I volunteered for the Salomon STORM The Trent Trek Elite race. 'Bent had planned this to be his first race after knee surgery last fall. His recovery had been progressing well until March when he strained his ankle. Although he is physically fit, he hasn't been able to do any long bike rides or runs. I tried to get him to switch to the shorter STORM Trek course but he's a stubborn guy. (Takes one to know one!)
The race began with an 11 km paddle on Rice Lake. I was managing CP1 at Sunivale Resort where racers transitioned to biking. Patty and Kathie delivered the bikes by truck and we unloaded them. After all the teams left, we packed the trucks with racer gear bags and personal boats.
To our great surprise (!), Frankenjack was first to arrive by 11 minutes. Lots of time for photos.
'Bent was 16 minutes behind Frankenjack, still in the lead pack. At that point, things were too busy to take pics but he was looking good. Awhile later, Laidback Dave arrived. He had come by our place a few months ago to examine 'Bent's bike and he'd just finished building his own. When I say "just", I mean that he'd only had time to ride it 6 km before the race. As 'Bent and I have learned over the years, a recumbent bike will suffer catastrophic failure several times before the bugs are ironed out and it becomes reliable. Unfortunately for Laidback Dave, his bike cracked apart near CP3 so he arrived at the finish line by truck - but he was smiling. It didn't come as a huge surprise when his maiden voyage ended early.
His wife, Wombat (on AP), arrived shortly afterward. She's been recovering from injury and her doctor didn't think she'd be able to do the race even 36 hours earlier. It was awesome to see her later in the day, crossing the finish line looking strong.
When all the racers had gone through CP1, we packed things up and helped Algonquin Outfitters load the canoes. Patty deserves a medal for bravery!
Back at the finish line, I helped Mark VB set up the Salomon display.
At about 4 hrs 50 min, Frankenjack flew under the arch, then spent some quality time with the friendly peeps working at the finish line.
Then he faced the difficult quandary of choosing the best place to park his bike. Ooooh, decisions, decisions... He was 40 minutes ahead of 2nd place. Whatta show-off!
I stationed myself at the junction where Trek racers biked in to pick up canoes and Trek Elite racers biked directly to the finish line. In the excitement, they didn't always get it right.
Most teams biked in quickly and some of the Trek racers didn't see the nearby CP until volunteers flagged them down. This was the cause of a minor bike collision I witnessed that involved none other than Mr. and Mrs. Gally (who were laughing pretty hard about it). [Edit: Mr. Gally says I caused the crash by pulling out my camera. Mrs. Gally couldn't resist posing and he rear-ended her. Oops.]
Since 'Bent had been near the front on the paddle, I kept watching for him hopefully and I started to have a sinking feeling. I knew he was still in the race but he must be going very slowly. A volunteer told me that 'Bent wasn't doing very well. I worried that he might be trashing his knee when he should be dropping out of the race. Then a racer told me that he'd seen 'Bent going the wrong way and that cheered me right up. "Oh, THAT kind of 'not doing very well'."
Back when 'Bent had healthy joints, he had the occasional navigational disaster. I would much rather see him delayed because he took a wrong turn than because he'd torn his meniscus again - and fortunately, that's what happened. I must say that 'Bent did not share my joy at this situation. The lad would like to be able to run *and* navigate. *And* have cake. *And* eat it too. That will come with time. Having finished the Trek Elite course without limping, he is fit enough to start practising his nav skills again, and that is awesome progress for a guy who's been on the sidelines of racing for many months. I'm looking forward to getting my teammate back!
'Bent and Wombat were the STORM Trek Elite Masters champions.
Hodgepodge and Jokeysmurf were 2nd Coed in the Trek race. Awesome to have a mini New Zealand reunion at STORM, although Nelvia was missed.
Oh yeah, they gave a medal to this other guy too.
Fun day in spite of cold rainy weather. The competitors were troopers, most of them racing with wide smiles. STORM is a super well-organized event and that made it a great day for racers as well as an awesome volunteer experience. I was even handed a terrific bag lunch as I headed out for the day. I don't think anyone has packed me a bag lunch since I was 12! Thanks, STORM, for all your hard work to provide the adventure racing community with a high quality set of races in Ontario, each with a different character. It was great to see so many new racers out this weekend and to know they would leave with a positive impression of adventure racing. That is a huge benefit to the rest of us who organize events.