Monday, November 14, 2005 - 01:24 PM

Raid the Hammer, a trail running, orienteering and hiking event in Dundas / Hamilton this past weekend, appropriately uses the web-site www.dontgetlost.ca, and at some point during the race, I had to chuckle at the use of the name...

Is anybody out there? Anybody...?

Preparation for any race usually requires a certain amount of training, both physical and mental, but for the sport of Adventure Running, watching a few movies might also help. Titles such as Lord of the Rings and the Blair Witch Project come to mind, not exactly Chariots of Fire or Rocky, but when you're lost in a forest and can see or hear NO ONE, strange ideas pop into your head.

Now, remember, I am not exactly a beginner at this, the running part I think I have down pat. With over 12 marathons and 50+ 1/2 marathons under my belt, not to mention many short and long-distance trail races, I know what to expect on race day. Included among the mix are some top finishes at the 5 Peaks Trail Series and two Run for the Toad 25km first-place finishes, so winning this event outright could even be possible, especially with veteran runners and adventure seekers such as Oswin Hall and John Fisher as teammates.

Oswin just ran a 2:59 marathon in Toronto, and has placed in the top 10 many times in the 5 Peaks Trail Series, while weekend warrior Fisher has that "never give up" attitude and long-term running background under his belt, not to mention over 14 mountain bike races this summer, so he knows his way around a forest. The navigation part - well, we've all done a few adventure races so this should be easy, no?....

I knew we were in trouble when I arrived a little late for the pre-race meeting, and saw the familiar Adventure Racing experts that I knew in the sport, John Yip from Team Running Free, and Bill Wells from Toronto. These guys are pros I figure, always coming back from some exotic locale around the world, finishing in the top 10 at these world-class races. But there was Oswin and John, studying the map, the look of victory in their eyes, so hey, why not us I imagined! Of course, moments before the race started, as Oswin fumbled for his marker, and he was still drawing a duplicate of the race map for the section where we could split up, and John shows up wearing run rights from 1975, my positive thoughts wavered a little..

..then, after a fun relay to start, followed by a fast-paced charge across the boundary of the Chedoke Golf Course, we were near the front, this is where our running background would make the difference. Alas, in the first "orienteering section", an urban one at that, John failed to read the clue on the original map, and we couldn't even find the first checkpoint (the address of the Church of God, which we were standing in front of 3x on this corner). "Hey John, there goes Bill Wells and John Yip, that way, maybe that should tell us something"....as John wanders behind the neighbouring school, beside the church, into the remote, back area, opposite direction of course to our would-be pursuers.

So, we recover and figure out the "mystery clue", get the next one, and rendezvous with our fearless leader Oswin at checkpoint #1 (out of a total of 12, so I know that a LONG day is ahead of us). We haven't lost THAT much time, and we're still excited....

Oswin has missed the easy checkpoint at the Fortino's supermarket parking lot, his felt point, waterproof marker is already gone, and some slow old farts are making their way out of checkpoint #1 and onto the next...

Un-deterred, we use our speed and endurance background to make up lost time, and after an adventurous section of checkpoints in Phase 2 (the race is broken up into 5-6 sections), we find ourselves among the leaders once again. As long as I can be near that Sean Roper fellow, Race Director of Storm the Trent, I figure we're okay. In Phase 2, we kept running into a herd of deer, went thru the creek at least 6 times, fell several times scrambling up, down and across very muddy, leafy sections of forest, and overall had a blast. Now, the tricky part - this is where the orienteering experts take over...

Continued Tuesday.