Go Banana Fields another BC Bike Race Team

Yes, you read it right! Go Banana will field not 1, but 2 teams in the 2008 BC Bike Race. Due to the name "Go Banana" already being taken by our first team to register, the second team will ride under the alias "Go Orange". If you find yourself asking "Why Go Orange?", simply slide your mouse pointer over to left side of the screen and click on the team inspiration video. Also an orange is a good descriptive fruit for this team since an orange goes downhill fast but has issues climbing up them.

See you all in BC on June 28th.

Go Banana!......oh wait, I mean Go Orange!

Off Season Cross

Now that the adventure race season is over one would think that the Banana's dig in and hibernate for the winter. But not us we like to keep up with the training by continuing to go out for breakfast and also riding Cyclocross. Our first race was the Madison at Britania Park as part of the Eastern Ontario Cyclocross Series. A Madison is a tag team event so after much discussion about who should represent Go Banana it was decided that Brian and Charles should go. This was due to the fact that I have a cross bike and that you have to get on and off the bike a lot in cross and we all know Charles is good at that (Man Down!). After a few practice laps I decided to show Charles how to get on and off his bike and that made a big difference on the enjoyment level of the race. We both found the race quite taxing, it is amazing how hard 9 minutes on a bike can be when you go as hard as you can. Also riding on grass is harder than you think, go try it. It was good to see our fans out. Fans included my family, fellow Banana Thomas and Junior Banana Jeremy. Also at various stages of the race you could hear my daughter yelling encouragement like "Go faster daddy!" and the classic "Go Banana!". She also suggested a team name "Go Keira" which would make at least 2 people in the Go Banana family happy, we decided not to go with it. We managed to get 7 laps in and had a lot of fun. I was pretty sure we would have won the race is no one else had showed up. Come on out and see us at a cross race near you.

Brian

Land O'Lakes Banana style

This past weekend was the final Adventure race of the year for the famed Team Go Banana. We entered the Salomon Adventure Challenge with the hopes of a good showing.

The race started at 3am for the team with a quick run to the dock of the lake for me as I tried to get enough cell coverage to check my messages. No Baby yet. We then ate a hearty breakfast of Eggo's and juice and were off to the South beach of Bon Echo park.

At 4am we were off with a run to a nearby monument to get a date. After some brief confusion, due to my inability to read at 4am, we were in a canoe for a short crossing. Once across the river we started the bushwhacking stage in the dark. The dim light of a headlamp made the bush seem very thick and made for slow moving. After about 15min we seemed to be in a small swamp and the first incident occurred. After proclaiming "These woods at not made for me, I'm like a wrecking crew" Jason proceeded to lose a shoe in the mud. I have never seen a person get that dirty after only 15minutes of racing. At this point things started to get better as we moved through the wilderness until we made a course correction but went 10degrees the wrong direction. It was not until about 30 minutes later that Jason noticed the error. All in all we ended up in roughly where we intended. The rest of the hike was uneventful and went pretty well for us.

Next stage was a paddle. Go Banana is not known for their paddling especially for 3 hours of it. Since I forgot the middle stool I sat in the middle of the boat. However I did have to listen to Jason telling me that the race was all my fault and that with 20km to got I would get a punch in the back of the head. We hit a few shallow areas where the boat had to be dragged though. Props to Jason and Thomas who got out of the boat and pulled me though. You see I am small and if I get wet and cold things don't really go well (I am kind of like a kid that way). We did however find an old pool noodle on the side of the river for me to sit on. At the first portage Thomas stopped for a pee and we narrowly managed to escape getting passed by 2 teams, longest pee ever! The rest of the paddle was very quiet as we tried to keep focused. Also we finally discovered which banana has he largest bladder, it would be Jason who did not pee the entire paddle, that can't be said for Thomas and I, it seems the bailer makes a good potty.

We docked our boat and took a moment to change and eat. This was a turning point for Jason who changed his wet shorts but sat on the ground first (see previous post about hit butt). We were pretty excited to be on the bikes, this is our thing. We made good time on the road section but I still had to listen to Jason blaming me for the race distance, it seems I am responsible for all his problems. We hit the checkpoint for the Advanced Course and finally achieved one of out team goals. "It is always nice to be asked". We were offered the advanced course, a first for our team! After about 5 seconds of deliberation we decided to skip this section and hit the ATV trail. The ride was fairly slow as we were all tired from the paddle and Jason's butt was sore. We hit a few intersecting trails and props to Jason for picking the route for us. Thomas and I are a bit more structured than Jason and would have been looking though maps for a direction, Jason just kinda decides which way seems right and goes.

At the end of the bike we hit the last paddle, it was really uncalled for actually. With an attempt to ignore the pain we paddled on. At a few points we ended up taking a team break as we did not seem to be making any forward progress. Thomas spirit was then crushed as we rounded a point and realized that it was not the finish, longest lake ever! Finally we docked our boat and strolled to the finish line.

All in all this was one of the Banana's best races ever and there were no major mistakes. We did however learn a few things:

• If you change wet shorts don't sit on the ground and get your butt dirty
• Jason's butt is very tender
• Brian is responsible for any pain endured during the race

And yes for all wondering, we did beat team PFO! They have now been downgraded from arch-nemesis to rival. And if you hear some stories about a freaky racer with 2 left hands that would be Jason, who packed 2 right handed gloves in the transition bag.

No baby yet!

Go Banana!

Frontier Adventure Challenge Course

Just in case you are curious and want to see the Adventure Race course that caused me to walk like a cowboy for a few days you can check out a rough outline of it here

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1016693/an/0/page/0#1016693


View Larger Map

Broke Our Own #1 AR Rule

Everything was going so well, we made it through the trekking section with out incident and had just started the paddle when we hit a series of small rapids shallow enough that we couldn't go over then but deep enough that a portage seemed stupid. So what did we end up doing...Thomas and myself jumped into the water to push the canoe over the shallow area and I ended up drenched up to my waist. There goes the rules right out the window. But not to worry too much since it wasn't a hiking or biking stage, all I had to do was sit in a boat and paddle for 3 hours and I had a dry pair of shorts at the next transition.

So 3 hours latter after sitting in wet shorts on a canoe seat we get to transition area where I can finally switch shorts. The issue here is it's a big open field and a female volunteer sitting working the station and I need to get nakkid. So to be respectful I sit on the ground behind our transition bag not to offend the young woman while I change shorts, not realizing that my very moist numb ass got a whack or gravel and dirt stuck to it during this. Now with my arse covered with gravel I jump on a bike for 4 hours of wonderful bumpy ATV trail after which we got back in a boat for another hour paddle. So with 5 hours of bumping grinding and rocking on a bike and in a boat with a seat full of gravel acting as sandpaper on my nether regions I think the attached picture best describes how I feel.

So new amendment to rule number one. If you do end up wet make sure you don't combine this with dirt or you too can feel like our baboon friend.