Megans Adventures

Life in New Zealand

2012-02-01T01:33:00.001-08:00

Well I have been here for 2.5 weeks now and settling in. Todd and I are living with another couple in Arthurs Point, just out of Queenstown. It took a bit to get into the swing of things on the mountain bike and road bike, but have found some people to ride with, and starting to find some good places to ride. I thought I was just feeling pathetically weak and unmotivated but then realized that the hills here are just extra steep then what I am used to.... or at least thats what I am telling myself!

What really kicked me into gear and got my motivation back was a race I did here on the weekend. It started in the mountains at 1500m near Cardrona and took us to the finish line in Wanaka. 1300m of climbing but 2600m of descent - yep my kinda race! So the forecast was super strong winds and cold. The cooler temps I was happy about as I hadn't adjusted to the heat yet and it ended up being the perfect temp for me, but the wind was another story. Our first climb up to 1950m wasn't that bad, we had the wind on our backs helping us and then hiked through a bit of snow that fell from a few nights before. But then we reached the peak and changed direction to now get crosswind - wow, I could barely keep the bike up right!

The descent was rocky, loose, and big ruts, and at one stage, I got blown 5 meters off the trail going 35+km/hr, and was so close to bailing and my glasses went flying off. Ok it was time to slow down and brace against this wind!! The long descent was a lot of fun despite the wind, with magical scenery. We arrived at the bottom and had 15kms of more flatfish terrain, but now straight into the head wind. This 15km felt like it took forever! Arrived at the finish line, first female and 7th overall out of the 100+ entrants. After a beer and food and presentations, we went to a local river and I layed in the sun and relaxed while watching Todd fish!

3 more weeks in Queenstown before all the family arrive and I head to Christchurch/Ashburton/Mt Cook and Hanmer Springs with the family for a few weeks.

Life is grand….

Day 9

2011-12-30T18:45:00.001-08:00

So our final day of our journey.... Let's just say it didn't turn out quite as planned! Graham had been having some issues with his crank/bottom bracket yesterday (where the pedal arm attaches to the frame for the non cyclists out there!).

Anyway we get only 13km's into our day and it broke! His crank arm is now off the bike and not able to be re-attached!!
Our only option.... hitch. Our trip was over and within 5 mins a nice gentleman had picked us up in his truck and we were headed for Phoenix. He had a lot of erons to run but we eventually got dropped off at the door of where we were staying in Phoenix.

We got a few last minutes of sunshine by the pool with a beer and then I fly back out tomorrow back to Vancouver.

It's been a great trip and have loved seeing a whole new area I hadn't explored before. We did miss out on what was probably going to be the best part of our route through Prescott and Sedona due to us staying longer in Palm Desert but thats all good as it means I will just have to return for another bike journey in the future!!

Happy New Year everyone, may you all have a fantastic fulfilling 2012!! What adventures are on everyone's calendar?

M

Day 8

2011-12-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

Another big day today....175km. It started off tough with a busy truck road with no shoulder and rough road that didn't help the sore butt situation! But after we got off that road about 50km's into it, the day started to brighten. Its all just a mental game really!

One second you can be thinking 'im not going to make it today, everything hurts and there is so far to go' then a few minutes later you hit a nicer road, a good song comes onto the iPod, you start feeling ok, then you are back on a high enjoying it! So many highs and lows throughout every day, and if you didn't have the lows you wouldn't appreciate the highs as much - which can be nice smooth roads, tail wind, sunshine, great scenery, and just being out here exploring a new area in the wonderful warmth!

Many things wonder through your mind all day and they are the best times as you can really just zone out while the km's tick by! Thanks Todd for distracting my mind for most of the day getting me excited for my NZ trip! And thanks Jim for the playlist (from like 5 years ago) that I got cranked on for the last 2 hours, it was nice to listen to some different tunes!

Well one more day. We are off to Phoenix tomorrow to finish the trip off. Maybe lay by the pool all Friday before flying back to rainy Vancouver!

Today's stats: (1-3% incline all day today until the last 15km's.... Oh how amazing those last 15km's felt going down and being able to coast for the first time after 5hrs!!)
Duration: 7.5hrs
Ride time: 5hr 50mins (we had a few stops today!!)
Distance: 175km
Average speed: 30km/hr
Ascent: 745m
Descent: 225m

Day 7

2011-12-28T19:45:00.001-08:00

Today we got back on the road and did days 3 original route from Twentynine Palms to Parker. It was going to be a long one - 175km. With no towns or services for 160kms of it, we had 2 bottles for the day and were out in the middle of nowhere!

But we were blessed with everything we could have asked for today. Tail wind, the smoothest freshly paved road you could get, a flat route, a road construction worker that gave us more water, then the lady at Best Western at check in was so excited for us that we had just road from 29 Palms and still had smiles on our faces that she reduced our nightly room rate!! What was expected to be a 7-8hr day was a 5hr 36min day! Woohoo!

Our legs felt great all day but our arses and shoulders/neck from the pack are very painful!

Not sure we could have got through the day if we had headwind or bad roads ;)

Today's Stats:
Duration: 5hr 36min
Distance: 176km
Average: 31.3km/hr
Ascent: 660m
Descent: 1125m

Day 6

2011-12-28T18:58:00.001-08:00

We did a local ride today around Palm Desert and Palm Springs that included heading up the 7km tram road (2000ft climb that we pretty much had to stand the whole way up)! But it was a great climb and a great ride!!
We finished the day off at a Mexican restaurant with the biggest margarita ever!!

Today's Stats:
Duration: 5hr 35mins
Distance: 145km
Average speed: 26km/hr
Ascent: 1380m

Day 5 Rest Day

2011-12-26T22:33:00.002-08:00

Ok not sure we are ever going to leave this place!! Yes another day in Palm Desert!! But today we didn't ride and took the day off. Relaxing by the pool, some reading, some eating, and a little bootcamp workout at the park!

So new plan for rest of trip... But of course this could change again ;)
We are doing:
Day 6 Tomorrow: 160km loop ride locally
Day 7:Twentynine Palms to Parker 175km
Day 8: Parker to Wickenburg 175km
Day 9: Wickenburg to Phoenix 120km

The sun and warmth has been truly amazing and more so knowing the forecast in Vancouver has been nothing but cold and rain!!

Day 4 Christmas Day

2011-12-26T22:33:00.001-08:00

Another day in Palm Desert. We did this really great ride today along box canyon road. It weaved right through the middle of a desert canyon. It was so quiet and peaceful with great scenery. We were on our way to Joshua Tree National Park but only made it to the entrance. Then we got Mick to pick us up at the other end. This turned into a bit of a mess! Let's just say he couldn't find us and his cell wasn't working, we ended up starting to ride a hwy back but then it got dark and cold then we waited on the side of hwy in pitch black freezing, still no sign of him. We rode up to next rest stop and finally connected. It's crazy how the temp can be so nice during the day and how quickly it turns to freezing once the sun drops.
I took it easy today, slowing the pace down, spinning more and trying to loosen the legs up for the next 2 big days ahead - but it didn't help much, the legs were feeling pretty beat!
A swim, hot tub, stretch and a beer and then it was time for lobster and steak that Holly prepared us for xmas dinner with margarita's. What a great day!

Todays stats:
Duration: 3.20hr
Distance: 95km
Average: 28km/hr
Ascent: 725m
Descent: 155m

Day 3

2011-12-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

So day 3 we got convinced to stay another night in paradise (friends place in palm desert, Jordans and his wonderful family) But this didn't mean a day off! Jordan and Mick just received their brand new bikes so we got the tour of the area and got in a 3hr (77km) loop ride without packs and with Jordan leading the whole way ;) it was such a cool loop, it started with a gradual climb for about 45mins then the rest of the ride felt like it was downhill and fast!
Such a great place here. More great food and drinks to top the day off. So now it's Xmas morning and we will head off today through Joshua Tree national park to Twentynine Palms. But heres the catch.... Jordan will join us for the 125km ride and Mick will come pick him up, but has offered to bring us back too and have Xmas dinner with them instead of Twentynine palms.... Then take us back out to start our next day and continue on our journey.... So amazing!!!

Merry Christmas everyone

Day 3 stats:
Duration: 3hrs
Distance: 77km
Average: 28km/hr
Ascent 450m (oh so nice!)

2011-12-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

We laughed a lot today, more so at the craziness of what we were doing and what the day was throwing at us!!
Another blue bird day but we knew our descent down 5000ft over the first few hours was going to be cold.... So we put on every layer we had and then but plastic bags under our gloves and over our toes inside our shoes! Alas unbelievable of how well that works, we didn't get cold and were delayering only 30mins into our ride!
The winds were crazy strong, and I lost Grahams wheel on a corner on the first descent so no drafting for me, I was pedaling as hard as I could into the wind into a steep descent and still not moving very fast! But held on for the second down so it was much easier!

We arrived at the small town of Borrego Springs (where we were meant to make it to the day before). They had some markets going on that we looked around at and had a small break. It was for sure a very cool area to see and the terrain around us was very different and really neat. Another 50k of flats and still more descending until we reached Salton Sea. Huge cross wind where we would get blown up to a meter either side without warning. We were dreading making it to Salton Sea as that meant a 90 degree turn directly into the wind for the last 60k on dead flat terrain, we weren't even sure if it was going to be ridable!
We had lunch then decided to break up the last 60k into 20k segments, to stop have a break and mentally recharge each time, it worked well. I guess I can't complain much as graham lead the whole way while I hid behind him trying to get sheltered from the wind as much as possible! We made it in to Palm Desert after dark and pulled up at the gates of jordans place at the exact time they did arriving off the plane from Vancouver!

Some beers, some great food, great company and a hot tub later we were very happy! They were trying to convince us to stay another night! We will see ;)

Today's stats:
Duration: 7hrs
Ride time: 6hrs
Distance: 164kms
Average speed: 27.6km/hr (to think that would have been over 40km/hr if the wind was the other way ;)
Ascent: 530m
Descent: 1765m

2011-12-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

Wow where to start? We are shattered....with 7 days to go! Let's just say we didn't quite make our destination today, mainly because we left San Diego too late, but in the end it was a blessing in disguise! Not sure We could have made the remaining 50k we had left to do even though it was going to be all downhill. We were so fricken cold (but I'll get back to that). Since we left Diego so late we were on a mission as we knew this would mean racing the daylight and getting in after dark with no lights on us! So our relaxed pace plan was out the window! We work our way through the streets of San Diego with the perfect temps and blue bird sky's. Once we get out of town it was nothing but climbing and unbelievable head wind, blowing us all over the place! About 50k in we realize there is no way we are going to make Borrego Springs.... So new destination 'Julian'.

Now that wind had some cold bite to it and as we continued to climb it got colder and colder and the layers started to come on (well the only layers we had which wasn't much) Once we reached 5000ft we were frozen to the bone, it had to be below zero! We weren't really prepared for that! We finally reach summit after hours of climbing and have a short decent into Julian, we couldn't have been happier to see that hotel and hot shower!

Over dinner and beers (and the towns famous apple pie and ice cream) we look at tomorrow's route and forecast. Predicting wind warnings tonight and tomorrow with gusts of up to 100km/hr, wowza! Tomorrow is meant to be mostly down and flat but doesnt sound too appealing with the wind! Let's wait and see, at least we are dropping back down to sea level and warmth! All and all yes we are shattered but it's only going to get easier from here, those packs will start to mould to our backs, our arses will slowly get use to the extra weight from the packs and our legs will just go numb and adapt (or am I just dreaming ;) Regardless, im still looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Huge thanks to Tutti for leading the charge today and letting me sit on his wheel all day long!

Todays stats:

Distance: 97km
Time: 4hr 55mins
Average speed: 20.8km/hr (yes very sad but in our defence we did climb all day!
Low temp: 2 degrees (without the wind chill factor)
Climbed: 1850m
decent: 650m

Rest time. But first I am going to see if I can get any of the vids to attach to this!

Whats Next? Soutern Traverse Trip

2011-12-21T09:50:00.000-08:00

So whats next? Well today I am about to head down south to California and Arizona and do a road ride from San Diego to Phoenix with my friend Graham. 8 days and 1200km's, just our bikes, a small back pack and credit card for hotels! There has been a few times over the last week where reality has hit and I think that maybe we are being a little too optimistic, but we did some re-routing of our first 4 days and it looks a little better. Here is our Southern Traverse Trip Line Up:

Day 1: San Diego to Borrego Springs 146km (2440m of climbing)
Day 2: Borrego Springs to Palm Desert 117km (480m of climbing)
Day 3: Palm Desert to Twenty Nine Palms 126km (1830m of climbing)
Day 4: Twenty Nine Palms to Parker Arizona - Christmas Day ;) 175km (700m of climbing)
Day 5: Parker to Wickenburg 175km (850m of climbing)
Day 6: Wickenburg to Prescott 95km (1900m of climbing)
Day 7: Prescott to Payson 180km (3100m of climbing)
Day 8: Payson to Phoenix 200km (2700m of climbing)

Lets see how this goes!! Will try to keep some updates going on this website.

Megan

Thanks!

2011-12-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

So the Fall Season. I have been super privileged to have the support of 3 wonderful people over the fall season. Usually this time of year is me spent being burnt out from riding and just taking some time off. But this year was certainly different.

Monika Marx from Marx Conditioning has taken me on as a sponsored athlete to do some weight/strength training with me during the off season. She sees the extreme value in this in taking it into next years racing season and I have been loving the feeling of using those muscles again - its been so long! I left working the personal training industry 5 years ago, and I don't think I have done a consistent weights program since!

Then there is Graham Duthie from Innovative Performance (Sport Science Consulting) that has been working with me since October (with the support of a very special someone - they know who they are!). Very exciting. Getting taken through all the scientific lab tests and looking for holes in my fitness and training and for the first time in many many years, following a program. I can't believe it! Very much looking forward to 2012 and working with Graham over the winter. Such valuable information and cycling specific workouts that keep me engaged everyday!

So a HUGE thank you to all the support for 2011 from Willie Cromack and John Henry Bikes, from Norco Performance Bikes, Monika Marx, and Graham Duthie and my riding buddy for the ride across Canada Barb Sweeney - you are all truly wonderful people that all help me be inspired throughout the year!

Megan

Im Back!

2011-12-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

Ok yep I am slack and left anyone reading this hanging of what happen after the last blog! Well - it was a long slow recovery, 3 months in fact. It was a test of patients, staying positive, looking only 1 day ahead and not taking anything for granted! The doctors rules were, no exercise, no TV, no reading, no computer time... um what else is there left to do? I was able to do some road rides here and there on my mountain bike after a little while, but I couldn't hit any trails until late May. But boom, then it hit and I was ready and good to go again. So funny how that works. The more I read reports and information on concussions, the more I had to turn away from reading them - all so negative!

But I made up for lost time in June and July and got some amazing riding and racing in. Sure there were and still are some symptoms here and there, but for the most part it never stopped me as of May 31st at Nimby Fifty race. The funny things was, I felt stronger then ever in June and July after all that time off! The work trip across Canada (Cycle4:National Relay) was again a highlight in August and getting in over 1500km on my road bike and meeting and working with some truly amazing people. This was followed by the Vancouver to Whistler Granfondo - what a blast that was and chaos of riding with over 7,000 people - but did manage to be 4th female across the line, I was stoked!

Whats next?

Megan

The Unknown

2011-03-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

We all know as cyclists, the caution of riding across railway tracks. We all know that at some stage in our lives, the tracks will get the best of each of us. After road riding for 10 years, it was my turn for the tracks to win!

I was out for a very easy spin a few days ago, and well, I think that was the problem. I was in relax mode and super slow mode. Hitting the wet rutted out tracks in Brackendale (yes you all know the ones if you are a local), took me down. To be honest it was a pretty lame fall. Got up, broke my derailleur hanger and was pissed as I just wanted to ride. Bit of a sore knee, shoulder, hip. Rolled into Republic to get a temp hanger to get me home.

No big deal one would think. Well that was until the headaches started and the next day the severe head and neck pain and then the vomiting started and then I couldn't even sit or stand or hold my head up.

My first case of concussion and whiplash. At ER in Squamish, then sent for CT Scans in Whistler. I have to say that was the most painful experience I have ever had, honestly, the passenger drive up to Whistler and back, I couldn't move or open my eyes or stop the pain. Brutal.

So I am now at home laying on the couch. I sit here writing this with an unknown few days, few weeks, few months ahead. I can't shower, make food, go to the washroom without excruciating pain.

Maybe this will all just clear up and I will be back on the bike next week, or maybe it could be a few months. The only way to keep sane is to take everyday as it comes and be thankful that CT scan was all clear and there is no brain or spinal damage. It makes you realize how much we take for granted. I think sometimes the unknown helps give us faith. If someone were to tell me right now that I wouldn't be getting back on my bike for 2 months, then I would be demoralized. But if each day I have hope and positive thoughts that I could wake up with improvements the next day, then that is how we keep ourselves moving forward.

My word of advice that we all really know anyway - Never cross wet railway tracks without some agression and alertness because at some stage in your life they will get you!!

2011

2011-01-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

2010 proved to be yet another great year!
I pretty much stayed local for racing this year so I would have to say my highlight of 2010 was my work event, the 3 weeks I spent riding across Canada. After our first year under our belts in 2009, it made for a smoother transition into our second year for our ride, which meant a little more sleep each night and more time on the bike. Yukon/Whitehorse was definable a highlight too - what a great place and some great riding!!

2010 Race recap:

Dirty Duo: 1st
Island Cup Race Cumberland: 3rd
BC Cup # 1: 4th
Orecrusher (BC Marathon Series): 1st
Nimby Fifty: 3rd
North Shore Fest (BC Marathon Series): 3rd
Test of Metal (BC Marathon Series): 7th
24hrs of light (team event Yukon): 1st
Gear Jammer (BC Marathon Series): 3rd
Ride Across Canada - Cyclebetes
Grandfondo: couldn't keep up to those roadies but stoked with a time of 3hr 53mins!
Crank the Sheild 3 day mtb stage race: 3rd

Was a little disappointed I couldn't make the last race for the BC Marathon Series, as I would have taken the win for the series, it was the only one that was mandatory - will see what the rules are for 2011.

After pretty much taking the last 3 months off the bikes, I am all geared up to get back into it. Still waiting to receive my new Norco CRR1 Road Bike to get in some indoor spin sessions while this rain proceeds to fall and got out on the mtb today. Feeling very slow and unfit but ready to put it back into gear!!

I am pumped for my move to Squamish early December and to be close to all the amazing trails for spring and summer. Work has been inspiring and we are some unbelievable plans we have been working on and am thrilled for what 2011 and 2012 have to offer!

Line up for 2011:

Feb:
Road riding trip in Palm Springs for a weeks

Mar:
Dirty Duo
Road race series

April:
Island Cup Cumberland

May:
6hr Salty Dog (Salmon Arm)
Benson 80km Nanaimo
Nimby Fifty Pemberton (BC Marathon Series)

June:
North Shore Fest (BC Marathon Series)
Test of Metal (BC Marathon Series)

July:
Furious3 3 day stage race (Fernie)
High Cascade 100 Miler (Bend OR)

August:
Work National bike relay across Canada

October:
Pisgah 5 day stage race (North Carolina)??

I would love to add in there a trip to Chil Coltins, also do the seven summits in Rossland on the way back from the Fernie race and some riding in Hood river, either as a part of the trip down to Bend for the 100 miler race or a separate trip. Summer is just never long enough to fit everything in!!

BC - XC Marathon Series # 4

2010-07-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Gear Jammer

The last few weeks turned out quite different then planned. Ann and I had planned a road trip to drive and do a mountain bike Canada Cup in Edmonton on July 11th and then drive to do Canada National Champions in Canmore the following weekend. I was excited to race at the next level. This all changed when I heard rummors that you had to be a Canadian Citizen to race at Nationals. I confirmed this to be true and we figured to then drive all the way to Alberta to Edmonton to just do the one trip wasn't really worth it.

Disappointed, but not much I could do. I filled the weekends with fun stuff and fun rides locally, which then led me to doing Gear Jammer - race # 4 of the BC marathon series. I was currently winning the series, but unfortunately you need to be at race # 5 to be able to win the series and I will be traveling across Canada for work during this time.

So Gear Jammer. Ann and I rode most of course the week before, so that helped with knowing the route a little better. I decided to start out not red lining it, and kept the pace off a little until after the first hour as this was going to be a 3hr+ race. The first hour was actually surprisingly ok and enjoyable. I had wonderful Richard supporting crewing for me today, so after an hour in to it, he was there waiting to give me a few fresh bottles of water.

It was now time to turn up the dial a bit and start making up places. We had the rolling hills heading over the back of the course and I caught 1 girl and we now had the heat of the day beating down on us. Through the first water aid station and the steep climbs started. She dropped to small ring and I attempted to stay in mid ring - to my surprise I passed about 10 people on the first climb. Me passing people on the uphill very rarely happens!! I was pumped. This lead to the single track Skookum climb, I kept it in mid ring for half of it and passed another bunch of people. Still in disbelief and wondering if this was going to blow me up!!

The downhill starts, smooth ride, but dusty and hard to see. We head over to another short steep climb to the top of Recycle. I catch Karen, and attempt to pass but got blocked and we both fall. I jump back on and continue. I catch another girl on Pseudo downhill and am loving the flow and work they have done to this trail, I am really enjoying it. I pop out on the gravel road and see Richard again with another full bottle for me - what a treat !!
Short road climb and I am still in rhythm. I drop down to the Darin's Foot Bridge crossing with some speed - within a flash, I find had clipped my handle bar on the bridge and had launched myself half way over the railing and was now looking at the rapids of of creek below and my bike jammed in the bridge .... shit !! I untangle myself, jump on, and continue - sore knuckles but felt ok, just a bit shaken up.

I pass another girl on the climb to Plunge. My ride down the plunge was pretty average - could have been better and probably lost a minute or two. Ok - just crumpet and a few other trails to go. Compose myself. I hit the first climb on crumpet and feel my first real bonk. I drop to granny gear and all I can hear is my front brake rubbing - extra resistance is not what I needed. In the crash, I broke my front shock remote, bent my brake lever and I guess caused my front brake to rub. I have my last swig of gel and by the time I reached the top I got a little energy back.

Over to Seven Stitches and a few hike a bikes. The last part took forever - I wasn't familiar with these trails. I pull through the finish line in 3rd place in 3hrs 4mins 30secons.

I was done, but had a really great race and was stoked with my climbing today. I was one lucky girl to then get a stretch and ITB rub from Richard at the finish line.

We head back, shower and head over to Ann's for a BBQ and beer in the setting sun for the day.

1 Brandi Heisterman 02:57:14.6
2 Ann Yew 03:01:19.6
3 Megan Rose 03:04:30.3
4 Kari Studley 03:06:25.9
5 Karen Trueman 03:07:24.9
6 Katherine Short 03:09:28.0
7 Linda Robichaud 03:23:31.9
8 Julie Melanson 03:47:10.8
9 Nicole Price 04:05:10.6
10Tonja Dwyer 04:16:11.4

24hrs of Light - Yukon

2010-07-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

This one was going to be one of the highlights for the year. A little more laid back and was 'meant' to be a more social event ! 24hrs of light - meant just that - it was a 24hr mountain bike race that you could do solo, in a team of 2, 4 or 8 - riding it relay style, aiming to do as many laps as your team could do in 24hrs .... with one rule - no headlamps allowed. In this neck of the woods so far up north, the sun never really went down in the summer.

We were pumped. Richard, Matt, and I were a team of 3 racing in the team of 4 category - and well, as competitive as we all were - we were going for the win ! but also to be social - it can be done. We were Team Innovative Fitness.
We arrive after a 2 hr flight, all pulling out our Blackberries and Iphones to quickly check our messages to get some work done at the same time. Oh no - no Rogers Cell coverage in the Yukon - oh well, guess it was a 5 day holiday with no work to be had on this trip, we put them away and got to business.

Within 4hrs, we had our bikes built, had picked up our 30' foot RV, stocked it with some amazing food, bought a BBQ to cook this amazing food on and had a cooler full of beers, and had set ourselves up at the race start. Although it was only the Friday night and the race didn't start until 12pm the next day, we were not moving. Take a look at the set up we built ourselves.

We built the BBQ (well the boys built the BBQ while I went to the team meeting), and we had steaks cooking and beers in our hands in no time. What a start to a great trip. We drank beers and played arsehole until we thought that Emmery should drink no longer - maybe it was a little past midnight (but Richard was saying more like 1.30am!) - with the sky still so bright it was hard to keep track of the time.

Ok race day. Emmery was feeling a little under the weather, but he was an absolute trouper! We cooked up a sweet breakfast and got ready. Our plan was doing 1 lap at a time to tag off to the next team member. Approx 45-50mins laps. Order Richard, me, Matt.
Richard crushed the first lap coming in 3rd and I was on my way for my first lap, riding up ... more up .... then .... more up. What the ??!!
I was waiting patiently for the reward of the downhill but was also immersed in the amazing scenery. The reward was at the very end with a 5 mins down ... ha - ok better get the climbing legs on. I tag off to Matt, we are now in 2nd.

We had our own little competition going on, of who could do the most consistent laps!
We rolled on for the afternoon, wondering how long we could maintain these lap times and filing into 1st place by the 3rd lap. We had about 10 laps each to do. As we got into the night (although still light) we decided to do double laps to get more time off and try and rest of bit. We saw all sorts of riders and all sorts of teams dressing up in costumes - including a couple of guys doing laps in the nude - yup - full nudity - that has got to hurt!

I was the lucky one that didn't get a lap in the darkest hours of the night. For 2hrs, it was pretty low light in the woods. Matt decided to have a fight with a tree going at full speed - but I think the tree won, after taking him off his bike and having to take time to get his head around what had just happened. The course was tight - narrow trails with trees right at your handlebars. One off movement and you were going down and going down hard.
We draw in close to the last laps of the 24hrs. Richard heads out for his 10th and final lap, we were all so tired and not looking forward to our last laps. As I start my last lap I realize, if I do a 46min lap, then Matt will also have time to do a 10th and final lap - Richard and I do 10 laps, then I was making sure he had to do 10 as well ;)
I come in right on cut of time, grab the baton, smile and pass it off to Matt - he has 48 mins to complete his last lap to get in before the 24hrs. Of course he was going to make it.
We won and set a course record. Well done boys, it was great fun racing with you both.
What a fun event. The train museum area 5km out of town where the event was based, was action packed for 24hrs, continuous music, camper vans and tents set up all over the place, tons of prizes, tons of great costumes, fun trails with great scenery. But we were worked and destroyed - we went hard and each covered about 130km at Zone 5 pace.

We cooked up a BBQ, had some Beers, went to the Rec Center to shower, did some laundry, then kept ourselves awake until 9.30pm and crashed out cold for a solid 11 hours.

The next day was just as much a highlight. A friend of mine that was a local took us on a 2.5hr mountain bike ride to show us some of the best trails of what Whitehorse had on offer. Although our tired legs and bodies didn't like it too much, we managed to put smiles on our faces and enjoy a great ride of flowy trails and amazing views - while trying to focus on the tight single track at the same time.

What a weekend. Dropped off the RV, re-boxed our bikes and was ready to head back to Vancouver after an eventful weekend.

Race highly recommended to anyone interested.

Test of Metal

2010-07-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Ok I know this is a very late blog, 3 weeks late in fact, but its been busy times.

I was all geared for the 67km Test of Metal race this year. I was feeling strong and definitely felt ahead of the game then last year. Although this race is really not my strength in terms of the course, I was aiming to wipe 8 mins off my time and was going for a 3hr 15min time. Placing wasn't a huge deal for me for this event as all the big girls seem to show up for this one (eg current leader of the world cup circuit Catherine Pendral).

I felt I had a great start, much strong climb and good position amongst the 1000's other riders. Into the single track at the top of the pavement climb and smoothly through Jack's trail, that they have seem to bull doze and make it look like a trail hwy, much to my disappointment.

Dead end loop, robs corners, roller coaster were all good and I looked on time at the 1hr mark. Over to the feed zone for the first time through in about 1hr 26mins and head over to 9 mile. The heat was beating down and I was drinking more water then expected, I decided to do a quick stop at the aid station half way up 9 mile - wow what amazing volunteers, they had my bottle filled within 10 secs and a piece of watermelon in my hand on the fly and I got a breath of fresh air. I kept pushing on. No-one around me to work with. I got to the top of 9 mile and last climb of Lava Flow in around 52mins for the climb (was aiming for 48) - I had lost a few minutes but thought my time was still looking good.

I had a clean run down ring rip creek and the plunge - although quite painful. Too much air in the tires and too much air in my shocks - but guess it made for a more efficient climb, so just thought of all those other riders on hard tails and non- tubeless wheels with high pressure and decided to just suck it up !!!

The split on the downhill was 29mins - right on time (from Graham's predictions he gave me!). Although coming back through the feed zone and looking at my overall time, I was stunned and disappointed. I was way off pace, when I thought I was moving along quite nicely. I think I was at a time of 2hrs 54min knowing crumpet was around 30mins. I dig deep and finish as strong as I could, with no one to work with on the final straight stretch out of crumpet woods, finishing in a time of 3hrs and 26min and 7th place.

Slower then last year - I couldn't understand it! but no complains, I felt great, I fueled great, and had clean race. Just wasn't my day. There were many with slower times so it made me feel a little better that maybe it was the heat that got to us? but Brandi that I did beat 2 weeks prior in Pemberton did beat me and got a time of 3hrs and 14mins.... so maybe not ;)

All in all, great race, nice weather, dry course and I guess amongst all the pain, a fun day!

I was super pumped for the next weekend to head up to the yukon for 24hrs of light.

Megan

North Shore Fest

2010-06-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

BC Marathon Series # 2

This was one of the races I was excited about for this year. It’s the only one where the race is in the trails that are out my back door that I know very well and has some great fun technical riding!!

After days and days of rain – the weather gods were looking out for us and brought in some great sunshine just for this one day! We all gathered at the start line. I saw a couple of girls I had not seen before, all decked out in Trek gear with bikes I never knew could come as light as they were!

The start proved a surprise for everyone where we had to drop our bikes and run in the other direction. About a 400m run back to the bikes, then straight onto the newly built bmx track for some fun on the burms and jumps to a tough little climb – the pack was getting spread out already and heart rate was up to 181 already!

We went into Richard Juryne Trail for a tough climb. A trail that can be mostly ridable on a fresh day on your own. But with a line up of riders, made it tough, so it was mostly a hike a bike. This race was going to prove to be no time for recoveries. We moved into Circuit 8 trail and dropped down to the river over to Bridle. Was a clean good start and the pack spread out really well. Worked hard through bridle and the new trail and over to old buck 20min climb to Severed. My back was killing me and didn’t climb so well.

Severed downhill was in a pretty wet and tough state but managed to have a clean run down and was stoked with how I was going. This lead into a tough hike-a-bike. I felt like I needed an extra lung!! Heart Rate still over 178. I was coming into bottle top, knowing Richard was going to be waiting at the bottom for me to come out. Another clean run. I hit fishermans trail, and found out I was in third with the 2 girls ahead being the Trek Girls, with one only 30 secs ahead. Richard climbs homestead with me – a tough steep climb. I was hurting but could see her ahead. I pushed hard knowing the finish was almost here. She saw me coming and was pushing hard too. At the top of the climb we both took off, she enters the last trail still in sight. I work hard back up Richard Juryn trail, for the last decent ….. 12 seconds behind her in the finish line with a time of 2hr 25mins …. So close!!

The girl that won, was 6 mins ahead, to find out she came 2^nd at the last Canada Cup and is on the Canadian National Team! So was all good with that …. Lol! Was impressed with both of their technical riding considering they were not locals and probably not familiar with these trails. I was happy with my 3^rd place finish.

2 weeks until Test of Metal – the next big one.

Top 3 Results:

Mical Dyck 02:22:04 (Trek Canada) Victoria
Joanna Harrinaton 02:28:24 Whistler
Megan Rose 02:28:36 (John Henry Bikes) North Vancouver

Nimby Fifty

2010-06-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

This event came on the radar only about a month ago. A new event in a new location that I heard has some great trails - Pemberton.

Drove up on Saturday morning - pouring rain the whole drive up! It managed to calm down to light rain by the start. There were about 250 riders lined up at the start in the middle of grass field, and I was super excited to ride the trails that I had heard about over the last few weeks.

The start was actually for once great! Threw a couple of mud puddles just to get us all dirty from the start and a flat start for about the first 5mins then into a 10min climb that I actually felt stronger then normal. The field spread out pretty well by the first single track. About 30mins into the race we start the single track climb - I heard about this 1hr+ single track climb with 101 switchbacks! Was loving it but it was tough. Tight switchbacks, technical sections, where you could look up and see a line of riders on all the switchbacks ahead of you. I could see a couple of girls in sight and that was my aim now - to either keep them in sight or catch them by the top of the climb. I was closing in slowly. I passed and few about 15mins we kept swapping positions depending on who would dab and get caught off balance on the climb.

They managed to both be in front on the start of the the descent, much to my disappointment, but Joele went down and the other girl past. She was ripping it, so I just tried to hang on to her wheel on what was some amazing downhill trails, so much fun. Trying to put a gap between us and Joele. We were all fighting for 3rd place. I managed to gap the other girl on the next climb, it was tough and steep and then we went into the last loop before heading to the finish. At the time I wasn't sure how far there was too go. This loop included some sharp painful hike a bikes, that was crushing me into the ground!

I caught and past Wendy Sims, she was having some mechanicals, but with no effort she took back off ahead. So I am now working to hold my 3rd place finish. We go into the last descent, wow what a bunch of fun!

I cross the finish line 25mins behind Catherine Pendral (the current world cup leader) and 2 mins behind Wendy Sims. What a great race.

We were covered head to toe in mud - no hose, creek or water to be found. We wipe ourselves down with a towel, change, put our disgusting muddy bikes on our car and head to the beer and band. We hung around for the evening and party of a fire, some hay bails, a band and some great company to camp there the night.

We headed back to Vancouver in the morning after breakfast at the wildwood and stopping in at Whistler to get a few runs in on the Whistler Bike Park - what a great weekend!!

Top 10 Results:

1 Pendrel , Catharine 02:29:31 Kamloops
2 Simms , Wendy 02:52:32 Nanaimo
3 Rose , Megan 02:54:15 North Vancouver
4 Guynup , Joele 02:57:46 Victoria
5 Heisterman , Brandi 02:58:03 Brackendale
6 Paquette , Fanny 03:02:36 Whistler
7 Short , Katherine 03:05:34 Halfmoon Bay
8 Robichaud , Linda 03:07:02 Victoria
9 Allen , Sylvie 03:13:29 Pemberton
10 Bell, Page 03:17:31 Pemberton

BC Marathon Series # 1

2010-05-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

ORECRUSHER RACE - SQUAMISH

There are 2 series in BC this year, BC Cup Series and the Marathon Series. I will be doing most of the races from the Marathon Series, although you need to race the last race to be able to be eligible to win the series, and I will be away with Cyclebetes then - oh well, will do what I can.

So orecrusher was a pretty flat by rooty rough technical course. So with no significant climbs and a more challenging course - this was my kind of race.

After arriving earlier enough to prepare and get a good warm up in and ride the course, I stood in line at registration for 45mins .... my plan was out. I now just had time for a quick 10 min warm up!

It was a lemons start (eg run 300m to go and get your bike to start the race). Heart rate straight up to 180. So it was about a 40km race - we had 6 laps to complete, each lap about 6.5km's. First lap I moved into 2nd and stayed with Ann. My aim was to stick with her and see how I felt about half way through. I pushed to keep with you her on the slight climb of the course, then past her on the fast flowy section. Into 2nd lap, she past me on the climb again - I figured this was how it was going to be for the 6 laps! My heart rate was still through the roof, my stomach was in knots, I had to back off and let my heart rate settle as I knew I couldn't maintain this. I backed off a bit, it settled half way through the 2nd lap. Ann had a big fall at the end of the 2nd. We chatted for a bit into the 3rd, she was hurting. I moved into the single track and now just pushed to keep her behind me. I was feeling strong and was able to keep my pace on the slight climbs. I kept pushing hard thinking she was right behind me.

I pulled through first place! woot woot.

Was stoked with how I felt and how the Norco Faze 1 didn't skip a beat on the rough course!

Top 3 Elite Women Results:

Megan Rose - North Vancouver - John Henry Bikes - 02:16:17
Ann Yew - North Vancouver - Team Whistler - 02:20:13
Linda Robichaud - Victoria - Team Whistler - 02:24:41

I was waiting for some pics to put up, but haven't found any yet!
M

BC Cup # 1

2010-05-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

3rd Race for the year. The BC Cup Series was about to start with the first race kicking off on the Sunshine Coast of BC. I headed over with Ann. After a short ferry ride, quick stop for food, we got to the start and geared up. I just came from 9 days off the bike on a holiday in Japan, so not sure how the legs were going to take this!

I remember this course from last year, a brutal long climb and a super fun downhill. We had 3 laps to complete. After a 2km hill climb to the start we were ready. A steep hill climb start to our first downhill, I had a little too much air in my tires and was just trying to adjust being thrown around a little more then usual. At the bottom of the downhill there was a creek crossing, last year I managed to ride straight through it, although not able to get around the person in front of me, I actually fail to unclip and find myself sitting in the cold cold creek!!

After a battle with another girl to take 4th place, I now got a lead on her by the 2nd lap, so was chasing 3rd. Back was feeling great compared to last year and legs were feeling stronger! Although each climb I was getting a little slower with fatigue, but each descent I was getting a little faster keeping my lap times very consistent. I was on the last 10+min downhill to the finish and was giving it all I had to try and catch that 3rd place, but had no-one in sight, I come across 4th place, to find I was only 37 sec off getting the 3rd place finish to the girl I had beat by only a few seconds in Cumberland.

Had a great race though, tough but fun course. Felt 100 times better after the race in Cumberland a few weeks ago, was a lot more coherent and not so destroyed, so that was a great thing!

Elite Women Results

1. McKirdy , Jean Ann 01:47:22
2. Yew, Ann 01:53:13
3. GUYRUP, Joele 01:54:40
4. Rose , Megan 01:55:17
5. Short , Katherine 01:57:37
6. COLLINS, Karen 02:08:46
7. Melanson , Julie 02:20:13
8. Lynch, Christine 02:22:56
9. Armstrong , Paula 02:27:05

Island Cup Series # 3 - Cumberland

2010-04-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Second race of the year. I decided to head over to the Island to Cumberland to race. Cumberland was my favorite day of BC Bike Race last year, so I had to return for more fun on the amazing network of trails they have there.

6.30am ferry over. Met up with some Team Whistler guys and we got picked up by Joe at the other end to drive us up to the race. We got a decent warm up in and was ready to go for 12pm.

The line up of riders was great and a good show of girls. There were a couple of top riders there - eg Wendy Sims - international level rider. So I was now aiming for 3rd place and I knew it would be a battle to beat Karen - that I was up against at BC Bike Race last year. 30km mountain bike race, 10km laps - 3 laps to complete.

Nice climb off the start into single track, back out onto a significant fire road climb. The sun was beating down and it truly felt like summer already. Karen was in front on the climb. Into some flowy single track, to another short climb before some some wicked xc trail riding. Caught Karen on the downhill. It was a little sketchy with only 1 brake (my front brake pads were toast).

Into Second lap, I got the call that the girls were ahead by 3mins. I was now aiming to hold my 3rd position. 2nd lap felt better - more warmed up and in the flow and had a clean run with no one in front of me. Back aching!!
I go into 3rd lap - I get the call that the next girl is only ahead by 1min. I hit the last lap as hard as could. My brakes fluid had pumped up a bit so I now have 2 brakes working and more control!
About 2km from the finish I spot her ahead, lucky for me we are still in technical single track so I am gaining on her. I hit it hard pass and pull through to the finish in 2nd !!!

What a tough race, I was worked. Average heart rate of 173 and max of 181. We hung around for a bit after the race then head back to the ferry. To miss it by 2mins. We now had a 2hr wait until the next one, arriving home at 9.30pm - what a long day - but great one! .... And come home to home cooked meal of Salad, Chicken and Yam fries that Richard had all ready when I walked in the door - Oh Yeh - Im one lucky girl !!

Hopefully some photos are to come but they are not up on their website yet.

Top 10 Results:

Expert Women
1	Wendy Simms	2:23:21.00
2	Magan Rose	2:26:03.00
3	Joele Guynup	2:26:31.00
4	Karen Trueman	2:34:05.00
5	Sarah Seads	2:36:31.00
6	Glenowyn Carlson	2:37:09.00
7	Karen Collins	2:46:15.00
8	Nikki Licht	2:51:06.00
9	Julie Melanson	3:00:00.00
	Melissa Dekker

Megan

Dirty Duo

2010-03-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

First race for the year - a fun local event to get the legs burning and lungs pumping again ready for riding season.... and well this race sure did that - with an average heart rate of 173, there sure wasn't time to relax and smell the rose's!

The course has been in perfect conditions for most of the winter with absolutely no snow that allowed us to keep our bikes out for the entire winter - but well this is dirty duo, so of course down came the snow just 2 days out, followed by a perfect amount of rain to make the course a mud pit on the lower trails and an icy slush pit on the higher trails. This just made it all that much more fun!

After a quick trip for emergency repairs to John Henry and hour before the race to fix my locked on brake, Jeff had me all fixed up and on time to the race. Thanks Jeff! and with my tubeless now all set up, my Norco was all ready to go.
We were off at 11am, straight up hill, lungs blowing up within the first 5 mins and a nice little technical climb up Richard Juryn Trail. Over to circuit 8 and drop down to the creek and into Bridle, covered head to toe in mud already. Battling back and forth with some of the 25km runners on bridle between the short up and downs of the trail, we hit old buck climb - backs killing me, I stop for a quick stretch. Push on up old buck and pass Tutti cheering us on! (or was he yelling at me that I was going to slow??!) Up baden powell and now hit the snow, with persistence I keep trying to ride up it, but finally give in and walk the last part in ankle deep snow. Ok we are now at the top - NEDs trail here we come, fun but sketchy with the layer of snow and wetness. I hold on for the ride my Norco is about to take me on! I am thankful for the 5 inch of travel on the front of this new race bike!

After an endo on bottle top - I am crossing the creek for the last section. back up and down Richard Juryn and I am at the finish line in first place and placed 4th in the men's division. I am happy with my first race for the year!

Thanks to John Henry and Norco for getting me and my bike to the beginning of the 2010 biking season.

M

IT'S TIME....

2010-02-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

Well with the warmest February on record for Vancouver, biking season is off to an early start..... and with the excitement of me receiving my new 2010 xc race bike yesterday - a Norco Faze 1. This year I will be racing as
"John Henry Bikes / Norco"

After being destroyed on a ride in Squamish on Saturday by a few of the Team Whistler boys, I got inspired to get myself back in action!! Plus I have a super fun line up of events and races this year, so had better get a head start on getting this body ready! I am going to be working hard to keep this ITB injury under control and actually gain some strength back in the legs this year - I'm pumped!

Quick night ride with Richard last night to test out the new ride. Feels great, rides smooth! Looking forward to making a few tweaks and setup adjustments and getting back out on the trail in about an hour with Ann Yew and giving it a bigger test!

Ok so here is my 2010 line up - give or take a few:

March:
Dirty Duo
EV Road Spring Series

April:
Possible Sea Otter MTB California

May:
BC Cup # 1: Sunshine Coast
BC Marathon Series # 1: Orecrusher
BC Cup # 2: Nanaimo
BC Cup # 3: South Surrey

June:
BC Marathon Series # 2: North Shore Fest
Sunshine Coast MTB trip with the girls!
BC Marathon Series # 3: Test of Metal
24hr of Light MTB: Yukon

July:
Chil Coltins Trip

August:
100 miler Bend Oregon
Cyclebetes 3 weeks across Canada

September:
Granfondo Giro 120km Road Race
Crank the Shield: 3 day MTB stage race, Ontario

Stay tuned for more updates...

M

Winthrop Washington

2009-10-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving long weekend ....

So the race season may be over, but we are trying to make the most of what is left of the biking season and headed down to a place I had heard about for a long weekend of fun.

Wow what a weekend. The plan: drive down Friday night (5-7hr drive), smaller ride Saturday, full day ride Sunday, smaller ride Monday, with some eating and drinking in between!

Saturday was one 2 hr climb up and a 1hr back down. The cold had set in, even with the hard work of the climbing, the feet and hands still didn't get blood back into them until about half way up, to go numb again on the descent. What amazing views at the top!
Finishing the day off with roast chicken, BBQ salmon, veges, and wine !
Today was my first real longer ride and test on my new Norco All mountain bike - Fluid 2. What a lot of fun!

Sunday was the day - the big day - we got to the trail head at 10am for a 8hr day ahead of us, with -6 deg start, we were boppin and hoppin around trying to warm up - but all was good with blue bird skys!
We started our 4hr climb, winding in and out of the forest and open sunny views. Crossing frozen creeks, regrouping every time we spread out too much, to reach what was finally a warm sunny meadow that we stopped and had a bite to eat, looking up at the summit we were about to embark on via a grinding 30mins hike a bike.

8000ft summit was reached, taking in the 360 deg views. We had a ridge traverse and then down 'angles staircase', tight switchbacks on a loose rocky bouldery trail with a drop just a foot from the trail.
What lead into a flowy but dusty fast super fun trail. We had now one more climb. We got trapped by 20+ horses coming down the trails and 2 motorbikes heading up having a stand off, we decided to throw our bikes back on our backs and cut the switch back by hiking up. One more tough climb, then we were done, all downhill from here. Time to race what was left in the sunlight to make it back to the car.
2hr mixed trail downhill, flowy, rocky, dusty, amazing scenery, insanely fun!
Home to a roast turkey and more wine.

Monday I would have been happy to not ride and just chill, but off we went for a 2hr ride through xc ski mountain trails, to what turned out to be a super fun ride. No big climbs, just flowy, rolling, fast hills. What a way to finish off the weekend.
Loading the car up mid afternoon to tackle the long weekend traffic back across the border!

Definitely a place to make a yearly trip of - so many trails out there.

BCBR Videos

2009-07-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

THANKS TO DAVE NORONA FOR TAKING THE TIME TO TAKE THE FOOTAGE, EDIT, AND POST THESE VIDEOS THROUGHOUT EACH DAY OF THE BCBR http://www.noronalife.com/blog/

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

Day # 7 and Wrap Up - BC Bike Race

2009-07-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

Day 7 was true punishment - but with relief I didn't have to completely distroy myself. With Karen now out of the race, the next girl back was a few hours. I still pushed hard - how could you not be working hard when off the start line we had a 45min+ head to the handlebar climb - part hike a bike - that you dreaded to look up as all your would see was more hill !
The sun was shinning strong and it was heating up. Some fun downhill in the middle around Cheakamus River and then back to head to the handlebar up Highline trail where focus had to be on otherwise your back wheel would slip on the steep loose gravel road and you would be hiking the bike again. Into Tunnel Vision, with a fun rockface rolling drop into more cool single track down to our last 2km pavement climb to do our final descent of the 7 days into Whistler Creekside.
For was was meant to be a relative short day of 30km, with the elevation gains it still took 2hrs 40mins. It was quite amusing getting some comments from other riders during the day. They would come by me asking if I was ok and if maybe I had a flat tire or something (eg really asking why was I riding slow today and that I shouldn't be back in the pack with them !!) ha ha - I guess as mentioned above I didn't have to truly push it today - just played it safe to cross the line to keep 1st place :)

Thanks to all following for the week.
Will see what photos I can find that were taken and post sometime this week.

Overview:

Absolutely outstanding organsation from BCBR. The logistics and volunteers that went into this event was mind blowing and it all ran unbelievably smooth
Best Day - by far Day # 3 in Cumberland - tons of fast fun single track with no brutle hills
Worst Day - by far Day # 4 (Earls Cove to Sechelt), most elevation, hotest day, and coming down off a high from day # 3 !!

Day # 6 - BC Bike Race

2009-07-03T18:44:00.001-07:00

I am very excited that there is now only 1 day to go!
Today was a fun day, bunch of trails I knew and most of the course I knew so that helped a ton. Start was better then I expected and slightly different route then I thought it was. Some great single track that I haven't ridden in a while and got a clean run on all the long downhills. Then the last 1/4 I was really feeling it. My new plan to make myself eat more didn't work. I pulled apart a powerbar into bit sizes pieces and put under the leg part of my bike shorts so I could nibble at it on the first half of the course to stop the bonking towards the end like the last few days. But to find 10mins into the race it had melted and blended into my shorts from the heat of the day and heat of my skin - no powerbar for me, just 3 gels :(
So yes the last 1/4 was a struggle but all in all, had a good day and kept the pace strong.
Karen came in about 3mins ahead of me (although she is no longer ranked due to her broken frame and only completing half the course yesterday, so was a little more fresh), so I would have been going into tomorrow with about a 10min lead if she was still in. But now I just have to play it safe and finish the course tomorrow to take the win.

I am definitely completing wiped, I feel ok while out on course but afterwards I can barely function!!

Am up in Whistler now, relaxing at a friends house, had a nap, some sushi, washed bike, and will soak in some epson salts and off to bed. Short day tomorrow, only 25km, but about a 1hour steep steep climb off the start, something like 600m elevation in 5km's - ahhhh - but then its all rockin fun after that !

http://www.bcbikerace.com/Media/Blog/
http://www.noronalife.com/blog/?p=339
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/profile.php?id=503751095&ref=profile

Megan

Day # 5 - BC Bike Race

2009-07-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Tough start today. Police escort but still sprint over short sharp hills through Sechelt with heart rate through the roof in the first 5 mins, then into a granny gear steep climb up through a construction zone. Single track started, although freshly made single track, equals very bumping and lots of effort to ride it! We were all over the place and felt like beginner riders ... haha.

So still climbing we came to our first fun descent. Karen was in front but I was confident I would catch her at the end of the day with the 10km downhill to the finish at the ferry, but to pass her half way through the course on the side of the trail with a snapped frame. She is out of the race.
We went into our last climb of the day, but this was a monster of a hill, luckly it was a trail climb and not fire and fully shaded as it was a smoken hot day out there. After the never ending hill, I was feeling wiped. I am not eating enough out there. My legs feel good, but my energy levels are super low. We came into the last food aid station to be told we were 3km's from the peak and it was all downhill after that. I was around a new crowd today (and yesterday) as my usual group are stronger climbers so were ahead of me. We hit the final descent for the day, a well talked about trail called 'hwy 102'. Wow this thing went forever. I was on a mission to catch the first ferry so I could get home earlier in Nth Van, I was loving the trail and caught a bunch of people. Parts where kind of sketchy with the condition we are in. eg not much co-ordination or balance left by day 5, so judgement and concentration had to be at 100% across the log bridges and tight turns.

I rolled into the finish and straight on the ferry. At home now, getting bike dialed at John Henry Bikes and sleeping in own bed before another early rise to head up to squamish for day 6. Another tough start for tomorrows course, straight into a pavement climb, so I will get stuck behind everyone when we bottle neck into single track, but will push as hard as I can to not drop back too far :)

Megan

Day # 4 - BC Bike Race

2009-07-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

As I expected today was my least favourite day !
Not enough single track and way too much climbing ( and mostly on fire roads – or hike a bike single track), and very very minimal flowy fun downhill.
Everyone hurt today. Hot, long day, (5hrs), not enough food eaten and couldn’t wait for it to be over.
Shitty start into a pavement climb where everyone just blew by me …. Ha ha.
I was waiting all day for the girl Karen to pass me on the climbs but never saw her, so towards the end I had figured she snuck by me at somestage with out me knowing. And yep, she was at the finish line when I got there, came in 10mins earlier. So my lead is now down to only 13mins. Its going to be a tough last 3 days.
I have the advantage of knowing day 6 and 7’s course but there is still a bunch of climbing that she can make up the time. Tomorrows course has been cut down a little due to permit issues, and means one big climb has been taken out and more single track has been added, so this is good new !!
Tomorrow night I get to go home, sleep in my own bed and pick up my car before the Squamish day, and have a place to stay in Whistler the next night, so can get plenty of rest.

Excited for the well talked about last 7km of tomorrows course, some amazing single track down to the ferry terminal – I am sure that will bring a smile to my face ☺

Megan

Day # 3 - BC Bike Race

2009-06-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

WOW and OMG is all I can say about today!!

I placed myself right up front today as knew it was my style course and for sure didn't want to get stuck behind people on this day, I heard the trails were epic and wanted to experience them at speed :)
It was a complete hammer off the start with a few kms of road and straight into single track. I was in great position and the flow and speed was there from the beginning compared to the last few days. We had about 30km's of pure xc trails, then a big 10km / 45-60min climb right in the middle of the course up a fire road, and was in with a great bunch of guys (all from Nth Van). Broke my chain and had someone help fix it pretty quick, while I see the other solo girl now pass me, I jump back on the bike to chase. We arrived at the peak and then had a 20min+ downhill section, I caught her pretty quick and was stoked to have a chance to pass straight away. I had a complete clean run down some amazing trails and was loving it. Back out to some fire roads for a bit where I had a couple of guys to work with and they were looking after me and making me work to stick in!! then another 20km of more unbelievable trails. After 4hrs I still had a smile on my face. Got an extra 6mins lead today to make it a total of 23mins. With still 4 days to go, this really isn't much (couple flats or mechanicals, or some open road climbs where she catches me pretty quick - so still lots of hard work to go).
Sorry no pics but am sure there are some on the website www.bcbikerace.com

Megan

Day # 2 - BC Bike Race

2009-06-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

Today was tough. I had the leaders jersey on but decided not to place myself right up the front as the profile of the course looked to be a straight 5km climb off the start, so would have just had people pass me. What a big mistake. After getting the police escort through Nanaimo we hit the single track and I was too far back to keep the flow - people walking ridable sections, bottleneck, and just pure slowness on some sweet track that you could fly through. By days end it probably cost me at least 20mins. After about an hour it opened up and we were in and out of single track with some great climbs and flow. Although we were for sure ready for the half way 35km point as that was the peak for the day. Moslty down from there. The down was fireroad with some crazy head wind and I was on my own with no one to work with and draft off. I hammered for about 10km before finally the Norco boys caught me with the other solo female rider. I jumped in and we worked together as a group of 4 and was giving it everything to stick in. We hit some single at the end to finish what was a long grueling day !
I was neck and neck with the other girl all day and came in only a few seconds ahead of her. 17mins lead still from day 1.
It was a little bit of a frustrating day in terms of position, bunch of people would pass me on the uphill and then I would get stuck behind them on the downhill and have to try and pass them!!

Megan

Day # 1 - BC Bike Race

2009-06-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

What I was hoping to be a home town advantage today didn't turn out quite that way!
Or should I start with saying I won first solo female for day 1 !!!

Straight off the start was a 2km road climb and straight into single track - Equals 400 people trying to funnel into 1 line after 5-10mins from the start. Now my strength is not climbing so I couldn't quite get myself into a good position off the start. So after the funnel and some standing still and walking, we still had approx 30min climb ahead but more chances to pass. I slowly started to warm up and make some moves on people to the top of the first descent called 'severed dick'! Let's just say, if you are not from around this area - then this descent was going to be tough with a lot of scared riders walking their bikes down. But this was my strength, I know this trail well and ride it well, but to find myself stuck behind lines of people walking. I was patient for about 5 mins, then I teamed up with a few Norco Guys and we made our move - calling 'riders up' and 'track' (eg get off the trail if you are walking cause we are coming through !!)
So we managed to stay on our bikes for the entire descent but was much slower then I normally ride it. At the bottom of the first descent and an hour into it, it opened up and the riders started to spread out. Some xc trails and out through the burbs to hit our next climb of Mountain Hwy. This climb is a nice one, open and not so steep.
Time for the second descent and to the finish. I was now in my element - no one in front of me and free awesome fun technical descent to make up for some lost time. After some hoots and cheers down the north shore trail 'Pipeline' I crossed the finish line in 2hrs 12mins and first solo female and received my yellow leaders jersey to wear tomorrow :)
Although I could have been 15mins faster if I had a better start, I was still stoked with day 1 - knowing there is still 6 more days ahead.

I have never ridden any of the trails for day 2-5 so am excited to experience some new stuff of what BC has to offer. I get to stay at home tonight, but am camping it for the next 3 nights, so not sure what updates I can get done, but will keep my facebook status updated. Tomorrow is more then double the distance of today and the biggest for the week at 70km. Expecting about a 4hr 15min time. Lets see what the terrains like though.

Megan

BC Bike Race

2009-06-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Wow ok, it's been like 10 months since my last major race and the last time I posted on here.
Tomorrow I start my big race for 2009. BC Bike Race - a 7 day mountain bike stage race. I have had a bunch of lead up events and now its time to test the body again.

Race Overview:

Day # 1 - North Vancouver 30km
Day # 2 - Nanaimo - Vancouver Island 70km
Day # 3 - Cumberland - Vancouver Island 65km
Day # 4 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 5 - Sunshine Coast 65km
Day # 6 - Squamish 67km
Day # 7 - Whistler 30km

This race hosts the most single track riding any other race in the world has. Day 1 is on my local trails here on the mountain out my back door with the finish line 100m from my house, so I am super excited to have some home town advantage of knowing what to expect. The more technical a trail is in this race, the more chance I have in placing top 3 - lol - I am not the strongest climbing, so have to make up my time on the downhill!!

Race updates can be found daily on www.bcbikerace.com

Stay Tuned
Megan Rose

BULL OF AFRICA

2008-08-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

Team Comor / John Henry

Megan Rose
Graham Tutti
Adam Smith
Adrian Rothwell

Race Pics http://picasaweb.google.ca/smitty0476/BullOfAfrica#
Race Video http://www.youtube.com/smitty0476

I know there are a few of you wondering what happen to us in the race - so here it is - the breakdown ..... ok sorry this is going to be long ..... pick and choose what you wish to read !!

I guess most of you know that I have been suffering from ITB Syndrome since February, and leading up to the race a month out I was finally back into running and doing long treks with no pain. We had the team discussion of whether we all were fit/healthy (injury free) enough to compete in Africa, and at that stage me injury was finally looking promising.
2 weeks prior to leaving we did a 24hr training session, and my knee become evident of pain again, but a little too late for replacement of myself on the team. My thoughts "lots of pain killers and anti-inflammatory's during the race and I should be fine !!

We arrive in South Africa after hour and hours of travel (think I was 62hrs from the time of leaving Vancouver to the time of arriving in Eastern Cape!!).
One of my team mates boxes never arrived with all his racing gear. So we spent 2 days driving around eagerly trying to put together enough stuff for us to race! Amongst our race registration, gear checks, and skills test .... and after discovering how everything runs on 'south african' time, then it made it even harder !! (ie if they say 8am.... they really mean say 10am ... or could even be 11am !!)

RACE OVERVIEW

10km Trail / Bush run (2.5hrs)
15-20km Mountain Bike (3hrs - we did it twice :-(
Paddle with a Trek (3.5hrs)
25-30km Mountain Bike (2.5hrs)
50-60km Trek (28hrs)

Transition 1 - After 40hrs of racing we finally get our first food and gear bin !

50km Mountain Bike (5hrs)
10km Paddle (4hrs)
55km Mountain Bike and cliff scramble with bike! (10.5hrs)

Transition 2 - Get second gear and food bin

50km Trek with Rappel/Abseil and 160m Ascend
95km Mountain Bike to the Coast
30km Coasteering Trek along coast

Transition 3

Then get the next instructions from there.

DAY 1

Trek / Run 10km 2.5hrs
After a busy crazy 4 days leading into the race, we have to be up at 2am the morning of the start, to load an old freezing cold bus at 3am for what was meant to be a 3hr drive up into the mountains. After our bus drivers getting lost we arrived in 5hrs!! It was so so cold, frost on the ground cold. We got ourselves ready and we started at 9am. We had a 10km run/trek to begin the race and split the field up. We did great (my knee from the beginning was not good though). We come in at the end of this short leg within 20mins of the leaders.

Bike 20km
We were on our bikes for what was an easy nav 17km mountain bike to our boats. We were setting a good pace. To find that we had nearly made it to the boats and our navigator realised we missed a check point right back at the beginning, we had rode straight past it. We had to back track and watch 15 or more teams filter past us. Not a good start.

Paddle with Treks
We re caught a few teams and head out on the kayaks for a bunch of treks off the boat.

Night 1
30km Bike (7pm)
We get back on bikes for a 25-30km section with one big arse climb - but I was loving it - no pain on the bike and I like long steady climbs!! The temperature starts dropping like crazy. We get to the top of the climb, put on every piece of clothing we had, lifa shirt, fleece, wind breaker, and waterproof jackets !! and start our descend into the transition. No kidding it was that cold!

50-60km Trek (10pm)
We spend a few minutes warming up by the fire before we set out for what we know is going to be one long long trek, through networks of trails and bushland. Knowing already we will have to ration our food as we had to take 40hrs worth of food in our packs from the start line!

Day 2
Still Trekking
We are still trekking we make up a few places throughout the night near a waterfall checkpoint. But come about 3am, we lost our way for a few hours. On sunrise we start climbing the ridge we had been looking for - the wind is bitter and again we have every piece of clothing on we had, with our toques on and hoodies up! What an amazing view and amazing sunrise. We take a few seconds to take some pics and then heads down to get off the ridge and out of the wind! We then make our way over a few more big climbs and down into a hut for our next checkpoint. We managed to recover to 17th place after our mistake at the beginning and our slow moving through the night. Still only early days and we know there is only 2hrs between 10th and us! We push on through, more steep ups and more steeps downs, and the craziest bushwakes South Africa has to offer - thorns thorns and more thorn trees to push through. We make to to the next mountain by mid afternoon - after now have been trekking for 17hrs and to see what we still had left before we would see more food and water - Adrian begins to tell us 'see that next mountain - well not that mountain, but not the one behind that, but that ridge on the mountain behind that - well that is our next checkpoint - and then from there we still have 15km to the transition !! we sit and take this in for a little bit - build up the strength and get on our way to make the most of the sunlight.

Night 2
Still Trekking
We did a nice steep climb and scramble up to the peak for our next checkpoint just after dark. Our feet were done and my knee was done - more pain killers, a little nibble on what food we had left, and a long long descent following a fence into our first major transition and food box. We would have been happy if we would never have to see another barb wire fence again after that night !! So now about 27hrs into the trek and just under 40hrs into the race we are descending our last little bit - we can see the lights of transition ahead - maybe 1km away - oh how excited we were! To then get the biggest shock ever - I look down to see a massive lake between us and that transition, that would have to be 10km to get around. I inform the others they don't believe me as its not on the map, and I tell them 'turn off your lights and look ahead' Its 1am in the morning and we all stand still looking at this massive lake under the moon light feeling devastated for one that its not on the map and for two what turned out to be a 1km to the food is now 10km - hours longer. We are shocked. We send down Adrian to check it out, what looks to us that he is now walking on this 'water/lake'. He shouts back 'its grass'. The night was so cold it sent a mist right through the valley, and to our tired eyes it was 100% a big lake !! ha ha.

I have never been so cold, we make it to the lodge, order up a big meal, the water bottles on our bikes that had been waiting there for us at transition have an inch of frozen layer on the top - there was no way we were getting on those bikes and riding in this temperature. It was the middle of the second night and with no sleep we decided to stop and get about 3hrs in.
What turned into very little sleep or rather maybe no sleep by all of us in the noisy (but warm) hut didn't help!

Day 3
50km Bike (8am)
Ok so we head off about 8am, pealing off the layers as we start to climb and the sun warms us up. We had a great bike to our next paddle. After laughing at Adrian for him biking for the first hour with only 1 lens in his sunglasses and him not even realising !

10km Paddle and trek (2pm)
We got a few checkpoints and then had to land our kayaks at the other end, while 2 of us stayed with the boat and two had to go 6km for a checkpoint, we only had our bike shoes, so Graham and Adam did amazing by running the 6km in their bike shoes and making up some great time.

Night 3
55km Bike (7pm)
We had another strong bike with some good climbs. We knew of a swim we had to do with our bikes to cross a creek on this leg that we were dreading in the middle of night because of the temp. We arrive at this creek to find that the lack of rain in the last 3 months, made it nearly dried up - what a relief! We then had to find an opening in the cliffs on the other side and scramble up with our bikes bush waking at the same time! My knee was done, the only way I could walk up or down hill was with my treking poles as support. So I now had my bike with no poles, and had to step up this steep climb with the weight of my 11kg bike on my back - mmm not fun :-(
After we made it up we got to a game reserve at about 2am. Best hospitality and got served some amazing burgers! We pushed on to a long walk with our bikes down to the creek and a half hike a bike half steep climb out to our next major transition and food box 2.

Day 4
Sleep 1.5hrs
Trek 50km - Rappel and Ascend
We grabbed a few beds at the lodge transition which was in the middle of no where - got an hour of so of sleep, and a quick shower with our now swollen eyes feet and hands !! Got some route knowledge from a local (which didn't help) and we where on our way with our packs loaded with all our climbing gear, a ton food and water and warm clothes!
Note- roads on maps are no longer there, one dotted line on map could mean a trail, a full on road, a jeep track, or nothing at all. After evidence of no trail we had to balls up and bush wake through the thickest sharpest craziest thorn bushes of all time down to the creek that we were going to follow to next CP. A few hours later and a bunch of blood and scratches later we made it through the heat of the day - yes down to below 0 degrees at night and up to 25-30 during the day!.

Night 4
Still trekking
The creek was not walkable - we find a road and take the long route around. What we thought would take us a few hours has now taken us all day. We pass through a hunting reserve at about 9pm with a lodge, the lodge is closed down, we sleep on grass for 45mins, then continue on, down a long descent back to the river for the checkpoint. After 4 days of knee/ITB pain, I can't travel/walk down hill anymore, even with my weight on my trekking poles. I am done - the pain beat me. There we so many points where I wanted to say that I could no longer carry on, but it is not just me I had to consider. This effected 3 others, that had but their time, effort, and money into coming to South Africa to race. 3 very good close friends. This was not an easy decision and an even harder one to let the words come out of my mouth. I was finished. It brings a tear to my eye just having to write this now a week later. I waited there on the trail with Graham, while Adrian and Adam went down to get the CP from the Creek. A few hours later we made our way back up to the hunting lodge and the farmers house. It was now 2am, we woke them up. The nicest people ever, they took me and adrian to the lodge to spend the rest of the night while Adam and Graham decided to carry on. Adrian too was also suffering knee and back pain so decided he would not go on. We slept till morning, then the maids made us the best breakfast ever while we waited to be picked up.

Day 5
Adam and Graham made it through the rest of the next day, after another long trek in the heat of the day on little to no water and a long ascent Adam started seeing the signs of dehydration and vision problems. They were in a serious situation if they didn't get to water soon. They made it down to the next little town where they refueled and went to a B&B to recover. They made the call to not go on as signs were not improving and we got the message to pick them up.

SUMMERY
Well I owe a massive thanks to the boys for helping me get as far as I did. To Adam and Graham for carrying my pack on the last few downhills to try and save my knee and keep me in the race - thanks for your efforts and strength. Thanks for understanding the position I was in and being supportive of one of the hardest decision I had to make.

I did have a great race with great memories up until the point I made it. I learnt how diverse the terrain can be in South Africa and learnt that we had to forget looking for the trails, and just armor up with long pants and long shirt and push your way through the thorns as that was the only way to go !! Hano for sure puts on a hard race, with a lot of hours on the feet, with very minimal chances to see our food boxes and water stops ! Had we been prepared a little more with some local knowledge on the terrain and maps, and un-injured then we for sure would have had a good fighting chance. We are prepared to come back in 2 years with a regence and complete this race ! Bigger and tougher ! ha ha

This new team is amazing, I have grown closer to these boys, and we know that we have a very very bright future ahead - also knowing that we have a bit of work to do and learnt a lot from this race.

I am now taking the rest of the year off running, doing everything I can to fix this ITB ready for a strong season next year. Thanks to all those that followed and I can understand the frustration for you with our satellite tracker not working properly and you wondering what happened to us !!

It was a little comforting to know that only 12 teams out of 43 finished the full course - as thats is an indicater of how tough it was ! ha ha - and would have been great to know how we would have ended up had I not been injured.

Many Pictures to come when I arrive back in Canada in a week or two. We are now enjoying driving down the coast line back to Cape Town.

M. x

XPD Race Review - 10 Day Adventure Race Australia

2007-09-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

Its been a big year and now team Helly Hansen / MOMAR is ready for a well earned rest !!

XPD was our final major race for the year and was a 10 day race around the Whitsunday Islands of sunny Queensland, Australia.

There are plenty of photos to come from Gary's camera, and when I receive them I will for sure post them up.

Stage 1

30-50km Kayak/snorkel/run (kayaking isl. to isl. of the whitsundays)

30km Trek (rainforest)

47km Mountain Bike

Stage 2

43km Kayak (Ocean, long sections)

140km Mountain Bike (outback, lots of trail networks, and thorns!)

35km Trek Rogain (lots of peaks, bushwack through waist height spear grass)

160km Mountain Bike (flat start to a climb into Eungella)

Stage 3

43km Trek (Rainforest)

76km Mountain Bike (hilly - long downhilling)

22km Kayak (river)

91km Mountain Bike (fast road section)

90km Trek (Hilly uneven bushlands)

60km Mountain Bike (with a tricky navigation through the cainfields)

Day 1:

30-50km kayak rogain (12 checkpoints to choose from, 1hr penalty if miss 1 cp, 30mins everyone after that, time to be served at end of 2nd day)

30km trek

40km bike

THE GOOD

Gorgeous day for a full day kayak rogain
Kayaking from island to island doing runs up to the peaks to get checkpoints, or swimming along shore snorkeling to obtain other checkpoints
We had a strong first day

THE BAD

We got 4 flats and one broken pump which sets us back a lot of sleep time

So day 1 went great. The day was sunny and wind was low, we didn't' have one long brutal paddle ahead, it was broken up constantly by treks up to the peaks of the islands, and be 3 swim/snorkel checkpoints. We had to obtain as many checkpoints as we choose but got penalised for those we missed. Although missing some checkpoints was accounted for into the sleep strategy for the next night. We had to serve these penalties at the end of the second day paddle in transition, so we decided to miss 2 cp's and take the 1.5 hr penalty to use to plot stage 2 maps, or sleep, or eat, - lots of options.

We hit the main land after about 8-9 hrs of being out on the islands and went into the 30km trek strong. Although soon to feel the onset on nagging injuries already, both Mark and myself were in some serious pain with our ITB tendon. We tried the best we could to run the flats and downhills, and were extremely concerned at how this will affect the long race ahead.

We still made the next TA in good time, and hit the bikes where we felt strong and worked well together. Catching teams and making great time, we get 20km from the end of stage one and a good 3 hr sleep ahead of us before day break where it was a 6am start back in the kayaks. Then Gary's tube blew, we stopped to fix it, we had a broken pump and borrowed those teams now passing us. Nick's tube then blows and within minutes, mine goes. We put in a rubber layer between our tubes and tires to protect from the thorns in the outback stages to come, but they failed to work and actually caused these flats. We then get into transition over an hour later to loose that in our sleep time.

Day 2 - 42km kayak/snorkel/coasteering and 140km mountain bike

We were back on the water for sunrise at 6am, but because of our late arrival into transition after the 4 flats, we decided to take the extra hour sleep to get 2-3hrs in total, and we departed for our full day kayak at 7.15am. There were long stints of paddle sections today, and by the end of it some patients were running thin with those god dame boats not steering straight !! Mark and I had it down pat at the beginning of the day (maybe something to do with having the newer better boat!!), we felt like we were on a cruisy sunday paddle and still keeping in front of the other two.... ha ha, but all that changed when we decided to swap up boats to get it more even in speeds, well I found it not so cruisy then, especially when we hit those hit on strong winds, it was a long haul to mainland at the end of the day !! We had another snorkel, a run/walk up the coast through the day too. We got into Bowen about 4.30pm at a marina, we headed straight for the shop and ordered a big plate of fish and chips !! and plotted our maps for the next legs.

A supposed 105km mountain bike ahead through the night I think ended up being about 140km. Navigating our way through many cattle farms and fainted trails in the dark with a few good climbs. We ran into a bunch of other teams, and after a 2hr sleep on the side of the road we arrived to a point of about half a dozen teams waking up at sunrise, they all made it to that point through the night and couldn't find the right trail to continue on ........... to be continued .........

Apologies - I never did finish this race report ..... Got too busy :-(

12 Hour Mountain Bike Race - 1st Place

2007-08-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

So I had my very first Mountain Bike Race in Australia. We choose to do the 12hr event in a team of 2. It was a 10.5km trail laps and was tag team, so I do 1 or more laps then switch with my team mate when ever I choose. I think nearly everyone went lap for lap. So it was basically a sprint for 30-40mins, with a rest of 30-40mins, repeated for 12hrs - yes a little boring !!

Was a bit hesitant on the first lap, never really ridden on dry dusty trails, those wheels slip out from under you quite easy on those loose sandy corners!

I haven't really done any interval or sprint work on the bike for over a good year - so this killed me - my heart rate through the roof every lap! So we managed 20 laps in the 12hrs, ie 10 each. So a good 100km of interval sprinting with a total of 2400m of climbing each -

Here are the lap break downs (just wanted to publish them as I finally beat Nick and wanted to rub it in !!!)

Nick........ Megs

31.22......35.06
33.38......34.22
34.00......34.57
35.17......35.59
36.42......36.04
38.12......36.20
38.08......37.01
41.13......36.52
50.32......40.51 (in dark)
45.12......39.46 (in dark)

6h25m....6h5m !!

Knew I was in for a fall at some stage, but made it until my very last lap in the dark until 1 min from the finish line, on a somewhat of a straight downhill, and I must of hit a sandy patch, my wheels went out from under me going about 30km/hr + and I hit the ground hard, and my head hit even harder. I could see two lights coming behind me, all I could think is that it might be 2nd place team of 2 mixed, I can't let them pass me ! So without a second delay I jumped back on and rode to the finish, my helmet cracked in a thousand places, my head lamp pointing off into the bush, and grazes and bruises all up me - but we WON !!

Pics to come soon....

XPD in 2 weeks !!

Raid the North Extreme 6 Day Adv Race

2007-07-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

Lets just start by saying luck really hasn't been on our side for team Helly Hansen / MOMAR this year. We were already 2 from 2 of bad luck with Baja Travesia 5 day race, having been rescued from the first day kayak in the crazy pacific ocean to still being the 2nd team to cross the line, to Full Moon In June 36hr, finishing 2nd and again not being accredited it due to bad communication on the race staff behalf, to now making it 3 from 3 in Raid the North Extreme - here is our story (there is ALWAYS a story !!)
The race had turned upside down within 2 weeks, after massive floods and landslides, the original course had to be canned and completely re-done in a matter of 2 weeks. Hats off to the race director and staff to pull this off. This race just turned from a trekking based race to a paddling based race, which for us was not a good thing.
We got the maps the day before the race, and with some thinking outside the square we were trying to flip this back into more trekking for us then paddling. We had to paddle inflatable boats that were extremely slow and were probably just as fast to walk. We come up with this plan to build a set of wheels/trailer to tow our 2 kayaks, and take logging roads towing our kayaks instead of paddling them. This was top secret and was in theory going to be faster!! We get Mark our Helly Hansen rep straight onto the mission of building some wheels. We were taking the full day ferry to the Charlotte Islands to camp the night ready to start the race Monday morning. Mark comes back late Sunday night with this sensational looking set of wheels, we test them with one kayak on, and we are laughing. Other teams too had wheels, but at the time, didn’t look anywhere as good as ours!!
Day 1.
We start 6am Monday morning, we are a solid team, and wanting solid results, we are up against a few top international teams with out a doubt. The kayaks sucked, they are the slowest things ever, no rudder, no steering capabilities, we are zig-zagging all over the place. We are in the second half of the pack, and decided to pull the kayaks out early to run a 4km logging road into the first checkpoint to test out our wheels. The wheels didn’t quite hold up after putting on 2 x 65pound boats, 4 wetsuits, 4 paddles and PFD’s etc. We had issues and MacGyver style attempted to fix the wheels. Hence we came into checkpoint 1 in last place! Ok so we had some making up to do, but it was early days and we were good on our feet. We had a big trek ahead of us. We went from sea level to a 3500 foot peak to checkpoint 2, in this time we made up 17 spots and moved into 5th or 6th. We were moving well, we had to drop back to sea level then cross a 2500 foot saddle. After some sketchy downhill and climbing/scrambling back up, we made it to the saddle on sundown, just enough time to scope out what’s ahead and which way to go. We were going to follow a ridge line and drop down the other side, but the clouds just rolled in and fogged out the ridgeline, and it looked pretty sketchy. The wind was howling. So we decided to drop down the other side of the saddle. The 100foot contours on our map don’t show the 20-80 foot cliffs all around us. Within 10mins we were cliffed out in every direction. We scout the area and there is no way up or craziness down, we continue down some unfriendly terrain using branches and bushed as our life saver from making us fall way below. Hours after hours, of scaling down this insane terrain, and after at one point making the call we were in over our heads and now sure this is the area we really should not be messing with , we crack our radio open to confirm we are ok and there is in fact a way down. To find out there was no radio signal, we were on our own to figure this out. We get past the worst as the sun is rising and we had descended a long way. We once again get cliffed out as 2 rivers merge. We retrace our steps to find a fallen log down over the river to cross at.
We make it out to the beach about 18hours later to what we were told was to be a 5-10hours trek, and were out of food many hours ago. We were excited to get out of the bush to the sandy beach to run into our first transition to then find the sandy beach a big bog zone, ankle deep mud, nothing was on our side !! About 20hrs of trekking later we made transition to food and dry clothes, to find we were the 5th team in. But to also find out they had sent the top 4 teams onto the original course, and were not letting us continue on that course due to extremely wind and unsafe paddling conditions. So from this point on in the race top 4 were no matter what unreachable and put into a separate category. Which really sucked, as the highest position we could now obtain was 5th.
Day 2
So a whole 2 bikes legs, one paddle leg, and a trek leg, was cut out of the race for us and all other teams behind us. We proceeded on bikes straight back to base where we would grab our kayaks and paddle to the south island of Queen Charlottes. The head wind was unexplainable, putting in every ounce of effort to move just the slightest bit forward. We again pull out early on the paddle to test our wheels again as we wanted them for our huge advanced paddle coming up, but to find after 8km of towing them on logging roads, they were indeed not going to work !! We come into next transition still in 5th. And hit the next trek hard. 20km logging road run into the foot of the tallest mountain on the island to climb 3700 feet. We arrive on sundown, and again the unlucky point for us. There was really only one way up this mountain “Mt Moresby”, by a trail that was flagged, as bushwhacking would just lead to too many cliffs. We find the start of the trail with a solid 3hr+ lead still in 5th. The trail crossed a river and we lose the direction of it. We spent all night looking for this trail that was supposedly flagged. The top team came up behind us and we spend another hour or so with them looking, still nothing. 4am – about 6hrs later we find the trail and start to motor up this faint steep trail following the flagging tape we re-found, thinking there is no way other teams are going to find this!! We scramble up this muddy crazy trail that had ropes at times to help pull you up and stop you from falling. We make it to the snow line, and continue up to the saddle. The peak is completely socked in, we can’t see it or see the best way up. We are the very first team up (the top 4 teams are behind us as they did the extra legs at the beginning). Then the sky just opens up and there the peak is right in front of us, we hike up, blow your mind away views. But to then look down below and see a train line of teams right behind us. What had happened was we spent all night looking for the trail, to other teams sleeping and not making it to the trail head until daylight, to then being able to see and finding the trail straight away !! booooo. So anyway, the 3 top teams where right behind us, Dart-Nuun, Yukon Wild, and Team Sole. We had the most fun part of the race here. We foot skied and arse slide all the way down from the peak, screaming and yahoo and moving so so fast sliding on our arse on the steep snow decent past all the 7+ teams hiking their way up!! We hammered down all the muddy trail that was faint to us coming up that was now a huge mud goat trail from all the teams tramping through there behind us, we hammer it into the next TA.

Day 3
This was the breaking point. We had our best transition ever, team sole right on our feet that were in first place and in another category to us, we had a solid 5th place lead. We launch our boats into the water ready for a brutal 12-14hr advanced sections paddle. As we launch our boats, Gary and Chris’s boat gets a 3 inch slit in it from a piece of metal hidden in the rocks, the boat deflated in half a second. It is way too big for a quick patch. We had to sew the outside and glue patch the inside that takes hours to dry. We sit impatiently in transition waiting for our patch to dry while watching team after team come through and leave ahead of us. 5 hours later we leave transition time to make up time again. We get about 5 hours into the paddle and just on dark. Todd’s not feeling well, and is feverish and freezing cold, we hang in for an hour or two but he doesn’t get better. We make the call to go to shore. He is worse then we all thought. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk, he was non-coherent, and freezing. We strip him of his clothes and get warm clothes on him and wrap him in emergency blankets, and build a fire. We crack the radio and radio for assistance. The boat comes to rescue us, we load all our gear on the boat at dark, with all of us now freezing cold. We get taken back to the last transition. We have nothing but our wet wetsuits. The locals of the adventure camp there were the most kindest helpful people ever. Todd gets looked after by the medics and the rest of us get given dry warm clothes from the locals and taken to a room in the camp with a fire and mattress to camp the night to be taken back to base by the first ferry the next morning. The race was over, and we were doing so well.
Day 4
We get taken back to base camp were all teams were to arrive by 4pm for the overnight ferry back to mainland for stage 2. There was endless amazing food there that was continually being brought in by the local community of their generosity of cooking. Todd was still not 100% but getting better as the day went on. We sorted out all our gear, had showers and decided we wanted to continue the race of stage 2 back on mainland in Prince Rupert. We board the 11pm ferry and get some sleep on the over night sailing.
Day 5
Stage 2 – the proving of what Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR really has, our determination and non-quitting attitude.
We have a quick sprint from the ferry to the paddle, first into transition we pump our boats up and are on the water. Our first calm water and wind free paddle went ok, docking into the land about 3hrs later ready for a gruelling portage / boat whack !! ie carrying our boats 8km+ across land to the other side of the channel through overgrown old logging roads, 2 x 65 pound boats, PFD’s, wetsuits, Paddles, backpacks etc. Craziness. Through thick thick scrubs and forest. It was insane, but our team moved fast, we passed the top elite teams !! We then had a steep steep descend back to the water, hauling all this gear down the terrain mostly sliding on our arse. We were second back on the water (although the team ahead only had 3 team members and one boat – unranked team like us!). We start paddling, we get caught by 2 other teams using a drafting line, we jump on board, and give it every ounce of energy we had to keep on the line, we stick for most of it and loose them towards the end. We hustle in transition and are 3rd out on the bikes. A beautiful scenic but terrain boring time-trial ride brought us into the next transition back to paddling just on dark. This had to have been our nicest paddle. Crystal clear smooth glass water, of a 2 hr paddle. A 1km portage into transition at the other end and just 1 trek to the finish line. With Team Sole (top team) behind us, we were trying to hold them off (yes they had done more course then us, and we had more rest then them, but they were still absolute machines and an amazing international team, we still wanted to try to stay ahead of them)!!. We go into the last trek still in 3rd. We find the trail head up the last mountain of the race. A beautiful trail up to the top of a ski hill through the night. We caught 2nd place and motored by. We were moving!! Got to the top, the friendly volunteers at the top and the huge fire was hard to resist, but was knew better to not go near it, and we had a 1hr running descent down a road to the finish, to cross the line 2nd place for stage 2 at 4.30am. Not that is meant anything as we were unranked, but we proved to ourselves and others around us what our team was capable of. We had pizza and coke and showered and hit bed !!

Raid the North Extreme 6 Day Adv Race Pics

2007-07-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

Test of Metal 67km Single Track Mountain Bike Race

2007-07-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

Test of Metal is a race in Squamish (40mins south of Whistler), and is a yearly mountain bike race that sells out in 45mins with 800 participants for this 67km single track craziness of a race.
I was given the in’s and out’s of how to make the race easier with so many participants. The key was to start above mid-pack, hammer as hard as you could up the 20-30mins climb up the road from the start line to get a good position, and then the group bottlenecks into the first single track where you will get a rest through there as everyone gets stuck behind each other and not chance to pass. I did just this, and felt I was in an ok position. With the rain coming down and the course extremely wet and muddy, the race was on its way. The first 45min+ of single track was heaps fun but wanted to pass and move faster. At my first chance of passing I made my move, and then we came to our first real downhill section. The trail was lined with supporters cheering us on, it was overwhelming. We hit what was called nine-mile, which I had not yet experienced, apparently 9mile of complete climbing. Yes it was hard and my bike was not working at the all best with by gears locking up all the time. After 45mins+ of climbing and numbness in the legs and when you just begin to think you are at the top, they throw in an even steeper single track climb to just kick you in the guts!! ha ha. But then it was a sensational downhill, fast at the beginning and very cold, we were hammering it down, then came the technical single track downhill of “Powerhouse Plunge”, I somehow killed this section, was loving every minute of it through the slippery wet muddy track, yahooing and screaming all the way down !!
This is when it hurt, you hit the bottom of the 40min + downhill, and then hit the feed zone where everyone is cheering you through and you can stop to re-fuel, you start to get the legs working after the long downhill, and every single muscle in your legs seises up ............ ahhh never felt anything like it. I push through it, and have one more section left, “crumpet woods” a very up and down trail section, the legs are numb the body it ready to finish but the trails are still super fun. I cross the line and have never felt my legs in so much pain, not even the 3 day race in Costa Rica “La Ruta”. To find out later I placed 1st in my age group 20-29. I was over the moon. Such a fun event and the mecca of single track in BC, Canada. To think now I had to start our 6 day race, one week from now up in Prince Rupert ............. it was time for a recovery week!!

Full Moon Pics

2007-07-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

Full Moon In June 36hr Adv Race - June 2nd/3rd

2007-07-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR were going out for the win in this race. We had a solid team and knew we had what it takes.
It started Midnight Friday night June 2nd. There were 3 advanced sections that each team could choose to do or not to do, each worth 1 point each. This is the first thing that we didn’t agree on, as each were completely different, ie advanced sections 1 took maybe 1hr, advanced section 2 took like 6hrs +, but they were worth the same points, we did not agree to this at all.
Anyway, we hit it out hard, the first night we kept swapping leads with Wild Rose team, who had won this race the last 2 years and where a solid efficient team. We were for sure faster, but they were for sure smarter with fewer navigational mistakes so always got back in front when we made a mistake. It came to day break. We had what we thought was a 4-5 hr trek ahead. After climbing to a breathtaking peak with 360 degree views we descended through the forest of hours and hours of bush waking and crossing a freezing cold river endless times. We came in the next transition after a zipline across a waterfall 9hrs 30mins later. Only 5 teams decided to do this advanced section, and it destroyed us all, it seemed to be a very tedious un-needed too long of a trek. We were 18hrs into the race and all of which had been trekking except the 2-3hr ride. Our feet were a mess. We had the whitewater rafting next, but daylight wasn’t on our side, we were now back in 4th with 3rd in sight, we got on the water at 7pm, with the non self bailing boat, while the team ahead got the bailing boat. The rapids were out of control, we were all in complete shock of how crazy they were in the sense that we didn’t have a guide with us. There was not break to chill, it was constant go go go. We had to move fast as we had to be out of the water at 9.30pm on dark no matter how far we made it, and had to trek along the river what we didn’t make by sun down, so the further we paddled the less we had to trek. We had to stop and bail our boat every 10mins, with one small bailer !!

After getting stuck on rocks, nearly falling out numerous times, and holding on for dear life many other times, we made it to the checkpoint just past the half way point by sundown 9.30pm. We had to be off the water, and then had a 12km trek with our paddles, wetsuits and PFD’s to the next Transition. We arrived about midnight. On to our bikes for a 5hr or so bike ride, we were in about 3rd we thought. We hit the ride hard, and then came into the last trek, the last of the advanced options. We hit the first checkpoint – and this was where the race was lost for us, but not knowing this at the time. We left this checkpoint having the option of heading straight to the finish line, or to do the last advanced. We had 2nd place in the bag if we did the last advanced. We soldiered on, up to 6700 feet yet again. Time was now not on our hands, we had 4 hours to make it back to the finish line for the 36hour cut-off. We hit it hard, we were all hurting big time, and we were counting down the clock as we bush waked our way back. We made it with 20mins to spare. We were so very proud of ourselves and all our team, we fort hard, and dug deep and came 2nd to a very well respected experienced team of Wild Rose.
We left to shower and come back for presentations only to find out they say we are not given 2nd place. They state we missed the last cut off to do the advanced. We had to leave to do the advanced by 7am, we left at 7.20am. The Checkpoint staff failed to tell us that we missed cut off, and the cut off made now sense anyway if we were physically able to make it back in the allocated time. We were furious. To then find out, if the checkpoint staff had of told us we missed cut-off, we would have proceeded to the finish line, with still 2 advanced sections completed and still would have finished 2nd. We were all devistated and very upset with the race staff. But at least the teams around us and we ourselves knew we truly finished in second place.
This race was held south of the Rocky Mountains; it had the most breathtaking views every minute of the race. We were fortunate enough to have my parents visiting from Australia and we had a motor home as our support crew, also along with Todd’s girlfriend Kim, and John’s girlfriend Colleen. Without these guys this race would have been a lot harder, they did and amazing job of providing up with food at transitions, having all our gear layed out, and helping in anyway possible. Thankyou so much guys, you don’t understand how much we appreciated it and we could not ever think of how to repay you guys.

Iron Knee 25km Trail Race - May 26th

2007-07-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

I was a little hesitant doing this race as we had the 36hr Adv Race the next weekend, and this 25km trail race was meant to be grueling. But I couldn't help myself! I went out easy to make sure I didn't bonk in the middle where the crazy big hill climb was. I slowly picked my pace up and feeling great. Hit over the half way mark were the 30min+ climb started and I stayed strong knocking off many others that slowed down to a almost a walk.

The last 6km was a all downhill and I knew that area, I hit it hard and was feeling great, quick stepping my way down the technical trails, I caught a girl right in the last 5mins and powered past so she wouldn't stick with me, I get to the last section of a set of stairs, I see she is right on my hills, once the steps finished it was a road 300m to the finish line, I hit the pavement and accelerated to get my lead, I crossed the line 100m ahead of her, to here them announcing I was 3rd overall female to cross the line, in a time of 2hrs. I was shocked and super excited !! Now I had to recover for next weekend !!

MOMAR

2007-05-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

We just had a great weekend in Squamish for race #1 for the Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race Series. With it's new location of Squamish made it by far a smoother weekend then the 3 we went to on the island last year. But I do have to say, our "Team Giddy Up" last summer did have some eventful fun stories and experience getting to the MOMAR races on the island last year - it was a little sad not to be racing with the normal crew of Lina, Adrian, and Nick ......... I do miss you guys and our funny stories !!

Anyhow - we couldn't have asked for nicer weather ....... finally. Up until a few days out I was racing solo, but then teamed up with Adam. We had what we thought at the time, an interesting start of going the opposite way to 80% of the racers in the first trek/navigation section, to find that all in all we didn't really loose much time. The bike killed me, but after looking at the times the next day, we did pretty good for ourselves, beside Adam being out of sight the second the single track started !! I made him slow down on the climbing otherwise he would have been out of sight on that too !! The second trek was another grewling hike up and up and up hill. Had a short repel in there and then a suburban navigation to the finish, where our math skills didn't help us in the slightest !! Oh and we managed to pull in a 1st Place for team of 2 co-ed and 10th overall out of about 100+ teams, so not a bad weekend.

http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/past_races/race_results/2007_MOMAR_001_raceresults.pdf

7 Min Baja Video

2007-05-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here is the links to a 7min Video I made on the Baja Travesia Adventure Race. I had to break it into 3 parts to get it all on You Tube (watch in order !! Parts 1 -3 ). "You need to crank your music to watch it, as it adds to the effect !!! And if your computer is slow at downloading you might have trouble watching it without it pausing !!

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8B69BA7F270EE59C

Baja Mexico Photos Are Here ...

2007-05-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ok the pics are finally here, click on this link and it will take you to my album of all our Baja Mexico Race Photos, enjoy........http://picasaweb.google.com/meganjrose/BajaTravesiaMexico5DayAdventureRace

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR- On Prime Time TV !

2007-05-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's now offical, we are going to be on Prime Time TV in Canada. Our major race that is end of June up in Prince Rupert, 6 day Raid The North Extreme, is going to be televised on the Global Channel and we are going to be the featured team on this broadcast, due to Helly Hansen being the offical apparel and footwear provider for the event. Here is the write up from the source itself ...............

Raid the North Extreme signs apparel provider Helly Hansen

April 30, 2007, Prince Rupert, BC: Frontier Adventure Racing Inc. (Frontier) has signed performance and technical wear expert Helly Hansen as the official apparel and footwear provider for this year’s only true expedition style adventure race in North America: Raid the North Extreme in Prince Rupert, B.C.

Helly Hansen is as tough as the competition will be during the week-long race through some of Canada’s more diverse terrain. Helly will be providing performance HH Dry shirts with LIFA® Stay Dry technology for all competitors and volunteers as well as outfitting race staff, medics, and the television production crew with appropriate apparel and footwear to stay warm, dry, and safe.

“Helly Hansen has long been an integral part of the gear closet for most adventurers, and their association with Raid the North Extreme (RTNX) solidifies the quality of their product. They understand the value of integration with an event of this magnitude,” says race director Geoff Langford. “We will be giving Helly products a chance to perform on the backs of competitors, as well as race management and safety teams, and the television production crews.”

Helly Hansen will also be sponsoring a team competing in this year’s race. Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR based out of British Columbia, who finished well at both Primal Quest last year and the Baja Travesia recently, will all be wearing the latest Helly Hansen performance wear.

"We are all very excited that Frontier has chosen the rugged northern B.C. coast for it's 07 race. 'Extreme' has a long standing tradition of providing exceptional race courses over incredible terrain,” said Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR captain Gary Robbins. “The selection of Prince Rupert as this years host city has once again shown Frontier’s ability to find remote and challenging, yet accessible terrain to host a truly stellar event. We are all counting down the days until our biggest event of the year!"

Helly is recognized for its classic yet progressive look but is known for its technologies. This season is no exception. Safety and performance are pushed throughout the line. High visibility elements are featured in jackets, jerseys and footwear for trail and water sports. High-end performance products are introduced for dedicated sailors and adventure racers. And highly breathable LIFA® Stay Dry technology is incorporated into a wide range of water sports and trail jackets, jerseys and shoes to cool and comfort when it gets wet and hot.

“Raid the North Extreme puts Helly Hansen in its element,” said Marshall Rutman, Helly Hansen North America’s marketing manager. “Helly has produced apparel designed to comfort and protect in the world’s toughest work and expedition environments for 130 years. The RTNX course will test the will and strength of the adventure athletes. Clothes and footwear that keeps them comfortable in difficult conditions will be imperative for performance and safety reasons. It’s a privilege to be associated with the event and will be a thrill to watch and see who wins.”

2007-05-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last Trek Short Video

2007-04-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYPPQ0WDj9c

30 sec video of the scenery of our last trek to the ocean......

Kayak Section Video

2007-04-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

This is a short video that the winning team Dart-Nuun made of the kayak section, this was just the visible stuff from shore, none of the crazy stuff off shore ........ although this was crazy enough in itself .............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0PYIsrmzSE

Baja Travesia 2007 - An Event To Be Talked About For Years To Come....

2007-04-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

What an experience of excitement, adrenaline, life threatening, outrages, perseverance, accomplishment and the list could go on...................

Our team "Helly Hansen / MOMAR" were the 2nd team to cross the finish the line in this 5 day adventure race. We come in the afternoon of the 4th day feeling great. Although we were the 2nd team to cross the line behine Dart-Nuun, we didn't offically get the 2nd place title.

There are many stories to be told and there are many reports on Sleep Monsters
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=lea&race_id=3936
and the MOMAR site http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/blog/blog.htm

But here it is first hand

PRE-RACE
All pre-race stuff went smooth, the weather was gorgeous, the waves were small for our kayak surf entry and exit testing and had fun playing around in the waves with our kayaks, and the climbing/repeling testing was all good. We have a pre-race meeting the day before the start date. We get warned there is a massive storm hitting california and that we may get the tail end of it and keep up to dates with weather reports, as will affect our kayak start leg.

Race Breakdown (if you didn't get lost or go the wrong way!!!)
57km kayak
50km mountain bike
17km trek (bush wack)
58km mountain bike
14km trek
28km mountain bike
20-30hr mountaineering
100km dune buggy
12km desert trek14km kayak

DAY 1
We were ready to go hard. The weather report looked not so good but the sun was trying to shine. We started in a calm bay and we were off. 10mins into it, we left the calm bay to head straight into 15-24foot swells and 80km-hr winds. I had a huge smile on my face thinking this is sooo much fun, crazy huge waves in this little tiny kayak, but that smile didn´t last long! We had a total of 57km to do in the kayak which would be 8hrs+, we got to our first checkpoint in about 6th place, then headed on. All those teams ahead of us had 3 person kayaks, a lot more stable and solid for those conditions, we had 1 double with me and gary and one single with todd.
Gary then spewed a few times from sea sickness and then we continued. This is where the carnage began. We proceed around the next point to come into a small bay for the next checkpoint, as we come around the massive swells are now hitting us from behind and it becomes harder, the 4inches of water in our kayaks that we were sitting in didn't help for our stability. I couldn´t believe we were out there, the condition were crazy and the water was freezing and wind was freezing. Todd capsized and recovered himself, he then goes again, and we help him empty the water out of the boat, 2 mins later, he goes over again, we help him again, all in while we are slowly or should i say rather quickly are getting swept to the opposite point. He is back in, then we capsize, we can´t bail the water out in time with the water just rushing back in from the waves, we start to get concerned of how close we are getting to the rocky point-cliff. So we just sit in the emerged kayak and try to paddle just to get out of there. That didnt work, we are now going into mild hyperthermia, and about 50m from the rocky point that the swells were smashing up against, we realise we are not in a good situation, we send todd into the bay for help, gary and Iare in the water hugging the kayak, freezing and worried. We decided to let ourselves be taken into the rocks and keep the boat between us and the rocks to aviod being smashed up. We move now where, we are floating in one spot. We then know we can´t stay in the water any longer with hyperthermia. We decide to ditch the boat and swim into the point, we get about 20m out, and we too a in a lull spot, we swim as hard as we can and we move nowhere. The waves are smashing into the rocks and we are that cold we feel like we can´t even kick. I then get pulled away from garyin a matter of seconds and into some rocks just off the cliff. I swim as hard as I can to the rocks, a wave then picks me up and smashes me into the rocks, I try to grab on, but then it sucks me back out and then picks me back up and smashes me again against the rocks, I can´t feel my body. I then get sucked under, and it was at this point I knew I was in extreme trouble and visioned the movies of how people die from this etc. I honestly was not confident I was going to make it out of there alive, and this was no joke. I then manage to hold on the to rocks on the next hit and avoid being taken back out, I look around and see the next wave coming, I run with every ounce left I had in my body up the rocks to aviod the next wave. I made it .............. gary are my next thoughts, he is about 5m from some other rocks, same thing happens to him, then I look up and see about 8 local mexicans running down the cliffs to help us, we are shivering out of control, they help us up to saftey ripping our clothes off and giving us dry jumpers and pants etc. We both just got worked, with blood and bruised and cuts all over us. The mexicans put us in the back of their van to drive us down to the bay to the checkpoint we were trying to get to. I see our kayak upside down 20m out from the rocks, we are avoiding the thought that we knew it was about to get smashed into pieces with the swell but at that stage we are just happy to get out of that alive and we would deal with the kayak later (we loaned it off someone, so a MASSIVE expense if it got ruined). We found out from a local that there are crosses above the point of all the people that have died on that point over the past.
We are now down with staff in the bay at checkpoint 2. As other teams come into the bay, no'one is going back out in those conditions. We got word we could continue on with the race but would be marked unranked as we could not finish the kayak stage due to our kayak being unsavable in those conditions. We warm up, get over the trauma, and our beaten up, bloodied, bruised and cut bodies and get driven to the bike leg, where we were not allowed to leave until the last team came in from the kayaks. Both mine and garys backpacks with all our mandatory gear were in the kayak still and we could not continue on without this stuff. Due to the generousity of the people around, we managed to be leant everything we needed.
We start on the first bike leg into the night.

So we found out later that only 11 out of the 20 teams continued on after checkpoint 2 in the kayak, the rest went to unranked. The navy had their boat out helping with rescues and the coast guards closed the course to letting anyone go back up in the kayaks. Three teams were still missing after dark. I found out the 8 boats got smashed into pieces at various points and rocks behond checkpoint 2, that there were many others that got into a lot of trouble with rocks and hyperthermia too. One of the smashed boats was from a wave picking them up and as it broke over them it snapped their kayak in 2 pieces. One team was stranded overnight at some fishermans place. It was absolutely crazy, we should not have been out their and the race directors needed to think of an alternative plan.

As for our boat, we found out later that the current took the kayak back out to the ocean and dragged it around the point and then our tow rope on it got hooked to a randam buoy and it was safe from the rocks, the Navy boat then went and rescued it. That just saved us over $2500. Somone was looking over us that day !

Day 1 - Night
So we started back in the race with a 50km bike ride going into the night. We had to wait for the last team to get off the kayak before we were allowed to start. My battery for my crazy good bike light I just brought was in my pack that was in the kayak that was still in the ocean, so was going off my head lamp until that died half way through the ride, it was nearly a full moon, and was a gorgeous night so most of the ride i just went off my team mates lights or the moon light! it was mentally hard that night, to think what we just went through and to know how much i had ahead to get through, really not sure how i was physically going to do it. We did pretty good in this stage, got off track a few times, but had heaps of teams around us throughout the night, and we always help each other find our way. Thats what i love about adventure racing, the people are just so nice, everyone is always willing to help other teams and work together even though we are racing against each other.
We managed to break away from the 6 or so other teams at the end of the ride. Gary had a fall and broke his brand new waterproof camera he just got, it still worked but no longer waterproof, oh and my new ipod i got off ebay a few days before the race is out floating in the pacific ocean somewhere. And at this stage still thinking all our packs gear and kayak were gone forever, we were beginning to think this has become a very expensive race, but kept our spirits high and just had to laugh about it all.

After the ride we went into a 17km, bushwack trek. Todd nailed the navigational side of this and we progressed in passing teams, although towards the end we made a bit of a detour up the wrong valley, but recovered, found another team on course, worked together to get the last checkpoint at sunrise, and treked back into next transition with the other team.

Day 2

Feeling good, not tired, we jumped onto our bikes for a 58km ride, through the day, scenery was beautiful and changing all the time, we were making great time, but the end of this ride was riding into the mountains and the hill did not end, we were riding up hill for hours, but again the views around were breathtaking. Gary helped my a lot on this climb by towing me. What all teams do for the female is hook up a toe device on our bikes so there is a bungy cord from the back of his bike to the front of mine, so as we ride up hill he is helping me by pulling me up as i still pedal to the best effort I can.
So we got into the transition into third place, totally shocked with our placing, with 3-4hours of sunlight ahead of us to get through our next 17km trek. But our gear boxes had not arrived yet. We had to wait at that transition for over 2 hours for our boxes to arrive with our treking gear and shoes in it, so we got about a 30min nap in someones car while we waited, and by the time they arrived we only had a few hours of sunlight left. We got credit the 2hr 10mins back for having to wait. So moved fast on this stage too, a flat easy navigational section to our bikes again at the base of the mountain we had to climb next.
We came into transition in 3rd, and 2nd placers were having a few hour sleep here so we moved on and left in 2nd place. we had a 28km bike climb to about 2000m?? transition was not where it was meant to be and the signs they left in the trees didn´t match up to where we were meant to come in at. Transition ended up being the tent and car we had just passed, with us thinking it was just some randam people camping, it was in the middle of the night so there was no activity, the volunteers where sleeping!! it was cold and they got the fire going. The biggest leg was ahead of us through the canyon. We just found out we took the wrong route on the bikes and missed a checkpoint, but we are unranked anyway, and we ended up doing a harder route than we were meant to !! but this brought the spirits down a bit.

Day 3
We left into the 20-30 canyon trek early morning maybe about 3am with the race director, she was going through the canyon to check on her volunteers in there, she could not tell us which way to go though, we still had to navigate our way and she just followed. We were in some solid thick scrubs just riping our legs and arms apart on the sharp branches and thorny bushes and moving so slowly, we needed to find clearer terrain to get through but could not see until light. After about 1hour, we make the call to have a 1 hour sleep until day light, and the race director then moved on the canyon (probably our biggest mistake from not staying with her, as when we moved on we got soooo lost!!) but we had a sleep, well Todd did, me and gary were way too cold to sleep, the worst time to sleep is early morning at its coldest. We pushed on at day break, and as i said we went off route and had no idea on where this check point was meant to be at the top of canyon. We treked through thick sharp thorn like scrub for 12hrs, which should have been about 6hrs, pretty much all up hill. We absolutely distroyed ourselves in this section taking the wrong route, this is when teams would normally start to snap at each other, tired, lost, and not knowing where to go next, but we did great and just kept pushing on. We were so relieved when we finally found the checkpoint. (this was after we treked up another hill to a fire we could see in the distance thinking it was our checkpoint, to only find it was a bushfire). We were extemely suprised to find we were still ranked high in 5th place, with 3rd place there with us at the top of the canyon, there had been a lot of teams right behind us, so they either all got lost too or had a 3hr or so sleep. it was about mid afternoon and we had to try and move through as much canyon as we could in the daylight. We absolutely motored through the canyon, had about 8 -10 repels we had to do. This section was breathtaking, so amazing. The terrain changed every few minutes. Some of the repels were straight overdrop hangs, some where angled walls, and some straight into a pool of water at the bottom. By the time we got to the water ones it was night and cold. Although we could feel the temp getting warmer as we were descending. So every water drop we would change into minimal clothes and repel down, then change back into our dry warm clothes. By the last water drop gary desides he doesnt want to get back into his wet underwear, he decides to repel down naked !! lucky it was at night!! The very last water one was an optional slide down the rockface into the water with 30m swim out or repel into the water or a dangerous scale the canyon wall with no ropes to stay dry. It was mabye 1am by this stage and we were done with being cold and choose the scaling the wall option to stay dry. Wow was that scary and dangerous but fun! and we made it safely somehow! The full moon just light up the canyon and its walls all night it was amazing. our last repel at the bottom was onto some nice soft sand, we were now pretty much through the canyon and in 2nd place after passing 3 teams through there. It was so peacful and warm, wind free, and comfortable on the sand, this is where we should have slept for an hour or two to wait for day break to get out, but we just wanted to push onto the next transition. We exited the canyon, and couldnt find the transition, we searched for about an hour and then decided to wait for day break and slept for about an hour, again cold in the wind, and I maybe got about 30min ressless sleep out of it.

Day 4
We wake of 5am, and searched endlessly for this tranisition, we kept calling out through the scrub and trees, TA7 (transition 7), and we finally got a response, they were so hidden in little enclosed scrub area with a mexican flag that we saw 45min earler posted up on the hill above (if they had of had a baja travesia flag we would have known!!!)
They had food and drinks for us here, unlike at any other transition, i was so thankful as i was running out of food. We were still in 2nd and we had a huge feed packed our bags up with food and had what was now the easier part ahead to the finish. Car rally for 2-3hrs, a 13km trek of 2-3hr, and a kayak to the finish, we knew now we would be done by sundown. Our driver takes up to his rally car, expecting one of the dune buggy rough things, instead we get taken to a 2 door 4wd ute with a canopy on the back that has a mattress in the pack with pillows and an esky with food. We couldn´t believe it, so todd goes up front to navigate the driver were we had to go and me and gary pass out in the back for 2 hours, this was my first real sleep since we started 4 days ago, i was out cold over the bumpy rough terrrain. Todd and gary swapped so todd could sleep for a bit. 3 hours later, we were into our last trek across a flat straight desert to the ocean. We moved fast swapping from jogging to treking. The ocean came in view, and it was the most amazing parts of the race, we look back and we see the flat desert we were crossing with the huge 2500m mountains in the background that we just hiked up and came down through the canyon and then the ocean in front of us, making it feel all surreal that we just did that and were about to finish, and finish in 2nd. We made it to the ocean with the hopes that both our kayaks had been delivered there for us. We had one and the race directors organised someone elses for us. The water was rough and winding by nothing compared to the other side 4 days ago. We had a head wind and were against the current, and our destination just didn´t seem to get any closer to us, but we didnt stop paddling until the end. (when i woke up this morning to see the calm still glassy ocean I was so mad to think why couldnt it have been like that yesturday to finish our paddle with !!)
No this is the funny bit. We knew the town we were paddling into but not what part of the beach the finish was, as we finally got closer we could see a whole bunch of people on the beach and music and someone on microphone, and cheering, and we were all so overwelmed that with the welcome and support we were getting and for being the second team in, as we got to shore, and could see better, we started laughing, as we realised all the cheering and people was for a beach vollyball competition on the beach, our moment of fame had been taken from us !!! we look up the beach and see a saloman flag (one of the races sponseres) and realised that was our finishing point, so we get back in our kayaks to paddle up the beach 100m, with what was a smaller welcoming finish then what we thought we were getting down the beach at the vollyball comp !!!

But we were done. I suprisingly felt great. showered, which felt like a million dollars, ate a pizza then came to email the family and Nick, and thats where i crashed, i had to keep re-reading my sentances as couldnt think what i just wrote and i fell asleep looking at the screen and zoning in and out, so then went straight to bed!

Finish
So all in all, we missed out on the $2000 second prize money, but were overwelmed to here that our kayak was not destroyed like the 8 others, and that we got our packs and gear back that were in the kayak, and that we all made it safe to the finish line. So now going to lay in the warm sun on the beach for the afternoon and watch other teams come in. We went from hyperthermic the first day, to cold through the night, to hot during the day, to freezing in the high mountains to the extremely hot sweltering desert trek. Crazy conditions. This was no normal adventure race, this was exteme, with dangerous conditions throughout, the kayak and down the canyon etc, unlike all others, what an amazing experience.

Baja Travesia 5 Day Adventure Race

2007-03-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 20th
So the time has come. My very first expedition race. 4 Sleeps until I fly to Mexico, to the warm and hopefully sunny Baja. I can't wait to leave the none stop rain in Canada!
So my goal for this race is to make it through it. I have no idea what my body is going to do and how it is going to handle it. So I have no thoughts on placings etc, just to finish and experience it, learn from it and to be ready to kick some butt in the races mid-year when I will be in prime shape !! I am extremely excited to paddle the coast of baja (although the water temp is a lot colder then I thought it would be), and I am excited to rapel and travel through a canyon of 20-30hrs worth that no-one has ever been through before. My team mate Gary just brought a waterproof digital camera, so there will be plenty of photos to share when we finish.
If you are wanting to keep track throughout the race you can do this through the website www.bajatravesia.com and follow team mindovermountain, or if they have updated our name it will then be helly hansen / mind over mountain. Don't expect any great results ......... but who knows this body might do better then expected (thats what I hope for anyway!!)
Will write and post some pics of the race when I return after April 3rd.

Dirty Duo

2007-03-06T19:43:00.000-08:00

Dirty Duo Race

Went down to North Vancouver for the Dirty Duo race on Saturday. There were a bunch of events to choose from, a 50km trail run, a 25km trail run, a 30km mountain bike, a team relay combining the run and ride, or solo (do both the 25km trial run and 30km mountain bike), and thats the one that I opted to do, why I asked myself at the start line, "do I choose the hardest one??". I told myself it was to challenge myself and get a great day of training in for Mexico !!! So anyway the trail run was first on this cold raining morning, it involved a lot of climbing and some great technical descending (which is where a few of us broke away from the pack). Coming in at the end of the run at 2hrs 44mins in 2nd place, I was not really looking forward to the ride. The mountain bike course was wet, muddy, and technical. But all in all I was happy with my efforts, the uphill was slow and painful, but the downhill made up for the pain, and I had some great fun descending in the crazy conditions. I was thankfull to cross the finish line in 3rd place, tired, soaked to the bone, and layered in mud !!

Here is the link to the write up through MOMARS website: http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/blog/blog.htm

4th Dimension Adventure Race Results

2007-03-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

Our first "Mind Over Mountain Team" race together went pretty well. We went down to Washington State to do a 4-7hr Winter Adventure Race. Really is was just running and snowshoeing. We finished with a 2nd place, behind Dart-Nuun (a well respected fully sponsored USA national team). We would have actually been up close to finishing with them if we didn't get off track on our navigating so much. So it was great to know our teams fitness is not bad !! The navigating was actually pretty technical, there were a lot of beginner teams out there and they were getting extremely lost, and many teams didn't finish. Some teams were still looking for Checkpoint 3 when we had finished - there were 19 checkpoints, poor people !! The race started with me losing one of my gloves in the first 5mins, then about 15mins into it we jumped a creek, my foot got soaked in freezing water, but after that it was all good !!

Kayak Training

2007-03-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

Took some pic's out on my Kayak session this morning. It was a gorgeous day, and was a great change from the constant rain or snow. I one week Squamish has transformed from endless snow all over the roads and trails, to now most of it gone, which makes it easier for training. Anyhow enjoy the pic's from this morning. The 10min hard slog walking with the kayak from my place to the river is somewhat harder then the kayak itself !!!

Events Calendar

2007-03-06T19:06:00.000-08:00

Events Calendar

Our Team Is Sponsored By Mind Over Mountain and Helly Hansen, So In Most Of These Races, That Is What Our Team Name Is (MOMAR/Helly Hansen), Just Incase You Are Looking Up Our Progress & Results On The Website Links Etc .......................

February

3rd * Dimension Winter Adv Race: Snoqualmie, Washington USA 4hr - 7hr Race http://4thdar.com/races.aspx

March

3rd * Dirty Duo Duathlon: Vancouver * Off road 25km trail run & 30km Mountain Bike Race http://www.dirtyduo.com/
27th - 31st * Baja Travesia: Baja Mexico 5 Day Adventure Race * Mountain Bike, Kayak, Trek, Dune Buggy www.bajatravesia.com

April

15th * Vancouver Sun Run: Vancouver 10km City Run http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/sunrun/index.html

May

6th * Vancouver Half Marathon: Vancouver, 21km City Run http://www.bmovanmarathon.ca/hm/
12th * Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race Series: Squamish 1 day http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/

June

2nd - 3rd * Full Moon In June Adventure Race: Fernie, BC * 36hr Race * Televised Event http://www.fmij.com/

16th * Test of Metal Mountain Bike Race: Squamish * 67km Mtn Bike Race of Single Track Trails http://www.testofmetal.com/

25th - 30th * Raid The North Extreme: Prince Rupert, BC * 6 Day, 500km Event * Mtn Biking,Trekking, Kayaking, Fixed Ropes * http://www.raidthenorth.com/rtnex.html

July

7th * Mind Over Mountain Adv Race: Shawnigan, Vancouver Island * 1 Day http://www.mindovermountain.com/momar/

August

22nd - 31st * XPD Adventure Race: Whitsunday Islands, Australia * 10 Day, 700km Race * Mountain Biking, Trekking, Kayaking, Snorkeling, Sailing, Ropes http://www.xpd.com.au/