ActiveSteve

A Little Downtime, aka the Value of Lists

Well, after coming off a successful 3 week run of races back to back to back, I was looking forward to having a couple weekends off to spend time at home and get some things done. Our calendar for the summer season is already quite full, with maybe 2 to 3 weekends not fully booked till the fall! That basically means I have to cram in all my house-type projects into a pretty short period of time. That’s not so bad for me, since I like to stay relatively busy, but I certainly don’t feel like being completely flat out all the time :-). So with that, I figured I’d write just a short little post talking about a few of the things that have kept us busy over the past two weekends. Oh, and for good measure, I also managed to rustle up some pictures of the final products of our labour!

Ripping it up at Raid Pulse

Wow! Another scorching, sunny race day. This was the third race in 3 weeks of back to back racing, so I was rather surprised that my ‘luck’ with the weather held up for yet another event! Where was I this time? Well, not too far from home. About one hour north of Gatineau in a little wilderness area near Denholm. And boy was it gorgeous out there! Definitely a spot I’d keep my eyes open for a little plot of land for a cabin/cottage. I was up there for the 5-8 hour Raid Pulse adventure race, a perennial favourite of mine that I’d once again be covering for Get Out There. As it stood, I was supposed to race this one solo, but two days before the event, I got a call from a friend of mine who was looking for a navigator / team-mate. I saw no reason to decline, so in a last minute twist, I was thrown onto a team. Would be fun to be put into that category and see how we did. Of course, I managed to snap some pics as well as get my video review done while on the race, but read on for a few more insights as to how the race went for us.

Categorically Tops in Tweed

Greetings my friends! I realize that I’m a little late in writing my posts, but at least I eventually get around to it when I have the chance, right? Hee hee. As my title subtley implies, this post will be about a great race result I had a few weeks ago in Tweed at the Storm the Trent Adventure race that I was racing in and covering for Get Out There magazine. I ended up in 1st place in my category, which was solo male. There were a few others who finished before me, but they were either the team category or the solo masters category (I ended up 8th overall). However, the victory even in my category was not a sure thing given a few technical problems, so it’s at least worth a quick read of my race report to see how things unfolded on another beautiful day of racing. I also wasn’t alone out there. Deanna opted to tackle the ‘trek’ course (I was on the ‘trek elite’), and given the proximity to Trenton, Deanna’s folks came out to cheer us on as well. Accordingly, I’ve got some good pics of the race on top of the video review. Now read on to find out more!

ActiveSteve and the Act of Engagement

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Do you see what I just did there with the title? Pretty clever, hunh? I can guarantee you all that this blog post will be unlike most of the ones that I write out for you all. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’ll be the only time you ever read about such an occasion from me 🙂 The genesis of the plans for this momentous occasion happened some time ago. In fact, the moment was over three months in the making! It’s a story that makes me very happy, and I’d like to take a few paragraphs to write about how it all happened. Obviously, you know the outcome of it all, but it’s still fun to go back in time and see how it all came about. Please read on if you’re a romantic and want to hear the tale.

Stellar Start to Summer Season

The sun was beating down hard on my neck. My leg muscles were just on the edge of starting to cramp after over 7 hours of hard effort. A team up ahead had paused to debate the merits of taking one route over another at an intersection. With my head down and with determination, I blew past them and pedaled hard to the finish. Keeping a very short lead on them, I crossed the line as 4th solo male, and 6th team overall at the spring Frontier Adventure Challenge in Huntsville. In retrospect, had they made the turn, they would have had 1km shorter to travel, and would have beat me, but seeing me blow by made them change their minds and try to chase me down. I got lucky this time! Of course, dear friends, I’ve just revealed the punchline, the finish of the race. This was the first summer race of the season, and it was a great one. Read on for the full story, video, pictures, and all the good stuff!