24 Hours of Summer Solstice 2012

This past weekend we had the pleasure of competing in the annual 24 Hours of Summer Solstice.  What a fantastic event this is, we have a blast every time we do this race.  It's run by Chico Racing who are a well oiled machine when it come to running these events.  It's a chance to get outside, be active and see friends.

The more we race at these type of events, the more people we get to know.  This year we were able to secure 2 sites close together for 3 - 5 person teams to share.  On one site we set up the pop up shelters and had that for the cooking/hang out area and on the other site we put the tents for sleeping.  It worked out great.  With 3 teams on the go there was always someone to chat with between laps.

There were 2000+ riders at the race Saturday.

The course was 17km long and had a large amount of double track which was great for passing although I do love the challenge of singletrack.  I remember the first year we raced a 24 hour at Albion, that first hill seemed so big and I was so out of breath by the time I reached the top.  This year it seemed small... I guess that Moab trip paid off in fitness.

I rode around the mud pit, amid the protests of the spectators.  I was not going to get my bike dirty.    Lol, I was worried about my bike getting dirty when it started to sprinkle a small amount of rain.  There was no way I would deliberately ride into the "e coli laden" mud.

Tim Morrison - 3rd place in the Men's Solo 50+ category and a great friend showing off his winnings.

I improved my lap times from last year by quite a bit.  I did 5 laps and posted lap time of 56, 57, 1:02(night lap), 59 and  59 minutes.

Our team ended up in 6th place.

All in all it was a fantastic time and we will be returning next year for some more fun!

Epic Spring 8 - Saturday May 26, 2012

Wow is it only time for the Epic Spring 8?  I love the Spring 8 it is one of my favourite races of the year.  It marks the start of summer.  But this year the weather has been so nice that it feels like the middle of summer already!

Adam the kids and I headed up to Mansfield the night before the race.  It's kind of a tradition now to pick up Pizza Pizza on the way up to a Chico race.  We set up the tent and went to bed early because Adam had a cold and everyone else was tired as well.

In the morning we got the pop up all ready with supplies for the race and had some breakfast.

Waiting for the start.  

We had decided before the race that we would do double laps because it usually takes me 5km to really warm up so with the 10km laps it seemed best to do doubles.  The course was really, really sandy even for Mansfield.  The riding in Moab really helped hone my sand biking skills so I had no problem with the course Saturday.  There were flowy, fun singletrack sections and I especially enjoyed the sandy downhill breaking ruts.  For real, those were fun!  Adam ended up doing 8 laps to my 7 and we came in 4th,  12 minutes behind 3rd place.

Ryan had fun at the kids race.  Here he is at the start.  I missed his race because I was on course but Adam got to watch.  However Ryan wanted to show me the kids course so we did 2 laps of that together after the 8 Hour was done.  He really likes his new water bottle and bell that he received when he finished his 2 laps.  By the end of the day he was feeling pretty bad and he ended up throwing up 3 times on Sunday.

Paris to Ancaster 2012 - 35km St. George to Ancaster - Tandem

10 am Sunday morning I stopped in my race preparations to look out the front window.  It was pouring rain and I felt so bad for all the racers lined up 5 minutes away waiting to start the 19th annual Paris to Ancaster.  Lucky for us the worst of the rain had passed by the time we lined up an hour and a half later in St. George for the start of the 35km race.

Here we are waiting at the start line in St. George.  Yet again it was boys vs. girls.  Don't the kids look pumped, lol.

We put sweaters on at the last minute because when we got to St. George it was still raining pretty hard and I didn't want anyone to get cold.  It ended up not raining after the start and not being cold at all and I really wish I'd left the sweater in the car.

Right from the start we were all doing great.  Adam and Ryan shot off and we never saw them again until the end!  Lily and I felt really good in the beginning the kms were just flying by.  We were passed by two adult teams on tandems on the first stretch coming out of St. George, but we managed to pass them on a couple of the first uphills.  We never saw them again.  This year we managed to avoid the bottleneck on the atv trail that we usually get stuck in.

At one point Lily screamed out, "My tooth!  My tooth fell out!"  Apparently when she'd taken a bite of her sticky energy bar her tooth came out!  She passed it up to me and I put it into a deep pocket for safe keeping.

As the race continued we were passing and then getting passed back and forth by two other Dad/daughter, Dad/son teams for the middle half of the race.  We really thought we had a chance to podium this year we were ahead of the other tandems and then we hit the mud sections...

Unfortunately our tandem doesn't have any much clearance between the front wheel and the head tube/fork  and the rear wheel and the seat tube/chain stays.  They clog up after 10 seconds of that thick sticky mud.  Push, scrape, push, scrape, repeat.

We had to walk the steepest part of the Martin Road climb and then hopped on to finish strong.  Adam, Ryan and my mother in law Marg were there at end to cheer us on, thanks guys!  Crossing the finish line felt awesome, Lily and I ended up taking 5th place.

I had a ton of sand in my eyeballs and it hurt a lot.

Family photo.

Our family cheer.

Frederiksens!

Adam and Ryan took 1st place.  Way to go boys!

He's so serious.

2 tandem teams = a ton of bike clean up

I think I should have stopped a minute to clean the bike off, I didn't realize it was that clogged.  It was so heavy with mud I had a hard time lifting it off the rack when we got home!

Sweet.

Note to self:  Knobby cycle cross tires next year.  These ones were great on the road but no where else.

Paris to Ancaster 2012

The race is on Sunday April 15th and the weather could not look worse!  Actually that's not true 18C is a decent temperature, it could be raining AND cold.

	Friday Apr 13	Saturday Apr 14	Sunday Apr 15	Monday Apr 16	Tuesday Apr 17
Conditions  6am - 6pm
	Sunny	Isolated showers	Cloudy with showers	Rain	Light rain
P.O.P.	0%	70%	80%	80%	80%
High	15°C	15°C	18°C	10°C	11°C
Low	1°C	5°C	11°C	7°C	6°C
Wind	NW 15 km/h	SW 40 km/h	W 45 km/h	E 35 km/h	E 20 km/h
24-Hr Rain	-	5-10 mm	15-20 mm	15-20 mm	5-10 mm

2012 Races

Kearney Fatbike Race - 1st place Adam
The Frostbike -  5th place Adam

Homage to Ice - 5th place Adam - 50km Singlespeed, open

             9th place April - 50km Women, open

Paris to Ancaster - 1st place Adam and Ryan - 35km tandem
             5th place April and Lily - 35km tandem

Substance Projects Marathon Challenge 1 - 5th place Adam - Single Speed

Epic Spring 8 hour - 4th place Adam and April - Mixed Tag Team

24 Hours of Summer Solstice - 6th place - 5 Person Mixed Team

Victoria's 100 - 

2011 Races

The Frostbike – 9^th place Adam

Homage to Ice – 7^th place Adam

Paris to Ancaster – 5^th place Adam & Ryan – 60km Tandem

2^nd place April & Lily - 35km Tandem

Victoria’s 100 Miler – 160km - 4^th place Adam,

20km - 1^st place April

Tour de Grand – Adam & Ryan, April & Lily – 50km Tandem

24 Hours of Summer Solstice – 19^th place Adam & April (& team) - 6-10 Club/Company

24 Hours Hot August Nights – 3^rd place Adam & April - Mixed Tag Team

Hardwood Singletrack Challenge – 50km – 3^rd place Adam & April - Mixed Tag Team 60+

2010 Races

Paris to Ancaster – 2^nd place Adam & Ryan – 35km

5^th place April & Lily - 35km

Epic Spring 8 Hour – 4^th place April - 4 person Mixed

20^th place Adam – Tag Team Male 70+

24 Hours of Summer Solstice – 3^rd place Adam & April - 5 Person Mixed 150+

Lost in the Rocks and Trees 110km – 3^rd place Adam

24 Hours of Hot August Nights – 7^th place Adam – Solo Men Under 40

Dukes Epic Fall 8 Hour – 15^th place Adam & April – 3-4 Person – Open – combined age 120-159

Dairy Capital Stampede 6 Hour – 8^th place Adam – Solo Men

Homage to Ice - April 1st, 2012

I have to admit I was a little worried in the weeks leading up to the Homage to Ice 2012, a 25km or 50km race at Mansfield Outdoor Center, Mansfield Ontario, organized by Dan Marshall.  I have been working out all winter but not really doing a lot of riding and I had decided to challenge myself and go for the 50km ride.  I have never ridden that many continuous kilometers of singletrack in a race before.  I've done 50km tours and 50km rail trail rides with the family but not singletrack in a race and I was a little nervous.

The weather forecast was also a cause for concern.  The day after I signed up the Weather Network.com said we were going to get 10-15mm of rain at 7C.  That sounded down right torturous!  When Adam and I were dating we went camping for a week at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado in January, we had a fantastic time but ever since that trip 14 years ago (wow, 14 years ago!) my toes have been sensitive to the cold.  I think I must have gotten frost nip on that trip.  So I wasn't looking forward to racing in the cold wet weather.  Fortunately the weather forecast just got better and better as race day drew near and conditions were close to perfect on race day.

Dan did a great job designing the course, it was fantastic.  You gotta love Mansfield because the sandy soil makes mud puddles pretty much non existent.  There was so much singletrack I had a hard time trying to find a minute to drink the honey water shot that I take along for engery!

My goal for the race was to finish with no cramping or bonking and to not injure myself.  And I did it in 3:23:55!  I actually felt great at the end.  In retrospect I could have gone faster...  maybe next time.  Right now I'm just happy I finished it!

Adam rode the 50k and was exhausted at the end.  He finished an amazing 5th in the single speed category with a time of 2:43:13.

Hardwood SingleTrack Challenge - October 16th 2011

Adam and I headed up north just past Barrie yesterday to participate in the Hardwood Singletarck Challenge.  50km Solo, 24km Solo or 50km Tag Team were the options for this event and we decided to go with the 50km Tag Team because we were going to do the race on True North Cycles single speeds.  I had popped out to True North on Friday to pick up a single speed bike for Adam to race on.

We arrived at Hardwood at 7:45am after a 2 hour drive and we were just hoping the weather would hold for the race, it had been raining for a few days before the race and it was supposed to rain later in the day as well.  We had the pop up shelter just in case and not knowing what weather to expect I had brought a vast selection of clothing to choose from.

Nutrition for race was somewhat lacking.  We had ordered pizza the night before so we would have leftovers to eat between laps and I had made some coconut, chocolate chip cookies to snack on.  We had had eggs and toast for breakfast before we left in the morning and I had 2 slices of pizza at 9am so I would have energy  for my first lap.  After that between laps all I felt like eating was cookies.

It was very important for us to pay attention at the pre race meeting as we hadn't done this race before here's how this race works.

* There are 5 different loops through the forest for a total of 50km.

* Solo 50km riders ride all 5 loops in a certain order.

* Tag Team riders ride all 5 loops (in a different order than the solo riders) with one rider riding laps 1,3 and 5 for a total of 24km and the second rider riding laps 2 and 4 for a total of 26km.

* Solo 24km riders ride loops 1, 3 and 5 in yet another different order.

* Riders have to keep their heads up and follow the signs for whatever loops they are on.  Easy enough to do at Hardwood because the trails are well marked.

I was doing loops 1, 3 and 5 so I got to start with Fun 6 kms,  a sprint really.  I was getting passed right off the start until we hit the first hill.  With a single speed you have to climb up hills fast, there is just no other option so I pulled ahead of a quite a few people on that first hill.  Fun was an easy trail with nothing technical there.  I could be located in the forest by the sound of my barking cough.  I have had a cold for 2 weeks now and I have an awful cough that will not go away.  I finished up in just under 18 minutes and it was Adams turn to ride the Gnarly 12km, he was liking the single speed. He had fun passing a few people on the uphill sections.  The trail was twisty with a few boardwalks and mud free.  It took him 51 minutes. Then my turn for Serious 11kms, this trail had me thinking thoughts like...  This trail is seriously twisty and seriously awesome!  A great ride with 2 steep climbs I had to sprint up finishing up the lap in 38 1/2 minutes.  It was Adams turn for Radical 15km by the early beginning of this lap he wished he had stuck with the original plan of him being Rider A.  The trail was tough it had tons of roots and it felt all uphill, the downhills didn't provide enough momentum to make it up the uphill sections.  He finished his lap in just under 66 minutes.  My turn for Crank'd 8kms,  my best lap of the day.  I felt really good on this lap it had a lot of quick up and so much downhill I really got to let it rip.  Crank'd was also the muddiest trail of the day.

At the finish line Adam was cheering me on and Maroon 5 was singing Moves like Jagger on the sound system.  I couldn't have asked for a better finish.  We had no idea we were in contention for a top three finish. With this race there were riders everywhere and it was very difficult to tell who you were competing against.  We were ecstatic to find out we'd taken 3rd place!

The first place finishers in our 50km Tag Team 60+ category Brad Hunter and Rachel Mirvish had their pop up right beside us.  They brought their dog to the race and I just couldn't resist petting her a few times.  Boy did she look like my Zoe girl.

Podium pictures.  What a great feeling.  Only 5 seconds from making 2nd place. It was that close.