Another year, Another MOMAR

Since moving out to BC almost 3 years ago, Kerri and I have raced the MOMAR (Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race) in Squamish.

For those new to the concept of Adventure racing, you are given a map of the local area that include check point locations you need to get to and stamp your sheet, the 1st team to do so wins. Included in the MOMAR races is mountain biking, trail running, orienteering, and usually either rappelling or kayaking.

Kerri and I have usually compete in the 50km course, but this year due to my UK travels and here final exams, we decided to jump down to the new short course (30km).

The race started out ok, with a simple 3km jog up and down the mountain side. Following this we jumped onto our bikes and started climbing out of the Alice lake area to some fun and simple single track corners.

The day was beautiful for the end of May, but it was a little hot. As such, Kerri wasn't feeling that well and decided to pull herself out of the race. I know it was a very tough decision for her, but overall it was the right decision and the best as she had exams coming up.

She told me to continue on and finish for team "Huck 'n' Eh." Race rules are that teams are required to start and finish together so we knew we would be disqualified, but hey, we paid for the race so I continued to see how well we could do.

Going solo, I started to realize that Kerri was an excellent pacer for me. Without her it was like having my accelerator stuck at 100%. This also lead me to realize that our team pace was great, which allowed me time to navigate and judge the proper turns we needed to make. Without this I made the wrong decision right at the start of the navigation section. This let me astray for about 1km. Figuring out my mistake and losing some time I made a quick decision to shortcut through the dense, unmarked, trail-less forest. It worked and got me back on track (read - I was lucky!!).

After the quick 5km run on navigation, I picked the bike back up for another climb to the start of the downhill mountain biking section. Fortunately I have ridden this trail in the last 2 races and was use to the terrain, until the last section. This is where things got interesting.

The race marshals at this location were trying to motivate me by saying that the 3rd place team was only 2 mins ahead and if I picked up the pace slightly I would be able to catch them. This worked, until I turned the next corner. All I remember thinking is "WoW... This is steep and Fast, I can't believe I'm riding thisssssssssss......" My bike ended up at the bottom of a 10 foot embankment and I supermaned down the trail with a nice soft landing on a mixture of limestone and shale. This clearly slowed me down for a minute or two. I ended up brusing my left thumb bad enough that I couldn't mountain bike and leaving 2 holes in my right elbow, but my helmet didn't have a scratch on it!

I pick up the bike and with a couple of curses I started into a slow jog through the rest of the 7km of mountain biking. The were about 2 or 3 times following this where I almost quit the race, but knew that Kerri would be disappointed that the team didn't finish, so I kept telling myself just a couple more steps.... After those couple of steps my legs fully seized, not just one but both. Man did that hurt, I quickly massaged them and chewed back a couple of liquid painkillers.

The raced ended in Squamish, which provided some paved areas where I could hop back on the bike one handed. At this point I assumed I was maybe in 5th or 6th. Just then I spotted another team ahead. They saw me as well and we all raced to find the finish line through the back streets of Squamish. I managed to pass them just as we reached the bike drop and were told to race to the finish line 100m away. The adrenalin was kickin and I pushed it all the way to the line.

Kerri and Adam were there to cheer me on and also to my suprise let me know I finished 2nd!! Overall it was a great day, it was too bad Kerri had to stop, but we'll kick it next year. It took me a couple of weeks to heal each day finding new cuts and bruises.

Have I convinced you to try Adventure Racing yet? It is an amazing time and the squamish race is by far one of the best as the scenery is stunning.

Here are some pics:

MOMAR Squamish 2009

Home Owners at Last

After years of trying to get into the real estate market, James and I finally managed to purchase our first home.

We very excited (and a little terrified) with our new purchase, and we're looking forward to moving in and making it our own. It's a heritage house in Vancouver, with a basement suite which we plan on renting out to help us cover the mortgage.

The only downside is that our closing date is just one week before the baby is due. Needless to say, August is going to be a very hectic month for us, so we're thrilled that my parents are coming out to help us with setting up the house and taking care of the baby.

Road Tripp'n to Calgary

On the May long weekend, James and I took the Friday off work and did a road trip to Calgary to visit Peter, Mo and their two kids. We left Vancouver on Thursday night and drove to Salmon Arm where we stayed the night. We found a fantastic restaurant called Shuswap Chefs (try saying that 3 times fast), where we had the best meal either of has had in a long time.

On Friday we enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in before heading for Calgary. We passed through a number of towns such as Golden and Revelstoke, that we'd like to go back to in the winter for skiing. But we didn't have much time to look around as we needed to get to Calgary in the early evening because we had tickets to the National Lacrosse League champion's cup game.

We made it to Calgary with enough time for a quick dinner and visit with the kids before heading the Saddledome with Peter and Mo. The Calgary roughnecks were playing the New York Titans in the final game of the season, and the Calgary fans were all geared up to bring home the cup. It was the loudest sporting event that I've ever been to, and James and I got right into it and even joined in the mayhem with our very own thunder sticks. I guess all the cheering gave the roughnecks a lift, because it was a close game, but in the end the good guys brought the cup to Calgary and everyone went home happy; except the NY titans I suppose.

On Saturday we had a relaxing breakfast and played with the kids before heading out to a local park for a picnic. The weather was fantastic, and we all enjoyed a lazy afternoon in the sunshine. I even enjoyed a little cat nap in the grass while James, Peter & Mo played with the kids. In the evening we had a BBQ and went for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Then on Sunday morning we said our goodbyes and packed up the car with our baby gift from Peter and Mo....a ton of baby stuff that they are done with. I felt like we had won the lottery......thanks Pete & Mo!!!!!! And I was especially happy when it actually all fit into our little Toyota Matrix, seemingly defying all the laws of physics.

We had two days to make the trip back to Vancouver, so we took a meandering route down to Radium Hot Springs; this is definitely a place that we'd like to come back to because it's quite beautiful nestled in valley and it's home to natural hot springs which I would love to visit once I'm not pregnant:) But instead, we just stopped and had lunch on a patio. It truly felt like the first weekend of summer because it was 26 degrees and gloriously sunny. Then we headed up the Columbia valley past the bugaboo mountains back towards Golden and then down through the Okanagan through Vernon and eventually on to Kelowna where we stopped for the night. It was so warm, that we didn't even need a sweater when we had dinner on the patio at 9:30 pm, it was a very nice change from the relative cool Vancouver nights.

Then on Monday, we headed back to Vancouver after a leisurely breakfast. We knew that we were getting close when the rain started.....actually Vancouver had very nice weather up until Monday, but it seemed very apropos.

Not surprisingly, we were sad that the weekend was over, but we had a great long weekend, and we're already looking forward to the next one.

As always here's some pics:

Calgary Road Trip

Baby Bump

I've had a few requests to share some photos of my growing belly. So I've set up a photo album and every week or so I'll add a new photo of my baby bump.

In related news, I had a midwife appointment today and all is well with both baby and mom :)

Baby Bump

Spring Time in Vancouver

Spring is my favourite time in Vancouver. There are always a few weeks when the cherry blossoms and magnolias are in bloom, and there is still snow in the north shore mountains; in my opinion there is simply no better time to view Vancouver.

This past weekend we took advantage of the sunny weather to get out side to fly our kite. Then we headed to our favourite Italian delicatessan, and picked up all the fixins for a picnic. Our first plan was to head to Deep Cove to sit by the water, but apparently everyone else in Vancouver had the same idea and there was no parking to be found. So instead we headed up Seymour mountain where we stopped at the Deep Cove lookout and had a mountain-top picnic.

As always, here are a few pictures/videos:

Spring Time in Vancouver

James and Kerri's 1st Adventure Race 2009

On Saturday April 25th, James completed his first adventure race of the 2009 season with his sister Kerri. They finished the 30 km course of running, biking and navigation in a stellar time of 3 hours and 8 minutes, which was well under their goal of three and a half hours. But even more impressive was the fact that they placed 14th out of 34 teams in their category (co-ed pairs), and 69th out of the total of 140 teams. This is an excellent start to their season, considering they both had been quite busy in the weeks leading up to the race, and had not trained nearly as much as they had planned :)

Kerri's boyfriend, Adam, and I were their personal paparazzi and cheering squad. We saw them off at the start line, met them at check point four to cheer them on, and greeted them at the finish line. In between we checked out the shops in Port Moody, and sat in the sunshine at a local cafe.

Here's some Pics:

Adventure Race - April 25

More from London

Thursday night Wency, a work colleague, and I went to the Apollo theater to see the musical called "Wicked." It is based on the booked also called wicked, which is a story about the witches from The Wizard of Oz. It follows the friendship of the 2 witches from Sorcery school through to the melting of the wicked witch of the west.

I would recommend this play to all, it was fun, humourous, and enjoyable.