Orienteering race (Raid) 5:48:57 [3] 28.86 km (12:05 / km) +553m 11:02 / km
slept:4.5 (injured) shoes: Salomon S-LAB FellCross
Salomon Giant's Rib Raid
Tree Huggers with Spirit
I've wanted to race with FB and Willderness for awhile and this seemed like a great opportunity for them to get in some final training before they leave for Expedition Africa.
The weather was perfect - sunny and cool. The race course was fun and varied. Most of the best teams in the race were in our category so our only goals were to enjoy ourselves and spend some time on our feet.
Mostly, it worked out that way. In fact, we spent *much* more time on our feet than planned. Unfortunately, within the first 10 minutes, my foot got tangled in a vine on my way to touch a control flag. I fell downhill onto rocks and smacked my left (good) knee cap hard. The first thing I did was stagger to my feet and touch the flag like a good adventure racer, then it took a few minutes of walking before I stopped hyperventilating from the pain.
FB and Willderness were awesome. I knew they would have taken it well if I'd stopped right there, and I did consider it. It remains to be seen if I called it correctly but it felt like the injury was external (bleeding, bruising and swelling), not an internal joint thing. That didn't stop it from being quite painful, especially while running or on uphills, downhills, rocky areas, or anywhere I had to bend my knee more than 10-15 degrees. In other words, most of the race. I did a lot of gasping and scowling and straight-legged hobbling down hills.
But it was fun anyway, and it was the first long run where I haven't thought about my injured foot at all. Not surprisingly, I had a few lapses of focus in the navigation department but fortunately FB was watching the map too and used his X-ray vision to spot flags. There were some really interesting control locations! I made some longer route choices that were easier on my knee since it was tough bushwhacking through the broken forest from the ice storm.
Both FB and Will are in great shape going into Expedition Africa but they didn't complain about all my walking breaks. I must admit that FB and I were kinda hard on Will until he finally gave in and got his feet wet. I had to remind him that there aren't any hippos here in Canada. His "stay out of the water" strategy probably makes a lot of sense in Africa though. We saw a bunch of snakes, which was also good practice for EA.
We finished an hour behind Lost Bearings, a team the Tree Huggers usually race close to, so that's probably a good gauge for the amount of extra time we spent out there. We were 12/22, which was decent for a day like this. I was sorry to have kept Goose and 'Bent waiting so long (they were 2nd and 3rd overall respectively) and to have missed the chance to catch up with friends after the race. Oh well, hopefully my joints will be happier next time.
Thanks to the Hitchon boys for a (mostly) fun day. :) Happy packing for EA!