Storm the Trent 2019
Post-Race Notes
Dear Storm'ers,

Looking back on this past weekend, our post-race notes are best summarized by three words:

PERSEVERANCE
We've certainly seen "weather" at Storm the Trent, but Saturday's rain was definitely one for the books! An already-challenging course had developed into a monster slogfest, but despite the downpours, teams powered their way through the mud and the slick and sloppy conditions. We prepared for the worst, but actually ended up seeing the least amount of team pick-ups, mechanicals and emergency calls in recent memory. They say adversity brings out the best in an endurance racer, and we saw ample evidence of this on Saturday. Huge props to all of you for pushing though to the finish!


HUMILITY
On Sunday morning, we were nervous. The Hike race has always been touted as an entry-level course, but with the late thaw, wet trails, and now 15mm more rain dumped onto a course that had seen 400 racers plow through it the day before, this race route was suddenly looking anything but 'beginner-friendly.' We decided to call an impromtu "pre-briefing briefing" for our 15 family teams to give the heads-up on the conditions and to suggest route alternatives. This course was going to be tough, but maybe this time it was just a bit too tough, and we admittedly were now bracing for the worst...

Well did we ever eat crow for dinner, as man those Hike teams crushed it out there!! Outside of a bike mechanical at the start, every team saw the finish line and every team made the paddle cut-off - possibly one of our best finish rates to-date. Congratulations to all of you for being such rockstars on what may have been one of our most difficult 'Hike' courses yet!


GRATITUDE
This year's race was a tough one going in, as a number of things behind the scenes didn't go as planned, or had to be changed on the fly in the final weeks. We are so very grateful for the help of an amazing group of individuals who quietly filled the gaps and kept the event execution intact - they are too many to mention all by name, but we want to acknowledge the amazing efforts of:

Photos, Results and Feedback!
Final race results, split times and tonnes o' photos are all now available on our Results and Photos page. Huge thanks as always to Jason Sheridan and Petra U for providing us with their pics, and also to Ashleigh and Steve Gilbert for their drone footage and social media posts.

This is Year Two of our 3-year plan in bringing STT north to the Haliburton Highlands, and we continue to be super-pleased with how it's been going. That said, it's far more important that we know what you liked (or what you didn't) as we begin planning for 2020, and we welcome having your thoughts sent to us at info@stormevents.ca

And if you enjoyed the weekend and wouldn't mind letting others know, we would also greatly appreciate your reviews, either on our Facebook Page or our Google Reviews listing. These testimonials are a huge help in our dealings with municipalities and landowners when designing new courses, and we are very grateful for your time in writing them!
Up Next - RockstAR!
July 20th brings our next adventure racing event on the calendar - the infamous RockstAR! Imagine all that you did this past weekend but in an entirely different format, in where you bike, trek and paddle in any order you want, to any checkpoint you want! You'll have either 4 or 8 hours to complete as much of the course as you like, with a series of 'challenge'-based checkpoints interspersed throughout to keep things interesting (and wet!)

A post-race buffet and after-party awaits at the finish line, all hosted within the grounds of our favourite race venue at the Bark Lake Leadership Centre. Check it all out at www.racetherockstar.com
After That - Trail Fix!
Our "new" race for 2019 is the Trail Fix Relay - a point-to-point 110km trail running tour divvied up amongst teams of four. Teams move through the course caravan-style, tagging off between race legs that may be split up between your team members any way that you like.

From road runners to trail dancers, the uniquely varied course design features something for everyone, and all based only an hour outside of Toronto. Find out more at www.trailfix.ca Hope you can join us on September 7th!

As always, please feel free to contact us at info@stormevents.ca if you have any questions. Thanks so much for being a part of the 18th annual Storm the Trent!

Your Storm Racing Team