It’s time to size up the competition for this weekend’s MOMAR in Squamish. Over 200 racers will be on the start line for the Jen Segger designed course including racers from Australia, New York, Texas, Illonios, Washington State, Alberta, and from all parts of BC.  Click here to view the list of registered racers.

Can Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR’s Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack continue where they left off last year? They are fresh off a win at the Suburban Rush and last year, they won all three MOMARs. Who will challenge? Frontrunners Normon Thibault should be up there and you may even see Jason Sanquist (although he claims that he is not as fit as he would to be).

In the Team of 4 category, watch for solid battle between Team Player, Mergeo.com and last year’s top team Live to Tell. And in the team of 2 female category, my money is on the Chilliwack Chicks to be on the podium, but the Just Two Cool Chicks could be up there as well.

But this is an Adventure Race and anything can happen. Over the past 24 MOMARs (holy crap, has it been that many!?) I’ve seen it all — from mechanicals, to injuries, to getting lost (the most common) the race is never over until it’s over. That’s what makes this sport so great.

Volunteers are still needed! If you would like to be part of the MOMAR, please go to the Volunteer Page and sign up.

MOMAR in six days!

The above photo is of Rozee Hyder at last year’s GutBuster Trail Running Series on Mt. Tzouhalem in Duncan. Rozee is a regular at the GutBuster and you might get to see her this weekend (Sunday, May 4th) when the race returns to the Cowichan Valley.

If you haven’t heard yet, I sold the GutBuster to Mark and Nick at the Frontrunners Westshore store. It was a sad day for me to have to give it up but living on the Mainland and organizing a race series on the Island was a bit much for me. In October, I landed a dream job with the City of Surrey in their Filming and Special Events Department. Our department is in charge of all the signature events in the City including Canada Day which drew over 90,000 people last year. I really wasn’t looking for a ‘real’ job but I just happened to find it late one night while surfing the web so I decided to apply. Everything happened really quick and a week later I was offered the job.

So, things had to change and thus I had to sell the GutBuster and resign from my big contracts with the BC Bike Race and the Edge to Edge Marathon. BUT lucky for all you adventure racing enthusiasts, I was able to keep the MOMAR going with a full three race series (please note that because of this, I’m sacrificing time with my family, weekends, evenings, and my training (as witnessed by my performance at the Suburban Rush… ;0) ), so please be grateful! ha ha). My true passion really lies with the MOMAR, putting on a quality race and, most of all, a killer after-party so it’s all worth it.

Anyway, this blog post was simply to plug the GutBuster race this Sunday in Duncan! I guess I got on a bit of a roll. Sorry! The Tzouhalem course is legendary and is probably the one that people love to hate. It’s a big climb to the top (500m) but after that’s it (almost) all downhill through the most flowy singletrack trails that I have EVER been on. I wish I could be there to Bust-A-Gut with you but I will be running a million errands and hammering away at my mile long TO DO list in preparation for the MOMAR Squamish! At least this blog post was on the list so I can cross it off and go to bed!

Goodnight and thanks for reading! Cheers, Bryan