Third Time's a Charm! WTF Finishes WT!

Our third attempt, and third team configuration, but still with the “original” three teammates,  at Wilderness Traverse finally sees Whiskey Tango Foxtrot finishing the full course!!

Three weeks (hmm...a theme of three’s?) before the race Candice comes clean. She sprained her knee back in June, and isn’t sure how it will hold up. How do we feel about bringing another team mate into the fold? Well, the first year we raced saw a team mate change about three weeks out, so this wasn’t exactly a new idea. I think her thought is if we bring Steve on board, and her knee fails, we can still continue on as a ranked team. I’m not totally convinced Steve knows what he’s getting himself into. I laugh (nervously) over the next week as he bombards me with email messages:

“What kind of bike do I need?” 

“ I’m going to bring hot dogs!”

“What shoes should I wear?” 

“I don’t have bike lights”

Fortunately, Steve is a Parry Sound local, which also means we have a place to crash, and he knows parts of the area quite well. Definite nav plus.  Makes parts of our course plotting the night before quick and easy. Although,  he hasn’t paddle Massassagua before, and the trek between CP10 and CP12? Nope, never been there either!

After a great breakfast of waffles and sausage, we head over to the start line and GO! It’s a mass run start. I don’t like running, but it’s a rather short one, and likely the only actual running that I will have to do over the next 24 hours or so. We transition to a short bike ride and something is not right. We quickly figure out that my back tire is flat. I curse my bike mechanic back home. He was supposed to check my tires and change my tubes. Hmm...not a great start. We fix it, keep going, get through the first few CP’s in good time and hit the paddle. Where we are confident we’ll shine, after all, we are ALL paddlers. Despite the crazy wind, we make great time, passing about 9 teams along the way.. Near the end, we pull over for a quick fuel break before a rather long crossing to the end.  A man and his two sons burst through the trees, cradling shotguns, telling us they feel sorry for us with this wind. We pick our line and head to the dock at opposite shore. We arrive with a few hours of daylight to see us through the beginning of our trek. Have I mentioned yet that I turned down a wedding invite for this?

The first jog along the road brings a very strange sensation along the outer sides of my thighs. I can feel one of my shins tightening up. Now something is not feeling good in my knee. What the heck is going on? We drop down to a brisk walk instead. That feels better. We pass through the Deliverance cottages, complete with the greying-long-haired guitar playing dude to CP9 and set our bearing to take us to CP10. We arrive in decent time, to steak, tea, shoulder massages (an old friend was a volunteer here!) and the news that we are in 20th place. It’s a little past 8pm. Dinner at the wedding will be done by now, maybe speeches starting?

We realize at this point that we have a good chance of not being short coursed. We set our next bearing, and head towards CP11. Moving quicker than in past years. Although all the climbing over ridges has my knees screaming at me. Also, our hands are getting ripped apart by juniper bushes. I should be in a pretty dress dancing right now. Grant & Steve make a great nav duo, and we make it to Shangri- La before midnight. Only one small error, but the light of the heated tent showed us we missed them by a bay or two. It wasn’t until days later, that I realized that this CP was manned by the wonderful man who saved me with a single strawberry in 2013. This year, he gave me soup and water. And told me that we were going to finish….the whole course!!

As we make the LONG journey south to CP12, my knees are really giving me some troubles. But I keep thinking if Candice is still moving forward on her knee, than I have to as well. I hit my lowest point ever on this portion of the trek. I think I may have experienced my first “bonk” When we found the trail, I was stumbled along as if I was into my second bottle of wine (by this point, the wedding reception is all over, and I would be stumbling….but still in a pretty dress!) I was hallucinating (although I wasn’t the only one, at one point Steve yelled out, he “saw” a porcupine in his path) I was dehydrated (my throat felt like it was being stabbed) and food made me nauseous. I even found Grant sitting on a rock at one point. He NEVER sits in a race. We finally got into the TA, after picking our way along the shore of the Moon River, and Heather (Grant’s wife who was volunteering) took one look at me and asked how I was. I burst into tears and said I couldn’t talk about it. After a cup of hot chocolate, soup and half a gatorade I was ready to go. By 6:30 or so, we jumped on our bikes to ride the final 65km or so to the finish line.  We opted to take roads, we figure we’d be a bit faster, especially considering knees. I feel pretty good over the course of the ride, despite the fact that my bike shorts seem to be wanting to constantly give me a wedgie. Also, have you ever gotten dirt INSIDE your bike shorts? That sucks, a lot. One small nav error as we we searching for CP 14 set us back 30 minutes or so. We retraced the beginning of the race along the Seguin Trail for the final stretch over roads, as we were struggling with hills. The final 4km seemed to drag on forever….but we rolled into the finish line….22 minutes after 2:00. Elated, but slightly disappointed. Bob & Barb very kindly ranked us anyway, and we are super stoked to have finally completed the long course (140 km in 30 hours and 22 minutes), after two years of being short coursed.

A big thank you to Bob, Barb and the rest of their team and volunteers for putting on a great race. And to all of the other racers that race this, and other races, without a whole bunch other “crazy” people, we wouldn’t get to do it. Friends often ask me why….I  don’t really know the answer, but I know you understand. ;)

Play: Ooooops, we did it again! WTF races WT

Some may call us crazy, but Whiskey Tango Foxtrot decided that yes, we were going to attempt Wilderness Traverse again this year. As a team of 4 this time. Myself, Candice and Grant again, with Gerhard (who was part of the original team) joining us.

Gear explosion out of car

I spent much of my training this year focusing on my riding (I even knit myself a new bike!) as I felt that that's where I was weakest. I hoped that would pay off and make us faster as a team on the trails.
We arrived at HQ Friday in good time, unloaded our gear, sorted through our gear, and got front row seating for the course reveal.

 Here's a video of Bob, the race director revealing the course if you are interested. Or a peek at maps if you want to follow along!

The course starts off as a paddle, we all get into our canoes and line up at the start line, just in time for some early morning fisherman to yell "Start" at us....many teams did, until Bob told us to NOT start. Seconds later, he gave us the go ahead.

View of the Islands from above....tricky navigating!

Our plan was to follow the main land shore to the north tip of Meneilly Island and then cut down to the island where CP1 was. Not the shortest route, but the safest. This area is called the Thirty Thousand Islands after all, and navigating through them wasn't going to be super easy, especially since we wanted to move fast! It was very apparent early that most teams were opting for the shorter, but more challenging for navigation course, through the islands. At one point we thought we could follow the pack and rely on their nav, but this was our race, and we wanted to run it ourselves. Yes, it put us near the back of the pack, but we figured it's early yet, we'll still have a chance to make up some time. We got the CP, and continued on our way into the Naiscoot River Channel towards CP2. It was a bit tricky when we reached the middle channel, we saw a group ahead attempting a portage that we had thought to try, but as we got closer, well they were returning...not the right place. So instead, we scooted around the corner, paddled (poled?) our way through some thick lily pads, then pushed our way through some bushes into the river. The paddle along the river was relatively quick, but boring after awhile, we kept hoping to see something new around the next bend. Finally, sometime after CP2 signs of cottages appeared and we hit the "portage" over the dam. There were a few other teams there pushing through and resting, resulting in a line up that cost us some time. Finally we're on Six Mile Lake, into Little Wilson, then Wilson and then we are done! A quick 1km portage to our gear bins and transition to trek.

We moved through transition fairly quickly, a quick shoe change, food in mouth, food and water into packs, and a heavy dose of bug dope, man the mosquitoes were bad there! (they only got worse) Trotted down the trail until we hit the creek we intended on following towards Spectacle Lake. Had a fun group crossing at a set of rapids (some old river rescue courses coming into play here) followed the north shore of Spectacle and set our bearing to bushwhack our way to CP4. We felt pretty good moving through the bush here, knew where we were, and moving at a decent pace. Then another team caught up to us. When asked what bearing they were following, they responded "yours!" Ok, so we have followers. Not to be rude or anything, but we weren't really looking for company. We came out on the shore of Trout Lake, found another team who asked if we knew where we were, we answered yes, they asked where and we said at CP4, it's right over there.

CP4 team shot!

We arrived at CP4 just as the crew there were cooking up some freshly caught fish. We didn't stick around though, as yet another team was arriving, and well we weren't here for a party. We had a quick team picture snapped (I know one of the volunteers there, he emailed me the picture) and were off. Off to make an error that would later cost us.

Our intent was to bushwhack to the power line from CP4, rather than follow the shore to the trail. We moved along the shore to where we were going to start our bushwhack, but a bunch of other teams caught up to us, and we stepped aside to let them pass, and double check our map. I guess we got all caught up in the traffic, and second guessed our intent and thought, well maybe we should play it safe too. So we continued on past where we were going to turn off, found the trail (or so we thought) but it was wrong. We figured that out rather quickly when the trail veered off in the opposite direction we wanted. So we trudged back to the lake, set a new bearing and set off for a bushwhack, our original plan.  Which was not the best plan. We spent the next 3-4(?) hours bushwhacking our way slightly northeast hoping to catch the trail before the hydro line. Finally, through the treeline I spotted what I thought was the tip of a hydro pole. Candice and Gerhard confirmed my sighting, good not a hallucination. We went for it, and then hit the first bog. OK, we can cross this, it's all Labrador Tea and mossy bogginess. Kind of like walking on water bed. I had visions of going through, and not re-surfacing. That just made me move quicker. Ok, through the first one. To have another stretch in front of us. OK, let's do that 3 more times. And then a really deep, mucky 5' "water" crossing. To deep to walk, to short a distance to swim. I'm not sure what you'd call what we did, but somehow got across it.

An example of what we swam across

Only to find a swim across the swamp that was at least 50' across. So we swam. Gross. And then stumbled onto the trail. Oh, so happy. It was still light out. And we now knew where we were. We got onto the hydro line, had a quick re-fuel, pulled out our lights as we'd need them soon, and continued on our way over to Dogfish Lake. We encountered a team biking towards us.....well that was rather discouraging. But we were given some friendly advice from the team to take the north shore (that was our plan) and that the bushwhack we intended from CP5 to CP6 took them 2 hours in daylight....the road would also take 2 hours. We tucked that information away, wished them well and watched them speed off. Once we found the creek/river that led to Dogfish, and we crossed our second set of rapids we started the steep rocky trek along the shore. It is now full on dark. We are treated to a short view of the night's super moon. Gorgeous and red. But no time to stop and admire, and then it disappears behind some clouds. We spot a fire on the far shore, and some encouraging words are yelled across to us "You're going the right way!" After we lose the fire, I think I start hearing thunder in the distance. Then I hear it closer....no wait, that sounds like a generator! We have reached the cottage about halfway down the lake. We are greeted by a bunch of kids yelling "What's your name?" "Are you coyotes" A tattooed, beer drinking man hanging out by some muddy ATV's greets us. "Turn off your lights, save you batteries...come here use my light" He then tries to convince us to not continue the shore, take his road. We explain that that will take us way out of our way. Again he tried to discourage us from going on. "The shore is bad, it's worse than what you just trekked, I have extra bunks, come on in and sleep" We thank him, but explain that we are going to keep going, but promise if we run into trouble, we'll come back. He then asks us if we have protection. "What do you mean" I ask. "Guns" was his reply. Ummm, no. As we set off, we here his buddy tell him he could have been more encouraging. So he yells out "Good Luck" to us. Nice guy.

maybe not this bad....but heh, it was
dark and the middle of nowhere!

We find the ATV trail and start heading towards CP5. We are a bit confused when we see a team (the same team of guys who "followed" us before heading towards us, "You're almost there" they encourage us. Hmmm, where are they going? We get into CP5 a bit dejected, convinced we are dead last, clearly the teams we tried so hard to "ditch" moved faster from the last checkpoint than us. But no, the crew at CP5 let us know there are still teams behind us. OK, that picks our spirits up a bit. It starts to rain, and the crew also tells us that many teams have opted to take the road to CP6/TA2. Not our original plan, but we figure we can give it some thought as we move onward. It starts to rain a bit more earnestly. We are now moving along a slick, muddy wet trail in the rain. So we totally were not prepared for what happened next. Candice and Grant were just ahead of my and Gerhrad, when she suddenly grabs Grant's arm and pulls him to a stop. A Massassauga Rattle snake is there on the trail. They almost stepped on it. It is not happy with us being there. We stand still for a moment, than quickly skirt around it, and then let out our breath. Close one. Maybe that spooked us enough that it helped make the decision to take the road into CP6.

Not the one we saw....but they blend in well!

During the road trek, the rain continued and got heavier. I started thinking about the ride ahead of us. We rode the same hydro cut last year, and I remember the struggles I had. At the beginning of the race. On a dry day. In sunlight.  Lot's of hills and lot's of rock. That would be super slippery in this rain. By this point Gerhard was having some old race injuries come back to haunt him, and he was fairly certain that we was not going to continue when we got to CP6/TA2.
We arrive at CP6 to a pile of teams there. Catching some shelter under the tent. Munching on watermelon that Heather brought (Heather is Grant's wife, she came to volunteer at the race, and to drive us home) No one seems overly happy at this point. We call in that we will continue on as a team of three. We then are told that our options are to go on the full course (we have made the time cut off after all!) short course ourselves (which still involved a 35-40km road ride back to HQ) or to simply quit . Well, that was not an option. The three of us get ourselves ready, and mull over the other two options in our heads, before we get together to talk it out. I have no dry clothes left. Candice had an extra tank top in her bin. So, I'll continue in a tank top and gore-tex, no worries. I'm thinking of potentially (probably) walking my bike through much of the trail. My feet don't relish that idea. I think of my kids back home, who need me not broken. I think of a friend who was recently in a bad bike accident that happened during a race. And then I say it out loud "I think we should short course" A moment of silence, and the other agree with me. Thank You. It wasn't an easy decision, and I hope that the feeling of quitting will go away. Cause it kinda felt like that. We report to Heather that that is what we are going to do. Apparently everyone is (except the Speed Bunnies.....but then again they RAN past us on the road, so I wasn't completely surprised, man I admire them, and it looks like they rocked the hydro cut, nice work ladies!!)
We jump on our bikes and start the ride which felt really, really good. And then the deluge began, the kind of rain that makes you pull over in your car because you can't see and your wipers won't work fast enough. But we made it, got back to HQ a bit before 5am. This time, unlike last year, we got to see many other teams come in, and hear bits of their stories. And yes, I think we'll be back next year. I just want to know one thing: how do the pro teams move so bloody fast while bushwhacking?

This is what we got when we finished.....empty though.

Play: 'Twas the day after Christmas

‘Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house

The children were playing, and even the mouse (seriously, I left chocolate on the counter last night that was nibbled in the morn)

The stockings were strewn on the floor without care,

A sign that St Nicolas had in fact been there.

A drink in my hand, I lounged by the fire,

The CBC radio with sounds of a choir.

Father saved the world on the PS3,

And we all ignored the mess that lay under the tree.

With lego and books and new socks for all,

Don’t mention the boxes that litter the hall,

I briefly thought of the credit card bills,

And went out instead to sled down the hills.

There’s a break in our play to take time for lunch,

Some leftover turkey dinner to munch!

And then back to open yet another toy,

I ask where on earth we will put this, oh boy!

Another Christmas has come, but is not quite yet done

Because there is still some time for more fun.

More games to be played, and food to eat

Oh Christmas time you are so neat!

Play: Ode to a Snow Day

It started last night.

The stillness, the quiet.

Nothing but the snow gently falling from the sky.

The joy in the morning to see the world transformed.

The desire to go out and leave your mark.

The moment you realize there is nowhere you have to be.

That there is nowhere else you'd rather be.

Oh Snowday, how I love thee!

Time to refuel with a comforting meal.

 Out for a hike

to see who else has left it's mark

At day's end, at home by the fire is a good place to be.

Play: Run or Dye

I convinced Shawn to run in a "race" as a family.  Now he's be running for a year or so now, but never has been interested in participating in a race. So I was surprised, and delighted when he agreed. And the boys are running too. I'm so happy:)
The big day arrives, with a cool, wet morning...but it does not stop about 5000 (!!!) people to make their way to Fort Henry to run for 5km while being pelted with dye.
We ran, we laughed, we dyed.....and then we hit the Brew Pub for beer, hot chocolate and lunch....a perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday morning with my 3 favorite people!

Practicing their start

Stretching

before......we look so clean

The GoPro video Shawn created of our experience!

Play: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot finishes race!!!

Warning: this is a long read.....I hope you enjoy.

This crazy idea that Candice and I had almost two years ago came to pass. We signed up, we trained and than actually raced the race! And survived to tell the tale. After dropping the kids off at the sitters on Friday morning, I made my way over to pick up Grant (who had just joined our team a mere 3 weeks ago, considering this is a man who spends his time always in training, we were not in the least bit concerned about his ability to keep up for the race, if any thing we prayed we could keep up to him)

On our way to Candice's house, well we got a bit lost. Not a great start for our team.....we turned on the GPS and found the road we had somehow turned off of, still not sure how that happened.

Anyway, made it to her place, loaded up her gear and drove off (in the right direction) only to find out 8 minutes later we had left a critical piece of gear behind.....hmmm, another bad omen? 

We're making good time, make a quick stop to eat and pee, only to have the truck shut off TWICE in the middle of the drive. Is anyone else feeling nervous yet??? So, we have already gotten lost, forgot essential gear (OK, they were only keys to her mother's apartment where we had to drop off the dog, but still they were necessary!) and had a mechanical breakdown, 3 of the four things we were really hoping would not happen to us (the fourth were no injuries).

Fortunately, the rest of the drive up was uneventful, and we arrived at race HQ with time to spare. Although everyone else there looked like they belonged, gulp.

At this point I'm feeling pretty good, I'm not yet nervous, I'm telling myself I've trained, I got my gear, all will be well. 

And then we get the maps. All but the last 10km or so of the bike ride is trail.  Not my strength. I knew that it would be mostly trail, but figured it would be broken up with some gravel roads. Oh, and the trek? Pretty much no trail. OK, so alot of bushwhacking. Which mean little running. OK, I got this.

At the start line

We head back to the hotel, spend some time re-organising our packs, pull out the maps again, make some notes, mark some distances and bearings and slide into bed around midnight. The alarm at 5:30 am comes pretty quick. Back at race HQ for breakfast, jump on our bikes for the 3km ride to the start line.....count down 3, 2, 1....and we're off. 

We had positioned ourselves near the back of the pack, we have no illusions about our place here, the "pro-star" teams quickly take to the trail and disappear. It doesn't take long for us to be enjoying this ride on our own. About 12 km in, there are suddenly some teams coming towards us on the trail! We discover later, that many teams missed the turn off. Maybe our timing has saved us from making the same mistake. From this point, we end up leap frogging with a couple of other teams until we hit CP1.  We refill our water bottles, jump back on our bikes and continue on. The whole ride takes us 10 hours. This is by far the longest ride I have ever done, and the trail was tough. Lots of rock, a fair number of mud puddle crossings, lot's of sand (have you ever ridden in sand? It sucks) Single track, ATV trail, hydro cut.....but as the ride wore on, I could feel my confidence gaining. There were even a few times where I had this weird clarity....it's like the line I ha to follow was lit up or something. I know that sounds really out there, maybe it was de-hydration, but hey, whatever gets you there. And the last 10km of gravel road? Don't assume the orange line on the map denotes a gravel road.....just sayin'

So we've made it to TA1.....and we get ice cream!! Best ice cream I've ever tasted. We quickly tear through our gear bin, change our socks, shoes and cycling shorts into long tights. We freshen up our water bladders, re-fold our maps, throw some food in our mouths, and we are off again. When we were plotting out our course the night before, we had decided to swim across the channel, hand rail the rest of the lake down, hit the portage trail and follow the shore to CP4....sounds easy right? The other option was taking the road to some trails and going from there. A longer distance, but maybe a safer bet? Even though the ride took us 2 hours longer than we had hopes, we decided to stick to our original plan, so we head down to the shore for a swim. Not relishing the idea of being wet when the sun went down (about 90 minutes away) we, well, let's just say we did not break the rule of taking our race bibs off.

Once on the other side we made pretty good time travelling along the shore of the lake, hit a "creek" that we had hoped would be an easy crossing. Maybe we should have looked a little harder for a place to cross, but ended up swimming again....through swampy, weedy smelly water. With our race bibs on.

A few minutes later is when it all went wrong. We hit another "creek" at the mouth of the lake, The sun was almost down. We didn't want to swim again. The longer, cleaner route across the mouth of the lake was one option. The narrower, but really swampy section was option two. The third option as we saw it was to hand rail the creek east to a small lake we could skirt around, follow the creek back to the shore of Gordon Lake and over to the CP. About a 3km detour. That took 3-4 hours. Let's just say that following a hand rail in the dark is not so easy. The terrain kept forcing us up and away from our river. Finally, we reached the portage and saw a campfire down the shore. Elated, we moved pretty quickly and confidently towards the light. Only to stumble upon a cabin, with a friendly man to tell us we're going the right way, it's the next fire up the shore. There was no fire. Instead, about an hour later (maybe...who knows, I wasn't wearing a watch, and time seems to stop out there in the night) we hear people yelling to us "Swim across, we're over here!" "Huh" swim across? But the CP is supposed to be on the EAST shore of the lake. If we swim across we'll be on the WEST shore. It took Candice and Grant awhile to explain to me that we were on the shore of a little bay, and the campsite was on the point, which technically is still the east shore. Admittedly, I figured this out the next day when I was reviewing the maps.....

So, finally we roll into CP4....after being offered beer by the yahoos yelling at us. There didn't seem to be many of them, but there sure were alot of empties on the ground. And they seemed offended that we did not want any beer.

The next section went slowly, but perfectly for us. We set our bearings (there was a bit of an issue here, when Grant and Candice pointed one way, and I almost pointed in the exact opposite direction. Not wanting to admit that something was wrong, I covertly re-checked my bearing. Hmm....everything looks right, I'm very confident I have set it right....oh, well, 2 against 1, I'll follow them. After a few more checks as we're following the river I finally show Candice my compass......which shows the north arrow pointing south. My compass is confused....it seems to think north is south.....somehow it has de-polarized...hmmm....I put it away, good thing we all brought one)

At CP5...note the coffee in my hand

We spend the next 5 hours playing leap frog through dense bush, walls of rock we need to scramble over, and walls of alder bushes. We manage to come out with 20' of our target each time. We hit the end of Horseshoe Lake as the sun is coming up, follow the shore up high for a bit. Then decide to get low, as we figure the campsite will be on the water. We are encouraged by the fact that the shoreline is walkable, sandy bottom covered in footprints...we round the corner, quietly say "Good Morning" and are met by the the beautiful sight of smiling people....who say "We weren't expecting you for another hour!" At this point I am fighting back tears of relief that we made it here. We are offered coffee, cheese, crackers and the last strawberry. This beautiful, wonderful man then proceeds to tell us how great we look, snaps our picture and that we have 5 hours to get to TA2 to be able to continue the race, and he believes we can do it. It is exactly what we need to hear right now. So, off we go. We follow this rough, rocky shoreline, opting to stay low for as long as we can. I have a few moments of terror as we have to climb up a cliff. Not scramble, but actually climb. With no ropes. And a 20' drop against more rocks before landing in the lake broken. Now, I haven't done any climbing in 10 years. And I don't even like climbing ladders. But somehow, Candice and Grant coax me up the cliff face (I really don't think I'm exaggerating) and we continue on. We swim across the channel between Little Wilson and Wilson Lake, scramble up the hill (I sucked back a peanut butter goo, it is breakfast time after all) we head due south aiming for the "road" We got onto the trail with the orange ribbons for a bit, but when it starts to veer in another direction we quickly get off of it, find the "road" we were looking for and move as quickly as our aching bodies will allow us.

We arrived at TA2 at 11:05, 55 minutes before the "absolute cutoff". We discover Grant's bike is not here!! So Bob tells us to go ahead and transition, when we are ready he will hit the timer, and we will get a time credit to make up for how long it takes for Grant's bike to arrive. As we're getting ready (a little slowly now, as we can't yet leave) we all realize that the team that walked in 3 minutes before is also a rookie team! All of a sudden we are racing again! We all look at each other, and start moving a bit faster. There is a prize for the rookie team who finishes first. And the only two rookie teams left are right here, a 26km ride on the road away from the finish line! Team Spinning out of Control hops on their bikes and take off, not knowing how fast they have to ride, because we won't be there riding with them. 18 minutes later, Grant's bike arrives, and we hit the road. As we turn into the parking lot to the finish line, I am fighting back tears. It has been 29 hours of non-stop travelling. I'm tired, but elated that it is over, and we have done it! 

Spinning out of Control takes the rookie prize.....beating us by 8 minutes. 

Well, Wilderness Traverse volunteers and staff....thank you for a great first 24hour race experience, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot will see you next year! And I'll hopefully have a new bike......with shocks!!

Play: In Training

I had these great plans that I would be able to blog my training for my upcoming race. Ha! Between working, being a mother and wife, piles of laundry and days with "nothing to eat in this house" AND training, who has time to blog about it?
So, here I am, a little over 3 weeks away from the race, and I am making a bit of time to record how I'm feeling.
To recap, I'm training for a race called Wilderness Traverse. This year, the race is being held in the Parry Sound area.....one of the challenges will be to take the time to notice the beautiful surroundings I will be in! My team and I will spend 24-30 hours running, hiking, canoeing, portaging and biking a 150km course through the wilderness. For fun. And we paid someone to let us do this. Hmmmm.....I'm still trying to figure out if I should feel proud or foolish when I admit that I have signed up for this.
I've been training for 6 months, and over this time I have learned that I have great friends, who have supported me, helped me, and even seem to understand why.  Some are my "mom friends", who have held playdates to allow me to squeeze in a ride, run or swim when my husband was away. Nana who has driven out to pick the kids up so I could squeeze a ride in before work. Friends with bikes who have joined me on long rides, and taught me how to be a better rider. My trainer who has created training schedules, makes me stretch, and has gone out on cold, windy crappy days to ride with me. Co-workers who listen to my endless ramblings about my training rides/runs and current hurts. Friends who think a fun Friday night out is running through the bush with a headlamp. My husband, listening to me whine when I hurt, and is OK with me taking off for a 4 day weekend to do this. Sales rep that have hooked my team up with some free gear (pressure is on, you could say that we are sponsored athletes!.....Thank You Black Diamond & Icebreaker!!!) And a friend crazy enough (and ready) to agree to step in 3 weeks before to join the team, hope I can keep up with him.
They say it takes a village to raise a child.....one could also say it takes a village to train an athlete.
I've learned that you're not too busy to train for something. Be it your first 5km run, marathon, obstacle race or adventure race. You don't even have to wake up at the crack of dawn to do so (something I just can't bring myself to do, I like sleep) You will somehow find the time to creatively squeeze it in. And your village will be proud of you, and will step in to help where they can, you just have to accept it.
My team and I race on August 17-18. You can check in with us while we race, there will be a bit of a live feed during the race: http://wildernesstraverse.com/ click the Live coverage tab. And if I live to tell about it, I'll report here how it went!
My team is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Where's The Finish?
What The F%$@?
Why The F%$#?
We Trained Furiously.
Whining Through Forests.
Which Trail's Fastest?
We Trek Fast.
We're Tough F%$#er's

Play: Water, Water Everywhere!

All aboard!

Our dream home would be on the water. Unfortunately, we both really like our jobs....which means we work for love not money, and can't afford that waterfront property. BUT, we are fortunate to be surrounded by lakes anyway, and for the most part enjoy waterfront living....just a hop, skip and a jump away. We also have the world's best neighbours, who share their dock with us whenever we want. And the boys cannot get enough fishing down there. Today, on the first real summery feeling day, we got down to said dock, armed with nets, home made fishing rods, PFD's and a stand up board.

Iain, solo paddling

What a glorious afternoon! I didn't even think about the piles of laundry, the unswept floors and the half put away groceries (OK, maybe I thought about those things....but ignored that thought!) And those neighbours I mentioned? Even brought a cold beer down to the dock for me.
I am constantly amazed about how long my sons can amuse themselves outside.  Looking at fish, trying to catch fish, exploring over the next hill, identifying plants (and in Fin's case rocks....the other day, while building our new fire pit, Shawn broke up a large burnt rock that proved to be quartz.  Fin yelled out "Hey Dad, that's a nice piece of Cryptocrystalline you found! Ummm....is it wrong to think my 7 year old is a bit of a nerd?) They don't even play with toys anymore (anyone in need of some toys? I could probably get rid of everything except lego and playmobile, and even those, could whittle the collections down by half)
I suppose that's a good thing. 
Anyway, back to our day on the water. There was fishing, swimming and stand up paddling. Imagine my pride when I told him to do a "sweep stroke" and he knew what I meant, and did it! He then insisted that he paddle on his own, without me. So he hopped on, I pushed him away from the dock, and he was  

off.....oooops, too far maybe....I got an unexpected 100 meter swim (good thing I'm in training) When I got to him however, I was not allowed on the board....another 100 meter swim. Then Fintan wants a turn to paddle with me.  We take about 10 strokes, when he decides he wants to swim...and jumps in!

Fintan's jump

Everyone should be so lucky to have water to play in (let alone drink and bathe). And here, where we live, there is an abundance. If only more people took the time to enjoy it. I am amazed at how few people really swim or paddle in our many lakes. Teaching paddling, especially to beginners, reminds me how lucky I am to live where I do, and to do the work that I do. 

See? It just makes you smile

Dan, the beer toting neighbour

Fintan getting his sea legs on

Penny's first swim!

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water" Loren Eiseley

PS.....If you're wondering where Shawn, aka Dad was on this wonderful afternoon of play.....he was at work, teaching people how to teach people how to kayak:)

Play: Adventure Racing

Adventure Racing. Just like it sounds, a race that is also an adventure! There is a start line, and a finish line, but no clear path between the two. The race course usually consists of a body of water (or more) some trails, some forest with no clear trails, dirt roads, and sometimes paved roads. Your mode of travel is a combination of canoe, mountain bike and your own two feet. You need to be able to read a map, and work as a team. I love it. With 6 races under my belt, I feel I can now say "I am and Adventure Racer" rather than "I have done a couple of adventure races."
I just ran Storm the Trent, Ontario's (if not Canada's) biggest and most popular race. (This is my opinion...I have not confirmed that statement) This race offer three levels of length and difficulty, to date I have competed in all three levels. This past race weekend I competed in the Elite Trek (the longest and hardest, covering about 80km) with my race partner Candice. On Sunday we were joined by two other ladies; Polly, who I have now raced with for 5 years, and Meghan, who is new to the sport; and competed in the Hike course (the "easiest" course, covering about 40km)
I can honestly say that this was the hardest, coldest, and most humbling race weekends I have ever experienced. Candice and I earned our first gold medal win, and our first DNF (did not finish) together. We experienced defeat, a win, pain, hypothermic conditions, elation, discouragement, and pride. I had a moment of not wanting to come home and tell my sons I couldn't finish.....I was afraid they would be disappointed.  I learned SO much about my strengths and my weaknesses. I learned that Mother Nature sometimes, really is in control. (She proved it on Sunday with hail, sleet, snow, ice pellets, driving rain and fierce winds....30-40% of the teams on Sunday also DNF'd) My confidence riding my bike on trails got stronger as the kilometers slipped behind me. I learned that not making the time cutoff, while devastating at first, doesn't mean all is lost. I learned that you must drink and snack while on the trail. I learned that sometimes you just have to let it go. I learned tape on the ends of your toes prevents blisters. I learned my body can do amazing things. (Well...I already knew that from child bearing, it just needs a reminder sometimes)I learned that training is very important. I learned that bruises show up days later. I learned that I cannot wait until the next race! Candice and I did this crazy back to back race to see if we have what it takes to compete in a 24 hour, 150km Adventure Race. We decided we do.....and we're taking along a man 11 years our junior to race with us.....hope he can keep up ;)

http://wildernesstraverse.com/

Play: Post Christmas Bliss!

YES! We got a white Christmas......and it got whiter! And with 5 days off of work....I got a lot of play in.
Shawn got up early and went for a hike in the woods behind our house. (I stayed in my pj's and drank coffee laced with Baileys looking through the many new magazines I received) Shawn then decided to brave the retail world......crazy man, he went shopping! The boys and I were having nothing to do with that.....we went hiking in the woods behind the house! We decided to track Dad. All was going great until we got the barbed wire fence, I was then given a lesson on how to get through said fence "Mom, put your foot on this part, and crawl through the hole.....ok, ok.....ok.....you're through!"
When we got back to the house, we used my nifty new Nespresso milk frother/steamer and made hot chocolate. Then it was back to serious toy play.
On the morning of the 27th, we awoke to a glorious winter wonderland, we couldn't even open the front door! So the boys bundled up, and went out the basement door and commenced digging out the front door.
Which was followed, of course with another hot chocolate (and more Baileys' coffee......we ran out of the Bailey's on the morning of the 28th)
Then, it was time for us (ME!) to build the LEGO (Ninjago actually.....Fin has given up on correcting my pronunciation, "Just call it lego Mom") robot warrior (yep, more coffee was involved, with Bailey's and frothy milk) We didn't leave the homestead for 2 1/2 days (except when we ran out of milk, had to run to the corner store)
We capped the evening off with a night hike through the back woods on our snowshoes, then to bed (after hot chocolate).
Ahhh.....post Christmas bliss, wish I could capture that feeling all year long!
Next up: New Years Eve bash, McShane style.....sushi & fireworks!

Eat, Play, Laugh & Drink......Chapter 1

Can one person keep two blogs? I will certainly try.....My first blog chronicles my family's Culinary World Tour, it's relatively easy to keep, as I have a specific topic to blog about each week. This blog is to house the (seemingly) random things that occur in our daily life.
Like EAT:
When I was trying to pack lunches this morning (while both boys were eating different breakfasts) they both requested different lunches (Iain wanted the "cow cheese" and crackers, and Fintan wanted "Chicken Curry in a Hurry" (my own creation, see below for "recipe")

and PLAY
We are blessed to live in the "country" with a backyard that consists of 2 acres, half wooded and half open space, not to mention the swamp and the lake across the road.  We have the best playground ever.....I wonder why we even buy toys, as the boys mostly play with sticks and mud. Just yesterday, I needed to log in a run (I'm training for a ridiculous race, more on that later) So I ran the hill in front of our house 10 times, while the boys played Survivor Man by the swamp...

and LAUGH
So Fintan (in grade 2) has choir once a week. He was singing "Land of the Silver Birch" the other day, and I joined in. He looked at me in amazement and exclaimed "Mom! You know this song???" (laugh #1) I was taken back to my childhood and now understand a story that involves me, a grade 8 dance and Stairway to Heaven (a favorite story of my Mom's to tell)
Anyhow, I tried to correct him on the way to sing the notes (anyone who knows of my singing ability will be laughing right now) and I asked him if the teacher has taught them cords....you know do, re, mi..... his response? "Oh yes Mommy, she's very fussy about that" (laugh #2) "If she catches us singing the wrong note, she makes us sing alone. But she's really nice"

and DRINK
Hmm, which story to share here? Yesterday was Shawn's birthday + Sunday night curling.....I'll leave it at that for now:)

Well, I'll leave things here, and hope to use this wee space on the "inter-web" to log some memories.....when I've completely lost marbles some day, hopefully I can come back here and remember.
Cheers!

My "recipe" for Chicken Curry in a Hurry

• leftover chicken
• leftover cooked rice
• whatever bits of vegetable are kicking around in the bottom of the fridge (or from the frozen bag in the freezer)
• 1 egg
• spoonful (or to taste) brown sugar
• generous shake of curry powder
• generous shake of soy sauce

1. melt some butter or oil in a fry pan
2. throw chicken, rice and veg into pan
3. stir fry until warm
4. add curry, sugar and soy sauce 
5. crack and egg (or 2) and scramble the whole mixture up

Serve! Hey...your kid's eating curry