Racing

Wow! I've been so excited and happy with my result in the last Mad Trapper snowshoe race of the season that I couldn't find the time to blog about it! Can you believe that? Well, it's partly true. I thought about writing up the story Saturday afternoon, but that seemed too ambitious. Then, life got in the way for a couple days, but here I am to fill you all in on my winter race-season closing race. As some of you may have already looked at the pictures and/or read Mike's own race report, you've probably heard that I WON first place overall!! No joke! I've looked back on all my race results, and it turns out this is only the 2nd time I win 1st place overall in a race. Last time was in August of 2007! While some of the top guns were not present this time, it was still a hard-fought battle, and I invite you all to read on for the rest of my happy story.

Good evening sports fans! Well, a few days have passed since my last race, so I figured that it was time to fill you all in on my latest athletic endeavour. It was a doozy for me, and something completely new to me. What was this feat you ask? Well, how about the Gatineau Loppet? And what is that you might ask? Well, try on a 53km classic ski race that attracts an International field of competitors for size. Yup, it was certainly a crazy pursuit in my mind, but something I wanted to try my hand at nonetheless. Also, this was a necessary component if I plan to get a Rudy Award this year. Of course, that plan may be dead in the water, but at least I would give most of the races a try. If you'd like to, you can look at a few pictures from the event that I took, although none from the race course itself. After that, come on back for a more detailed account of my day in the snow!

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is going okay during this delightful cold snap that we seem to be suffering through in Ottawa. Must say that I'm not a huge fan of trudging to the bus stop every morning in what seems to be lower than -15deg C weather! But I digress, this isn't the place to discuss weather, is it? You undoubtedly are tuning in to read about my latest racing results, right? Well, at least that's what I'm here to write about. Quite a treat too, as this was my first 'required' event for the Rudy Award that I had planned on nabbing this year. However, that seems more unlikely now, given that I'm probably trading a 'required' event to do a 24 hour adventure race instead. What can I say? I know where my priorities are. Fun first, results second! At any rate, I've already paid entry for a few of the other events, so I'll do them and race hard :-) To see some pictures from before and after the 2010 Winterlude Tri, you can check out my set on flickr. Not too much excitement there, but at least you'll see how the transition area was laid out. Now onto the story!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts from Africa in order to bring you the latest race report from ActiveSteve. It's been a pretty hectic weekend out in the frigid Ottawa region for me. Although the temperatures barely rose above -20degC all weekend, it didn't keep me from skiing, snowshoeing, skating, and just generally making the most of what we get here in the winter. It was also my 2010 race season opener, taking the form of a 10k snowshoe race. This was the 3rd of 4 races put on by Mike Caldwell as the Mad Trapper snowshoe race series. The course for Saturday was the 'combined course', which meant one lap of the infamous 'hilly' route, and a 2nd lap consisting of the 'flatter' route. There were actually a few tweaks to the course, which made it more like 9k, but it was still plenty challenging. I managed to capture some pictures and a couple videos, which I've posted on flickr, but not many. For the full details of how it went down, read on friends.

Hey gang. Thanks for tuning in. I'm going to write a quick blog post about the race that I just finished a couple hours ago. Normally, I'd drag my heels a bit, but given that I'm heading out of town soon, it's probably better that I just get this done right away, don't you think? Plus, it'll be a little shorter than my normal race stories :-) Of course, I'm talking about that venerable racing tradition, the Mad Trapper Snowshoe race series opener! Today was set to be the 'flatter' course; a test of strength over a course of 9.2km (two loops of 4.6km). Of course, 'flatter' by no means implies 'flat', it was a lot of slogging up and down minor hills. For the full quick dump, read on. You might also want to check out a few videos [update: There is now a huge gallery of shots from the race from the photographer up] from the day capture via Andrew Cameron's helmet cam. Pretty cool footage I must say!

Wow! I can't believe I'm finally writing this blog post. In truth, this one has been quite a while in the making. In fact, I'd say that it's been in the works since I first started running many years back. So what am I talking about here? How about a Boston-qualifying marathon time of 3 hours and 10 minutes? Although this post is mainly about my race, don't think for a moment that a marathon is limited to the 42.2km that you need to run. In truth, a marathon is a journey that starts long before the starting pistol is fired, and requires sacrifice, perseverance, and dedication. In the spirit of that, I'm going to have to ask your indulgence in my post as I'll probably wax a little poetic at times about how I got to this point. As my title implies, I had to complete this journey over the weekend on my own. That unfortunately meant that my usual race photographer wasn't with me :-) However, I did manage to take a few pictures on my own, but nothing from the race. I also had my GPS with me, so I put together a nice little map of the day that you can check out. Afterwards, wander on back and read the rest of my story.

Hey kids! Got another little race to write about for you all. On October 17th I got to take part in the 5 Peaks Trail Race taking place at the Ark, Mike Caldwell's property near Low, Quebec. I'm most used to racing on snowshoes out here, but any time of the year, this is a great place to get some of the lead out by pushing myself to the limits. This was my second trail race with 5 Peaks during this summer season, and I had my eyes on possibly trying for a podium finish. But then again, what else is new? If you're not shooting for podium, you're not really racing are you? Ha ha. Short of giving it all away, I'll let you know I finished just off the podium. Unfortunately, the other unfortunate part of this race is that I have no pictures from the event, or even a custom map to share. So all you have to do is read the next few paragraphs to get a sense of the event.

Welcome back to another exciting chapter in the life of ActiveSteve. I'm especially excited to write up the story for the race that I just took part in last weekend. Specifically, I'm talking about the 2009 Frontier Adventure Challenge fall champs which took place at Rosseau Lake in the Muskoka region of Ontario. This is a great race to close off the adventure racing season for a lot of teams, and never fails to impress. The format is simple. 10-14 (or more) hours of gruelling off-road racing mixing orienteering, paddling, trekking, mountain biking, and sometimes swimming. This year's edition of the race was another doozy with some interesting results, as you'll learn about if you read my whole post. For starters though, you might want to check out my folder of pictures onflickr (I carried my camera on course), as well as the custom map that I put together of the route we took. If you look through the map, you'll probably see a couple spots where we strayed from the 'ideal' route :-) Also, you'll see it isn't a complete map, as the battery died on my GPS. For the record, I did have permission from Geoff, the race director, to wear my GPS to make this map. I wasn't using it as a navigation tool, merely a track recorder. Once you're done checking that out, come on back and read the rest of the story.