2011 - Page 2 of 8 - ActiveSteve

Travelogue

Marvelous Morocco: Medinas, Medersas, Minarets and Mosques

Hello world! It has been simply far too long since I’ve taken the time to write a few words to all my dear readers. This is partly due to a number of distractions at home and with work, and partly due to the fact that Deanna and I were quite busy jet-setting. As you may have guessed from the marvelous alliteration in the title, we were off to Morocco taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of that amazing country. I’ll split the story into 2 or 3 posts, starting with this one. In this post, I’ll focus on the cities that we visited. Our trip was broken into bits of urban exploration, then some adventures in the mountains, desert, and caves. We covered a lot of ground and had a lot of experiences in our two weeks, far too many to cover in full detail. So here’s hoping I can be somewhat brief! Of course, there were also a LOT of pictures taken, and we’ll sort those all by day or location to make it easiest. You can check out all the pictures over on flickr. We’re in the process of creating one big collection with many sets. Keep checking back for more pictures as we post them. Have a look now, then head back here to read more.

Fencing and ‘Festing for Fun

Good day friends. I bet you all thought you wouldn’t hear from me again until the winter race season started, right? Well, I’d hate to leave you all wondering just what it is that ActiveSteve does when he isn’t racing or training ;-). Hence this short little post to keep you all well informed. It’s not secret that I’m not really one to sit around eating bon-bons. If I’m not doing something, I get bored. So I guess it’s a good thing that I’m a homeowner, because there’s ALWAYS something to do when you own a house, even if it is a new house, as I’m learning. Also, given that my training and racing takes me away from home a lot, it also means that I don’t get to see some of my friends as much as I’d like, so this is also a chance to do a bit of catching up with some of my good friends, as well as spend more quality time with my best gal Deanna! This certainly won’t be a long post, so you should have no problem getting through the whole thing, as well as checking out my two sets of pictures, first being my fence re-building project, and the second being some pictures from this year’s Beau’s Oktoberfest in Vankleek Hill.

Race Reports

Glancing Nervously Behind at the FAC Fall Classic

Welcome back friends! What an exciting tale I have to share with you this time. In this blog post, I’ll be taking you step by step through my experience at this years Frontier Adventure Challenge Fall Classic, a 12-hour adventure race which took place in the Muskokas. To be more specific, it took place near Rosseau, at the Muskoka Woods camp. This race was the last race I had on the schedule for what I’ll call my ‘summer season’. After this one, the plan is to basically take the next month to month and a half pretty easy. Recover and do some light training before gearing up for the winter race season. Because of that, I was heading into this race with pretty high hopes, even though I’ve been going pretty hard over the last month. My chances were improved by the fact that I was teaming up again with my new friends on Adrenaline Rush; Adam Mallory and Mark Honsberger. Read on for the full story. As per usual, don’t forget to check out some pictures that I snapped, as well as the race video I shot for Get Out There magazine.

Race Reports

Trying Rogaine…. but not for Hair Loss!

Nope, in this case my friends, rogaine is actually a backronym which stands for Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance. Quite a mouthful, right? It is also named for the founders of this kind of event, ROd Phillips, GAIl Davis (née Phillips) and NEil Phillips (ROGAINE). Now you might be wondering what a Rogaine actually is, seeing as this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned it. In fact, it was also the first time I’ve ever taken part in one. Essentially, it is a sport purely consisting of orienteering (using a map and compass to find checkpoints). It is all done on foot, in teams, in this case a team of 2. You have a given amount of time in which to find as many controls as you can before the cutoff. Each control is worth a set number of points. The team with the highest score wins. Getting all CPs is usually very difficult, and if you cross the line after the cutoff, you lose serious points for every minute. In this sense, the sport is very much in line with what I love about AR, only it is all on foot, and is a matter of pure speed, and route tactics. Read on to learn all about my first experience, and how I did. Along with the customary pictures that I took, I invite you to also watch the video race review that I put together for Get Out There Magazine. Afterwards, read on for my story.

Race Reports

Back in the Saddle Out in the Barrens

Wow! What a difference a single week can make. One week ago, I had just finished what was arguably my hardest race ever, when I completed a full iron-distance triathlon in under 13 hours in really tough conditions. Well, flash forward to this past weekend, and I once again found myself toeing the line at another race event. What was I up to this time you ask? Well, on the schedule was Logs, Rocks, and Steel, an off-road multisport race consisting of 12km of paddling, 52km of mountain biking, and 17km of trail running. I was covering the event for Get Out There Magazine, and you can check out the video that I made for that. I competed in the race last year as well, but unfortunately, the outcome of that race was less than stellar. I’m happy to say that this year, conditions were much better, and the fact that I put no pressure on myself landed me a good result. Check out all the pics that I took while there, then read the rest of my post.