RAID PULSE 8H AR-1ST SOLO FEMALE

For the first time in a couple of years I learnt that there were 3 girls racing solo so we would have a category of our own (I was racing against the guys up to then).
I was excited and nervous at the same time.
The race was a bike start on the road and up to Mont Ste Marie to ride pretty much all the single tracks there.
The rain started as we lined up at the start line. My stress level increased a little knowing that we were going on single tracks with roots and wooden platform that would become very slippery quickly.
I felt good and stayed with the front pack leading to the trails. I decided to climb up to the advanced CP first and make my way back from there. On the way down I missed a turn which forced me to go and do an extra loop. I wasn’t super happy with that but pushed to the TA to the trek where I arrived after 3h of biking (and pushing the bike up that monstrous gravely and sandy road).
When I got to transition I noticed that another solo girl was there. I had kept her behind me on the bike and blamed the fact she passed me on my extra loop. I did a pretty quick transition and left with her to the first CP. After that I decided to take a different route so we wouldn’t be racing together and maybe I would make some time. Orienteering when it’s pure bushwacking is not my strength. After a few CPs I lost my passport so I waited at a CP to see someone and punched my map. My moral went down a lot at that point. Nicky (firend and other solo female) showed up at that CP and we went to the next one together. After that CP she decided to go and do some of the CPs I had done before whilst I had to go and pick up two advanced CPs a bit further away.
I left transition a little too quickly and forgot my map case on my bike. By the time I reached the advanced CP my map was crumbling apart and I couldn’t see much. The transition dot had disappeared and I couldn’t tell the numbers of a few CPs. At that time I was racing along with a coed team and decided to stock with them since I didn’t know how to get back.
When we finally reached the TA the volunteers told me the other girl had left an hour prior. The cut off to do an advanced bike was supposed to be at 2:30pm but they decided to extend it so she was able to go, even if she got there at 2:35pm.. I wasn’t happy but I learnt that she didn’t do all the advanced CPs on foot so maybe I had a chance to catch up. The way It worked is that each CP regular and advanced worth 25 points so if she didn’t get the two CPs on foot but got the two CPs advanced on bike I could still maybe catch up on the paddle and still finish ahead. So without hesitation I took my bike and went away.
That’s when it got better…I left so quickly that I didn’t put my map in my map board on the bike but on top. Going down the massive hill pushing the bike I didn’t realised but I lost my map. Once at the bottom I tried to look where to go and Oh surprise..no more map. So once again I tagged along with some guys until the paddling section where a volunteer gave me his map so I could navigate on the water.
I am ready to go in the boat and I am decided to have a good paddle to compensate all those mistakes.
Where is my boat??? I am looking around, my boat isn’t there! Then I realise that James’s boat was there. James being shorter than me I had to do the paddle section with my knees in my face (didn’t have a screw driver to move the pedals) not very stable with power boats round.
I met James on the water and wasn’t happy…he didn’t realised until I told him what happened even if our boats are two distinctive colors (he did apologize and cleaned my bike at the ned of the race so we are all good :D).
I saw the other girl just a little after seeing James and I knew it would be hard to catch up. She was maybe 10min ahead. At the end of the paddle I jumped on the bike and tried to hammer it to the finish but didn’t catch her. I passed the line not super happy with how my race went and the many mistakes I had done during the day slowing me down so much. To my surprise I finished first solo female. What I didn’t know is that she had missed another CP on the first bike. I had then 25 more points woot woot.
Pretty happy with the result at the end of the day despite all the mistakes I made. I t was a tough course with lots of up and downs…literally…Can’t wait to see the overall results. Thank you Raid Pulse for once again a great and well organised event.
I will be back in August, a little less distracted this time.
Thanks to Nuun and Pacific Health Labs products for keeping us fueled and hydrated throughout the day. I also tested out my new Osprey pack REV6 and I loved it to bits. Perfect AR pack for short races (4-12h).

Nat

RAID PULSE WAKEFIELD 4H-1ST FEMALE DUO, 9TH OVERALL

All began after a good dinner and a few drinks at the fundraising dinner for my team for the world championships in Costa Rica in December 2013... Myriam is a runner, a trail runner and a road cyclist. At the end of the dinner Raid pulse and the 4h event they have in Wakefield in August came up in the discussion at the table where she was sitting. As I was passing by I told her we should do it together and without thinking too much she said yes...that was the beginning...it took us a little while to register and by the time we found a mountain bike to Myriam and started talking about it more seriously we only had a week left ahead of us. A couple of days before I made her canoe with kayak paddles for the first time and she was sore up until the race after that :/
Two days before the race we went bushwacking a little bit because I was a little rusty on my navigation since I have been racing a lot lately but not navigating.
And finally the day before the race we went mountain biking for the first time for Myriam. She wasn't super confident but I knew it would be fine as I have been doing a few raid pulse to date and I know they are beginner friendly courses.

So here we were on the start line, ready to roll on our mountain bike under the team name fruit2/camp de base, our awesome sponsors..

As usually in a race we started fairly fast on the bike. It was rolling a little and then climbing big time. my map board broke half way through which was a challenge to ride with but I knew there would be only a few Kms left riding when it happened.
Myriam was doing well but she was leaving a lot of energy behind on those hills.
After 45min or so we were in transition and on foot we went.

The first two CPs were in a cave which was very cool.

We then went for an advanced point that was fairly easy and started climbing to get the advanced CPA3...once on the top we didn't managed to find it. We were lots of team up there scattering the top of the mountain but we didn't managed to find it. After a while spending there we decided to head down otherwise we wouldn't make the cut off at the boat section.
We bushwhacked fast and ran to get to the last CP before getting to the beach and got there with barely a minute spare.
We then jumped in the canoes and started the big loop to get all the CPs.
I'm not used to be in the back and stir and it was super windy pushing the boat on the left all the time. Even paddling only on one side we were barely going straight.
We got to the first CP and got a little stuck in between boats and as we were going backwards to leave the CP another boat started going back as we were turning resulting in them tipping off the boat (my apologies if our boat made you tip in...).
I could tell as we were paddling that Myriam was getting tired but we were still catching up with some teams.

As we finished the paddle we were told the finish would be at 2.30pm instead of 2pm which let us time to go and get an advanced on the bike and one of the two advanced on foot.
As we biked i shuffled some candies in Myriam's mouth and took afp few too as i realized i haven't been eating for the whole race :/.
At the advanced section on foot I couldn't be bothered looking at the map so the strategy at that point was just to run behind a team that looked ok navigators :) it worked yeaaahhhh.
Back on the bike to the finish. This last section was relatively fast and enjoyable.
As we past the line we were not too sure of the ranking but I was happy and proud of Myriam for her first race. She was amazing out there for the 4h and something that we were racing.

We ended up 1st female duo, 9th overall out of 54 teams....very happy :)

Nathalie