Faerie Faerie Fast

Jenn and I as faeries...I don't know who the creep with the moustache is.

Week 17: June 23-June 29

Bike: 114 km (of trail)
Run: 0 km
Swim: 1000 m

As many of you know, I became Mrs. North of 60 almost 2 years ago when I married Mr. North of 60 (aka Anthony). Since that day I’ve enjoyed what most would consider wedded bliss - minus the occasional “disagreement”, when Tony can’t accept that I’m always right (even when I’m wrong). Some might be shocked however to discover that Tony and I suffer from one fundamental disagreement that threatens to destroy everything that we have built together. I am a “roadie” and he is a “mountain boy”. This great divide has resulted in a garage that contains an odd collection of bicycles - my half have skinny wheels and carbon frames, while his collection are big, tough and willing to run over anything that stands in their path. In an attempt to find some common ground, we have both tried to convert the other. In my case, the attempted conversion resulted in a pimped out mountain bike - I think Tony figured “build it pink and she will ride”.

This year, Tony has been wonderful about hitting the pavement with me, and we’ve gone on some nice long road rides, including our Golden Circle adventure. Now that the Kluane Chilkat bike relay was over, it was my turn to put away the carbon and bring out Frederika the Goddess of the Trail (my mountain bike). This weekend was Tony’s favourite sporting event of the entire year - the 24 Hours of Light. The appeal of this particular event is that it combines Tony’s three favourite activities - mountain biking, drinking beer and watching me walk around in spandex. Unfortunately for him, the cool weather curbed the spandex watching, as more substantial clothing was required.

While the 24 hours of Light has always involved some sort of build up, this year was particularly special with loads of guests coming out to participate in the big event. Jenn and Ben had recruited six friends from the South to ride on our teams and Jill from Juneau was here to defend her solo female championship; I had discovered that an old high school colleague was driving up from Edmonton to race with his wife, so we were expecting a packed house.

Before the actual week-end event, the entire gaggle of guests decided to enjoy the Yukon’s mountain bike trails, including a special trip to Montana Mountain in Carcross. Getting to Carcross with 13 bikes and riders was not something I’d like to attempt again, but I think the chaos of packing was ultimately worth the riding. With the large number of riders and skill levels, we spent most of our ride divided into two groups. The girls group had the elite riders who wanted to huck off massive jumps and nose-manual over catwalks. The boys were generally sissies that just wanted to climb up the massive mountain and brake down weenie trails - they were joined by Steph, a former pro-mountain bike racer. Yes, that was sarcasm - the difference in skill/technical level was evident from the start when we chose to ride “Old Wagon Trail” and they went down “The Rock Garden”…where would you rather fall off a bike?

The riding in Carcross was phenomenal, although the girls certainly chose to take more of a hike-bike-click approach. According to my Garmin watch, we spent about 1/3 of the time taking pictures of our crazy manoeuvres. The highlight was when Aisha walked back up a hill, so that 4 of us with cameras could stand at the bottom and catch her in all of her mountain biking glory. The result was definitely worth the extra time and multiple camera angles.

After riding down “Tin Cup Trail”, my favourite of the Carcross paths, we rode the railway back into town and stopped for the highlight of any Carcross trip - ice cream!

The next day, we woke up bright and early - ready for 24 straight hours of biking, drinking, eating and cow-belling. We had divided our teams along the same lines as our recreational riding - girls vs. boys. In this case, however, we got to keep Steph, our secret weapon. The girls team was named Faerie, Faerie, Fast and was composed of myself, Lisa, Tracy, Jenn, Barb, Steph, Aisha, and Heather. In keeping with our theme we decked ourselves out in faerie ears and sparkly wings. Barb, decorator extraordinaire, also brought fresh flowers for our picnic table and tulle to decorate our campsite. The boys, who had decided to go with the “Strange Brew” (Bob and Doug McKenzie) theme, quickly ruined all our faerie hard work with back bacon, beer and flannel.

The riding was great! Steph threw down the fastest girl lap of the entire race with a blistering 45 minute turn. The rest of us happily puttered around the course, a little bit slower, but just as sweaty at the end. Barb impressed everyone with her late night laps, and we managed to keep someone on the course for the entire time, except for 2 hours between 5 and 7 am, when I was cooking breakfast for all the riders (I will NEVER eat bacon again) and Jenn was getting ready for the first morning lap.

I had two highlights from the race - I successfully hit my sub-1 hour goal by finishing my first lap in 53 minutes (while wearing a skirt and faerie ears as displayed in my last post). I also rode the Kona Africa Bike. This is a 35 pound, single speed, steel bike that Kona makes and donates to aid workers in Africa. Each team was “allowed” to ride the bike in exchange for a donation, and each lap completed on the Africa Bike counted as a double lap. I knew that riding this bike would be difficult, but didn’t quite expect the pain that came with pounding up the hills on a single speed tank, nor did I expect the fear associated with tearing down steep hills with nothing but coaster brakes to keep me from death. Despite all this, I completed my Kona bike lap in an hour and fifteen minutes, while wearing a charming green skirt that I think complimented the cruiser-like quality of the bike quite nicely. If you are interested in donating to the Africa Bike follow the link.. Please note, that the look on my face is one of terror as I speed down a single track section with coaster brakes that aren't particularly effective.

Sierra posted this on Jul 09, 2008 from the outside | | permanent link