By James Durand
The BC Bike Race started in Cumberland last Friday.
By the time you’re reading this it will be wrapped up in Whistler with 600 riders finished their seventh day of racing and collecting the coveted finisher’s belt buckle.
I’ve been involved in this race for a long time now. I raced it back in 2007 as well as working with the organizing team that year. Year two I continued on the organizing side of things, and on year three I retired from the team, but raced it again with a new partner.
Last year was the tenth anniversary of the BCBR and I thought I should join the ranks once again, so I teamed up with a buddy and I tackled the trails one more time.
I remember how nervous I was back on June 30, 2007. Driving toward Victoria and the start location the day before the inaugural race. I could barely eat, I couldn’t sleep, and I don’t think my hands stopped shaking until the start gun actually sounded. I called it butterflies, but it might have been better categorized as plain fear.
I had no idea what I was signed up for. I had never ridden a distance as far as the first day before, or the second day, but we were there and there was no turning back.
It turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life and it changed how I approached everything from that point forward.
The second time I competed and the third I was far less nervous, I guess with experience comes a level of calm.
This season we met a local guy who was doing the BCBR for the first time and he was teamed up with his Mom. How awesome is that? Racing seven days around BC’s best single track with your Mom. I’d bet a week’s salary not many of you can claim that experience.
Last week, just a few days before the race, Justin and his Mom texted me because Justin was having bike issues. We scrambled around to get him sorted out and ready to race. I did my best to keep a level head trying to minimize the stress for them, but my butterflies were almost as bad as back in 2007. You’d think I was racing.
As I left the shop the night before their race started, I felt the butterflies again. I knew what they were in for, and I was confident they would reach their goals, but imagining them on the start line, with no idea what to expect, had me as nervous as if I was racing again.
A couple of messages from Justin during the week telling me how much fun they were having calmed my nerves, and made me pretty envious. The race I promised I would never do again, is tentatively back on my calendar in the next few years.
Apparently I’m a sucker for punishment.
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…