Check out the latest issue of Breath Magazine. A well written article by Jen Segger recaps the adventures of racing and traveling down in Ecuador last February for the Huairasinchi Adventure Race. The article follows two Canadian teams racing through the Andes in the "highest race in the world" I however was not on either of these Canadian teams but was the lone Canadian racing with Team Ecuador. This was a winning race for us, Team Ecuador. We were awarded with a trip and deluxe cruise to the world famous Galapagos Islands along with forwarding us onto Worlds AR Championships in Spain. Only a few weeks away I will be reunited with the Ecuadorians in Spain starting Oct. 2 for some more punishing adventure.

Costa Rica..... PURA VIDA

I think I'm finally seeing straight and somewhat awake now. It's been a week today that my teammates and I crossed the finish line in Costa Rica after racing 500km, 103hours on 5 hours of sleep. Adventure Race Costa Rica 2010 is part of the World Series AR. This was the first year for the Costa Rica Race and WOW these guys put on an incredible, well run race indeed! I was fortunate to join this adventure with Team Real Costa Rica/ Costal Challenge consisting of 3 amazing Tico's ( Costa Rican's ) Rodrigo Carazo, Eduardo Baldioceda, and Sergio Sanchez. I was hooked up with the guys through our mutual friends the Ecuadorians. I had never raced with the CR before but was guaranteed an amazing good time full of laughs and that we would make it to the finish! Top 5 would be a bonus. The more epic the conditions the more this team seemed to succeed. They have many years of AR experience and the navigation led by Rodrigo was bang on! Our personalities and attitudes were a match all around. What better way to race and experience a country then with the locals. Eduardo works as a guide and had eyes like a hawk for spotting all the critters and snakes with much knowledge to share about CR. The race: We had an unique start on white water rafts. We ran down to our assigned raft and guide and off we went on a very thrilling river! Time went by pretty quickly as we raced between the other rafts. It was bout a 4 hour paddle. First TA was on to the mountain bike. The beginning of the race had shorter transitions. From Bike to hike to bike to zip lines to bike to hike. It's all a blurr to me now. The first night was one of the highlights. After hiking up to a lake and seeing 2 tarantulas and some other crazy spider we took this amazing canyoneering section back down. 2.5 hours we waddled through warm rushing river from boulder to boulder the water never getting higher then the waist down this amazing canyon. There was a couple beautiful water falls coming in to it on the side. Now this was Costa RiCa! Traveling through it in the dark added to the exoticness. The water was rushing pretty hard at some points which we were able to take the high road. When we reached the bottom we were stunned by bright lights of cameras as the local news was there filming us for the daily segment on the race all week along with ESPN south america. Latter in the week when we got to villages we would get asked to take pictures of us as we were "the crazy ones from T.V." The race had a mandatory 2 hour stop which was placed around the half way point. Our strategy was to make it there for our first sleep. Half way took a little longer then to be expected. Sleep monsters were after us and just before the last hiking section to the mandatory stop over I voted for a 10min eye rest. My vision was going squirrelly. 10 min helped and we made it to our point of rest nearly 48hrs without sleep. Too long! Bodies were feeling abused at this point. Teams were dropping out from foot problems, heat exhaustion. My feet were doing pretty good but my body had heat rash and OMG it was BAD! It came in waves, it felt like needles all over your body almost like a muscle spasm you'd cry out. I also felt like puking from the smell of myself. Really, like never ever before have I smelt like that. I don't know what I was burning off but honestly I was almost scared something was seriously wrong with me it was that bad. After a 1.5hr sleep we were back out hiking in the hottest, most humid part of the race up by an active volcano. I wish I remembered the name of places. When I got to the top of the hike I looked like I jumped into a lake. My shorts were so wet from humidity they stuck to me and I dripped of sweat. We made it to the kayak section just before dark. The water was calm as can be. 5 hours we were on the lake. This night was my 3 year wedding anniversary that I was missing and Eduardo's wife's birthday. We received a present out there though. The most amazing sight from the middle of the lake, we watched the volcano erupt and spew red lava out. Incredible!!! Best seats, clear night. Truly amazing. The sleep monsters were back and after the guys this time. Funny how you start to make no sense. I was amused listening to Sergio fight the sleepiness. The monster caught up to me at the very end too as I beached us into some rocks falling asleep. My sleep gibberish was " can't wait to use the washrooms on shore, hope they have them plugged in and ready for me" Hun? We had pizza ready for us when we got to shore. We ate really well in this race as it passed through many villages. After some food and a short hike we slept on some couches at a lodge we passed by. Must had been too comfortable though as we sleep 1.5 hour longer then we wanted to. 3 hour sleep we had. We needed it though. We still had our last 170km bike leg to get through. Our finial long ass bike leg started way up high descending through the cloud forest. Another highlight. Looking over the edge of the road it was all clouds. Mystical, magical, beautiful CR! Bike Bike Bike. Then Down poor! This was the first rain we had had. It rains buckets here. Couldn't see in front and ruts were starting to form in the road. It was dark now too, we needed to pull over and wait this one out. Two lovely women waved us into their home out of the rain. CR hospitality at it's finest. We dried out our cloths, they cooked us food and welcomed us into the quaint home. The rain passed and we were back out. It was slow going, hiking through mud and cow shit. Our finial CP proved to be an epic in finding. After 2.5 hours looking we thought we were done. Cutting our losses we turned around along with the Canadian team and headed back out..... but low and behold. Ahhhha. We got it! Out of place but found. Now it was a press for the clock to make it back before cut off. We busted our ass and was pleasantly surprised to find the finial leg rerouted due to flooding. We made it to the end. 103hours of racing finishing 4th. Out of 18 teams 5 teams fully completed the coarse and award machetes. Really, a machete! That's awsome. People's feet were completely destroyed and the heat was apparent amongst all in some way. Thanks for the amazing Costa Rican Adventure. I hope to come back and sit on a beach next time. We saw 5 snakes, frogs, spiders, weasel, monkeys ( have you ever heard a howler monkey rorr? Sounds like a sasqwatch. creepy ) The jungle was so alive and noisy with life at night. Incredible Costa Rica.

Off to Costa Rica

Great Pic's from Sportograf Photography

Solo 24 HOA Nationals

I’m making the long drive back to Squamish after a successful weekend at the Canadian Solo 24 HOA championship. It was so good to be back in Canmore again racing and seeing my friends and family. We arrived a few days early to some seriously muddy new cut trails at the Nordic Center but come Saturday it was bone dry and getting hot. This year I had my usual pit crew. Husband Jeremy, Brother Chad, mom Betty and a new addition my cousin Keith. Along with all my great friends that came out for various lengths to cheer me on there was no shortage of help and support. This year was my 4th 24 Hours solo and the first time that I was nervous in my stomach days before it. It’s been a different year for me having moved out of Canmore a year ago and traveling all winter then moving out to Squamish this spring I was feeling a little self doubting with not having the usual winter program. The race started at noon with a short 3min run to our bikes. We were all bunched up on the new single track climb but it helped keep things to a settling pace. The first few laps went well. It was a mentally stimulating coarse with a lot of climbing and some new descents. I had about a 7-9 min lead on second for about the first 5 hours. She was riding the same pace it seemed and I kept hoping that I had put more time in on her when I came through but she was riding consistent. It was a hot day but I never really even noticed. I think I’m actually getting adapted to the heat now living out on the coast. Between the 6-8 hr mark I was feeling totally like ass. I have never felt like crap so early on in this race before, it was fueling the self doubting. My legs were getting swollen, my stomach was turning sour and I felt like I had an extra gravitational force pushing me backwards. I kept telling myself it will get better, it will get better, it has to get better! I came in to the pit and force feed some real solid food and soup. I didn’t even want to know where 2nd was, I needed to do my own thing and that was stay on top of the fueling and keep my head clear. Jeremy looked at me questioning if I was going to make it. I was looking tired and motivation was looking low! Evening was settling in and the heat of the day was dyeing down. I put my lights on and headed back out unsure how this lap would play out. The laps were taking me about 1hr:30min almost 19km a lap. Night had arrived and I had come back to life. Better then before. I couldn’t believe it but I was feeling awesome, strong, solid and confident. It was a beautiful, warm, clear, calm night and the moon was full. I was thoroughly enjoying ripping through the trails with my nightrider light feeling my laps were getting faster then the day times. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It made for a consistent enjoyable, non epic night. Only for a short period in the night I felt the sleep monster trying to take me in but it never lasted long. With a bit of singing to myself, entertaining the riders behind me and a few expresso beans the sleepiness quickly passed. As day break came I knew now that I had a huge lead on 2nd and third. I was sitting 3 laps ahead of 2nd about a 5 hour lead. The rules are you can’t finish until 11 am, you have until 12 pm to leave for your last lap and it must be finished by 1 pm to count. The morning was just a matter of riding and getting to the end. Chad gave me the choice: 3 fast laps or 2 slow laps killing some time before I needed to cross the line at 11 am. I was sitting in 6th place amongst the mens field. The advantage of doing the 3 laps would help me keep that spot but my butt was feeling the effects of the saddle time and I was already stoked to be amongst the top 10 in the mens. I choose the 2 slow laps and managed to take my sweet time enjoying the views, chatting with other surrounding riders and some extra time in the pit chowing down on a tasty bacon, egg sandwich with sausages and coffee. Not usual that I’d be into eating anything of that sort but I was totally digging it! A perfect ending to a great race. 15 laps finishing in 23 hr taking National Champion status and 7th amongst the mens field. I feel the best I’ve ever have felt after a race. A few bum sores but that’s it. The Era and Safire treated me well. I road the Era for the majority except for one lap I jumped on the Safire. Not a single mechanical this year. I experimented with trying out some compression socks for over half of the race and although they looked like I should have been playing soccer rather then mnt. biking I really think they made a big difference in why my legs feel as good as they do now and durning. I must thank my most amazing pit crew and support. With out them this could never be possible. It’s a long, tiring job but they seem to love it and they keep me coming back. Thank you so very much everyone it’s so great to share this experience with you all! I was awarded airfare to Austrailia for World’s Solo in October but unfortunately it coincides with World’s AR in Spain which I will be racing with Team Ecuador. I wish the Canadian’s all the best who will be making the journeying to Australia for it.

BCBR is Finished!

7 days of riding through BC "ultimate single track experience" came to an end on saturday up in Whistler. What a great week! We started in Vancouver moving up to the island, down the sunshine coast, then finishing the last 2 days in Squamish and Whistler. Each day was on avg. 60 km ranging in 2.5- 4.5 hr of riding time. Shorter days in my opinion yet once you added on the early wake up calls, 4 ferries, plenty of bus rides and travel in between the stages I was totally trashed when I got back home on the night of day 5. I was so happy to be able to spend the last 2 nights in my own bed. I started the race off sitting in a comfortable 5th place. There was a strong women's field so I was totally content to be sitting in the top 5. As the week went on there was a good few of us that jumped around positions in the stages. Depending on the coarse of the day you quickly learned each other strengths; the roadies from the technical descenders. In the end I finished 6th and was happy to be in the top 10. I came into the race knowing that this is only the beginning of my season and looked at it as a great training race for the 24 hours and adventure races later this summer. I managed to not have one single mechanical on the coarse and walked away in one piece with all body parts intact. BC bike race is one of the more technical stage races that I've heard of. Day 0 in the Prolog someone already broke their frame. I had one crash which projected me off my bike at high speed 7 feet in the air the girl behind claimed I was flying. It was one of those hidden peddle catchers in the bushes. I lost my big toenail on that one.

All in all it was a great week meeting great people and catching up with old friends riding some awesome BC trails. Solo racing was a good experience to push yourself on your own and having to completely rely on yourself. But racing with the right partner seemed to be a much more enjoyable experience. To share the laughs, spills, the wahhoooo's down sweet trails and to have someone to push you just a little harder can make it all the more fulfilling. BCBR has something great going on here and I would totally recommend this race to anyone. Especially people not from Canada. I truly think that Canada is the real mecca for mountain biking and this race highlights some of the best riding in the world! Check out www.bcbikerace.com for more information. I road the Specialized Era for the whole race and loved it. It's really a great bike for me. I saw other women on Safire's or other 5+ inches of travel bikes and I think I would do the same next time. It has some great descents on it that having a little bit more travel would have made it even better! Now it's back to work tomorrow and time to recover and get ready for 24 hours of Adrenaline Canadian Nationals in only a few weeks. Scary thought that in these 7 days of riding I never even broke 24 hours of riding. I'm reminded of how bad my but is about to hurt again.

And so it begins

BC bike race has arrived. 7 days of the "ultimate single track experience" will begin tomorrow with registration and the prolog ride in North Van. Official day one begins on the island in Nanimo. This is my 2nd time doing the BCBR but my first time racing a 7 day stage race solo. I wonder how going solo will differ.

Last weekend was the test of Metal 67km mnt. bike race here in Squmish. It was quite the race and event. Exciting to see the community out cheering on the streets. We had a great day of sunny skies and I had a pretty good race. I placed 9th in the Elite women with time of 3:34min. 3 crashes and some good cramping on the plunge but over all a fun time. It was nice to see familiar faces again as many racers from Canmore and Calgary made the long journey just for it. Mom had a fantastic visit seeing our new home town and loved being able to volunteer at the race.

I'm hoping to find internet durning the race to keep updates but results and info will be posted at www.bcbikerace.com

Back to Work

I got a job! After a great 10 months of retirement I'm back at it earning some much needed mooola. Finding work here has been challenging coming into a slower construction time and also being new to town but I managed to find a great landscaping job which I've been enjoying being outside and gardening for the week. I love manuel labour! The weather looks like it may be turning around and that sun is going to shine. Just in time for the Test of Metal next weekend hopefully. I've heard so much about this race and how the town goes off for the weekend. 1000 racers, 300 vollenteers, 67km race and the whole town of Squamish lining the trails and streets to watch and cheer. Parties all around town and then a invitational down hill race to watch on the sunday. Mom thought it sounded like a great time for her to come out and see us. She loves it ringing her cow bell at all the racers. Just no pink Carena T-shirts this time. Please! ha ha. Should be a great time. It's been a blast riding new trails around here and Whistler. We checked out Comfortable Numb last weekend which is a new favorite trail. I say that about all the trails. But I felt right at home to be back on some single track climbing again as a lot of the climbing has been on double track or logging roads here. Yesterday Jeremy took me on some harder technical trails. You can always be challenged in all ways here. This trail pointed out to me that my handle bars are wider on the Safire as I clipped a tree with them and flew over my handle bars into a thorn bush. It's been a long time since I've dismounted from my bike like that. Ha Ha I'm going to stick to the road today.

I AM SPECIALIZED

Fresh start to the season with new bikes, new gear and cloths thanks to the help of SPECIALIZED Bikes, Canmore BICYCLE CAFE and CIKLA bike shop in Ecuador. I was eyeing up specialized bikes all last season dyeing to get on the SAFIRE! Specialized is a step ahead in my opinion with their women's designs and bike fits. I'm usually not the girl to jump into "Women Specific" anything but after trying out a bike that was designed for a women's build and having issues before with bikes being too big for me I noticed a difference. I was climbing up things I could never get up before and descending with more control. Over all I found it to be a more comfortable fit, the seats especially. The Safire was my dream bike. Built for a women, comes in Carbon, High end components and the travel on it can be adjusted from 4 inch to 6 inches. The perfect bike for Squamish! I use the Safire to race with too depending on the coarse but the ERA is my dreamy race bike. The "brain" is hard to understand how it works but all I know is that it works! No more locking out on climbs then remembering that I just descended everything locked out still. The brain takes care of it for me. Pretty cool. I look forward to testing the ERA out at the 24 hours this year.

I have one last addition, my new to me road bike. 2007 Allez. It was time. 3 years I borrowed a road bike from my awesome friend Cindy. The kindest person I know! I'm not a big fan of road riding but now I have a lighter, proper fitting bike and it's time for me to start pushing some bigger gears.

Squamish BC Our new home

It's been 9 months already of travel and fun but it's that time again to settle down and earn some money! We figured it was time to try somewhere new. Why Squamish? If you are asking us that you either have never been to Squamish before or you don't really know much about us. The climbing here is by far my favorite place to climb. There is tones of bike trails and an awesome bike community to go with it. Your close to the city's amenity's and you have an awesome resort town of Whistler down the road.

After a bit of searching we found a nice duplex to rent. We are super stoked that this is our first place on our own that is above ground ( no more basement suites!) and to Jeremy's huge excitement our very first dishwasher! We supposedly live in the ghetto of Squamish though. Was told from the cable guy to get a dog for security for our bikes. Our place already looks like some one has robbed it as we have only one chair, a t.v. stand but no t.v. and a table. Lacking in the home furnishings at the moment.

We've been out here for 2 weeks now and biking seems to be side tracking us in getting out and finding work. Every day is a new trail, new riding partners and good times. There is always something going on every weekend for races and durning the week you could race 3 days a week between here and Pemberton toonie races if you really wanted to. The average riding non racer Jo is fast and my legs are spent from trying to hang onto these guys durning " casual " rides. I'm re inspired and looking forward to a good season of riding and racing. I just signed up for the BC bike race at the end of June and I'll be back in Canmore for the 24 hours of Adrenaline in July. So I'm taking advantage of not working yet and trying to get my but in shape. Jeremy has been going hard too. He just raced his first ever mountain bike race. Down hill of corse but next week he's doing the XC toonie race. Good Times.

Quick catch up

Ok I haven't been really on top of the whole blog thing since I joined the world of face book. I currently am back in Calgary. Been back for 3 weeks now. Wow time goes by so fast. I can't nearly get into depth about my time in Ecuador but it was amazing. We won the race and were awarded a trip for 4 to the Galapagos islands on a 4 day cruise. Jeremy came down and joined me for a month and we cashed in on the incredible trip and had some other smaller trips around the northern part of Ecuador before it was time to say good by to all the wonderful people there and head back to reality in Canada. I really hope that things work out and I can head back in November for the 2 day mountain bike stage race vuelta al Cotopaxi. A lot has to happen before then though. Like...... First off it's time to move out to the coast. Squamish is where we hope to park ourselves down for at least the summer and hopefully find some work and a place to live. I really need to start getting my butt in gear again with training and putting the miles in. It's been hard to be consistent and motivated when we've been moving around all the time and staying at other people's places. These words don't usually come out of my mouth much but I'm looking forward to having a bit of a routine and normal life again. I'm super excited to be out on new trails this year. A whole new area to explore is just what I need. I've been staying out in the country south of Calgary and biking out here just isn't the same. It feels like your bike rides are training rides. Rather then in Canmore my training rides were always fun and exciting I was actually mountain biking, not just gravel road riding. I'm high maintenance I know, I need mountains, variety, and technical challenges to get me out the door. I just love to mountain bike. Road riding? well I'm working on my weaknesses too... I've been back working on a few projects while I'm in the area. It's fun to be back doing carpentry and walking through material shops again. My head gets spinning with ideas and the creativity is aching to be unleashed. But until I get settled in I can't be too choosy so anything that pays the bills and allows me to ride is hopefully awaiting for me in Squamish. Fingers crossed.

Huairasinchi 3 day AR Ecuador The winner's are....

Ecuador: Racing, training, meeting incredible people!

Wow Ecuador. What an amazing country. It´s been 3 weeks already since I arrived to the high city of Quito. My new team mates met me at the airport and have taken superb care of me since my arrival. The location of the place I´m staying at backs onto an incredible park with plenty of mnt bike and running trails just right out side the door. It´s hard to believe such a place exist right in the center of this beautiful city! The first couple of days I was just getting use to being at the elevation of 2800m let alone trying to bike or run at this height. My days consisted of training in the morning with one of the guys and then I´d go to spanish class for 4 hours everyday. The 2 weekends I had before the race we ventured out more into the mountains for some longer bike rides and then to climb up high to one of the refugees and sleep at 4700m for some last acclimatization. My first weekend was a real eye opener as to how much climbing you can do here and how incredibly long the descents were. I also experienced the real intensity of the sun and burnt the top of my hands badly. It was awsome to get out with the team and to see just how strong these guys were. Especially on the bikes! I instantly loved these guys. They had great attitudes and personalities and were very focused in doing the very best they can in this race! I just hoped that it would all fall into place and that there be no injuries or sickness or major mechanicals issues and hopefully I could keep up?....

Back in the Rockies but not for long...

Back in Winter. It's been a month now that we've been back and enjoying what winter has to offer. Some skiing, ice climbing and catching up with good friend. Christmas was spent in Calgary and then we headed off to Revelstoke for some skiing and ring in the new year. An opportunity came about over the holidays for me to join an Ecuador team down in Ecuador to race in a 3 day adventure race. I've been back in Canmore for the month of January training to get back up to speed for this race. I will be heading down to Ecuador on January 26th to start my acclimatization and train down in some warmer weather and meet the others before the race which starts Feb. 13-15. This is one of the highest races in the world ranging from 2500m- 4500m. I've been trying out an acclimatization method in town here where I go in each day for 60-90 min to breath in regulated oxygen which simulates altitude and preps your body to adjust to it prior to your arrival. Seeing these guys live at nearly 3000m I need any help I can get. I'm looking forward to this race and spending time in Ecuador although it's all a little overwhelming with having short notice and having not met the other team mates who I'll be spending the next 3- 4 weeks with in a country which I don't speak the local language. Sometimes the adventure in adventure racing is the preparing and the experience of getting to the start line then the actual race itself. An adventure on its own. Jeremy will come down after the race and we hope to travel a bit around Peru and get some climbing and mountain biking in.

Fall Trip