Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 1

Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 1
August 18

Vancouver - Whistler

Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 1

August 19  Vancouver - Whistler

Last evenings briefing and dinner went fine.  

John has the forsight to ask everyone to pre-order their meals before the camp so the restaurant knows the order in advance so we don’t need to wait too long for meals. 

Briefing went fine with way fewer questions than I recall at previous briefings and I put that down to people having read previous blogs or spoken with previous campers.

We give a schedule and maps as well as GPS files for the rides so everyone knows what to expect.  We also tell everyone the points system in advance so they can plan ahead to where they may want to go for some extra points.

6:15 am departure after coffee and a snack. Super Dave Dwan has it all ready by 5:45 which is heaven for all of us. This morning first up:

run to pool the long way along the river 10km, swim, run 2+km back to hotel.

The pool we swam in is 135m long!  Looks like a small, clean lake.

We did a short w/up then a 1373m race for points which caused the locals a bit of stife as the mass start was a bit of a thrashfest apparently! 

Newsom set the pace from the outset and took it out with Zac on his feet and I was on Zac’s feet. Petro and Shannon sat on for quite a while before Petro’s total lack of swim prep started to show.  Reality impacting! (from Al Pacino in “The Scent of a Woman”).

Quite a few people did the 1km bands only for an extra point which suprised me because its hard enough in a 25m pool.  In that pool its nearly a miracle!  I tried but gave up after 100m.

After the jog back to the hotel over the Burrard bridge we had to pack our suitcases before coming down to breakfast so the crew could start pacing up the truck.  

Bike to Whistler 120km with some hills, some fast riding and lots of cramps (not only me).

Newsom nearly blows the whole camp to smithereens in the first 60km!  

After a nice cruisy ride out of town on bike paths once we hit the highway Johnny rides tempo for an hour.  Then he pulls over to let some one else take over and I could feel the swell of pride drifting all the way back to me 12 bikes back. 10km later the carnage is already accruing. 

At the first aid stop I promptly roll out leaving my water bottles on the table!  Uh-Oh.  Its warm and I need that stuff!  Lucklily Shannon offers me one of her bottles and gently nurses me to the next aid station.  Riders are spread out for miles, partly due to 6 punctures which was a ride record for Epic I think. 

Until we hit Squamish there was a lot of riding on the side of the highway between a ditch on one side and one of those recessed rumble strips on the other side. Not a lot of room there and when you’re trying to sit in a paceline at 50kph you do tend to hit a lot of crap.

Some of missed the turn-off to the accom as it came sooner than expected, about 5km before the actual town of Whistler.  Very nice accom here at the athletes hostel.  

They let us set up lunch and cooked us a great dinner.  The rate is $37/night per person which is a damn good deal if you ask me.  Would be a great place to stay if you wanted to come up and train on the IM Whistler course.

Lots of people in town tonight as we popped up into the village for a drink.  Neat place.  certainly has that ski resort town feeling.  Guess its the height of summer holiday season here as its a Tuesday night and it was pumpin’.

 9:30pm now - lights out for me.  I’m pooped.  Way more pooped than I’d prefer to be after Day 1.  Damn.

Tomorrow morning we have one of Johnny’s famous Aquathons.  So we’ll ride our bikes the 7-8km to the lake where the IM Whistler swim is, do the Aquathon, ride back for breakfast, then ride to ???? (have to look it up on the map........)  Lillooet.