Giver8er, Lake Minnewanka, and Some Hockey

I'm close to the back so the mayhem is all ahead of me.

Heather and I after the 8hrs.

The weekend started out on the ice Friday night. It's been a while! I dropped in at a women's shinny at Canada Olympic Park (COP) and got to play with a couple friends. The legs had to remember what to do on skates but it worked out great.

Saturday was a Spin Sisters group ride out at Lake Minnewanka. The trail is only open for a couple of months to start the season and maybe a month or so to end the season. I guess some bears move in July - September and make it a little unnerving for the humankind venturing out there. GREAT trail! So many fun ups and downs. I am really getting comfortable on the bike and that's giving me some speed and even more smiles. We were a group of 12 with 2 more following a little later on. Fun fun day with 21 kms of great trail ... 1240 feet climbing.

Today was a big day. My first mountain bike race. The Giver8er is an 8 hour lap race at COP. Categories range from solo to four person, mixed, women, or men. Heather and I teamed up as a two woman team. The mass start was fun with everyone off the finish line at once and into a climb. Lots of starting and stopping initially until the pack thinned out. I did our team's first two laps, then Heather did two, then one for me, two for Heather, one for me, and the last one for Heather. We didn't medal and we didn't finish last. Woot! For me: 38 kms, 4160 feet of elevation gain, in 3hrs30 minutes. My heart was pumping hard today. If you're interested in the details, here's the ride on Strava: Link. Tomorrow I rest ... or "actively recover."

Great times outside this weekend!

Spin Sisters on the Trail

Courtesy of brother Marc's archives: Suzanne's intro to cycling.