KAREN
True to Odyssey's reputation, the 8 hour Rogaine had many climbs, descents and bushwhacks. Russians must be part billy goat--for Dima, Fedor and Marina scaled the mountains with ease. Val was more of a pack mule and me, well maybe a tortoise, you know--slow and steady wins the race. Haha, there was nothing slow about this race. We cruised through the 8 hour course in less than six hours, at least an hour before the next team. Our speed was due mostly to our almost perfect navigators, Fedor and Marina. But we ran when we could and took "short cuts" straight up the mountains, and then straight back down. To and from the race we played "how many people can fit in a Mazda?" reminding me of high school and squeezing 6 people in my red Fiero. Perfect weather topped off the day along with the unofficial 1st place win. It was a treat to get to race with such wonderful people!
VAL
The 2nd Annual orienteering event was something very special for team Calleva. Last year we came to the event not knowing how or what was going to take place. We eventually won the event, but I suffered some major cramps and other teammates had various injuries blossom. So this year we were coming injury free, and hoping for the same results. But it was with a twist of sorts...
New to the team is a Russian couple (Fedor and Marina) who have an extensive orienteering and adventure racing resume. I kinda laughed at myself, because this would mean running!! Something I have not focused on in a few months! Now the twist is that Marina recently gave birth to a beautiful daughter, (Ariadna) approximately 5 months ago, and is breastfeeding! So Marina can't participate in a race over 4 hours because she needs to feed Ariadna. This is actually amazing that she can even race, this soon after giving birth. So the team decided to take on this race with Fedor and Marina each only participating in one leg of the race. This would allow Marina to still tend to her daughter Ariadna.
The race ensues with Fedor leading Dima, Karen and I. Straight up a hill! We were the first out of the starting house and eventually finished the 3hour 30minute course in approximately 2hours 15minutes, still in first. After about 15 minutes to plot the next course and prepwork, we set out with Marina. She led us around the course where the orienteering points were a little more difficult to find. Some bushwacking, more hill climbing and then some eagle eye vision from Karen brought us to the last checkpoint. The last checkpoint was already known to be tough one because it was located on a broad spur and teams had missed it. We all fanned out only to be met by another team. I just happened to be on the far left side and after about 12 minutes.... MARINA...KAREN...DIMA..I FOUND IT! A short celebration dance by Marina and then we headed to the finish. We had gathered all the orienteering points for both sections, we smoked the course. A little over an hour later when we left, no other team had yet to finish. Two years in a row now for team CALLEVA to come away with a victory. This time we did it in 5 hours and 45 minutes, very impressive for us as a team. I look forward to being a part of next year's race and representing team CALLEVA in this great orienteering competition.
MARINA
... 2.15 am. The time to get up, to eat very early breakfast and to start the way to the Odyssey AR Rogain! Outside is below 40 F. Great Calleva team is waiting for us - Dima, Karen and Val. The first loop - is for Fedor, the second one - is for me to navigate. Huge mountain ridges are all around us. We run on trails and go uphill. The good news is that only half of the way is up and the second part is down. On my loop we found all CP in 3:45 and took the first unofficial place at my first Odyssey event!
DIMA
Last year Odyssey Rogain finished my injured knee. It survived one expedition and two 24 hours races, but Douthat Park hills killed it: it was very painful limping to the finish for the first place. This year Rogain became a big test before the 2010 season. Five minutes before the start we got coordinates of 10 CPs of the north-east quadrant. 6 minutes to plot and Calleva is the first team out… or better to say up. This section was designed by our friend and teammate Mark and had no flat areas: up, up and more up, down and up again. All CPs were on well defined features. That was different from North-West section where Ronny put 2 CPs "in the middle of nowhere". Bushwhacking in his section also was "more brutal", or I just got tired running after Marina that changed Fedor for the second loop. She was in great hurry to feed her 5 months old daughter Ariadna, or just had so much fun dancing on the way to the finish. We finished first, but probably unofficially, because Odyssey "provides no child care :-)" and we had to switch our navigators between first and second loops. My knee was strong and declared full recovery for the next season!
Thanks to
Calleva Outdoor for the sponsorship for this event!
Official results
are here.
Dima had his camera on the course, all photos are in
Dima's Facebook (with funny comments) or in
Picasa.
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