mountain biking 7:00:00 [3] 75.0 km (5:36 / km)
We took off way too hard out of TA3, pace lining. The trails started off good and got progressively tougher and wetter.
We took the roads to 12 with a 10 minute hot chocolate break at the esso station. I somehow missed the entrance to Georgian Nordic which was supposed to be my indicator for the road into 12. so we missed the road by 1km and climbed an extra km.
on 12 the wheels started to fall off our train, we were crawling along the trail and hike a biking every substantial hill.
we debated riding around 13, probably would have been slightly better. I thought that surely it couldn't be as tough as the trail to 12. it was almost as bad.
I had no food that I was willing to eat halfway through this ride, so I was close to bonking by the end, but barely held on to the finish.
funny thing, we were climbing the last hill to the finish past the community centre. we didn't have the last race map (forgot it in the TA bin), only the back roads map so we couldn't really decipher where the finish was. when we saw bike lights riding towards us as we were stopped on the road, we were like, oh hell no, not a sprint finish (I had nothing in the tank for that). rob makurat's team rides up and doesn't let on at all that they opted for the short course. so we take off down the first road (gardenview), until we hit a dead end. we go racing back up the hill past them, and only then he told us that they short coursed. they got a good laugh at us ripping around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find the finish.
I had to get a ride back to the community centre I was so trashed, but I guess that means I left it out on the course.
Many thanks to Bash and Getawaystix and Brad and all the awesome volunteers - these races are always so much fun - not always, in the moment - but lots of lasting memories.