Day 5: Fun and Fast!

by Joanna

Day 5 brought us back onto my home trails in North Vancouver, and it felt awesome! I had ridden the course several times, and Mom also had the opportunity to ride it twice when she was in town for her training visit. The trickiness of day 5 was that, while it was short (15km), it was likely more technical than most racers are used to. We felt excited going into today knowing that we could handle the course, and knowing that it would be fast! (Training times were around the 2:20 mark.)

When we got to the park (after sleeping in beds last night!)  I realized I had forgotten my bike shoes at home. Nooo!! Thank goodness my boyfriend (hero) Kia came to the rescue and dropped them off about 15 minutes before race start. And while waiting, I was distracted with nearly the whole lululemon strategy team coming out to cheer us on. They even had signs that said, “Go Jo Mamma!”. It was so great to see them, and have them rooting for us at the start line.

We seeded ourselves at the front of our blue corral, knowing we would want to get ahead of some riders that wouldn’t have experience with the trails. We agreed we would get a quick start and peddle hard up the first 3.5km climb. And that’s exactly what we did. The race started us in waves today – 5 riders every 15 seconds. We teamed up with three other riders we had ridden with on other days. Mom was fast off the start line and led the pack! When we got to Old Buck, there was a steady stream of climbers. The pace was good, so we slipped in line and peddle, peddle, peddled. Then the fun started! Pingu was the first downhill. It’s a quick one, but a fun one. Then we rode up a double track (past some cheering penguins) and up a downtrail until we had to get off for a 10 minute hike-a-bike. More down for the next 30 minutes or so, and into the techy-part. Despite having ridden the route clean on my own, the adrenaline, other riders hopping off bikes, and wetness of the trail made this my toughest go at it. I came off the bike a couple of times, once landing thigh to rock (icing that as I type). I managed to break my shoe too, but rode down the rest of the way and sped along the road to the aid station where we would pull out our trusty duct tape. Our team work was strong today – we were communicating lots on the trail, and of course worked together to tape my shoe back together. After a reasonably quick pit stop at the aid station, we peeled off and came upon the lululemon cheer squad minutes later. They were cheering like mad and even gave us a bit of help getting up the hill. We declined the beer that was offered though!

The next section of the trail had us traversing to an awesome climb, Good Sir Martin. I felt super strong climbing the familiar trail, and mom wasn’t far behind. After a quick check-in at the top, we were off on the final decent, John Deer. My Opa (Mom’s Dad) had a John Deer tractor when I was a kid, and they always remind me of him, so we did this trail for Opa, which had me almost emotional as we took off. I think he would have been proud. This section of the trail was a timed downhill, and it was exhilarating! We came through the finish line at a time of 2:08, and when I told Mom the time, the smile on her face was as big as ever. It also put us on the podium in third place for the second time this week, which we must admit, is pretty fun.