Bow 80 from Sheldon Smart on Vimeo.

In 2008, I took my first shot at the Bow 80 but missed the 2nd cut-off by just under 15 mins and was awarded a big shiny DNF. This year, with all the training I had under my belt for the Transrockies I figured the Bow would be a walk in the park. I imagined a warm sunny day with fast, dry trails and good times – I guess Mother Nature had other ideas.

I can totally understand why the organizers called off the race; people were dropping out in droves, huddling around fires and it was dangerous up there on Cox Hill. It was like being on top of Sunshine in December in a whiteout. You couldn’t see much more than 100 metres in any direction. The trail disappeared under the 2+ inches of snow and the winds were whipping across the mountain top – not fun. I know I had to stop a couple times to turn my back to the wind and jam my frozen hands under my arms. Thankfully I was dressed ‘okay’ wearing my knee and arm warmers plus a shell. My hands, still in wet gloves from the rains lower down the mountain, took the worst of it. I could barely get them to hold on to the bars, or shift gears. Ah the memories…

I can take some solace in the fact that despite the rain at the start, the hail and then the blizzard, I reached the 2nd cut-off point a full hour earlier this year. And, on top of that I was feeling good –shivering cold, but not anywhere near as tired as I was at the same point in 2008. I was well on my way to finishing that race in a sub 8 hour time. It feels good to know that. That said, admittedly I’m still stewing and sulking over the fact that I wasn’t able to close the deal, again, this year. I guess I’ll just have to go back in 2010 with a vengeance! I can’t leave the record at Bow 80: 2, Smart: 0. That simply just won’t do. In the meantime, I’ll try and take the whole thing in stride and to have a little fun with it, hence the short animation. Good times, good times…

Hats off to Ken, who rocked it! I’ll leave it to him to regale ya’ll with his epic tale.