Tag: Pemberton

Pemberton, Triathlon, Whistler

Don’t hold your tongue

Christine Cogger

As anyone living in the Sea-to-Sky corridor knows, Ironman Canada is here this week.  So far, things have been going smoothly and the general feeling from the athletes is that of excitement and nervous anticipation.

From what I can tell, that feeling is mostly shared by Whistler residents and Pemberton appears to be the linchpin in the success of the race.

That said, if you live in Pemberton and have an opinion, you have a perfect opportunity to share it: The Ironman Community Feedback session.  When we want to grumble about something, we tend to do it with our friends, our neighbours, our hairdresser…

So if you have something to say, say it!  This is your chance.  Better yet, come equipped with constructive feedback, proposed solutions, ideas and information you feel is worth sharing.

Changes can’t happen if the right people don’t know about them.

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On a lighter note:

Workation, Day 5.

i_poured_redbull_in_my_coffee_this_morning_i_can_see_sounds__2013-07-07

Biking, Pemberton, Racing, weekend

Defeat the Duffey 2013: It’s here!

Christine Cogger

The event is upon us… Sunday morning.  Lakeside.  Hot temps in store.  The more the merrier, you’ll be rewarded with a killer ride, sweatiness, and a post-event BBQ/smack talk event.  C’mon.  It’s fun.

 

photo (1)

Join us… Don’t be scared.  We’re friendly, we don’t bite but we do like to smack-talk each other.

https://www.facebook.com/events/180213698806736/180221032139336/?notif_t=like

Day-to-day life, Family, Kids, Pemberton

Summer.

Christine Cogger

Has finally arrived in all its hot, sunny glory in Pemberton.  Combine the fact that when possible, I choose to be outdoors rather than indoors with a self-imposed screen/virtual/social media/internet break on weekends, I’ve not got much time or inclination to write.

Simply summarized, life looks like this these days:

Coffee on the deck early in the mornings rather than bundled in a dark kitchen.  Commuting to work by bike a few times a week in only a jersey and shorts.  Fans in almost every room of the house.  Pool or lake time instead of baths and showers.  Lots and lots of time on bikes.  Sunscreen.  Hot, hot, hot trail runs (my favourite – except for when the sunscreen stings my eyes).  Water bottles scattered everywhere.  Entry way full of flip flops.  Falling asleep when it’s still light out (I consider this a luxury while some consider it a weakness).  Kids in swimsuits 24/7.  Ice cream treats.  Fresh local fruits.  Gardens, sprinkler and trampolines.

One angry little parade marcher.
My wee patriots.
squinty, sweaty. happy.
I tried to tell her that pop rocks + coke = exploding head. She wouldn’t buy it.
“Look! I’m a bumble bee, this is my stinger!”
Cocktail hour
Watching

Happy Summer, friends.  Up next?  Defeat the Duffey – a local event not to be missed!

Day-to-day life, Family, Kids, Pemberton

The Mar-Lors: Joining forces.

Christine Cogger

What better sight to come home to than this?  bike park

Our kids have transformed the driveway into a mini bike park and in doing so, seem to have further cemented the merging of families with the neighbors.

Rare is the day when we find ourselves being “just” the five of us.  More often than not, Rowan is here on his bike or the kids are playing some complicated games of insert-name-here.  Anja and Sophie can usually be found squirreled away somewhere, raising a family of snails or raiding each other’s’ closets.  In fact, Anja decided to move there last week.  All 5 kids helped her pack.

besties

Editor’s note: she didn’t go through with it. 

Do they fight?  Sure.  But don’t all families?

bikes

I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Every day, I’m thankful that my kids have the comfort of knowing they have another family steps away, across the street.  We rely on each other for help, laughs, advice and friendship.

family dinner

Living in a small, amazing community really does have its perks.

Biking, Pemberton, Racing, weekend

Nimby Fifty: It was all about the socks.

Christine Cogger

Not only did I achieve my goals (in particular, #1) but I had a blast doing so.  I’m convinced that the Nimby Fifty is one of those events that every mountain biker in the corridor ought to try at least once.  And if you aren’t in it to win it, then you can be like me and wear stupid socks.

Rare is the event where I don’t at least once think “Ugh, this sucks.  I am so done”.  Oddly, I didn’t experience that during this race, even when I was cramping, when I was staring at yet another uphill or I was quaking in my spotty socks at the top of the Red Bull Downhill section.  Incidentally, I placed 3rd to last in that race-within-a-race;  I was trying to DFL but couldn’t quite make it happen.

The atmosphere at the start was relaxed yet buzzing.  The race itself unfurled at a totally manageable pace and for the most part, I was surrounded by really nice riders.  The cheering sections were fun (thanks for the sips of beer, Seb) and there were lots of unexpected conversations.  Particularly the lovely German gentleman who asked me – at the bottom of Happy Trail (the beginning of a 45-60m climb) – if we were “almost done wiss ze climbing”.  Schiesse, no.

Lots of miscellaneous thoughts run through your brain when you are on your bike in the forest for about 4 hours.  A mere sampling:

“Wow.  That guy is really hammering.  Too bad the race started 6 minutes ago.”

“Eeep! Hold on tight!  Why am I closing my eyes, DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES, YOU DUMMY!”

“I’m hungry.”

“Hmm. Some of these boy mountain bikers don’t like getting passed by a girl any more than boy triathletes.”

“How the f#$% do people ride down this?”

“I’m so glad I wore these socks.”

“Why am I all alone?  Where is everyone?”

“Oh hey!  Hi!”

Those burgers at the finish, the friendly faces everywhere and the family BBQ to top off the day really made it a perfect, Pemberton spring day.  Thanks to the organizers, sponsors and the riders for making it so.

I promised some before and after pics.  Behold, the spotted socks:

Nimby 1

Photo credit: Jon Anthony

Before!  The jersey on the left may offend some, but I whole-heartedly agree.C_UsersMainAppDataLocalTempDSC_0031 Alex, Baby Finn (not nursing, despite popular belief) and me – all done. C_UsersMainAppDataLocalTempDSC_0086

At the finish with Bren and Rich.  Bren broke a derailleur and finished on a borrowed bike; Rich and duked it out for a while out there – oh yeah, he got me at the end.  Note my styly hair. C_UsersMainAppDataLocalTempDSC_0077The only time Brett Tippie, aka The Mouth of the South, will ever interview me.  I think he’s grimacing because I told him my favourite part was the uphill.C_UsersMainAppDataLocalTempDSC_0062

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Next up, the Whistler Half Marathon, family-style: 21K for me, 10K for Jay and Little Rippers for the kids.  Come out and cheer!

Biking, Family, Kids, Pemberton, QOTD, Racing, weekend

QOTD and weekend foreboding

Christine Cogger

Tomorrow, I’ll be throwing a leg over my mountain bike and doing my first “real” mountain bike race in probably 8 years.  The Nimby 50 is tomorrow morning and seeing as it’s about 50ft from the backdoor, I’ll be giving it a go.  My goals are simple:

1. Don’t die.

2. Don’t break any bones (except, maybe, for the one that’s still broken. That’ll give me reason to go ahead with the surgery I don’t want).

3. Finish before they start pulling down the Finish Chute and still be capable to eat the burgers/drink the beer!

4. Reinforce my race mantra that there’s no shame and walking and that chatting to volunteers is the best part of the day.

5. Ride faster than the mosquitos on the uphills.

I asked the boys if they’d come and cheer for me.  Will replied:

“Yeah, maybe.  We’ll have to see what the weather does”.

Touching.

I hope to have a full & fun report up soon, as well as some good before/after pics.  The big decision I’m wrestling with right now is whether or not to bring a camera.  Sigh, first world problems.

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On a similar note, the boys are really into their bikes right now and have set a goal for the summer of riding all the “Blue” trails in Pemberton.  We’re off to a good start!

CITS, Family, Kids, Pemberton, Racing, Running, weekend

Let’s run.

Christine Cogger

Spring has truly sprung here… 32C last weekend?!  A little early for scorchers, but I’ll take it.  June-uary will be here soon enough to remind me not to put away the puffy coats so soon.

With everything greening up around here, it means I’ve been able to explore the trails more than the roads… which also means Season 2 of CITS has kicked off.  Well, sort of.  There’s been an early season modification.  Since the usual “C” in the ITS refer to my running girls who both happen to be avec bébé right now, I needed new partners to kick off the season.

Dry, warm and haven't left the driveway.
Dry, warm and haven’t left the driveway.

Insert Children here.

Will and I had planned to run the Mosquito Lake trail run for a while (we’d even been “training”) but when Rory heard that he wasn’t included, plans had to change – pronto.  It wouldn’t do to be left out.  When you run with a 4 and 7 year old, you re-evaluate your race goals: from trying to run yourself into the ground to win to making sure no one goes head-first into a tree.  It’s the little things…

start

So despite pouring rain, cold temps and having never run before, he powered through (most) of the 6K route, with a little help from Dad, some encouragement from Will  and incessant annoying photography from me.  Will ran the 10K route in a little over 1:20!  Proud moment.  He’s been asking when our next one will be.

ride

Is it too soon to ask him to pace me at the Squamish 50?

CITS, Day-to-day life, Family, Kids, Pemberton, Racing, Running, Whistler

Rubble Creek and random thoughts

Christine Cogger

Rubble Creek Classic

Last week, Jen and I, accompanied by 30 friends/strangers ran the Rubble Creek Classic .  Chicks in the Sticks go racing!  We’ve been wanting to do this run for years and we finally committed; or rather, I signed Jen and I up whether she liked it or not.  Neither of us have gotten in much quality training of late but the day was spectacular and well worth the effort of getting up early and running 24K.

About 8 km of climbing, a random number of kms of flats around the base of Black Tusk and then 10 painful kms of down, down, down… I felt that run for days.

It was mostly worth it because I had the most spectacular nap that afternoon.

Fact

“If you want something done, give it to the busiest person you know”.  Truer words were never spoken – to me, anyway.  I’ve been “retired” for about 3 weeks now and I am struggling to relax and feeling the need to fill my days with tasks and projects.  I’m afraid that if I slow down, I’ll never get going again.

Fall

It’s Fall now, pretty much officially.  Shorter days, cold mountain mornings.  I love the leaves, the light, the change.  I don’t love having to layer the kids in clothing.  I’m counting the days till the can dress themselves intelligently to head into the cold outdoors.

Early runs now start in the dark… harder to pry oneself out of bed, that’s for sure.  This morning’s CITS run was the 2nd Annual-Earn-That-Turkey-Dinner-run through the Mosquito Lake trails.  The sunrise made it special, as did the fact that we were done by 8:45am.

Thankful

There is much to be thankful for this year.  Despite the loss of my mother a few weeks ago, I am thankful for being surrounded by such good friends, ridiculous children, a close-knit family and some pretty nice physical surroundings.  Frankly, there isn’t much I can complain about.

Ed: is it thankful FOR or thankful that I?  See?  Told you I wasn’t a writer.

QOTD

Anja and I fly to Quebec tomorrow to prepare for Mum’s celebration of life.  She is very excited about prospect of “fwying on da aiyapwane”.  Little does she know that flying is basically like sitting in a car for 5 hours, but with a bathroom.  I can’t bring myself to burst her bubble.  I have, however, drilled the notion of sky martials into their towheads.  Scream and the “sky martian” is allowed to open the door at the back of the plane and “fwow you out!”

Parenting 101.  Fear and mild skepticism.