Spills, Chills and Canadian Thrills- Quest for a Cure 2007

It started out like any adventure race, show up the day before a little frazzled from a long drive, meet up with team mates, pack enough carbohydrates into your stomach to feed a small under developed country and get a little sleep before the start. But, this would be no walk in the park, after 32 hours of nail biting, leg pounding, gut wrenching action packed racing Team LBF had declared war on their bodies, minds and Canada’s #2 Pro Team Salmon River Sports only to come up 50 minutes shy of their ultimate goal; winning an entry to Primal Quest 2008.

The mass inline skate start was down a gentle grade and turned into a mass decline shred to get out in front. Apparently Canadian races, regardless of duration, all start with a hammer fest to get in the lead. So we bolted off the line with two relatively new skaters and their stone cold faces eager to get the first of three skates over without a crash. Third place into the Rafts and we were paddling down the Ottawa River to the first of half a dozen rapids. We had had a 5 minute lesson what to do in case you swim and I don’t know about my partners in crime but I was going to stay in that raft regardless of whatever unforeseen circumstances arise while paddling through 3+ foot walls of water. We moved through the rafting section with ease and arrived at the pull out first with 5 other teams. Our nimble feet and sharp Nav put up out front again on the 7 KM run to the nearest paved road where we donned our skates for round two of “Wilson vs. Gravity”.

Team SRS with their carbon clad race skates were quickly out of site as we stumbled our way to the water and TA2. 800 meters before arriving at the waters edge we started descending down a steep hill, I was oblivious to the fact that my team mates were not super comfortable on skates when the angle of the dangle increased and took off down the hill with three backpacks and a big old smile on my face. I get to the bottom and peel of the road into a parking lot to bleed off some speed and take a deep breath after a nice little rush. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Jason was squaring off his wheels while slowing Laura down and Jamie was squaring off with his arch rival, Gravity. I didn’t witness the impacts but I hear they rivaled his best diggers to date. One was a quick edge catch and smash onto the pavement leaving a little (4 inch diameter) souvenir on his right thigh. He lost that battle but was determined to fight another day, so he picked himself up and before he was able to dust himself off the fight was on again as he build up speed and was “above my comfort zone” he said. He flew by Jason and Laura waiving the white flag of defeat he veered to the right and hit the grass screaming
”legs don’t fail me now!”, three big strides later they did and legs Magee was airborne. I was sitting at the bottom of the hill thinking ‘maybe I should have stayed with them.’ when I saw everyone jogging down the hill with all their limbs attached, a good sign.

We arrived at a dock where we got in a boat and were transported across a 300 meter wide river and told to get out 60 meters from shore. We all jumped in with a scream and swam our way to the bank. It was 60 degree water and 55 degree air so getting out was a shock to say the least we dragged our dripping bodies to the TA and got ready for a 50 KM bike and our first lead of the race. Five minutes into the bike we were warm and pacing down the PBJ rail trail at a brisk 26 KMH. We passed the fist on three teams ahead of us then. The rate of closure was about 16 KMH and the team out front got a little confused with our instructions of “on your right”. A quick swerve of the group and we went by in a cloud of dust. Like people say “you are sponsored by a bike shop”.

We arrived at TA 3 in first place only to find out that a road we took was off course even though…how about we just leave it at that. After a long discussion with the race director on the radio we were giving the option of riding that section of the course over or taking a time penalty that a jury would decide on. We promptly grabbed our canoes and maintained our lead going into a long paddle. We jumped into our boats and stated up the river with our new Mitchell Leader Paddles, now these paddles are the BMW of canoe paddles, smooth fast and light. We kept our lead despite being caught and waging a battle on the river with Team SRS for almost 90 minutes. We would draft, they would shake us, they would draft, and we would shake them. We finally solidified our lead on the last of three portages through the woods when they took off up the wrong trail as we found the put in and started hammering away as the dawn approached. But after a CP was plotted in the wrong spot we were caught once again and passed just before coming into TA 4.

There wasn’t a huge concern at the Team LBF camp as the next 50 KM were on two wheels and mostly fast roads. We were pretty the next battle would hurt like hell but we would at the very least tire them out while riding and at best drop them like a sprinter on Alp De Huez. As we were packing the RD came up to us and assessed our penalty for the previous bike leg. “2 hours! Are you insane? That’s a little harsh don’t you think?” Our hopes of going to Primal Quest were slipping away with every minute of the conversation. Upon hearing that a race official was at the intersection we were supposed to turn on and said nothing to us they agreed to cut the penalty down to 1.5 hours. Better than 2 hours was the way I looked at it. The kicker of it was we had to serve it right then and there. We were stuck in TA for 90minute from the time we checked in, which actually was really nice, we were at the Race HQ were our cars were along with a camp stove, sleeping bags, showers and bathrooms. So it was a mandatory rest for us and the 3 place team was still an hour away. We watched Team SRS leave the TA as mashed potatoes were being cooked and showers were being taken. A quick nap, splinting of Jamie’s then thought to be broken wrist and drying of some clothes filled the remainder of our penalty and we were in the starting blocks at 8:04 am rested and ready to take off.

We cut their 90 minute lead to 40 coming into the next TA where we jumped in our canoes and hammered down the river. It was about 11 am when the sleep monsters started catching us and the four portages and Laura barking orders to eat and dumb water on us were the only things keeping us awake. It was five hours later that we pulled turned the corner and saw the zip line across the river and our carrots sliding across it. We were now only 20 minutes behind but really tired after pushing so hard for so long.

We got to the dock were we would ascend the cliff to the TA and were about to step out of the canoes when a race official said “Not here. Park your canoes over there and swim with all your gear to the dock” Jamie’s response was the typical “HUH?” while I was thinking ‘what the heck is up with these guys and making us swim?’ Laura the grittiest of us all was half way to the dock at this point was telling us to hurry up and get in the water. The ascent was about 100 feet and as Jamie’s wrist was really messed up I offered to take his pack along with my soaking wet carcass, pack and dry bag. I was now hauling 60 lbs of extra gear hanging below me and really feeling it. It was five minute after getting to the top that I realized, in my delirium; I had detached the map from the canoe then reattached the map to the canoe instead of my pack. So I scrambled down the wall, got it and scrambled back up just in time to nearly puke up the Ensure I had drank and plot the orienteering section of the course.

We were at the zip line shivering for ten minutes waiting as each of us took turns flying across the river and skipping across the water like stones before dragging our selves the rest of the way across. This was by far the hardest sections of the race. Pulling yourself the last ten feet up to the embankment caused the most severe pain and fatigue in your forearms that I have ever felt. So hard it was Laura had come to Jason’s rescue when he reached what I would classify as “total muscle failure” 5 feet from shore.

We shivered on our clothes and headed up the 80 meter rock scramble and through the woods to find a series of roads that would take us to our 4 Orienteering CP’s. A slight error in Navigation put us at the wrong end of our trek and caused us to double back once before returning to the river and the rappel. We past Team SRS on their way out after they got the last CP and really gave them a scare. Unknown to them we were getting the CP’s in the opposite order and after seeing us they took off at full race pace.

We got to the rappel 70 meters above the river and in the thickest cloud of mosquito’s I have ever been seen in my life. It was so bad that Jamie threatened to jump off the cliff before he got hooked up to the rope. Luckily the RD was again being tricky and had us rappelling straight into the water and swimming across the river and to our boats. There were a number of teams coming in to the ropes in their canoes looking at us with astonishment and saying things like “what” “huh” “why” “are you”. It was getting to be dusk at this point, the temps were dropping and the realization of a midnight swim was a little much for some of the teams.

We shivered clothes from my dry bag back on and took off down the river with no chance of catching SRS as they were far better skaters and an hour ahead of us again. We paddled hard and pushed our way to the final stage and one more inline skate to the finish back and Race HQ 7 KM away. We took our time and made it there in one piece at 10 past midnight to finish 2^nd in 32 hours and 40 minutes. We were all pretty spent after a long hard race that more resembled a battle. Team SRS was at the finish with cocoa, a few extra slices of pizza and a firm handshake for a team that gave them a good run for their money.

We changed and hit an all night pizza place to refuel and clean them out of the best recovery drink of earth (chocolate milk) before crawling under a table in a hanger and passing out till morning. All I could think of while falling into bed was there are some poor souls bobbing across that freaking river right now, man oh man am I happy to be warm and dry.