Holy shit. Jen Segger finished Badwater in 9th place overall and was the 5th female! 32:37:57 was her time.  I don’t think I’ve run 32 hours this year!  Way to go, Jen!!! You rock!  You’re an inspiration to everyone and congratulations on ripping it up?

Did you leaving anything in the tank for the MOMAR in 11 days???

The MOMAR Squamish Course Director, Jen Segger, is down in Death Valley running the Badwater race.  This is one of the toughest races in the world with a course that stretches 217km through the scorching dessert sun of 55c temperatures.

This is a race that you only accepts the best of the best and you have to apply to get one of the 80 spots. Jen is the youngest female to ever make it in.  She’s running strong and as of now she sits in 9th spot (possibly 7th — the results aren’t that clear).

I think Jen is hoping to make a go at the 28 hour course record!  She started the race yesterday at 10am so she’ll be finishing around 2-4pm today.  You can follow her progress at www.badwater.com.

GO JEN GO!!!

There are many times when I’m working on the MOMAR that it hardly feels like ‘work’ and this weekend is right up there on the top of that list!

I made the trip over to Shawnigan Lake to finalize a few sections of the MOMAR course route with Course Designer, Jason Sandquist, and to do a site visit of Merridale Estate Cidery. Joining us on the trip were Michelle Relf and Kari Frazer.

Longtime MOMAR volunteer and formerly my sponsorship contact at the Sandman Inn, Trina White, and her husband Jason Ware were our hosts as they welcomed us to stay at their new vacation rental home “The Shawnigan Chalet”. We were their inaugural guests and it was nothing but awesome. The place had a great view of the lake and a very cozy atmosphere.

Michelle and I started Saturday with a drive through the rural pastures and a stop at Merridale to meet with owner Janet Docherty. The estate is massive with apple trees everywhere, a big cellar where they make their cider, and a bistro where they serve lunch and dinner. Merridale is going to make the MOMAR Friday Night Registration truly special and I highly recommend that you come early and stay for dinner.

We left Merridale excited to meet up with Jason and Kari and get the rest of the course finalized. I haven’t been on those trails since the last year’s MOMAR and we were treated to some great single track that was in great shape following the BC Bike Race. We played in the river and also vetted this year’s orienteering stage. I think everyone should find this year’s O course a bit easier in the sense that the CP flags won’t be so hidden as they were last year. Six hours later, we were back at the vehicles a bit dehydrated and hungry. Good times!

Michelle and I had bought some ribeyes for Saturday’s dinner but after our earlier visit to Merridale we decided to make the trip back for dinner. Showered and clean we all met up again and had an absolutely incredible meal. The food is all local and fresh. I had the Snapper, Jason had the Paella, Kari had the tuna/salmon salad, and Michelle had the Tandori Chicken (see photo left). For dessert we had their Apple Strudel and Apple Crumble with ice cream and of course we washed it all down with their cider.

On to Sunday… Slept in… Ribeye and corn for brunch :0). Computer work. THEN off to Mt. Tzouhalem for an afternoon ride!!! Tzouhalem is my favorite place to ride but I haven’t ridden the trails in over two years. Jason led us (sans Kari, but now with Chris) on a great route through some of the mountain’s best trails (Chicken Run, T-Bone, Field of Dreams, M-One, etc). It was a great end to an amazing weekend.

The only negative was sitting in the ferry lineup for over four hours! I’m an idiot for not making a reservation. Take my experience as a warning if you’re coming over on the ferry for the MOMAR… BOOK YOUR RESERVATIONS NOW!!! BC Ferries only has a limited number of reservation spots and they go weeks in advance especially now that summer is in full swing.

Thanks again to Trina and Jason for having us stay at your chalet! Thanks to Merridale for the awesome dinner! Thanks to Jason, Kari, Michelle, and Chris for the great weekend of riding and running!

My friend and longtime MOMAR racer and volunteer, Michelle Relf, take the MOMAR t-shirt overseas. Here she is with her friend in Ireland posing with the shirt from this year’s MOMAR Squamish.

I can’t remember which race the fuchsia shirt is from (in photo below) but if you remember, then please reply as a comment below.

Both shirts were designed by my little brother, Rod, and he is busy working on the shirt design for the Shawnigan Race. Speaking of my brother, I better give his company, Surface Collective, a big plug. Rod and his business partner Michelle have just filmed an episode on the CBC show Dragon’s Den which will air in October 2008.

Did you know that the MOMAR was one of the first races that used American Apparel (warning: some might consider this site a bit offensive… others (gary) will love it… ) shirts and offered female sizing? We have always believed that a shirt should be wearable and some of the ways we did that was to pay for a high quality shirt, put on a cool graphic (something your parents wouldn’t wear or one that your kids would be jealous of what you are wearing!), and we put the logos on the lower back (small). Personally, I can’t stand shirts with all the gaudy logos that cover the back or the poorly fitting Gilden shirts with their fat collars.

The Vancouver Sun Run has always had the worst shirts. You would think a race that huge would have figured it out by now! I did that run 10 times and each year I would tear it up and make it my new bike rag.

Anyway, enough about shirts! Time to get back to the Tour.

I wasn’t going to blog today because I’m a bit blogged out after covering the BC Bike Race, but then I came across the most interesting story on the Sleepmonsters.ca site. Simon Donato is leading a team of adventure racers to the Sierra Nevada dessert to conduct their own search for the wealthy adventurer, Steve Fosset, who went missing in Sept 2007 and in February was declared legally dead.

Take a moment to read about their plan to find Steve and this could be a zillion times more interesting that following this year’s Primal Quest (did anyone even know that it was on???).

Day 2 Course Designer, Brent Chan, has emerged from the week working and riding the BC Bike Race and has send us some photos to share. Thanks Brent!

Gary and Todd with their race schwag.

Wendy Simms and Normon Thibault at the start of Day 1.

Jeff Reimer and Justin Mark of Team Helly Hansen

The pack gets led out by Marc Campbell and the Helly Hansen FJ Cruiser.

I’m not sure who this is but he is wearing the new MOMAR race jersey.

Kristenn Magnesson and Lisa Ludwig of Team Helly Hansen with their 2nd place medals.

A happy Gary Robbins crosses the river during Day 3.

Norm and Wendy in the Red ‘leaders’ jersey. They won all seven stages in the coed category.

Brent Chan at the start of Stage 7.

Todd Nowack at the start the final stage.