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!