The 25th edition of the Schick Xtreme3 Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race took place on July 26th in the Cowichan Valley were the series began nine years ago. It’s pretty cool for me to reminisce about all of the amazing memories that have taken place during each MOMAR weekend. From the adventure filled courses to the incredible racers and volunteers to the epic after-parties, the MOMAR has been an amazing experience and I can tell you a million great stories that are both family friendly to those not so family friendly… Going into race weekend, I didn’t really think much about the fact that this was our 25th race but sitting here now and thinking back on it all I can do nothing but smile, laugh, and sigh (from all the crazy hours). Anyway, I’ll save the trip down memory lane for the day when the MOMAR reaches 100 and your children’s children are doing the race!

Speaking of children being inspired and racing the MOMAR, this race we had 14 year old, Aaron Whalmsley race with his dad Roger in the Short Course. Roger has done numerous MOMARs usually racing with Where’s My Sherpa but at this race he convinced his son to enter as a father and son duo. Their team name was “Generation Gap” but the only gap they had was between them and the 2nd place team.

This MOMAR featured both a short 30km course and the regular 50km course. Each course started with a kayak on Shawnigan Lake (5km/10km) followed by a mountain bike stage (20km/30km) with two water challenges, and finished with a orienteering stage on Cobble Hill Mountain. In the regular course, it was Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR’s Todd Nowack winning his 5th Overall Title. Team PIT came in second followed by solo racer Roger McLeod. Sarah Seads from ELM Health won another solo female title (Sarah, how many is that now?). Jen Segger and Norm Hann were the top coed team of 2 and Team Berg Bikes, Lisa Hughes-Fisher and Nina Brown, were the fastest all female duo. The Mill Bay / Shawnigan Lake based Team Longevity were the top team of four.

The kayak stage saw Team Helly Hansen / Yogaslackers (Marshall House & Lina Augaitis), and Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island (Justin Mark & Jeff Reimer) open up a massive gap between them and the next chase group. Both teams have been paddling a lot and with their speedy boats (double surfski and K2), they rocked the paddle. Lina and Marshall hit the beach first but Jeff and Justin were the first to punch CP 1.

One of the big changes to this year’s course design was in the mountain bike stage. Jason Sandquist took racers out the Burnt Bridge trails which were used in the last two years of the BC Bike Race. The single-track riding in pretty wicked and the loose sand really keeps you on your toes. Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island was first into this stage and were arguably two of the strongest riders in the race. They knew that they needed a big time gap on Nowack heading into the Orienteering stage in order to have a chance at winning their second consecutive title. But multiple flats early in the stage cost them a significant amount of time and Nowack along with Frontrunners‘ owner, Normon Thibault passed them and took them out out contention.

An urgent call on the radio notified us that some idiot had removed the flagging before CP 12 and all the way to the Quarry. Jason was in the River and I was at the Quarry so we both ran and re-flagged it but not before the top 10 teams. Nowack said he didn’t mind this because he had his fancy map holder on his bike and it was easy to navigate through. Thibault stayed with him but lost his lead as a result. However, Team Warmland Dental/SOL and Team Cowichan Bay Kayaks missed a key turn and ended riding down a big hill before realizing their mistake and had to climb back up.

Course highlights were definitely the two water challenges. The first challenge required racers to run upstream to get a CP and then back downstream to get the other CP. The CP downstream required racers to jump into the deep pools of the Koksilah River and swim across the 10m span.

The other water challenge was the Pool Noodle Swim on Quarry Lake. Teams swam a 200m circuit with the pool noodles to collect two checkpoints. This man-made lake has an almost tropical green colour and is nice and warm. Both dips in the water do a great job of keep the racers cool (and clean). The pool noodles worked out much better than last year’s ‘choose your own inflatable’ but we missed seeing the Orca whale, crabs, and ducks…

The Orienteering Stage was last and the Carl Coger designed course gave many of the navigationally challenged racers a tough time. Although some say this year’s O course was easier than last year, it still had a few CPs that were the turning points for some racers. Thibault, entered the O course in first place but one CP gave some serious trouble and cost him a podium finish.

Nowack crossed the finish line in 4:26:37 and teams continued to finish right up until the eight hour cutoff. The finish area had a great vibe with MC Dave Norona and John Crosby entertaining racers all day long. The refreshment table was loaded with food, Edge drink, and there was even a big cooler filled with beer from Lighthouse Brewing Co. A big thanks to the students from the West Coast College of Massage Therepists for coming out and giving the racers a massage when they finished.

Full race results can be found on the Race Results page.

I have just re-posted the final results from this weekend’s MOMAR. I made a mistake in the mountain bike split times. Go to the Results Page to view the new version.

I’m just compiling a bunch of photos and crafting a post race report. I’ll hopefully have it up in the next few days.

Big THANKS to all the volunteers, racers, and sponsors for supporting the MOMAR!

Today’s race report comes following day six’s 67km stage through the trails in Squamish. The course was designed by Sandra and Dave from Corsa Cycles (A MOMAR Community Sponsor) and was a mix of the Test of Metal, Gearjammer and the MOMAR course routes.

This is where Todd broke his bike during the Test of Metal so he had some unfinished business to take care of today. Armed with a loaner Niner bike that has held up solidly during the first five stages, Todd said he had full confidence in his bike going into today’s stage.

Riding with his new partner Jay Latiff from Arrowsmith Cycles, it sounded like they were both fairly well matched partners. Their goal for today’s stage was to have sub four hour finish. The course played to their strengths featuring tons of single track on trails like the Pseudo Psuga, Powerhouse Plunge, and Fartherside. It was a relatively uneventful day compared to the previous four, but Todd sounded very happy to clean the Plunge and finish in 3:59! Way to go boys!

Todd said that his achillies are a bit of an issue now but aside from that he’s been feeling good and hasn’t had a major crash at all. He’s been really good with his post ride recovery by getting some protein in right after he finishes, elevating his legs, doing cold water soak of the legs, and finishing off with daily massages. Todd also complained of having scratched on his arms from all the overgrown brush on the trails (what a wimp! ;0) ).

In other course news, Adam and Graham are riding strong and Justin and Jeff have REALLY cranked things up and finished 8th today! Norm and Wendy continue to win… The big news from the day though came from Rocky Mountain Bikes (Andreas Hestler and Max Plaxton) who put the hammer down in a BIG way and won today’s stage in a time of 3:15!

Tomorrow, racers head to Whistler for the FINAL stage of the BC Bike Race. The Grant Lamont designed course is 60km long and is nothing but awesome single-track. I’m sure everyone is looking forward to completing the arduous journey and putting the finishing medal around their next.

Oh crap, I forgot to ask Todd if he missed sharing a tent with Gary…

Tonight, Todd Nowack of Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR called me with a full update on today’s 65km stage from Sechelt to Gibsons. After surviving yesterday’s 60km stage from Earls Cove to Sechelt, the boys were ready to suffer through another day of single-track. From the sounds of things, Gary’s body is in rough shape and has had abdominal issues to add to his sore quad and busted finger.

Gary has battle through Primal Quest and Raid the North Extreme so riding with these conditions probably doesn’t surprise anyone who knows him. However, just before the first aid station today, Gary crashed hard and from that moment his race was over. Gary did make it to the aid station and they rode out from there but Todd suspected Gary was not all there. When Gary asked “Is it cold?”, Todd knew that the race was over for Gary. I’m sure Gary and Todd will go into this story in much more detail on their post race blogs so I don’t want to infer too much here.

Gary told Todd to go one without him. So knowing that Team Mergeo (Aaron Vanderwaal and Andrew Rigel) had just passed, Todd hammered to catch up with them with the hopes of joining up (you have to ride in teams for safety reasons). Todd did eventually catch them and they also had Jay Latiff on as a ‘third wheel’ since his partner, Robin Dutton, went out with an injury. Long story short (I must get to bed!), Todd and Jay have now teamed up and ripped through the rest of Stage 5 as a new team. Todd said today’s riding was “The BEST single-track ever!”

Onto the ferry they went for a shuttle up to Squamish for Day 6. Gary caught an early ferry ride home and is hopefully getting a good night’s sleep in his own bed.

Gary, your determination and ability to suffer when most people with your injuries wouldn’t have made it past the first 100km, is truly impressive. It was the right decision not to push your body any further. I’m sure Gary will heal quickly and be ready for his next big challenge — MOMAR Shawnigan???

Good luck to Todd and Jay “Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR / Arrowsmith Bikes!” Rip it up!!!

Poor Gary. He’s managed to make it through over 123km in the blazing heat of today’s 125km stage, nearly puked three times at the 90km aid station, but in the final (and only) section of single-track, he crashed hard into a rock garden and now the whole right side of his body is in pain.

Todd continues to be the workhorse for Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR and pulled Gary along in warrior like fashion. “My universe only existed within 10″ off of Todd’s back tire,” said Gary. “I didn’t want to look up to see the terrain ahead of me otherwise I would fall off the back.” During the first 80km, Gary and Todd hung with all the top teams in one big peleton.

Gary is one dirty boy… literally… Dave Silver must have taken this photo not long after Gary’s crash. I’m also surprised to see Gary ahead of Todd… Gary must have sensed there was a camera guy nearby… ;0)

Reflecting back on Stage 1, Gary said that yesterday’s 89km stage was “the most painful biking experience of my life.” Today’s relatively benign stage proved to be a welcome relief and a bit of a recovery stage for Gary.

Active heli logging put a kibosh to the original route that would have taken riders up and over the Duck Lake pass. Post race comments from the teams sounded disappointed in the course route but there was no other option from Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni. Maybe for a future year, they will be able to build a trail up and over the Nitinat headwaters?

Gary and Todd finished with a time of 4:50:50 and moves them into 19th spot in the all male category and 24th overall. Team Comar / John Henry (Graham Tutti & Adam Smith) had a strong day and finished ahead of Gary and Todd by just under 5 minutes. Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Justin Mark and Jeff Reimer were 5 minutes back of Gary and Todd.

Congratulations to the other Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island all female team of Kristenn Magnesson and Lisa Ludwig who had another third place finish. And Team Kona’s Wendy Simms and Normon Thibault continue to lead the Mixed category with another fast finish.  Norm sent me a text tonight saying his “[groin] is a bit raw…”  Photo to come… ;0)

I also want to send a shout out to Da Apples, Billy Adams and Heather Macintosh, for finishing another stage of the BCBR. Funny… I just figured out the significance of their team name. Nice. Heather and Billy completed today’s stage in 6:47:34.

END NOTE: As I was riding today on SFU, I tried to imagine riding for that long in one day and then having to do it for six more in a row… Thankfully, I was back in my van in 90 minutes (exhausted) and that was enough for me! The rest of my day consisted of lunch with my family and then to the office to work on the MOMAR. SIDE NOTE ON THE END NOTE: Today I took my new full suspension Berg Bike on Nicole’s Trail for the first time. I turned my rear Fox shock onto the ‘bouncy’ mode and flew down the trail with a massive smile on my face. It was a rush! I LOVE my bike!!!

MOMAR veteren and my replacement as the Day 2 Course Designer, Brent Chan, has just sent me an update following Day 2’s 125km stage:

Helly Hansen [Kristenn Magnesson & Lisa Ludwig] girls were third today. Norm and Wendy won again but the win today was closer. Gary had a good crash but they pulled it together to finish 19th overall. Todd is riding strong and Gary has been having some moments but expects to pick things up soon. Food has been great and the volunteers are having a good time. The heat makes it a totally different race than last year. Jeremy [Grasby of the Riding Fool Hostel] is just about to go up and present his Day 3 course.

Gary will be calling as soon as the awards are done with a more detailed report. Check back soon!

I just got off the phone with Gary Robbins from Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR who just wrapped up Day 1 at the BC Bike Race. Today’s 89km stage went from Shawnigan Lake and finished in Lake Cowichan. The race started with two laps around the Shawnigan Lake School campus in an effort to spread teams out before the single track. As could be expected, teams hammered off the start line to get a good position in the narrow trail. However, in this early loop teams had to cross a farmer’s field which had just been plowed the day before. This made things a bit muddy and one of the Trek teams blew BOTH of their derailers in the first few km into the race. They ended up getting the bike fixed but left 20min+ behind the last team–still they ended up finishing 4th overall for the day!

Gary and Todd were hanging with some top teams for the first few hours of singletrack, but 3/4 of the way up an 8km climb, Gary started suffering from severe leg cramps. These cramps would plague him any time they came to an incline and he had engage his inner quads. Todd was a workhouse for they day and by the sounds of it, very patient with his suffering teammate. Fortunately the final 20km were on the Cowichan Valley Trail (old rail bed) and they were able hammer it out at a ~24km/hr pace.

MOMAR Squamish winners Team Helly Hansen / Vancouver Island (Justin Mark & Jeff Reimer) had a troubled day one as well. Justin was suffering from the heat which reached highs of 32 celsius. Todd went through 10 bottles on the day and Gary chugged 2L of water at one aid station (almost made him puke).

Unofficial results had Gary and Todd finish in 25th place with a time of 5h15min and Justin and Jeff in 5h28min. Other notables include Team Kona (Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms) who finished 10th overall with a time of 4h45min. Today’s winning team finished in 4h14min (I think it was one of the Cannondale teams). The Trek team finished second. The results will be up on the BCBR website soon: www.bcbikerace.com.

Tomorrow’s stage is 125km long with 123km on mainline forest service roads. It’s going to be a day where teams will ride in packs just like a day on the Tour de France. It’s going to be fast and furious!

Congratulations to everyone who completed the Test of Metal on Saturday. The MOMAR alumni had a solid showing at this year’s race especially Wendy Simms from Nanaimo who was the fast female overall and 23rd OVERALL. Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR’s Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack entered the race but each had their own DNF stories to tell. I’ve linked to the racers blogs for the inside scoop.

David Kvick 02:50:58.1
Jeff Riemer 02:55:52.1
Wendy Simms 02:56:35.1
Normon Thibault 02:57:39.3 -
Justin Mark 03:01:21.1
Robin Dutton 03:04:43.7
Andrew Clarke 03:07:47.4
John Loewen 03:19:46.7
Stefan Jakobsen 03:29:31.0
Tom Craik 03:35:42.1
Annie Kvick 03:36:02.4
Duncan Coo 03:44:29.4
Andrew Pitre 03:46:55.6
Graeme Fitch 03:47:33.7
Greg Pitre 03:53:49.1
Dave Howells 03:59:41.8
Billy Adams 04:05:18.5
Isabelle Laplante 04:06:56.5
Jean-Francoi Plouffe 04:08:40.3
Jeff Gallimore 04:09:57.3
Dave Norona 04:11:08.1
Nelson Yu 04:18:45.9
Marshall House 04:22:03.6
Bobbie-Jean Taylor 04:22:36.7
Curtis LaBounty 04:22:46.7
Lesley-Ann Marriott 04:32:09.9
Rene Michaely 04:32:17.5
Graham Schulz 04:34:35.9
Malcolm Schulz 04:34:36.8
Heather Macintosh 04:41:15.1
Isabelle Thielen 05:02:04.4
Sarah Newman 05:14:01.8
Bill Lane 05:17:10.1
Dan Kucherka 05:21:05.6
Karen Stark DNF
Doug Demarzo DNF
Todd Nowack DNF
Gary Robbins DNF
Aaron VanderWaal DNF
Ben Sporer DNF

 
Adam Smith takes on the Rappel. Photo by Nick Sopcza.

I have finally added a few new photo galleries from the MOMAR in Squamish onto the website.  The photo galleries are from the rappel site, finish line, CP 16, and the awards/after-party.  Big thanks to all our photographers who came out and captured the MOMAR experience for all to view!

Photographer Nick Sopcza put together a great MOMAR Slideshow to music that is posted on YouTube.  It’s well worth checking out and re-living the memories!

The blogosphere is alive with great post race stories from the MOMAR Squamish!  There’s nothing like getting the story straight from the horse’s mouth.  Grab a coffee, a beer or a protein shake and settle in for a play by play account of how it all went down at the front of the pack.

• Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR captain Gary Robbins details how he uses a broken shoelace to deak out the followers. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR navigator Todd Nowack writes about hardtails and navigation — he even admits to small mistakes on the nav! GO.
• Elm Health’s Sarah Seads writes about being the first female across the line and lessons learned along the way. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Justin Mark tells the tale of how sweet the MOMAR victory feels. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Kristenn Magneson writes about losing a bike shoe in the trek. GO.
• Course Designer Jen Segger-Gigg details the great feeling of having designed on killer course. GO.

And if you prefer the old school way of getting your news then you can check out the Whistler Question, SNAP Magazine, and the Pique for awesome post race coverage.

Thanks to everyone for telling your stories!  You are an inspiration to us all!

If I missed any blog reports please let me know and I’ll post it up.

The often used, but never overused, saying ‘we can’t do it without the volunteers’ could not apply more than to last weekend’s MOMAR in Squamish. Over 60 volunteers dedicated their time to helping make the race an big success. The MOMAR staff and all the racers would like to thank each and every one of you for coming out! THANK YOU!!!

Racers, post a comment and tell us how much you love the volunteers!

Here’s what Sylvia Jorger had to say “Thanks to you, Jen Segger, and especially all the wonderful volunteers who ALL had a smile on their faces and encouraging words every time we encountered them! They are the stars because it was cold for them to stand out there for hours!!! “

Laura Comuzzi and Dave Norona stay hydrated during Friday Night Registration.

Course Designer, Jen Segger-Gigg, goes over final instructions with Adrian LaSalle-Lowe before the start of the race. Special kudos go to Adrian who suffered through back issues to get all of his volunteers in place.  He was so sore that he couldn’t make it to the after-party.

Monique, Janine, Lisa, and Laura at the afterparty

Volunteer at CP 16 checks in with race central.  I think he may have had the best CP of the day. Nice view!

The retail volunteers!

This photo was taken at the end of the night…  Rod & Paul in the back and Jo, Chris, Julia, Janine, Dave, and Sheron in the front.

  Here are the final results for the 2008 MOMAR Squamish.  Teams were ranked first by the number of CPs found and then by fastest time.

The Dirty Girlz signed up solo but stayed together the entire race and finished with a time of 8:11:11 and 16 CPs found.

Lesley-Ann Marriott and Heather MacIntosh of the Mountain Devils

Thomas Casarella from NYC and Suneel Mandava from Chicago flew in just for the MOMAR experience. Thanks for making the trip!

Unfortunately, due to some technical delays, the final results will not be posted until late Monday night. However, Tony Austin, official photographer of the MOMAR, has posted his photo gallery online. Go to www.pbase.com/autie to view and purchase. Other photo galleries will be posted as they go live. In the meantime, here are a few great shots from the weekend!

And a Happy Mother’s Day to all the MOMAR mommies with a special shout out to the Chilliwack Yummy Mummies who were the winners of the Denis Fontaine Spirit Award presented by Keen Footwear (see photo below)…

It has been almost four years since professional adventure racer, Dave Norona, race competitively but this past weekend, Dave made a brief (one time?) exit out of retirement to race in Scotland’s Drambuie Pursuit. Racing with Frank Wolf, Kevin Vallely, and Greg Inkster, Dave and his team took on teams from around the world in this one day adventure race. Here’s an excerpt from Dave’s newsletter:

We arrived in London for a pint and then on to Inverness, Scotland. The first evening we were given food and then taken out to a giant castle for the prologue - an Archery section. We placed 4th on the night with two impressive sessions by Greg and Frank. Over the next day we mountain biked, ran, canoed, and did a section on dune buggies and Zap Kats which are inflatable speed boats that go 50 miles per hour and push 3 G’s in the corners. We were the passengers in this section and the goal was to try and not fall out. After a wicked day of hard racing we arrived at the finish line in first place overall. We celebrated with the other teams well into the night with lots of amazing Drambuie Drinks and fine food.

So, does this mean Dave is officially out of retirement? Well, he will be at the Squamish MOMAR, but as the event’s MC. For those of you that have never heard of Dave, he has won 8 overall MOMAR titles between 2000 and 2004. He’s raced in almost all of the big adventure races around the world and is super fun guy. He’s going to keep you entertained at the finish line and he will be on the dance floor all night.

Today was the 4th annual Suburban Rush Adventure Race out in the Port Moody area. It’s the first race of the AR season and features a 30km course of mountain biking and trail running. I’ve done this race every year since it started and it’s always a great time. This year was no exception especially with the incredible weather. Over 200 racers were on the start line and it was great to see so many familiar faces both racing and volunteering.

My partner for the day was Aimee Dunn. Aimee and I did this race last year and we have also done a few Muddy Buddies as well as the inaugural Navigate the Streets. I always look forward to racing with Aimee because she’s a solid racer and we always have a lot of laughs together.

The race started with a 35min run (hike) up the steep trails to our bikes. It was a bit of a ‘gutbuster’ and my inconsistent/non-existence training really had my heartrate up. Lucky for me, Aimee is a postie so she’s used to haul around heavy bags of mail all day. So, she didn’t seem to mind me hanging onto her backpack for a bit of a tow up. Once on our bikes, we continued the arduous climb up up and up. Race Director, Dean Wutke, used a lot of the same course from 2006 and I quickly remembered that we were in for a BIG ass climb to the top of the mountain. It was a bitch but unlike 2006 when it was a downpour, today’s sunny skies gave us an incredible view over Buntzen Lake.

Of course what goes up, must go down, so Aimee and I hammered this section and made up a ton of time on a bunch of the teams that passed us on the trek. Aimee is a wicked freerider and it was a challenge for me and the Berg to hold onto her wheel. The downhill sections were awesome. It was technical and fast and we soon found ourselves at the next trekking stage. This 4-5km stage required a bit of navigation skills around Buntzen Lake on some really nice trails and viewpoints. Then it was back on the bikes and more downhill to the finish line.

We finished in 3h 14min and I was pretty wiped. Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack of Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR entered this race and they were the first to cross the line. The girls from Chilliwack were there too and two of their teams finished in the top three in their category. Of course the day ended at the Golden Spike Pub with beers and burgers. It was a great day overall and I would to thank Dean Wutke, Shawn Leclair, and all the volunteers for organizing the race. Results and photos will be posted on the website in the coming days: go to www.suburbanrush.com.