RAID THE NORTH EXTREME Coming to Global!

Canada's premiere wilderness expedition adventure race, Raid the North Extreme, arrives in an unusually urban location this January - your television set!

The one-hour High-Definition feature broadcast will air on Global TV across Canada on Saturday, January 12 at 9 p.m!!!

This six-day, non-stop, 500+km expedition race features coed teams of four from around the globe facing the challenges of nature, team dynamics, sleep deprivation, and gear failures as they bike, trek, paddle, portage and navigate the wilderness around BC's North Coast - Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii. Nearly thirty teams of four from across North America, and from as far as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, blew away their physical and emotional limits during Raid the North Extreme.

As Gary Robbins of Squamish-based Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR said after the race, "Raid The North Extreme is a genuine expedition style race and they practice exactly what they preach: Real Wilderness, Real Navigation, Real Freakin' Tough...OK I made that one up, Real Adventure".

Canada's top adventure race organizers, Frontier Adventure Racing, in partnership with ATV Productions of Vancouver, had a vision to take adventure racing to new heights on Canadian television. Using boat, ferry, helicopter and aircraft support, along with caffeine and bug nets, film crews captured the action, the drama and the emotions as teams traversed the incredibly rugged northern BC terrain.

This broadcast is a first in Canada. Never before has the mystique, intensity and human drama of this incredible sport reached Canadian homes on a national network in prime time. Following the Canadian broadcast, the show will air in the US on PBS, will be seen on menTV and the Extreme Channel, and will be available for purchase on DVD and on iTunes.

Here's your opportunity to share your passion for adventure racing. It'll be a cold dark night in January - what better time for friends, food, drinks and some great adventure on TV?

It's surprisingly easy to organize a full-on pub night screening. Call up a few sports pubs with good AV equipment (a big screen, or tv's throughout the place), and ask what they can offer if you can bring 30-40 people there to watch a sporting event. Most will offer up free apps and a drink per person at the very least. Make a call to your local sports/outdoor store and offer a partnership for some prizes - they'll promote the event for you, too. Send out invites to everyone you know, post the event on Facebook or evite - then just show up and have the pub turn on Global that night. Parties at home are just as good, but more work. Or if you have money to burn, rent a hall or auditorium and make an event of it!
We'll help you make it happen. Just let us know about your party plan, and we'll send you tips, a poster, and an "RTNX Party Package" with prizing and an RTNX 2007 Buff.
Let's get all of Canada watching Adventure Racing on TV, and create a new wave of excitement about AR for 2008!

Check out the RTNX Facebook group for news about parties near you.

TNO

Stratford Visit

Man I miss the snow.

While I have been in Victoria for over three years now, I still have a strong attachment to my former home in Stratford, Ontario. People like to complain about the snow since it slows down the business machine and it doesn't let you drive as fast but if you know how to enjoy it, it's pretty awesome. Living in Victoria can be hard at times since we basically have two seasons: raining and not raining; while it's never really cold in the winter, it's never really hot in the summer. The contrast is so little compared to the cold -30 days in the winter and the super hot and humid summers of Ontario.

Fortunately for me, we got a good snowfall in Victoria two weekends ago but I spent much of it driving to and from Seattle to partake in the BEAST race. So, I booked a plane ticket and was exited to visit my family back in Stratford and enjoy the crisp cold air and the good ol white stuff hung on the trees.

I brought my running gear and was determined to wonder through the back streets of Stratford in search of old memories.

The weather was perfect for snow; about -3 to -5 degrees and about 4 inches of snow. I went on two ~15km runs with the highlights being the lake run, queens park, and of course, the beautiful cemetary and old grove park.

I had the trails to myself as most people in town don't go out much once the snow hits. The differences in people's lifestyles at home versus the west coast is evident. If I was in the greater Vancouver area, there would be lots of people out enjoying the snow whether it be cross country skiing or running (no mountains to climb in Stratford :) ).

Instead, the only people I saw looked at me with a crooked grin and asked if it isn't just a bit too cold to be out running.

They don't know what they're missing :)

Check out these photos I took from the plane.

Mount Baker in the Clouds

An Ocean of Clouds

Alberta Badlands

Vancouver

Howe Sound

Fall BEAST Videos

Here's a of video of the crazy weather we experienced on the way down to Seattle and one video during the race. For some reason, the downloaded video is much darker than the original. I'll have to figure this out for the future. Enjoy.



Snowstorm!




Running to the finish with one control left to go.

Fall BEAST

We survived!
That's right, we survived the Fall Beast. I say survived because it was one of the harshest racing weekends I've yet had to endure. I talk here of not only the race itself but the drive to and from the race. It just so happened that a winter storm decided to show its head and start puking huge flakes of snow on the way down to Seattle.

After a windy crossing on the BC Ferries boat, I arrived late at the Tsawwassen terminal where Gary was waiting for me. We loaded my gear quickly and were off in blowing snow conditions. It didn't take us long to discuss whether or not the race was even going to be held if the snow continued. We budgeted for a least a 1/2 hour at the boarder crossing but were not going to be suprised if we had to wait for several hours; this has been due lately to the savings-crazed Canadian shoppers tring to save a buck in the US (by spending an entire day of their lives driving and spending money on gas!). I wasn't too concerned but Gary has an issue with not getting aggressive back to the US boarder guards whose job it is to make you feel like shit. So, with a plan to just be calm and be non-reactive we pulled up to the booth with no line-ups.

"Where do you live?"
"Squamish and Victoria"
"What do you do for a living"
"I manage an Athletic store"
"I do consulting work"
"Where are you going?"
"We're doing a race down in the Seattle area"

At this point he looks at the bikes on the car as it's puking snow and freezing cold, looks at us, smirks, and says
"Have a nice time" as he hands back our passports.

Whether the boarder guards were just too reluctant to get out of their booths or not, in less than five minutes, we were across the boarder and back on the road. Gary couldn't believe it. Maybe my calm demeaner is rubbing off on him :)

The weather from here was just constantly changing. At one point, it was snowing hard, the road was full of snow, and the lanes went from four to kind of three to basically wherever you wanted since you could no longer tell where the lanes were supposed to be. We counted no less than 10 vehicles in ditches and several more that simply pulled off the road and gave up. Luckily for me (who's from Ontario and who knows how to drive in a multitude of conditions), it was great to have someone at the wheel who I was confortable with (Gary is a skilled winter driver who comes from the far reaches of a place called Newfoundland). Unluckily for both of us, we were surrounded by complete winter newbies who were out to kill us. We went from travelling about 50km/h in these conditions to suddenly going into rain and no snow at 120km/h in under 5 minutes. The weather was all over the place.

After a few wrong turns and a trip to the 'Supermall', we made our way to Colin and Connies' place right close to the race site. I had sent out a quick e-mail to Eric Bone (the race director) about a place to stay and within a couple of hours, had a place all lined up. We had briefly met Colin and Connie at the Squamish MOMAR during our Baja presentation but didn't know it was them until we arrived. They set us up for the night after hanging out and partaking in some good dark beers. We couldn't have been happier and were flattered by their generosity.

Gary, me, Connie and Colin

It wasn't much of a surprise at this point that the rain turned to snow and the race area was covered in inches of the white stuff by morning. We weren't even sure if the race was going to go ahead but we still prepared like it was and headed to the race start.

It started to rain.
At this point, I think both of us were hoping that it WOULD be cancelled so that we wouldn't have to go out into the wet and snowy conditions. Gary, who is sensitive to the cold, was not looking very anxious. Fortunately for us, lots of other crazy adventure racers had showed up and quickly changed our minds into thinking that going out into slushy snow and rain to do a race was a completely normal and ok thing to do. The race was definitely a go. Team Dart/Nuun members Ryan Van Gorder and Aaron Rinn came out as part of a teaching type position for newer teams. I think this is a great idea and way to help teach new adventure racers and hopefully rub off some of their years of experience to them.

Eric Bone - BEAST Race Director

I should note that the Fall Beast isn't really a big competitive race, so Gary and I really treated it as a good training session and a wake-up call to get on the training program. It was definitely a hard cold weather training session.

The course was comprised of two back to back mountain biking legs (with a check-in at race headquarters after each leg) and then an orienteering foot course. In order to prevent bike congestion at the start of the course, Eric had us run a small loop to stretch out the teams. We hit the bikes in first and pretty much kept this spot for the entire race. We were both pretty cold at first but quickly warmed up. Ok, most of us warmed up but eventually our extremities (particularly our feet) became blocks of ice attached to our pedals that we could transer energy through. We both had our Helly Hansen waterproof jackets, which worked awesome in the conditions, but Gary didn't bring a shell pant which enabled the blocks of ice on his feet to move up to his knees similar to the freeze over in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' except in slow motion.

We hit the second mountain bike section and actually started to have some fun in a good singletrack section of the course. It was challenging to ride everything with the conditions how they were and we also had to fight through vegetation that was bogged down over the trail from the snow fall. We were essentially clearing the trail for the rest of the racers.

Once we entered the transition and put on the running shoes, I knew that the next 45 minutes on the feet was going to be painful. Running out onto the orienteering course, we both couldn't feel our feet and I ended up slipping several times on the snow due to having no foot awareness. Some early bushwacking warmed us up and after a few more checkpoints, I could finally feel most of my toes. We got all the checkpoints without issue and made it to the finish line happy but cold, extremely wet and with a unstoppable desire to get into dry clothes as soon as possible. It was great to see Colin's team come in as the first co-ed team (2nd overall) and it was great to see so many people come out in such unfavorable conditions and push themselves.

After some quick goodbyes, we were back on the road heading north to Canuck land. As we drove off, we were passing some of the course that we had just been on and all the snow had melted already. Basically, the race was held in the worse possible conditions and once over, everything was simply just wet.

Soaked and Frozen

We faced pouring rain and hydroplaning on the way home, had a quick stop for some Mexican food in Bellingham, and hit the boarder with a longer but equally uneventful crossing. In typical Canadian fashion, as soon as we hit the boarder, the snow had returned in full; it couldn't have been a better sterotype.

Thanks again to Colin and Connie for their hospitality and to Eric Bone and the Team Mergeo.com members who helped make another Fall Beast a success.
Also, a big no thanks to whoever made the BC Ferries bomb threat and screwed up the schedule so that I was an hour later in getting home.

TNO

Fall Beast This Weekend!

So, it's almost winter, the snow is starting to come down into the valleys and there isn't too much going on in terms of off season races. Well, if you want to get off your ass and hit up an awesome race this weekend, you can!

The Fall Beast runs this coming Sunday December 2nd and takes place just south of Seattle Washington. Because the race is on Sunday morning, you can travel down on Saturday, race Sunday morning, and then make the return trip all in the weekend without taking off a work day. The event is put on by Eric Bone and the crew of Team Mergeo.com members.
Check out their website at http://www.beastrace.com/
For a mere $60 US (that's only $59.74 CA) you can sign up and have a blast.

The race length is similar to a MOMAR with a time ranging from 4 to 7 hours. Disciplines include running, bushwacking and mountain biking. Of course, there will be lots of navigation with little or no marked sections of the course. There is no kayak stage in the race.

So, if you want to get on the ball and get in some practice before the 2008 MOMARs, this is the race to do. Hope to see you there!

Doug Doyle is The Master!

Sometimes I think that I'd better get training hard and doing all the big races now because once I hit the mid thirty's, it's all going to be downhill from there. While I don't mean that I won't be able to do anything after that point, it's just that I have this feeling that my performance will just start to suffer. Then I went riding with Doug Doyle.

After the Victoria 'Pushing the Limits' presentation on Sunday night, Doug and I decided to take the afternoon off work and hook up with Gary Robbins before he headed back to Squamish for some good old mountain biking. I didn't have any particular route planned out but was able to show both of them lots of new trails that they had never ridden before. Lots of sweet singletrack was had by all. It was a pretty cold start but once we got the blood flowing, everything was good. With a pace that made me wonder if we were racing at times, I ended up taking a small bail that seemed like nothing at the time but made me stop and catch my breath minutes later to slow down the adrenaline. It wasn't until I arrived home and took off my tights that I found some deep chainring gouges in my right calf. This was far from stopping our ride though.

Several more climbs and flowing technical trails later, the rain picked up and turned to snow on the mountain. It was pretty special riding some of the best trails Vic has to offer with some big chunky flakes falling. As we decended, the snow turned to rain and soon enough, we wound up at the main Hartland parking lot with two hours of solid riding behind us.

After some quick "I'm freezing... gotta go" goodbyes, we parted ways and Gary and I loaded the bikes and headed down the mountain.

"Man, Doug's super fast eh? I mean, he was with us the whole time"

"Yeah, Doug is super impressive. He must be almost 50 by now. I only hope that I'm as good as he is when I reach that age."

"Yeah, when I grow up, I want to be as fast as Doug" :)

A BIG THANKS

Thank you to everyone who came out and attended the 'Pushing the Limits' presentation put on by Gary Robbins and myself. It was really nice to revisit the big races of the season and try to inspire others to either get out and do some bigger races, or to simply follow their own passions whatever that may be. Thanks to everyone as well for the great feedback on the show that will allow us to put on an even bigger and better show in the future. A big thanks to Marc Campbell of Helly Hansen and to Bryan Tasaka of Mind Over Mountain Event Co (MOMEC) with whom the shows could not have been possible. A big thanks to all our sponsors as well for letting us use some of the best gear around: Helly Hansen, Nuun, Princeton Tec, Carbo-Pro and Kinesys.
Looking forward to 2008!!!

Paddle to D'Arcy Island

Last Sunday, Kim and I decided that it was time to get out for a nice relaxing paddle. We stayed up pretty late the night before and slept in so we were both eager to get out of the house and into the gorgeous day that was unfolding. It was still a little cool out but the sky was blue with some wispy clouds. We packed the boats and headed down to our put-in on Cordova Bay.

The water was glass.

We would do a small 7km paddle out to D'Arcy Island, relax and explore, and paddle back. It was such a relaxing paddle with tons of diving ducks, harlequins and bald eagles to be heard and seen.

D'Arcy Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve and has seven campsites with limited facilities. It was once a leper colony from 1894 to 1924 and the remains of buildings and farming areas can still be seen. It is a pretty neat little island with beautiful coves, large Arbutus stands, and lots of wildlife. There is a little trail that runs most of the islands circumference and allows for a nice run or stroll. While the west side is mostly bedrock, the island does offer some gravel and smooth cobble beaches with lots of weathered driftwood.

The only other people at the island were a couple on their pleasure craft anchored in a bay leisurely reading on their deck. It was a nice day.

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR Multimedia Presentation

* CLICK ON AD TO ENLARGE *

Mind Over Mountain is proud to sponsor Pushing the Limits -- a multimedia slide show featuring Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR's adventure filled year of expedition racing.
Join us as team captain, Gary Robbins, and navigator, Todd Nowack, takes on a compelling journey through the Baja, Queen Charlotte Islands, and Austrailia.
Show dates are on Wednesday, November 21st, in Vancouver, or on Sunday, November 25th, in Victoria. The Vancovuer show will be held at the new Helly Hansen store and they are offering everyone 15% off everything in the store. Frontrunners (Langford) will be hosting the Victoria show -- Mark and Nick will be offering everyone 20% off so come ready to buy some new shoes.
We'll be going to the pub after for drinks so plan on staying out a bit later for a casual beer and more good times.

Admission is by donation with all proceeds go to the Team's racing funds for 2008. Please book your seat by simply emailing info@mindovermountain.com or by calling 604.999.3331. Please spread the word!

Gear Review - Montrail Hardrocks

Product Features and Impressions:
The Hardrocks are probably the first real full off-trail shoe I have ever tried. I say off-trail as that's what they really excel at. While there are barely any shoes that I would really call 'off-trail', these shoes definitely fit the bill. These shoes are stiff, have great lateral support, have tough uppers, and have protection plates in the midsole. While all of these features come with the cost of increased weight, it is well worth it when travelling off the beaten path. These are absoutely bomber shoes. Sharp rocks? Don't even think twice about powering through them in these babies.

While I really like these shoes, I find the fit is a little off for me. I have a long, standard width foot with a pronounced heel. So, I do find there is some heal slip even when I have the shoe tighened up well. This review is for the 2006 grey and red model. Unfortunately, I bought the black and red model (shown above) and this shoe did not work for me. The fit was suddenly way too tight for the same shoe size and I got blisters from the heel plate in the back of the shoe. I have recently switched to the Montrail Continental Divides which I'm absolutely loving. I'll review these once I've logged some good miles on them.

Weaknesses:
Overall, I would have to say none for the intended use other than the fit of the shoe which is very personal. The downside of the shoes durability is you'll want to continue to wear these shoes even after their worn-out as the uppers and soles will still look decent.

Overall Impression:
This is an awesome shoe for anything from off-road ultras, to good hikes through rough terrain. When going to adventure races, rogaines or regular orienteering meets, you'll see a lot of people with these shoes. If you talk to most of them, you'll probably get the same answer; these shoes are the best! These are not for everyone though. Weight weenies no need to apply.

Try not to get the black and red version shown above though. I guess there has been fit problems with this 2007 model. Other 2007 colours seem to be fine though. Go figure.

Gear Reviews

Here's a bunch of older gear reviews on some Helly Hansen and Princeton Tec Gear. I recently figured out how to add labels to my posts and then be able to navigate to them from the link list. Should work well in the long term. The Mars jacket is probably still my favourite :)

TNO

Gear Review - Princeton Tec Yukon Bike Light

Product Features and Impressions:
My first impression of this light was good as the lighting seemed fair and I liked the ability to switch from Xenon to LED lighting. After I installed the light though, I was a concerned with the handlebar mount and the inability to adequately adjust the light bezel.

Weaknesses:
My main issue with this light was the bezel mount and lack of adjustment. Instead of being infinitely adjustable, the bezel only adjusted in large, set increments. As I have a map holder and other items on my handlebars, the light mount had to be installed offset; because of this, I could not set the light to look straight ahead. The beam was either to far to the left or right of centre. Also, the up and down angle was limited and could not be easily adjusted. For the bezel mount, it would be easier if it installed with a quick release.

Overall Impression:
This is a adequate backup bike light which works ok for long climbs but is not bright enough to be comfortable taking on speed in a downhill section. While burn time is decent, the beam is too narrow to see immediate trail features and the bezel movement is too limited.

Gear Review - Princeton Tec Quad Headlamp

Product Features and Impressions:
This was a solid proximity light. While racing, I was only going to use this light as a backup to the APEX but found that it was especially useful as a map reading light during night cycling. A normal high intensity bike light is just too bright for map reading as it creates glare off of the map and causes temporary blindness when looking away. The Quad was easy to attach to my helmet with the supplied helmet mount strap and the bezel tilt always stayed where I wanted it to. Off the bike, I ended up using the QUAD when I ran out of batteries for the APEX and found that it performed just as it should; bright enough for scrambling down rocks and avoiding some nasty cactus thorns. Operation was easy and intuitive even with gloved hands. I even ended up dropping this light out of my pack into a pool of water with no issues. This light rocks!

Weaknesses:
None for the intended use.

Overall Impression:
This is a great proximity and backup headlamp that is durable, easy to use, versatile, and completely waterproof. Great product.

Gear Review - Princeton Tec APEX Headlamp

Product Features and Impressions:
To give context for review, I have never used an LED lighting system that has been able to match the power of a halogen setup. I've tried LED's from other companies but have always found that they did not deliver and left me wanting more light to see the trail or to navigate well through the dark bush. That was until I used the APEX. This light delivers.

The single long range Maxbright LED is impressive and allowed our team to navigate down a steep canyon by spotting out the best route from 50 meters or more away. The light is even and the width is adequate for long range viewing. I was especially impressed with the quad short range Ultrabright LEDs used for proximity lighting. When not navigating up front, I would always switch to the quad setup and was amazed at how well and comfortable I found myself moving through the terrain. I was a little concerned with the weight of the battery pack on my head as I'm fond of battery packs that can be stowed remotely. However, the four AA's never bothered me as the strap set-up held the light firmly in place with little to no movement while moving fast. Lighting operation was easy even with thick leather repelling gloves and I never found the lighting bezel to tilt inadvertently. The light generally withstood continuous abuse and the light had no problems after being submerged during short night-time water crossings.

Weaknesses:
For durability, the main weakness of the light appears to be the small plastic head strap holder on the battery pack which broke off on my team mates light. While the light continued to function with no problems, the battery pack was not held as securely. My main negative feedback would be the burn time of the light. My team found that batteries had to be changed after approximately 4-6 hours of use due to a significant dimming of the light after this time. This is in contrast to the claimed 72 hours of use for the Maxbright High setting. Batteries used by our team included high output single-use alkalines and high output NMHD rechargables with no significant burn time difference being noted.

Overall Impression:
Even with the significantly lower than claimed burn time, I still feel that this is an awesome light that can deliver race after race.

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Zone Jacket

Product Features and Impressions:
My first impression of this jacket was how light it was for a waterproof-breathable and how stylish it is. I have had many comments on how good this jacket looks. It works as it should and is very functional either in the bush or on the street. Durability has been steller.

Weaknesses:
The front zipper close to the collar can get stuck and did not function well intially; this has eased up with use. I also find I get some chaffing on my neck from the zipper even though it has a small fleece chin liner. The underarm zips are not waterproof and use fabric flaps to keep the water out. Some nice waterproof zips would not only make the jacket look better, but would also drop a bit of weight on an already light jacket.

Overall Impression:
This is a great lightweight, durable, waterproof-breathable jacket that is both stylish and fully functional.

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Lifa Base

Product Features and Impressions:
I have been using the Lifa Base layers for a couple of years now and can't say enough for this awesome product. I am a big guy and typically sweat a lot in the heat. These tops allow me to stay drier by keeping the sun off my skin and wick away sweat. I find they work so well that I feel drier and more comfortable compared to any short sleeve top or even wearing nothing at all. I still have people ask me that I must be really hot with a long sleeve on as they sweat in their heavy short sleeve polyester tops. For durability, I use these tops anywhere from a daily commute to full on orienteering and see very little wear. Other than some bike crash scuffs, my tops look virtually new.

Weaknesses:
Like all synthetics, the fabric can get pulls.

Overall Impression:
The Lifa base layer is the best top I have every used. Period. It keeps me drier than anything else, keeps the sun off my upper body, is very light and durable, and fits like a glove. Why would I use anything else?

Gear Review - Helly Hansen Mars Jacket

Product Features and Impressions:
I had some reservations about taking one of the world's lightest jacket into the one of the world's most thorny environments in Baja, Mexico. For durability, this was the ultimate test. The result? No tears, rips or abrasions of any kind. Was I ever impressed!

I have used this jacket extensively on my daily running and cycling commutes along with some long training sessions and have been continually impressed by the amount of warmth that the thin fabric provides. This jacket does not insulate; if you put your arm on something cold, you will feel it like you don't have anything on at all. What it does do though is cut the wind and traps air so that you stay warmer. Because the fabric doesn't really breathe, it does wet-out especially if your doing high output activities. For long endurance exercise though, this jacket is the shit. This jacket is so light and small that when I go on rides, I can pack it in my little frame mounted beno box along with several bars! When I need it, it's there. One feature that would make this product even better would be a small underarm zip to allow airflow through; this would be especially useful on the bike since your jacket becomes a sail if you unzip the front at all. This would add a small amount of extra weight to the jacket but it would be worth it.

Weaknesses:
Not very breathable. I would say durable but the thing still looks brand new.

Overall Impression:
This jacket is easily one of my favourite pieces of clothing. I bring this thing everywhere now. It's so light and small, I don't even know it's there. Awesome product.

Where's the F$%@ing Photos?

I currently do not have a camera. Actually, the last camera I had was a 1980's 35mm beast that took photos on what they used to call film. Yeah, I've actually never owned a digital camera and have decided that enough is enough. I need to get one soon. Besides, all text and no photos sucks! To be continued... hopefully soon with photos!

Weekend Fun

I had a great Saturday last weekend with a day filled with good stuff. It all started out with a solid sleep and upon waking, knew that I just needed to get out on my feet. I haven't been running at all lately and felt the urge to get out there for a nice short job/run. It wasn't long before I was good and warmed up and headed down to run along the sand and gravel beach of Cordova Bay. I'm lucky to have this nice beach just a couple of blocks from my house and will definitely be enjoying more this winter than I have recently. The tide was fairly high and the water was like glass. I should have been out kayaking! At the end of the beach, I hoped out to the road and found myself heading toward Mount Douglas. I hadn't been there in quite some time and thought that I'd just do a nice loop around the base and back along the Lochside Trail. Well, once I hit the trails, I just started to go up and up, and by the time I knew it, I came out to the road and figured, what the hell, lets go to the top. While I've been to the peak before by biking or hiking, I've never actually run up. The view was gorgeous! After taking it in, I took and nice winding way down and looped back home. A little longer than I thought I would go but when your having a good run, you just don't want to stop!

After some a good breakfast and relaxing early morning, I lubed up my mountain bike which hadn't seen any use since the Cumberland MOMAR. She was getting pretty lonely in the garage and was happy to get out.

I met up with Sleepmonster's Doug Doyle and road out to the dump to get in some technical riding. We should have stayed home. At least that what I thought when we entered the grey darkness that overshadowed our destination. It was going to be a wet ride. Now, had it been raining at my place, I may have not even left. But, once your out there, it's never as bad as you think it will be. Especially when you get under the heavy tree cover; even a fierce rain can seem like nothing in the thick BC forest. We took the back way in (up Meadowbrook) and met up with some other riders at the main parking lot including Shane Ruljancich (2nd in MOMAR Shawnigan), and Brent Chan who was demoing a sweet Gary Fisher 29er courtesy of Oak Bay Bikes. The ride was just what I was looking for; relaxed. We maybe stopped too much and eventually all of us got cold from yapping but it was a good ride anyway. It was the type of ride that makes you think "yep, the summer is definitely over now. Time to bring out the lights soon." Can't wait for some sweet night time fun!

After the ride, I hooked up with my friend and co-worker Mike Sanborn for some kayak technical training in the Crystal Pool (which is put on by Ocean River Sports). Pool sessions are a great way to practice your rolls, bracing, and sculling work. While rolling seems second nature to me now, I still cannot get the hand roll down. I guess I've never been shown how to do it properly though so that could have something to do with it. As Mike has a background in whitewater kayak racing (think skinny fast boats not a chubby playboat), he was able to put his old skills to work and even managed to do some hand rolls while he was at it. Maybe next time...

My day finished with some X-Box zombie killing with Pizza and beer at Mike's place. It's been forever since I played any video games so it turned out to be a pretty fun evening. I dreamed of killing large rats in a Dungeon with my enchanted arrows. Need I say more :)

2007 Western Orienteering Championships

I just got back from a great weekend of orienteering in some of the best terrain in the Province. The desert terrain in and around the Kamloops area is simply awesome. Here on the coast, the forest is so thick that it inhibits your route choices significantly. So often, it is easier to run four or more times the distance on a trail than to do a short bushwack. In Kamloops, it is a different story. The terrain is so open that you can take virtually any route option you want. With so many choices, it becomes a matter of picking the best overall route, and also the micro route choices you make along the way. Contour reading at its best.

I drove up with Kim on the Saturday morning who I had not seen in over two weeks as she was out in the field doing some seafloor mapping. So, we decided to spend a nice weekend together up at Sun Peaks resort. We rented a nice quaint condo with a private hot tub that saw a lot of use. Ahhhh, the luxury of the hot tub!

I've been on the down swing in terms of racing and had several goals in mind for the weekend's events: don't make mistakes, race smart, stay in-touch with the map, read ahead, make good route choices. These may all seem to be goals that you would strive for at any orienteering event but man are they hard to achieve. The biggest problem that new orienteers have, and I include myself in this category, is to run too hard, lose track of your position and make mistakes. It is so hard when racing to slow down, stay in-touch with the map, and race smart.

I've made some good progress since getting into this sport less than two years ago, yet I still find it extremely hard to not get ahead of myself. This time however, I was going to keep everything under control.

Orienteering is such a complex sport. It may seem pretty easy at first (you take a map and compass, take a bearing and whoever can run faster will win) but it is far from that. I have found that this sport takes years to get good at and a lifetime to master. Sure, you can get by with basic map reading skills but there are some key mental tasks that, if carried out, will separate you from the rest of the pack.

Read ahead
Good orienteers will have their general entire route planned after the first few controls. This doesn't mean that they have planned all the micro route choices that need to be made; it just means that they get a general feel for the course and have spotted major features that can either help or hinder their progress.

Pinpoint the Control
Another technique that experienced orienteers possess is reading the control descriptions ahead of time and planning a proper attack into the control. This means that they'll know already know exactly where the control will be placed and will save time by approaching it properly. For example, if the control is hung at the bottom of a cliff, and you know it's at the bottom because you read ahead, you'll make sure that your approach doesn't cliff you out from the top. Good orienteers will also slow up slightly as they approach a control so that they accurately find the control and waste no time backtracking.

There are many more techniques that can be used, but these are two that I really wanted to work on.

The Sprint
The first event was a sprint event at Thomson Rivers University (TRU) located right in Kamloops. I was not at all set on hammering it out on the asphalt and concrete of the campus but nonetheless, did a little warmup and hit the finish line calm, relaxed, and focused on my goals. I was off before I knew it and instead of the typical 'sprint' to the first control, I took it down a notch, got into the map, and actually started planning out where I would go after I hit the first control. The first control was actually a little tricky as it was tucked in a little corner of a building so you had to be careful not to miss it. I slowed up when coming close, quickly found it and was off on the next leg. I ended up making a small mistake going to the next control, was able to quickly recover, and planned out my next few controls on the fly.

I was never able to fully plan my route but did manage to read at least two controls ahead which helped in noticing key features that had to be identified (a flight of stairs was the only way up to one of the controls and, if missed, would have you wasting time by running around the building).

My race was going well until just after the midway point and started to slow down on a long leg across the campus. I was starting to suffer but kept telling myself that it would be over soon. A few more controls, some good route choices, and a sprint into the finish and I was done. While I was quite winded, I thought I had a good smart race. Had I been more trained for this type of event, I know I could have done much better as I could have held a higher pace while still being able to stay in the map. In the end, I was suprised to be in 4th place beating out some National Orienteering team members. Not only that, I was only 10 seconds out of 3rd place! Damn it! If only I had pushed a little harder....

Middle Distance
The Middle distance did not go quite as well for me. I had a good start to the event but aroudn the 4th control, I was surrounded with other racers who influenced my route choice and caused me to make my first big mistake. Rule #1 in orienteering: never follow anyone or trust where someone else is going. Why? Because they might not know where they're going or might be on a different course. I really prefer to not have anyone else around but it happened, I made a small mistake and continued strong hitting control after control.

What happened next was the turning point in the race for me. I hit a road, could have easily took it to the next control, but decided to stright line it through some thicker brush. This was a mistake. The brush funnelled me off my intended route and ended up spitting me out further down than I had wanted to come out. While I didn't lose much time, I lost some gumption. When you lose some of your gumption, it always takes a control or two to get it back. In the meantime, your more vulnerable to mistakes. I was getting tired, was vulnerable and made a bad route choice again (again straight lining my route rather than going longer but over better terrain). The mistakes just compounded until I hit the last few easier controls into the finish. While it was not a good race for me, it was an important learning experience.

Long Distance
The long event was just that. 12.2 km stright line with over 500m of elevation gain. I was feeling a little drained from the other events and really just wanted to do a smart race where I was as strong in the beginning, as the middle, as the end. I held a decent pace, walked the steep hills and made mostly good route choice decisions. The more experienced racers put some good time into me just like in the middle distance. However, I learned a lot from the long event just as in the middle distance.


When looking at my small mistakes and route choices, my time would have been much closer to the elite orienteers and shows me that while I could stand to be a little faster on my feet, that my real challenge is to become a better orienteer. And that's what this weekend was all about.

Thanks to Magnus at GVOC for setting up some great courses and for everone who helped out with the events. Great job!

Team HH / MOMAR Sweep the MOMARs!!!

Gary and I are ecstatic! We couldn't have asked for a better end to an already awesome season. Going into the final MOMAR of the year, Gary admitted that he was actually more nervous than any of the other races we had done. This says a lot. There was a lot riding on our shoulders as we were the previous winners of the inaugural Squamish and Shawnigan MOMARs, and it was like we had targets painted on our backs. There is also the fact that we're up against the local crowds, the people that we have come to know and have come to know us. At some of the larger races, we're just another team, but at the MOMAR, there's no hiding. Nonetheless, we went into the race with a calm demeaner and just wanted to have a solid race with no navigational issues.

We once again had our super long (25 feet?) outrigger that treated us well in the Shawnigan race and allowed us to create a large lead on the pack before we hit the bikes. However, this race was probably the most competitive of the season and with some fast boats at the start line, I knew that we wouldn't have the same advantage.

After countless Cumberland races with perfect weather, today was just not meant to be. Grey skies and misty rain started the race and it got progressively worse throughout the day. The line-up of boats at the race start is always a cool sight as racers get ready to head upwind on Lake Comox.

As with most races, the start kind of catches you by suprise and before you know it your red-lining it to make sure you get a good position. I don't think Gary or I felt super strong on the paddle but we managed to hold on to the lead pack and drafted as much as we could to help save some energy. We weren't too concerned with the pack in terms of the overall race results, but Jason Sandquist was looking strong in his surfski and we knew that we would have to make some time on him in the kayak and navigation legs in order to hold him off during the bike section of the course.

While the wind wasn't as bad as previous years, I was concerned as we turned at the buoy and started to get hit on the left with the cross wind and waves. While the outrigger is pretty stable, it doesn't do well in a crosswind on your left (since your outrigger is on the left and lifts up in waves). Also, it is meant to be paddled with offset strokes (if the bow person paddles on the left, the stern person paddles on the right). So, using kayak paddles in unison and a crosswind on the left can be a good recipe for flipping as Roger McLeod and I found out during the 2006 Cumberland MOMAR. So, we had to slow down a bit, paddle offset, and just try to get to the next buoy without flipping. We lost a bit of ground on the lead pack but this all changed when we headed downwind. Our boat just started to surf and the paddling became much easier as the waves helped us move back up to the leaders. We had a strong finish and ended up being the second boat off the water (the lead team was paddling a K2).

We got the nav map and started to go as I planned our route on the fly. The route usually tends to be a loop and in the last races, I've done a counter-clockwise route with some flat running in the beginning to work out the legs. This time, I dedided to try the other way and I think it worked out to our advantage. It allowed us to hit most of the controls before seeing another team which was great for us as having other teams around typically only makes things more stressful and, if you know what your doing, you tend to give away to other teams where the controls are. The last control we hit was on the flats beside the river and during the flat run-in we both found that maybe we had pushed a little too hard as our legs were starting to feel the burn. It's usually best to ease into the run as a hard start will build up lactic acid in the legs and this can come back to haunt you.

We hit the boats again and made off quickly as the lead team. After pushing off we saw that we were followed closely by Darrell Soefield who put in a solid effort in the first paddle and trek.

After a short paddle and we were on the bikes and into the awesome single track offered by Cumberland. The bike route looked pretty short as the bucket-of-blood trail had been cut-out to include some different singletrack; these first trails would be punishing on the legs. We hit a new trails called 'short and curly' and this trail was not well worked in, was wet, and seemed to have more roots covering the ground than actual dirt.

This was a leg cramping nightmare. I started to hurt.

During the trek my bottle of NUUN tablets had opened and I lost all my electrolyte supplies. With a hard pace and no NUUN coming in, the effort in the trek had come back to haunt me. Eveytime I would stand or spin out a little, my leg would half seize. I tried walking some sections but this didn't seem to help much. While both Gary and I are comfortable in technical trails, when your hurting, it becomes a whole different story. It wasn't just the technical nature of the trails either; some of the trail sections just didn't have much flow so, it was hard to get into a groove and just go. It wasn't until we hit 'spanker' that the trails started to flow and I was able to pick up the speed considerably. It was awesome to have my favourite trail (and Tasaka's favourite) Cumberland trail on the course this year, 'space nugget', which topped off the end of the sweet singletrack.

Hitting the Hostel, the Mystery challenge had us running through town and writing down the business names of four addresses that were given. While I'm not too fond of the mystery events usually, I thought this one was good as you didn't have to do any math or figure out any clues (Squamish comes to mind here). Just as we were finishing up, we saw Sandquist and knew that he was not far behind. We got back on the bikes, picked it up on the homestretch as other teams watched in suprise that we were just finishing the bike leg that they were just starting, and rolled into the finish area hoping that there would be no additional finish suprises.

"What do we do? Do we need another map? Straight to the finish?"

"Straight to the finish!"

"Yeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!"

We knew at this point that we had it in the bag. Just under four hours of racing! The finish was a little emotional with both of us on the verge of tears as we were so happy in our accomplishment and in each other for putting in a solid effort.

We actually finished at a great time as the rain started to turn worse and the wet trails that we rode were about to get even wetter.

Thanks again to Bryan Tasaka for putting on another successful and awesome event and a big thanks to all the volunteers who held out in the weather to make this event happen.

TNO

Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR Take 2nd at Olympic Peninsula 24 hour Adventure Race

It wasn't until I took out the two sections of the map and placed them together that I realized just how far away from the finish we were. There was no way we could make it back by the 10:00am cut-off and for every 10 minutes that we were late, we would lose a control that we had worked so hard to get.

"How many kms to the finish?" Lina asked.
"About seven. Maybe eight."
"How much time do we have?"
"35 minutes!"
"Shit!"

We had only one option at this point. We had to run to the finish and try desperately to limit our loses. We could have quit right there. It would have been so easy just to walk it in, let the clock run and take whatever place we got. I'm sure we both thought about it... maybe for a couple of seconds. This however, was not an option. We started to run.

This was the Olympic Peninsula Adventure Race put on by 4th Dimension Adventure Racing (http://4thdar.com/default.aspx). Roger Michel and Yumay Chang are the gears behind 4th DAR who put on a variety of grassroots level AR events for racers, by racers. They are also involved in organizing the BEAST series (http://www.beastrace.com/) which are weekday evening races around the greater Seattle area. This was the first race held in the Olympic Peninsula as permitting, and more importantly explaining to landowners what adventure racing is, has always been an issue. After some long hard work, 4th DAR got the permits and really tried to make the race a success so that future races could be held in the area.

Course designer and DART/Nuun team-mate Glen Rogers put together an extremely tough but well thought out race that emphasized what, in my opinion, a 24 hour race should be comprised of: a tough course for everyone - Glen designed the course with a 10 hour option, advanced mtb section, optional short course, and a Rogaine finish which ensured that teams would battle it out to the end; a course that showed off the scenery of the area; and of course, some challenging navigation. Unlike other races this length, Glen designed the course in three solid chunks with limited transitions: a 3-4 hour paddle; 12-14 hours on the bike; a Rogaine finish (collect as many controls on foot as possible before the race cut-off). In the end, the winner came down to whichever team could collect the most number of controls in the Rogaine.

For Lina and I, this race was completely last minute. We registered on Wednesday, threw our gear together the next day, and tried to figure out logistics and the crazy ferry schedules (Lina had to take the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, and then both take the Coho ferry over to Port Angeles). Also, I was a little worried heading into the race since I had taken some serious downtime after competing in Raid the North Extreme, had just got off of some vacation time, and hadn't been doing too much. Thus, I wasn't really sure how I stand up to 27 hours of straight racing (while the race was initially 24 hours, the real time ended up being over 27).

The race started at sunrise on the water in Lake Cushman. The paddle was calm and we were able to keep a good pace even though we were in our two single kayaks. Then came the bike... 14 hours of long climbs, descents, repeat. Oh, did I mention the longest hike-a-bike we've ever done? This completely destroyed my legs and leg cramps started to make me feel that I might not be able to even finish the race. We continued to push on. Unfortunately, the weather for the race saw low cloud cover with continual mist which never allowed us to view the scenery and our accomplishment when we got to the top of the climbs. The bike section turned out to be a little too tough for teams with several dropping out or short coursing to the Rogaine section. No team made the cut-off for the advanced bike leg. That's right, as if 14 hours wasn't enough! After a short paddle back to the start/finish area, we headed into the Rogaine in 3rd place! There were 22 controls and what turned out to be not nearly enough time to clear the course. I had planned a route that would get the majority of the controls but the course and it's dense vegetation slowed things down too much and forced us to drop some easy controls in the end. Since we picked some harder controls near the beginning, and because all controls are worth the same amount, this did not work out as well as it could have.

The end of this race was definitely the highlight for both of us. During the run in to the finish, I kept checking my watch and trying to estimate our time. If only we can make it in before 10:20am we would limit our loses to two controls. We continued to push and at the gate to the park, we had five minutes to spare. We picked up the pace, and ran into the finish at 10:18am. Completely exhausted, we were completely shocked by the news. We would beat team DART/Nuun by one control and take 2nd overall! The timing just seemed to be one of those things. We seemed to know that we had to make the 10:20 mark and because we did, we took 2nd place by 2 minutes! I think the end of the race for Lina and I can best be described by 4th DARs slogan.

"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional"

What I like about the races in the Northwest is that they are affordable, low-key, and really cater to the racers. They make it possible to attend a long event on the weekend without taking time off work and any team can race as long as they have two or more racers (some races you must have a co-end team of four). I'd highly recommend anyone to try one out sometime. The events typically have good draw prizes, good hot food at the finish, and welcoming volunteers without whom the events would not be possible.

Lina Augaitis was great to race with which was awesome considering that this was our first race together. I had a super solid race on the maps, made virtually no mistakes, and raced really smart which was my main goal before heading into the race.

Congrats to Team Mergeo.com/MPGear.com who took the overall win and thanks for helping me with my cramping by supplying me with some E-Caps (Adventure racers are the best! They even help out their competition!). Thanks also to DART/Nuun for putting up a strong fight.

Todd Nowack