The spirit was high at the MOMAR Squamish and it was great to see so many racers all dressed up in themed costumes to match their team names.  Team Get Your Mind Off My Mountains and Team S.W.A.T. shared the Spirit Award which was sponsored by Ahnu Footwear.  They all win a pair of Ahnu Terra Linda XTR trail runners. Thanks to everyone who got into the spirit!

Christine Baghdassarian and Melissa Doyle were the S.W.A.T Girls and they rocked the spirit and had many votes for best spirit. Photo by Amber Thom.

Eileen Bistrisky and Tiah Goldstein of Team Get Your Mind Off My Mountains won because they sang ABBA songs (loudly) all race long! Photo by Mark Teasdale.

A very honerable mention goes to the Ladies of Suburban Rush for dressing up like very unattractive ladies. Jordy does has some pretty nice legs though… Photo by Amber Thom

Wow. That was a long break from Blogging! I was getting lazy and posting updates via Twitter for the past month.  But, I’m back now and a lot has happened since the last update.

The first MOMAR of the season is just a few weeks away and we are all set to go.  We have over 200 racers signed up and ready to rip it out on a newly designed course by Jen Segger.  Over 90 of the 200 are first time MOMAR participants which is a great stat to see as we love having a new batch of weekend warriors give adventure racing a try.

MOMAR sponsored athlete, Gary Robbins, has been running and running and running and running some more.  He’s become the Forest Gump of the North Shore!  Gary was named Ultra Runner of the Year so he gets a BIG CONGRATS.  He’s been blogging his race stories and they are a well worth a read especially while you drink a milkshake and eat a cinnamon bun!

Last weekend was the Suburban Rush and Aimee Dunn and I had a blast in our third year racing together. It was actually my fifth time doing this race and that was enough to get me a nice certificate for participation! They sold out their event with 250 racers and the competition keeps getting better every year.

I also spent time in Squamish scouting out Jen’s course.  The rappel site is so awesome. Freaky as hell. It makes the rappels from the last two years like bumps in the prairies!

The final few weeks will be busy behind the scenes for the organizing team, but we are very excited for the big day and most of all the big PARTY!

More blogs to come!

Bryan Tasaka
Event Director

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.