I wouldn’t have changed anything about how my race went. I felt good throughout the race. I felt like I managed myself well. I hydrated well through the race, managed my nutrition well, recovered well and consumed enough calories to get through each day. My bike held up well, only needing to get a minor service once, and that was just to get the shifting tweaked.

I really wanted to do the whole BCBR experience and I truly feel like I did. I did massage, I saw the penguins, took part in the bacon station, experienced tent city, hanging with Johnny Rock, got a waterfront tent in Powell River, and I even visited medical to get some hotspots on my toes taken care of. I really don’t have any regrets about the race. I even managed a few things I hadn’t expected (selfie with Tippie, being fed watermelon by Tippie at an aid station, no mechanicals or crashes).

Even today, two weeks after finishing I am still in awe that I did it. After many years of following the race, reading race reports, hearing people’s stories, and dreaming about it, I finally have my belt buckle. In fact, about a week before the race started I dreamt about crossing the finish line and receiving my belt buckle.

All the gear I took with me worked well. I had a battery pack with an integrated solar panel. This charge my phone and watch throughout the week which meant I didn’t need to use the on site charging stating, which was a bit of a gong show. As I said above, my nutrition on cause worked well. I did a consult with Infinit a while ago (August 2016) and Darcy helped me tweak my formula based on that. What I drank while racing provided me with ample calories, nutrients, and electrolytes that were easily absorbed, but even better I had plenty of sustained energy. I love using Infinit for my long rides. As soon as each day was complete I would drink a bottle of Infinit Recovery which helped me recover from the day and got me through to the next meal.

My bike, although bigger and heavier than most on the course, was comfortable to me, and was a lot of fun on the descents. I really appreciated the extra travel in North Vancouver, Squamish, and Whistler. It did make for more difficult climbing, but I wasn’t doing the race to win, but to experience it.

The weather worked out perfectly. It was a little hot some days, but I’ll take that over cold and rainy. There were many conversations about the weather, and everyone agreed that it would be a much different race in the rain. Not only race, but tent city would be fairly awful in the rain. I really cannot imagine being soaking wet for a whole week, riding in the rain for 4+ hours a day.

I really did luck out with my support. Sue was amazing throughout, and it allowed me a few luxuries like real showers in Powell River and Sechelt. Sue did laundry for me which allowed me to pack a little less gear, or at least avoid having to wash gear myself. Having Sue and the kids at the finish line was great too. The whole family was impacted by my training, and for the kids to see/experience the finish and show them what hard work can allow anyone to accomplish was priceless.

I’ve been asked if I would do the race again. I certainly would. It will be a different experience next time, but I would likely train a little harder, and push myself a little more in the race to try and place better. Either that, or I would do it as a team. There were a lot of parent/child teams that I met. If one of the kids were interested in 10 years time, I would definitely do it again. The other option is if a friend wanted to do the race, I would do it again with pretty much anyone!

What a race though

• 7 days
• 625 racers
• 300 km
• 9100 m vertical
• 15,000 racing calories burned (who knows how many consumed)
• Most of a bag of Infinit Custom Blend
• 1/2 a bag of Infinit Recovery
• 1 unforgettable experience

The food of the BCBR was pretty darn good. I don’t Instagram my food very often, but I did take a few pics of the food I ate during the race. I did find the drink options lacking. There was nothing to drink with breakfast nor dinner other than water, coffee, or tea. Some places we could puchase beer, but that wasn’t always available. I ended up getting Sue to buy me some drink boxes so I could get some apple juice with breakfast.

There were also a couple mornings where there was no meat protein. Minor quibble given there was other options for protein, but it still would have been nice. I will also bring my own cutlery next time since there were quite a few days where we used plastic cutlery.

Most meals I would take a big plate, then go back for seconds. Dinner I always grabbed dessert, though sometimes I had to get it to go and eat it back in the tent after things had settled a bit. 🙂 Knowing the days rides, eating as many calories as possible was the name of the game. My goal was to replenish the loss at the end of the day, and stock up at the beginning of the day.

On course the aid stations were packed with all sorts of amazing things to eat. Fresh fruit (including the best watermelon I have ever had), pretzels, chips, M&Ms, Clif Bars, Clif Shots, energy drink, water, sandwiches, Red Bull, and more. The finish line food was very similarly stocked, but there were more sweets like gummy bears, baked goods,

In Whistler we had some time to get sorted. Use washrooms, find bikes, be attended to by medical, make last minute tweaks, then it was time to start lining up. Lining up for day 7. The race had flown by.

The first few waves started and as we got closer to the start my nerves melted away to a deep sense of satisfaction and pride. Then we were off. Some small course changes were made the night before so our final day was supposed to be 28km and 1400m vertical.

The road section was intended to spread us out and help us warm up. Unfortunately it want long enough and in the first single track there was quite a clog of riders that left is standing for a couple minutes.

Onward we went and very suddenly we were in the first aid station. I sailed through that again and kept riding.

We hit some steep downhill loose sections that had many riders walking. Myself and a couple others rode through picking up a couple spots. Not sure what I did but on one steep line I filled my left shoe with dirt.

At one point we got back on the road to gain some elevation. This was a paved road too, open to traffic, with many large dumptrucks going back and forth. I made a quick stop to empty my shoe then set out for the climb. Quit a grunt up that road.

Dropping into trail again was a nice relief. Again it got steep and I was behind some less technical riders. Thankfully many people were great about moving out of the way for riders who had the ability. There were two riders running down the trail that had no option but to keep running in front of me since there was no easy way for them to get off the trail. No big deal since they were faster on the uphill.

Throughout the day there some great trail features that were fun to ride. A couple big rock faces, steep chutes, ladder bridges and more. With about 5km to go I came across a rider with a flat. For the first time after offering help someone took me up on it. He had a flat and someone else had given him a tube but his CO2 canister hadn’t inflated it properly. Inpsecting his tube, I ntoed that someone had given him a road bike tube. Odd that someone would even have that with them. I grabbed a fresh tube from my pack and we set out changing the tube and pumping up the tire.

I got rolling while he finished up putting his wheel back on. The final few kilometres are a bit of a blur. The final descent was still pretty technical. Not steep but full of sharp rocks. Suddenly we dropped out of the trail, crossed some train tracks and a bridge. There it was, the finish arch. One final high five to Bob, a victory arm pump and there were the finish line attendants handing out the buckles. Sue and the kids quickly found me and I shed a few tears of joy.

I’ve been thinking about this race from the very first one. The last few years I’ve read all the online coverage I could find and dreamed about doing it and getting that belt buckle. There I was with a finishers buckle hanging from my neck. Incredible.

The entire race was a lot of fun, and this was in large part to my support crew. Sue did an amazing job cheering on the racers and me in particular. Never knowing when I would see her on course lead to many surprises discovering her cheering.

The final few days of the race the whole family was involved. The kids were also amazing in their cheering. Not only that, but their support over the last year has been unwavering and that has been a tremendous burden off my shoulders.

What a week! I cannot wait to get a belt to put my buckle on.

As has become normal, we lined up in the start chute and got mentally prepped for our day. Just before the first wave was about to head out, I looked down and realized I had forgotten the top tube sticker showing the elevation. A quick sprint to the tent to retrieve that and I was all set.

Heading out from the start line we rode through some neighbourhoods and quickly the roads turned skyward. Once we hit dirt the roads still went up.

Topping out felt pretty good, and the trail that greeted up was a taste of thinkgs to come. I don’t know the name of the trail, but it was swoopy, bermy, loose, dusty, and immense fun.

Back on a logging road descent I was screaming around a corner and over a bridge when I saw this gorgeous stream. So pretty that I stopped, and turned back to get a picture.

Entering a technical section I found my flow. There was talk of the upcoming rock faces, and in one briefing I heard they all had ridearounds. All too suddenly the trail forked and I went right, not realizing that left was the first rock face, and I had missed it. I could see up ahead there was a traffic jam and people were stopped. Behind me there was a pretty large gap, so I hiked my bike back up and rode the rock face! Every opportunity that I could take to hit a rock face I did. They were all reasonable and a lot of fun.

More stunning vistas were seen.

Then I could smell it! Bacon. Somewhere out there was the bacon station and we were close. A little boost to the energy level so I pedalled a little harder. On a small trail I jumped off a root, and when I landed, there it was. Beautiful bacon in the middle of nowhere. Awesome.

More climbing was in store, then we entered Half Nelson. For me, this is the highlight trail of the race so far. Huge berms, easy lofty jumps and lots of hooting and hollering. I was in a train of three other riders and we were all pretty well matched for speed. At the bottom we were all grins and high fives. The quote of the race from someone else was ‘Even my nuts have goosebumps’. All of us were tempted to go back up and try it again.

Then it was up again. Climb, climb, climb up logging road. When we got to Tsuedo Tsuaga and I reached down to put my shock in descend mode. Much to my shock I had forgotten to change it to trail after Half Nelson. Oops. No wonder that climb seemed extra hard. Tseudo Tsuaga was pretty fun as well with lots more berms and high speed. This time I was behind someone slower than I wanted, and I did get a chance to pass them. It was all good though, I was concerned about going too fast and wiping out in my tired state.

Another climb was needed to get up to Hoods in the Woods and it was a long grunt of a hill. I started to recognize parts of it that I had ridden during the guys trip to Whistler earlier in the year. Once in Hoods I passed a few people on the descent. At one corner we I could see someone taking pictures and assumed they were part of the media crew. Turned out they were just racers pulled off watching and taking pics at a trickey corner. Again I was having a good time on this trail and was flowing along pretty nicely. Other racers were kind enough to move to the side and let faster riders go.

After Hoods it was a descent on the fire road. I was hugging the left side too much when I caught a hidden sawn off branch in the shin. Nearly bit it, but managed to stay upright.

Next up was Crumpet woods where I was suffering quite a bit. It was 10km back to the finish but it felt like a lot more. Loads of uphill still then some flat root infested sections. Myself and another racer were the only people for what seemed like an eternity. I knew we were still on the right trail, but I had no idea where we were. Then I could hear some cheering and knew we must be getting close to the finish line.

Exiting the woods Sue and the kids were there cheering me on and telling me it was only 3km back. It was pretty flat too. Bouyed by nearly being done I tried to kick it up a bit, but it sure seemed to take forever to get back. Crossing that finish line was a great feeling though. Day 6 done and only one left to go.

Today was a day to celebrate. I got my bike washed, quickly ate some food, then hit the beer garden for a beverage or two. The beer was mighty tasty!

It wasn’t just me celebrating either. Shimano had a big giveaway, and there was some entertainment. Johnny Rock was on hand to play some tunes, and he was a hoot! I loved it when he ran into the beer garden for selfies with random people.

One more day to go.