Adventure Racing!

Here we are at the finish line of our first MOMAR!



 

My neighbour, Vanessa, and I have spent a fair amount of time in the trails on Gabriola training for various athletic events.  First on our list was the Ride to Conquer Cancer, after that we thought we’d try a triathlon which we completed at Shawnigan Lake this spring with our friend Julie.  After training through the summer, we headed up to Cumberland to complete our first MOMAR (Mind over mountain adventure race), alongside over 450 racers.  We signed up for the sport course, a 30km trek that included kayaking, running and mountain biking, all while trying to map read to ensure we didn’t miss a checkpoint and that we were headed in the right direction.  It was a gorgeous day, at 9:05 we received our map so we could start planning our route, at 10:30 we were in our kayak waiting for the countdown to begin, what seemed to be an hour later we were back on land ready to start our trail run.   The run had lots of elevation (I mean a lot) and eventually led us back to town to start the mountain bike trek, this was about the hardest hill I have ever done (actually, I think it was called a mountain) and had everyone hiking their bikes for at least a portion of the gruelling uphill grind. After a few more checkpoints we were back running again to find the next checkpoint, all the while trying to get a chance to take a glimpse of the gorgeous scenery around us.  For the last leg of our adventure we were back on the mountain bikes, wow there are a lot of good riders out there and a lot of bridges, ramps, and teeter-totters in those trails.  After 5:34 we crossed the line with smiles on our faces, and still remaining “Island View Besties”.  Of course, we’ll be signing up again, with husbands in tow and hopefully a few more islanders on the course.