Event: Angry Seagull 24 hour adventure race
Location: Kincardine to Paisley, Ontario
Date: August 9-10, 2008.
2008 marked the 2nd running of the Angry Seagull 24 hour adventure race. I was bummed that I didn’t have a chance to participate in last year’s event, and thought that this would be perfect training for Untamed Virginia, a race I have coming up in about a month. In this race, I was racing with two of my longtime teammates, as well as fellow RF team member, Anthony Dale. We were the only four person team in this event (most teams had 3 members), so we knew that this might put us at a bit of a disadvantage, but also thought it would be fun to have one extra person to talk to in the woods at night!
The 2007 Angry Seagull featured long distances and navigation suited to beginner / intermediate teams. A joke on the whiteboard at the race finish said: “Angry Seagull: now with 50% more angry,” and while this comment was meant in jest, there was also some truth to it as both the course and the weather made this year’s race a more challenging event.
The race started at the Point Clark lighthouse near Kincardine at the leisurely hour of 2:00 pm, giving racers the morning to get a good rest the night before, get themselves organized, and work on their maps, which were handed out well before the race start. Race director Jay Hahn and his band of angry seagulls designed a course that would appeal to a wide variety of racers: there was a mandatory course that all had to follow, but within each section there were optional CPs with different point values assigned so that every team could cater their race to how they were feeling and how fast they were moving (or how hard it was raining, as it turned out!). I felt that this was a really smart format that introduced an appreciated element of strategy into the course, as we were told that no one could get all the CPs in the 24 hour time limit (and no one even came close!).
The first leg of the race was meant to be a 12-13 km paddle on Lake Huron with two optional CPs. As we looked out onto the wavy, stormy shores of the lake, we were a bit worried! Race organizers told us that the paddle may turn into the trek depending on the weather forecast. We were later told that the lightning was going to hold off for a short while and that the paddle would go ahead. As the only team in two boats (instead of one), we found the paddle to be slow, humorous, and wet! We escaped down a small river to obtain one of the optional CPs which provided a brief respite from the rocking waves. Once back on the lake, the weather started to turn again, and one of our boats capsized close to shore. We decided, along with another team, that we felt safer dragging /carrying our boats along the shore rather than getting back in. Midway through the first paddle was a mandatory check-in point, which, once we arrived at, we were told that the paddle would be cut short for all teams due to weather (a wise decision in my mind!). So, instead, we had to trek into Kincardine for our first TA. Unfortunately, I’d opted to wear water shoes for this leg of the race, and after dragging the boat and running in these for many kilometres, my feet were somewhat shredded, which worried me as there was still a lot of race left.
At our first TA we were met by our ever enthusiastic support crew (one teammates father) who had towels and hot chocolate for us before we began our next two sections: a beach trek and an orienteering course. The beach trek along the shore of Lake Huron from Kincardine to Stony Island Conservation Area was a ton of fun, and something I’ve yet to do in my years of adventure racing. It was great to warm-up with a nice jog along the beach. The first orienteering section was pretty straightforward, with CPs with words scattered around a maze of trails that formed a warning about something to come later in the race. A fun ropes challenge in the middle of this section was also a nice touch.
It was about 8:00 pm when we transitioned from trekking to biking, then onto another foot orienteering section. We changed out of our wet clothes, packed enough food for the night, got out our lights, then started biking. We collected 4 optional bike CPs en route to the night navigation (aka Satan’s swamp) section, which will, without a doubt, go down as the infamous section of this race. This section, like many others, had one mandatory and several optional CPs. The 3 km trek through dense swamp (at an estimated rate of 1km / hour) and the inconspicuous CP resulted in not one team going for any of the extra trekking CPs, which were all featured in similar terrain. It took us between 5-6 hours to get to the CP, find the CP and find an alternate route back to our bike drop as no one was willing to retrace our route! As tough as this was, however, it did become the hot post-race topic, with everyone groaning and sharing horror stories about it. Rumour has it there is one team still out there…
Back on our bikes just before dawn for another long bike section before hitting our next TA. We went for 1 of 2 optional CPs that involved an extra 10-12 km of biking only to realize that it meant swimming across a river that no one was up for, since we were all wet, cold and out of water. This was really our only dumb mistake during the race. We turned around, headed back to the TA, then changed again into dry clothes (our support crew had gone to the laundromat for us – how awesome is he!) and restocked our food and water. The second last section of the course was a fun singletrack section in the Brant Tract near Paisley. There were four optional CPs on selected trails and even though the trails were wet and our skills questionable due to lack of sleep, we all really enjoyed this section. We located all the CPs with relative ease, rode one extra trail for good measure (oops) then contined biking on a rail trail towards Paisley.
We transitioned one last time back into boats for the last leg of the race: a 12km river paddle to the Saugeen Bluffs Conservation Area and the finish line. There were two optional CPs on the river. We got into our boats just before 12:00, which meant we had 2 hours to do the paddle. We had wanted to get one of the two CPs, but since paddling is our weakest discipline, decided we’d be better off just heading back. As it turned out, we were moving pretty fast in the water, and we finished the paddle in just over an hour. The last challenge of the race was “Mike’s Challenge” in which after crawling out of our boats after 23 hours of racing, teams had to do a series of jump squats (which we were warned about during the first orienteering course). Because we were a team of 4, we had to do 75. One of my teammates rose to the challenge, completing 40 of these while Anthony and I did the rest. A short portage, and we were done!
Jay and his crew were supremely efficient with calculating points and giving racers a tasty post-race barbecue. Because of the format of the race, we had no idea how we had done, as no one knew what optional points other teams had collected. As it turned out, we were pleasantly suprised to have come in 2nd, tied for points with Running Free/ J&J Cycles but coming in slightly behind them. We were able to pick our own prizes (I chose an RF gift certificate!) which was also a nice touch.
Overall, I really enjoyed this race (with the exception of the swamp trek), and would very likely do it again next year. Jay and his team put a lot of time and effort into this new race. Its location and the format make it an ideal race for a team looking to try out their first 24 hour race but not wanting to invest too much time or money (it’s very reasonably priced) into such an experience. Swamp trek or no swamp trek, I can still in good conscience reccommend this race to all adventure racers! 🙂
