Since the Logs, Rock and Steel race started a couple years ago, I’ve always wanted to do the race. Unfortunately, the timing has never worked out. 2011 was the first year it fit into the schedule.
LRS is an adventure race, but doesn’t require navigation. However, you still have to follow flagging tape through the forest. When you’re biking at 30km/h, this can be quite difficult! The race location had moved to Camp Pinecrest for 2011. I had worked three weeks at Pinecrest during the fall of 2006 and had explored the area on my mountain bike, so I figured I had a slight home court advantage. There area has great lakes and trails, so I knew the course would be entertaining. The race course consisted of a 4km paddle, 22km mountain bike, and then a 5km trail run.
Race Preparation
I had done a lot of cycling and running over the summer, but minimal paddling. As a result, my game plan was to take it easy on the paddle, and then pick it up on the bike. I was worried about getting exhausted on the paddle, being the first discipline of the race. I estimated my race time to be about 2 hours, so I figured I could live on 2 gels for the race, with some Gatorade during the bike leg to keep the electrolytes balanced.
Race Day
Woke up early race day and made the 2 hour drive up to Torrance. There was an accident on the 400, which meant I barely made it to the race on time. Luckily I had prepped everything the night before, so there wasn’t too may tasks at the race site. I ran over to registration, picked up the race kit, grabbed my rental kayak, ran back to the car, rode my to the bike transition (where an all the bike rack spots had been taken, so I had to grab a spot on the grass), and then ran to the race start. Luckily it took 20 minutes for all the racers to get into the water with their boats, so I had some time to relax before the start.
Race Start
The race stated with close to 100 different boats on the water. It was an awesome site! The paddle was a circle around the lake, including going around an island. Right off the start, you could see the teams/soloist with racing boats take off. Only 1km in, they probably already had a couple hundred meter advantage. I tried to keep a steady tempo. Even though the paddle was relatively short (approximately 30 minutes), my paddling muscles were spent by the end. It was nice to be on an open lake, as I could keep track of all the other boats, to see how far the leaders were, and how far back the chase group was. At the end of the paddle, all the awesome Camp Pinecrest staff were at the take-out to help racers get out of their boats.
Next was a 100m run to the bike transition. During transition, I try to take it easy and focus on remembering to complete all the transition area tasks – I didn’t want to leave without water or food! As I started on the bike, I ate a gel right away. The gel gave me that artificial feeling of great, so I held a fast tempo. After about 5km of gravel road, we hit the ATV track. The next 7km was a mix of muddy ATV trails and Canadian rock shield. I was able to pass quite a few teams, as a lot of people were walking the hills or puddles. Near the end of trail section, I caught my team-mate from the Race The Rockstar Adventure Race. We decided to ride the rest of the bike leg together to keep pushing each other. The final 10km was a cottage road back to the bike transition. It was nice to be on some roads and really pick up the pace after the slow trail section. It also gave me a break to eat another gel.
I arrived back at bike transition, and figured I was probably in the top 5. My Rockstar teammate who I arrived with was a better runner, so I knew he’d take off. I grab my handheld water bottle and took off. After the bike, my legs felt like concrete. I knew the key was just to keep moving. Once in the trails, the concrete blocks were gone, as it was probably one of the most fun trail runs I’ve done. It was lots of steep up and downs, and tight turns. You really had to focus on only the next2 meters, as the turns were so tight. Near the end of run, I caught another solo, who had gone off-course. I never like to pass someone who goes off-course, but that’s how it goes in off-road racing. I sprinted to the finish in 3rd overall.
This was probably one of the best finishing lines, as it was the Camp’s swimming area, so everyone jumped into the water to cool off.
Post Race Thoughts
This race lived up to expectations. Great host site (Camp Pinecrest), great volunteers, and a great race course. I definitely plan on being next year. The Pinecreast course is a great challenge for seasoned veterans who want to push themselves, or new racers looking for an introduction adventure race.
