It was an aboslutely perfect day for racing. The sun was out and the temperature was just right as adventure racers from across Ontario desended on the Golden Beach Resort on Rice Lake for the Storm the Trent Hike event. Solo racers and teams of 2 or 4 received race packages and last minute instructions from race organizer Sean Roper and were left to make any final preparations before the race began.
For this race, my co-ed team of 4 consisted of myself, my wife Meagan (making her AR debut) and our good friends Gary and Michelle (only 6 months after having her daughter Carys!!). We studied our race details and we were ready to go.
The race began in the water with a 5 km paddle loop around the lake. Teams were required to hit 2 “checkpoints” in order and then return to the put in point. We were in the middle of the pack as we got the first CP and continued to race well as we hit CP #2. As we pulled the boats out of the water and jumped on our bikes we were all feeling good and we headed out to start the bike leg. An 8km peddle across back roads and gravel paths led us to the run leg of the race. We were responsible for hitting 3 CP’s before getting back on the bike. CP’s 1 and 2 were no problem but an error in navigation by yours truely led to a 25 minute detour and as we finally made our way out of the run…we found ourselves dead last. Ouch.
However, our team perservered. We hammered through the singletrack portion of the bike and tore our way to the 2nd run stage. This consisted of a 600m climb to a picturesque point where a race volunteer was stationed to take our team picture. After we flashed our pearly whites (both Meg and Michelle are Dental Assistants), we ran down the slope and headed for home. We had caught 4 teams on the way back (none in our category unfortunately) and finished our race with smiles on our faces knowing that we had raced hard and that the girls had successfully completed their first Adventure Race.
Once again, Storm did not disappoint. The race course was fantastic and the entire event was very well organized. However, the post race meal could use some improvement. (undercooked burgers and dogs). We will definately be back next year to race Storm ’08.
