Boo Race!

I was back and forth all last week trying to decide if I should run the Hallows Eve Half Marathon. There were lots of pros to running it including; getting more race experience (I've only raced in one half marathon before), support Peter Watson who is the race director and a lot of my friends were racing it. The con was I've been training pretty hard for my first 50km race and my body was definitely telling me it could feel all the training. I woke up race day, looked outside and saw a beautiful day so I decided to run it.

This last minute decision meant there was no taper, like with everything I do I am always looking to learn and grow from my experiences. Lesson #1 tapering is important. This race was an import lesson in tapering so I'm glad I did it. It demonstrated the importance of intelligent training and not getting caught in a cycle of Train hard. Race hard. Train hard. Race Hard. It’s a basic instinct for runner's/competitive people. Everything we do is based on hard work, we train, we brave the elements, we endure, we don’t wimp out, we don’t like rest, we are “forces.” But it’s good to taper and it’s ok to go easy on training runs our bodies need to recover. With hard work and consistency, I know I will grow stronger and faster but I will be keeping in mind that it can be counterproductive to my performance to maintain this hard work mentality right up to race day.

The race started at Jaycee House in North Vancouver. After I registered and said hi to some of the Mountain Madness crew I headed back to my car to finish getting ready. After an easy warm up to get the blood flowing in my legs I was ready standing at the start line with a couple minutes to spare or so I thought. This is when I realised my first mistake of the day.

Mistake #1 thinking you are ready, standing at the start line with 3 minutes until the gun goes and realising you forgot your timing chip in the car! After spiriting back to my car for my timing clip and then back to the start line, I was now ready to run with 30 seconds to spare. A positive to this minor stress is I was able to provide my friends a little laugh.

The gun goes and we’re off. Immediately I could feel my training in my legs; they felt heavy and like cement. The race starts immediately with a small hill climb. I could see my friend and adventure racing partner Chris Price in front of me looking really strong. Tom Craik zipped by me on this climb, obviously he chirped at me as he passed. My legs were feeling fatigued so I told myself run your own race, pace myself and keep my heart rate in check.   In the photo below is my friends Duncan "The Lazy Trail Runner" and Chris "Pricey Runs".

I settled into a groove along the lower river and just started to enjoy the rain free day. I started to think about how cool it was that I had decided to run this race the morning of the race. How many people could wake up on a Sunday morning and just decide I’ll run a half marathon today? This made me smile and enjoy the day little more. Not long after my friend Brad passed me on a stair climb he had just rolled his ankle but was fighting through it, I wished him luck and he carried on.

Pacing myself on Varley trail with a guy who I don’t know but we chatted a bit and shared a laugh, he mentioned he liked our pace and said we could run like this all day. However to my dismay he dropped me once we hit the Baden Powell stair climb. I didn’t run as much of this selection as I am capable of running but I tried to make sure I kept my pace as quick as possible. Repeating in my head “Comfortably Uncomfortable” and “Playing on your edge, pushing your edge further.” Both are sayings are from my favourite spin class teacher Tim, they definitely get me through the leg burn. Three girls and two guys passed me in this section they were all good climbers and my goal became keeping them in sight so I could try pass them on the technical downhill I knew was coming up.












When I hit Mountain Highway they were almost out of sight but I find this hill selection very runnable. I ran this section and was encouraged to notice I was making ground on everyone who had passed me on the Baden Powell climb.  During this climb was when I heard "You didn't move to Toronto!" it was my friend Randy (see picture below) a great hill climber and avid rock climber.  I filled him in on my decision to accept a position with Bell Canada and not to move to Toronto.  We climbed together for a bit and once we hit the downhill I let my legs open up and take me, I passed 4 of the 5 I had been eyeing up. I managed to hold them all off until the climb up Lynn Loop. One girl passed me on this climb but I promptly passed her upon reaching the top flatter section. Lynn Loop left me feeling good knowing I was almost done all the uphill’s.

I felt best during the last 5km and managed to lose a few people who had been running pretty close to me on the Lynn Headwaters connector. My last few races have ended with me sprinting to the finish against someone else. This race lacked that adrenalin filled finish but I managed run across the finish line in 2 hours 10 minutes leaving me lots of room for improvement and proud about completing my second half marathon on a beautiful Vancouver Sunday morning.  Thanks to Peter Watson for putting on a great race and bringing together a great group of runners. 

My afternoon was spent at one of my favorite coffee shops where I enjoyed inspiring music, a delicious latte and even managed to get a little homework complete.  Mondays a rest day for me and Tuesday its back to hill training.

MOMAR 2009!

My road to Momar started in April 2008, I was at a press check speaking with to Bob Faulkner a senior partner with Metropolitan Fine Printers.  Proud of myself (ok - thinking I was hard core), I began telling Bob about how I recently started trail running on the North Shore.  I knew he was an athlete however I didn't realise at the time is he is a champion long distance runner, the former captain of Canada’s premier expedition racing squad, has completed every Eco-Challenge (by Mark Burnett) covering 500+ km, he has completed many Ironmans and people refer to him as the King of Canadian Adventure racing. 

So Bob tells me its cool that I'm trail running but "Do you want to see something really hardcore? Come with me."  He proceeds to lead me to his office which is actually more a shrine to extreme sports, racing and pushing your personal limits.  After about an hour of listening to unreal stories on adventure racing he suggests I do Momar, a local adventure race.

Sold!  I began my hunt for an awesome partner.  After a long search (and a couple flaky partners) I thought I'd found the one she just needed to confirm her school schedule.  I was stoked! *fingers cross* the timing would work for Momar Cumberland 2009.  That weekend I had an epic Saturday; 5 Peaks Seymour Race followed by skydiving in the afternoon with my brother and some friends.  While at the Seymour Race a local runner who I'd met through Mountain Madness running group asked me and my friend Helen Tilley if we wanted to join him the following day for a long run.  He was training for the Stormy 80km race and wanted to check out one of the legs called 9 Mile Hill just outside of Squamish.  Helen and I were totally in.  It was on this training run I told him all about Momar, he seemed super into it and was really excited for me.  A couple days later my partner sent me a note to say she had to bail on Momar.  I was sad but determined to race this race.  Immedately I sent Chris a message to ask if he wanted to be my Momar partner - and he accepted!!  YES!  finally a partner, Chris Price.  This all happen six weeks out from the race so we decided to get together for a coffee and game planning session.  Team She'll be Right was born,  we registered that night and never looked back.

Our six weeks of training were utlized by getting out in a kayak twice including racing in one of the MEC Big Chop races followed by a tempo run on the seawall, getting out on our mountain bikes around twice a week on the North shore, continuing our running and we took a navigation course.  Another really important thing we did was speak alot about our goals and exceptations for the race.

To be entirely trueful a big part of what made this race so much fun was the training we did for it and that we became great friends in the process. A few of our rules going into the race:

1. Have fun
2. No fighting
3. Laugh
4. Never talk about fight club (ok this is my lame joke)
5. No expectations
6. No panic-ing
7. Never leave a crasher behind (again me being lame)

Race weekend began on Friday afternoon we boarded the ferry to Vancouver Island it was a beautiful clear September day.  The drive was beautiful, scenic and hilarious as we played the "their going to momar" game.

Once we arrived in Cumberland we headed to the Riding Fool hostel to check in.  I ran into Bob in line (still makes me smile to type this); this is the point I knew game on! I'm doing MOMAR!  and I'm racing against BOB!!

After we received our race packages, picked up a quick dinner and then headed to the hotel to prepare for our first adventure race.

Saturday September 26, 2009 one of the best days of 2009 for me.  After six weeks of training and laughter (because our training was alway fun) we were ready.  We woke up early made breakfast; eggs, fruit and yogurt, and got our gear on.  My Momar outfit was:
CEP Compression Socks -Pink
Sugoi Bike Shorts - Black
Lululemon Running Shorts - Black
Lululemon Sports Bra - Pink
Lululemon Running Shirt - Grey with pink
Sugoi Arm Warmers - Black
Specialized Bike Gloves - Pink and BlackSalmon Pack - Green and Grey
Lululemon Running Jacket - Black

The first stop of the day was the bike drop.  We met four girls from the lower mainland who were also racing their first Momar (I started talked to them because we shared a love of pink) we chatted with them for a bit and then headed to the start line.  Surprislingly I wasn't nervous which is extremely strange for me I am normally alway nervous before racing.  I felt different though, like this is what I should be doing and where I belonged - full of happiness and anticipation.  When we parked the car at the start area we realised we were parked beside a guy from our navigation course - We found our kayak and checked in to receive our map, Chris was studying the map and our route.  I was studying our competititors and checking out their gear - most importantly what were other teams were going to wear on their feet for the kayak stage.  Chris and I had thus been indecisive about whether we should or should not wear our runners in the kayak, wearing them would mean walking into the water in them which would result in wet shoes for a major part of the running stage.  In a last minute decision I confidently looked at Chris and said "forget it I'm not wearing my shoes in the water and then racing 6 hours in them" it was like sanity click on for us and we both removed our shoes.  One of the best decisions of the day for us.  Speaking of the day we could not have asked for a more picture prefect day.  Hardly a cloud in the sky, sun shinning but not too hot I can imagine my race report being a bit different if it had been raining cold.  We began the race with a couple goals; have fun and finish - there was no expectations of how well to finish and we hoped to still remain friends in the end.  I grabbed a quick photo with Bob and then got into race mode.

Kayak Stage:

The first stage of the race was a 10km kayak stage.  Chris and I are by no means good paddlers but we aren't terrible either.  This stage was neutral for us in terms of placement in the race we just needed to hold on to the middle of the pack.  During the kayaking stage we were able to chat to some of the other racers and ran into a couple of the people we had met at our navigation course.  The highlight of this stage for me was our first corner, we entered it in a big cluster of boats and did such a great job we came out of it ahead of at least 7(ish) boats.  I will admit I find kayaking a bit boring but thats probably because I'm not super skilled or fast at it but once we reached the point we know we were almost done this stage we both dig deep and gave an extra hard effort to reach dry land faster.

Trail Running Stage:
Upon reaching solid ground we jumped out of the boat (barefoot) and jogged up the shore to put on our shoes.  We were pretty quick at this transition and immediately started into the 15km trail run.  The first 0.5km was on paved road we passed a bunch of people on this leg and really started to enjoy the race knowing the kayak leg (our least favorite part) was complete.  During this leg Chris really showed his strength as a trail runner literally blowing by most other competitors.  The run was beautiful, the trails were amazing, the sky was clear, the trees were just beginning to turn colour for fall.  I had asked Chris at some point on the way to the race why he thought Byran the race director picked Cumberland for the location of the race...was he from their?  did he have family there?  I was just curious, but after completing the run I know exactly why he selected Cumberland.  It was the prefect setting for Momar.

During this leg of the race we made up time on other competitors and Chris made some fantastic nav choices which help us climb the ranks - at one point a bunch of other teams ran right by a right hand turn and without even second guessing himself he said nope this is the way, I fearless followed because this is how a great team works together - trusting your navigator is a major key to success.  We even stopped for some photos.  As we were coming to the end of the trail and nearing the road to the bike check we decided to take our time at the transition area, refuel and hydrate - that was until we found out we were in second place.  At that point we decided lets get moving and try keep our position.

Bike Stage:

The mountain biking in Cumberland was so much fun!  Great trails.  I'm used to riding (or trying to ride) the trails of the North Shore which are some of the most technical mountain biking trails in the world.  The trails in Cumberland were still technical but they were much more rideable.  There were so pretty steep climbs which kicked my butt.  Bob had warned me about making sure I trained enough for the biking legs because he said they were pretty hard.  I definitely had thoughts of this while I hiked my bike up a couple of the steep climbs.  I've learned that hill climbing training is necessary on your bike and your feet.  We managed to get through this section quicker then I thought but we were still passed by a number of co-ed mixed teams of two.  One of the hardest things for me on the race was not having the map, the race was six hours of not knowing where I was going or how much further there was to go.  Simply trusting your partner was going to get you to the end.  I never doubted where we were its just weird not knowing.

The bike stage was followed by an Urban nav stages which we ripped through.  Once you complete this stage you umped back on your bike for another 5 km (or so) some trail and some road riding which ended up taking us back to where we had begun the race.  During this section where we were on the road I asked Chris how long we had left - he said not far maybe 2 or 3 km's and there was a couple teams within sight.  So we gave'er, caught and passed the other teams.  Once we reached the next check point we realised we still had one leg left the orienteering leg.  Again in this leg Chris made some great decisions about our navigation decisions and we completed this section really quick.

In the end we finished in just over 6 hours and in 4th place.  I am insanely proud of us for completing the race and for having such a great team doing it.  I believe everything happens for a reason and I'm so glad now that all my other partners bailed because I definitely ended up with a fantastic adventure racing partner and truly great friend.  Life should be filled with laughter, great friends and people with you truly have fun with it's to short not to - Momar was this for me and I will for sure be back.  Thanks to Chris for a fabulous time; for always being encouraging and making me laugh. And thanks to Bryan, all the Momar staff and all the other teams for making my first Momar such a fantastic experience.