I enjoyed the trails and the different challenges, but clearly the lack of nutrition was catching up to me. At this point I wasn’t sure what position I was in, but from the information I had, it appeared to be 2nd place, so I pushed as hard as I could to try and catch the leaders, with no clue how far they were ahead of me. At one intersection, I stopped to look at my map and saw a team about 50 metres down what I suspected was the wrong trail. But I didn’t know if this was the lead team or if it was a team that had skipped some CPs. I assumed it was the latter and tried to keep up the pace as much as I could.

James discussing the race with race director Thierry Raymond

I rolled into the manned marshaling point where we could either head for the finish line, or be shown a map with 2 additional advanced CPs to get on the bike before finishing. I opted for the advanced CPs after being told that I was in the lead at that point. I headed off, nearly out of water and feeling really wiped. Not far up the road, I made an error that had me climbing for about 500m in the wrong direction. Coming back to the intersection, I now had no idea if I had been passed by any teams, which meant having to assume I was once again chasing a team in front of me. I chomped on a Fruit3 bar (the new "revved up" version of the Fruit2 bars) and drank the last of my water and headed down what I hoped was the right trail to the final 2 CPs and the Finish. The Fruit3 bar made a huge difference and I finally started to get some energy back. The navigation was a little tricky in a few spots, so I was extremely relieved upon seeing each of the 2 remaining CPs. The final downhill section of trail was sketchy, but super fun. I crossed the finish line and received confirmation that I had indeed won the race. What a great surprise!

Speaking with Nathalie and Steve after the race, it sounds like they both had a great day, with a few challenges mixed in as well. Steve finished in 3rd place of the solo male category. Nathalie was the lone solo female in the race, and therefore got to race against the boys. Even still, she managed to finish in 4th place of all of the solos. She says that she found the bushwhacking tough - and there was a lot of it! But the one time I did see her in the bushwhacking, she was chest deep crossing a swamp - now that’s hardcore!

Once again, we all agreed that the Osprey Rev18 backpacks, Swiftwick socks, and 2XU clothing were awesome! It was also great to sport our new North Face clothing branded with the X:act Nutrition and Endurance Aventure logos. Thanks to all of our sponsors for their support!

Nathalie celebrating her 4th place solo finish

Steve relishing his 3rd place solo finish

James at the finish line - happy to be done!

Storm the Trent, first official AR of the season- 1st place co-ed Team, 4th overall

After such a long winter, here it was, the first adventure race of the season!!!

James has raced Storm the Trent at least 5 times now and I (Nathalie) was at my third time.

This 8h adventure race doesn’t require great navigation skills, which was perfect for us.

Indeed, in our team of four, James and I (Nathalie) are not the navigators. With Untamed New England (5 day race) coming up, we wanted to improve our orienteering skills since we will all have to do part of an orienteering relay alone during that race. Storm the Trent wasn’t hard navigation but it would at least give us a little practice.

After camping the night before at the Golden Beach Resort (the host site) we were ready to tackle the race. I was a little worried due to the lack of training from my end on the biking and paddling. With the long winter and almost inexistent spring we had, my paddling and biking took a massive hit. However I was run fit which I guess helped a lot.

We hopped on a bus and were transported away from the resort to the start of the race. I didn’t realise it at the time but apparently we went a fair bit downhill on the bus.. But I would realise that a little later on whilst on the bike, climbing, climbing and climbing again…

We started on foot by a 4-5km trek. We ran well and the nav was spot on (I was navigating but it was very simple). We finished the run with only a few people in front of us. James took the maps and we went on a 30km MTB through paved and gravel roads and a lot of sand :/ Everything went very well for this part too and we got to the second transition in first place.

It was warm… a lot warmer than any temperature we have seen in months. I couldn’t get myself to eat much and I was drinking a lot. I took back the maps for the second trek/run. Nice little trails and once again very easy to find CPs. James had been pushing me and pulling me a lot already and I was worried he would bonk but nope… He is a MACHINE.

We managed to get out of the second trek tied for first place with a solo male competitor.

We left on the second bike in first place. The single track section of the MTB was coming and I was worried about the technical stuff but it went super well.

James was spot on on almost all the CPs, but we made a little navigational mistake that cost us a lot of time (about 10-15min). Once we finally found the CP, the second co-ed team (team of 4) was arriving and saw us at the CP so they were able to easily find it. We left again and made another small error, which led us to be passed by the other team. Shortly afterwards we caught back up and passed them again, trying to hammer it to the last little run (about 1km) before the last 2kms on the bike.

At that point we were both very dehydrated and couldn’t wait to get to the paddle section, which was the final leg of the race.

The little run up and down the hill on the 1km trek was very hard for us, but we managed to stay slightly ahead of the other team. We hopped back on our bikes and hammered to the paddle section. We hadn’t had any water for over an hour at this point and were so happy to be getting to our PFDs which had water in them. Happiness didn’t last!!! When we got to the transition area, they announced to us that we will have another run to do because the paddle section was very windy and had been shortened. Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

We told them we were expecting to see our water by then and they said we could go and get it but it cost us a bit of time and we could only drink a few sips since it was in a camel back, in the PFDs…

That run was about 3-4kms and it was the most awful I have felt in a race for quite a while.

I had barely had a few candies and half a bar in those five and half hours up to this point in the race and I was dehydrated on top of that… I was feeling more than Blah!!! James started to feel not so good either. After spending the entire day pulling and pushing me I wouldn’t blame him!!!

With the team of four being right behind us, we couldn’t slack off now, so we pushed it and got onto the water before them.

The canoe section was only 2 or 3 kms but it was awful conditions with some waves reaching about a meter high. I don’t know how we managed it but we went through without tipping and after lots of cursing from my end we made it to the finish line J

We ended up 1^st Co-ed team and 4^th overall (3 solo males ahead of us) in 6h27, only 7min from 2^nd place overall.

I had a great race and felt powerful thanks to James’ power pulling and pushing me J And for us non- navigators, I think we did pretty well! Thanks Storm the Trent for a great adventure!

Next week will be another challenge at Raid Pulse since we are both racing solo. That will be the real test for me I guess J

Nathalie

Taking on The North Face Endurance Challenge - Bear Mountain 50km Trail Race

James at the Bear Mountain 50km

On May 3rd, Steve and James made their way to Bear Mountain, New York for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50km trail race. Nathalie was also all set and in fine form to do the race, but unfortunately she had to drop out at the last minute due to a family emergency.  This was our first "real" trail run of the season, since every run in the trails up to this point had been mostly running on snow and slush, with the occasional small patch of mud... Steve and James started out together in Wave 2, with James pulling away slightly a few kms into the race since Steve was racing with a pack full of camera gear, water, and food. 

As the race wore on, both Steve and James were well positioned within the top 10, until Steve had the misfortune of rolling his ankle in the rocky terrain. He would continue on in the race, only to roll the same ankle two more times. Amazingly, he still managed to pull off an 18th place overall finish, despite his injury. James was very surprised to find himself in 6th place coming into Aid Station 2. He managed to keep a steady pace throughout the race and cross the finish line in 3rd place overall.

This was a very challenging race that ranks among the most difficult and technical courses in The North Face Endurance Challenge race series. Thanks to our sponsors -Nuun Hydration,  2XU compression clothing, The North Face, and Swiftwick socks for keeping the body performing very well from start to finish!