Training Log Archive: walden

Event: RockstAR
 

Having participated in my first Rockstar in 2012 I was excited to do it again in 2013. Unfortunately we lost Squirt to an appendectomy a month before the race but our friend Jon was able to join Escondido and I.

Throughout my race report you will see [Escondido +/-] and a number beside it that represents a cumulative score on my feelings towards racing with him again.

We stayed at Escondido’s cottage on Friday night and had a great pre-race dinner courtesy of Escondido’s mom (lasagna and salad)! [Escondido +1]

We were up at 5:30 and off at 6:00 [Escondido -1] We arrived at Bark Lake at 7:00am for map distribution. Escondido got to work and started to work his magic planning the route. [Escondido +1] The race started with a bike and then a rogaine style adventure race. The trek portion was split in three distinct loops (a north-west loop, south-west loop and south-east loop).

The bike was 25km and a mixture of ATV tracks, dirt trails and paved roads. Our goal was to stay in one piece. 3km into the race Jon and I collided. Jon’s chain came off and it took us a few minutes to get it back on. After making up for some of our lost time from the collision I fell over the handlebar on a rock and hit my wrist and handle bar. With the adrenaline pumping I got back on my bike to realize my right brake lever (Back brake) was broken. We didn’t have the tools to fix it so I didn’t have brakes the rest of the ride. No back brakes on downhills can make for a challenging ride! We finished the bike ride after 1 hour 40 minutes.

We transitioned quickly and set off on the canoe and trekking sections. We canoed north across the lake and got CPs 20 and 21. We left our canoe on the northern part of the lake and set off to CP’s in the north-west loop. Jon led us with a great pace running on flats and downhills and only walking up-hills. We cleared the North West Loop (CP 71, 82 and 92) and headed back to the canoe where we cleared the CP’s around the lake.

CP 61 was a lot of fun! I’ve been playing intertube waterpolo for over 10 years so it was the first time I’ve had to use my tube water polo skills outside of intertube waterpolo! [Escondido +2]

We headed back to the transition area and checked in around 4:15 and set off for the South West loop. We took the Bark Lake main road, then headed west and got CP 40. We followed the creek to CP 83 and then trekked through thick forest and steep rocks to CP100. [Escondido 0] We headed south east to CP 101. Escondido’s navigation was again perfect. [Escondido +1] We followed the creek to CP93 and then hit Bark Lake Road. We had 40 minutes left so we went back and got CP35 [Escondido 0] and CP41 on our way back. Paul hit CP41 (Slingshot) on the first shot! [Escondido +1]

With only 15 minutes left there were no other CP’s that we thought we could get. We finished off the race after 7:40 hours. We had no idea how we had done but in the end we finished first in the three person men teams! [Escondido +5]

Big shout out to Escondido for his great navigating and Jon for the pace setting! Look forward to Rockstar in 2014.

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Run along Rosedale valley road. Saw a deer!