Saturday May9th,2009
Trudeau Park,Tweed,On.
After my first team adventure race last year at Raid the Hammer I was keen to try another.Little did I know what I was getting into when I agreed to join the 4 person Team Lantern Rouge in the Trek division(4-6hrs) at Storm the Trent in Tweed.
A little canoeing,some mountain biking and trail running…sounded cool,sounded fun,easyeven??!! Wrong! First off,canoe around Stocco Lake,9k felt like 19k.Get on the bike and tour some country roads and moderate trails for 40k.Oops here comes torrential rain,turning the country roads into grit filled troughs,trails turned into greasy,puddle filled,muck infested log jams of dirty,tired athletes.Now the trail running… 1ok through bug infested,water laden trails navigating Control Points with a water logged map!
What an absolute gas!There was rarely a moment I didn’t have a smile on my face!The race took us a little over 6hrs,eclipsing by over an hour and a half my longest race as an adult racer.What a sense of accomplishment!
The most memorable part of the day was the end of the race as we approached Trudeau Park.With about 3k to go we were joined by a team of 2,and proceeded to form a small peloton of 6 riders.Though tired,waterlogged and mud covered we picked up the pace together and were easily doing in excess of 30k per hour as we sped for the finish.
A post race shower was more than welcome,a nice buffet meal, a beer and we were homeward bound.Needless to say…I’m hooked.
Cheers
Anthony
