Logs Rocks and Steel 2012

Yesterday was the 2012 Logs Rocks and Steel adventure race held at camp Pine Crest in Torrence Ontario. The forecast was for heavy extended periods of rain... The night before the race we were woken up a few times to the sound of torrential rain pounding the roof. Awesome! The course was on classic Canadian Shield and with lots of exposed granite it was sure to be naturally armoured pretty well against the 50+mm of rain we received.

Last year I did the race as a solo and this year I wanted to do it as a two man team. I have been doing a fair bit of training with Mr Ryan Atkins and I couldn't think of anyone better to team up with. We both are very well matched physically and Ryan would make a great teammate for a super fun event.

We started shortly after 8am on a 14km paddle with 3 portages. It was a 2 lap circuit of a semi wilderness paddle that had enough of a mix in it to keep things interesting. We are both poor paddlers and we knew to try and make the best of our weakest leg of the event. We finished the paddle in just over 1hr40mins and we were more then ready to get onto a much more familiar piece of gear, our bikes. I had my Trek top fuel dually all set and ready for the fun ride ahead. We started the bike leg with a solid tempo pace and both Ryan and I were having a ton of fun on the fast flowing technical double track type trails. Ryan was feeling really strong and I was not. Half way through the bike I was having a tough time matching his pace. I knew most of the course and we decided that I would lead the trail sections and that he would pull on the road portions. He did a excellent job getting my weak legs around that course. He suffered a flat at the bottom of the bike course and we lost about 5-6mins for the fix.. I started to get really cold while Ryan was pumping his 29'er tire up and I was happy to get moving again once we got the tire fixed.

We finished the bike section of the race around 2hr10mins and were ready for the uber fun 17km run ahead. We started somewhat slower and we upped the pace for the entire 17km run. We did the run in around 1hr 35min and we won the two man team category. The entire race we were chasing Jack VanDorp who managed to make us look like we were paddling a log in the paddle section of the race. He opened up 30min on us in the 14km... We knew we were both stronger on the bike and the run and we had to make as much time up as possible to try and catch him before the finish.. We ended up closing the gap down to 53sec at the finish line and we could hear the cheers of the people on the dock as we approached the final boardwalk before the last punchcard beep of the day.

Given the weather that had been dealt for the day it was a 10/10 race. The course held up so well against the rain that our bikes were barely muddy loading them into the van at the end of the day. A big thanks going out to Bob Miller for putting on a great event and for Trek bike Store Toronto for the perfect bike and to Muskoka Outfitters for paddles, boat and fuel!