Untamed New England -
4 days expedition race in the forks (Maine ,
US).
After a few drama before
departure (no lift to go, then a lift to go but flatmate losing his passport so
no more lift then renting a car to quebec city), I finally made it with my team
mates (Martin, Doum and Danny) to the HQ.
We had to try out the boat set
up, sort out our gears, go to the gear checks and put our bikes together. Drama
number two occurs: Doum had left his quick release in his car in quebec city
and no one around has the same kind of quick release and there is no bike shop
around. While Danny and I went to the race brieffing the two others drove back
to pick up the missing quick release. Doum's girlfriend drove half way to give
it to him (thank you).
After all of that sorted it was
time to map and finish the bins for the start in the morning. We didn't get
much sleep the night before the race but we were feeling good so it didnt
matter too much.
After a 2hours bus drive we
finally started the race with our packrafts in hand.
Leg1 trek/packreaft went very
well. our setting was good and it was all going well. The paddle that followed
wasn't great due to a bad set up (3 in the canoe one in the kayak) but
thankfully it was only for 12 km. The leg ended up with some awesome white water
rafting that we shared with a great team out there DART NUUN.
After a short trek we got to the
TA and jumped on our bike. CP7 was misplaced which cost us some time (we had a
time credit) then followed two punctures and a not so nice trail to the rop section.
I hiked my bike a fair bit in that section :/ Didn't like it much...We were
happy to get to the rop section in the daylight but there was 1h30 wait so we
did the ropes in the dark...The end of the MTB
went good. I am a lot less of a chicken in the dark :)
Leg 3 was a trek with a stop at a
pancake house. Right after we had to cross the lake with our packraft but a
thunderstorm started nearby and the lightnings were pretty close. After a quick
team talk we decided to go and paddle our bum off to get on the other side as
quick as possible. We were one of the fastest team to cross that lake i am
pretty sure of it. The next CP was a little pain in the bum to find and the
trek that followed full of flies. I swear I have never seen so many mosquitos
in my life :/. After another short packraft and a nice climbing trek we got to
the Nemo TA.
Leg 4 was the MTB
orienteering. Tricky but I think our team did pretty well in it. At the end of
it we did a short conservation project and decided to sleep for an hour.
Leg 5 was one of my favorite leg.
The Alpine Trek. The guy in transition told us the fsatest team did it in 5.30h
on the daylight so we shouldn't expect to be as quick...We struggled a little
bit finding markers but the trek went so well. We nailed that ski hill climb,
passed SALOMON TOUR and finished our trek running in a little less than 6 hours
:).
leg 6 was a MTB
untill the relay orienteering then another MTB .
I started off the relay with the hard short course. Lucky I was when I saw Paul
Romero (Team Sole) starting the same course than me. My strategy then was the
following: run as fast as i can and follow the guy...he is good!!! So I did and
even with a little mistake I ended up finishing 5 min after him. Doum went next
followed by Danny and finally Martin. Martin has been affected by the sleep
deprivation a little more than us during the race which I guess is normal since
it was his first expedition race. Back on the bikes I struggled a little bit
and Danny towed me for a good part of it (Thanks Danny :D).
Leg 7 was the long paddle. it
started very well. 4 in the canoes was defenitely the way to go. We even saw a
moose (pretty cool). However we messed up a little bit after that and it took
us forever to find the next CP. A few teams passed us then :(. Danny was
getting a little tired but we got to the next CP. Martin was exhausted by then
and the guys decided to stop to sleep. I ask not to because we were wet and I
was getting cold but He was too tired. We should have asked him to lay down in
the canoe and keep going to transition is the advice I got later from otther
people :/ 2hours later when we left again I was a vegetable. After shivering
for two hours in the wood I was useless in the boat.
What a relief when we got to the
last TA. The last leg started off with a trek up to CP34 to get more CP
coordinates. By then Danny and I were so tired that it took us forever to plot
them :/ We just couldn't concentrate enough...weird feeling! It was 1pm when we left CP34 and we knew that there
would be water released in the river so we could just packraft almost to the
finish. The idea of packrafting wasn't very appealing but it ended up one of
the best leg of the race. Doum and I had a blast, giggling like kids in the
rapids....until the last one. We dumped in the last and biggest rapid. I swam
for what felt hours drinking water against my will just hanging on my 400$
paddle and my backpack...when the two other guys got to me I was spitting water
out of my lungs on the side with cuts on my hand and a little shaky :/. Doum
had managed to get the packraft and we jumped back in to get to the end of the
packraft section. We got the couple of CPs on the way and ended up jogging to
the finish by 9pm on Saturday.
We got
9th Co-ed team of 4 finishing the full professional course. The little mess up
in the kayak leg costing us a few places but still happy with the results.
Thanks guys for what has been one
of the best race I have done so far.
I would also like to thank NRS
for the packrafts and UNLEASH for my awesome compression without which I could
not go through those races :)
N.L
