RAID PULSE 19TH OF MAY 2012- 3RD CO-ED TEAM

Here we are at the start of what was Nick's first race.

We drove that morning to the start of the race and I could tell that Nick (aka my boss) was a little nervous. Having raced for the last two week ends I was a little more relaxed but not that much more. I knew it was his first race and mostly I knew he hasn't train much for it having just got a newborn .

The start was a bike start and there were two of the strongest co-ed teams around, Pentathlon des neiges and Kinetic. These two teams also had Male team registered and my partner for Untamed new England (a four days race to come mid-june) were also racing in a male team. A couple of solo male were also racing and my housemate Peter was also racing co-ed for breathe magasine.

We started in the front of the pack with the fast team and I don't know how (and I am talking for me here) we managed to stay with the front pack in almost all the first technical section. And that's even with the pathetic attempt of Active Steeve to make me fall over by riding in wheel behind me at the start ;). My technical skills aren't the best so I was surprised to be staying with Kinetic for so long. Nick had no problems to keep up and was waiting for me when it was too muddy.

After a little more than an hour and a little hike your bike section we finally got to a dirt road. I was happy, that was the end of the tecnical stuff so the real race was starting there. I must say it was bloody hot and fairly hilly.

After a couple of hills I could tell that Nick was struggling but I didn't have a tow system on my bike and didn't think I would need one...But then came The big fat Hill!!! 1.2km of climbing straight. At the start of the hill Nick is going very slow and in no time i see him walking. I turned back to stay with him and start walking with him but he isn't walking very fast. He hit the wall and pretty bad. I take his bike thinking that it would help but half way through the slop I turn back and Nick is far behind. I wait for him, put him on the tow and push the bikes up the hill. I don't know what it is in these kind of moments but something makes me a lot stronger than usual. As I am pushing and pulling up I am feeling good and we even pass a guy who was pushing his bike. He looked at us and I heard Nick asking "you didn't take your beast huh?". He was joking...meaning he was still kind of happy to be there :)

I kept saying to him "we are almost there" which worked for the first couple of hours but he told me after 6h of racing that it wasn't working anymore...We went through the bike section with me pushing Nick as I could. I tried and learnt how to push someone on a bike which is not easy when it's your first time.

We made it to transition where we were going to start a trek/bushbash section. From the start of the trek I put Nick on the tow. He had regain a little more energy by eating and drinking lots but the towing system is still faster. I am very happy with my navigation in this race. I found the CPs pretty easily without mistakes but half way through the trek Nick started cramping and I didn't know if he would make it through the trek... He drank, ate and I could tell he was in pain but there was nothing I could do but find the quickest way out. Towards the last CP of the trek we saw Carl and his team mate that we knew. We stayed with the guys a little bit and that was a great thing cause it took Nick's mind away from the pain and gave him a little boost of energy. Jogging down to transition we saw Kinetic running towards us. They had made a mistake and forgot a CP on their way...we could now beat them and we were quick enough on the last bike and on the paddle. Nick is a very good canoe man so I wasn't worried about that part but the bike to get there was going to hurt.

We finished the run with Dany Laviolette, jumped on our bikes and pushed through to get to the paddle section.

There was an advanced section at that stage and we were still on time to do it. For once the advanced section was all in the water. Thanks god...or should I say thanks Thierry :)

We went through that section very well and I was happy once again with my navigation and route decisions. At the end of the paddle was a little EVIL run up the stairs where I was the one to cramp in and THERE was the FINISH line.

We made it through the line in 7h. Thanks to Kinetic mistake we got on the podium in 3rd co-ed place. A big congratulation to Nicholas Raby for finishing and doing a podium on his first race ever and hopefully he will do another race with me...after a little more training perhaps ;) ?

 My future team mates "Mundial St Raymond" finished 1st male team. Well done guys.

Untamed new England (4 days expedition race) watch out!!!

Time for more and more training before the big race...

N.L.

FRONTIER ADVENTURE CHALLENGE - DEERHURST RESORT 8H SOLO MAY 5TH 2012

First adventure race of the 2012 season and here I am waiting for the start of an 8 hours adventure race in solo.

I am a little nervous as I haven't been navigating since XPD (or bearly with a 1h30 orienteering race the week end before) and I am racing solo. From last year race I did know that if I get lost I am lost alone and that's worse than being lost with someone...by far...So my goals are: a) follow as long as I can the lead teams, b) don't get lost and c) kick some ass!!!

plan a) worked for most of the first bike but unfortunately not until the first TA for the first trek. I had burnt myself trying to follow the lead teams and once in transition i tried to follow some people without looking at my map....wrrrroooonnngggg, first trek took me a little longer than it should have but then back on the bike I was well decided to do my own orientation from there and stop following people.

That part worked very well and so did the paddling and little trek section that followed.

The last sections of the race were a bike section with an advanced section in it, an advanced trek and a last bike section. The second last bike section to the trek went pretty badly for me for two reasons: first one was it was hell muddy and couldn't ride as much as I wish I could have leading to a long "hike your bike"; secondly my bike computer (brand new) stopped working making me screw up at a CP that I had no clue where it was anymore. Luckily for me and unfortunately for the Salomon/running free team, Leanne's team had some mechanical problems so even if they were a lot faster than me I was catching up every time they had to stop for repairs and eventually by following them I ended up to the famous CP...Thanks guys :)

Once at the TA for the Trek I am exhausted already but the guy at the TA said I have time to do the trekking section so there I go running for the two "simple" CPs of the trek. On my way down to the first one I met Alex Provost (finished first overall) who was running back. He had completed the trek and was on his way to the last bike to the finish. He yell at me "the next CP you can't miss it....really straight forward". I belived him...for 2-3 min. I made the wrong turn and end up in the wood not even close to the CP. Very quickly I backed out of the wood and found my way very easily.

The next CP made me struggle a lot more and thanks god I met other teams down there or I wouldn't have find it.

Back at the TA i just want to jump on my bike and cruise to the finish but Mike who is there said if I want to finish on tim I have to storm down on my bike....I am about to explode. I have been pushing kind of hard the whole day, didn't take time to eat much and I am running very low on water but I did it. Jumped on the bike and stormed to the finish.

my time was 7h52min placing me 1st female solo, 7th solo overall (out of 19 i think) and 13th overall (out of 60ish teams and solo) :)

now time for some more training because next week is another race :)

N.L.

STORM THE TRENT MAY 12TH 2012- 2ND CO-ED TEAM OF TWO

After last week race and a good week of training here I am again ready to race. This time it's a little different since I am racing in duo with Adrian Makurat (who always kicked my ass in the past)...

We got to the site a little late that morning and hence rushed through mapping and getting ready. Result being that Adrian and I were walking towards the water with our paddles since not in one piece when we heard the "go" and saw all the canoes and kayaks starting...OMG big rush, put the paddle together, pull the canoe into the water and paddle hard...

I don't think I have paddle that fast in a canoe before. The 3 CPs on the water were words written on signs at different locations. Having started a little late the navigation was pretty easy "just follow the mass". We ended up finishing the paddle with the first co-ed team which was a great effort.

A short trek was following. Our transition went pretty smoothly and there we were jogging along to the first CP on foot. We got the first one easily. We were running along with the first two co-ed teams and a bunch of other people but soon after the first CP a group of guys realised they went too far (they didn't get the 1st CP)...The second CP made us lose some time on the first co-ed team that I was well and truly decided to regain. I started running a little harder but Adrian wasn't feeling right and soon we were walking. I asked him if he wanted me to tow him as I was feeling great but he was ok. As we were going through the trekking section he didn't get any better and finally took the tow towards the end of it. I was happy he did cause he is stronger than me on the bike so I thought it was better for him to get his energy back so he could tow me on the bike later :)

TA2 was to jump on the bikes for a fairly long section. Even if Adrian wasn't feeling great we did pretty well on that section (no tow for me boohoo). We hit the CPs almost all ok except maybe for one that was next to a march after a hilly section but even there we didn't lose too much time.

Getting to TA3 went well but I was getting worried for Adrian cause he wasn't getting any better and we still had a trekking section of 3-4km to go and a last 15ish km to bike to the finish.

At the start of that trek I got Adrian on the tow but we couldn't run too much. His cramping was getting worse and even walking being pulled was hard on him. I must say that even if he felt like crap the whole day his navigation was great. So great that even with him on the tow we caught up with the first co-ed team (aka his brother and wife). Unfortunately for us the last bit of the trek was fairly easy (if you are in shape) and runable but not for us...

We made it through the last TA, jumped on our bikes and tried to hammer it to the finish.

I can't believe the stamina of Adrian. I don't know if I would have gone through feeling like he was.

We ended up 2nd co-ed team, 2min behind the first, 5th overall with 3 of the 4 team in front of us finishing within 2 minutes in front so a pretty good result after all :)

Can't wait for Adrian to get back in shape so we can race together again :)

Next week is gonna be my third race of the month. I will be racing with my boss (his first race) and I am pumped. I haven't been feeling that strong in a while and it's a wonderful feeling.

N.L.