Squamish Scrambler Pictures Link

Squamish Scrambler,
originally uploaded by ClubFatAss.

Here are those photos I promised,

Once you click on this photo you will be linked to the folder for my event. There are a few random shots in there that are obvioulsy not from us snowshoeing on Saturday.
On the right hand side, under the first photo area there is an almost hidden slideshow button, hit that and enjoy.

GR

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing romantic this year.
Hit the gym for an hour at 5:45am, kayaked from 7:30-9:30, then headed to work for 10am - 6pm.

Roxy is my one and only valentine and I must admit...she's a great kisser!

Floor hockey tonight with the other bachelors.

Hope yer gettin some!

GR

Club Fat Ass, Squamish Scrambler Snowshoe Event

WOW did we ever luck out with the weather!

It's always a lot easier to host an event when the weather cooperates, and there was no shortage of sunshine on this day.

I've been up to Elfin Lakes about ten times now and this past Saturday was the 1st time that I've seen a completely blue bird day. The six inches of fresh snow and endless views as far as Vancouver Island ensured that no matter what I did wrong, people were walking...running away happy after the event.

We had 21 people show up for the fabulous morning...and a few that decided to sleep in, to which all I have to say is, enjoy the photos!

In stark contrast to last year's event, there were no near death experiences before we started the run. The road to the parking lot was clear the whole way up and I am constantly amazed at how 9 times out of 10 (last year being that unlucky number 10), the snowline starts right at the parking area.
Everyone hopped out, strapped on their snowshoes and headed straight onto a two foot snow base that escalated with each step towards the Red Heather and Elfin Lakes shelters.

I hardly recognized the Elfin Lakes shelter at the 11km turn around point, as it was under about 15 feet of snow and the only entrance was through the second story balcony door!
The sun was shining bright and almost everyone decided to take an extended break and enjoy the mountain vistas and wonderful heat. I have no idea what the temp actually was but when I arrived I was wet and chilled and after 20 minutes my clothes had completely dried out.

Jackson, as usual, took some great photos and video, wrote profanities in the snow (thankfully without urine this year) and talked to himself or anyone within ear shot for the entire run.

Dom Repta, John Dove and I headed out at a pretty intense pace before settling into a groove once past the 5km Red Heather hut, where the continuous climb starts to mellow out a little.
Everyone fell into their own pace groups and right down to the first time snowshoe runner, they all made it up to the meadows for the best vantage point of the mountain ranges on all sides, a 14km return trek.

There was a fire burning at the Red Heather hut and on the return trip I popped my head in for a second to see a few of the participants enjoying the warmth and conversation. I yearned to join them but realized that I'd probably end up getting very comfortable and spending hours there if I sat down...and since I was driving one of the car pool vehicles, I thought it not in my best interest to keep people waiting!

The post race get together was held at my place and everyone brought along some snacks, some drinks and something to throw on the BBQ.
All that showed up to the post run soiree left with a draw prize, including:

-Ryan Conroy and Eric Bayfield with a trail runner subscription.
-Christy Tisdale and Craig Moore with free Yeti Snowshoe race entries.
-Wade Repta with a free lift ticket to Sun Peaks Resort.
-Megan Rose and Ean Jackson with North Shore Athletics toques.
-Dom Repta and Daniel Probst with North Shore Athletics water bottles.

Special thanks to the event sponsors:

North Shore Athletics, best store in the world period!
Trail Runner, best magazine in the world period!
Yeti Snowshoe Series, best snowshoe series in the world period!
Brennan Park Rec Centre (shower passes), best Rec Centre in the world period!

Thank you to each and every person for attending this event. It was my absolute pleasure, once again, to show off the natural beauty of the trail network in Squamish.

GR

Winter Adventure Racing

This past weekend, Megan, Todd and I headed to Snoqualmie Pass, Washington (just east of Seattle) to compete in a winter adventure race. It was the first time that all three of us had raced together.

The race was put on by 4th Dimension A.R. and once again they hosted a stellar event.

The 75+ racers basically took over a small mountain lodge called Hyak Lodge the night before, and although the rooms were a bit small (because we had four people in there), it all boiled down to cheap accommodation right at the starting line of the race...not to mention that included in the race entry was a pre-race dinner and post race lunch! AND they also provided Gluten Free food for myself and one other Celiac racer. I had my first ever G.F. brownies (made with Rice Flour) and G.F. muffins (made with Cornmeal) and they also purchased G.F. nachos and pasta for us...now that's going WAY ABOVE AND BEYOND expectations! The brownies alone ensured that no matter what the outcome of the race, I was walking away a happy man.

When the race finally did start, Team MOMAR got schooled...

OK, it's not nearly as bad as I make it sound, we finished 2nd. However, Dart-Nuun beat us by a full 40 minutes...actually I'm gonna call it 39 minutes cause I think that sounds better...and I guess I should throw in that they are the most accomplished team in the Pacific North West.
None of that mattered though, this was a sprint race and I knew that my team could give anyone a run for their money.

When the race started Dart-Nuun, a second team I did not know, and MOMAR all sprinted away from the pack. Megan managed to loose a glove in the first km of the race and had to do the entire event with one mitt (I offered her my glove but she said she was fine). We ran on pavement for about 2km before we hopped a snowbank and started bushwhacking up a hillside. The three lead teams all took different entry points and this is why I love the 4th Dimension races so much. Almost every competitor will take a different route to each checkpoint, you actually have to navigate these races, whereas many of today's sprint adventure races have eliminated this discipline. Unfortunately, what I love so much about these races, ended up killing us on this day.

At the 2nd CP, D.N. arrived about 30 seconds ahead of us and we watched them punch their 'passport' and continue on bushwhacking. On our way to CP 3 and after about 45 minutes of racing we came across a small river crossing and D.N. we directly up stream from us. After we crossed the river we had to search for a forest service road, which would obviously be buried in snow, and then follow it to the top of a ridge. The terrain was deceptive in the snow and some open areas made us stop and think twice as to if we were on decommissioned logging roads or not.
(I think we are all scared for life after last year's Raid The North 36hr race in which the logging roads on the maps hadn't been touched in 50 years and were almost impossible to distinguish from dense forest. I don't believe I've ever been so lost and frustrated in my entire life!(Todd raced on a different team than Megan and I in that event)).

Anyways, we ended up veering a bit too far right and when we finally made our way back to the left we stumbled onto a wide open, very distinct road. We sprinted up, grabbed the CP and knew that we had lost valuable time to our competitors.

From there we headed into a X-Country ski area and this is where we had to put on our snowshoes. For the first part of the race the terrain was hard packed enough that we all got away with wearing some form of a spike on our shoe. I had on a winter trail running shoe from Asics called the Gel Artic, Megan was wearing a pair of YakTrax, and Todd was running in Kahtoola's. Funny enough I own all of this traction gear...it only takes one expedition length adventure race before you own more gear than you will ever know what to do with!

As we came into the ski area we happened to catch a glimpse of D.N. about 10 minutes up on us. In our efforts to cut into that lead we completely overshot the next CP. We had to back track, re-orientate ourselves and then work through the frustration to find it. Instead of cutting into D.N.'s lead, we had just doubled it for them.

Again, what I love about adventure racing, is eerily similar to what I sometimes hate about AR!

Over the next few CP's we were told (from volly's...thanks to all the great people that volunteered and made this event such a success) that we had managed to make up 5 of the 20 minutes D.N. had gained on us. We were 15 minutes back and I was dieing to get everyone moving as quickly as possible because we were starting to run out of race course to make up for our errors. In hindsight, this is where I helped seal our fate for the race. Todd was taking the necessary time to look over the map and plot our next course of action. I was hopping up and down and starting to run in random directions in the hopes that one of them was correct.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, we gotta get movin!"

I should have relaxed for five or ten...maybe even fifteen seconds and let Todd do his thing...it's just so hard for me in a race situation cause this feels like an eternity to me.

Todd pointed to a trail, I took off and the team started running...in the wrong direction. It took us five minutes to realize our mistake, five more to figure out where we actually were and a couple of minutes on top of that to finally locate the CP. It was maybe 3 minutes from the last CP.
We would later learn that D.N. had also taken a wrong turn at this intersection (one of their few miscues in the entire event), but they managed to recover faster than we did.
Had I given Todd the necessary time to make the right call, we would surely have cut the lead in 1/2, instead we gave away more time, became more frustrated and effectively took ourselves out of the race for the win. This forced us into more mistakes and the eventual 40 minutes of time that Dart-Nuun had put into us.

By no means am I about to say that we would have won this race without our mistakes. All I am saying is that we would have pushed D.N. a lot harder than we ended up doing.
Hell, Dart-Nuun were smart enough to pack along mini crazy carpets...they slid the whole way down the ski resort to the finish line! Just one more reason why this team deserves so much respect, they are smart and fast...and just about any fool can be fast.

GR

P.S. Todd's not really a foot taller than us, it's partially the snow bank! (Although he is 6'4")

Get R Done

First pic is Roxy on top of The Chief again. Second is me trying to smile an hour after having my wisdom teeth out. Third is an overview of where we paddle, from the top of The Chief.(click on pics for larger views)

Finally managed to get above 20hr for the week, with a grand total of 21hr training.

Monday: Was in and out of a fever from Sunday night until 4am Monday. Feeling like shit but managed an easy paced 1hr run.

Tuesday: Back to a fever for a few hours at night, but finally seemed to drop it at 2am. Hit the gym at 5:45am, but after an hour realised I should take it easy for the rest of the day.

Wednesday: Gym from 5:45am till 6:45am. Still not 100% so back to bed for an hour. Had my top two wisdom teeth removed at 11:30am...then hopped on my mountain bike from 12-2pm...it was too damn nice outside not to! Trails are still covered in snow, but slowly seem to be clearing off. Gorgeous sunny day.
Play floor hockey from 8pm till 10pm, wear my heart rate monitor, amazed at how intense it actually is.

Thursday: A friend and I organise night trail running clinics, with headlamps, on Thur nights. We take out a group for an hour and then continue on our own for another hour. Total 2h15m run.

Friday: Kayak 8am - 9am. Absolutely perfect way to start a day!

Saturday: Kayak with a friend from 7:45am till 10:45am, take out my mountain bike and my dog from 11am-1pm. Do a 55km, 2hr road bike ride from 1pm-3pm. Pretty tired afterwards, eat nachos and watch Hockey Night in Canada to recover.

Sunday: Snowshoe run in Whistler with a friend from 7:45am till 9am. Back to Squamish, grab my dog and 25lb backpack and head up 'The Chief' (major landmark in Squamish...and Western Canada for that matter. A perfect, very steep hike up the back, or a very technical rock climb up the front face. Great training). Go from 2nd peak to 3rd peak, lots of snow up top. 1h45m
Grab my kayak and head to river again, 1hr

Dinner, shower, stretch and head to a flick with a friend. 'Smokin Aces', pretty good except for last 10 minutes...worth the 9 bucks I guess. My body hurts when I stand up after movie.

TOTALS FOR WEEK:

Run/hike/hky (time on feet) - 8hr15m
Bike - 6hr
Kayak - 5hr
Gym - X2

Finally a recovery week, followed by a winter Adventure Race this weekend in Washington State...yeeee hawwww!

GR

Let It Rain!

It's raining outside and I couldn't be happier. Squamish normally only receives snowfall a few days a year, and generally it melts again within 48 hours...not this year.
It feels like we have had snow on the ground since November, so let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

You really can not argue that snow is a lot more fun than rain, that goes without saying.
A snowball fight is better than a water fight cause you can actually hurt your friends, and everyone knows how fun that can be! Snowflakes falling are nicer than raindrops because you can catch them on the end of your tongue and watch them melt, and let us not forget that Frosty the Snowman is cool, whereas a Rainman is just another bad movie with Tom Cruise in it (OK, it wasn't that bad, but it DID have Tom Cruise in it!)

I never thought I would appreciate the rain, and the reason I am so happy is because I have been spoiled by what is 'normal' for this area.
We are known as a town where you can mountain bike every month of the year, yet I have not ridden my bike outside in a month! (I've tried a few times, but without much success)
I am going stir crazy from sitting on my stationary bike, and I now know the exact order of all 1,000 songs on my I-Pod Nano. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Running in snow is fine, no real issue except you can not do any speed work. It just is not possible to run fast with a blanket of snow on the ground, especially on technical, rooty, single track trails. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Kayaking is actually better in snow than in the rain. It is a lot of fun to launch your boat 15 or 20 feet from the shoreline and glide through the snow into the water. However, when the water starts freezing to the hull of the boat while you are paddling, well it just makes everything seem a 'wee bit' cold. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

SO, last training schedule I posted was a 23.5 hour week. I was hitting all of my hours right up until the breakup, and ended up with 17.5 hours on the week.

The following week from Jan 15th - 21st I again was shooting for a 20+ hour week. Normally it takes two big days on Sat and Sun to cover these hours. I was doing well with the training and had planned on a 6hr day for Sunday. Instead I woke up with a fever (first time in years) and spent the day on the couch (thankfully playoff Football was on). My fever finally broke at about 4am last night, and I am taking it easy today (1hr run) to be sure I can get back on track for tomorrow. I ended up with just 14 hours of training last week. A disappointing week for sure.

I have one more week of 20+ hours to go...hopefully I can actually get there this time! Then I am rewarded with a recovery week of about 12 hours and at the end of that week is a winter adventure race. I am so happy to be doing another race!!

It will be approximately 4-5 hours and will consist of snowshoe running and trail running with lots of navigation (there is a link under my race schedule). I will be racing with Megan and Todd, my main teammates for 2007 and it will be our first competition together. The event will be held just outside of Seattle and there are going to be quite a few Washington State teams out for it, with a total of 90 participants. It will be a good test for us as a team and I am already counting down the days...I just love to race!

So hopefully it will continue to rain, and I will wake up tomorrow feeling like 100 dollars,(which is good for me) or better. Then I have 6 days of solid training to conquer before getting some rest time. I need some rest, some quality rest, cause I tell ya, I am definitely feeling everything from the last few weeks. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

GR
Oh yeah, that pic is from last winter, during my failed beard experiment. No one looks good with a bright orange beard, not even me!

Happy ending to the rediculous vehicle theft

The truck was found yesterday in Port Moody and everything was in tact. Thank you to everyone for your whole hearted responses and for helping out in whatever manner you could.

Anyone located in B.C. or close to, please keep you eyes open for this truck.
It was stolen from a friend in Whistler last night...with his Daughter's handicap equipment inside!

Read his e-mail:

Someone stole our truck tonight. Out of our driveway while we were eating dinner. No kidding!

The real problem is that Morgan's Easy-On Vest, her ONLY car harness, was in the truck and stolen with it, along with my aluminum wheelchair ramp.

Morgan is grounded. She cannot travel unless it's by cab. She's a prisoner.

We are a minimum of 4 months away from a wheelchair van, and only if funding is approved. It took a year and a half for Transport Canada to Approve her Easy-On Vest/Harness and 4 months for it to be custom made in Florida and shipped here.

No school bus will take her to school, so she doesn't go unless we cab it, 11 KM each way.

Talk about a mobility issue.

Spread the word. If you see it, in a ditch, a field or lane, call the police! Please!

Thank you

(Click on picture for larger view)

Finally Some Sunshine

Managed to get out and enjoy some spectacular views while snowshoeing with a few friends this past weekend.
Enjoy the pics, will write more later. Training is still full on and I am in the middle of another 20+hr week.

GR

Game Time!

It's on...race season is here...well almost.

I managed a steady training schedule throughout November and December averaging 10-15 hr's a week.
October was an easy recovery month while resting from the end of the race season, which for me was in September.
However, in 11 weeks I'll be racing an expedition in Baja, it's GAME TIME!

My training schedule for Jan 8th - 14th is as follows:

Mon: Bike 1hr / Run 1hr

Tues: Gym 1hr / Bike 1.5hr

Wed: Gym 1hr / Kayak 2.5hr

Thur: Gym 1hr / Run 2hr

Fri: Gym 1hr / Bike 2hr

Sat: Bike 4hr / Kayak 1hr

Sun: Trek with weight 3hr / Kayak 2hr

Totals for week:
-Run/Trek 6hr
-Bike 8hr
-Kayak 5.5hr
-Gym 4hr
OVERALL 23.5 hours

Normally I take at least one day off a week, but I want to spread it out a bit more this week as my schedule does not allow otherwise right now. I will take a rest day on Monday the 14th.

GR

Does Adventure Racing Need A Documentary About The Sport?

Two documentaries you absolutely have to see are 'An Inconvenient Truth' and 'Who Killed the Electric Car'

Today G.M. released a new electric, plug in concept car that they are aiming to have available for consumers by 2010. Of course they say it had nothing to do with the eye opening documentary about how they 'killed' their originally released electric cars in 2003.

Just as McDonald's eliminated their Super Size menu, only 6 weeks after the debut of 'Supersize Me', had nothing to do with that documentary.

The power of the modern day film maker is undeniable. Just look at the success of YouTube. Maybe what adventure racing needs, more than the faint hope that Mark Burnett will resurrect 'Eco Challenge' is for a documentary film maker to recognize this and to take a chance on a team training for their first expedition race.

What no one since Burnett has been able to capture is the raw emotion that fuels each and every adventure race, each and every adventure racer.
I for one, would love to see a documentary about a start up team heading into their first expedition race. Trying to build their team, get in their training hours, buy all the necessary gear, and eventually struggle their way through the toughest adventure of their lives.

Mark, Aimee and I spoke of this often while we trained for Primal Quest. Unfortunately, we had neither the time, resources or money to pull it off ourselves. I still believe it would have made for great viewing, and great exposure for the sport itself.

Although the athletes on teams like 'Nike PowerBlast',
'GoLite/Timberland', 'Merrell/Wigwam Adventure' and even Canada's 'Supplierpipeline' are some of the best athletes in the world, they are not the ones that keep people glued to their televisions. It's the beginner and mid-pack teams that the typical viewer associates with most. When viewers see these people, they believe in themselves. They believe that they too could do a race of that magnitude if they so choose to.

I should know, that was me when I first saw Eco Challenge Morocco in 1998. I was a beer drinking, party loving 22 year old kid living in Banff, Alberta and weighing in at 183 pounds. Twenty-three pounds over my current race weight of 160. Immediately following that television program, three friends and I promised each other that we would one day do an Eco Challenge. Then we got drunk.
It took another year for me to sober up, and a full five years before I would compete in my first adventure race, a MindOverMountain.com A.R. on Vancouver Island. I was instantly addicted. In just my third season of racing, and eight years after my initial promise to myself, I was at the starting line of a 700km expedition race known as Primal Quest

With the help of my incredible teammates, Mark Fearman, Aimee Dunn and Niels Torp Madsen, I bled, cried, and crawled my way across the finish. It was one of the greatest achievements of my life.

Without having seen Eco Challenge I would never have discovered Adventure Racing. I'd probably be closer to 200 pounds than 160, and I certainly would not have the balance in my life that I currently cherish so much.

So the question is posed, how do we once again get Adventure Racing into the main stream media. How do we go about motivating those beer drinking dreamers to give it a shot? How can we 'save' our sport? I for one, believe in the power of the modern day documentary.

GR

You have to read this story and see this video!

Danelle Ballengee is one of the best female adventure racers and endurance athletes in the entire world. Without her dog, she would probably be dead right now!

Check out her story

Watch her interview

GR

New Year's Day, The Fat Ass Way

Every New Year's Day a local running club hosts a 50km ultra marathon run in Vancouver. www.clubfatass.com
Once again this year, the race sold out with 100 participants. A bit of re-routing had to be done due to all the downed trees in Stanley Park, and as is to be expected, it was rainy and windy. Hey I grew up in Newfoundland, I am still amazed that we can run at all on New Years Day!

The course is an out and back 25km route along the Vancouver Sea Wall, and consists of about 70% road and 30% trail, with a moderate amount of elevation gain and loss.
The race starts at 9am and many participants including myself end up racing on very little to no sleep. More than anything it is a low key event to kick off the new year on the right foot...or the left foot, whichever you prefer.

This is my third year participating in the event. In 2005 it took me 6hr37m hours to make it to the finish line. It was my first ever 50km run. In 2006 I bettered that time by a full 90 minutes at 5hr5m, finishing 6th overall. My goal for 2007 was to break the 5hr barrier and hopefully hang with the leaders for the entire run. As I mentioned, it is a low key, fun event and although it is not super competitive, there are always a few people out there to push themselves to their limits. Over the years it has attracted everyone from the beginner runner to Canadian National Team 100k runners.

Ean Jackson, the founder of CFA shouted "GO" and immediately 7 of us ran to the front of the pack and were off. It took about 5 minutes for the rain to soak all the way through and a further 30 minutes for my body to fully adjust and start to keep me warm.

Prior to the race you are able to pass along a 'drop bag' which is then transported to the 25km turnaround point for you to access. I dropped all my necessary food, fluids and even a change of shirt, jacket, gloves and hat for the return journey...I was feeling pretty damn prepared for everything and pretty darn impressed that after just 3hr of sleep I had not forgotten anything. I was half way to Whistler for last year's Yeti snowshoe race before I realized that my snowshoes were still in my garage. Not forgetting anything was an accomplishment in itself for me.

We reached the 25km turnaround in 2h5m. It was a good pace, and although faster than I had originally figured on I was still feeling really strong.

I looked at Gottfried, who was manning the aid station.

"Hey Gottfried, where are the drop bags?"
"I dunno, not here."
"Well that ain't good."

I guess the people in the drop bag van had friends in the race, and well those friends weren't running with us, hence we did not see our gear at all.
Thankfully they did have water, oranges and some gels at the turnaround. I was able to top up my bottle, albeit without any calories, and did suck back two gels and some oranges. There were still upwards of 90 people coming to this aid station, and as much as I wanted to grab some fuel for the road, I knew it was not right. We stopped for about 3-4 minutes before heading back, now in a group of just three.

If you don't know an ultra runner or endurance athlete, you would probably not fully understand how precise we try to be with carrying supplies and how vital my carefully planned, now missing, 600 calories were to the rest of my race.
By the time we hit 35km I knew I would suffer heavily to the finish line.

One of the guys I was running with, Chris Benn, was kind enough to offer up his last bit of food. I have recently discovered that I have Celiac Disease, or as it more commonly known, an intolerance to Gluten (wheat, barley, numerous other grains...basically the ingredients to all of your favorite foods). I intend to talk more in depth about this in a future blog. I have to mention it here, because although Chris was offering me food, it was not food that my body could properly digest. It could actually make things worse for me than they already were, and I kindly denied his offer.

By the time we hit the 40k point of the run I was literally looking at the ground for discarded items of food that I might be able to consume. My body was starting to shut down, my stomach felt like it would punch me right in the face if it got half a chance, and I just generally started hating life. I kept my feet moving, I kept on suffering...I'll be the first to admit it, I do like to suffer in races and as much as I may have complained at the time, I was secretly enjoying the whole experience. I promised myself that I would only stop running if my legs cramped thereby forcing me to walk.

Chris and Tim were kind enough to point out that if I slowed my pace I would bring my body back into it's fat burning stage instead of the glycogen burning stage, and I would fare much better. Of course I realized this, but to do that meant letting the leaders slip away from me. We were less than 10km from food. I had already run 40km. I was not about to slow down now.

Amazingly at kilometer 45 I started to perk up a bit. My body had accepted it's fate and knew that the faster it let me run, the sooner this would all be over for me. Tim, Chris and I had run the entire event together. We all had times on the course where we felt the strongest of the three and the weakest of the three. We agreed that for such a low key event, it did not make sense to battle it out to the finish. Besides, I was much happier to have three of us finishing first, rather than just myself!!

After 4h19m we were there, 50km done, the first ultra run of 2007 completed...
although, both Chris and Tim did back out on the polar bear swim. Can anyone tell me when this shrinkage is supposed to subside?

Gary Robbins

RACE REPORT: Team Mind Over Mountain.com tames The Beast

The first weekend in December, Todd Nowack and myself headed to North Bend, Washington to compete in an adventure race series we had never heard of before Bryan Tasaka of the MindOverMountain Adventure Racing series had blogged about it a few weeks prior.

It was a sprint type race, similar in length to a MOMAR but without a paddling leg, mainly due to its December race date. It was supposed to be a biking and running race, with special surprise elements thrown in throughout the race. Due to our crazy weather this past month the original race course was blanketed in snow and apparently it took a full on last minute effort to re-design all but about 20% of the original course. Special thanks go to the race organizers for not cancelling the event all together.

'The Beast' adventure race series is designed with the beginner in mind and their main goal seems to be getting new people into the sport. For this particular race there were 85 people who showed up to brave the elements. As with any race there are always at least a handful of teams there to compete, and this field of racers and vollys had no fewer than 6 people who had competed in a Primal Quest
www.ecoprimalquest.com

This was the first time that Todd and I had raced together, and we wanted something low key to go out and enjoy, without any self imposed pressure to do well. The Beast promised to be exactly what we were looking for.

The race consisted of 37 checkpoints and had absolutely no flagging whatsoever. You needed at least basic map reading skills to make it through the course and for experienced navigators there were numerous route choices throughout many sections of the race.

The event started with a 30+ minute running leg. As soon as the race director shouted "GO" I happened to look across and recognize one of Jen Segger's Dart teammates, Glenn Rogers (2nd at RTN Kamloops this summer) taking off towards the front of the run with his two teammates/friends (you could race solo, two, three or four).
Within seconds our whole 'relax and enjoy it stategy' was gone out the window and we were sprinting towards the front of the pack to keep pace. I actually knew someone racing the event! My competitve side got the best of me and we were off.

After the first running leg, and having taken different routes, we came into transition right along side Glenn's team. It was a friendly atmosphere and both teams smiled at each other, knowing that the game was on.

We departed transition within seconds of each other and over the next two and a half hours we would always be within a few minutes of their team. The rest of the course consisted of a long mountain biking stage that was broken up with four running sections. Todd and I decided to do the entire race in our bike shoes and in the end it payed off, as other teams wasted seconds and then minutes changing shoes back and fourth. The entire course was covered in snow and ice, and I found that our bike shoes actually gripped in the snow better than a running shoe...the same could not be said for the icy sections of course!

After three hours of racing both teams were still right with each other and it all came down to a choice of navigating. Glenn decided to try and bushwhack a section of course that Todd and I had no interest in. I had already been pricked a few hundred times by blackberry bushes and we decided the longer run was in our best interest. When Todd and I made it to the next CP, their team was nowhere to be seen. It was open enough that we were pretty sure they hadn't gotten ahead of us. However, we later learned that we gained 12 minutes on them right then and there as they ended up coming back out of their bushwhack and following our original route.

Todd impressed me with his navigational choices throughout the event and numerous times picked a better and more direct route than our competition. After 4 hours and 10 minutes of racing, we were the first team across the finish line! As I mentioned, it was not a super competitive event, but we were very happy to have our first race as Team MindOverMountain.com under our belts and in a positive way.

I think it must be said that the race was very well organized, with solid support staff, vollys, organizers, draw prizes and a choice of four different hot foods, and plenty of snacks at the finish line! It opened my eyes to the fact that there is a whole other race scene right 'down the street' from us that I never even knew about. From Squamish, with a stop at the Tsawassen ferry terminal to pick up Todd, and a border crossing, I was in North Bend in under 6 hours. With ferry transport to Vancouver Island, I have many a time spent this much and more commuting to a Momar event. It was exciting to discover a new area, new racers, and a new race scene. It would be great to see a more open race series amongst all of us in the Pacific Northwest and would greatly benefit adventure racing in general.

Todd and I will be at their next event in 2007...how bout you?

Gary Robbins, Captain of Team MindOverMountain.com

For more info the Beast go to http://www.beastrace.com.

This race report has been posted on:

http://www.mindovermountain.com

http://www.checkpointzero.com

http://www.sleepmonsters.ca

http://www.mountainzone.com

Testing 1,2,3

Since every single person I know, including my dog, has their own blog I figured it time to give it a try myself.
I know many people, including myself, can get very excited about stuff like this initally and then slowly loose interest.
I have a few close friends who are able to regularly update their blogs, and I realise that this is what helps keep them interesting, so I guess that is my main goal...that, and to not publish boring crap, just for the sake of writing something.

GR