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The Tree Huggers' 2004 adventure racing
season began yesterday with FAR's Albion Hills Winter Race, a 40
km event featuring navigation, mountain biking, cross-country
skiing, snowshoeing and tobogganing. We'd hoped for wintry
temperatures, say -10C, to ensure good snow conditions, but it
was a bit much when the mercury hit -24C during breakfast. We
crossed our fingers that the race would not begin with mountain
biking - the coldest sport for toes, fingers and faces.
We got to Albion Hills and learned that we would indeed be
biking first. Oh boy. Bikes aren't designed to be operated in
sub-zero temperatures and neither, really, are cyclists. A
friend (who eventually won the race) had to warm his bike under
the washroom hand dryer, since critical parts had frozen while
it was on the roof rack. We stuck chemical toe warmers to the
bottoms of our socks and hoped for the best.
This event attracted 50 teams of 3 people each - a huge number
for a winter race. We were bussed to a road junction north of
Hockley Valley Park. We were to run 600 meters to our bikes,
then begin riding. Our team began the day with a snafu when we
got separated at the start and ended up waiting on bikes when
there were no teammates behind. Once we'd found each other, we
were at the back of the pack as we began a hilly 4 km ride on
snowy country roads. Next was an unopened road allowance almost
1.5 km long - an opportunity to push our bikes along a pretty,
rolling forest trail through deep snow in a long line of
racers. Not fun, but at least we didn't feel cold anymore.
Another 9 km of biking on hilly roads lay between us and TA1
(the first Transition Area) near Airport Rd. Since I'd had food
poisoning on Thursday, it seemed like a good day for Richard to
tow me up some hills. The problem was, with heavy gloves, it
was hard to grab the tow line, but the times when we were able
to "dock", it worked pretty well.
Richard mentioned something about fixing his Camelbak
mouthpiece, then there was a burst of confused fury as he
realized that a liter of water had poured from his drinking
reservoir into the front of his jacket, soaking his top layers
and the outside of his tights. The irony was, because we had
boiled the water in the morning, the water was uncomfortably hot
even on this frigid day. The heat didn't last. We were so
close to the TA that we decided to keep going, silently dealing
with the fact that our race might be over. Richard travels
light, so Ming and I were frantically trying to figure out how
we could build a new outfit for him with the contents of our
packs. However, it was SO cold that most of the liquid
flash-froze on the front of Richard's fleece vest, leaving him
with a rock-hard abdomen 5 cm thick. It was heavy - and quite
funny, once we realized that he wasn't cold anymore and he
simply had to spend the day carrying an extra kilogram of ice on
his tummy, like a kangaroo's pouch.
We switched to snowshoes and angled across a field with fairly
deep snow until we joined the Bruce Trail for some steep,
forested hills and valleys before crossing Hwy 9, about 3 km
from TA1. Entering Glen Haffy Conservation Area, we stayed on
the Bruce Trail for a short while, then headed off to cross a
creek valley to get to the next checkpoint (CP2), a picnic area
about 2 km from Hwy 9. We saw a number of teams around CP2 but
ended up breaking trail as we contoured along the top of a
ridge, aiming to meet the Bruce Trail where it crossed
Coolihan's Sideroad. The other teams mostly stuck to the park
road, which was easier walking, but a longer route. After
crossing Coolihan's, we hit a road allowance that ran straight
to TA2/CP3 where the Bruce Trail joins the dead end of Innes
Lake Rd. The distance from CP2 was about 3.75 km. Throughout
the snowshoe section we ran about half the time, and tapped
Richard's excess energy to tow Ming or me as needed to keep the
team's speed as high as possible.
Although we'd been moving quickly by our standards, we were
surprised to come over the hill and see over 100 bicycles
waiting for their owners. The checkpoint staff enthusiastically
said, "Hey, way to go guys - you're doing great!" That's what
people always say at checkpoints, so we just smiled back and
said "thanks". But they persisted in congratulating us, and we
were astounded to hear that we were the 5th team to arrive out
of 50. What??? There must be some mistake. The Tree Huggers
are a fun team. We have never been the 5th team to arrive
anywhere, nor do we try to be. As it sank in, we realized this
would be a really good time to do an efficient transition and
get the heck out of there. I got ready for biking while the
guys sorted their gear, hindered by cold fingers and giddiness.
They couldn't get the transition bag zipped shut. It finally
dawned on them that the bag was too big because it had 2 bike
helmets in the bottom. Richard and Ming both touched their
heads at the same moment with the same astonished look on their
faces, realizing that they were about to start biking without
helmets - then we all burst into laughter, including the
checkpoint staff. We headed out for a 5 km ride mostly on
Finnerty Sideroad (where we live) - a ride that should have been
easy, but wasn't. Richard's thumb froze and he had to deal with
that; Ming's legs started cramping painfully, a condition that
plagued him for the rest of the race. We limped along at
moderate speed as one team passed us and another caught up.
We got to the CP at the Bruce Trail entrance to the Palgrave
Conservation Area on Humber Station Rd., a short distance from
our house. If racers arrived before 2:50 p.m., they could do an
advanced navigation section in Palgrave on foot or by snowshoe.
Otherwise, they would bike on to Albion Hills for the skiing
leg. We made it in time for the advanced section, and were
happy to leave our bikes behind - good riddance. We'd chosen
not to bring snowshoes, so we were on foot for the next 6 km in
10-20 cm of snow. First we took the Bruce Trail most of the way
across to Duffy's Lane, avoiding hills and capitalizing on the
firmer snow. Then we went into the main part of Palgrave and
navigated to the first CP, which was on a pine-covered hill that
we couldn't remember visiting before. The volunteers told us we
were the 5th team to arrive, so we'd passed the 2 teams who had
caught us on the bike leg - woo hoo! The next CP was 1 km away
in the old main parking lot. We were still 5th, and still in
shock. We realized that we could name every team who must be in
front of us, because the race had attracted some big names.
Unfortunately, Ming was still in severe pain from cramps that
moved around his legs, but was soldiering on amazingly well with
occasional towing from Richard. We hustled back to Duffy's
Lane, down to the rail trail and over to Patterson Sideroad
where our skis awaited us.
The last section of skiing was shorter than we had hoped but, as
it turned out, by the time we got there, Ming was gritting his
teeth just to be able to move his legs at all. However, after
somehow getting this close to the front of the pack, we would do
whatever it took to get us all across the finish line, even if
we had to walk carrying our skis and each other. We had about 5
km of skiing to get back to the chalet, all of it on groomed ski
trails. In flat sections, Richard towed Ming with a ski pole,
while they each used one arm to pole forward. He couldn't help
on the hills and Ming dug deep to power up a couple of steep
climbs. We arrived at the chalet, although we had actually
hoped to come out on top of the tobogganing hill - oops. This
left us with a steep climb carrying our skis, avoiding toboggans
as they careened down the narrow hill, followed by an
exhilarating descent across the finish line.
Our total time was 5:54. Our buddies from Team EAS/Hammer came
first overall with an amazing time of 4:29. We ended up placing
3rd in the co-ed division and, unofficially, I think we were 6th
overall out of 50 teams! The two co-ed teams ahead of us were
led by experienced international adventure racers and course
designers - Lawrence Foster and Pete Cameron - and we were
incredibly honoured to be on the podium with them. We remain
shocked and thrilled a day later. Our local knowledge certainly
helped, but we also overcame a few major problems in this race,
so we don't feel overly guilty. We don't think this is the
beginning of a new trend for the Tree Huggers, but it sure is a
confidence booster at the start of the season. Plus we had lots
of fun too.
That's it for now. Next event is the Canadian Ski Marathon in 2
weeks. There's lots of snow for practising now, so no excuses! |
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