25 km Adventure Run + Orienteering
Rocky Ridge Milton, On
A friend of mine lost a teamate a few weeks before this race and asked me if I was interested. I had never done an adventure run before. but had been thinking of doing one soon. I don’t have a lot of experience orienteering so was a little worried about how I would do, but the 2 guys I was racing with , Todd and Jamie, had lots of experience with adventure runs, rogaines and orienteering meets so we I didn’t have to do much besides run. The race started with five Come n’ Gho checkpoints along a trail system that we could grab in any order. We hit all five fairly quickly with the third one in the middle of a very cold pond that I volunteered to get. Then it was off to CP1 and my first lesson in Adventure Running. I am used to the 1:50,000 scale used in Adventure Racing, but our map was 1:10,000. I didn’t realize how much a difference this made until we blew by CP 1 and wasted about 30 minutes backtracking. After this mistake right at the beginning we regrouped and headed out to find a trail that led to CP2. We had much better luck with this CP and passed through onto some more trails towards CP3 and the aid station. After an awesome trailrun we arrived at CP3 and headed for the Lass “O” which was a series of 9 controls with only 4 being punches, the others were just flags. We smoked this section then hit CP 9 and 10 quickly before a short trail run to CP11and onto CP 12 after a very cold run through a stream that left my feet numb for a few minutes. After a hike through the forest to Cp 13 we had the I “O” U section which was in a whited out area of the map that involved following directions and a couple pictures of rocks that we had to find. With me calling out directions and Todd and Jamie keeping their eyes peeled for the features we founf the crevasse we were looking for and climbed out the other side and on to the second come n’ gho section with 4 more control. After running along a trail we hit the first control pretty easily. After crossing some feilds we veered to far east and hit the 3rd one we wanted so had to back track a little bit. The we hit CP 15 on our way to the 4th control which we had some trouble with. There was 
another team there ahead of us and we got sidetracked into looking in the wrong place. After spending 15 minutes looking in the srong places we finally figured it out and found it hiden in a stand of trees. We hustled back to CP 16 which was the aid station and getting our fill headed out on another trail run to the Walk the Line section. From CP 17 we had to follow a line drawn on the map and pick up 3 controls somewhere along that line, using features to guide you. After some tense moments we found all three and from CP21 to CP 22 which was located at Cp1 that we we had trouble with at the beginning. This time we nailed it, but got a little disoriented aling the trails leading back to the start finish at Rocky Ridge. We finally made it back in 5:57:28. Not the finish we were hoping for, but the course was tough with lots of snow left and we made a few big mistakes. I definately had a good time though and am most likely going to be at Raid the Hammer in the Fall.
I would also like to give thumbs up to Running Free Athlete Marcus Olson who continues to amaze me with his Students from Aurora High School. Marcus is showing this kids the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and growing the sport we love through the youth. He is an inspiration to me and I hope that I am half as psoitive as he is even when things aren’t going well. CP1 anyone?
See you on the Trials
P.S. Use the Coupon by either printing it off and taking into Running Free or use the code 30301 at RunningFree.com.
