Salomon Giant’s Rib Raid
25 km Adventure Run + Orienteering
Rocky Ridge Milton, On
Rain and cool temps greeted the participants of the ’08 Giant’s Rib Raid held at the Rocky Ridge Ranch in Milton. The Don’t Get Lost crew billed this race as “The Absolute Toughest 25k and Gnarliest 10k in Ontario” and by no means was this an exaggeration. With over 60 teams of 3 racing through the forests and swamps in search of checkpoints, precise navigation and attention to map details would be the key to success.
Unfortunately, my team and I failed miserably with both.
My team (myself and 2 of my AHS Adventure Race Team students Mike and Tim) along with my other 2 Junior teams made up of AHS racers joined the other 100+ racers at the start line anxious to his the trails. With the countdown complete it was a mad dash into the woods as teams tried to hit the first 5 checkpoints known as the “Come ‘n’ GHO”. The first checkpoint we hit was placed within a thigh-deep pool of ice melt and that moment would set the tone for the rest of the day. With all 5 CP’s taken, we marked our bearing and headed out towards CP1. Unfortunately, a missed step and a wrong turn resulted in a major detour that took our team out of the 25km race. With our detour behind us, our team rallied together, took a couple of deep breaths, and hit the race course again securing several checkpoints before making the smart decision to head back to the finish to avoid being out on the course and to take care of a couple of minor medical concerns that my students developed (ankle, stomach). This was definitely a learning experience for all of us and I’m really glad that my team was able to overcome a major setback/detour to comeback to the racecourse, persevere and feel good about our efforts once the race was complete. Our goal is to redeem ourselves at Storm on May 10 and really show what we are made of in that race.
A huge thanks to Barb Campbell and the crew at Don’t Get Lost for organizing the Raid and for accepting our junior racers into the race (even though the deadline had past). Looking forward to running another race with DGL later on this summer. Also a big congrats to the AHS junior teams (Steven, Adrian and Elyse and Stephen, Austin and Patty) for completing the 10km course and for diving into the 2008 race season.
See you on the trails (fingers crossed)
Marcus
