DAY 1
Day 1 was scary. My first time on a a start line since the Jasper-Banff relays during grad school. Thanks to some good advice, K and I were positioned towards the back of the pack off to one side in the start chute. We avoided the worst of the recently mowed grass, but experienced the full hurry-up-and-wait when a lot of racers hit singletrack early in the day. I don't remember much of Day 1 other than the heat. It was by far the hottest day of the year for southern BC. I wilted. Walking st that should have been ridden, looking at the computer and thinking how the hell will I finish if I'm already pushing my bike only 47 kms into Day 1? Thankfully K had her head on straight and pulled me through. The rest of the day was pleasant enough with a fast logging road descent the spilled onto 20 kms of rail grade to the finish. We had our first taste of mid-pack competitive at the end. We had joined up with a men's team and were riding the rail grade together and pulled through a co-ed team from Oz. They sat on our wheels until the last 2 kms when we hit road and then called out 'Thanks for the pull' and took off for the finish line. pffft. Wow, there are some FAST women here!!! Inspiring.Day 2
Day 2 found us in the B start chute; being such solid mid-packers the B chute was to be our start zone each subsequent day. Day 2 was a long, hot ride that was all about putting in kilometers and getting further up island. Nothing much to say other than being thankful for all the road miles during the spring. We managed to get into a few pace lines early in the day. Yeah for drafting. We probably rode the final 40 or 50 kms by ourselves. The heat was taking out a lot of people though we managed to stay strong. My, um, personal race manager had counseled me to eat more and drink more than I though I needed. Very good advice. Kirsty kept rocking with the ipod. The day was filthy, dirty from the dirt road dust. 
Yeah to getting through Day 2 which according to my computer was 135 kms. K had terrible allergies from all the dust of the logging roads. It was also the furthest I've ever ridden on a mountain bike and the furthest (by 30+km) that Kirsty has ever ridden, road or mountain! Day 3
Day 3? All I remember is still being on the Island. That and 2 stream crossings. The first of which was chamois deep...
...and I remember some shitty st. A bunch of kilometers of new, soft, energy sucking, bumpy, no-flow, exhausting, upper body burning st was built between snow melt and the race. The given names for the trails were steam donkey and entrails (?). Steaming pile of donkey entrails? The more established st was pleasant enough; a few bridges, some fat skinnies, lots of roots (thank goodness it was dry). K has wicked skills and I wish I could say I bombed down following her awesome line, but it was more of riding at my edge, pushing myself and still loosing sight of K. Also, I started to freak out from the social/people aspect of 400 riders + support. I like people, some of the time, but actually skipped dessert (ice cream cones!) and left dinner early to get some solitary time.Day 4
4:30 am wake up call. Bus-ferry-bus-ferry-start line at 11 am. Actually the day was great. Canada Day.
Lots of powerline climbs today, hot, exposed but the good rewarding descents for the climbing effort and great views. My first complaint about the race was dinner. After 3 great days of food on the island there was NO veggie protein at dinner! I actually went back to the tent and forced down a protein bar. ick. The race organizers remedied the problem by ordering a handful of veggie pizzas and wondering around tent city calling out for the vegetarians. What happens to the mid and back of the pack when 400 riders hit singletrack within 10-15 kms of starting.
There was steep climbing today. 
K and I had our groove on and were riding great together. Her soul is on st and downhill so she'd go ahead and get her woohoos of bike happiness in on the downhill. My slower, but still woohoooing self would catch up on the climbs and road sections. By the time the next st section came I'd let K roll through. Rinse and repeat for 5-7 hours. Day 5
Another early wake up. This time was 5:30 am wake up for an 8 am start just to catch the ferry from the Sunshine Coast back to the lower mainland that afternoon. This was the first day with hard cut off times at the second aid zone. If you didn't make the first cut-off time you missed the glorious 12 kms of pure st descending and had to ride down logging roads. If you missed the second, hard cutoff then you didn't get to ride at all and were trucked to the ferry terminal. Missing either cut-off meant getting a blue race plate and no official result (the nice way of putting the dreaded DNF). I think we rolled through with 40 minutes to the first cut-off!!! 
Yeah and onto the AMAZING SINGLETRACK. 12 KMS of amazing single track. banked corners, small ramps and ladders, smooth track, new chickenwire on the logs and bridges, dry trail, tight switch backs all under beautiful green canopy of the rainforest. My teammate is crazy fast descending and kept passing people. I was trying to ride safe and within, but at the edge, of my limits but I get very stressed when there's people on my back wheel. After passing another women's team, the stress manifest as a bad line and I took my biggest crash of the race. Kind of wrapped myself backwards in an arch around a tree... knocked my organs around a bit but got back on the bike and kept descending (no other choice really) but some of the pure glee has evaporated being replaced by practical, sensible riding. I actually went to the medics directly after crossing the finish as I had some concern for kidney damage/internal bleeding. It was a hard crash. No damage, just gave the body a good shake and stir. I really must stop crashing. The computer cable got severed at some point during the day when I laid down on a sandy switchback. Day 5 ended with the ferry ride from the Sunshine Coast to Horseshoe Bay. I hadn't really thought about how close to home we would be...only 25 of my favorite road kilometers and I could be at my new condo with the kitties....and the new washing machine for freshly laundered lycra....
Day 6
Lots of reasons to smile today!! The Gear Jammer and Test of Metal mash-up. The BCBR wake-up call involved a rubber chicken and a megaphone. My personal wake-up call was a sweet text message originating somewhere in the armpit of California. Today I woke to the chicken but not a text message :( Uuntil I noticed it was a 5:40 am and not the scheduled 6:30 am. Oops. The chicken got quiet quickly.Less welcome was the sound of rain on the tents. Rain + roots + man mades = snotty ridding. The rain stopped and thanks to the previous week's warm weather the ground soaked up the rain and the trails were actually in great condition, possibly even better as the moisture kept the dust down. I'd been having trouble with my front wheel and had the front skewer/quick release thingy replaced two day previously. But the front brake was still rubbing and the quick release kept coming loose necessitating 3 annoying stops before the first aid station.
Riding familiar trails was great and even *I* was passing people on the downhill. When we hit the puesdotsuga trail I failed to get my ass far enough past my saddle and did a running-over-the-handlebars dismount to which some random (and patronizing?) man said "need to get your ass further past your saddle, sunshine." The two feed zones were at the same criss-cross point of the course. The leaders had rolled into the second feed about 5 minutes before we got to the first!!!! The last challenge of the day was 9-mile hill, of which there is no need to remember. Then nothing but the technical goodness of Powerhouse Plunge, the flow of Crumpit Woods, and the finish line! The finish line was where SS was waiting with smiles, a quarter pound bag of peanut m&ms and Colorado whiskey! So many smiles.
Day 7
Only 47 kms today! Only one big, sustained climb. Heck the course profile almost looked flat. Day 7 was FREAKING TOUGH and cold. Started with a drawn-out climb up the Peak-to-Creek ski trail. 15 nice tight switchbacks, wiggly lovely goodness along the Cheakamus River then a joy-sucking road climb that finished with climbing a set of stairs (grunt, Enduro heavy, grunt) to access the st descent to first aid zone. Another day with hard cut-offs. We rolled through with over an hour before the cut-off, I think. Anyway, more cold, more road climb, more stairs (!), more short steep climbs to prove there was nothing left in my legs. But, Scott, thanks for smiling so brightly when you were walking along side of me as I pushed my bike up the hill, telling me how long and steep the hill was and how everybody was walking. I think you may have even giggled a little when saying how it got even steeper around the corner. Thanks, darling.My mental game was thin today. I knew that there were only 22 kms left after the first aid zone; a totally doable distance, less then my daily commute. When we exited a bit of st at a road crossing and the course marshal cheered us on with "good riding! only 12 kms left!" I did cry. Thank goodness I didn't have a computer anymore or I would have fixated on how slow the kms were passing. However, the next section, A River Runs Through It (ridden backwards), was very very technical with lots of lifts and required total concentration. Pant, Enduro getting very heavy, pant. K is ahead of me since we just finished some st and there is a small climb so she keeps rolling and I start chasing. Until the full grown black bear walks onto the trail between us. There was some tough, old school very rocky riding right before the second aid zone. that was actually fun.
The second aid station was not only 5 kms of riding from the finish, it was also only 200 m from the finish as the exhausted rider pedals. Here's the crazy bit. K and I had been making the cut-offs, not by a lot, but consistently getting through so we were jaw-dropped flabbergasted that there was only 5 mins before the cut-off! That meant that a lot of teams that had ridden well all week were headed to DNF land. uber-disappointing (spoiler- race officials admitted they made a mistake and added 30 mins to the cut-off time and let a big group or riders go back and finish the course with official times! Very cool). But, we finished42 hours 25 mins and 57 seconds after the first start gun. Only 10 hours and 13 mins or so behind the first place women's team. SS was there with beer (such a good man!!). Yeah to finishing!
