Terrain: parks, muddy ravines, streets
Weather: warm but drizzly in the morning, then just overcast
I was so excited when I heard about my orienteering club's inaugural city-wide urban park rogaine, I immediately ditched my entry into the Waterfront 1/2 marathon taking place on the same day. A rogaine is a multi-hour orienteering event with controls you can visit in any order, accumulating more points for the outlying ones. They usually take place out in the woods, but this one was set in the many parks our club has maps for, and also incorporated a lot of scavenger hunt-style photo-based controls in the regular urban areas. The time limit would be 10hrs for the long course, my new longest event to date.
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| Marking the big points down before the start |
I guessed that I could probably average 15kph on that bike overall, and that I could put out about 75km, plus however far I could get by transit. I opted for an eastbound route to Scarborough, then northwest to hit some parks along Steeles, and then back southeast towards the finish at Riverdale Park. My assumptions about the course were right on the money, so other than slotting in some photo controls along my general route, I didn't have to think too much before the start. The master map was the city cycling trail map with the photo controls marked in - an excellent choice, as it made choosing bike routes very easy. We also had about 12 park O-maps and a transit guide. New record for most maps in one race??
I knew each of the parks quite well, except for Warden Woods, Morningside and Bestview, which I hadn't raced in for quite a while. The other parks: Taylor Creek, L'Amoreaux, G. Ross Lord, Earl Bales, Sunnybrook and ET Seton, I essentially know like the back of my hand. For a few, I could probably produce a reasonable O-map just from memory! I was confident that I could make decent decisions on the fly during the race.
Highlights:
- Stopping at my house on the way out to dump extra gear and clothing and finish my coffee - not my fault it was on my way!
- Being soaked inside of 10 minutes. I remember how shocked I was when that one ray of sunlight hit me in the face at some point during the day. But being soaked by rain means you don't mind wading through marshes and crossing creeks.
- Being super nervous the first time I dumped my bike in the bushes unlocked at Taylor Creek to wade into a marsh - I quickly realized I was one of very few people out in the drizzle and that my bike was always out of sight in places no sane person goes into anyway - I ended up never using my lock.
- Going down a sheer and muddy hillside in Warden Woods with the bike where there should have been a trail - put the bike sideways in front of me and used it like a granny walker.
- Using the mapped buildings and property edges visible above the ravines as landmarks - a fave trick of mine, I did this at four different parks.
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| Confucius - a photo control |
- Pulling and tugging at the "defective" bus bike rack for the first time before realizing I just had to read the printed instructions.
- Remembering one of my cardinal rules of checking precisely which side of a river the centre of the control circle is at - after approaching from the other side.
- Finally eating some breakfast 3hrs into the race all the way out in Guildwood. I finished the race on a Timmy's bagel belt, 3 gels, 1.5L of water, and a lot of adrenaline.
- Topping out at about 40kph on the empty stretches of Scarborough roads. I'd have thought my commuter would start to shear itself to pieces at speeds like that.
- Finally pulling out my compass 3.5hrs into the race to check the direction of a trail at Morningside - another one of my cardinal rules.
- Constantly emerging from thick bushes covered in mud, soaked by rain and sweat, and inexplicably carrying a bike - much to the surprise of dog walkers and other decent people out on the trails.
- Having other bus passengers move away from my muddy, smelly self, and the driver opening the window. I felt really bad for that one lady in a bright white jacket trying to squeeze past me when it got really crowded.
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| Fall colours at Bestview |
- Using my poor commuter as a bit of a mountain bike in Bestview when I got flat-out tired of carrying it around. My bike skills leave a lot to be desired, but I didn't slide into the river once.
- Ducking into my own private short cut at G. Ross Lord park, across a small marsh and up a secret trail. Helps that I've set courses here for quite a few years. I got all three high-point controls in this park in 20 minutes - easy money!
- Finally catching a glimpse of one other Rogainer as I was leaving this park - I didn't know for sure he was in the race until we both got back, but a guy on a bike with a ski-O map board, backpack and mud in all kinds of places - who else could it be?
- Climbing the Himalayan peaks of Earl Bales park, clinging to nothing but mud and ripping out dying trees on the way up, just to show the organizers that their questionable choice in control location was not in vain.
- Seeing a big furry dog rolling in the mud like crazy and running madly through a creek, much to the chagrin of its grimacing owner - only to take a good look at my own clothes caked in mud and then to jump in to run down the creek myself. That dog and I had a bond that will never be broken.
- Letting the official Toronto bicycle routes carry me diagonally through totally new territory from Bathurst and Wilson all the way to Bayview and Eglinton. I rode like the wind. Smelly, smelly wind.
- Emerging from one of these bike trails totally turned around and with no idea what street I was on. I put on my orienteering hat, took out my compass for the second time and started theorizing based on contours and directions. Then I turned around and saw the street sign.
- Feeling like home-sweet-home when I finally entered Sunnybrook park, my favourite stomping grounds. Maybe not the best choice for the final set of points, but I know every rock and shrub, and I just wanted to take advantage of that.
- Because of construction (which I knew about!), having to detour up Li'l Bastard, a huge hill leading out from ET Seton to Thornecliffe, named thus by some members of my triathlon club who do hill repeats there. 9hrs15 into the race, I managed about 3 revolutions on my bike and got off to push.
- Having accumulated more than 3,500 points and with 15 minutes to spare, I briefly considered carrying my bike up the Riverdale stairs and over the river to get 5 more points at the Riverdale Farm. Very, very briefly.
- Being the first one back on the long course to smiles and cheers from the sleepy organizers!
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| Route Link (hand-drawn, precise) |
Where I did lose time was re-checking my routes too many times, when I should have committed them to memory - some of the guys had map boards (on the chest or on the bike) - that probably would have been great! I also could have eaten a bit more, doncha think? Should have been eating on the bus rides, although I did take those times to plan ahead. I'm also not sure I was right to skip some controls in the parks where I thought they were a bit too out of the way (wrong side of a river, too deep in the bush to deal with the bike) - I had gone out far after all, so maybe should have banked those points while I was there. I would have had to skip the parks at the end, but would have had more points. I think in my heart of hearts, I went with having an enjoyable experience rather than maxing out the race - kind of unusual for me!
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| Photo by CL |
--Distance: 102km
--Duration: 9hrs 45mins
--Garmin track (imprecise): 101.22km
--Points: 3,530
--O-Controls: 21
--Photo controls: 7
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