The Yachats Gazette, Issue 95, November 1 2019

Click here for a printable Issue 95

Interview with Marc Taylor

The Yachats Gazette spoke with Marc Taylor, who has returned to Yachats from Sisters to reopen his Roadrunner Rock Shop, located right next to the Post Office.

The Roadrunner Rock Shop

TYG: So, for our readers, tell the tale of how you ended up selling the Sisters store.
Marc: We put together an absolutely beautiful store in central Oregon. We were there about a year and a half, and decided that we may look at not being there anymore because I didn't much care for the area. My wife, my family, loved it, but it wasn't for me. We had some people coming in on a Sunday afternoon, saying that they were looking for a place to put a rock shop in Bend—I said you need to quit looking and just buy this one! Twenty minutes later, we shook hands, and within 30 days the deal was done. The people who bought it—we are no longer affiliated with that store anymore—have done a good job of what they do, and we are grateful to be back in Yachats doing what we do here.

TYG: So, I know you rock-hounded around North America for what, 16 months?
Marc: We traveled for 16 months, and spent about half that time in Nevada, which is our very favorite place to go rock-hunting besides here. And it was a ball. We went to mine sites all over the place, we found crystals, we found rocks, fossils, and minerals and all different kinds of things. We found a little bit of silver, we found all kinds of neat little things. As of July 1st, we decided it was time to be done traveling. We were going to set up for a month in the parking lot like we'd done the year before, however we decided this time to acquire the building, so we have a major project ahead of us, but we're very excited about it.

TYG: How long was this place for sale, anyway?
Marc: Well, different stages at different times, but it was empty a couple of times for three years at least, I think.

TYG: Alder closed that long ago? Wow, time flies. It feels like last month. [They break for a customer.] So, what was your favorite part—or favorite few parts—of your... well, I'm loathe to call it a vacation...
Marc: You know, it wasn't about rocks. It wasn't about fossils. It wasn't about minerals. It was about what happened to our family, how close we became, and how, as opposed to four individuals living in this great big house, we became one true, honest-to-goodness family forced to live in 38 feet, rain, shine, sleet, snow, whatever it was! Even through the trying times, the hard parts of it, the driving over crazy mountains and curves and all of that, we became a more cohesive unit. My children are way better people for it, and gratefully, so are my wife and I. We just became better people, I think was the best part of the trip. It was also cool to see wildlife, and open a piece of the ground that had crystals in it, to be the first person who's ever gotten to see those things—that's pretty exciting stuff. But what it did for us as a family was truly what I'm excited about.

TYG: Slightly anecdotal, but I heard mention you found a small deposit of silver or something?
Marc: Yes, we found a little bit of silver in central Nevada, but it is so expensive to process that it is absolutely not worth dealing with unless you're somebody that's going to be one of the big companies.

TYG: Or unless there's a lot of it?
Marc: Well, there was a lot of it—it just wasn't worth dealing with. It was also a place where I didn't want to be forever—it's a place that I really like to go visit and have fun, and I would have had to make some pretty major investments to get things to pan out (no pun intended).

TYG: So, what made you choose this space?
Marc: Well, Yachats is home, and it always will be. I absolutely love this area. And the Alder building—or the La Serre building, whatever you want to call it—the rock shop building, was available. There's not a lot of space here [in the town], and I saw a long-term project and a tremendous potential for growth in a community that has always treated me very well. Now I have an opportunity to show, and do, what we love, in a great place that we love. As you know, living here—this is pretty magical. I've been all over, and... I want to be here. I feel pretty fortunate to get this space. We worked out a great deal on the building, and I've got five years of work ahead of me, or more, but that's okay. It's a big project that we're going to do as a family and have fun with it.

TYG-Editorial Assistant: What are some of your up-coming plans for it?
Marc: So, by Saturday, our dinosaur dig site is going to be open. We're adding a fluorescent room where the old cooler used to be. We're doing a gem-mining station that will include a water wheel and the whole thing. We're taking where the old bar was and making an extension of my living room. We're going to put in some great, big crystals, a dinosaur or two, and just a nice, quiet sitting space that we want to share with the community. [Another customer break—that turns into having to come back another day.]

TYG: So, how have you been enjoying being back so far?
Marc: Probably one of the best decisions we've made as a family ever. When we first got back here we weren't sure how well it was going to work or not, and we took a gamble, and I think it's going to be of benefit to our community and our family. We're pretty excited about it and what we're going to be doing in the future.

TYG: Sure! So, where do you get [the rocks]? I know some of them you get from your travels.
Marc: Some of them we've collected ourselves, when we were rock hounding in the western part of the US. But we've developed relationships with mine owners all over the world over the past several years. We feel really fortunate to have good relationships with people who are both processing, and mining for themselves. By buying direct, we get to eliminate all of the middle men. So we travel and do big shows, and also, as they find it, we'll get new products.

TYG-Graphic Design: Did I understand you went to South America?
Marc: No, we haven't gone to South America yet. We have really strong relationships in South America, and Morocco. But neither place have we gone with the family yet. Morocco has one of the largest concentrations of minerals anywhere in the world, because of the Atlas Mountains. There is over 500 miles of just incredible stuff. You can find everything from 500 million year old fossils to incredible mineral specimens within a mile of each other. It's really amazing.

TYG-GD: So it used to be a seabed, I guess?
Marc: Yes, especially the Western Sahara. That used to all be under water. [greets the first customer of the day] That is a prolific area for fossils. There's an area called Kem Kem, Morocco, where probably 70% of our fossils come from. The mosasaur was a big amphibious predator, an apex sea predator, and there's a huge concentration of their fossils in that area. We deal direct with some fossil hunters who bring it to the US. So we get some pretty phenomenal stuff that way.

TYG-GD: Wow, that's amazing! How did you make that contact?
Marc: So, we bought a company that was already in existence and had been for many, many years. When we did that—he had developed some relationships—we morphed them into who we wanted to deal with, who were probably related to the people he dealt with. So we started there, but expanded on it and found our own people. 

TYG-GD: Wow! Do you want to go travel over there some day?
Marc: Absolutely! And I want to do it as a family. But I want to wait a couple more years until Mikey [his youngest son] is a little older. And then Quentin [his oldest son] will be bigger and stronger and can help lift more. [laughter from everyone except maybe Quentin]

TYG: I also noticed you had quite a lot of stuff from Madagascar. Is that the same system?
Marc: Madagascar has over 4,000 different minerals on that one little tiny island. There are 54,000, approximately, documented minerals in all—so that there would be 4,000 of them in that small area is incredible. But the jaspers, the agates that come out of there, just the way that volcanic area is, produces a tremendous amount of really cool materials. And it's very pretty material. So we sell a lot of it for home decor.

TYG: And is it the malachite that comes out of there as well?
Marc: Most of the malachite that we have comes from the Congo, in Africa. However, we do get some out of Morocco as well, and Brazil—most anywhere there's copper, you're going to be able to find malachite, azurite, copper-related minerals. And so we've got some malachite that we found ourselves in Nevada.

TYG: I've always been curious—where do you get the selenite?
Marc: The selenite comes out of Erfoud, Morocco, and that's a fiber optic selenite that carries the light really well. We deal direct with the line that gets it, and it's one of the more beautiful minerals that we sell, but it's also fairly inexpensive.

TYG: It's also one of the most fragile!
Marc: We carve it into all kinds of things. And you say fragile: it is, it's a 2.5 hardness, which means that it's going to be fairly soft. But it's gypsum; it's the same mineral that they make sheet rock out of.

TYG: Presumably, some of your amber comes from the Baltics second-hand.
Marc: Correct. None of our amber, except the stuff we get out of Indonesia, do we buy direct. We get a little bit out of Columbia, we get some out of Brazil, some out of Africa but very little; we get lots out of Madagascar. It has lots of great inclusions: bug, all kinds of little sweat bees and ants, gnats and stuff. The amber we get out of Indonesia is a blue amber, and it's called a Sumatran Blue. It actually fluoresces under black light. We have access to that direct, and so we're bringing in quite large quantities of it.

TYG-GD: Why is it second-hand from the Baltics?
Marc: Because there's no more coming out of the ground. They're not really mining much for it anymore. They'll mine the occasional pieces, but most of the Baltic amber that's on the market is all that's available.

TYG: The Baltics were the source of amber for thousands of years. From what I understand there was an unbelievable amount there, and it's just been slowly mined out. So, do the geodes come out of Morocco and Madagascar as well?
Marc: I don't get any geodes out of Madagascar. I do however get them from Morocco, and lots and lots from Mexico, Iowa, Idaho. They're literally all over the world. Just depends on what we're looking for as to where we get them.

TYG-GD: Have you gotten to recognizing them yourself when you see them? How do you know?
Marc: Oh yes. Experience, you know. On probably 80% of them, I can tell you where it came from. But there are a lot of them out there that I've never seen, or don't know how to identify. But for the most part, we've done a pretty good job of studying up where different kinds of things come from. We have three different geodes that come from Durango, Mexico, that are all from less than 20 miles apart and that are significantly different. One has an agatized shell, one has a clay shell, and the other is a rhyolite.

TYG-GD: What does the Yachats area offer in terms of [rock hounding]?
Marc: Well, Yachats is unique itself, because it's got world-class agate hunting here in the winter time.

TYG-GD: Is it really world-class?
Marc: It is, actually. Some of the stuff that comes from here is absolutely phenomenal. The blues that we get from here are exceptional. And the fortification that you can get in some of the agates from around here... Yachats has sagenite agates, which are quite uncommon. Another one that's unique to here is called the Yachats Rose; it's like the Holy Grail of agate hunting on the beach. I actually found this one in Yachats Bay. [he shows us a white, circular, rippled formation that does indeed look like a rose; it's about 2 inches in diameter] And I'd been looking for one of these my whole life!

TYG: Wow!
Marc: And I found one in July, when we got back here.

TYG-GD: And do we have any geodes?
Marc: Yes, a few. They're quartz-filled; stuff that's going to weather out of basalt. So like a lot of the carnelian agates that you find around here, they'll have a pocket in them with a bunch of little crystals. Technically, that's a geode. There are tons of geodes in Central Oregon, like around Prineville.

TYG: So do all the fossils come from Morocco and South America as well?
Marc: No, we bring in fossils from all over the United States, but our big, big fossils are primarily from Morocco. We have one of the largest selection of fish fossils around, and those all come from Wyoming. Like this little guy right here, this is a Diplomystus, and it's 52 to 48 million years old. They were a freshwater fish.

Diplomystus

 TYG-GD: [peering] That thing looks drawn on there!
Marc: Well, it does, but if you really get over here looking at it, you can really see the fine detail. When they fossilize, imagine it getting covered with sediment. It's still got its skin on, and then the skin kind of carbonizes over the bones, and that's what creates a lot of the black. This one is 100% natural, not touched up, but there are a lot of them that get touched up.

TYG-GD: So what's this edge here [outlining the fish]?
Marc: So, they ground this out so that they could get to the fish, so they could make the best display. If you get a perfect split—because they're splitting layers of shale to find the fish—but if you get a perfect split, then it's going to look like that one, where there's no relief—it's literally the layer. That's a Priscacara, an extremely rare fish. [another customer break]

Priscacara

TYG-GD: Are you going to have machines that people can use?
Marc: So, behind this wall, we just built a dinosaur dig site. The walls are inlaid with fish, and we had all kinds of fun making it look sort of rocky. I'm putting in a fluorescent room for kids, so that they'll be able to flip a switch and long wave UV will come on, and the rock wall will turn one color; and then you can flip another switch and short wave UV will come on, and it'll turn everything even a different color. It's amazing how some of these rocks are just "dud-dy" when you look at them under regular light, and then you put the UV on them and they're phenomenal. And we have fluorescents literally from all over the world, and one of the things we have here that are super-fun, especially for kids, is we have Yooperlites that come out of the upper peninsula in Michigan. They're pretty phenomenal—super-fun. You guys want to see some fluorescents?

TYG-GD: Yes, that would be great! [we go to a small room in the back where he shows us shelves of non-descript rocks that glow beautifully under a black light flashlight] So, what's your favorite piece in the whole collection?
Marc: You know, because I'm not a collector... My thing is that I like to share. So I don't have a favorite piece. My favorite thing is to share these minerals and have people walk out of here with a smile on their face. There are few things that make me happier than making other people happy. [we break for another couple of customers] So, we have a dinosaur dig site. The kids will have a six by six foot matrix. It'll be loaded full of shark teeth, crinoids, brachiopods, echinoderms, all kinds of cool fossils. There will also be the occasional real dinosaur tooth, whether it be from a mosasaur, an elasmosaur, or a crocodilian creature of some kind—there's going to be all kinds of neat stuff in there. And about one in ten, you're going to be able to get a spinosaurus tooth, or [one from] an Otodus obliquus, the ancestor of the Great White. There's going to be some really cool stuff you're going to be able to get. And we're going to be able to do it for seven bucks.

TYG: Nice!
Marc: As this remodel goes—we're fixing up the place—we're going to put in a geode break station for kids. We're going to have six different varieties of geodes that we'll either be able to cut on-site for you as you wait, or you'll be able to break them on your own with a hammer, or we'll have a chain breaker as well.

TYG-GD: What's a chain breaker?
Marc: It's basically a chain that wraps around the geode, and you pull a lever, and it cracks the geode.

TYG: Does that shatter it?
Marc: Not normally. [laughs]

TYG: I could see the hammer shattering things.
Marc: Yes, but it's about finesse, not strength, when it comes to breaking geodes. Anyway, then we're going to put in a gem-mining site; it'll have a water-wheel with a trough that comes down, and you'll be able to pan for gemstones in there as well. And then, long-term, outside we're going to have a big sandbox out there that will have cast dinosaurs under the sand, like footprints of T. Rex and all kinds of fun stuff. The kids will be able to go out there and dig it up, and play with brushes, and do true digs. And then, where the old bar used to be, I'm making that kind of an extension of my living room. We're going to put in a few great big crystals, our dinosaur is going to be in there, and there are going to be some recliners, a few tables, and it's going to be a really nice, quiet, fun area. And hopefully we'll be able to do a thing like Crystals and Cabernet, on occasion.

TYG: And you haven't seen the photo of the dinosaur yet, have you?
TYG-GD: No, I haven't! [to Marc] Are you going to have a tumbler that's for rent, or something?
Marc: We will offer cutting services for people, but I won't be tumbling for people. It's too hard to keep track of everybody's stuff. [Shows us a picture of the dinosaur he's getting, on his phone]

TYG-GD: Wow, that's impressive! How big is it—about six feet?
Marc: No, it's 12 feet tall, 17 feet long.

TYG-GD: Oh my goodness! Where is it coming from?
Marc: England.

TYG: That's quite a move... Well, thank you for your time!
Marc: Thank you sir!

TYG-GD: I'm glad you guys are back in town.
Marc: I am too. It's really great to be home.

More fish and other fossils

The Yachats Gazette, Issue 27, November 1, 2013

N.B.: The publisher wishes it to be known that none of the Taylors, including the publisher, are related to each other as far as we know.
 

Interview with Shawn Taylor of Pirate’s Bounty Boutique

The Yachats Gazette interviewed Shawn Taylor of the newly-opened consignment store Pirate’s Bounty Boutique, located at 114 Hwy 101, Suite B, in Yachats. 

TYG: Where did you get the idea to start the Pirate’s Bounty Boutique?

Shawn: Well, I have studied it and been really interested in consignment shops and resale for a really long time. So I took a class called “It’s Your Business” and I wrote a business plan and I started studying it. That’s where I came to this idea.

TYG: Cool! What kind of vendors do you have to get all of this beautiful merchandise?

Shawn: I just put a little ad in The Skinny, and word-of-mouth, and people are bringing in their clothing. They get 40% of the sales price.

TYG: So you’re different from a “booth-style” consignment shop, because it’s [all] your stuff.

Shawn: Yes, that is a little bit different. In a booth rent people set their own prices, and then all of the proceeds go back to them. In consignment, I set the prices, and then they get 40% of the sales price.

TYG: How long have you been open?

Shawn: Since Tuesday! October 22 was opening day.

TYG: Oh! So we really caught you right off the bat!

Shawn: Yes you did [laughter]! This is my third day in business.

TYG: You seem to be doing very well already. You’ve got some merchandise that I think will be very popular, like the jewelry case there. [...]

Shawn: That’s great. And the earrings—not all of them, but most of them in that case you see there—are handcrafted by two different ladies that came in and visited me from the area. So I feel very blessed to have people bringing me their products.

TYG: […] Where did you get that name [Pirate’s Bounty Boutique]—just from the products you have?

Shawn: Actually, I wanted to do something that went along with the coastal theme. So I researched and found the words that meant “abundance” for pirates.

TYG: Yes, I know. There were a lot of pirates and explorers here. One of the famous, famous explorers—I think it might’ve been Cook—landed down at Cape Perpetua.

Shawn: Wow! I didn’t know that! […]

TYG: Where did you live before Yachats?

Shawn: I lived in Northern California, right on the Oregon—California border. And actually a small, small, small little town by the name of Hornbrook, which is actually our PO Box. But there really isn’t a business there. [laughter] So we live way out in the country, and we have a family ranch on the Klamath River, that’s been there for about 85 years.

TYG-Graphic Design: What is the product of the ranch?

Shawn: We raise fallow deer and also a few cattle. We’ve had chickens, and also pigs.

TYG: I didn’t know it was legal to raise deer.

Shawn: Well you have to have a special permit.

TYG-GD: Who buys fallow deer?

Shawn: Actually fallow deer are a delicacy, for meat. Originally, we had bought them for that specific purpose. But my uncle, who started the herd, passed. So we just kept the deer on the ranch as a memory of him. […]

TYG: I see that you have one of those things that plug into your iPhone for a card reader.

Shawn: Yes, I use a Square.

TYG: So that’s what that’s called?

Shawn: Yes, very interesting. You just put all of your information from the credit card into your phone, and the deposits go directly into your bank.

TYG-GD: Have you moved up here full-time?

Shawn: We moved here the first week of September. My husband was transferred here by C & K Markets, and he is the new store manager at Ray’s in Waldport.

TYG: Is anyone taking care of the ranch?

Shawn: My family lives on the ranch.

TYG-GD: Are you living in Yachats, or are you living in Waldport at the moment?

Shawn: We live here in Yachats, and we really like it. We came here, and we drove the area, and we kind of got out and looked around.

TYG: It’s certainly a good area to raise a kid in if you have one.

Shawn: [laughter]

TYG: It is! I know from experience! There are plenty of places for a kid to go here. It’s a small town, but there’s a big youth program.

Shawn: I believe you!

TYG-GD: So you drove around, and you found something?

Shawn: Actually, we left. We came for three days—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We looked and looked and looked for a place to live, and we had a really hard time. So we went home, and luckily on Monday morning a rental came up, and we were able to get that. So we actually live very close to work. […]

TYG: So what is it like living here everyday? Is the business going well?

Shawn: Yes, business is going very well. I couldn’t be more pleased. I only see growth coming. My customers are very happy with my products as well as that we have a shop now in Yachats.

TYG: Um… Who buys the skulls in the treasure chest?

Shawn: [laughter] I bought those. They’re decoration—they’re not for sale.

TYG: I, for one, am glad there’s now a clothes shop in Yachats. I hate having to go all the way to Newport for clothes.

Shawn: I think that I filled the need for several people.

TYG: What are your hours?

Shawn: My hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM, but it also depends on the seasonal demand, as well as if there’s an event happening in Yachats. I plan on being open during those. And if I can’t be here to keep the store open then someone from my family will come from California and the store will be open. […] In fact last weekend before we got the store opened, I say I called in the big guns because I called in the family. They came in and we got the store completely marked, merchandised, and ready to go. […] I also had a lot of help from Jesse Paden. He’s a local framer. His name was given to me and I called him and he came right in and helped me attach all of my rig wall and all of my out-riggers.

TYG: Thanks so much for your time!

Shawn: Thank you—and I hope to see you soon!

Interview with Jennifer Taylor of Roadrunner Vintique

The Yachats Gazette interviewed Jennifer Taylor of RoadRunner Vintique, a new second-hand store located at the corner of Hwy 101 and Forest Hill Rd. just north of Yachats.

TYG: Why did you open the Roadrunner’s Vintique?
Jennifer: We opened Roadrunner’s Vintique because we’ve been in the process of running three different secondhand vintage and antique stores. We opened our first one together up in Wenatchee, Washington. We got bigger up there, and then we moved to Yachats. This is not the biggest square footage wise, but it’s probably the busiest one that we’ve had. Marc [Marc Taylor, Jennifer’s husband and the official Estate Buyer of Roadrunner’s Vintique] grew up in the industry because his Mom and Dad ran a number [of secondhand stores]— they ran Trident Antiques—which, if you’ve been on the coast for a while you might know, and he had a couple before I met him.

TYG: What kind of products do you sell?
Jennifer: Antiques, collectibles and vintage. And home decor.

TYG-Graphic Design: What is the difference between antique and vintage?
Jennifer: […] I normally do cut off at 40s. If it’s 1940 or prior it’s an antique; if it’s 1950s or later, I would say up until the 90s, it’s a vintage.

TYG-GD: 90s already? [laughter]
Jennifer: Yeah. And then if you can’t determine, it’s generally best to call it vintage rather than antique.

TYG: What happens for products that are younger than 90s?
Jennifer: They’re just secondhand.

TYG: Where is the store located?
Jennifer: 2334 N. Highway 101, Yachats, OR. It’s about a quarter-mile north of town, or it’s exactly one mile from the grocery store in the center of Yachats. [We break while she goes upstairs to get her baby, Michael. They have another son, Quentin, as well.]

TYG: Are those other shops still open?
Jennifer: No. The first one we opened, and we outgrew the size of the retail space.

TYG: Small store?
Jennifer: It wasn’t particularly small; it was about 4000 square feet, but we outgrew it for up there. We moved to one that had been about 6000 square feet, and after that we decided it would be best to come back where our family is. Because my family is in the Valley, and my husband’s family is actually in Waldport.

TYG: Where do you get your stuff?
Jennifer: A lot of people come in and sell it individually, people will put it on consignment, and then we also buy estates. We go to different vendors like other antique stores, other collectibles, things like that.

TYG: Tell us what life was like in Washington.
Jennifer: Pretty much like it is here.

TYG: I grew up from birth to four in Washington except for three days spent at Emanuel [Hospital, in Portland].
Jennifer: Yeah? It was very similar, except it was a lot warmer—Wenatchee is in central Washington. So it would be akin to Bend, Oregon.

TYG: In Washington, what kind of things were there to do?
Jennifer: There were a lot of vineyards, there were orchards, there was hiking, biking, camping, rafting… The SUP [stand-up while paddling] was very popular, kayaking… I did a number of marathons when I lived there… And there are all kinds of kids’ activities: baseball, soccer, football…

TYG: That’s great!
Jennifer: Yes—it was a fantastic area.

TYG: In Washington, where did you live? Farm, city, apartment building?
Jennifer: We had a two story, stick built home—a regular house. […] It was 5 miles up a road called Mission Creek. To give you an idea of how far out this was: even though it was only 5 miles, from the time that you would hit the small town of Cashmere, which was an outlying suburb of Wenatchee, your temperature dropped by 12 degrees. So it was pretty significant. We were right in the center of 40 acres of orchard.

TYG-GD: Did you guys take care of it too, on top of the thrift stores?
Jennifer: We took care of about 5 acres of it, because that was kind of what came part and parcel with our property.

TYG-GD: So what are you going to do out here for fun?
Jennifer: Well, my son and I are thinking about making a raised bed out here for gardening but were also thinking about getting a part of the community gardens. And then church, Boy Scouts, and then looking into soccer, football, baseball… All of those because he’s very athletic.

TYG: There’s baseball in town, every Saturday.
Jennifer: Oh, really?

TYG-GD: Not in the winter months. But it’s out behind the Commons.
Jennifer: Oh, ok!

TYG: Thank you so much for your time!
Jennifer: Not a problem!

Interview with Rachel McBride,
Women’s Winner of the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic 

The Yachats Gazette interviewed the women’s winner of the 73 mile, 10,000 feet of climbing, forest roads bicycle race beginning and ending in Waldport. Rachel McBride won the event in 4:59:21, riding along the “Abomination Course.” Her time was almost a full hour ahead of the next woman’s. 

TYG: Where are you from?

Rachel: I’m from Vancouver, BC, in Canada.

TYG: What kind of cycling do you do?

Rachel: I’m actually a triathlete, so I do cycling, but before, I usually swim, and after, I usually run.

TYG: What do you do to prepare for a race?

Rachel: Well, usually I’ll do a lot of training, so I train about an average of 25 hours a week. It’s my full-time job, so I don’t have any other job. Right before a race, I will not train as much, so I get a little bit rested. I make sure my nutrition is good, and I’m healthy, and get mentally prepared too.

TYG: What kind of swimming do you do? You mentioned swimming.

Rachel: I have a group in Vancouver that I swim with in the pool, and then during the summer we do a lot of swimming in the ocean and in lakes around Vancouver.

TYG: Interesting! What kind of running do you do? You mentioned that as well.

Rachel: A lot of the running that I do is on trails in Vancouver. We also have a track workout that we do once a week.

TYG: What kind of mental preparation do you do?

Rachel: I usually think about the course that I’m going to be racing on, and I imagine myself going really fast on the course and I’m always in the race to win, so I imagine myself winning the race.

TYG: Where did you get the idea for going into biking and racing, as a professional job?

Rachel: Well, I did my first triathlon in 2006 and really really liked it. I’d only been running before that. I did really well in my first triathlon, too. I’m a very competitive person, so when I win, I like that. I started doing shorter-distance triathlon, and then three years ago, I did my first Ironman half triathlon, and I won the race by 24 minutes.

TYG: That’s a lot!

Rachel: Yeah! And so I thought: “You know what? I think I want to try this as a profession, and try while I’m still young and have my fitness, to see how far I can go with it and maybe become a world champion.”

TYG: What was it like to race along the gravel roads around here? Gravel and pavement: rough terrain! What was it like?

Rachel: Well, this was the first time I’ve ever done anything like this before. I’ve done a little bit of gravel riding before, but nothing so epic as this race. It was pretty amazing. Because we do so many climbs up here—at some point we were climbing up it was sunny up where we were but in the valley it was completely foggy down there, so it was a really amazing view. It was a really hard ride. Doing all that climbing on the gravel was really hard. I was happy to cross the finish line. You’re out there for five hours, so that’s a long time to be riding a bike hard.

TYG: So you’ve mostly been a pavement rider before?

Rachel: Yep, mostly on pavement. Riding on the gravel is a little bit more scary for me to be on the gravel because when you crash, you’re falling on rocks. And it’s a little bit more slippery.

TYG: When you crash, you crash bad on gravel. And it’s also easier to crash: on pavement, you at least have high traction.

Rachel: Yes, exactly. But it’s amazing: these race organizers and the races that they put on are really amazing. We came down for another one of their races in August and had a really great time, so decided to come back down for this one today.

TYG: The competition must’ve been really intense during the race. Was there a halfway rest stop, or was it continuous?

Rachel: It was pretty continuous. There were three aid stations, and I just stopped at one to fill up my water bottle. Because of course when you stop, it takes time, and not everybody is stopping. I was riding on my own for most of the race so I didn’t see a lot of people in front of me are behind me. You really have to use your mental skills to keep pushing yourself forward.

TYG: I’m noticing how spread out it is!

Rachel: Yes, exactly.

TYG: Like those four riders [who were] announced right as we arrived. Those are the only cluster we’ve seen so far.

Rachel: Yes, usually everybody’s been really spaced out. I think there’s even, between sixth and seventh place today, there was something like almost an hour.

TYG: That also makes it easier in a way because you don’t have to worry about crashing into people.

Rachel: Right!

TYG: I remember seeing Lance Armstrong’s races, and looking at him, he’s crowded in the middle of the people. So if you make a single wrong move, you not only crash, you could take out 20, 30 racers.

Rachel: Absolutely. And it happens! And it’s really horrible to see those crashes, because so many people get hurt. That’s bike racing!

TYG-Editorial Assistant: Have you ever crashed, hard?

Rachel: Yes! In 2010, I was racing bikes actually in Seattle—I was doing what’s called a crit race. These are probably the most dangerous types of bike races to do because you’re just going around a city block very fast, with really tight corners. And one of the girls in front of me, on the last corner to the finish, took it a little bit too hard and she skidded out. She crashed two of us beside her. I ended up with a shoulder injury. I didn’t break any bones, thank goodness! It did affect my racing for several months, but luckily I healed from that.

TYG: Were there any crashes this race, any serious crashes?

Rachel: Uh huh! One of the guys that I came down with, he crashed coming down the descent for the Ogre, which was one of the climbs. […] He said he slid for about 200 meters. He must’ve been going very fast. So he’s covered in road rash, unfortunately. But he still finished! Still got back on his bike, and crossed the finish line.

TYG: That’s incredible! What place was he in?

Rachel: He was in sixth place.

TYG: Really? So he was right after you, even with an injury like that?
Rachel: Then he was pretty bummed, because he saw that the guy who came in fifth was only a minute and a half ahead of him. So if he had just raced a little bit harder and not stopped at some of the aid stations, he might’ve done a little better.

TYG: What place were you in?

Rachel: Well, I was fifth overall [but first for the women].

TYG: At one point when we were watching TV, we happened to catch it at just the right time and it was the Tour de France. A guy was riding with a broken hip! And he still got in a good place!

Rachel: It’s amazing! Some of these athletes who race with broken bones... I’ve actually raced with a broken foot before, a triathlon. So I had to run a half marathon with a broken foot. And it was very painful. I’d never do it again. But you learn your lesson. And I still won $1000 from that.

TYG: Was that a full triathlon as well?

Rachel: Yep, swimming, biking, and running.

TYG: Swimming actually, not running, I think would be the worst for it.

Rachel: Running was the worst. It was excruciating on the run—you do the run last. They want you to do the swim first, because if people did the swim last, they would probably drown because they’re so tired. And when you get really tired on your bike you could fall off, so they don’t want to do that last, either. So it’s easiest to do the run last. If you fall down because you’re so tired, you’ve just fallen down.

TYG: Is this a full triathlon, or just bike today?

Rachel: This is just bike. Though I had to do a run afterwards.

TYG: Really? Why?

Rachel: That was what my coach told me I had to do! I had to go in for a 40 minute run after.

TYG: Geeze!!!

Rachel: I was really tired after that, because I was already really tired after the bike race.

TYG-EA: Do you know a lot of these same people?

Rachel: This is a small enough race that I don’t know too many people. In the triathlon scene, a lot of the other pros, I do know—we get pretty familiar with each other, but here… You know what? However… At Aufderheide [another dark:30 sponsored race] we did meet a number of really great people who are also here again. There’s obviously a lot of loyalty but these guys are establishing…

TYG-EA: The organizers?

Rachel: Yeah. And so it’s fantastic to see a lot of those familiar faces. You know, people remember your name: “Oh, you guys are team Canada, you’re back again…” It’s really great to be in such a welcoming community here.

TYG-EA: What’s the name of your team?

Rachel: The guys that I come down with, their team is called the Mighty Riders, and I ride on my own.

TYG: So you just decided to side with them this race?

Rachel: We just travel together. It’s my boyfriend’s team, so I come down with them. We have a good time.

TYG: We come from an even smaller town, the next town down: Yachats, only 700 people.

Rachel: Really?

TYG: Yes. Even Waldport is like 2000 people.

Rachel: I’ve heard of Yachats before and I’ve heard it’s a great place.

TYG-EA: So how does one become a professional athlete of this sort?

Rachel: That’s a good question! You quit your full-time job, or in my case, I had finished my second Master’s, so I said “Okay, I want to put my career on hold and become a professional athlete”—so it was kind of easy. You get as many sponsors as you can; a lot of that involves getting product sponsorships. All of my equipment is covered— I don’t really pay for any of my equipment that I need for training or for racing.

TYG: So you buy a new bike every time?

Rachel: Well I don’t buy anything! They just give me a new bike.

TYG: So really, every time you need a new bike? Every race?

Rachel: Oh no, not for every race! Every season I get a new bike, and at the end of the season I give it back.

TYG: So it’s the best bike?

Rachel: It’s the top of the line for that year. And then a lot of companies will give you performance bonuses. That means if you place well in a race, and they give you money.

TYG: Like this time you placed first.

Rachel: I don’t know if I’ll get any money for this race. If you’re lucky you get financial sponsorship too. So you get companies who will give you money to train, and race, and pay for your transportation. That’s the biggest cost: taking planes everywhere around the world to race.

TYG: Did your team place really well in this race?

Rachel: Yes, actually, the Mighty Riders did really well. We were third and fourth, and I was fifth, and we also had the seventh place. So yes, they did really well, although I think some of them were hoping to win. So they might’ve been a bit disappointed.

TYG: Still, third out of 120… Yet you mentioned that 120 was small.

Rachel: Actually, for the races that I do, there are sometimes 2000 people racing.

TYG: Whoa! I can’t imagine the humiliation it must be to get two thousandth place!

Rachel: [laughter] Well, often for those races, people are just happy to finish. Maybe they’ve never done a half Ironman triathlon before.

TYG: What’s a “half Ironman” mean?

Rachel: That means that you swim the 1.2 miles, and then you bike 56 miles, and then you run 13 miles.

TYG: So that’s 70.3 miles [for a half Ironman]?

Rachel: Yep. And then a full Ironman is twice that distance.

TYG-EA: What are your degrees in?

Rachel: I have a Master’s in developmental genetics, and a Master’s in genetic counseling. […]
They’re calling me up [to the podium]—do you mind if I go?

TYG: Of course not! Thanks very much!