After a long drive on Thursday
evening and friday (10h in total) we finally got to Muskoka woods where the FAR
was held.
On Friday nights they handed out
the maps and the stress started to rise for me. It was my first adventure race
on my own with orienteering and even if i did pretty well orienteering at raid
pulse last may, i wasn't on my own whilst for this one i would be alone. So I
was dreading the trek as i knew i would be ok paddling and orienteering on a
bike isn't very hard. After planning my route and studying my map seriously I
went off to bed by 10.30pm excited
and nervous. The alarm went off at 4.30am
for a 6am start on the water. We
started with a 13ish km paddle in the dark for the first 30 to 45min and this
part went dead awesomly as I was in the front with Ben Letourneau taking turns
drafting each others, followed really close by Running free and Raid pulse
teams. I got at the first transition 3rd with running free and Ben just ahead
of him. I left transition on the bike right behind Raid pulse but didn't
managed to stay with them for the ride as they are good riders...too fast for
me. I got past by two others guys team and one solo man, Adrian ,
on this first bike. I got on my own at T2 to start the trek and even if the
volunteer there kind of said it was real tricky and maybe the use of the trails
around would be a good idea, I went off with a bearing straight in the wood.
What a damned mistake....I must said that the trails were not on our maps hence
my decision. I got lost!!! I crossed my first swamp maybe 5 min through the
trek and got lost very quick. The first bloody CP was supposed to be a small
clearing on a high point ....how
high??? went on all the bloody high points around and saw a few clearing but
nothing good...I tried to go back to find some features that could match on the
map but nothing seemed to match...I finally saw a team, GET
OUT THERE, Adrenaline rush, and asked them for help. I was looking for the CP7
and they pointed on the map that I was between CP11 and CP12 at that point,
DOH!!!! so I took another bearing and there i went again. I ended up in a
massive swamp that was on my map but still managed to not find the CP. I was
about to have one of those little moment of desesperation, about to sit there
in the middle of the swamp and just have a little sob but I heard some branches
cracking and at that moment I had a massive hope that it would be a team with
maybe more skills than me in orienteering. Before calling out I just wanted to
be sure it wasn't a bear so I listen and waited till I heard a voice going with
the cracking. At that moment I yelled at them trying to run through the bush to
reach them. And here they were, team Milton Basement, my rescuers :) I plotted
along with them and Tim, their navigator, did a good job in finding CPs after
CPs which i am very grateful about. We got a little lost on the last one but
jjeeezzz getting lost with people isn't as bad as getting lost on my own trust
me :). We finally got TA3 which was the start of the last bike and there I saw
another solo girl who also had done the Advanced CP on the bike. I had a huge
time advantage from the paddle and first bike and there after the trek we were
both in competiton again. I jumped on my bike and pushed it hard till the
finish thinking she was just behind and there was no way I would let her pass
me. Thanks to Milton Basement again I found easily the CP that was a little
hidden on the bike and after crawling through the last swamp with my bike I
pushed for the last few kms, starting to have my quads burning and managed my
way through the finish 50min before the other girl, in 8h29min...YEAHHHH. Once
there, Chris (one of the organisors) told me I was 3rd solo after Adrian and
Ben, 1st girl solo and 10th overall. I was pretty damn happy. Sure if i hadn't
been lost i could have been a couple of places overall ahead but I had an
awesome paddle and good bike sections so I can't complain. And the main thing
was that my knee which has been bothering me for the last 5 to 6 weeks held up
very well. A little painful but that was my bad since i forgot anti inflamatory
and pain killer before the race (Blond!!!). I think I can say I am back in the
game...bring on the next race next week end and loads and loads of
training...I'm baaaacccckkkkk :)
In summary it was to me a great
race, I met some awesome people and was once again surrounded by great people.
Loved it,
Frenchie
Frontier Adventure Challenge,
24th Sept 2011
Congratulations to Team RaidPulse.com for finishing as top male team, and for taking the overall win. The lead changed quite a bit during the race, but hot on RaidPulse’s back tires for the last ¼ of the race were Adrian Makurat taking top solo position, and Team GetOutThere / Adrenaline Rush finishing as second male team. All three finished within 30 seconds of each other – what a photo finish! Team Running Free was not far behind as top dog in the Coed Category, while Biofueled put in a solid performance to take the top team in the Female Category. Special recognition to Nathalie Long, the top finishing female solo, who was leading the race along with Benoit Letourneau for the first few hours.