Hard Rock Enduro

Venue: Rocky Ridge Ranch, Campbellville ON
Terrain: flat and very rocky, woods, marshes/swamps
Weather: just lightly chilly and perfect

This was the test-race for the Giant's Rib Raid in two weeks, and my teammate CK and I decided to run it as a team to get a feel for our navigational styles and communication. The Raids being somewhat like adventure races, you get to look at your map long before the start and pick out your route, and this training race was the same. What a luxury! We sketched out our route choices down to the contour line, but left some wiggle room here and there to switch things up depending on how the terrain would actually look. I didn't think of this, but CK forgot his highlighter, which people can use in such races to mark out their preferred route. It will be in our kit at the Raid.

The course was 15 point-to-point controls with one walk-the-line section of two controls that were not on the map. Our friend JH warned us that the starting section, which was a maze of trails, can be very tricky, so we were especially careful there. We were starting a long time after everyone else, but we caught up to quite a lot of people. We were going to co-navigate, which could be problematic or advantageous, depending on how the communication works out.

Route Link

We got a bit distracted going to control 1, but quickly realized the trail over-shoot and got it. After that, we started to each verbalize the features as we saw them to keep on track in the maze. We flew to controls 2 and 3. Then we had to walk the line, and although one of the controls was visible right away, we thought we'd put in the practise following the features - and you never know if the other control isn't first out there somewhere. We held a great line and found both easily. Then I made a basically inexplicable error in what should have been a short dash to 4, but like a good teammate, CK wasn't flustered - we just moved on.

For 5, we opted to use some marshy and rocky features instead of taking the longer way around on a safe major trail. We must have gotten distracted because we stopped and argued a bit as to where we were. We wasted a bit of time there until CK decided to test his theory, and I decided it's best to do something rather than nothing. CK was right and we got to the right spot, although the control had been stolen, so we wasted a bit more time ascertaining that we'd found it before moving on. The lesson from 5 was that it's better to risk being wrong and just go and test your theory than stand there and think and argue.

After that we had some longer runs and pretty clear navigation. We managed to pass some other people. A couple of other controls were missing, but we didn't waste time at them this time. Later there was one longer run we had to do very close to the edge of the map, and there were very light features to go by before banking right towards a control in the middle of the woods. We had gotten so good and the verbalizing of our surroundings, that we confidently noticed all the minute changes in the trail and very fine contours. We hit control 12 perfectly. Then I took a great bearing for the maze trail system again, and we were fairly good going back through to the finish.

This was a great learning experience for the two of us, as we picked up a lot little points to fix for the Raid, while still doing very well. Preliminary results have us in 6th, with 5 people, not teams, ahead of us. A few competitors didn't bother to download their results, but we feel really good about this accomplishment.

--Distance: 11.1K
--Duration: 1:37:46 (officially tied for 6th, to the second!)

CK & I had a great talk afterwards about all the good points and the areas for improvement, and this is the summary:

Good:
- leaving a route alternative based on the terrain/vegetation that would be encountered
- minimizing climb by paying attention to contours over larger areas
- verbalizing the features as they come up to keep ourselves on-track and to give the other teammate confidence (especially when choosing to go into a control)
- keeping calm after screw-ups, just re-focusing and not being upset with each other
- ascertaining which features alert us to an over-shoot

Improvements:
- not dawdling at a control
- focusing on the correct direction from a control to a trail (highlighted route will help!)
- if we do start arguing, stop and just test a theory, preferably the Captain's
- check the control number and/or description at the previous control or soon after
- nutrition and other necessities kept within hand's reach (needed a pack upgrade)
- (just me) keeping a tight schedule of gel and electrolyte intake, but implementing on longer run sections
- packing highlighters for route marking!
- bungee tow line to equalize the team

Other Strategy:
- walk-the-line: one teammate always walks the actual line, two others flank
- verbally go over the proposed route with details so that minute route choices are more automatic out there
- develop clear exit-strategies for more aggressive route choices if we really get stuck