In Adventure Racing you can be a great runner and biker but you mess up one control point and you're out of the top 10. That is what happened to Jay and I at the December Chill. We ended up finishing in 19th place because we spent at least 15 minutes attacking a control point from the wrong direction. The difference between us and 10th place was only 5 lousy minutes in almost 6 hours of racing.In some ways I was very happy with the race despite our finish. As far as fitness goes Jay and I were where we needed to be. Our canoeing continues to be an area where we could make up some time. Hopefully we will be able to get out and get some practice in the boat before the Spring Fury.
The day started off with me not rushing to get my pack and drop bags ready because I was fully packed by Thursday night. This resulted in a fairly stress free time leading up to the race start. It was rather pleasant. The first stage of this race consisted of a short trekking section in which we had to obtain 3 control points in any order. This is usually done to help separate the field so you don't have 200 people running off into the woods at the same time. We were able to get 2 of the points with no problems. The 3rd one took us a few minutes longer but it wasn't too bad. Jay and I both had running shoes on but quite a few of the people did the first section in their biking shoes because they wanted a faster transition to the bike after the trekking. Can you imagine running 2 or 3 miles in your biking shoes on totally frozen and icy roads? Once back at the Dodge Pavilion Jay and I headed to the cars to grab our bikes, shoes, and helmets. The first section of the biking had us catching the singletrack at the end of the blue loop. From there we headed onto the yellow loop and took that around to the trailhead parking lot. The trail was surprisingly ride-able if you stayed in the 1 foot wide swath down the center of the trail that was fairly packed down. Venture even 1 inch off that part and you get squirrelly and pulled even more off trail. We were able to pass quite a few people despite the trail condition. You had to be careful and they had to be willing to let you pass. There were 3 control points right on the trail that had to be obtained. From the trailhead we headed down the park road to the canoe staging area which was located on the Huron River just south of the Kent Lake Spillway. The road was really icy and slick. We saw one guy take a hard spill on the bike path so I'm assuming that was just as icy. Jay and I were both able to stay upright. At the canoe launch we had a gear bag waiting for us. The only thing I pulled from the bag were a pair of gloves and my PFD.
I wore my biking shoes in the boat which actually wasn't too bad. Canoeing on the Huron River was a blast. Definitely better than canoeing in some huge lake like the April race. The river had a ton of downed trees which made navigating tricky but Jay, in the back of the boat, made it look easy.Several people passed us on the river. A big reason we were a little slower was were using canoe paddles opposed to kayak paddles which are a lot more efficient. We ended up with a decent split time for the canoeing portion.After the canoeing portion there was a score-O style orienteering section. You are given a map with control points marked by little circles. You are also given a sheet that describes each point. For example it will say at the top of a hill, end of a swamp, or at a re-entrant. These points can be obtained in any order so you have to have a plan as far as how you can minimize your time and amount traveled.
The topography at Island Lake is not that interesting. In the center and south part of the park you have an old gravel pit that is open with some fairly steep hills. At one point the hill was so steep and slippery that Jay and I slid down the hills on our butts. The points in this area were fairly easy to obtain. The rest of the park is fairly flat so the Infiterra crew were limited on how complex they could make those sections. Those points ended up being just as easy to obtain. You really didn't need to take a bearing with your compass...just point and shoot.I say easy but we did mess up on one point. It was sitting on a hill in the middle of a big, thick swampy area. Jay insisted on going west on a two track then north following a contour line. When we get to the area we wanted to head north at the area was marked with No Trespassing signs. We ended up following a group of people through the swamp and into someone's backyard. At this point I finally had enough and told Jay that we are turning around.
On the east side of the swamp there was another small ridge line that went north into the swamp then disappeared. When we made it to this ridge line you could see a trail heading off in the direction of the swamp. After about 10 minutes of bushwhacking thru the swamp we found the hill and the CP. From that point it was onto a couple more points and the finish back at the pavilion.I'm counting this race as a success.
Now back to training and preparing for the March Madness. If we stay fit and don't make any rookie mistakes we should be okay. No guarantees though....this is Adventure Racing after all.
writen by: Tony M