Event: RockstAR (www.racetherockstar.com)
Location: Bark Lake Leadership Centre, near Irondale, Ontario
Date: July 24th, 2010
Format: 8-hour adventure race
RockstAR is always a highlight of my adventure racing season. I love the location and being able to stay on site for a reasonable fee; I love that the later race start (11:00 am ) allows for a good night’s sleep and enough time to feel prepared in the morning; I love the rogaine style course that privileges strategy in addition to speed; and, of course, I love any race with a licensed after party!
This is the third year that I have competed in this event and I’ll keep going back for more. As in previous years, my teammate and I competed in the 2-person all female category. The race started with marked bike course approximately 28 kms in length, featuring a fun, keep-you-on-your-toes mix of wet, muddy snowmobile trail (yahoo!), unpaved roads with lots of fun climbs and fast downhills, and a bit of pavement thrown in for good measure. We finished the bike course in 1:51 and quickly transitioned for the trek/paddle portion of the race (I won’t go into details about the 10 minute penalty that we, along with many other teams had to serve first over a disputable piece of mandatory gear!).
I felt as if we had chosen a smart route based on our speed and ability, which proved true as the day wore on. We paddled to the top end of Bark Lake for a few trekking CPs. We went for some high value controls that were further away but on obvious features. With lots of heat and humidity to deal with, we kept our pace conservative and made sure we took salt pills every hour as well as drinking lots. After our first loop, we headed back into our boats for a couple of paddle CPs before hitting the snorkelling CPs – a definite highlight of this course.
One of the race rules is that competitors have to check into the “hub,” or central transition area, once before 6:00 pm. Having done this race in the past definitely paid off as we knew how much time we’d need after we checked in to complete our second loop. The Hub is always hard to leave though, as it is stacked with every tasty adventure racing snack you can imagine! We grabbed a few snacks to go then headed out on our second loop, moving a bit more slowly by now but finding all the CPs we went for without difficulty.
At the end of the day, we had racked up 1050 points, which was an all time high for us in this race. Unfortunately, that was only good enough for 2nd place in our category as we were bested by another team who racked up 110 points more than us. Although we may not have won our category this year, we definitely had one of our best races in terms of positive team dynamic and communication. We also learned some valuable lessons for taking forward into future races. That’s the beauty of adventure racing – you are never done learning!
I’ve already got RockstAR on my calendar for next year. If you’ve ever thought about trying an adventure race, and are not sure where to start, consider this event for 2011. For those who may be daunted by an 8 hour race, a 4 hour event is also offered. The unique rogaine-style course means you can spend as much – or as little – time as you want out on course. Check it out at www.racetherockstar.com
