BC - XC Marathon Series # 4

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

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

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