MOMAR's 10th season wraps up with a picture-perfect autumn day

photos: Tony Austin (www.pbase.com/autie)

Well, it's all over... and Bryan Tasaka has done it again.

The final MOMAR race of the event's 10th anniversary year was another smashing hit! The day shaped up to be just too perfect; it was one of the first days of autumn, with a bit of chill to the air as racers arrived to the edge of Comox Lake and started setting up their kayaks and collected their race maps. By the time we were on the water, sparkling under the rising sun, all of us ready for the sound of the hor signalling the 9am start, the air was touched with warmth.

There were about 280 racers lined up for the start of the 50 km Enduro course (categories in male, female and mixed; and teams of 4, 2 or individual), and another 80 or so who lined up for the 10:30 am start for the 30 km Sport course (pairs only).

As usual, I chose to race solo - not wanting to burden any possible team-mate with my lack-of mountain-bike skill. This was my fourth MOMAR, and so far I have managed to place third in every one (total number of entrants in solo female category each year that I've raced has been 3, 5, 7 - so odds were with me the first two races). This year, there were 8 in my category - and although I was showing up with more experience and more general endurance under my belt, I hadn't actually had much time to train this summer. So, rather than racing at all, I figured I'll just go my speed, but pay special attention to the map and make no mistakes. (My race philopsophy is the polar opposite of Team Sole's “Go fast, take chances” - I am more like “Go slow, play it safe”).

We received race maps at 8:00 am. The route consisted of a 10 km lake paddle, followed by a roughly 10 km trek/run, then about 25 km of mountain biking with an urban orienteering section (on foot) through the village of Cumberland in the middle, then another 6km ride back to the race start/finish, where there was another orienteering stage through the steep forest-land above the lake that we had to complete before heading to the finish line.