Raid the Farm - June 3, 2006

Team Enrage with Andrew, the Race Director

Well, Team Enrage made a last minute decision to race the 12 hour "Raid the Farm 2006" this year. And, as I would say,..."Thank Goodness!" We had a blast in Fredericton, Andrew Lowery (race director/course designer) did a great job planning a fun course and a well organized race.

We met Wayne and Jen in Mazerolle Settelment, home of Natasha & Cory Sewell. The Sewells were our gracious hosts for the weekend, and, along with Jen, they were also our amazing support crew for the race.

Oh ya, the Race!...: Starting off at 4am Saturday morning, we paddled our way to CP 1 in the lead, only seconds ahead of Jodi Isenor and teammate Murray Simpson. From CP1 we set off on our bikes, straight up a 1km hill; Jodi’s quads beat mine and they pulled ahead as we both looked for trails into the campground/CP2. Luckily we had “less” navigational difficulties than them and headed out from CP2 on the orienteering course in the lead. We nailed this section of fun single track on our bikes and found all of the controls with ease. We gained a 40 min lead on the orienteering course and then biked through the mud to CP3.

3 bum shots at CP3!

From CP3 we started on the 2 1/2hr trek through more and more…and more mud :) We knew that we had to push hard to keep the lead, Jodi and Murray were very strong on their feet. We had no nav problems and ran our way into CP4 only 5 minutes ahead!

Next a 1km canoe portage and a 1hr paddle into CP5….the boys paddled their guts out and I was on Jodi patrol, as we tried to maintain our lead and gain a couple of minutes if possible.

Leaving CP5 with a small lead we had to giv’er to run the 6km into the finish ahead of the crazy marathon runners….we pushed really hard, pushed each other up the hills and took each other’s packs until finally, just
over the next hill was the finish…. Suddenly I panicked….I could hear people cheering but I couldn’t see them,... which means they couldn’t see us, who could they be cheering for? As we crested the hill we saw Jodi and Murray up the hill, just far enough away that we could sprint to the finish and arrive only 2-3 secs ahead of them. What a finish! a 7 hrs and 55 mins race that all to comes down to the last few seconds!

A victory for Team Enrage….barely! And I was the only girl in the race, yay girl power and stuff :) Results are posted on the Fredericton Adventure Racing Club website:
http://www.farc.ca/