Valhalla Pure Challenge Adventure Race
A beautiful day in the Loops
Chris Koch / 22.08.2005
The race started (for the racers) with a short LeMan\'s start. Hooting and hollering the racers ran down the beach at Riverside Park to their waiting boats alongside the shore. They then paddled down the Thompson River to Kamloops Lake, grabbing a checkpoint at Rabbit Island. It was about a 13km paddle with racers generally taking just over an hour to complete this portion.
Taking out at Tranquille on the Lake, the racers dropped their boats and grabbed their bikes for the \"tougher\" part of the course. Many thought we would be hiking Mara Mountain. Nope. It was biking. This stretched teams out from a fast time of just under an hour to approximately 2.5 hours to complete this 4-500m climb. At the top, Michel had the teams posing as their favourite animal with Kamloops City seen far in the background.
Then teams descended the far side, continuing east through the Lac Du Bois grasslands. In order to prevent those with local knowledge from having an unfair advantage, the route was partially flagged.
Teams eventually found their support crews for a quick transition to foot. Dropping their bikes, they had three checkpoints to get in the rolling grassland hills. Checkpoint staff eagerly told me all the directions teams came at them from:-).
Teams then descended back into the City of Kamloops to the shoreline of the North Thompson River. They grabbed their waiting boats and finished off the race with a quick 30 minute paddle back down to Riverside Park.
Highlights of this race for me (the race director) were:
- all the smiles I kept seeing
- no injuries
- minimal search and rescue required
- the kids race that was taking place at Riverside Park
- racers buying me beer at the awards ceremony
- my brilliant crew of volunteers
- the flawless SportIdent electronic timing system lent to us from Sage Orienteering
- Perry\'s finish line hobble:-)
Next year - more blisters less smiles!
Chris
SleepMonsters
