Big Dog Racing Team Rocks the MOMAR!

After breaking my ankle I was sitting (yet again) on the lumpy sofa feeling a little down, and a touch hostile towards the world of the normal walking people. Since I couldn't do anything, I figured I might as well just sit, watch more stupid movies and eat. I like eating. And if you're on the couch injured YET AGAIN it becomes very very tempting.

So I looked at the calendar and thought, if I don't eat my weight in cookies right now, I can do the MOMAR. And then I didn't eat the WHOLE bag of cookies, and I got on the trainer cast 'n all (crutch to side of trainer, slide casted leg over, drop crutches, wiggle up onto bike seat, start pedalling). The cast came off mid August, and I headed outside shortly afterwards. The YANA ride was my first test, and it went well, so on to the running bit. I managed 3 runs prior to the MOMAR, more than enough?

MOMAR morning was cold, foggy and drizzling, perfect day for playing in the woods. The paddle was really pretty with dense fog highlighting all the colours of the boats. Chris and Chanace paddled one boat and Joan and I paddled the other - and due to the last minute arrangement for me to be back on the team I have only paddled a double boat once (last year's MOMAR) and never with Joan. Next year we'll practice a bit first I think. We got off to an interesting start where Joan's paddle fell apart and we careened wildly into everyone else while she tried to put her paddle together an steer at the same time. Sorry fellow paddlers! Every few minutes she would put it back together and it would function for a bit.....  but we got to the end of the paddle leg without being completely thrashed and more or less as a team, which was the main objective.

The map for the rest of the course had me wondering if this was a 24 hr race...  The run started at the lake, down the road to the entrance to Pity The Fool and straight up the mountainside, along a trail and up to a lookout, up a road where Chris did her best nav of the day. Everyone was running up the road but on the map there was a "gravel road" intersection. We were on a gravel road, and the trail to the side didn't really deserve the same line on the map, but Chris said emphatically "IN HERE" - so we followed. This was the right way, sadly inconveniencing the large number of people that ran up the road instead, some going MILES out of the way. The "trail-road" ran up and then past the entrance to Grub, the highest trail in Cumberland, and the next checkpoint was on Grub. Down Grub we went, slippery rocks, wet roots, moss - and no trips or falls thank God! Then to the Lookout just past Stub and down the road to the top of the downhill course. Down the DCDH almost to the road, up to the exit of Mama Bear's on a logging road, down the road to Cumberland and down to Village Park. PHEW!

The uphill run was fine, especially with trails this steep where it wasn't really a "run" but a fast hike. The road just about killed me, and I may not have been the only person who hugged my bike at the Park.

The bike was great! Obviously I'm much more of a biker than a runner - but it was so much fun. Up to Bear Buns, down that trail to Sykes Bridge, up to lower Thirsty, down Thirsty to Teapot to Shortline, Blue Collar and then out through Cumberland to Cherry Picker, a bit of wandering around in the shrubbery, riding back for a checkpoint, out to the Lake and stash the bikes again. My favourite part of the ride was as we 'cleared' the downhill on Railway with an assertive "Rider's UP" and rode down and up the other side to the cheering of a group of women walking the steep section.  We did look pretty cool, 4 women wearing red ripping up the downhill/uphill and off to the finish!

The last orienteering at the Lake was brilliantly done! I say this knowing I had NO hand in the directions - which is why it went so well. We picked up every checkpoint easily and I don't think we went a step in a wrong direction, which is good because I was getting a bit hobbly by now.

The finish line came just in time. I could have paddled or biked some more, but I was really done with the running thing. And it was time for Nutella and banana sandwich. Time was 7 hours and ?minutes, which put us in first place for team of 4 women and got us some great sunglasses, an adventure race super-towel and some cool socks. And the glory of course! At the after race banquet we got to cheer on many friends on the podium and see a lot of people I seem to see only at races, and that was very nice as well.

It was a GREAT race! Awesome teamwork, as we pushed, pulled, carried gear, drafted each other and otherwise fought together to get the team to the finish. Amazing navigation meant we didn't go any further than we had to, and I'll have to include my ortho surgeon on my Christmas list. None of us could have done this on our own, and it was a great day of running around the woods.

Way to go Team Big Dog!

nashville, tennessee

For anyone who's ever sat in the South Terminal of Vancouver's Airport for several hours it will come as no surprise that I have a little bit of time on my hands. Where the Main Terminal at least has some miles you can walk and stores wanting to tempt you with food, books, chocolate and other witchcraft, the South Terminal has......  termites maybe, but that's it.


But that leaves me, tired as I am, some time to type. I just read Andrew and Lina's blogs about China - very cool and very daunting all in one! I have no pictures, but will try to keep this entertaining.


I have two updates. The first is our ongoing Momar team complications. The momar is this coming Saturday, and back in the spring we decided to have a kick-ass team of 4 women - Joan, Chris, myself, and....    an unknown fourth. We found Chanace in early July - fast, happy, unflappable as far as I can tell - perfect. Then I broke my ankle. Crap. So the team found another fourth. Who was in for a few weeks until her doctor told her not to race. So the team found another fourth. Who recently developed pneumonia and although she thought she'd be better she cancelled Monday. So I'm doing the Momar. Unless I have a horrible accident before the weekend or I ask my doctor's opinion. Don't tell Marc.


The other update is my trip to Nashville, Tennessee. The reason I went to Nashville was the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Conference which is held every year, and I've gone every second year - New Orleans (cool!) Chicago (umm..... well okay) and now - Nashville.


I think Andrew and Lina probably have more luck finding vegetables in China than I did in Nashville. The conference center was wisely placed about 10 miles out of the city, to be sure that no attendees could shirk the hotel's restaurants and provide for themselves. I think any competition at all might have emptied the hotel restaurants immediately, so I can see why they did this.


I did head downtown twice over the 5 days. The first trip involved an enthusiastic technician that persuaded everyone we need to go to Coyote Ugly after dinner. I haven't seen the movie, but was pretty sure I was outclassed on the party-ability. I was, but it was the most interesting bar I have ever been to. And since I didn't have a say in the matter I could just be the innocent bystander to the train wreck.


The bar had slutty bartender girls dancing on it, and once in a while they would "let" a girl or two from the audience on stage, then kick her off 30 seconds later. They don't want to be upstaged I don't think. The enthusiastic tech got on the bar only to remember she'd forgotten to put on a vital piece of clothing, and therefore would not be able to dance without potential legal implications, so she hopped off pretty soon. She was probably back on later in the night, but thankfully I was back in the hotel sleeping by then.


No one else in the bar was dancing - they were standing about 8 rows deep staring at the Trash-sisters. The average male patron was at least 40, wearing a dirty worn out sweatshirt preferably with a Harley Davidson logo, and grungy jeans, and was a minimum of 50 lbs overweight. The average woman was the same - dirty, sweatshirt, jeans - but then the occasional woman was trashed up as far as humanly possible, and generally accompanied by a fat man wearing a sweatshirt....  There was a giant tinfoil casserole dish behind me with what appeared to be Chef Boyardee - maybe they have to serve food? At one point the senior's bus must have stopped by because there was a sudden influx of 70 and 80 year olds, who were having a marvellous time. I guess in the States little girls don't want to be the belle of the ball or the princess, they apparently want to be the trashy chick on the bar. Kind of like stripper bar meets truck stop, and now I don't need to see the movie.


The second night I went out with Stacey, Blair and Melissa from the Victoria Emerg Clinic where I worked and it was SO good to see them! We had dinner, almost explored the red light district (by accident, but it's only one block long) and went on a memorable if really painfully bad "ghost walk". Our tour guide almost got beaten up by two black kids that changed their mind in the last minute, but overall it was uneventful with no ghosts apparitions.


Overall the lectures were excellent, and I feel motivated and very smartened up. Seeing the Victoria crowd (including some other ex-Vic. people) made me miss the place very much, but then I guess we'll just have to catch up two years from now. Hopefully not in Nashville.


The flight home has been a bit long - I took a voluntary detour in exchange for a Continental Airlines credit and a $12 dinner credit. Nashville 7:00 pm - Charlotte, NC - Newark NJ in at 1240 am - 0700 to Vancouver - 14:30 to Comox. I was going to be overnight in Newark anyway to avoid another hotel night and still be able to get out of there.


If you ever need to sleep in the Newark airport - there's a 6 foot high metal box that's pretty clean on top and overall rather comfy. You look down on the heads of the security walking by, which made me want to yell "boo" but then I didn't, which is probably why I'm in Vancouver now.


Now, a nap, another flight (the fourth for the return trip) and I'll be back home. YAY!!! Goodnight.

Labour Day in Tyax

Tyax - the mythical campground in the Chilcotins with biking, swimming, the International Vancouver Connection....

Friday night saw us running for a ferry, pretty sure it wasn't going to happen.... and then - when we rolled in 3 minutes before the ferry was to leave we drove into the parking lot - and onto the ferry. I had to take a picture because that was soooooo unusual. And lucky! We rolled into Tyax at 1:30 am, asleep by 2am. 

The crew organizing after a brief drive up a logging road from the campground.

A leisurely 8 hr ride saw us riding up into the alpine. A long climb starts the day!

Miss Pippa SuperStar

Kala heading up the alpine meadow

Dr Seuss planted us some wildflowers

Margaret surveying the Kingdom

Maptime

 The way we came

Ugly place

Marc hopped on the floatplane the next morning for the shuttle to green Warner Lake.

Work calls, gotta go. 

the bad news about television

Everyone always said watching television is bad for you - and I completely agree. Last week I was on the couch proudly celebrating my cast-free followed by first road ride, second road ride followed quite rapidly by first mountain bike ride days - and watching television. Marc had found a documentary about an adventure race in South Africa, and the local team was carrying photo gear and providing commentary. The race started on foot and progressed through various stages including two 150 km mountain bike stages, a 5 hour paddle, several 5 hour bush wack hikes and such for about 5 days. The team slept once at a mandatory stop for about 2 hours, and once took a 10 minute nap. That's all the sleeping they mentioned, and they looked it.

So I thought after an easy and super fun day teaching mountain biking on Saturday that the YANA Century Ride should be a breeze. After all - I've slept, the ride is on a road and at whatever pace I chose, and there's no running/paddling or multiday requirements. It's only one little road section on skinny tires. Right?

Sunday was lovely weather and so my cyclocross bike Fiona and I headed down the road to Black's cycle where the ride starts. Marc was teaching the second part of the mountain bike course so he headed off to Cumberland at around the same time. Given the wonderful weather and that this is the 5th annual ride there were a lot of people present, from extremely serious looking to quite relaxed mountain bikers with suitably fat and knobbly tires. At 9 am we headed out.

I'd forgotten how great riding in a pack was! We fairly floated around the first lap, and given the number of people in the pack and my recently broken ankle I decided uncharacteristically to hide in the pack and not take a pull. That was probably a wise decision given my lack of knowledge of roadie sign language!

Unfortunately I missed the pack take-off for the second lap and rode after them too late to ever see my new-best-friends again. But I met new ones, which is the great thing about a road ride. Unfortunately there were several flat tires (not mine) red lights (mine) and other incidents which had me riding alone for about half the lap, and by the end my legs were getting a smidge tired out. I couldn't think of anywhere I would rather be than on my bike though, so I just relaxed and spun the wheels around.

Back at Black's before the next lap I looked for volunteers to ride the third lap, but most people had been lured by the BBQ and were looking far too relaxed to consider riding. I finally managed to find another rider, but our speeds seemed to alternate wildly, so I gave up trying to ride together and stopped for a stretch in the shade. I realize now that feeling that there was nowhere I'd rather be was merely a lack of imagination, because as the day wore on there were a LOT of places I could think of that I would like to be. I focused on Comox Lake and how lovely it will be to stand in the lake - and before too long there I was. A group of riders caught me right at the Lake but I couldn't forgo the cold water, not even for a group and the drafting possibilities it offered. The water was lovely, and for the next half hour I had new legs!


Shortly afterwards I ran out of water, and the last 20 km were a bit tough to get through. I was a bit worried I might have to walk up Comox Hill, but as usual the hill is not as bad as it seemed, and back to Black's I went.


The BBQ was out of veggie burgs, which had me briefly devastated but then I sat and drank cool drinks and recovered my composure. Les proceeded to order veggie burgs from the grocery store, and since I was starving this sounded lovely. Marc dropped by about 10 minutes after I got there to inform me that I had to get home so we can go to a beach picnic asap, and although I had trouble standing up I managed to hobble the bike home and get to the beach.

It was a lovely night on the beach with some friends and the dogs. Marc carried and paddled boats while I stared into space and looked like a zombie. But what doesn't kill you.....
Now - about that adventure race. What would I need to do to be in that kind of shape????