Team Profile: MindOverMountain.com
Posted on 11/18/05 11:58 AM| by Osprey
We are thrilled to be one of 4 Canadian teams heading for the 2006 Primal Quest. We live and play in God’s country (the Lower Mainland of British Columbia) and with a variety of athletic backgrounds and a few proven adventure racing performances we take no shame in calling ourselves weekend warriors.
November 18, 2005
As ambassadors for our sponsors and partners we bring our love for the outdoors, competitive dedication to our chosen sport, loyalty to our team, and active community involvement as race volunteers and training clinic leaders. We are all dedicated supporters of grassroots outdoor sports organizations – that is where we all started, and not all that long ago. We race and play hard and love to share our love of the outdoors with everyone else.
We came together this summer due to our matching competitive backgrounds, our shared enthusiasm for adventure racing and particularly in our similar motivations and outstanding desires to compete in the Primal Quest. We’ve all competed together or against each other for the past couple of years and have built an awesome team.
Tom Jarecki brought a background in ocean yacht racing, mountaineering and orienteering to adventure racing in 1999 and has never looked back. As navigator Tom has won or finished in the top 3 in many sprint and 36 hour races and added a 24th place finish (of 42 teams that started) in the 2004 Adventure Racing World Championship Race. The Primal Quest promises to be a classic expedition race and is the perfect venue to embrace his desire to challenge his physical and mental limits. It’s all about sweat-equity, which makes a nice change from his daytime job as a software program manager.
The funny thing was that Tom was tentatively planning to enter the Raid the North Extreme race when it finally comes to the West Coast in 2006 or 2007 but no other races in the next couple of years, but when he heard that Primal Quest was coming back in 2006 and had hired Don Mann and John Howard he was hooked. Since it began Primal Quest has promised a classic expedition race and now it had backed up the promise with one of the best course directors and teamed him with one of the best of the old-school expedition racers. This race promises to be the best in a long, long time – A TOTALLY EPIC ADVENTURE. That’s what Tom’s in for.
Aimee Dunn is a former national championship-winning soccer player (and team captain) and competitive triathlete and is involved in recreational event management and activity leadership. Aimee started adventure racing 5 years ago and has competed in a variety of trail running, mountain biking, kayaking, orienteering, adventure and expedition style races. This sport has provided her with opportunities to race as both an individual and as a team member; requiring a high level of dedication and passion for the dynamic nature of competing in the wilderness terrain. On joining the team Aimee had this to say: ‘PRIMAL EXCITEMENT! I am so extremely excited about this opportunity to race with you all (words can’t describe!). Once again, I am so excited about this opportunity…WOW!’ Yup, it’s going to be good to have Aimee with us.
Mark Searman grew up playing team sports such as lacrosse and football, but soon became interested in competitive cross-country running, mountain biking and trail running. Over the past two years he has competed with top 3 results and progressed from 6-8 hour sprint races to the 36 hour Raid the North adventure race. Similarly he has progressed from half marathon competitions to ultra-marathons and is eager to continue to push his limits. If you ask anyone who knows Mark they will tell you he is an enthusiastic, funny, easy going, active twenty-something year old, who loves the outdoors. Hah, don’t be fooled. This guy is the fiercest competitor ever and since he met Gary four years ago the two have been the super-twosome, pushing each other out of bed and into the mountains for epic trail runs and scrambles. Mark is one of the most passionate outdoorsmen around and the team is lucky to have him.
Gary Robbins is a highly competitive adventure racer and ultra runner and is looking forward to doing the same on an international level in the coming years. He may not have taken a direct route into racing (pipe fitter on the North Eastern BC oil patch? commercial dive master? bell man?), but since learning of adventure racing in 1998 he always knew that he would do it, and has always had the confidence that he would do well with it when the time arrived. And he sure has with top finishes in numerous Canadian adventure racing and ultra running races in the last two years. Primal Quest is the next step and the culmination of a long-held dream to race in an epic adventure race.
Gary is highly involved in the local community through organizing trail races and running clinics and seems to have a talent for getting into the various forms of media. Gary had this to say when Tom contacted him about racing the Primal Quest together: ‘YEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!! I AM SOOOO IN, SO FREAKIN IN!!!!! It is like a dream of mine to do that! I regularly go to their website just to watch the trailers for it! HOLY CRAP – I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!!!! This is the ANSWER TO MY DREAMS!!!!! Watch out – he’s this excited in real life too.
Our Race Results 2005
- Raid the North Nelson 36 Hour, August 19/21 – 10th team of 4 co-ed (TJ, GR, MF)
- Sea2Summit North American Stage Race Championships, September 10/11 – 11th solo male (GR), 5th team of 2 male (TJ)
- Mind Over Mountain Series Final, October 1st – 2nd team of 4 coed (AD)
- Mind Over Mountain Sechelt, July 16 – 3rd team of 2 co-ed (AD)
- Mind Over Mountain Ucluelet, May 14- 2nd team of 2 male (TJ)
- Mind Over Mountain Duncan, March 26 – 1st team of 2 male (TJ), 2nd team of 2 male (GR, MF)
Our Race Results 2004
- Adventure Racing World Championship Race, August 2-8 – 24th (TJ)
- Raid the North 36 Hour Vernon, August 20/22 – 2nd team of 4 co-ed (AD)
- Full Moon in June 36 Hour, June 25/27 – 3rd team of 4 co-ed (TJ)
- West Coast 24 Hour Adventure Race, May 15/16 – 1st team of 4 coed (TJ)
- Mind Over Mountain Ladysmith, July 24 – 3rd team of 2 male (GR, MF)
- Mind Over Mountain Sechelt, June 12 – 2nd team of 2 male (GR, MF)
- 2004 Iron Lung Trail Running Series Male Under 30 Champion (GR)
