CHECKPOINT TRACKER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS-WEST VIRGINIA USA- SEPTEMBER 2012- 1ST PLACE DUO CO-ED, 4TH OVERALL

Alexandre Provost, French Canadian very good and experienced adventure racer, and I, went as teamUntamed New England powered by Unleash Compression in the US to compete in a 28 hours adventure race taking part in West Virginia end of September.

There was more than 40 teams total (solos, duos and 4 people teams) and I reckon we were the only not American team there.

After a 13 hours drive we got there, did our check in, prepared our gears, went to race briefing and went to bed. The maps were distributed in the morning only, which was a good thing so we could have some extra sleep before starting.

At 6am we had the maps and spent the two hours that followed marking our course. We then left by bus to the start line.

Race started just over 10:30 am in white water rafting. We were in the second wave (there was 3) of 5 boats and we had 3 other duo coed teams in our boat. I don't need to mention to most of you that my strength is paddling but unfortunately for me there was no paddling section in this race. I mean no paddling section where it would have been just the both of us. In the raft were three nice duo coed but unfortunately again none of the girls had a great background in paddling which made the work a little harder on us for the hour and half or so that we were in the boat. Our guide was awesome and the rapids were pretty cool. Alex was in the front with another brave man while I was sitting two rows behind.

TA1, we had a great transition pretty fast and in no time we were running up the gentle slope of the road that was leaving the TA direction the top of the hill. The weather wasn't the nicest weather I have ever seen in a race (I think it rained 20h out of the 28 hours that we raced) but at least it wasn't cold. Alex being faster than me on foot I had to take the tow kind of soonish in the race if I wanted to keep up with him. We almost got the first CP wrong due to too much excitement of finding (the wrong) pole with another solo male, but we corrected ourselves fairly quickly. A few other navigational mistakes followed for the next hour but we will call that "an adjustment to the course". After that Alex navigation was spot on for the rest of the course so I can't complain really :). A few hours and CPs later in very scenic locations, we got to TA2.

TA2 we jumped on the bikes, direction down hill to a massive bridge were we saw the train earlier. From there on started this twisty slippery muddy and technical single track that I didn't like that much. Alex was very patient and waited for me a lot. The sun went down and after a few hours and a crash for me on a slippery root, we finally got to TA3.

TA3 was the transition to the timetrial on foot. It was a 5km out and back to a CP and we thought there would be only one winner out of it so we didn't race it as a time trial but took it just as a part of the race. We walked some bits of it, uphills and technical stuff. We ended up (at the awards) winning the time trial for the duo coed category in 36 min :) which was faster than all the other categories (even the solo male) except from the coed team of 4 (SOG) who did it in daylight.

Back to TA3/4 and back on the bike for some sweet single tracks riding. I made a mistake in my translation of the rules there understanding that counter clockwise meant clockwise :( It is when we met another team that they explained to me that it meant anti clockwise...duhhh!!!! Alex wasn't impressed with my translating skills on that one :/. We then turned around and re rode the whole section anti clockwise.

TA5 was a relay orienteering section where we could split and go pick up each some CPs. I picked two and Alex had 6 to grab. I was pretty pleased with my orienteering at night and got my two CPs fairly quickly. I should have taken more than the two but we thought it would be ok since the other ones were all in the same area. I waited and got cold for an hour at TA and was super happy to see Alex coming back. All that time we had one team duo co ed ahead of us but he came back ahead of them...only problem was that he missed two CPs...Oh well we figured that if we were leaving fast enough and picking up more CPs in the optional CPs that were next we could still be fine so we moved on to the next section.

The next section consisted in 17 optional checkpoints including the river boarding section where we had to be in between 7 to 9am to participate and grab in the same time a couple more CPs. We could either use the bike to start with and then trek back to the bikes or the opposite or to use the bike and then back to the TA and trek to the start of the river board. We decided to trek from the TA in direction to the river boarding section and try to pick up as many CPs on our way. Alex navigation was at his best and Jeezzz he got us to one that I really wondered and am still wondering how the hell he did it. We were following a “track” that I thought for a while was an imaginary track as I could obviously not see it or follow Alex on it getting stuck in thorns and bushes every five minutes. We trek the whole night and both walking as Zombies. I can recall Alex zigzagging closer and closer to the edge of another “trail” that we were following along a fairly steep slope along the river thinking first that he was avoiding the prickly bushes and realizing after that he was actually falling asleep. I even had a tiny hallucination when I looked at Alex and saw a dog trekking along his side…didn’t last long and I swallowed lots of candies to wake me up then J. We ended up taking 5 optional CPs on that stretch.

The river boarding was thanks to NRS a blast for me. I know Alex found it a bit rough because he is not so much of a water person but I loved it. NRS had shipped for us to river board (rescue boards) and a wetsuit for me which has been highly appreciated. The boards were broad and fast and the few rapids we went through were fun. At first with the fins and stuff my feet tended to cramp a bit with the cold water but it went away very quickly. 2h15 later we were in TA running up the hill to our bikes. We didn’t have many hours left to the finish but we decided on a good route and got a few more CPs. Just before coming in we still had 40 min and argued a little bit on whether to go and get a last one or not knowing that any minute after 14:35 was a disqualification. Alex pulled out good arguments and off we went. Thanks god we did as we would know later that it could have cost us the first place if we didn’t have done it. We ended up with an additional 7 CPs leaving in total only 5 CPs behind on that part of the race.

We ended up first place duo co-ed, 4th place overall. We argued a fair bit during the race being the first race we have ever done together but we know we can work on our differences and can’t wait to race together again.

We would like to thank Untamed New England for believing in us and giving us the opportunity to go on the American territory to race such a beautiful race. Thank you also to NRS and Unleash Compression for the support and the gears!

N.L.

ENDURANCE AVENTURE ST DONAT 2012-2ND PLACE FEMALE

A week after the race in New Hampshire (NHRace.com) I was ready to race again. I had taken the week off sport just to recover and on the saturday morning I was on the start line of the raid in St Donat with Emmanuelle, one of my work colleague.

This was her second race only and it was going to be the longest...and the toughest!!!.

Start in the water, pretty rough water...That didn't go very well as our "super light canoe" was maybe too light for the conditions and we were not moving. How frustrating to see almost all the teams pass us on the water since it is supposed to be our strongest leg :/...

We finally get to the CP and turned around. The wind was in our back and we were canoe riding the waves...oh yeahh. A little hope came back for us a swe caught the 4th and even the 3rd and 2nd female team. Manue did very well in transition and in no time we were out of there on our bikes towards the CP3, in 1st female position. As we got to the CP I realized we had left our mandatory first aid kit in the canoe and we had to ride back there to get it. We were last again :(.

It isn't a nice feeling for anyone to be last and I guess that contributed to add some stress onto Manue's shoulders. She was on the tow from almost the start of the bike and I know she was pushing hard already. We left the road and started climbing on the dirt road but her gears were not shifting properly and her chain kept falling off. She started pushing the bike then jumped back on and I pushed her to get to the top of the massive climb. Once up there we had the first super quick trek to get one CP and then back on the bikes. By the end of the bike leg we had already passed a few teams who got lost. Came after a nice trekking/running section with a few CP to take in any orders. We started running on the road but in no time I realized the "track" we were supposed to find didn't exist and there we went bushbashing up the mountain. With a bit of a mix in between my navigational skills and a lot of luck we ended up almost spot on on the CP we were looking for. After that it was just a matter of following the right track.

A couple of CPs later was a swap swim to get two CPs. That was a great time as I was a little warm and Manue needed a break.

I put on the fins that I had carried for it and went in the water. The water was freezing...I turned around and Manue yelled at me "come on you can do it"..I jumped. I swam shivering to the 1st CP and caught up with a guy in wetsuit there.

The dude to say "you don't have a wetsuit, huh?" big smile on his face, me to reply "you don't have Fins huh?" as I passed him :) I was pretty proud of being a smartass :)

The swim over we ran again for an another CP and realized that we had passed 3 girls teams by then. We were in 2nd position. We were back in the race...

The competitiveness jumped back in and I had to push Manue and myself to at least remain in 2nd position. We jumped back on our bikes, Manue on the tow and off we went direction the ski hill for a trek and rope section.

Once at the ski hill after a pretty hard climbed pushing the bikes up hill Manue was exhausted. I pushed her a little too hard and that hill on foot was going to hurt big time.

She was on the tow, I even pulled her by her hand but she had bunked and wasn't feeling great. I pushed her a little more and when she said she didn't want to eat or drink anymore I pushed her to do it anyway. I think I even mentioned something like "as long as you are not puking I want to see you eat and drink..." A little harsh I admit but I couldn't have her bunked for real...We were not far from the finish and I was starting to hurt a fair bit too. It was the first time I towed someone on the bike, and the first time that I towed someone for so long in one shot.

After a couple of CPs in the mountain we got to the ropes. I went whilst Manue got back some energy. By then we knew we would miss the cut off time for the extreme course by not much and we also knew the first girl team was too far ahead to be touched...we just didn't know how far behind was the third team. So we pushed to the end and ended up after 6h30 of racing in 2nd female position.

A massive Bravo to Manue for holding on during that race and pushing so hard. I think she did fantastic and I hope to see her racing again :)

Thank you to Camp De Base, our work for supporting us during this event, to Alex for being our own photograph, and Unleash who once again hold us up together during and after the event.

N.L.

NORTH COUNTRY ENDURANCE CHALLENGE 2012-8H30 OF RACING FOR A 1ST PLACE FEMALE AND 4TH PLACE OVERALL

The two weeks after Gold Rush have been fairly harsh on me. I either had some gastric ulcer or I caught a bug in California but man I had some serious stomach cramping and couldn't eat or do much. The third week I started feeling a little better and decided it was time to get back to training. So I did over the week end and went for a couple of good training on foot and on the bike.

There was this race that Alex had told me about, the north country endurance challenge that was the week end later and I didn't think I would be "healthy" or in good enough shape to do it...until 2 days before!!!

Not that I was particularly super energetic and all but the race seemed too good to miss and I like to race solo so I decided to go.

It started quite early in the morning but the weather was nice. The first leg was a paddle leg. Run to the kayak and go. As soon as I heard the gun I sprinted down to my boat and was the first one out there. At the first buoy I realised I didn't know where to go..and didn't take the map (bah who needs a map anyway :/) but by chance Jason was right behind and pass me showing me the way. I haven't been paddling since the first day of gold rush which was a month earlier and I could feel and regret it. I couldn't quite keep up with Jason but had him maybe 50m in front. Towards the end of the leg I see him going right, left, right, left...he wasn't too sure. I knew we had to exit at the dam and the dam was kind of obvious. I could have screamed to him it's on the left but decided that I would tell him when and if I catch up with him. During that time I would just chuckle :) (Sorry Jason).

I exited the water in 2nd place and started running. In no time Alex passed me followed by Chad.The run was kind of short and in less than 30min I was in the water again for the 3rd leg which was a paddle leg.

I could see Chad not far ahead and knew I would catch up with him easily as he had a crappy boat but knew I couldn't catch up with Alex or Jason. I could see them but they were too far ahead for me to catch up. After a few minutes I caught up with Chad who started chatting along (I think he was just trying to make me stay with him :) ) but I left him behind pretty quickly thanks to my prs.

The fourth leg was a bike leg which went pretty well and fast.

The legs were short enough so I didn't need a big backpack and could only go with a water bottle and a few lollies on the bike.

My support crew, Bronson, was a newbie but he did an excellent job and i got a new jam sandwich at each transition...yum yum yum

The fifth leg was a run a bit longer (~9km) and it took us in the wood a little more. Half way through the run I freeze as I saw a bear in the bush near where the trail was bending. No way I am confronting the bear so I hid behind a tree and tried to make some noises. I whistled and even clapped a few times in my hand. Nothing to do. The damned Bear didn't want to move. After a couple of minutes of waiting for another competitor to come along I decided I couldn't waste much more time and started moving forward as loudly as I could until I saw that the "Bear" was actually a bloody dead tree that had fallen and was covered by black dirt...what an idiot!!!

After that little "moment" I started running again but I know and the numbers show it that I lost a lot of time there :/.

Once at transition I tell my little story to my support crew as I am getting changed for my next bike leg. I ask him if the second girl solo is far and he isn't too sure but he thinks she is miles away. I guess I slacked a bit then as I was getting a little tired due to an obvious lack of training in the past weeks. I slacked until an ATV with two volunteers from the race decided to tag along and filmed me for the last 20min of that leg. i couldn't look bad for the film so I pushed a bit then :)

The 7th leg was a trek/run up and down a ski hill. Once again I ask my support crew who says that the 2nd girl is still far behind so I started climbing with no much stress and Joel from Breathe Magazine tried to interview me as I am climbing with a jam sandwich in my mouth and half breathing...not a success I apologies... As I climbed I could see someone starting climbing too and didn't really want to be caught...not even by a relay team....I am going down trotting along and in not much time the transition is there. My support crew says that the other girl has been catching up a lot and that he actually thinks she might be only 5min behind. Big stress. The two last legs are bike legs and I am fairly tired.

 I leave transition dead decided that the girl wouldn't catch up. A couple of hundred meters further a girl catch up with me. What a relief when I saw she was part of a team...but still my competitive side stepped up and I go pass her again and leave her behind as it starts climbing. I am pushing hard and running out of water very quickly. The legs were so far spot on the predicted distances so I finish my water as I look at my odometer and it says only a couple more kms to go. Surely I can do a couple more kms without water. I am getting hotter and hotter and I am super thirsty but the transition is not coming, 1...2....3km later I am mad at myself for not having kept any water. After 4kms the transition is there. They explain to me again to be careful with a turn on that leg as I am sipping hard on my new water bottle and big mistake I take my half bottle instead of a full one with me. This last leg is only supposed to last less than an hour but after 20min I am out of water again.

The end of the race was very hard for me as I was super tired and thirsty and most of all I didn't want to slow down and get passed then. So I sucked it up and pushed to the finish line.

I finish in about 8h30, which is about 1h15 behind the 2 first ones and about 56min behind Alex who came third solo. The second girl got lost a bit from what I heard and she came an hour and half after me...

I hurted a lot but Loved the race and I will be back for sure.

Thank you to my support crew, the race director for putting such a nice race up and to Unleash for keeping me in one piece :)

N.L.