Epic 8 Hour ~ Smiling Through the Pain

This past weekend I raced the Epic 8 Hour race at Mansfield Outdoor Centre on a two person tag team with my long time friend, Grant Stewart (Rock and Road). We've both trained together over the years and, if I do say so myself, have both gotten quite fast... Although he's always managed to be slightly faster than me, which is infuriating. Anyways, this weekend was the first time in a long time that we've actually ridden together instead of against each other.

The idea of an 8 Hour is that you ride for all 8 hours and take turns doing laps on a 10 km mountain bike course. The goal is to have your team do as many laps as they can in 8 hours, and the team that does the most laps in the least time, wins! Sounds fun? Well think again… At least that’s what I was thinking on lap five.

Grant started off the race for us pulling a quick 26 minute lap and then I took the timing chip from him and headed out on my first lap. My legs took a little while to warm up but partway through the lap I started to feel my speed come back up and I pounded up the hills to finish a solid 29 minute lap which I felt really good about.

My second lap (lap number four for the team) felt a lot stronger since I already had one lap under my belt. Lap three was also good. Lap five was when my legs and my shoulders started to really ache. It took a lot of will power to motivate myself to get ready for the next lap as soon as finishing the previous one. With only about 20 minutes to relax and get ready I spend most of my time eating and drinking. I just tried to eat as much as I could, but not so much that I would get a stomach cramp part way through my lap. Clif Bars were essential for between laps to get the boost of energy I needed.

By far my favourite lap was lap number seven, which was lap number fourteen for our team. I was lucky to start this lap with a teammate of mine--Tascha Piciga (Giant TO, Powered by Liv). We has both done the same number of laps at this point and were both starting to feel the pain in our muscles. I pulled in front of Tascha and said to ride my wheel, and then I put my head down and gave it everything I had to ride a fast lap. I knew this was my second last lap and at this point in the race Grant and I were in first--a whole lap ahead of second place. Tascha immediately grabbed my wheel and together we passed a lot of people, all the while shouting encouraging words back and forth to each other. After all, that's what teammates are for! We finished the lap in 31 minutes which was faster than the two previous laps I had ridden!


After 8 hours and 11 minutes Grant and I finished off in first, completing 16 laps between the two of us. Overall, we had a very successful race since neither of us crashed or broke our bikes (thanks Giant bikes).

Tascha and her teammate Christina also came first in the women's category after riding 15 laps!


Check out the full results here.

This was a super fun race and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to race it. I definitely think it made me a lot stronger and was worth the muscle pain I experienced the next day as I tried to walk :)
Take a look at the Apex Race Photos to see Grant and I going fast and looking serious!

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