Raid International Gaspesie 2015-2nd coed 4 person team-12th overall

On Tuesday September 9^th, Nathalie, Yannick, Jean-François, and Me (James), along with Pete Dobos – the team’s support person for the race - headed out for the Raid International Gaspésie 3.5 day stage adventure race. This was our first race together as a team, although Nat and I had frequently raced against Yannick and J-F, who were regular team mates. After an overnight stop in Quebec City, we finally arrived in Carleton-Sur-Mer to jump right into the usual chaos that is pre-race preparation! There was an opening ceremony Wednesday evening where teams were introduced and we finally got the race maps. We already knew it was going to be a fast race based on last year, but with a sold-out 50 team race and 11 countries represented we knew this would really be a challenging event.

Prologue (From James' perspective):

The prologue started out the same way as the previous year – a blistering 2.1km run along the beach that had us red-lined right from the start. From there it was a short but challenging 1.2km bike ride along the beach and then into some double track trails. With such a short day, we knew there would be no letting up in the pace of the race all day, so everyone pushed as hard as they could. We dropped the bikes and headed up the very steep gravel road system leading to the top of Mt. St Joseph, the highest point in the area. Once at the top, I (James) was designated to head out onto a short ropes course (slackline) while the rest of the team took a quick break to re-fuel. From there it was a very fast descent on foot in single track trails.

At this point, Nat pointed out to the team that eating a meatball sub a few hours before the race may not have been the best decision ;-) but she managed to keep most (but not all!) of it down…  The team then hopped on the bikes again for a jaunt mostly downhill on a beautiful hiking trail. We then faced our first of many water-based challenges in the race – a wetsuit-mandatory canyoning section, complete with slippery rocks, very cold pools of water at the base of waterfalls, an underwater checkpoint, a ropes section, and a crazy 20+ foot drop down a cement “waterslide” (you have to see the video!). Then back on the bikes back into town and onto the 2^nd water-based challenge – a 15 foot leap off of a pier into the saltwater and a swim to a fishing boat to retrieve a checkpoint. This was a surprisingly tough little swim with the waves, fatigue, saltwater, and a difficult climb into the boat using only the fishing nets.

Then back on the bikes for a quick ride to the finish line. Prologue completed: We were wet, tired, excited, and amazed at how much action the organizers had managed to pack into only a few hours of racing. This certainly set the tone for the rest of the race. We finished the day in 11^th place overall, 2^nd in our category.

Day 1 (From James' perspective):

Day 1 was the team’s first full day of racing. The team was excited to get going once again but just like the prologue, the start had us red-lined right from the word “go”. We left from a farm on bikes and proceeded through a trail network. This led to a trekking section that featured a long hike in a very slippery riverbed with fast moving water carrying all of the team’s paddling gear. There was also a rappel down a waterfall for 2 team members, which was completed by Yannick and J-F. While this river trek was slow-going and cold, we were still able to keep a decent pace in relation to our competitors. The river finally led down to the team’s first paddling section of the race. The rivers in the area are shallow and fast-flowing, so the paddling was a constant search for the deepest water around while negotiating small to mid-sized rapids along the way.

We were able to make up a lot of ground on the flatwater sections of the paddle. In fact, we were so fast that we came in ahead of when our amazing one-man support crew – Pete – was expecting us. Pete was around the corner getting the team some hot beverages at the store when we came into the transition. But the team managed to find the support vehicle on our way out of transition, complete with race food, drinks, and sandwiches laid out waiting for us. Then on to a very steep climb on foot and then back down, mainly on trails, which initially seemed pretty straightforward. However, this turned our to be the costliest section of our race: the team lost about 10 minutes due to a navigation error, and Nathalie slipped on a muddy uphill section and smashed her knee pretty badly. While both of these things slowed the team’s pace temporarily, everyone worked well together to get the team back on pace. The next bike was a series of trails, gravel roads, and paved roads which enabled the team to push the pace and draft off of each other.

 The bike eventually led to the final challenge of the day, a short trek that involved crossing a fast flowing waist-deep river to get to the finish line. Another intense, wet, and chilly day completed!

At the end of Day 1 the weather was still rainy which made things difficult for us to repack for the next day knowing that nothing would dry overnight and attempting to keep some things dry for the following day's race.

As soon as we passed the finish line we were told to go to the white tent where some maple toffee and some smoked salmon were waiting for us…that was so great. We also used up a table there with the lights to work on the maps for day2 before heading to a small restaurant to get some warm food.

Day 2 (From Nat's perspective):

The start of day 2 was at 9am but we needed to be there at 8:30am and it was 45min away. We woke up shortly after 6am, made our breakfast and packed up the tent and gears. The results were up. We were still second in our category with the Brazilians and Danish in between 10 to 20 min behind us and we were standing in 12^th place overall.

We started on the bike from a big field and soon we were climbing.

My (Nat's) hip and knee were a little sore from the fall the previous day and were of a nice blue-blackish color at that point. The bike section went relatively well. The Danish were ahead and we didn’t know by how far.

We reached the transition and started a trek that was almost all runnable. We were hoping to make up some time but when we got to the canoe transition we couldn’t see the Danish team…they were on the water already.

We spent too much time at this transition trying to sort out the canoes. A lot of them were broken and we couldn’t decide which ones to take.

Once on the water we realized quickly that we wouldn’t make up too much time on that leg because it was a fast moving water leg. It is a lot harder to make up time on fast moving water with rapids than it is on flat water. To our surprise while going downstream we saw the Danish team going back upstream. They had missed the CP and had a couple rapids to paddle back. I think that gave us a little boost and we pushed a little harder.

We finished the paddle without any problems and jumped back on the bikes to get to the next TA which was coasteering section with a little swim and a zipline before getting to the finish.

We ran on the beach and then walked in the water along the cliff. We swam to a buoy and back for a CP then there was more running to the zipline CP. We got there just after a team of two from Canada - MOB. As we were waiting for James and Yannick to do the ropes section we saw the Danish arriving.

We left before they got on the rope and ran to the last CP and then on to the finish. We had a good day overall. We were happy.

Time to sort out the maps for the next day, pack our gear and sleep.

Day 3 (From Nat's perspective):

After spending our last night in bivouac, it was an early morning that was waiting for us.

The start of the race was scheduled at 5:30am from the top of Mt. St Joseph. We were a 35min drive from there and had to be there 30min prior to the start, making it a 3:45am wake up for us. A quick breakfast, packing up tents and gear, and off we went in the truck. We arrived at the top of Mont St Joseph in the pitch dark. The organisation decided to give us an extra 10min to have the first rays of sunshine rising for the start of the race.

The start was a MTB start again. I (Nathalie) am not at ease with mass starts. I feel comfortable once the crowd is spread out, that’s when my race begins.

We knew from the results posted that same morning that we had barely ten minutes on the Danish team (they got a 15min credit for waiting at the canoe section I think) and that today wouldn’t be an easy one. The two person co-ed team from Canada (MOB) had also passed us in the ranking. We were 13^th overall. Day 3 had a lot of biking, which is the Danish’s strength, but we would fight till the end for our second place.

We started on the bike, like the other days a little behind lots of people and then played catch up one team at a time. As we reached the first TA to go for a 1km out and back hike to a CP, my bike gears started jamming up and I couldn’t use the 4 easiest gears of my bike. After running to the CP and back James managed to gain back a couple of my gears quickly and we left again.

James helped me a lot during every MTB stage, pushing me up the hills and mentoring me in the more technical sections. We had a couple of hike-a-bike sections on that day, one big downhill bushwacking and a long zig-zagging uphill after a CP in the river.

We knew the Danish Merrell team was ahead of us, but we were catching up. We got to the second transition for a 2km hike to a swimming out-and-back CP. We dropped our bikes and started running. We caught up to the Danish team by the time we got to the lake. Yannick went for the swim and we ran back neck-and-neck with the other team.

We jumped back on the bikes to do an orienteering section. The Danish had passed us in transition and were now ahead. Our orienteering section went well and we were out of there and back on the road to get to another transition. We left that transition 5-10min behind the Danish. It was a short hike through a river to collect a couple of CPs to get back to the beach where we would eventually jump back on the bikes. We decided to bushwack instead of taking the road and the creek down to the river. We hit the river and saw the Danish just ahead of us. It was such a smart move… only problem was we were not sure if the CP was upstream or downstream from where we met up with the river.  So we decided to go upstream a little bit before coming back on our steps. The CP was barely ten meters further downstream from where we had originally hit the river on the bushwhack. We managed that river section very well and caught up and passed the Danish team again.

I knew the next section was a 4.5km ride on the beach and I am a terrible rider in the sand. I was so panicked by that section that I wanted to put as much time on foot on the Danish team as possible to have a buffer for the final bike on the beach. We got to the TA and jumped on the bikes. As I was expecting, the Danish team passed us (I don’t know how they were towing their girl in the sand…it amazes me!) but we managed to keep them in sight till the next and last transition. We went up some stairs, picked up two canoes and were up for a 9km paddle to finish up the race.

We got in the water a few minutes after the Danish but it didn’t take long before we caught up to them. We had a strong last paddle. We did a portage once we reached the barachoi (lagoon) and had a sluggish paddle to the finish line after that due to the shallow water and weeds in there.

We were very happy with how the race went and with our second place co-ed finish (12^th overall). It was a great event, fast, but great.

We want to thank the organisation - Endurance Aventure - for such a great event, and also our sponsors for their support. Thanks to Altra Running Canada, Nuun Hydration, Pacific Health Labs, Strongbar Nutrition, Osprey Packs, 2XU Canada, Pearl Izumi, and Natural fitness lab.

And I (Nathalie) want to thank my team for this amazing race!

Trouble at the Raid International Gaspésie

Our latest adventure had us traveling to Eastern Canada for the Raid International Gaspésie stage race. We knew going in that this 3.5 day race would not be a typical race for us for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we rarely race in stage races, mainly because there are few of them around. But because this would be a stage race instead of a continuous race, we knew the pace of the race would be much higher - something that didn't necessarily favour us going into the race. Second, we knew that this race wouldn't likely have a lot of tough navigation as it was designed as much as a "multi-sport" race as an adventure race. While this provided for an excellent mix of athletes, again, we knew that this would favour some of our competitors. Third, and most importantly, we knew this would not be a typical race because of the beautiful region where we were racing and the knowledge that the race organizers would take us to some of the most beautiful and rugged places. 

For this race, we had three of our usual team members: Stephan Meyer, Nathalie Long, and James Galipeau, but had to scramble in the months leading up to the race to find a 4th person when one of our regulars was no longer able to do the race. Luckily Bruno Haché, an Acadian adventure racer was able to step in and join us for the race. His navigation skills and local knowledge were both an asset to the team for the race.

The first day of the race was a prologue, which consisted of a run on the beach, a bike along the beach and then on roads and trails, a trekking loop on the mountain (with a waterfall CP and a ropes section) a ride back down to the beach, and then a short paddle to the finish. This was an extremely fast day with the overall winners of the day finishing in just over 2 hours. Our team had a decent day on the course, mixed in with a few spots where we lost some valuable time, but all in all we were still in good shape, sitting in 4th in our category at the end of the day. 

Day One of the race had us starting with a short trek section to spread the teams out before getting into the canoes for a paddle down the Cascapedia River. Then after a fast-moving river crossing, it was a trek with a Tyrolean traverse along the way followed by a very fast bike section. At the end of the bike section two team members had to swim across the river once again to retrieve the canoes and bring them back to the other shore where teams would have to put their bikes in the boats and paddle to the finish line. Overall it was another decent day for the team, despite some challenges, which included Bruno getting a leg cramp just as he and James set off on the swim across the fast-moving (freezing!) river to get the boats. Nathalie also twisted her ankle during a trek through slippery rocks in a stream, and one of our canoes capsized in a rapid with 2 of our bikes attached to it at the start of the final paddling section. But we recovered well from each of these setbacks and managed to move up to third place in our category at the end of the first full day of racing. The evening after the day's racing was also pretty amazing as we were hosted by the Mic Mac tribe on their land. We were treated to a spectacular display of traditional drumming and dance, as well as fresh salmon with maple syrup smoked on cedar planks inside hollowed out tree trunks. To cap off the night, there was an amazing display of the Northern Lights.

Day Two would unfortunately barely get started for our team before we ran into serious trouble. The race started off with a paddle section, and for our team, this was also where our race ended. It was a very cool morning that had left a frost on the ground and made for some chilly sleeping (or not sleeping!) the night before. Nathalie had been battling a pretty nasty chest cold that started up just before the race, and the cold, rain, and camping of the previous 3 days was certainly not helping things. We started out pushing pretty hard and trying to manage the "bumper boat" craziness that always comes with a mass paddle start. The plan was for our team to use a tow rope to help us to move faster, but this proved to be very difficult for the first part of the paddle with all of the boat traffic seemingly moving in all directions.Once we finally were able to get our boats attached, it was full steam ahead and we pushed very hard to try and make up some lost ground. Unfortunately this exacerbated Nathalie's chest cold and set off an exercise-induced asthma attack less than 1km from the end of the paddling section. The combination of the stress and chaos of the race combined with the anxiety caused by the asthma attack then caused her to hyperventilate, which immediately got the attention of a few thoughtful teams who stopped to make sure everything was ok, as well as a boat with a camera crew on board. It appeared that Nathalie was getting everything under control and the team began to paddle again to try and get to the transition area. But once again her breathing became very difficult, so her boat pulled to the shore so that she could walk the remaining 300 metres to the TA. She was met half way by a crew of medical staff and other onlookers who immediately tried to help restore her breathing to normal. While the medical team was excellent, it seems that having having so many people in close range created more anxiety and unfortunately Nathalie wasn't able to get her breathing back to normal on her own. So she was taken by ambulance to the hospital (despite her pleas to be unbuckled so that she could keep racing!) where she was warmed up and monitored for a brief time before being released. While she was feeling better, the trip to the hospital meant the end of the race for our team. Nat said this is the worst chest cold she's ever had and it actually got worse the following night - she said she's not sure if she could have continued to race hard on the following day even if the team had been allowed to continue. Stephan however did manage to race on the final day with the team from Costa Rica after one of their team mates had to withdraw from the race as well.

Obviously this was not the result that any of us had hoped for, but we can say that we raced hard for the whole time that we were out there on the course. We all agree that a team mate's health is far more important than any race result and we are all happy that Nathalie didn't suffer any lasting effects from the incident (except for the chest cold that doesn't seem to want to go away!). We are all keenly aware of the dangers that we subject ourselves to when we choose to do an adventure race, and we don't take these risks lightly. So when a serious situation does occur, it reminds us how fortunate we are to be able to race hard and to finish most of the races that we enter. And it's also a very big comfort to know that our fellow competitors care enough to stop their race in order to offer a helping hand when something does go wrong.  

All we can say in the end is that the race course, the region, the organization, and the medical response were all outstanding - and we can't wait to come back again to take care of some unfinished business...

Here is a video recap of the race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVFwnKAc7lE

James

 

         

Nat & James get more adventure than they bargained for at the Raid Bras-du-Nord MTB race

Always know what you are signing up for. Sounds simple and straightforward right? In most of the racing we do, there is always some element of the unknown, but we (James & Nathalie) admittedly were a little caught off guard while racing the Raid Vallee Bras du Nord Mountain bike race(s) on the weekend of Aug 22-24. I (James) have no doubt that the organizers explained their new format clearly on the website. But when we signed up for the race, we just went on the assumptionr (without reading much on the website) that the race format would be similar to previous years, except that there were 3 stages. Sounded like fun! So we signed up early in the summer.

As the race drew closer, we actually read the race weekend description: a Friday "Night Challenge", an "Enduro Challenge" on Saturday, and the "Evolution Challenge" on Sunday. As we read what these races actually entailed, we became both excited and a little nervous. All 3 races offered a unique and interesting challenge to racers - Friday would be a 2-person night time relay race, Saturday was basically a downhill time trial, and Sunday was more of a cross-country race but with only 3 timed "sections" of the race. All 3 of these formats were new to us, so we just decided we'd tackle the weekend as a new adventure, a great training opportunity, and a change of pace from adventure racing.

As it turned out, the Friday Night Challenge was unfortunately canceled due to lack of participation, but the organizers were great to still offer participants the (free) opportunity to ride a marked course on Friday night at a more leisurely pace. This was a friendly easy-paced ride that allowed us to make the most of the weekend and to get the opportunity to do some night riding. The marked loop was awesome and we had a really fun ride.

Saturday's "Enduro Challenge" is where things got very interesting for us. We were not familiar with the "Enduro" style of MTB racing, which is defined in the following way:

"The most basic definition is timed downhills and untimed uphills. Racing is over a series of special stages and whoever has the fastest combined time after those stages wins. Riders need to get between the stages, often for a set start time."

We would be doing the same (mostly downhill) trail twice with a set start time for the first downhill and no set start times for the second one.

The other thing we were not familiar with for this race was the trail. The race would consist of biking (untimed) up an access road to the start line and then bombing down the "Neilson" trail - the Vallee Bras du Nord's newly opened signature trail - in 1 minute intervals between racers. We had ridden small section of the Neilson a few weeks earlier and found it to be fairly technical compared to the trails we normally ride - only to be told that the section we rode was the "easier" part of the Neilson. This had us both quite nervous. Here's a little video of that easier section of the Neilson trail to give you an idea of some of terrain. Nathalie has been working in improving her technical riding this season, so this trail was a major step up in terms of difficulty for her (particularly at race speed), while I was concerned with racing somewhat blind downhill on a technical trail that I didn't know at all. Nat was set to start 1 minute ahead of me, but managed to convince the organizer to allow her to start in the last time slot to allow her a little more time to run the course without having to worry about people coming behind her.

As I started my descent, I was filled with both the excitement of the race and the nervousness of bombing down an unfamiliar trail. In adventure races, the speeds are much slower generally due to the length of the race, but this was 25+ minutes of red-lining or at the least pushing the limits of one's technical abilities (at least for me!). I also find it extremely hard to race conservatively, so of course I went out way too hard - finding out the hard way that the relatively short uphill section in the middle of the course was longer and steeper than I expected, and that maneuvering my hardtail Cannondale 29er on the 12km course (which I would classify as mostly a downhill course with some cross country terrain mixed in at a few places) was a lot more tiring than I thought it would be. I also ended up in quite a few spots on the trail where, had I known what was coming, I  would have gone slower or taken a different line. I found myself making a LOT of mental notes of places on the trail where I would need to be more careful the second time around... I decided to wait for Nat at the bottom of the course so that we could ride back up together to start line a second time. I was expecting her to finish with a look of terror on her face, given how much more technical these trails were compared to where we'd been training, but instead she finished looking quite determined and confident.

After riding back up to the start line, I started my second loop a couple minutes ahead of Nat. Based on the first loop I decided that I would take the second one as a hard training session, and back off a little from race mode, particularly with my long list of mental notes of places to be more careful on the trail. Ironically, letting off the throttle is what actually led to my demise this time around... I seem to have missed on of those mental notes at one particular point in the trail and went over what looked like a rounded boulder on the trail but what turned out to be a "half" boulder - with about a 3 foot cliff on the other side. I had gone over it so quickly the first time around that I more or less jumped off the ledge and managed to stay upright (but just barely), but I didn't recognize this boulder the second time until it was too late (and apparently there was a way around the boulder that I didn't see either) and with my slower speed, I more or less just dropped off the edge of the rock and went right over my handlebars. It was not pretty and to be honest, I'm not really sure how I didn't injure myself and/or break my bike. But there was nobody around and I just got back up, brushed off the dirt and kept going...once again a little slower. The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful and Nat ended up posting a faster second lap and finishing tired but satisfied.

Sunday turned out to be a lot closer to what we originally thought we were signing up for - 40+km of a mixture of incredible single track, fun double track, and a little bit of road to connect them all. Nathalie and I rode the untimed parts of the race course together and then raced the timed sections separately. We both had a good day on the trail and lots of fun.

In case I may have undersold the race, I just want to say that the race itself was excellent - very well run and taking place on some truly beautiful and amazing trails. The format, while not what we expected, was actually very interesting and a nice change of pace. The Neilson is a spectacular trail that I can't wait to go back and ride soon - but not blindly in a race ;-) All in all we got what we were looking for out of the weekend - some challenging technical training in a beautiful place and overall a fun weekend in the trails. What more could you ask for?

(In all the excitement, we didn't manage to take any pictures, but there were photographers on course, so we hope to eventually be able to post some pics of the race)

James     

  

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!