---

And the Results…….?

F.B. / 01.09.2005

Well, what I forecast was:
-No Hot XXX Sex and to my knowledge there was none (although Bob and Jodi were staying pretty close to one another? ;-D).
-No ‘sexy’ Nudity and if there was any, I missed out.
-Plenty o’ beer…. Check
-Lot’s of Adventure…. Check.

I was bang on with my predictions!

I thoroughly enjoyed this race. From the easy registration process to the terrific volunteers and the fun course. I came into this race in a great ‘headspace’. My fitness is poor and I entered the solo category - so no one was depending on me for anything or expecting anything (except my hyper-competitive nine year old). I had no worries about being able to complete the race, because of my relatively extensive experience racing and what I would call a base level of fitness.

My son and my mother were my support crew.Grandma comes complete with a cane to help garner full on sympathy help in the TA’s (it’s actually temporary as she shattered her ankle 8 weeks ago). Jodi Isenor’s girlfriend/support even came by our campsite the night before the race to offer her help and Carolyn Connell’s support(Andrew Cameron) was at the start line. He knows the old girl from many longer races and he also offered to help, so with any luck I wouldn’t have to load and unload the boat in the TA’s. You gotta love this sport, the camaraderie is awesome.

I could see the fear in the eyes of all the other racers when I showed at the start line. They were collectively thinking ’this fat (Brad Pitt looking) bastard is going to have a heart attack and die in his son’s arms and ruin the whole positive race vibe we got goin’. I was trying to think how I could use this to my advantage.

We started at the base of Mt Ste Marie with what I am told is an 11 km run but I would say is closer to 7 or 8 km. The first 800m and last 400m or so was on roads with the balance being pretty much trails. This was very good for me as when I do run it is only on trails and the more technical running allowed me to stay in the hunt. I only run on roads when I am heading to a trail or on those rare occasions when the car breaks down on the way to the pub for last call…but technically that would be sprinting and the dress shoes make it an entirely different sport.

Anyways, we were treated to some really nice trails and a spectacular view at the top and by maximizing my efficiency on the ups I was able to gain some ground on the downs. Basically, when you take my considerable mass to the top of a mountain, substantial potential energy is stored. It then becomes kinetic energy when I lean forward on the down side and all I have to do is try and keep my feet beneath me… or something like that. The net result was a fun run of 1:10,which left me 10 minutes off the lead of Bob Miller (skinny little *&%*…).

Now came the ‘fun’ part. The Paddle was about 25 km of paddling in 9 or 10 different lakes 11 or 12 portages including put in and take out. It was beautiful and the conditions were almost perfect and I may even have pushed the leaders on this if I had a decent boat because I am quite good at portaging… usually. My son had said to me the night prior ‘Dad, you’re not actually going to paddle that fat $ss boat are you?’. I was so happy he added ‘boat’ that I forgot to reprimand his profanity. But the fact was that I had to paddle a 40lb plastic tub that was just under a meter wide and somewhat less than 3 meters long. It was awkward to carry at best and I actually dragged it for several decent stretches. I was roughly calculating that I gave up 3 minutes per km in the water and I was working very hard. I had to keep reminding myself that there is a maximum effective hull speed and anything beyond that is an inefficient use of energy that I would need later on (see Chris, all those years I just let you think I wasn’t listening ;-D). With my 200lb plus frame and all my gear in this little flat boat all I was really missing was a periscope. Andrew told me as much when he mentioned that as I came into the TA it looked like a head moving across the water.

I made two little mistakes on this section and both mistakes were within about 20 minutes of each other. Once I missed the flagged portage route and carried my boat about 400 meters down an ATV trail before realizing it and the other was just plain stupidity in looking for an unmanned CP clue at CP 6 when the map clearly stated it was a manned CP and therefore must be further down the trail. Those combined for about 20 minutes of lost time but it was the energy spent that really hurt. I realized I needed to settle down a bit and try to save some energy for my worst discipline… the bike. I still pushed hard, but not crazy and finished the paddle in Point Comfort at about 13:30… two days off the pace ;-D.

I have said this before and I don’t know if it applies to everyone (or anyone but me), but I can gut it out on a run and I can push like a hammer head on the paddle but I just don’t have what it takes to climb hills on my bike unless I have been training hard for it. Man did that ever prove to be the case.

The ride was actually pretty fair. It was supposed to be about 30 km but it had to be over 40 km or I may have to hang ‘em up. It was mostly dirt road with some paved road and about an hour of single track (probably a lot less than an hour for the good riders). I was far enough behind that I just decided not to kill myself on this. I caught myself pushing too hard a few times and had to consciously back off to enjoy myself. I have enough experience that I knew I would be better off walking some of the tough hills and saving some jam so I could hammer over some of the rolling sections and it worked pretty well. I was quite tired from working so hard on the paddle section and as a result I was pitiful on the single track. I walked a lot of it, but in my defense some of it would have been unridable for me in any case. I will admit that I was tired enough that I walked up the last hill(paved) leading into the finish area. There was a huge welcoming at the finish and fortunately they could not see me walk the hill, so I was able to act all cool at the finish. I was in 7th in my category and remarkably only 12 minutes out of 4th… WOW!

I won’t go into all the results as they are readily available on the S2S website, but Bob Miller was 1st in the solo male by 14 minutes over Jodi Bigelow and the rest of us were in another race.

A lot of the racers ate at the new McVey pub(again) and started thinking about the next day. It was supposed to rain and be fairly miserable and to be quite honest I was hoping it would be so I wouldn’t be the only miserable paddler the next day… is that wrong? ;-D. As it turned out we had a downpour most of the night and terrific conditions all day on Sunday.

Day two was to start with an 18km flat paddle followed by a bike ride (50km?) to the finish, with a short up and down run/hike near the end. I was dreading the paddle… and the bike after a long grueling push in that boat.

When we arrived at the start on Day 2 I carried my boat down and placed it beside solo female leader Caroline van den Bulk’s Necky kayak. She and her husband Fred looked at each other with raised eyebrows and he said something to the effect of ‘you are not going to use THAT are you?!?’ When I explained that was all I had they offered to let me use her one-person canoe that she had used the day before. My day suddenly brightened considerably. I figured if I could at least stay close to the kayaks on the paddle and then all the other solo’s came down with dysentery on the ride, that I may be able to pull off a miracle third (Jodi Isenor had unfortunately pulled out due to illness… I hope he’s doing better). I can’t thank the van den Bulk’s enough. They saved me at least 40 minutes and likely as much as an hour… and congrats on the solo female win!!!!

We had ideal conditions for the very scenic paddle and I was only 20 minutes off of the leaders coming out of the water. Great!! Damn, now I have to work my butt off on the ride or my son will stop talking to me… forever.

The ‘tragic’ story of this day was that Jodi B. made a wrong turn and cost him 10 minutes or so on the paddle which would have put him 4 minutes behind Bob and made for a battle to the finish…they ended up racing together after the paddle.

The ride was primarily on dirt roads and had some good climbs and screamer downhill on teeth rattling roads. It was a lot of fun even though I was sucking big time on the climbs and did choose to strategically walk a few of them. I actually unknowingly held down 3rd position for a while but was passed a little before the up and down hike section. I was giving it all I had on this ride as I had gained several positions on superior riders. I regained the 3rd spot on the way down the mountain hike (spectacular view from the top). I was taking it a little easy on this descent because I wanted to save a little leg for the final 2-3 km of paved ride and I knew the other solo’s close by were better riders. In retrospect I should have let ‘er go (see above ;-D) and tried to get more of a cushion. I was passed a little over a km from the finish and ended the day in 4th place one minute out of 3rd.

doah!!!!

I did manage to muster a sprint at the end to hold off a challenger by 1 minute (and redeem myself in my son’s eyes ;-D).

At the end of the day this was a lot of fun. The venue was great. The organization was flawless(except of course getting timely results that every race has problems with… look to the orienteers' fella’s). The volunteers were awesome and the racers were terrific as well.

This type of race is great for just about anyone. Fast racers can come out and go hard and get a real challenge, new racers can come out and really push themselves and so long as they persevere they should have a fun finish.

Expedition type racers can also come out and get a taste of the adventure at an affordable rate, have a lot of fun with some great people and work on some much needed speed.

Some of you already figured out that I am not Brad Pitt, although we do have similarities… like we both think Angelina is hot!

kkrbkcmn

See All Stories On This Race