"Africa Hot" at Beans 'n Barley Cross

Off the start, my muscle memory had me take off 2nd to follow Shantel's speedy start. Within the 1st lap, my body temperature rose to what felt like 105F in my Halloween costume. I quickly dropped off the pace.

It amazed me how much more effort everything was on this unusually warm fall day dressed for cold pre-winter temps with my costume... pushing my bike up the hill and barely getting over the stairs.

photo - Andrew Barron

Within a couple loops, I got used to the heat and slowly started to claw back a few positions. When I was back a few spots, I saw that I was speedier on the lumpy bumpy areas so took those sections as hard as I could.

very Safari dry - photo R. Haskell

Ultra fun to hear race announcer Jeff Neilson say he thought he saw me go by then couldn't see me out there (due to my camoflage colours of course!).

Shantel powering up the steep climb - photo R. Haskell

Thursday night before the race, I ventured into Value Village to find bits to piece together a Mr. Potato Head costume. The L.L. Bean virgin wool safari shirt my size jumped out at me. Easily found safari pants in boys wear. Gathered a herd of African safari stuffed animals. Always wanted an excuse to wear a backpack fuzzy bear. I stared at the leopard cowboy hat for awhile wondering if it would be possible to fit it to my helmet. Lucked out with super awesome high boots in the women's wear - Safari costume complete!


Madagascar Lion, Camel from Egypt, Gorilla hanging by one arm off the seatrails, giraffe and cheetah on the rearstays... not to forget the evil teddybear backpak

photo - bikeridr

It was impressive to see all sorts of costumes in all the categories except Elite Men who were ruled out.
 


Thanks to Hotdog Janet for ensuring animals were secured on my bike - photo bikeridr

photo - R. Haskell

photo bikeridr



hotdog chasing the human-sized Cactus - photo Andrew Barron

A shocking and hilarious incident happened on the Elite men's startline. Top rider Aaron Schooler was kidnapped by a human-sized cactus and a few others, bike and all, with the race starting without him. Schooler escaped to start the race 1 1/2 min down working his way consistently to eventually take the lead and win by over 30 seconds!

"Betty" Cindy Shantel Sarah "Safari Master"



Jack the child-sized snake attacking the Safari Master

On the previous day, I took the opportunity to ride my mountain bike with Kate Aardal and her super dog Toby. We rode Bragg Creek trails Pneuma and Special K. Very wicked trails! Only toppled twice, one richochet of a bar-end off the narrow tree-d path and once after cleaning the steepest section of Special K to only scare myself that I did it so I slid the bike out!

Beans 'n' Barley Cross - Calgary

First race was the Sport/Citizen race with alot of first time riders including -Dilbert-. The course had nice swoopy sections, with little technical spots, one set of barriers, a couple dismounts and some open fast spots.

stolen photo from United Cycle blogsite - thanks!

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Dilbert raced in flat pedals with work shoes i.e. not clipped in! Dogbert barked commands the whole time. It wasn't easy with Dilbert's big head all mushed into the cute flower helmet and his pants falling down. Dilbert looked pretty unravelled by the end. His pocket protector and 4 coloured pens stayed intact! The inserted Sportiva spikes in the shoes helped for the hike-a-bike uphills... with even more hills to climb than normal with loss of power of not being clipped in. It was awesome he didn't get lapped! and wasn't last. It helped to have a few downhill bikers in the race.
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Proof that Dilbert raced!

Officially Dilbert has no last name. Entered him with his cartoon creator's last name Adams.

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Unknowingly, Darcy got into the role of cyclocross racer support as I had 20 minutes to switch pedals on my bike, unzip-tie Dogbert from my cables --carefully--, and get into my race gear. Darcy had previous experience being my support for a Sea2summit adventure race so was used to my short chirpy commands. Thanks bud!

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With the adrenaline rush of adventure racing transitions, I was super pumped for my race. Off the start I was glued to Mical's wheel. It was quite fun to hang and tuck behind from the wind.

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Mical's Shadow

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Shantel descending into singletrack with the blinding sun

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Witch Alana powering with the hat in the wind

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Skeleton Mical

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Marg just hanging on

photo - Darcy Reynard

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Into my 3rd lap, I was overly aggressive on the fast mountainbike-like descent cornering hard on grass and leaves and almost had a nice washout. Saved it... then almost washed out on the other side... saved it... caught up to Mical and laughed. Moments later, I had a huge energy depletion... that was too close of a call... and got gapped. Chilled, rested up then put another effort into catching back up to Mical. All in all, lots of fun!

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Annie, Marg, Mical, Shantel

photo - United Cycle blogsite

Roving Race Announcer

Dilbert blending in with the fans enjoying the chili and hanging out at the firepit

Halloween Fun

the boys

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awesome costumes

Dilbert being cool with Elvis