MOMAR #4

Monday, October 3, 2005

Nanaimo Athlete Scores Solo Victory at last Mind Over Mountain Adventure race of 2005

It has been over four years since Nanaimo’s Normon Thibault (Frontrunners-Helly Hansen) has recorded the fastest time for a Solo Racer at a Mind Over Mountain Adventure race (MOMAR as it is known). The last time was way back in May of 2001 at the first race of a new island racing series. Since then he has raced almost all of the races that Bryan Tasaka and crew have put on and come very close to winning many times but something has always happened to snach victory from him. Many times it has been navigational errors that have taken him from the lead. One race it was a time penalty for a missed orienteering checkpoint. At another a lost bear bell cost him the victory. Last year in Seachelt, while leading, he was directed off course by a volunteer just 200 meters from the finish line and ended up 4th after getting back on the right course. At the Cumberland race in 2004 he brought the wrong MTB shoes which were not compatible with his pedals and spent the mtb leg slipping off his bike and onto his top tube numerous times (guys will know how much this can hurt) and still came 2nd. Every possible error has kept him from winning.

Thibault did not have a perfect race in Cumberland at the last race of the season and series of MOMAR last Saturday. In fact he flipped his boat in the choppy water early in the paddle section when his equipment pack came loose and caught a wave. It took a while to right himself and he found himself near the back of the pack early. During the trek section his map was near destroyed from being soaked from flipping his boat so he had to rely on other teams to get through that section. Latching on to teams that seemed to know what they were doing and had strong navigation skills. Entering the second paddle section Thibault was with 2 other quick solo male competitors across Comox Lake. Once onto the mountain bike leg he distanced himself from other athletes to take the individual title in 4:07:16 (11:04) over Darrell Sofield 4:18:10 (Bellingham) and 11:58 over last years winner, Jeremy Grasby 4:19:14 (Cumberland).

The race for Solo Female was won by Lesley-Ann Marriott of Vancouver (6:12:21) over Lisa McBain of Victoria (6:25:24).

The coveted “Spirit Award” in which teams are judged by how good their costumes are and how much fun they have on the course was won by a team containing two Frontrunners Team Members from Duncan; Jason Sandquist and Alison Keple along with their team mates from Victoria; Catherine Hamilton and Dodie Cox. Their team name was “The Royal Tennen-bums” and their costumes represented characters from the movie, “The Royal Tenenbaums”.


Other Nanaimo Results:Justin Mark with North Vancouver’s Denis Fontaine (Frontrunners-Helly Hansen) were 2nd in the Team of 2 Male
Sean Lunny and Stefan Jakobsen (Frontrunners-Helly Hansen) were 3rd in the Team of 2 Male
John Briant of Nanaimo was on Team “Hang Over Mountain” from Vancouver and placed 5th in 4 person Co-Ed.
Carey Sather and Mary Mark of team “Karma” placed 5th in Team of 2 Female



Nanaimo Results Team Name Kayak 8k Trek 7-9k Kayak 1.5k Bike20k Total
Normon Thibault Frontrunners-Helly Hansen 52:03 1:22:17 18:57 1:33:59 4:07:16
Justin Mark-Denis Fontaine Frontrunners-Helly Hansen 46:40 1:36:29 19:21 1:36:57 4:19:27
Sean Lunny–Stefan Jajobsen Frontrunners-Helly Hansen 54:49 1:35:14 19:59 1:41:54 4:31:56


Notes:
The Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race series started in 2000 with one race in Duncan. It was expanded in 2001 to a series of races on Vancouver Island. In 2004 a race on the Sunshine Coast was added. The series is extremely well run by Bryan Tasaka and Crew. Not only do they have an excellent reputation for event organizing but the after party had a reputation all it’s own.

The events can be raced as a solo (Male or Female), Team of Two (Male, Female or Co-Ed) or Team of Four (Male, Female or Co-Ed).

Fastest time for each of the events is usually around 4 hours with a range from 4 – 8 hours.

Bryan’s MOMAR series is recognized by racers all around the west as exceptional events with excellent organization. They usually have great mountainbiking and take in the best features of which ever area they are held.

Quotes:Thibault, “On the trekking leg of the race I was totally bluffing with teams as I would meet up with them. Most of my map was destroyed from flipping my boat so I was only sure of small sections of the trek. I would see a team and catch them and then follow them to the next check point and then try to catch another team to do the same. If I ended up on my own I would still be out there trying to find my way”.

Thibault, “Once on the bike I dropped Darrell and just put my head down to distance myself from him and Jeremy. Jeremy is from Cumberland so I knew he would know the fastest way through the trails and not make any mistakes. I had to keep my eyes open to try to limit my errors”.

Lunny, “Our Kayak Rental company made a slight error in the boat calculations for the event so until 2 minutes before the start we were without our rental boat. We had just got into the boat, launched and were paddling up to the start line when the gun went off. We were literally dead last at that point.”

Thibault, “There are so many things that can go wrong in an adventure race that it is almost impossible to have a perfect and error free race. This one was no exception as I had more than one error out there on the course but I just kept telling myself to keep going harder”.

Jakobsen, “Bryan puts on such great events that you don’t notice how hard you are going. The beauty of adventure racing is that you could be in first or last in a certain part of the race and you don’t know it until later. It is totally different from a lot of races we do because you have to use your brain as much as your body”.


For more information on Mind Over Mountain Adventure Races:
www.mindovermountain.com
Bryan Tasaka: 1-250-715-8933