MOMAR RECAP

This past weekend, Tiff and I headed up to Squamish, BC one of the most well known recreation areas in Canada for a Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race. It was our first adventure race of the year so we didn't really knowwhat to expect of ourselves or the course. On the way up, after meeting in Burlington Tiff decided he didn't want to ride his old bike (see picture), so we stopped off at Fairhaven Bike & Ski and he bought himself a 2007 Specialized Epic.

Once on the road again it was a quick trip to the Howe Sound Brewery for registration and then off to Alice Lake Campground to set up our tent for a bit of shut eye. It rained most of the night, yet remained optimistic that the clouds would hold off for the event. We awoke to the sound of the old alarm clock, so we rolled out of the sleeping bags, got dressed, made some oatmeal and broke for the race start at Quest University. Absolutely beautifully located with peaks all around the campus. Finally, race time arrived at 9:00 and we lined up at the starting line. It was a running Lemond start to seperate the teams a bit. My guess is about a 1-1 1/2 mile loop to the bikes. Where it turned into a sprint up hill to the hike a bike section and a transition to the orienteering section. The "o" section was about 10k in distance and was a mix of logging roads and single track trail.

From there it was back to the bikes where we climbed to cp 10 and started our 'epic' decent. Between bending my rear disc and watching Tiff's endo's nothing was quite like this 15 mile section of the race. Once rallying down Powerhouse Plunge it was onto another trekking section that would take us to the 100' rappell (why is it the really cool stuff, comes and goes so fast?). This was a great rappel that would definitely challenge even the so called experienced climber. Once off the ropes, we hustled back to the bikes for the final push to the finish.

We ended up finishing in 6hr 30min (just 2:25 behind the overall winners) placing 32nd out of 100+ teams and 13th out of 28 in our division. All in all, it was a great race and a great way to start out our racing season.