Just a little 8 hour race ...

It has been a relatively slow summer for the Go Banana bikers. After our spectacular finish at the BC Bike Race we seem to have only managed to get out on the bikes a handfull of times ... more often than not doing some damage to ourselves.

So I was pretty excited when Keira proposed that we take a short day trip down to Kingston and ride the J & J Cycle Eight Hour Mountain Bike Classic. I figured even though I hadn't ridden in a month that the bike karma gods would cut me a bit of slack for the the six months worth of training and seven consecutive six hour bike days I had in BC.

... in short I thought "Pfffttt ... 8 hours, two people ... piece of cake!".

I've never done a tag team before but I can tell you for sure that riding a fast rolling, twisty, turny 10Km course like the J&J Classic is tons of fun ... but way more effort then the head-down zone out riding we were doing in BC. Since the course was short, I'd just get out there and power my way through, coming across the finish (through a barn!) and gratefully tag Keira so that I could head off the course and start my snack time in an attempt to re-fuel the body for the next speed round.

... of course speed is all relative. While I thought I was burning up the course, I occasionally was being lapped by these youngin's who were pretty much flying through with 30 minute lap times.

We were hoping for 10 laps, and managed to get in 9 but with the sun and the heat we couldn't have asked for a better day!

... and now a word from my tag team partner Keira:

Thomas and I decided we hadn't really spent any time along together in a year and a half so a mtn bike race seemed like a good 'together' activity. We clearly weren't thinking as tag-teaming means you get about 10 words in every 45 minutes and they're usually along the lines of "any major falls?", "did you pass team 203?". Team "Go Banana's" training regime clearly helped t-man on his laps. Unfortunately, I've never been asked to be part of the team (even though I bought Thomas his first mtn bike, make him gluten-free energy treats and supported his 6 month BC Bike Training plan, but I digress) so I don't have access to their secret training methods. I am privy only to their bacon eating secrets - which resulted in an extra ten pounds for me to carry up the hills.

Anyhow - fun race. Other riders were super friendly and the atmosphere was great. Trails are pretty rooty so the day after you remember you're not 18 anymore and that you wished you splurged and bought a full suspension bike. Actually had to wait a few seconds for a cow to get off the trail so I could pass.