FAR High School Adventure Challenge
Sunday May 4th 2008
Deerhurst Resort, Barrie On
For the second year in a row, high school adventure racers from across Ontario gathered at Deerhurst Resort in Muskoka to race the 2008 High School Adventure Challenge put on by Algoma University College and the crew at FAR. 59 teams of 3 had the opportunity to learn from some of Canada’s best adventure racers on Saturday as hour-long clinics in Mountain Biking, Paddling and Orienteering were held in and around the resort before the big event on Sunday. As many of you know I am the coach of the Aurora High Adventure Race team and this year we sent 9 teams up to Deerhurst to compete.
As racers gathered around the start area my teams kept the AHS tradition of spirit alive as they erupted into cheers and singing. Soon all racers were cheering and the result was a pretty electric aptmosphere as racers awaited the countdown to race start. Even a 45 minute delay (hello!) did not damper the spirit of the racers and with the blast of the starters horn the 180 athletes were off and running. The race was organized in a cloverleaf design, meaning that the start and finish of all 3 stages would be at Deerhurst which allowed coaches, parents and spectators to cheer on their teams several times.
The race started with an out and back paddle on the lake and river system on the resort. With 60 teams fighting to get in the water and for position the chances of a team tipping in the frigid water was pretty high (race start temperature was around 4 degrees with a strong wind and light rain) and of course several teams did end up going in. This included our top all-male team from AHS and one of our top Co-Ed teams. With the paddle finished, the athletes headed into the transition zone and hit the bikes. Our cold and wet all male team were able to shake off the cold and headed out but our cold and wet Co-Ed team needed a warm-up so they missed out on the bike but showed a lot of guts and strength by insisting they run the trek when teams started to arrive in transition. Really Cool!! All of our AHS teams successfully completed the bike with our all girls team (AHS/Spank It) leading the way! As we cheered all of the teams through we realized that our all male team that had tipped hadn’t made their way back. Word soon came that they had stopped to help a racer who had blown a tube (without a spare or a pump) and who’s team had left him. As a coach, it was a pretty special moment and when I shared this news with the parents of the boys you could see how proud they were of their boys. At the post-race award ceremonies, the boys (Mike Tufnell, Tim Beckner and Stephen Van Neikirk) were presented with the CTV Spirit award for their selfless act (I should add that Mike and Tim are now members of Team Running Free!).
Back to the race. As the teams headed out for the trek we knew that all of our teams were in off the bike and on the trails racing for position in every category. It did not take long for racers to start crossing the finish line and we saw our first AHS team. It was AHS/Spank It (April Cockshut, Leah MacPherson and Kate Bleakley) who finished first in the all-female category and 6th overall!! They were soon followed by the rest of the AHS teams and with the race over the athletes had the opportunity to down some chocolate milk (good sponsor) and share their experiences with each other. The awards ceremony took place about an hour after the race where the top 3 teams from each category were rewarded with some very cool prizing. It was a pretty cool room to be in as all racers celebrated their efforts together. Several teams were already talking about racing next year.
It really was a great day and it was so cool to see the next generation of Adventure Racers hitting the trails hard and really showing the spirit and teamwork that makes AR such an awesome sport. Congratulations to all racers and a cheer to the AHS Adventure Racing Team for making their coach and their parents proud.
A big thanks to Geoff Langford, Lawrence Foster and Nadine Robinson from FAR/Algoma for putting on such a great event, for their passion for AR and their desire to make this sport accessible for high school athletes. Great work.
Marcus
