Nathalie Long Adventure Racer: May 2011

After a pretty cruisy week and a massage to loosen up back and legs, we left for the race on Friday evening after work. We got in Outaouais late that night and managed to have 5 to 6 hours sleep before heading up to the headquarter of the race on Saturday morning. To sum up the race I would say it was very warm (a first for me since I am over here), very hilly and tough but an awesome race with awesome sceneries. After getting some gear checked by the race directions we finalised our transition bags and bike set up before getting the maps. My team buddy Gabriel Drouin beeing a very good cyclist (road and moutain) but a newbie in adventure racing, I was in charged of the all navigation for the race. I did in the past some short legs navigating on my own but never a whole race which made me rather nervous. I planned our routes the best I could and just before 10am the race started. The rules were to finish the race before 6pm or every minute late would be 1point penalty and to be allowed to get to the advanced sections (4CP roagine with a little swim) we had to finish the canoe section by 4.30pm. The format wat Bike, Trek/Rogaine, Bike, Canoe, Advanced section if eligible, Bike to finish. We knew one of the best team out there was Benoit Letourneau and Benoit Tremblay and the plan was to stay as close to them as long as we could to beneficiate from Ben L. navigation skills. The start was rather brutal, we went off fairly fast and the route was very hilly. Gab the machine pushed me in every single hill (hills are usually my strong point but he was just too fast). We managed to stay with the 1st mixed team till km14 or so and then I had to ask Gab to slow down a little or I would pop very quick. 2 or 3km after we got lost as most of the teams did and we made the mistake of following other teams at that stage. After more than 30min of turning around, crossing streams etc we came back to where I thought we made the mistake and managed to found our way back on track. The moral went down a lot at that stage since we knew we were back with the middle teams and lost heaps of time. The end of the bike leg went pretty quick and smooth catching up with many teams. The rogaine also went very well hitting checkpoint one after the others. My navigation skills were pretty good on that one (YYYeeeeaaaahhh). The terrain was even more hilly and the heat started to have a bad effect on us. I got dehydrated half way through the trek and ended up drinking from a stream as I ran out of water. By the end of the run/trek I had a massive headache but people told us we were 2nd mixed team and that we were only 10 to 15min behind the 1st one so we went even harder. Transition went pretty quick and after drinking about 1L of water in one shot we were back on the bike storming our way to the canoe leg. The canoe leg went awesome and striaght forward picking up checkpoint after CP and catching up with the 1st mixed team. 400m to the shore my harmstrings cramped up badly and even if I had some electrolytes in the water I was drinking it didn't help much. Got to the end of the Canoe in the same time than the other mixed team at 4.25pm so right on time to get the advanced section map. They told us we had to swim to an islnad (~200m) to get the 1st one and that we might only have time to get that one but it was up to us. I was the first one jumping in the freezing water and after bearly 100m (not easy to swim with a pfd with shoes etc believe me) the cold got me and I couldn't feel my legs so impossible to kick anymore. I reckon I would have drowned if I didn't have my pfd. Gab helped me out of the water and we found the CP fairly quickly whilst the other team was struggling a little. I should have made the call to get back to the HQ then but I looked at the time and we could get another one I thought. We were slightly in front but we didn't know if the other team would go for a 2nd optional so we jumped back in the water to get on the other shore on the other side of the island and bushbashed towards the next CP. My cramping went even worse as I went out of the water shiverring as and I realised I had left without food for the rogaine. Gab saved me once again with a disgusting but efficient berry gel. If we had this other CP we would have 25 points more than the other team under the conditions we were back before 6.25pm as every minute after 6pm was 1 point penalty. It took us heaps more time than expected to find the CP and as we were giving up ready to turn around without it and not being 1st when we saw a male team looking for it as well. We were in the middle of a swamp, the little black flies were bitting us badly and we were bearly moving but we managed our way through it to reach out the boys and thanks to them we found it. After bushbashing back to a trail we started running for 3-4km up and down the hills and Gab and I were shattered by then. As we started walking up a big hill one of the guy from the race direction drove past us and told us if we were getting to the line before 6.25pm we would win as the other mixed team only got 1 optional CP. We started running again and got to our bikes just after 6pm. After a few technincal problem with Gab's chain and then mine we stormed up to the last CP we had to take and then to the finish. We arrived at 6.19pm, absolutely shattered but we got 1st mixed.

I think our ranking overall is 6th or 7th (results aren't up yet) so I am very stocked with that. I am now pretty confident with my navigational skills too :). My rubber duck Bobette did the whole race with us and my new bike went well but a little soft. I am not used to have a dual suspension and note for later is to pump up more the suspension to make them stiffer for the next race. Indeed with this kind of races where it's pretty easy riding, the stiffest the best it is I think. I did my whole race in my compression pants without which I don't reckon I could have made it through the day and straight after the shower I wore another pair a little tighter that I didn't leave till late this morning. I was pretty scared to take them off actually but I felt better than I thought when I did. A big Great job to Gabriel for beeing so great in his first race and looking forward racing with him again. A big well done to Ben and Ben as well for finishing 1st overall just before 6pm with all the CPs. Men you are amazing.

Pumped for the next race coming up: the Ultimate XC 17th-19th of june but before that there will be the 25h cardio for the fundraiser next week and a couple of big training adventure week end :)