Giver8er Enduro Training Ride!

Running in the trails Thursday night at Canada Olympic Park (COP) in Calgary, I said to my running partner Di once we saw some mountain bikers ride through a few puddles "glad I'm not riding!". Then we bumped into Deadgoat Tim Brezsnyak, the organizer for the Giver8er, who somehow convinced me to enter the 8-hour enduro on Sunday.

Saturday, I went on a wicked road ride with Dave Jetz, Carrie Tuck, and their buddy Dave northwest area of Calgary. Thankfully, they pulled a lot of the 160 km with the strong headwinds home. My intention for the Giver8er was long slow distance training so no problem with the back to back workouts.

Giver8er Enduro
I jokingly said I was planning to negative split each lap as my plan was a training distance ride. So I started as slow as I could... though with a pavement start the roadie in me kicked in and the front fork lock-out went on. Thankful the field bottle-necked going into the trailhead so it was a reasonable follow-the-leader pace through the single-track. With a power climb course it is hard to go slow as enough speed is needed to get up and over a few sections.

Not pre-riding the course, I did my best to follow the rider in front. I had to let a few riders by in the technical sections. The latter half of the course was my favourite with long open roadie sections, short intense climbs that I could motor up stand climbing.

Lap after lap, I got more confident to blaze down the short fast bumpy descents full-on with the Garmin clocking my fastest speed at 49.3 kph! I was having fun, especially when I could take my time in the techy sections. First lap was nerve-racking for me with riders following close behind me.

My lap times were fairly consistent around 40 min including a quick bite at the pit. With the final few laps, I crumbled a little only tacking on a couple min per lap. At that point, my muscles were just tired from the pounding of the rough trail and, oh, maybe riding a hard tail(!). Ended up with 11 laps after 7 1/2 hours, 106 km with 10,300' elevation gain! Pretty awesome training! The cumulative short little climbs make it quite an effort for the 9.6-km loop let alone 106 km!

Fuelled with a Camelbak full of Vega Sport drink. Prepped a bunch of awesome drinks for the pit... fresh coconut water, fresh watermelon juice, my bee pollen/chlorella/Vega mix, a few shots of Acerola cherry/mushroom powder mix. The chopped up bananas and orange slices were awesome. Nibbled on bits of Manna sprouted bread, dates, and raw bars. Energy was great. I was amazed how quickly all my fresh drinks disappeared considering it was only 12C on average with the sun coming out briefly towards the final hours.

With rain happening earlier in the week, the trails were in their best condition, just tacky enough and not dusty. Just perfect conditions overall for an enduro race with an awesome temperature AND great trails!

Thanks to Tim and the Deadgoats for a great event.
Bonus was the surprise entry into the Bow80 race for the top solo riders, so thanks to Bow Cycle!

Fabulous Friends & Furious 3 in Fernie

This was one of those people-fest weekends filled with meeting friends, old and new, from all over!

I entered the newby event Furious 3 back in December thinking I could easily fit in a 3-day event in Fernie, BC not knowing where I'd be working and living by July.

Training bud Tim got into the sold-out race only days ahead of race time. We both had the pleasure to stay at the parent's house of my running friend Rhonda's colleague Tanya... love those connections. Claire and Al Berry were most welcoming and super intrigued having weird-ecentric-crazy athletes stay at their place in Sparwood for the weekend! I was equally intrigued with their stories and knowledge.

Quick synopsis... I prefer long multi-stage endurance events. This event was more a cross-country multi-stage event... super intense and short. And that's ok... The bonus was super fun hard days with plenty of time to chill and enjoy the town.

The Good
- the most outstanding trails around
- strong women's field with amazing local racers (AB & BC & MO)
- awesome supportive guys to ride around (except 1!)

The Bummer
- unknown race profile, distance and elevation
- being excluded from the Open Category
- fast lost riders

Day 1 - 200 racers lined up. It was scary for me not to know the course profile. Seriously, I was already anxious about what technical was in store for me. This was the first event I've been in of this calibre that did not provide a race elevation/distance profile. Kate Ardal who lived in the area at one time and knew alot of the trails was kind to fill me in with more detail.

The pace went out hard like any typical stage race I have been in. Immediately, my legs whined from the previous weekend's Rundle's Revenge ride & run finishing only 5 days ago. Yah, only I would do something like that and think I'd recover in time! And for the most part, I did ok fitness-wise.

Once we turned into the first single track, I did what I could to hang on though slipped out alot on the mud and roots. My saddle hit me in my sore ribs again, ouch! It was not fun at all to let the storming riders pass as it was difficult to start up each time. It felt like at least 30 riders passed by. I threw in the towel, slowed down and had to figure out how to enjoy riding on that stuff. I was ready to quit the sport (!).

Once we got into the long technical climb, I held my position. I was super thrilled to hit gravel roads and get to hammer for awhile making up many spots again. On the appropriately named Hyperventilation trail, I rode up with a steady paced group finally taking the lead of our group.

At the top, I was surprised with an immediate descent on one of those drop of doom descents (SUPER WICKED!) that went on and on... brakes clamped on while still picking up speed surfing down on the loose dirt trail. My quads and triceps were crying! What was awesome was I held my own on that section. No guys caught me until I let the Hardcore team guys by midway which helped me to follow them. Lots of rough double track to the finish. Only 2 hr 39 min, 41km and 4300' elevation - short, intense & fun (well, definitely the latter half!).

Tim JERRY! Marg

Marg met Jerry at Master World X-C Ski Champs

Lovely satellite map of Day 2 race course "clearly" depicting the 5200' of elevation gain!

Day 2 - My heart dropped when I looked at the Open results that morning and my name wasn't there... either I was missed or... turn the page... listed in the 40+ category. That was the organizer's choice. I requested to be switched. I prefer to race by ability not age. I wonder which category he'd put Tinker Juarez in...

Again, it was frazzling not knowing much about the course. We were told it'd be oh, maybe 10-km longer than the day before!

<-- posted on the race website... our clues to Day 2 race course!

Another fast start with a bottle neck of racers in a short dirt trail climb. A river trail lead us around to the underpass to cross busy Highway 3. Up double track before tree-d challenging single track for most of the way.

I don't think I've sat on the tip of my saddle as much on any given weekend! Most definitely goat climbs. Major technical ascents and descents, one steep hike-a-bike, a couple runs across wooden bridges with slippery muddy cleats, one challenging creaky boarded walk across dizzying fast moving water.

Many lead fast riders missed flagging and were riding in circles and were abit grumbly by race end. Fortunately, my technical descending was at a pace (slow!) so I could see the hidden red flagging. For an adventure race, the flagging was ok... for a mountain bike race, pretty sparse and lacking signs. I definitely missed having long stretches of gravel on course today. Trails were mostly up or down for long periods. Highlight was riding smack next to a beautiful snowy mountain. That section was very TransAlps, better yet it was in Canada!!

As I had no solid info on the race distance, I was going to fill my waterbottle at the feedzone. I was told excitedly to "go!" and continue to the finish just down in town. I zipped down the last bit of single track, under Hwy 3 along the gravel path to a couple stopped trains and alot of waiting riders. Awesome, I was due for a break! Our wait times were to be deducted at the end.

Once the trains were gone, it was a pack of riders racing to the finish. I worked to hang on to Danelle Kabush's speedy pace though lost contact. I worked to latch onto a speedy RMCC rider, just made it into his draft as we flew by Danelle, with her just catching onto us. What a fun way to finish!

My GPS clocked 49 km and 5200' elevation... so, yeah "about 10 km longer" than Day 1 and the elevation was only 900' higher!

Day 3 - Hard pace, up the rutted double track to the Hyperventilation climb again. I just wanted to chill, climb easy and have fun. I had to force a couple guys to go ahead of me, then I had a nice comfortable gap. A bunch of riders caught me on the next descent. I was alone for quite abit thru the next sections and rode comfortably. The riding was fun though quirky with sharp lefts or rights. Definitely not enough gravel road!

After lots more single track alone, lots more riders caught me. Deadgoat Steve came by and I challenged myself to work behind him. More ascent so I was sent to the front. On the final descent I worked it to keep the descenders from catching me. And I did, as I hauled in on the roadie section! It was a pretty fun day and good ending.

After not being allowed in the Open category I didn't care to look at results at all this whole time. I also just wanted to ride as my technical riding sucks and needed work even though my fitness is ok. When I left the sport after TransAlp 2007, I was lots better technically from racing mtnbike consistently. The time to re-gain health in 2008, recover from car/bike/gear theft in 2009 and last year's faceplant has held me back a little. I love riding on the road though I really need to ride trails. I'm keen to work at it and get that technical riding back!! All considering, not so bad for winging it technically.

It was awesome to ride with, or best said, around alot of riders. The women were exceptional to see them pass by midway on climbs or techy sections. Alot of guys were supportive when time came to pass me. Ultra cool to see Gabor Csonka race on his singlespeed!

Another awesome post from local woman racer Krista Turcasso I saw ever so briefly as she flew downhill faster than any racer I've seen!

Food-wise, I needed to pack immediate sugar sources to fuel energy for the intensity. I was prepped more for a nice long endurance day in spectacular BC trails!

Brendan representing Team MitoCanada

Iron Donkey at the Rundle's Revenge

1st time event Rundle's Revenge had an Iron Donkey category which had double the mountain bike distance of the trail run which was enticing to enter.

My last 2 weeks were spent healing my ribs from the OrganGrinder. So training and racing were on hold.

By Thursday, my ribcage was finally moving freely with awesome bodycare from Derek and Brad at River Valley Health..

Friday morning, I had decided best to rest after the ribs were sore from a Thurs night ERTC bike workout... though I was gloomy about the decision. Mid-day, getting text messages from Tim of "you racing?", "maybe"... that I went in full pack up mode and left for Canmore by 7 pm.

SATURDAY 100-km Kick-Ass Mountain Bike

Early Sat morning I arrived to race registration to see a very impressive start/finish area setup. I wanted to mtnbike 100-km for training though the 50-km trail run was daunting with minimal trail running, and I wasn't sure how my ribs were going to fair after biking. If it came to the point to grin and bare pain I knew I would so I wanted to prevent that scenario.

Nicki Rehn was the only woman entered in the Iron Donkey category of 100k mtnbike and 50k run. Nicki is an amazing ultra-runner with a whole bunch of adventures behind her... many wins of the City Chase events, the 336-km Tor des Geants 24,000m elevation gain "running" race in Italy, and a wicked self-supported run across Australia. Although our strengths were different, Nicki would be tough competition and I was sure her running strength would prevail.

1/2 hour before the start, I entered the Iron Donkey! Just as stubborn as one!.

On paper, the course looked non-technical for a mountain biker and good training mileage.

12.5 km and 400m elevation gain per lap... after getting bumped and bucked on the upper trails, lap after lap, I really wished I had a full suspension bike.

The course was fast and flowy, everything rideable, no death defying technical sections (like in the OrganGrinder).

Even though Margie Smith was in the 50-km bike event only, it was fun and challenging to keep pace with her each loop. I was a smidgeon stronger on the climbs and had to work to keep up on the descent. After blazing DOWN Georgetown trail, I hauled like a roadie on the climb all the way back. Thanks to Margie's daughter Sage and Sage's cousin Carter for helping me with support each loop, they were quick to lube my chain while I grabbed my food.

Into my 3rd lap, I was surprised to pass Nicki. Doing the math, I could use the much needed leadtime for my trail run. End of lap 4, my legs were starting to cramp and I wasn't storming the ascent as strongly. My lap 5 time showed my energy drop where I had to walk to let the leg cramps ease off. Next few laps, I stopped to eat at the 1/2 way feedzone and finish area... oranges, watermelon and gobbled down fresh cutup mango and pineapple. I had prepped little jars of Vega and my special concoctions (MSM, whole food Vit C, elk antler dust, 14-mix mushroom) though I was craving the sweet stuff! Energy was coming back - I felt stronger on my last laps, and the cramping went away. All comes back to food!

Lap 1-49 min, 51, 51, 51, Lap 5-62 min, 64, 57, Lap 8 - 59 min.

Nicki decided to end the bike at 50-km as she realized it'd be a hard effort to make the cut-off time, and her focus was on the 50-km trail run. I now had 8-hours to complete the 50-km trail run on Sunday. My goal was to run at a pace to conserve energy on my cycling legs. I had a 3-day mountain bike stage race starting the following Friday meaning 4-days of recovery.

Gabor Csonka won the men's 100-k event on his pink singlespeed with pretty much even split times, pretty amazing! And Pepper's mom, Judy, did awesome as well!!

SUNDAY - 50-km Mountain Mule Trail Run

Rain overnight had the trails nicely softened for the run. My ribcage was surprisingly fine. I purposely overdressed as my goal was to start super-easy, not faster than 1:30 and not slower than 2 hours. It was hard to tell. It was fun to get to start at the back and stay there.

My first lap was 1:39 for the first 12.5 km so I was pleased to be right in the range. The plan was to hold that "easy" pace for lap 2, then "really run" the last two laps!

Well, after completing 2 laps I wish it was 3 and I had only 1 more to go. The 4th loop was going to be tough. Despite running as relaxed as possible, my legs were not used to full body weight for running and it was inevitable for the muscles to fatigue. I was truly in adventure race survival-shuffle... just keep moving... I'll make it! And I did! in the same time as biking 100-km!!

Crazy Larry with Trailtrash runners

Met cool people running in the trails, though it was mostly a lonely day in the beautiful wooded trails with the most scenic mountain views.

I did have a unique thing happen both days while in the upper loop trails... a little bird swooped down in front of me at least 5 loops on the bike and 2 loops on the run. Same spot each time. It almost seemed like a game. Had to dodge one squirrel and only saw one hallucinatory deer. No bears, fortunately.

Thanks to Transrockies organizer Aaron for putting on another well organized event. It is always heartwarming to see Drew & Jo-anne... with Drew's familar voice announcing at the races and his calling out of my "Large Marge" team name from the adventure race days. I look forward to going on a helicopter ride courtesy of Kananaskis Mountain Helicopters Ltd.

just as lonely as in the trail running race

Organ Grinder Completed!

My goal was to finish the Organ Grinder after last year's minor spill.
And I did!! Though not without a small casualty.

I need to be clear in my vision than just "keeping the rubber side down"... as I did... though heard the ever so soft c-r-a-c-k on one of the steep descents as the bike rebounded abruptly with the saddle jabbing my ribcage! Ouch!


Still had 1 1/2 laps to go and I was adamant to finish. Fortunately for strong abs, I braced my core on any rough sections. Inspiration thinking of Nicki Rehn who x-c skied the last 20-km of the Birkie this year after hurting her ribs in a spill.

The weather started out nice with the sunshine drying out the previous day's carnage of muddy trails. Two laps in had drizzling rain for 30 minutes. Then the sun came out again while we navigated our way thru the refreshed muddy trails. Made for a super epic challenging day... it would have been too easy if it was dry!

photo Jason Redfern

Loop was 11-km with 1060' elevation gain. I managed to complete 6 loops in 5+ hours. Fastest loop was 45 min, slowest was 55 min (with a cracked rib!).

My strength was the climbing sections. My age showed through on the technical descents as I balked more than ever. I have barely been on the mtnbike for a year now. I know with more practice I'll get back in the saddle on these sections. Without enough practice it is un-nerving to have high-energy guys behind me on a technical descent. I kept letting them go ahead and then lost my momentum to roll smoothly.


All in all, an awesome race course and one of my favourite races. I have lots to learn to ride on this course. I got to watch the smooth technical riding of Kate Aardal (1st), Margie Smith (2nd), and Shantel Koenig (1st mixed) as they went by. It was also a good group of guys I saw each lap as they descended faster and I ascended past them!

training buddy Tim - awesome mud & good hair
no one questioned my hand placement at the end of the race

shortest person on the lowest podium - marg kate margie

Smurf-hand at Creampuff

Riding high in the Cascade mountains descending an 11-mile swoopy singletrack trail, I would usually have a wicked grin on my face. With my right hand swollen smurf-size (pudgy like a smurf not smurf blue!) due to my right index finger ligament sprain from a crash at the OrganGrinder weeks ago not healed... there wasn't enough endorphins for a grin as I was grimacing from each nudge of the handlebar vibration. At the bottom of loop one, my finger dexterity was gone and hand like a smurf. Concerned as functioning hands are helpful in mountain biking!

Marg in the swoopy singletrack of Oregon scenery - photo by Sasquatchmtb

This was halfway into the 100-mile Cascade Creampuff mountain bike race. Yeah, for some reason I thought my hand would be ok and I took a chance on the startline. It was a brain battle to make the decision to stop. When I was using my fourth finger to brake, that was the final call (awesome powerful Formula R1s!). I had already ridden 56 miles (90 km) and 8200' elevation gain... Thought the heat wasn't bad as the course was very sheltered in the trees though it was only 10 o'clock in the morning when I stopped. The race started at 5:05 a.m.

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The climbing on this course was designed for me... I thought my La Ruta friend Charlotte was poking fun at me when she said I'd be climbing it in my big chainring - she was right! Chilled at the pace of the lead woman which was Rebecca Rusch until I went ahead more comfortable at my own pace. Kept in mind, that I'd be climbing that forest road again later in the heat and to go at a pace I'd be able to keep a 2nd time.

The descents were all fairly smooth, fast and swoopy, not technical by Canadian standards. Nothing at all like the OrganGrinder course in Canmore. With the super early morning light, I was blinded in the first single track going from light to dark to light within the shadows of the trees. This got better as the morning went. My tire pressure was set abit high and I was clumsy to start. Got smoother on the singletrack as the day went. There was loose movement in my headset as I discovered on the fast fireroad descents making it scary so chilled out.

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I was leery at intersections hoping the volunteer would direct me the correct direction as we looped around various ways. In the past, I've gotten misdirected 'cause I'm small and mistaken for a junior rider or definitely not elite category! The roads/trails all looked the same to me.

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A boy rider noted the rainbow stripes on Rebecca's jersey sleeve and asked what they were from. Not an official UCI event though I guess Specialized put them on after her WSC 24-hr wins. I could put stripes on my jersey too!

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Rode with a few singlespeeders on the climbs who noted I rode like a singlespeeder and should try it - yeah someday it'd be cool. One singlespeeder guy raved (in a male oriented way) about riding near my TA teammate Louise Kobin last year. I let the comment slide and agreed Lou is wicked strong. Don't the boys know all the girl racers are friends? I'm much of an unknown name these days as the race organizer decided to take me out of the Pro category and put me in masters' age class. I corrected that race morning. Getting older, not ready to leave Pro.

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Definitely a 29-er course, for those interested.

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Camping in the school yard was the way to go. Ample time to meet cool racers from all over. Easier to get up for the 5:05 race start from the school. The pre-race food not up my alley so glad I prepped my own. One of the more expensive race entries I've ever paid and almost a deterent. The unique big ring non-technical course makes it enticing to race. All in all, well organized.

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Will give it a go another time.

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Next time, I'll race fully healthy! Facial bones intact (see "there was NO banana!" blog June 15) and functioning finger ligament! Yeah, stupid or stubborn to try but I did!!

There was NO banana!

Took a trip out to Canmore Nordic Centre for the Organ Grinder 5-hour enduro race Sunday June 13. I hadn't raced in Canmore since the last World Cup race though did do a trail or two in the last section of Transrockies 2005. Lots of new trails.

Wicked course... expected lap times 45 min for 11.5 km. It had the best of the best technical trails in it... laundry chute and devonian drop from World Cup days... new vertical crazy drop eye-dropper (with an easy option to go around)... super fun rolling in/out trail pumptrack... crazy 4-section triple-arrow descent ass-whooper... epic Georgetown ascent... which made it a super fun challenging course.

photo from bikealberta.com - eyedropper trail

After a good start, I had a comedy of errors... missed the wooden plank at the bottom of Devonian drop and got tossed. Ok, though spent time twisting back handlebars and getting air into my tire. Then, doh took a wrong turn though realized pretty quick and backtracked. Started passing riders again.

At the transition area, topped off my wheel with air (valve stem was bent and leaked air slowly)... into the next loop, stopped yet again to put air in with my CO2. By now, I was back in the field. I chilled out riding the technical sections safely. Any catching up to was done in the climbing sections, my strength, and I started re-passing riders again. I felt fresh!

Each time the finish area was passed, riders had to dismount and run with the bike around the timers before re-mounting. Into lap 3, I was excited to get back on with a cyclocross mount and started accelerating focussing on the orange area in my sight ahead, the colour of the bridge overpasses in the biathlon area. I put my head down for a second and when I looked up I realized the orange area was not the exit to the trails but was the only orange barrier amongst the grey ones! I remember correcting my line to avoid it.

Next, I was being asked who I was, where I was, what I was doing! I was on the ground with blood from my eyebrow. To make things worse, I kept being told I had been eating a banana and crashed with only one hand on the handlebar! There was a banana at the scene but it wasn't mine. I guess it helped create a logical reason why I crashed. If anyone claims to have given me a banana I'll go with it. I know I did not eat a banana. So, I was confused for abit 'cause I could not recall the darn fictitious banana!

I was helped kindly by a crew of people... the woman EMT, Kris Dahl driving me to the hospital, Tessa keeping tabs on me, Ingrid Dahl checking in, Ed Garvin helping find me a ride back to Calgary with Tim B. The Canmore hospital staff were awesome and efficient.

Quite a bummer being in the most awesome technical race and crashing in the least likely spot on the pavement in the feedzone. I was bummed not to get to complete the race. My actual lap times were decent despite the extra time with mechanicals. Next year!!

Telling people it was from a bar brawl wasn't cutting it! Even more colour days later.

Results of my CT scan that took an in-efficient 14-hours to get at Emergency U of A hospital on a slow night! A few fresh new structures to my right cheekbone and orbital.

Healing well and will take any positive energy sent my way!

Intuition or Whining?

After a great race in Tahoe, I thought it'd be cool to get in the epic Bow80 for some more great riding. The Bow 80 is the utmost greatest race course I've been on in all my races around the world, right in my own backyard... well, it's Alberta. The conditions had been super dry and fast. I made the 7-hour drive on Sat and hung out in West Bragg Creek with the Hughes family, getting a kite airborne and enjoying the wilderness surroundings.

Super early race morning it was raining. I was optimistic that the forecast for 1 mm was going to pass. Hanging out at the race start pre-daylight, I was wide-eyed wondering if the rain was going to let up. It was probably 5C at 5000'. I tossed around the pros and cons of going out to race in the rain wondering if I was "whining" for not wanting to go out! I've done enough "survival" events and really wanted to ride the excellent trails... health was a concern and lack of body fat! As the rain came down harder... conclusion... get the car running! My drive back was brilliant with autumn colours as well as fresh snow on the mountain peaks. I wondered how the race was going as I drove off...

Awesome recaps of the race:
Dallas Morris - "Wow"
Gabor's "Pedal for your life"
Cory Wallace - "Double Header Gongshow" (the Snow80!)
Old lady intuition wins out on this one!

Test Ride in Tahoe

Within a week span, I had a dust-laden 2008 Scott Scale 10 shipped from a small bike shop in Oakville, new brake set put on by Evan down at Gregg’s Greenlake Cycle in Seattle so I could run Stan’s notubes ZTR Race 7000 wheelset… and zipped off south to Soda Springs, California at 7000’ elevation. Nothing like testing the bike out in a 100-mile ultra-endurance race in Tahoe country!

My old trusty Trek had been stolen when my car was stolen back in June. Since then I have only put around 4 hours of mountain bike time on my first race bike from 1995, an 8-speed Stumpjumper. Thanks to all who helped with parts (Ed, Di & Al) and offers to lend bikes (Trevor, Cindy). The thought of my lack of mountain bike saddle time scared me just a little for this race!

The course started with 8 miles of mostly descent. I was surprised to maintain a quick pace amongst the men and didn’t even think of the crazy speed we were taking on this bumpy forest road together. I stuck with a strong looking woman ahead of me and realized it was Louise Kobin, my TransAlp race partner from 2005. Wow, Lou has since gotten amazingly more powerful and dominated the pace for the climbs. She was dropping the boys like flies!

Looking at the course on paper, there were a lot of fire roads and only 2 sections of single track. In reality, the first 10-km single track was plenty long and brutally rocky. I was pretty beat after descending this long technical section. As I rode by a prickly high alpine brush, I was left with little welt marks and winced each time. The scenery high up was outstanding which I mostly took in peripherally as to keep my focus on the blazing trails.

Elevation gain 12,500 feet - long jarring descents

The feedzones were a welcome sight and I partook at almost all of them. The volunteers were awesome grabbing my camelbak to fill it and lubing my dry chain with oil. The course was ultra dusty. I was caked head to toe in dust.

The 2nd singletrack section was part of the Western States 100-mile running race. It was amazing following a cliffy ridge line. I chilled, took my time and enjoyed it. This was only 55 miles into the race. And it seemed like a longgggg way to go yet.

Lots of climbing left. I cried when there was yet another descent. My neck/shoulders biceps/triceps hands/fingers were just -aching-. Yeah, I loved using my new Formula R1 disc brakes a lot, maybe a little too much on the descents! New to the disc brake world, I was wowed by the control they gave over the speed of the bike. I had a few twitchy moments where I thought I lost it… though the bike worked with me and I was upright the whole time.

The Selle Italia SLR saddle on my bike was sweet, comfy, though was cut slim. It had no outward part to rest the thighs during descents. My inner thighs were whipped on the long bumpy descents as I tried to brace on the nothingness of this saddle. I may have to switch it out for endurance races.

The last 10 miles to the finish was a slog for me. Eating bits of HoneyStinger berries and dates helped keep me going. Dates are my new favourite energy food - taste like carmel candy with the bonus of quick glycogen energy.

Weather was perfect with an overcast sky keeping the blazing sun toned down. Most of the course was shaded in the trees. I finally made it to the finish 9 hours 22 minutes. Lou finished 25 minutes ahead of me. Tinker Juarez won the race and Canadian Cory Wallace from Jasper came in 2nd. Cory has been getting into incredible adventures with great stories on his blog.
I stayed at the Clair Tappaan Lodge a couple miles away run by the Sierra Club. Inexpensive like a hostel and has awesome chef made meals. A group of online guitar members got together for a Groetsch guitar specialty weekend. Nice to hear the jamming of music as my weary body got some rest.
Going to this race was a highlight for me... the scenic drive down, the frantic prep getting the bike together, visiting friends on-route in Seattle and Ashland. Most of all, it was my first mountain bike race in 2 years since my health got quirky in 2007! I was thrilled the whole time riding being back in action!!

Post-race sand & sweat covered - my new bike!! ...all 18.5 lbs!!!

Thanks to Mike at Notubes for sending me the wicked Race 7000 wheelset. I've run Stan's notubes system since 2003 and I won't go back to using tubes again. My new ZTR Race 7000 wheelset is only 1225 grams! I set them up with Kenda Karma tube tires with a couple scoops of Stan's sealant inside. Had my first experience with blowing a tire off the rim using a footpump... the ringing in my ears had me flop on the bed for a few minutes. I will never overinflate again! With Stan's setup, I run my tire pressure at 17 PSI in the front and 20 PSI in the rear. The lower air pressure gives me alot more grippy tire to ride and lets me rip faster descending (as long as I remember to let go of the brakes!). I have no fears of punctures as the sealant does it's job sealing the puncture if it happens. I haven't flatted - I haven't noticed!

Missing in Action post-Sep 2007!

My race reports prior to "Missing in Action" after succumbing to mind-boggling health issues mid-season 2007…

… will be found on my old website, ha, which is now defunct as noted today 2025-May-03. I will slowly repopulate the awesome old race stories on this blog some time this year.

Most of my epic events were covered. Please take a peek! 

Mountain Bike
Road Bike
Adventure Racing

Breathe Magazine - Tour of the Himalayas, by Marg Fedyna

Breathe Magazine 2008 Winter Issue

To view the pdf document --> click on the arrow in the box below

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2006 - Article & Podium

2006 La Ruta Podium shot after 3 days of racing in Costa Rica from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast

Louise Kobin (2nd), Hillary Harrison (3rd), Marg Fedyna (1st), Rebecca Rusch (4th), Cristine de Mezerville Ferrero (5th)

 

Crazy article written by Nick Lees, Edmonton Journal

 

 

 

La Ruta training

Photo from Moose Mountain road Sep 18, 2006 after the first snow storm of the season. I had a good mountain bike climb up and chilly ride down. Brrr...

VELONEWS - 2005 24-Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships

My debut in VELONEWS magazine with a champagne celebration podium photo and article!