Storm the Trent

What: Storm the Trent Trek Elite Adventure Race

When: May 9th, 2009.

Where: Trudeau’s Park Resort, Tweed, Ontario

Website: www.stormthetrent.com

I’ve never been able to do Sean Roper’s annual Storm the Trent race in May because of a long term conflict with another commitment I usually have on this weekend.  When this commitment was moved ahead a week this year, I was thrilled to be able to check this race out. Having raced at some of Storm’s other events in the past, I knew that this race would be well-organized and challenging. I wasn’t disappointed on either count!

I’d be surprised if any other adventure race in the country gets as good of a turnout as Storm the Trent.  With 3 events running concurrently, there were over 530 multisport racers competing.  Storm events has developed a reputation of putting on high quality events that cater to all levels of multisport racers.  At Storm the Trent, racers can choose from a 3-5 hour “Hike” course, a 4-6 hour “Trek” course, and a 6-8 hour “Trek Elite” course.  By mid-March, both the Trek and Hike courses were sold out, leaving only spots in the Trek Elite. Although I was hesitant to sign up for any event that had “elite” in the title, I figured it was worth the risk in order to compete in this obviously popular race!

This race was bittersweet for me as it was the last race that my regular teammate and I would be able to do together this year as she is moving abroad in just a few weeks.  Storm the Trent would therefore be the Funderstorm’s last hurrah for 2009, so we high hopes for fulfilling our team mantra, “putting the fun back in adventure racing fun.”

The only disadvantage to signing up for the Trek Elite course was the start time.  Registration began at 5:30 and the race started at 7:30.  We started from Trudeau’s Park Resort with a paddle section that took us to 3 CPs located around Stoco Lake.  Stephania & I are not stellar (read: we suck) paddlers and I was nervous that we’d embarass ourselves in this section.  Stephania tried to cheer me up by reminding me that the bright side to finishing the canoe section last (which we did) was that there was nowhere to go but up… Although I found this start disheartening, we were able to gradually pick off teams throughout the rest of the day.

After the paddle, we headed out on our bikes for one of four biking sections of the race.  We biked to TA1, where we had to locate one off trail CP.  When we got to our attack point for this CP, we saw lots of teams milling about, unable to find it.  Stephania and I stealthily located the CP and ran back to our bikes, passing several teams in the process.  Another bike section took us to another CP and then to TA2, where we were given a supplementary map with 3 trekking CPs on it. These could be done in any order and accessed via trail (slower, but safer) or by bushwhacking (more direct, yet much wetter and thornier).  The Funderstorm used a combination of trails and bushwhacking to find the 3 CPs.  At this point in the race, it had started pouring down rain, making biking on ATV trails a fun, wet, and muddy adventure. After the trekking section it was another long bike to TA3, where we transitioned again to our trekking shoes for 3 more CPs.  Having been sopping wet for many hours at this point, we were pleased to get back on bikes for the last section of the race.  We biked past Trudeau’s Park Resort to a final TA, where we had one more “paddle” section. The catch: our watercraft for this race was an inflatable children’s boat, which we had to blow up ourselves and paddle down a small river and out onto Stoco Lake to get ourselves back to the finish line.  The lake, which in the morning had been calm and peaceful, was now windy, choppy, and wavy.  As George Costanza once said, “the sea was angry that day, my friends…”  Having already been racing for over 8 hours, this was without a doubt the toughest section of the race.  We crawled along the lake, and what was probably about 2km of paddling felt more like 20km.  I used up all the cursewords that I knew within the first 10 minutes of this section. By the end of the section, I had a few ideas about where Sean Roper could put his boat! At the same time, I was thrilled to have completed the 85+km course and be finished!

At the end of the paddle section, we were behind all the other all female teams in the race, which was disheartening.  We thought we had passed them all during the first trek, but weren’t certain of this until the awards ceremony.  We were thrilled to have won the female category for this race and for the Funderstorm to end their short season with a victory! 

I can see why this race is such a popular event, and I hope to be able to return in future seasons. The only condition to my participation: no rubber boats! 🙂