Five Minutes With... Meaghan Hackinen

1. What is your favourite racing memory, and why?

You've got such an impressive results list in your ultra-cycling history, ranging from the TransAm Bike Race in 2017, 24-hour world titles, the Big Lonely FKT and an overall win at the BC Epic 1000. As well as multiple wins in local gravel ultras, which we'll explore later. What is your favourite racing memory, and why?

Probably riding away with the lead on the first evening of the 2021 BC Epic 1000, a mixed-surface bikepacking race across most of British Columbia on rail trail, gravel roads, singletrack, with a little pavement to link things up. The BC Epic was a special event to me for so many reasons: it was both my first non-road bikepacking race, and my first event after Covid-19 lockdowns. The status of the event was touch and go right up until roll out, and I think the uncertainty of everything—would we get to race? Could I even handle pedalling 1,000 kilometres on gravel, dirt, and trail?—translated into excitement once I was finally out in the woods. Soaring temperatures picked off most of my competition, and I loved the feeling of pulling away from the pack as the day wore on. By sunset, I was racing over Myra Canyon’s spectacular wooden rail trestles alone as the bright lights of Kelowna—my hometown—glimmering in the distance. Relieved from the heat of the day, I felt like a million bucks and was ready to tackle whatever challenges lay ahead.

3. The gravel community in CA,  what about this community makes it such a great place for women in ultra-cycling?

One of your recent races, the Lost Elephant in East Kootenays is a 500km+ race that is gnarly and testing. The top five on the finish list contained FOUR women! This is exciting but also relatively unheard of, what about this community makes it such a great place for women in ultra-cycling?

It is exciting, right!? I’m not a social scientist, so I can only state my observations and make some guesses. I think that the uneven gender distribution in endurance cycling (even though we’ve seen women compete at the very tip of the pointy end) is complex and probably worthy of a PhD thesis. However, I do think that the high number of women crushing this particular event has something to do with the broader outdoor adventure culture of the East Kootenays and surrounding regions. I had a chance to revisit the start/finish city of Cranbrook and was impressed by the degree in which people there embraced the mountains and wilderness, getting out on foot, by bike, or offroad vehicle. I also noticed a lot of support and camaraderie in the outdoor community: things like mountain bike courses for women, and mixed gender groups who set out on the trails before the crack of dawn. So, when someone says, “Hey, I’m thinking of doing the Lost Elephant this summer,” her friends and family offer support and encouragement.

There are also two Lost Elephant courses: the Jumbo (which I did), or shorter Dumbo; both events are free, and the signup process is simple. I think having a shorter race is simultaneously a great challenge on its own, but also a nice steppingstone for folks—including women—who want to get into racing longer distances. And having more overall female participants in turn leads to a bigger pool of women competing for overall podium positions as well.

Photo Nathan Siemans

5. Could you tell us your process for writing up such exciting rides and races and how it affects your relationship with the bike?

You've written a book called South Away: The Pacific Coast on Two Wheels. This read shares your trip from Terrace, British Columbia down the West coast to (almost) the tip of the Baja Peninsula where California meets Mexico. You've also got another book out, just released this month (October), Shifting Gears: Coast to Coast on the Trans Am Bike Race, which will cover your story there. Could you tell us your process for writing up such exciting rides and races and how it affects your relationship with the bike?

I pursued the craft of writing because I found that I was such a crappy storyteller: I could never keep all the throughlines straight in my head, and listeners always tuned out before I got to the climax. I don’t have the thickest skin, so it really hurt my feelings when people didn’t hear me out! So, I decided to write down my stories as a way of telling them instead. I think the reflective process of writing—spending time with an experience as you write, revise, and re-imagine how best to lay it out—helps me tell better stories as well.

First, I start with a process of reverie. I’m not the best at keeping a journal in non-race situations, and at the end of an event I’m lucky if I have anything more than a few text messages to go back to for source material. Instead, I look at a photo or imagine a place in my mind. I use that as a starting point for a scene, and just let myself step back into my imagination and walk around in those moments. Then, I pick up the pen (or pull out my computer) and free write. In these early stages, I write entirely for myself and without judgement. I just spill anything and everything onto the page until my timer goes off, and I move onto another scene.

After doing this a few times with different photos or place memories, I start to get an idea of what’s important/what stands out/what I’d like to say. I use my scribbles and the reflections that come out of them to create an outline for an essay or chapter. Then I sit down and write again, with a better idea of where I’m going now that I’ve done some warmup work. Later on in the process, I spend heaps of time revising and editing, as well as reading others’ work as a form of inspired procrastination. Whenever I read, I’m also studying craft and looking to understand how a piece works and evolve my own writing.

Photo Jocelyn De La Rosa

7. Which do you listen to on rides, music, podcasts or nothing?

25% music, 25% podcasts, 50% nothing.