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Locals on top in Squamish Momar

Robbin's team first, rose first in co-ed, Munro forth in solo men
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Whistler's Megan Rose tackles the rappel section on Saturday in the Squamish Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race. Tony Austin photo.

By Andrew Mitchell

The first Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race (MOMAR) event held in Squamish is being called an unqualified success after selling out three weeks in advance and going off without a hitch Saturday, May 12.

The race started with a short navigation trek to spread out the field, and was followed by a bike leg, another trek, a second bike leg, a rappel down the Smoke Bluffs, and an urban navigation stage that led racers to the finish line.

The course was far from easy with a total distance of 45 km, including about 14 km of trekking and navigation and mountain bike stages that included Pseudo Suga and Powerhouse Plunge trails.

Leading the way were Todd Nowack and Gary Robbins as Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR, first overall and first in the men’s pairs category with a time of three hours, 52 minutes and 49 seconds — more than 35 minutes faster than the next men’s team of two. It was only the second time in MOMAR history that a team beat the top solo racers.

Robbins used to call Whistler home, but moved to Squamish last year for work and to be able to train year-round for adventure racing.

“There was a bit of hometown advantage for sure, knowing the trails we were going to bike on, and the final navigation through Squamish was easier from knowing the area,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. The whole race we were three minutes back of Justin (Mark), and we literally caught up at the end of the race. We had gotten to the rappel, and Justin forgot his carabiner and had to come back for it. That closed the gap for us, and the rest was a race to the finish.”

Robbins said his team had made a few wrong turns in the navigation section. They ran past one control point twice that was hung off to the side of the trail, and then somehow missed a huge wad of pink flagging tape on the side of the trail at another spot.

“Amazingly, we weren’t the only people to run past that bright pink flagging tape,” laughed Robbins. “That’s how it is sometimes. You’ve got your head down, just trying to stay alive, and you miss something big like that.”

Robbins has already had a busy season. In February his team finished on top of the unranked category at the Baja Travesia. He has also won his category in the North Shore Dirty Duo race, and two weeks ago won the solo category of the Summit 2 Shore Adventure Challenge in Deep Cove. His Team Helly Hansen/MOMAR teammate Meagan Rose won the women’s solo category.

In two weeks he’s heading to Alberta with his full team, which includes Rose, for the 36-hour Full Moon in June race. After that he’ll be heading to Prince Rupert for the 500 km Raid the North Extreme competition, then on to Australia for a 700 km race.

“We got a lot of great sponsorship this year from Helly Hansen that has let us do a lot more as a team, and we’re making the most of it,” said Robbins.

He will also race the Test of Metal, the 50 miles (80 km) STORMY course as a solo.

Whistler’s Duncan Munro was fourth out of 32 competitors in the MOMAR men’s solo category, missing his chance to podium when he made a wrong turn on one of the mountain bike sections.

“I came off this one trail onto the road and thought I was a lot lower than I was for the Powerhouse Plunge section,” he said. “I looked up the road and saw someone climbing up the road so I put the hammer down trying to catch up. I figured, ‘hey, they’re wearing Spandex so they must be in the race’. I finally caught up to her after climbing uphill for 14 minutes, and saw that it was my friend Cindy. She laughed at me and set me straight. I went a long way up that Mamquam Road. It was a stupid mistake, I should have looked at the map, but it was always just meant to be a fun race for me so I wasn’t too upset. ”

Munro was familiar with the remaining singletrack trails and made up some of his lost time on the Powerhouse Plunge, as well as on the last urban navigation section. He finished the day in 4:35:32, just over 14 minutes back of third place. He estimates he lost more than 20 minutes in the detour.

“All I wanted to do was finish in the top-10, and I did that,” he said. “The best part of it for me was that I was still feeling pretty good when I got to the finish line, I still had gas left in the tank. My big focus this year is on the Knee Knacker and the STORMY trail run, so it was good to get out there and test my fitness in a longer race.

“It was also a great opportunity to race with some of the top adventure racers from the West Coast. Aaron Rinn is the navigator for Team Dart-NUUN, which is one of the best teams in North America, and Justin Mark wins a lot of MOMAR events. There were so many great racers in the competition, and it was such a great course. I know my weak spot is navigation, but hopefully I can work on that and use this experience when I get into some longer races down the road.”

Several other Sea to Sky athletes competed in Squamish.

Live to Tell, which included Rob MacLeod, Rich Rawling, Graham Schultz, and Malcolm Schulz of Squamish, placed first in the men’s team of four category with a time of 4:31:08.

Whistler’s Megan Rose joined with North Vancouver’s Adam Smith to win the team of two co-ed category in 4:41:29.

Whistler’s Lina Augaitis joined a co-ed Lower Mainland team to take the team of four co-ed category in 4:43:31.

Whistler’s Graeme Fitch and Peter Henderson were 10 th in the men’s team of two category in 5:04:14.

All told more than 230 racers turned out for the inaugural Squamish MOMAR race, including several first-timers. Jen Segger, a local adventure racer with Team Dart-NUUN set the course, ensuring that it was challenging enough for MOMAR but still within the ability level of newcomers. Fewer than 10 teams missed the cutoff and were relegated to the short course.

Barring the unexpected, the race will be returning to Squamish next year.

“We were really pleasantly surprised by the incredible support we received from the community, in terms of media support, sponsors, competitors, volunteers. It was just a great experience to have a community behind our event,” said event director Bryan Tasaka.

“At the same time I know MOMAR brings a lot of people into town, it’s a two day event with training and people were staying for two nights. The race also exposed a lot of adventure racers to the amazing trails and recreation the area has to offer.

“We have no plans of going anywhere else. At the same time next year we’ll be back with a May race.”