FAC

7 posts

Foiled by Past Lessons

The Start Gate

Howdy race fans! Time to update you on my first adventure race of the 2010 season. The race in question? The Frontier Adventure Challenge 5-8 hour race held at Deerhurst Resort in the Muskoka region. Yes, the very same resort hosting the upcoming G8/G20 summit in June. And yes, it actually did have an impact on the race and the venue, which I’ll fill you all in on in the coming paragraphs. Although this was supposed to be a ‘short and sweet’ race, you’ll soon find out that my race was anything but. It was longish, and bitter-sweet. I did manage to complete the whole course, including the advanced section, but my placement was deep-sixed by a navigational error of my own doing. That’s what I get for racing solo to really push myself I guess :-(. At any rate, I’ve got a few pictures from the weekend, but no map to share. Bill Young has some great race shots that he took and shared on Facebook as well. If you want the whole funny tale about my race, please read on. I’ll *try* to be succinct.

Cottage Champs at the 2009 FAC Champs!

Welcome back to another exciting chapter in the life of ActiveSteve. I’m especially excited to write up the story for the race that I just took part in last weekend. Specifically, I’m talking about the 2009 Frontier Adventure Challenge fall champs which took place at Rosseau Lake in the Muskoka region of Ontario. This is a great race to close off the adventure racing season for a lot of teams, and never fails to impress. The format is simple. 10-14 (or more) hours of gruelling off-road racing mixing orienteering, paddling, trekking, mountain biking, and sometimes swimming. This year’s edition of the race was another doozy with some interesting results, as you’ll learn about if you read my whole post. For starters though, you might want to check out my folder of pictures onflickr (I carried my camera on course), as well as the custom map that I put together of the route we took. If you look through the map, you’ll probably see a couple spots where we strayed from the ‘ideal’ route 🙂 Also, you’ll see it isn’t a complete map, as the battery died on my GPS. For the record, I did have permission from Geoff, the race director, to wear my GPS to make this map. I wasn’t using it as a navigation tool, merely a track recorder. Once you’re done checking that out, come on back and read the rest of the story.