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Tree Huggers Race report- SAC Long Course Marmora 05 FAR designed a very difficult long course this year, which was made more challenging by the 32C temperature, bright sunshine, high humidity, smog, mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies. Total advanced course length was just over 100 km. There were 38 teams, including rookies, and not surprisingly, the finish rate was lower than usual. There were more injuries and incidents requiring medics than in any other race FAR has run, including Raid The North events. Some teams were lost in the bush for many hours. Paul, Richard and I started in the dark (but not for long) with a 12 km trek through an area with few marked trails and a short mandatory swim. We made a 5-minute error enroute to the first CP, but otherwise we nailed this section and emerged at CP3 after 2.5 hrs in 6th place - ahead of SRS (a proud moment, albeit very temporary, as they went on to their usual well-deserved victory!). Next was a 50 km bike ride on gravel roads, rail trail and ATV trails, mostly of good quality, but with occasional swampy sections where we had to hoist our bikes on our shoulders and wade through. Lots of rocks and ruts on the ATV trails, but less technical than some races. I had a foolish and potentially serious bike crash when I took one hand off the handlebar to get an energy bar. The front wheel hit a rock and the bike crumpled immediately to the ground, with the handlebar end smashing hard into the right side of my chest. Swelling began instantly and my wilderness first aid training kicked in. Things to worry about included: ribs, lung and internal bleeding. I stopped frequently over the next hour to check things out, then I was checked by a medic at the next TA. Every subsequent CP volunteer took great pleasure in asking me whether I had "crepitus". (Geoff said the medic just enjoyed the chance to say that word on the radio a lot.) They also wanted to know if I could take a deep breath. The answer was "yes", I could breathe just fine, but it hurt like hell. After a bit of a scare, it appears that I will get away with nothing more serious than a very bruised and painful, um, bosom. Next was a very sunny 10 km paddle down Moira Lake and a short way into the Moira River. For the advanced section, we kept our PFDs and swam down the river a bit (VERY nice), then travelled cross-country through mucky swamp, farmer's fields and forest to the advanced TA. We had another 20 km of paved and gravel road riding to get to the bike drop that preceded the final trek. It was only a few kilometers and we didn't expect it to be too challenging, since it was at the end of the race and we were aiming for a CP at a major mine close to town, so it hardly sounded like dense wilderness. However, this was the worst part of the day. We got trapped in an evil, never-ending swamp filled with thick alders, and we thought nasty thoughts about the race course designer as we hauled our tired bodies along, trapping ankles under logs, sinking suddenly up to our knees in smelly muck, and getting tangled in gnarled branches. Morale was at an all-time low when we saw a Green Hill With Big Trees ahead, rising out of the smog like a Holy Grail. It took forever to drag ourselves over there, but it was better going and led us to the Bare-Rock-With-Dangerous-Crevasses-and-Poison-Ivy-and-Scratchy-Juniper-Bush Section. Eventually we stumbled onto a network of ATV trails and made it up onto a Martian-looking desert plateau beside the mine. From the final CP by the mine, we headed into town to the finish line. My teammates decided that after 100 km of hard effort in steam bath heat, we should run the last couple of kilometers to the finish line. Argggh, OK. Good thing we did, as we were only minutes faster than the team that finished just behind us (thanks to a time credit because they waited for a transition bag - if they had been in sight, it would have been easier for us to run faster). Result: the best-ever Tree Hugger Co-ed finish in a summer sprint race!! We were 3rd Coed and 6th overall on a very tough day. We got special blue jerseys to wear in the championship race - which unfortunately we will miss because we will be doing the Raid The North championship instead. Great work by Paul and Richard!
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