MOMAR Shawnigan Short Course July 26th July 30
Now that was a great race! It was great to see how a solid year of hard work paid off for me in this race. Rosheen and I came out to have a good time, (completed that), and missed out on top 3 for the short course by four and a half minutes! We came in fourth out of fifteen teams of 2 females and eleventh out of twenty nine overall. Not bad for team Marty’s Mountain Cycle first foray into adventure racing! We were absolutely stoked. Even the light rain ended up being great, just nice and cool enough to keep us pushing hard and not overheat. By the time we crossed the finish line the sun had decided to poke it’s head out so there weren’t any complaints.
For me, it was a day where I finally saw all my training come together. All my hours running and racing the trails around Victoria, all the time and practice on the bike, it was worth every moment, tear and drop of sweat. This is also the first time I’ve ever tried to put my pain or discomfort in my “pain box” while racing and although I was quite skeptical at first, it actually worked really, really well.
Rosheen and I managed to squeek out the second fastest paddle in our catagory, 30 seconds behind the leaders, which surprised us both because it was our first time ever in a double kayak, much less paddling together. I don’t recommend this practice normally, but our earlier attempts to get together and paddle fizzled because of our crazy schedules. We lucked out that we work really, really well together! We had a brilliant transition at TA 1 to the bike and were the only duo female team off with the lead pack, something that I’ve never been able to do before, (I was thanking my winter base miles!) Rosheen is super strong on the road and keeping up with her was a real challenge. Sometimes it took all I had just to hang onto her back tire and telling myself, “just 10 more seconds, you only have to hang on for 10 more seconds.”
As we got off Renfrew Rd into Burnt Bridge we started to see lots of racers from the long course coming off the old Burnt Bridge Classic course. We caught and rode with a group of them up the east hill towards the old Tressel until they all stopped at the very well flagged junction to check their maps. Having been in this area tons (and it being very obvious where the turn was due to the excellent flagging) I knew exactly where we were supposed to go and Rosheen and I left them all and started to blast down the Trans Canada Trail. The only problem about leading down the trail is now we had everyone breathing down our necks from both the long course and the short! Stronger riders began to overtake us, most were your classic friendly adventure racers, but a few were rude (and you know who you are - karma!) Our first experience with the unfriendly was 2 guys from the long course, one whom rammed my wheel until I pulled way off the trail so he could pass. He didn’t speak a word till he was passing Rosheen, (who was riding ahead of me), at which point he called out “On your right ladies.” Grrrr… I tried looking for him at the after party but realized my glass of cider was more deserving of my time! Next we enountered 2 very nice girls from the long course, one of whom, as she was overtaking us, slammed into Rosheen’s back tire and sent her flying. She then landed on Rosheen as she lost her own balance. It was messy. Though I didn’t know it at the time, Rosheen really hurt her left foot and is now ordered to not run by her doctor until further notice. You never would have known she was in pain, the whole rest of the race she had a big grin on her face.
We were passed by a number of teams until we came to a “choose your own route” section between CP 3 and CP 4. There was a hint on the map that the punch for CP 3 was about 100m from the trail junction and it was amazing how many people were just standing at the intersection looking in the immediate vicinity only. We rode down, found it, and made our decision about the route. The 2 options were “steep” hill ride to the top of the Tressel where CP 4 was, or the other was a very, very technical section of single track that continued along the river and ended at the brutal set of stairs where you would have to hike-a-bike up after to continue the rest of the race. Being better hill climbers, we chose the “steep” hill. Thank goodness we did. The hill turned out to be not steep at all, about 2 minutes of spinning, then mostly downhill and rolly till the CP. We were fully prepared for the CP to be at the bottom of the Tressel and planned to bail off our bikes, into our running shoes and burn down there and back up. As it turned out, the CP was at the TOP of the tressel (I nearly cried I was soooo happy!). All we had to do was ride right up to it, punch, turn around and burn rubber. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. We passed a number of teams that we never saw again till the after party, it was such a cool feeling!
Out of CP 4 we lightly tailed 2 guys from the long course until they missed the very well flagged turn and we never saw them again either. This is one of the things about adventure racing that I love: we weren’t the fittest or the most experienced team there, but little things like watching for the flagging and course markers can be a huge equalizer. Next was the much anticipated river crossing for CP 5 and CP 6. Although it was a perfect 19 degrees, overcast and lightly raining, I was looking forward to cooling off with a nice dip in the river. We rolled into CP 5, left the bikes, into trail runners, kept the helmets and ran/scrambled down the side of the river towards the next CP. When we reached it a volunteer informed us that we had 2 choices: swim across (shorter) or scramble further down and across some of the big rocks (longer). Being a big fan of shortcuts, I opted to swim across. I opened the map bag, took out the passport, stuck it in my mouth and jumped in. Thank goodness it was in my mouth too, because when I hit the water I wanted to shriek like a little girl. It was bloody freezing!! Instantly it felt like I had a metal band constricting my chest and I actually had to talk to myself in my head to keep from starting to hyperventilating. I paddled the fastest doggie paddle ever seen, punched the passport and paddled my butt off back. I think Panda, our shepherd, would have been proud.
I hauled myself out up the rocks and had to really focus on getting my breathing back under control as Rosheen and I made our way back to the bikes as quick as we could. I then noticed that the map bag hadn’t been fully closed when I jumped in and the map was disintigrating. Oh crap. Dumb, dumb move. I later found out that my phone, packed at the bottom of my pack in a ziploc baggie for emergencies, also did not survive the dip. I didn’t have time to vacuum seal it like I normally do, so overall it was an expensive mistake. Fortunately for us the trail was very easy from this point on: when presented with an intersection, stick left until we hit the Quarry. 2 more big climbs in the silty ground and we hit CP 7, posed for a photo, and it was downhill all the way to the Quarry. Once at the Quarry we punched in at CP 8, grabbed a proffered pool noodle, jumped in, swam across to CP 9, punched, and swam back. Back on the bikes, up the big hill on the north side of the Quarry right into CP 10 and TA 2 where we could ditch the bikes permenantly for trail runners and our compass.
Last year in my haste, I didn’t fully read the orienteering map that said “May be completed in any order” and lost a little time crisscrossing the mountain a few times. This year I made sure I read everything on it but it actually still made sense to do the controls in order, starting with “A” all the way to “G”. Rosheen and I scurried around and I kept a close eye on my watch, not wanting to take more than 15 minutes for any one control. This is where it got tricky, you could take a 20 minute penalty for any missed control and zoom to the finish line, but I really thought we could find them all if I didn’t make any navigational errors. We ended up finding all 7 in 1hr 14min 15 sec, the fastest out of all the duo female teams and 6th fastest out of the 29 other teams in the short course. I think we averaged around 10min 20 sec for each control and I was estatic. This was my second time being the navigator and I was petrified about making an error that would put us off course or get us lost. This year was a really good combination of trail running and bushwacking, a few more scars on my legs and a little bit of blood, but TOTALLY worth it!
The descent down to the finish line was a steep hill and we could hear the announcers talking and it sounded like a good party. We let loose and came screaming down to find the team Frog Power (a super nice couple both having flown in from Quebec on Thursday) just in front of us. Rosheen and I gunned it and just pulled in front of them by 11 seconds right at the line. We were done. At that point I didn’t care how we did, I wanted some food, a little water (having run out 45 minutes ago) and to find Kitt and tell him we had a great time. Almost immediately I was thinking about how this race was different for me: I hurt through it (as you always do) but this time I still pushed, I never gave up forward momentum. I later found out that if I had pushed harder still, we would gave made top 3 in our group and maybe top 10 overall. You know what? It gives me something to think about all winter as I ride and run all the more base miles.
I would be remiss of me to not mention anything about the classic killer after-party that Bryan always throws with one of these MOMAR’s. It was at one of my favorite places in the Cowichan, Merridale Cidery. The food was brilliant, I surprised myself with my fastest sprint ever to the the front of the line as soon as the buffet opened (and yes, I was the chick in line for seconds before they called for seconds…) and more importantly, so was the cider! I am a HUGE fan of the Merriberri and always seemed to have a glass of it in my hand throughout the night… We won some door prizes, had some laughs at the slideshow, but most importantly, danced our butts off to the great live band! When it did finally wind down, Rosheen, Kitt and I piled in the truck to go back down to Victoria. I don’t remember much of the ride back home, just trying to get comfy in my seat and catch a little nap! I’m positive I was asleep within 3.2 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. It was an amazing day and a great party. And best of all, Rosheen hasn’t disavowed me as a friend after talking her into racing!
I would have posted sooner but Kitt and I took off on a little canoe trip (cuz I hadn’t gotten enough paddling on Saturday) to Portland Island (with it’s maurading racoons! video to follow) with our new boat!