ESAR at Hardwood Hills with Dee and Mrs. Gally. Fun day! Mrs. Gally was our costume designer once again.
Our team wants to do well at ESAR but our priority is to have a fun, low stress day with some laughter and conversation between checkpoints. Mrs. Gally and Dee are both stronger runners and bikers than I am. I'm in charge of steering the canoe and navigating, and (frighteningly) I've probably got the most bike repair experience. Mrs. Gally was the primary team workhorse this year and Dee is making a strong comeback after having twins last fall. Dee continued in her usual role as Chief Logistics and Strategy Officer.
We were lucky to get the chance to ride at Hardwood Hills just before it closes for the Pan Am Games. The race started with one teammate doing a 1 km run to spread racers out before biking. Dee and I both voted for Mrs. Gally to run, so her vote didn't count. Then we hopped on our bikes for a marked ride, mostly on nice, flowy single track. There were two CPs at random places along the marked Hardwood Hills trails. Because there were so many racers with different skill levels, the biggest challenge was keeping our feet on the pedals since we lost momentum when someone stopped ahead of us. This also made the gears less predictable, and my chain fell off completely at one point. At least 3 or 4 teams went by as I waited to jump into the queue again.
We crossed 6th Line into Barton Tract, which was new to me. Yeehaw! Such fun, swoopy riding on public land right beside Hardwood Hills. Who knew? Riders had spread out a little so we were able to ride more freely most of the time. There were two CPs in this section as well, and we got worried when we had ridden for awhile without seeing either one. We remembered a short, steep climb where we passed a team of guys stopped at the side of the trail who said, "Nice riding, ladies!" Could they have been punching a CP? But fortunately, both CPs were later in the ride.
The bad news was that Mrs. Gally picked up a stick that damaged her derailleur so she had limited gear choices for the rest of the race - and no granny gear. She didn't complain but she was clearly working her butt off on some of the uphills. (While still kicking my butt.)
We took the road up to a 1.5 km stretch of trail between 6th and 7th Lines. Once again, there were two CPs but this time they were both marked on the map in the first 800 m of the trail so I mostly used bike computer distance to find them. We met several fast teams coming back toward us after missing the first CP.
Then we dropped our bikes at CP2 and did a trekking section in Strachan Tract. There has been lots of rain and sunshine so all the forests today had lush foliage and limited visibility. Dee and Mrs. Gally were strong as always. Dee went down with a very hard face plant when her foot caught a tree root. She scared us by not moving for a few seconds, then when Mrs. Gally and I peeled her off the ground, she began laughing (as did the emergency services workers behind us who witnessed it!) Phew!
Next we rode over to Bass Lake on roads. Dee and Mrs. Gally took turns leading the pace line while I pushed to hang on - mostly successfully but not always. I don't like looking at the map while drafting too closely, and that makes it easy to fall off. Also, those two are fast! They were great about keeping an eye on me though. It's especially impressive that Mrs. Gally did all her riding with only a small selection of gears.
Our paddle around Bass Lake to find two floating CPs was uneventful and a nice change of pace. Then we were back on our bikes to CP4 (also CP2) where we were surprised by freezies. Yum!!! I had to mark 4 CPs on a blank map of Johnson Tract, then we headed up the hill. Dee and Mrs. Gally helped to add more "run" to my run/walk pace, and I grabbed onto Mrs. Gally's pack at times to move faster. No trouble finding the CPs.
At this point, teams could go straight to the finish or bike to Copeland Forest for an advanced section of optional CPs. We rode to Copeland, pedaling hard up the hilly 5th Line toward Horseshoe Valley Rd., knowing it was going to be tough to return across that line of hills afterward.
The nav in Copeland Forest was more challenging than the mandatory trek sections. I had to stay focused on the map, mostly because there was so much foliage that visual cues were more limited than usual. This was the only place where we went through poison ivy - a small amount in the area between CPs 63 and 62. The hills were big and my new Pearl Izumi AR bike shoes were up to the challenge. I wouldn't want to wear them *too* long but it was nice not to change shoes at all today.
As we rode the hilly roads back to the finish, my left patellar tendon (2014 Giant's Rib Raid injury) switched from its persistent biking niggle to nasty pain so I geared down, increased my cadence and made horrible faces. Perfect timing - it wasn't long till we were riding the last stretch of single track to the finish line.
Fun course, great race organization, awesome teammates and wonderful to see friends after the finish. Thanks to STORM Racing and volunteers!
We were the 1st female team so I celebrated in the traditional manner on the way home.
(Official race time is a little longer since I didn't turn my Ambit on while Mrs. Gally was sent out for the prologue 1 km trail run.)