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STADIUM DOGS FMIJ July 22, 2005 |
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Even the rain pouring down during the pre-race meeting could not dampen the anticipation of the 21 teams that assembled at the Nordegg Centre for Outdoor Education for the Full Moon Adventure Company's 36 hour flagship race. Postponed since June due to extensive damage from flooding in the area, the racers were eager to get to the start line and test their mettle against some intense elements and unforgiving terrain. The Stadium Dogs and support crew were six very happy faces in the crowd as we waited for the final race instructions and at midnight we were off. The first section was a trek that involved navigating through the night along easy-to-miss cut lines and deep, dark and dirty mud bogs, with a particularly swampy section offering the team some life-preserving skill practice. It took quite a few good hard tugs to get one of our team members out of a waist deep muskeg section, making the rest of the team step ever more lightly over the remaining kilometres until CP1. We collected the next two CP's with relative ease - and some serious elevation gains and losses - and arrived in 14th place at TA1 just after 8:00 A.M. for a quick change and prep for the paddling section. Carrying our paddles and pfd's for 7 kilometres primed us well for the short portage after inflating our raft and then another 7 kilometres of having to carry the boat along the river more often than we could ride in it. With the water so low and the boat scraping along the bottom, we were careful not to puncture the raft and necessitate an early end to our race. After more than three hours of portage, and subsequent flinging from the boat after hitting rocks hidden in what little water there was, we arrived at CP4 with one team member suffering mild hypothermia and the rest of us bruised and battered. The good news at this CP was that the rest of the river actually had water; the bad news was that tree and landscape debris had made it far enough down stream to post a hazard. When our hypothermic teammate started looking decidedly less blue, we pushed back into the water for the final 20 or so kilometres looking forward to a faster ride. We were not disappointed. The water was much faster and in some cases it was all we could do to not get torn out of the boat by sweepers and shoreline debris while negotiating twists and turns and trying to keep everyone in the boat. In total, we had various members in the water 7 times, with the most spectacular fall resulting in a hundred-metre bob through fast water until the raft could put in to shore. With scared, shaky knees and chattering teeth we landed at TA2, still in 14th place, to get ready for the bike section. Getting into our harnesses at TA2 made the most sense, as a zip line to transport us and our bikes across a small gorge had been set up just across the river and we would be ready to go upon arrival there. The zip line was far too short for even a small scream of delight while crossing, but was a ton of fun. While getting off the ropes and heading to the cut line for the bike ride made the most logical route choice for many teams, our previous training experience on the Nordegg cut lines had us looking for an alternate choice. We found it in a section of logging road that turned out to be quite a long ride with several sections of severe elevation gain. After discovering that times for other teams on the brutal bike whack of a cut line had been between 5 and 8 hours and with an average speed of a kilometre per hour, we were thrilled to have arrived at CP8 after almost 60 kilometres on the bikes in only 3 hours and 16 minutes of ride time. We had now been racing more than 25 hours and had moved up 6 spots to 8th place. Unfortunately, this is where things started to go south for us. It had started to rain while we were approaching CP8 and by the time we were finished plotting the coordinates for the next trek section, it was a torrential downpour and seemed like we might have a couple of swim sections as well. Reviewing the route choices made us realize that we would have to travel on bearing alone for a good portion of the trek through what appeared to be monumental elevation gains while battling the elements, sleep deprivation, and the cold and shivering muscles that were threatening to seize up every moment we delayed. After speaking with the CP staff who suggested that we rest for an hour to see if the rain let up a bit, we decided to do just that in order to get us a bit closer to daylight and give us a better chance to find the trail. The decision to wait was easier to make when we were told that the 6 teams that had left ahead of us still had not checked in at the next manned CP and the teams that were yet to arrive at this TA were calling in to be removed from the course due to the cold and wet conditions. After a couple of hours of rest, the approaching daylight lifted our spirits enough to get back into our wet gear and two of us headed over to let the CP staff know that we would be leaving for the trek as soon as our support crew finished with our packs. To our great disappointment, we were informed that no other teams would be allowed to leave the transition area because the 5:00 A.M. cut off had passed 20 minutes before. It was with a mixture of sadness and relief that we reported this back to the rest of the team and began coordinating our return to the finish line. Upon arrival back at the Nordegg Centre for Outdoor Education, we discovered that there was only one team left on course, all the others had dropped out, missed the cut off, or called to be removed. There were even racers who had been picked up by logging trucks in the area and delivered back to TA's. All in all, a very grim discovery and we were all worried for the last team on course, who had been expected at the finish line at 6:00 A.M. It was now almost 8:00 and they still hadn't arrived. With teams in various stages of packing up for departure and the rain still coming down, the one and only, final team on course finally abandoned their search for the last CP and arrived at the finish line just before 9:00 A.M. The Full Moon Adventure Company's extensive experience in setting up challenging Adventure Racing courses was very apparent during this race - they managed to push each and every team to their absolute limits of endurance, and Mother Nature is apparently a good friend of theirs to add the extreme weather element as well! The Stadium Dogs are pleased to have gone as far as they did on such a demanding course and look forward to conquering it in its entirety next year. We have since discovered that the teams will place according to their arrival at CP8 and we are thrilled to have achieved a top ten ranking after all the adversity and harsh conditions. Approximate distances travelled:
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