Wines to what? Wine 2 Whales is a 3-day mountain bike stage race in South Africa, put on by the same group that hosts the Cape Epic. The Cape Epic is a tortuous ordeal, high on suffering, low on frolicking and is not something I would ever aspire to do. Wines 2 Whales (W2W) is […]
Category: Life
Culinary comforts
It’s interesting what you miss when you’re away from home for a long time. Of course my bed, my shower and the familiarity of my life in my apartment. I also missed my kitchen. Self-catering has its limitations. While you can get by feeding yourself, it is within the limitations of always only shopping for […]
Childhood memories resurfacing
It’s been four week since I arrived in South Africa for this glorious adventure. Even though I grew up in Johannesburg, I’ve lived in Canada for more of my life than I have in South Africa, so Canada is home. I’ve been back 3 times in the 30 years I’ve been away, the last trip […]
We are wanderers
My baby girl – who’s almost 30 but always my baby girl – moved to the UK 5 years ago. 5 years have passed in a blink of an eye. For one reason or another, I haven’t seen her since the summer of 2019. 5 years may have passed in a blink, but these 3 […]
Racing is mostly about Human Connection
SBT GRVL Recap Most of us arrived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Thursday evening having never really met before. We’d been on zoom calls once a month since we were selected for the All Bodies on Bikes team, but few of us had actually met in person. We were all signed up for different courses […]
20 days to go …..
There’s a big gap between “I should do that race next year, it sounds like fun” and the reality of “How can it be less than 3 weeks to the race?” Last November when I applied to join the All Bodies on Bikes team at SBT GRVL it seemed like a reasonably achievable goal. It […]
Sea to Sky Trail Challenge
The Sea to Sky trail is a 180km trail that will, one day, run all the way from Squamish to D’Arcy, north of Pemberton. The Squamish to Whistler route is in place, but the extension is still under development. There’s a stunning section of it the runs from Brandywine Falls to Whistler that I’ve done […]
Periods – and other irksome things
I am 54 – a few months short of 55. That means I’ve been having a monhly period for about 42 or so years. That’s somewhere in the region of 500 periods. This means more than 500 months of at least one week of cramping, bloating, helter-skelter hormones, headaches and poor sleep. Oh yes, and […]
This perfectly imperfect body of mine
I’m heading into the final day of an absolutely mad 3-week adventure. In this moment I am deeply grateful for this wonderful body of mine; this perfectly imperfect body that has been challenged with preparing for a race, executing on the 3-day stage race, followed by multiple days of hiking and riding and never once […]
No, you’re not too old to enter your first mountain bike race
In the week following my race, Matt Miller of Singletracks.com reached out to ask if I’d like to chat about my race experience. “Who wants to hear about a middle aged, overweight woman dabbling in racing, Matt?” I asked. He said he suspected it might more people than one might think. So we chatted – […]