Salomon Adventure Challenge
Mansfield Outdoor Centre
January 20, 2007

TEAM LIST & BIOS: Congratulations to all teams that competed this weekend!

PRE-RACE PAGES: are available here.

RACE REPORT:
We tried a lot of new things in this race, and they all seemed to work very well, so let's try something new here.

Let's make the race report public domain. A wikiracereport. Not what we want you to hear, but what you have to say. All competitors and volunteers are invited to submit their race reports, blogs, or memories of the day to help make our content as complete as possible. Send to: sac@far.on.ca.

Team Tree Hugger's race report

Team HyperActive's race report

Team Inertia's Race Report:
Race Reflections, Excuses & Teammate Plug
by Warwick Marchant

We got there in the very cold darkness; Audrey had signed us up for this and I was wondering what the hell I was doing there, thinking sleeping would have been the much better option. Race started off damn cold, with a healthy dose of suffering. Lenora was feeling sick but still managed to lead our messy draft line on the bike, while Audrey was a powerhouse on the trek portions. I was mostly trying to keep up, and figure out where we were going. Great scramble format for the race, particularly in winter where otherwise teams just follow the trails in the snow of other teams in front. Teams were everywhere going in different directions, seemingly mostly faster than us, so we thought we were somewhere midpack. At this point we had warmed up and gotten into a groove; and at the TA we realized we were doing quite well. After all of the biking & trekking sections were over, about halfway into the race, we were very pleasantly surprised to be 1st place into the first ski checkpoint, unfortunately with lots

Lenora had never been on skis before, but apparently Audrey skied as a kid. I told them I wouldn't race with them unless they first went out to a park the day before with their MEC rental skis and at least figured out how to standup without falling. They turned out to be great. I am a reasonably experienced skier, and was expecting to be towing the whole way like in previous winter races, but to my utter dismay I was about the same speed as Audrey & Lenora; on their beginner rental fishscale skis. It is important to have the male ego well in check when racing with hardcore women. The girls are definitely hardcore, but I am hoping it had something to do with my strategic decision to not use my beloved race skate skis and instead choose classic. Figured then all three of us would be classic, and at the pre-race meeting that looked to be the best plan given the course. Although it was a very reluctant decision, as I don't classic anymore unless I have to. I was reminded of this while I was struggling to

We lost some spots as I was probably taking the one-way only trail rule a bit seriously and doing a lot of ski bushwhacking to ensure we were going the right way on trails, but we gained some spots also while ski bushwhacking to one of the CPs. In the end, it was a very close, exciting, exhausted death march dash with a few other teams racing for 3rd overall at the finish. We got beaten. That's adventure racing.

I was a bit sad that at the end, after close to 6 hours racing, we were 2 minutes out of the medals & 7 minutes from 3rd. However our 6th overall place with our mostly women team, managed to solidly beat all of the all guy teams. It was a far better showing than I was expecting given our overall team skiing experience, particularly given the solidly competitive field. Immediately after about a dozen chocolate cakes at the finish, I put my head down and had a well earned nap at our table.

It was a great race. We had excellent, as good as it gets teamwork, and we did better than I thought. Given my less than focused training regimen, we are never the fastest out there at any discipline, but I am always truly amazed at how well we manage overall.

This upcoming racing season I am likely thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail through the desert, over the sierra Nevada & cascade mountains, from Mexico to Canada. Which means there are two hardcore fun girls looking for teams. They are both awesome teammates, and you want to race with them.

However not sure if they are all that keen for cross-country skiing anymore; ever again. It is generally a bad idea to learn how to ski during a race. They originally had high hopes for skiing, even so far as to consider signing up for the 160km Ski Marathon in a couple of weeks. This was before they had really done any skiing, so I am not sure what they were thinking. Audrey & Lenora have not yet seen this race reflection, but below are their email responses the day after the adventure race, to another friend regarding signing up for the Cross country ski marathon:

-----Original Message-----
From: Audrey Kelly

After the experience this weekend just doing 15km of x country skiing I will have to wimp out and say I can't imagine doing 160km. I also have to work that weekend so I can't do it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lenora Delaney [mailto:lenoradelaney@yahoo.com]

I'm also sooooooooooooooooo OUT! Tina...it's silly madness...I hated every single second of it...and I'm an optimist ;) Let's have a movie or dancing night out on the town instead?!