As many of you probably know, I spent this past week competing in an endurance mountain bike race, with my brother Matt, known as the TransRockies. We left Panorama Village on August 8th and rolled into Fernie on Saturday afternoon. It’s a seven day stage race that spanned 540 km and features about 15,000 meters of climbing. To say that I felt relief at reaching the finish line is a bit of an understatement – it was far and away the hardest thing that I have ever done from both a physical and mental perspective. Matt was a big fan of saying that everyday was a series of mental peaks and valleys and not just physical ones. I think he was right. Sometimes you felt amazing – like you could ride anything and climb forever. And then, often without warning, the bottom would fall out and you would feel really hopeless – like you would never make it to the finish line, or even be able to turn the pedal over another time. Even just a few days removed from the race, and my memories of it are mostly positive. I know though, that there were some pretty dark moments each day. We hit some pretty brutal weather along the ride. There was one day in particular where we got hit with three separate storm systems as we ascended over various mountain passes. There wasn’t too many times when it actually felt like summer out there! And of course, the rain brought copious amounts of mud. One of the other riders described it as riding a 100 km on a giant marshmallow, which I thought was pretty accurate. I was surprised that bikes ran as smoothly as they did (or even at all) given the amount of junk that clogged the chains and derailleurs. Which isn’t to say that we escaped without any mechanical issues – blown tubes, sidewalls, Matt’s frame kept on coming unbolted on him for the first few days, and he actually sheared off a rear brake pad right before one of the trickiest descents of the entire week. I also lost my front brakes one day, which made for some interesting times. And then on the final day, Matt actually snapped off his shift lever first thing in the morning, forcing him to ride the final 70 km with one hand on his cross-bar to manually shift the bike. It was pretty impressive! Of course, the first question that everyone likes to ask is ‘would you do it again?’ And you know, I think I would. I learned a lot about persevering through short-term pain (’cause no matter how brutal the ride, you always end up in camp showered and with a hot meal) and would like to tackle it again someday. I think now that I know what to expect I could train more effectively for it (lots and lots of long climbs =). So there are a few pictures below that others took of Matt and I as we raced. Thanks to everyone for for all the well-wishes on facebook, and a huge thank-you to all of our family and friends who showed up at various stages of the race to help clean the bikes, transport us back and forth or just offer some much appreciated cheering! [Gallery not found]
As many of you probably know, I spent this past week competing in an endurance mountain bike race, with my brother Matt, known as the TransRockies. We left Panorama Village on August 8th and rolled into Fernie on Saturday afternoon. It’s a seven day stage race that spanned 540 km and features about 15,000 meters of climbing. To say that I felt relief at reaching the finish line is a bit of an understatement – it was far and away the hardest thing that I have ever done from both a physical and mental perspective. Matt was a big fan of saying that everyday was a series of mental peaks and valleys and not just physical ones. I think he was right. Sometimes you felt amazing – like you could ride anything and climb forever. And then, often without warning, the bottom would fall out and you would feel really hopeless – like you would never make it to the finish line, or even be able to turn the pedal over another time. Even just a few days removed from the race, and my memories of it are mostly positive. I know though, that there were some pretty dark moments each day. We hit some pretty brutal weather along the ride. There was one day in particular where we got hit with three separate storm systems as we ascended over various mountain passes. There wasn’t too many times when it actually felt like summer out there! And of course, the rain brought copious amounts of mud. One of the other riders described it as riding a 100 km on a giant marshmallow, which I thought was pretty accurate. I was surprised that bikes ran as smoothly as they did (or even at all) given the amount of junk that clogged the chains and derailleurs. Which isn’t to say that we escaped without any mechanical issues – blown tubes, sidewalls, Matt’s frame kept on coming unbolted on him for the first few days, and he actually sheared off a rear brake pad right before one of the trickiest descents of the entire week. I also lost my front brakes one day, which made for some interesting times. And then on the final day, Matt actually snapped off his shift lever first thing in the morning, forcing him to ride the final 70 km with one hand on his cross-bar to manually shift the bike. It was pretty impressive! Of course, the first question that everyone likes to ask is ‘would you do it again?’ And you know, I think I would. I learned a lot about persevering through short-term pain (’cause no matter how brutal the ride, you always end up in camp showered and with a hot meal) and would like to tackle it again someday. I think now that I know what to expect I could train more effectively for it (lots and lots of long climbs =). So there are a few pictures below that others took of Matt and I as we raced. Thanks to everyone for for all the well-wishes on facebook, and a huge thank-you to all of our family and friends who showed up at various stages of the race to help clean the bikes, transport us back and forth or just offer some much appreciated cheering! [Gallery not found]