ARC Enduro
Enduro 6 – 8 Hour Adventure Race
News Release / 19.10.2005
Enduro 6 – 8 Hour Adventure Race Enjoying the early morning sunshine and beautiful fall scenery racers milled about the Hampton Barn at the Belwood Lake Conservation Area finishing their registration forms, rechecking their packs, heading to the bathroom, and awaiting their race kits. Once maps, instructions, and a race briefing had been delivered teams grabbed a few last things and boarded busses which would take them to the start line at Forks of the Credit.
Starting on foot teams, had to follow a 2km trail down to the Forks of the Credit, where they would have to find four CP’s in the park before navigating out to the parking lot to pick up their bikes.
Leaving the Forks of the Credit teams then had to find the start of a single track bike section that would connect them to the Rail trail to the north. To assist teams in the navigation of the mountain bike trails, arrow signs had been posted to guide teams to a CP sign and then back out to the Rail Trail.
Soon reports began coming in that no one could find the CP and teams were becoming lost as they rode every trail in hopes of finding the elusive CP sign. Race organizers investigated right away and discovered that at some point that morning someone had gone into the trails and removed every arrow sign. With nothing to guide them and no CP to find teams had joined forces in combing every square inch of trail and had spent considerably more time in the course than had been expected.
Quickly race organizers began rounding teams up and sending them out on the Rail Trail to head back to Belwood Lake Conservation Area and the start of the paddling section.
By this point in the afternoon the wind had increased dramatically and teams now had headwind to test their legs and biking stamina.
Arriving back at Belwood Lake teams discovered the paddling section had been shortened due to the weather and a six kilometer paddle on open water was now a two kilometer paddle in the bay close to the boat launch and under the close watch of the safety boat and race staff on shore.
Only a few teams were able to complete this paddle, however, as the ever worsening weather forced race organizers to cancel the paddle and have the safety boat guide all canoes back to the shore. While some were disappointed with being unable to paddle there was an overall feeling of relief by the racers at the boat launch, especially after watching the wind lift up a canoe on the ground and toss in 10 feet downwind.
Due to the missing CP and the cancellation of the paddling race organizers had to make a hard decision regarding ranking the teams. In the end it was determined that it would be in the best interests of everyone for no official rankings to be given and prizes would instead be awarded to ALL teams. This, combined with the free beer, had almost everyone agreeing that that it was the best of an unfortunate situation.
Enduro 6 - 8 Hour Adventure Race
Enjoying the early morning sunshine and beautiful fall scenery racers milled about the Hampton Barn at the Belwood Lake Conservation Area finishing their registration forms, rechecking their packs, heading to the bathroom, and awaiting their race kits. Once maps, instructions, and a race briefing had been delivered teams grabbed a few last things and boarded busses which would take them to the start line at Forks of the Credit.
Starting on foot teams, had to follow a 2km trail down to the Forks of the Credit, where they would have to find four CP\'s in the park before navigating out to the parking lot to pick up their bikes.
Leaving the Forks of the Credit teams then had to find the start of a single track bike section that would connect them to the Rail trail to the north. To assist teams in the navigation of the mountain bike trails, arrow signs had been posted to guide teams to a CP sign and then back out to the Rail Trail.
Soon reports began coming in that no one could find the CP and teams were becoming lost as they rode every trail in hopes of finding the elusive CP sign. Race organizers investigated right away and discovered that at some point that morning someone had gone into the trails and removed every arrow sign. With nothing to guide them and no CP to find teams had joined forces in combing every square inch of trail and had spent considerably more time in the course than had been expected.
Quickly race organizers began rounding teams up and sending them out on the Rail Trail to head back to Belwood Lake Conservation Area and the start of the paddling section.
By this point in the afternoon the wind had increased dramatically and teams now had headwind to test their legs and biking stamina.
Arriving back at Belwood Lake teams discovered the paddling section had been shortened due to the weather and a six kilometer paddle on open water was now a two kilometer paddle in the bay close to the boat launch and under the close watch of the safety boat and race staff on shore.
Only a few teams were able to complete this paddle, however, as the ever worsening weather forced race organizers to cancel the paddle and have the safety boat guide all canoes back to the shore. While some were disappointed with being unable to paddle there was an overall feeling of relief by the racers at the boat launch, especially after watching the wind lift up a canoe on the ground and toss in 10 feet downwind.
Due to the missing CP and the cancellation of the paddling race organizers had to make a hard decision regarding ranking the teams. In the end it was determined that it would be in the best interests of everyone for no official rankings to be given and prizes would instead be awarded to ALL teams. This, combined with the free beer, had almost everyone agreeing that that it was the best of an unfortunate situation.
Here is how a participant summed it up after the race:
\"Thank you for providing us and teams like us with a spirit of adventure, challenge, and a feeling of accomplishment that comes with all of your adventure races. As in life and in racing, sometimes things happen and how you deal with it is the true test. Congratulations on arriving at an amicable solution at our last race that left everyone happy. You showed true sportsmanlike behavior.\"
Race organizers would like to send a special thank you to all teams for their understanding regarding this situation, and as always, we appreciate any feedback regarding the race.
For complete results please visit www.adventureracingcanada.com
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