If you’ve ever had the opportunity to enjoy running the Bruce Trail, then you can share in the fact that it’s absolutely gorgeous terrain to run on. From steep hills to beautiful valleys, there’s nothing more you could ask for during a great trail run.
This past weekend myself and a few friends decided to take on the Raid the Hammer race that takes place every year in the greater Hamilton area. The format of this race is simple, take the maps given to you and hit all the checkpoints in the shortest time possible before making it to the finish line. As easy as it sounds, believe me it’s not quite that simple. The distance of the race is advertised as being between 24 to 27 kilometers, but it will vary depending on the route you choose to go. Between the 3 of us that made up our team, we all are fairly strong runners and have a good amount of experience running some pretty gnarly trails around the GTA. Going into the race we were pretty stoked as the Bruce Trails have a reputation for being unforgiving to run on, yet very scenic and picturesque. The weather was absolutely fantastic for a mid November day with temperatures reaching as high as 15 degrees. The trails were pretty dry for the most part despite the rain we had during the week prior, and the trail systems although covered with leaves, were still fairly easy to find and follow.
School busses took us from the Waterdown High School (finish line of the race) to the start line which was approximately 20 minutes away. Once the horn alarmed signalling the race start, off we went running towards the central hub of the first of three sections of the race. There were a total of 4 checkpoints in the first section of the race to which we had to reach as a team before splitting up and seeking out 3 other checkpoints individually. We were off to a good start and managed to bushwhack our way to the first checkpoint within minutes after arriving at the central hub. Once we used our little timing key at the checkpoint, off we went to search for the next one. Although thrown off a little bit by the compass while looking for the second marker, we eventually found our way and checked in again with the key. 2 down, 2 more to go! It took us a little bit longer than anticipated to find the next two checkpoints, but all in all we were in good shape going into the “scramble” section where everyone was on their own. We had discussed on the bus ride over to the race start who would seek out which of the three individual checkpoints, so once we completed the first 4 markers we had little to discuss before breaking up to go find them. I was the last one to return back to the central hub, but had managed to find my checkpoint fairly easily despite how far it was away. Once I found it, all I had to do is use the Orienteering punch to stamp my card and return back to the central hub. Once back, we showed the race official that we had all three checkpoints punched and off we went to the second section of the race. All in all, we were in and out of there in approximately 45 minutes which we were happy about, but to say that the rest of the race went as smoothly as the first section would be a lie. Things got pretty rocky as far as the checkpoints are concerned, and we ended up losing a fair bit of time looking for one checkpoint that we had overshot.
There were quite a few sections of pure trail running with ample stream crossings and stairs to climb, which is like candy for trail running enthusiasts like the three of us are! But on the flip side of that coin, there were much more bushwhacking sections than anticipated which usually equates to tough and slow walking sections. With all the hang ups due to our “lack” of Orienteering skills, we didn’t end up making it to the ¾ marker of the course by the cut off time. In fact we were bummed as we missed it by a measly 15 minutes unfortunately.
As mentioned, our team had a fun time running what has to be the most beautiful terrain in the GTA on one of the warmest November weekends that I can recall. We were however, a bit disappointed in the race layout as it was geared primarily to Orienteering groups as opposed to trail runners. With this being said; If you are fairly new to orienteering by use of a map and compass (such as we were), then I don’t suggest doing this race – specifically the full Raid. There was a Half Raid which was a lot shorter, but still utilized the latter part of the Full Raid (meaning it was likely still pretty challenging). The organizers do offer information about orienteering instruction classes that you can take prior to the race, which one of my teammates did end up attending, but truth be told it wasn’t nearly enough instruction for a race of this calibre. If Orienteering is your thing, then I strongly suggest you check out this race as I can’t imagine any other races out there that offer the same challenges as this particular one does. If you’re more of a runner than a navigator, be warned!!
Happy Trails.
