Discussion: Raid The Hammer chatter/smack/talk/good vibe zone

Full raid course is 24km and lots of climb.
Predictions of top teams?
Predictions of the course route and maps?

Harper Ford Nation has best team name and likely pre race favourites.

Patrick Goeres flying in from the Prairies to race 10 years after attending McMaster U

Mark Adams' team decimated by injuries. Tarno and Al Magi out. Will the Griz race?

Chad Spence and Mark Innes of Cdn JWOC late 90's fame reunite. Lets hope they don't still have their retro nylon teal O Gear.

Will NevMonster wear his Expos hat and what sort of hipster beard is Bender sporting?

You guys have too much fun in Canada. Tone it down, us Midwestern Americans can't take it...we might show up one day cause we are soooo jelly.

The Guelph Gators Old Boys Strategy #1:

De-magnitize the compasses of all the 'adventure race-y' teams:

(On second thought...they probably don't use them anyway...)

Strategy #2:

Throw down at the start, jersey the adventure racey's and steal their maps:

(That's no good, they probably don't use them either...)

Some advice for all the Full Raid Teams:

Just follow the 'Old Boys' to the finish line.

Brrrraappp!! ;)

To be honest though...speaking on behalf of the Old Boys:

Pumped to compete. Looking to run hard...run smooth...and not get injured.

Excited to see what HKF has in store for us!!

Things that were big in the late 90s:

Limp Bizkit
Enormous raver pants
Silverchair (so horrendous)
Keanu Reeves
My hair
Mark Innes' (Klepperton) speed/endurance

Can any of these make a comeback this Sunday?

One thing to note, although I haven't seen him in years, I can't think of a better person to pull a tow-rope than Chad Spence.

We haven't been last yet.

Marky Mark: who says that you guys will get maps for all stages of the race. You better have a good memory.

I hope control (checkpoint) #1 is a long leg. 2+ km. Intermediate difficulty for the circle, advanced-ish route choice.

...and I look forward to spiking it with the 'Old Boys'.

I imagine Pither dipping in first, and Grizz close by.

Griz is racing with Pither!

Memory-O discriminates against the age-enhanced teams...

My team's strategy: create a melee at the start and in the confusion, swap dibblers with one of the likely winners...

will be fun watching from sidelines this year.. or hill tops. or racing.. one never know, right?

Will we be provided with tow ropes?

Great fun. Woods were lovely. Golden.
Interesting course.
Still not last but getting close.

Next race in the DontGetLost Adventure Running Series is the 2-hour choose your adventure Icebreaker on December 5th in Burlington, ON. This race will also be our Fall ARK Fest. A great event to introduce families and kids to adventure running.

Next team race is the Snowshoe Raid Adventure Run on January 16th at Blue Mountain in Collingwood, ON. http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php/snowshoe-raid

What a great race. Perfect weather, good teams, great course and amazing terrain.

And what never gets mentioned regarding DGL events, the outstanding print quality of the maps. I always end up reviewing the maps from Raid the Hammer with non-Orienteering more than any other event (by far) and just the look of the maps is top-notch.

Great job to DGL. Wait, snacks could have been better this year compared to the past...

Next year marks 50 years of orienteering in Hamilton so look for the RTH full raid course to have 50 checkpoints!

Yes! Awesome day. Super fun course, (hills were evil)...great to see lots of old faces, nice to meet some new ones.

Thanks DGL. Quality stuff. Nice touch with the food trucks.

The only map I've raced on from this event was Rockcliffe Trails, so it was cool to get out on some adjacent areas. If I didn't love my situation in Toronto, I'd move to Dundas in a heartbeat...

Congrats to Harper Fordnation and the Wine O's for kicking our ass. You guys were machines.

And Hammer, I screwed up my part of the memory-o...so no, I don't have a good memory. I suffered from some 'rusty compass' syndrome too...man, i was all over the place! Piss poor navigation.

Wokitoki (Chad) is a beast. What a lad. Carried the squad. A true old boy.

Looking forward to more racing!

Idea for a section of next year's race: (if it's in the DV)

Streamered 'trail run' for main route choice leg of 1986 World Cup race. Oh ya!!

Klepperton: streamer a variety of the route choices from that race and the teams need to decide which is fastest?

That's an even better idea!

But I imagine (and I think I recall), that there was some sort of multiple page spread (with 5 colour map!), of the key route choice leg of the race in an old edition of ONA. Maybe the jury was still out in terms of the optimal route choice. Then again, route choice is pretty subjective and personal.

...and I'm sure the vegetation and water features have changed.

I've run that course enough to tell you the best route even if was streamered that no Canadian could run it faster that Wehlin raced it while navigating on race day. Oh yeah and we re-raced the WC race from '86 as part of the 2011 RTH

Great summary of the race in this video by RipKin AR

http://youtu.be/gOBYIftae9k

And the Get Out There magazine summary

Hammer, what was the distance for best route approx.?

24-24.5km but of course an individual didnt run the entire distance because of relay and matrix.