This article was originally posted in BC Living Magazine and is written by Vancouver based strength and conditioning coach Curb Ivanic. To find out more about Curb visit www.corerunning.com and www.ultrafitness.net -

Having a support network of people who like exercising together is the best way to get fit and healthy

It’s hard to live a healthy lifestyle if all your friends smoke and their idea of a workout is walking from the barstool to the washroom.

Playing on a sports team or belonging to a club such as Club Fat Ass makes getting fit fun and challenging.

Club Fat Ass Organizes Unique Fitness Challenges

I confess I’m a Fat Ass and proud of it. The club puts on some very unique events and get togethers.

One event involves getting together for a Saturday night party. What’s so healthy about that? Before the party starts you have to do a 90-minute run in the dark through the trails of the Capilano Canyon.

Another, more extreme, event is the Bagger Challenge, which takes place between June and October.

This event was the brainchild of David Crear and has caught on with many of the members. It involves reaching the peak or “bagging” as many of the 44 North Shore mountains as possible during the dates of the competition. The challenge includes only peaks you can reach without climbing or ropes, though some of the trails can be hazardous.

While the Bagger Challenge is one of the tougher events, the club puts on many other beginner-friendly events, and you don’t have to be an elite athlete to participate in most of them.

What you do need is a sense of adventure, a love of the outdoors and a good attitude. And while there is an element of competition, the events are not races. Camaraderie is emphasized as much as competition, as is environmental stewardship.

Fitness Groups Make You Accountable

Becoming part of a group makes you accountable to reach your fitness goals. Every January 1 many CFA members publicly list their fitness goals for the year.

Having some social pressure isn’t always bad thing. We can often rationalize to ourselves if we get off track with our goals, but it’s much harder having to explain it to our peers.

Come out to a Club Fat Ass event and see for yourself how much fun you can have while pushing your limits. I’ll bet you’ll end up a Fat Ass yourself.

Dirk Handke took part in last weekend’s Frosty Mountain Trail Race training run and took a number of great photos. The photos were taken along the entire second loop of the 50K course.

The view the photos click here.

Our very own beloved blogger Marilyn Arsenault has made the cover of the latest issue of Canadian Running Magazine. This comes after a stellar year in which she competed and excelled in a variety of events. We think big things are in store for Marilyn as she attempts her first marathon this fall. What’s next? Cover of Time Magazine??

Visit Marilyn’s blog here.

For those that are not aware the West Coast Trail is a rugged former-rescue trail along the west coast of Vancouver Island. The trail is 75 kilometers long and typically takes hikers 7 days to hike. However the trail has seen a number of trail runners attempt to set speed records over the last few decades, with the most recent record standing at 10 hours, 14 minutes.  Following is Gary’s account of his attempt to break this record.

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Written by Gary Robbins

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
Don Williams, Jr. (American Novelist and Poet, b.1968)

Just organizing this one proved to be a bit of a nightmare that somehow turned into a dream come true. I come from a big extended family in Newfoundland and though the years have passed the bond still remains tight. My Mother is the only remaining sibling, of eighteen born (yes you read that right) that still resides in Nfld. For years when I went on BC road trips and relayed the stories to my parents it would be followed up by, you missed aunt and uncle a-b-c-d and cousins e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p, in towns q-r-s-t.

A few years back a wedding reunited me with this long lost side of my family tree and it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know them all over again. In the end, I could not have pulled this one off without their direct assistance and it would simply be unfair of me not to start by specifically thanking everyone who made this possible for me.

Dean Neville, Nanaimo ferry terminal to Port Alberni, and morning drop off at Frances Barkley boat ride from Port Alberni to Bamfield

Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob, place to crash and great conversation on Monday night

Sarah Logan, friend of this side of family. Place to crash in Bamfield on Tuesday night and drive to trailhead at 5:20am Wednesday

Randy and Roxanne Neville. Pick up in Victoria, dinner, change of clothes for journey home, drive to ferry in Tsawassen.

Ryne Melcher (Montrail family) and his GF Kristin Ohm-Pedersen, drop off at ferry on Monday evening and pick up from ferry on Wednesday night.

As mentioned, just getting to the trail head was a journey in and of itself. Thankfully the scenery upon BC Ferries is second to none, and by the time I arrived in Bamfield itself, on Tuesday afternoon, I felt like I’d been off of work for days, even though it was but 18hrs since I had clocked out.

On the running side of things the weather could not have been better, and given that it rained just 36hr after I came off the trail I’d wager to say that I had the best day of the year for my speed attempt. In hindsight I’m fully relieved I was not able to attempt the trail in May, as was originally planned, because it would have been a complete waste of my time, money, and energy, with a definitive do-over necessary. In the end it most certainly all worked out for the best!

After a relaxing afternoon in the tiny hamlet of Bamfield I’d felt like I’d stepped back in time, though not having phone reception for a day was actually kinda nice. After packing my gear I headed out for a quick test run, as I’d never actually run with this new pack before (”do as I say, not as I do!”) Ahem, don’t try anything new in a race! Speed attempts are different don’t ya know!

At 9:30pm I downed a couple of melatonin, as I would never be able to sleep otherwise, and I was out within minutes.

4:30am is early, no matter how you slice it and no matter what time you may have crawled into bed the night before.

5:15am Sarah and I depart for the trail. It’s a ten minute drive and for the first five minutes I find myself making jokes and trying to wake us both up. As we approach our destination though, I go noticeably silent. It’s almost go time. The gravity of the situation is starting to sink in.

It’s still completely dark outside, and there won’t be anyone else around when I arrive at my starting point. There will not be any other runners to share this experience with, or to create that wonderful nervous excitement that inevitably precludes daunting tasks such as these. I won’t have a Race Director there to send me off, and there won’t be any well stocked aid stations along the way. I’m completely on my own, and competing against nothing but a clock and thirteen years of history. I can’t help but notice that I’m more nervous than I was while lining up for the Western States 100 miler back in June. This attempt is so black and white it’s scary.

10h12m or better, success…10h14m or longer, failure.

I have no one to pace off of, no idea of what my ‘splits’ along the trail should be, no way of knowing at any point in time if I’m genuinely going fast enough to pull this thing off. Due to this fact there will not be a single mental break for the entire duration of the run. I have to get my mind locked in, for as much as some of this might prove to be enjoyable, it’s about time to get down to business.

I didn’t pack a headlamp so as to save on weight and we had to wait a few extra minutes until I could sufficiently make out the obstacles of the trail. At 5:34am, I asked Sarah to give me a ten second countdown…

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-GO!!

To continue reading the rest of this story visit Gary’s blog here….

This year wrapped up a decade of GutBuster Trail Runs on Vancouver Island.  What started as a single race at Mt Tzouhalem in 2001 with 40 participants has grown into a 5 race series with nearly 750 participants this season!  Our Westwood Lake GutBuster was featured in Canadian Running Magazine as one of “Canada’s Top Ten Trail Races” and we saw our GutBuster Ascent Race at Mt Washington grow to almost 100 crazy runners taking on the 6km uphill race!

Shawn Nelson continued his strong running this season comfortably winning the last 4 races by a combined time of 5min52 seconds.  This was Shawns first ever season victory at the GutBuster Series and he looks like he will be hard to beat in the coming years.  Other strong performances this year were put in by Shelby Drope of the Westwood Running Club for winning the first race of the season, Shaun-Stephens Whale of Vancouver for giving Shawn Nelson a good battle at Westwood Lake and Andrew Pape-Salmon who showed his strength lies in the mountains with his 3rd OA showing at Mt Washington.

Claire Morgan showed a strong return to form this year by winning the overall womens title in close

race with Antonia Grady.  Claire has represented Canada at the World Mountain Running Championships and Antonia was this year’s women’s winner at the challenging Kusam Klimb.  It came down to 2 points at the end of the year to cap off an exciting season for these two.  Last year’s overall champion, Care Wakely, won the last three races of the year after missing Westwood Lake and running the short course at Mt Tzouhalem.  Care showed great form in her 3 showings though with a combined winning margin of 14min53 seconds! Next up for Care is the Gore-Tex Trans Rockies Run in Colorado later this month.  Care and GutBuster Race Director (also boyfriend), Mark Nelson, are racing the 195km 6 day stage race together and you can follow along with their progress by adding Frontrunners Westshore on Facebook or at www.transrockies.com.

We look forward to seeing you all out on the trails again next year and wish you the best of luck with your fall running goals!

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Written by Hayley Mick from Saturday’s Globe and Mail

WHITE RIVER. HOUR 52.

Ingrid Wilcox peers past the nose of her yellow kayak at a miraculous sight: someone waving from the shore of the sun-speckled Yukon River. After three days and two nights of continuous paddling through rugged wilderness, she is finally closing in on Dawson City.

At 62, Wilcox is an unlikely veteran of the world’s longest annual canoe and kayak race. The Yukon River Quest runs from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Its infamy within international endurance-racing circles stems from a gut-wrenching two-punch: paddlers must cover a massive distance – 746 kilometres, basically the same as racing from Toronto to Quebec City – on hardly any sleep.

Some competitors have Olympic credentials and arms like Popeye’s, but Wilcox is a petit, grey-haired gardening expert with a titanium rod in her hip and a stent in her heart. Yet she has just endured torrential rain storms, and crossed a wind-lashed lake that’s 50 kilometres wide.

Ten years ago, she entered the Yukon Quest determined to beat the clock. But a year after setting a course record for solo female kayakers, she felt a strange sensation in her chest during a training session, which led to heart surgery.

Now the race is her annual rebellion against health problems that have dogged her for her entire life. The life jacket that rubs the skin around her waist until its raw reminds her she is still alive. Simply finishing will stave off the question that whispers louder now with age: How much longer do I have?

Wilcox dips her carbon-fibre paddle into the water and pulls herself toward the waving figure – a tree stump. The hallucinations have begun.

WHITEHORSE. HOUR ZERO.

A steam boat’s whistle – the Yukon version of a starter’s pistol – echoes through Rotary Park on the east side of Whitehorse. Men and women stampede across a soggy field and leap into canoes and kayaks laden with Advil and Red Bull, fanning out on the rain-spattered river as spectators shout encouragement. It’s noon. The Yukon River Quest has begun.

Over the next 80 hours, extraordinary dramas will unfold along the route north to Dawson. All 180 paddlers comprising 78 teams in solo, two-member tandem and voyageur vessels – which carry six to nine – will attempt to cover a course that normally takes two weeks. They will have just two chances to rest: a seven-hour break at the halfway mark; then, about 200 kilometres from the finish, a three-hour nap in a field.

By the third and final day, sleep-deprived paddlers will report seeing giant cans of tomato soup on shore and Renoir paintings in the trees. One in four typically quits early, forced out by hypothermia, exhaustion, blisters the size of grapes.

The River Quest began 12 years ago as a local fundraiser for the even more gruelling 1,000-mile Yukon Quest sled dog race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska. The first year, 16 two-member teams made the running start, leaping into canoes to follow the historic route used by prospectors and those who followed them during the Klondike gold rush.

As word spread, the race earned a special place among the growing list of ultra-endurance paddling events. This year’s crop of competitors hails from seven countries as well as Canada, and range in age from 20 to 71.

Many top paddlers gravitate to shorter races with bigger purses, but among this year’s competitors are a handful of sponsored athletes, a couple former Olympians and six Texans defending their title as voyageur champions. This year they have showed up with a sleek, black, carbon-fibre canoe custom-built for the race. (More narrow on top, it allows them to flip their oars from side to side every 20 strokes, easing muscle fatigue without forcing them to shift their weight.)

The vast majority, however, are doctors and carpenters, university students, British soldiers and cancer survivors – recreational athletes on a mission: to have the race of a lifetime. Whether out to set a record or simply to finish, they have a common thread: Against the unforgiving backdrop of the Canadian sub-Arctic, they are drawn by a desire to face a mental and physical challenge unlike anything they must confront in daily life. “After you do something like this, and you go back to work, and some manager is like, ‘Where are your TPS reports?’ It just doesn’t matter,” says Carter Johnson, a lanky 32-year-old Californian and the heavy favourite among solo men kayakers.

Like the gold-crazed dreamers of the Klondike over a century ago, these modern adventurers are after treasure, but something more valuable than the cash prizes of up to $2,100. Forced to dig deeper than ever before, they wonder: What will I unearth?

Carter Johnson“After you do something like this, and you go back to work, and some manager is like, ‘Where are your TPS reports?’ It just doesn’t matter.”

LAKE LABARGE: HOUR 8.

Dawn Krog pops to the surface and gasps. Waves pound her against rocks. She spots her bobbing husband, also bug-eyed from frigid water of Lake Labarge.

“Never again,” she vowed last year, when volunteers hauled her, too weak to stand, out of a tandem canoe in Dawson. The couple’s impressive ninth-place overall result included a terrifying night when they narrowly avoided hypothermia – only because she forced her dazed husband to pause and put on warmer clothes.

Once back in Maine, the couple realized their 10-year marriage had been altered. Their trust in each other’s instincts was now absolute. In his wife, a tiny 46-year-old bank employee, Brad Krog, an engineer, saw a level-headed lioness. They wrote down the story of their journey, then wept as they read it.

Not long after the Krogs drag their kayak to shore and peel off their wet clothes, they are met by Jeff Brady, a burly, bearded newspaper editor from Alaska who is on board one of a half-dozen safety boats crisscrossing the lake, searching for distress signals.

This is some of the worst racing weather Brady has seen since he helped to launch the River Quest. Lake Labarge is the most dangerous part of the race because the wind is so unpredictable. Today, it’s reaching 25 knots and generating metre-high waves in the middle of the lake. Brady has spent two hours herding paddlers into a safety zone within 200 metres of shore. He watched a seasick carpenter from Victoria pull into a sheltered bay and throw up.

Seated in the red motorboat, Krog tucks his arm around his shivering wife, who wears three layers of fleece and is dwarfed by an oversized men’s jacket. Oddly, they are beaming, even though they invested $12,000 to make the trip. It’s not every day you can flirt with disaster, and be reminded of the importance of basic things like safety, warmth, and each other, Krog explains. “What happened out there is as exciting as it gets for me.”

They plan to catch a ride to Carmacks, the first rest stop. Their heroics are over, but they can still be inspired by others.

“How about that Ingrid,” Dawn Krog says of Wilcox. “Isn’t she amazing?”

Ingrid Wilcox, 62“This is my 10th Yukon River Quest. … I can be stubborn and determined and I don’t give up.”

THE THIRTY MILE. HOUR 12.

Linda Rapp drops a pink carnation into the water and watches the current sweep it away. Seven women seated ahead of her in the voyageur canoe stop paddling.

Nine years ago, they had Edith in their boat. She was bookish, in her 50s, a mother of two, not your typical athlete. Rapp, a physical-education expert, had convinced her to join Paddlers Abreast, a crew of breast-cancer survivors from the Yukon. They huddled under a tarp during a downpour, sang songs to stay awake, shared celebratory beers in a hotel kitted out with an old saloon, forging a bond that went beyond a killer disease.

Two years later, Edith’s husband sped down to Rotary Park in Whitehorse, catching Paddler’s Abreast just as the race was about to begin. He handed them the ashes. They knew exactly where Edith would go.

This spot, where the river narrows and water flows quickly, is always peaceful. Spruce line the banks. Rapp can smell wolf willow wafting across the river.

The timing also makes it special. It’s midnight when they arrive, having conquered Lake Labarge and mercifully gained the advantage of river current. The midnight sun has painted everything a dusky grey. In wool hats and fleece coats, the team is ready to paddle through their first cold night at a steady pace: 65 strokes a minute.

But Rapp asks them to pause. For the teammates who never met her, she tells Edith’s story, and how she paddled even though quite ill.

Rapp is the only member of Paddlers Abreast who has done the race 10 years straight. She returns because she has watched the boat transform the women in it, teaching them that their bodies are capable of more than they ever imagined.

She has also watched it transform family members, and even strangers. Some, like a group of Australian breast-cancer survivors racing this year, have been inspired by the River of Life, a documentary about Paddlers Abreast produced by Werner Walcher for the National Film Board. Others are simply curious about their distinctive nine-metre canoe, with its blue and red moons painted by a first nations artist to symbolize women.

Rapp believes the canoe is a symbol of hope. She calls it “the spirit of the boat.”

Linda RappTeam captain for Paddlers Abreast sees the canoe as a symbol of hope.

CARMACKS. HOUR 19

Justin Hearn races along a dock, smearing sunscreen on the chiselled chins of six beefy men. Gripping paddles, the members of Breaking Wind, who are from Jersey, one of Britain’s Channel Islands, have 30 seconds before they can chase down the formidable Texans, who blasted off in first place six minutes ago. “Anyone missing a pee bottle?” Hearn shouts.

The riverside campground at Carmacks is the midway point of the race. Paddlers have seven hours to grab a coin-operated shower, a chocolate milkshake at the canteen and some sleep in a nearby hotel or tent – if they can, given the melee of racers arriving and taking off again.

Carmacks is also where most people “scratch,” or quit.

Support people like Hearn try to make sure that doesn’t happen. They are mothers, husbands, buddies and even grandkids of the paddlers. After carrying the boats on shore, they get on their knees and sponge out the urine of hard-core paddlers who refuse to stop when nature calls. They tote pills of every sort: Tums for indigestion, salt for energy, ibuprofen for muscle pain. They pack peanut-butter sandwiches and tuck people into bed. They offer back rubs and shoulders to lean on.

Most important, they deliver pep talks.

“Maybe I should scratch,” Ingrid Wilcox says to her sister, Tina Torbick, sitting in her hotel room. She is weary. Her shoulders ache. She has sores around her waist. At her age, despite all her experience, this suddenly feels reckless.

People are always commenting on how miraculous it is that someone as frail as Wilcox can finish a race. Most don’t realize that she trains year-round, swimming laps in winter and paddling the Yukon River all spring. Through experience, she also knows the tricks: what slow-flowing channels to avoid, and how pushing herself through a headwind is, in the long run, a waste of energy

But her greatest weapon, as Torbick well knows, is an iron will.

Growing up in Germany, Wilcox walked with braces, despite the polio diagnosis and doctors who said she’d spend her life in a wheelchair. As a young woman in the seventies, she travelled alone to the Yukon and fell in love with the territory. Later, with her husband, Frank, she set up a gardening and greenhouse business which she sold after he died in 2004.

Now she has one more thing to prove: If she finishes the River Quest this year, she will be the first solo kayaker to do so 1o times.

If you don’t finish, Torbick reminds her, think about how you’ll feel tomorrow.

Several hours later, she helps her sister ease back into the yellow kayak. Wilcox offers a cheery farewell to her fans, but the sight of her setting off all alone makes Torbick feel sad as well as proud.

“It does seem like this is the last time,” she says.

FORT SELKIRK. Hour 37.

Allan Thomas is certain: This the stupidest thing he has ever done.

It all began on a lark. He and five buddies, all British soldiers and mostly in their 20s, had hopped a cheap flight from London looking for adventure. The Steelbacks wore water wings to the pre-race orientation meeting and packed Skittles for food.

“Let’s pray, shall we?” Thomas had said as he sponged rainwater off the duct-taped seat of their rented old canoe. He was kidding. What’s a little rain when you’re British? Sleep deprivation is child’s play when you’ve trained in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But it wasn’t long before they realized some heavenly intervention could have helped. The Steelbacks lost their water supply shortly after Lake Labarge (a mystery culprit forgot to screw on the cap). Even before they crashed on the bare and dirty floor of the canteen in Carmacks (they didn’t have a support crew and were too tired to put up the tent), one of the guys, in his dehydrated delirium, swore he’d seen a giant hampster in the woods.

Now, even as the morning sun warmed their bones after a second night on the river, and even though they had made it to the Fort Selkirk checkpoint at kilometre 455 – one of the most beautiful sections of the route with its soaring cliffs and historic buildings along the shore – morale had hit an all-time low.

A seemingly endless stream of boats had recently passed them – even a tiny grey-haired woman, paddling slow and steady all alone in her yellow kayak. She could have been his grandmother.

Alan Thomas“I feel if I have been torn in half, by a lion …”

DAWSON CITY. Hour 61.

The noon sun bakes a small crowd gathered on a grassy hill over the river as it flows along Front Street, on the north side of Dawson City. Robyn Benincasa, a world-class adventure racer from California and the ninth person to finish, peers through binoculars.

Definitely a yellow kayak, she reports. A female.

All night, a circulating crowd of paddlers and support crew members has dawdled here, hollering and clapping as each racer finishes. The first to arrive was the voyageur crew from Texas, shadowed – as they had been throughout the race – by Carter Johnson, who blew away the men’s solo kayak record with his time of 42 hours and 49 minutes – 95 minutes faster than the old mark and almost eight hours ahead of the next solo finisher. When he came out of the boat, the soles of his feet were pasty white – the most extreme case of bathtub skin anyone had seen.

And so it went through the night. The Jersey Boys came six hours later, raising their paddles in unison as Hearn, their support guy, dashed along the shore slinging Budweiser and Gatorade. Paddlers Abreast wiped away tears. The Steelbacks cracked the Stella tall boy they had carried 740 kilometres for that very moment. “I feel like I’ve been torn apart by a lion,” Thomas says, grinning. Summoning a burst of steam, they passed a half-dozen teams after Fort Selkirk, finishing 27th.

Strangely, even after their ordeal, most of the top finishers are too wired to sleep. A few wander the wooden sidewalks of Dawson City, passing the old saloons and popping in for a drink at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s casino. But they always seem to wind up back on the river, cheering the other paddlers as they trickle in.

With about half of the finishers still on the course (22 teams quit along the way), Wilcox comes in with a time – 61 hours and 34 minutes – that puts her in 35th place over all, and fourth among the six solo female kayakers. She’s the oldest by two decades.

A herd of people rush to a lower bank. Dawn Krog breathes “incredible” as an exhausted but giddy Wilcox allows her proud sister and a race marshal to hoist her out of her kayak. “How’s my hair?” she asks.

This is the last time, she announces. She has new adventures on her bucket list. Ten is a good number. Nothing more to prove.

But then, as she teeters up the bank, she adds: Maybe I will be back. In something easier, like a tandem kayak.

Victor Zyemtsev of the Ukraine and Meredith Kessler of the USA were winners of the 28th Annual Subaru Ironman Canada. This victory was the seventh for Zyemtsev and the first for Kessler. Zyemtsev finished ahead of Christian Brader and Stephan Vuckovic of Germany. Zyemtsev’s winning time was 8:32:28.

Kiwi Kieran Doe and Canadian Tom Evans were within seconds of each over the first 120km of the ride before Evans dropped off the pace. Doe went on to finish the bike with a 3:58 lead over Canadian Scott Curry and 4:02 over German Christian Bader. Doe’s lead off the bike started to erode 10km into the run as Brader took over the lead with Zyemtsev in the chase. Zyemtsev stayed within a minute of Brader until the 25 km mark, when they came together. The two ran shoulder to shoulder until the final turnaround on Lakeshore Drive where Zyemtsev put in a strong surge propelling him into a small lead over Brader. Brader was not able to match this acceleration and Zyemtsev went on to win the race with Brader finishing just 13 seconds back. Stephan Vuckovic from Germany had a solid run to finish the race in third.
Top five men’s results are below:
1.     Viktor Zyemtsev, Ukraine     8:32:28
2.     Christian Brader, GER          8:32:41
3.     Stephan Vuckovic, GER          8:38:31
4.     Petr Vabrousek, CZE          8:39:16
5.     Kyle Marcotte, CAN          8:40:45
On the women’s side, defending champion Tereza Macel had a strong swim coming out of the water in first place followed by American Meredith Kessler and Swiss Simone Benz who were just over a minute back. On the bike Macel went on to build a substantial lead over Canadian Heather Wurtele and Kessler coming into the out and back section of the course. It was at this point that Macel’s lead began to evaporate as she struggled to keep up the pace. Over the next 10km the chase pair passed Macel and went to complete the bike portion of the event with Kessler holding a slim 39 second lead over Wurtele. On the run the duo of Kessler and Wurtele stayed close to each other until Kessler put in a surge to open up a 2:13 second lead. Kessler extended her lead to win the event with Wurtele finishing second and a hard charging Mackenzie Madison finishing a distant third.
Top five women’s results are below:
1.     Meredith Kessler, USA          9:13:46
2.     Heather Wurtele, CAN          9:17:17
3.     Mackenzie Madison, USA     9:34:51
4.     Gillian Moody, CAN          9:40:10
5.     Christie Sym, AUS          9:41:30
Today’s event saw a record 2,780 athletes start in the waters of Okanagan Lake with a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a scenic 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile marathon finishing on Lakeshore Drive in downtown Penticton.
For more information on Subaru Ironman Canada and to view race results, visit http://www.ironman.ca. For media-related inquiries and imagery from today’s event, contact Helen Manning at Helen@nasports.com or 416-806-5273.

The Q’s Victoria Track Series wrapped-up its final meet Saturday with an exciting main event finish, which featured two of Canada’s top runners, two-time Canadian Marathon Champion and two time IAAF World Cross-Country Championships representative for Canada, Jim Finlayson of Victoria and 2:18 marathon runner and training partner, James Landon.

Final Meet – Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010:

The meet also saw 19-time Canadian Champion, Lucy Smith take on an earlier 5000m race during the meet besting all competitors both men and women with a near Canadian Master’s record time (40+) with her outstanding solo finish in 16:59.6 — photo by David Nicholls (http://pbase.com/nicintime)

The main event – the Elite Men’s 5000m, included Ryan McKenzie who has one of the fastest 5000m times in Canadian history (13:30) as a personal best, although he is currently working his way back into fitness, post-injury.
Pacer Trevor O’Brien led the field for 2000m of the first 5000m (12.5 laps). O’Brien is well known for his 800m speed and pacing Steve Osaduik for 20 of the 26.2 miles of the record-setting Royal Victoria Marathon that happened in 2006 with Osaduik’s 2:16:49.

With a large, early lead it appeared Finlayson had the race in his back pocket, before Landon managed to hunt Finlayson down in the final 20 metres of the race – a sprint ensued and Landon pipped Finlayson for the win, breasting the tape in a Series record time of, 14:45’4 to Finlayson’s 14:45’9.

Maurice Tarrant:

The evening also featured Maurice Tarrant who put aside his own Canadian age-group record smashing behavior by pacing a training partner for a few laps before taking off to set a provincial record as a consolation record.
Tarrant, who has owned as many as 58 Canadian age-group records, set four Canadian age-group records in four series races before succumbing to the heat of the Saturday Aug. 14 race – where the temperature at race time was 34 degrees Celsius.

The provincial record (on the Aug. 21) was doubly a consolation record. Tarrant’s training partners who also took on the 5000m race, Marcia Stromsmoe and Les McNeil will be competing in the BC Seniors Games later this summer in the 60-69 age-category.

The meet also saw 19-time Canadian Champion, Lucy Smith take on an earlier 5000m race during the meet besting all competitors both men and women with a near Canadian Master’s record time (40+) with her outstanding solo finish in 16:59.6.

Series seven records in eight meets:

During the series’ eight meets there were seven records set, David Guss of Edmonton raced an (Alberta) Provincial one-mile record time during the July 31 meet. Herb Phillips of Vancouver set the Canadian 70 age-category mile record that same night. Maurice Tarrant took four Canadian age-group records and one British Columbian, Provincial age-group record.

Last Sunday, during the Q’s Victoria Track Series Awards and Silent Auction night, Maurice Tarrant was, for the second time in his career, presented with the inaugural Maurice Tarrant award.

The Q’s Victoria Track Series Annual Maurice Tarrant Performance Award is presented to the athlete who gains the most votes by his contemporaries during the series Tarrant received 83 votes, second place received 29. The other Maurice Tarrant Award, which he won is a club award presented to him by the Prairie Inn Harriers Running Club.
Tarrant will be taking on the 80-plus Canadian age-group record for the half marathon at the Good Life Fitness Marathon Oct. 10, 2010.

Canada’s Catharine Pendrel capped her Mountain Bike World Cup campaign in stunning fashion Saturday in Windham, N.Y., racing to victory in the final round to capture the overall title.

The cyclist from Kamloops, B.C., became the third Canadian woman to achieve the lofty feat, following in the footsteps of Marie-Helene Premont, who won the World Cup title in 2008, and Alison Sydor, who won it multiple times in the 1990s.

Premont raced to silver Saturday, while American Georgia Gould finished third.

“This is amazing, to win my second World Cup of the season and the World Cup title, all a week before the world championships take place in Canada [in Mont-Saint-Anne, Que.],” Pendrel said.

“To win a World Cup race is always special, but to be consistent right through the season and win the title is hard. The race for the title was so tight all season, that it is extra special to win it.”

Pendrel attacked on the first of five laps, opening a 25-second gap on Premont. The Canadians rode away from the rest of the field, with the gap between the two remaining steady until the final lap, when Premont managed to close it and catch her rival at the top of the last climb.

Pendrel was able to pull away on the last descent en route to her second World Cup victory this season, and beat American Willow Koerber for the title. Premont was eighth in the overall World Cup standings.

“I know that I am stronger in the first half of the race, so I wanted to go out hard and establish a gap,” Pendrel said. “Marie was coming behind me, but I was able to get into the final descent ahead of her and it was enough to keep me in the lead.”

“MOMAR Cumberland is always a great race, and it’s so good to see local racers strengthening in both number and talent,” says MOMAR race director, Bryan Tasaka. Cumberland’s Jeremy Grasby, last year’s MOMAR Cumberland champion, will be defending his title against the 2010 MOMAR Squamish champ, John Markez of Vancouver, and the 2009 MOMAR Squamish winner, Bart Jarmula of Revelstoke.  Courtenay’s Genevieve Burdett will also be returning to defend her spot at the top as the 2009 MOMAR Cumberland’s top solo female racer. Locals will be joined by racers from Alberta, Newfoundland, Washington State, and all over BC.

MOMAR organizers are currently in the process of planning the race course.  “We like to keep the course fresh and unexpected,” says Tasaka. “We keep some of the best of old, but are really excited about the new terrain we’ll be including this year.” In addition to their typical sprint race, MOMAR offers a short course that will provide less seasoned racers with an opportunity to participate in a world-class adventure race.  Both the enduro (50km) course and short (30km) course will include mountain biking, kayaking, trail running, orienteering, and bushwhacking.

MOMAR organizers are still looking for some volunteers to assist with the coordination of this event. All volunteers receive a MOMAR T-shirt, entry to the infamous post-race dinner and party and the thrill of experiencing adventure racing up close.  For information on volunteering, contact lisa@mindovermountain.com.

Participating in a MOMAR, either as a racer or volunteer, also means you’ll be supporting MOMAR’s official charity, the Make-a-Wish Foundation. More information on racing, volunteering, MOMAR training clinics and their official charity is available at www.mindovermountain.com/momar or call 1.866.912.3331.

To say the previous record of 24:22 – set by New Zealand champion mountain runner Jonathan Wyatt - was “beaten” is an understatement. Shaving 32 seconds off a world-class, 6-year record is better described with superlatives such as “annihilated” or “destroyed”.

Says Salas of his astounding performance: “I was just trying for another fast time today. The last quarter was very fast for me; I didn’t really know how fast I could go. It’s kind of nice that the record for the Grind is back inVancouver.”

Salas is now the current titleholder for both the “official” and “recreational” Grouse Grind times. Official times are set during the annual BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run, where the start and finish lines are set a ways back from the trail entrance and trail head. Undertaking the Grouse Grind outside of the race sets the recreational time, in the same way the daily traffic of hikers would. Electronic devices known as “Grind Timers” record times.

Sebastian has been quietly attempting to beat Jonathan Wyatt’s recreational time by training on the Grind this season, building up to today’s mind-boggling climb.

The Grouse Grind is a 2.9km hike up the side of Grouse Mountain. It is a grueling workout that has earned the nickname “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster” and has become a cultural phenomenon in Vancouver. Having a good “Grind Time” is cause for bragging rights for locals.

From CBC News – Admist threats of banning all back-country travel in British Columbia due to wildfires, smoke is now threatening events outside the province including the Edmonton Derby marathon and half-marathon scheduled for Sunday. The ban would put a damper on the plans of many outdoor enthusiasts enjoying their summer vacation in the provincial wilderness.

Smoke from wildfires in British Columbia continued to hang over Edmonton on Friday, sparking fresh warnings from health officials.

People who already have respiratory conditions are most at risk, doctors say, but the smoke can also be harmful to otherwise healthy people if they exert themselves, and that’s bad news for the 4,000 entrants registered to compete in the Edmonton Derby marathon and half-marathon scheduled for Sunday.

The race is still on but Dr. Andre Corriveau, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said Friday he’s been in touch with the organizers and is advising athletes to use caution and common sense when competing.

“People will have to adjust their expectations perhaps, or maybe some people may choose to do the half-marathon instead of the full one,” he said. “So it’s really about providing guidance and letting people make their own decisions about what pace they want to run and how much of it they want to do.”

Organizers had hoped for a record-setting time because the course is relatively flat and the temperature is expected to be a comfortable 16 C. However, the poor air quality could affect finishing times.

Race organizer John Stanton said conditions are being monitored but, so far, he’s only heard from one athlete concerned about the smoke.

“People who are running in the half and full marathons are probably in their peak physical conditions,” he told CBC News. “And with the weather the way it’s clearing and a chance of rain today and tomorrow, we should have perfect running conditions for the half-marathon and full-marathon. ”

Athletes concerned about their health will be allowed to race a shorter distance, Stanton said.

Even golfers are feeling the effects of the smoky conditions.

Brad Lowrie braved the smoke to play a round of golf at the Victoria Golf Course, but after firing a tee shot at the seventh hole he couldn’t be certain where his ball landed.

“Well, we’re not sure if it went in the bunker or maybe to the opposite side of the green,” he said. “We won’t really know until we get there. Because of the haze we can’t really tell where the ball went.”

Katlin Greening had hoped to get in another round of training for a half-marathon on the weekend but she gave up after only two kilometres.

“It’s actually hard to breathe,” she said. “I’m going home right now. I’m just going to go to the gym today.”

The smoke is no laughing matter for volunteers such as Brooke Butler at this year’s Fringe Festival.

“I’m noticing a lot of wheezing, a lot of, generally, just difficulty in breathing,” Butler said, her mouth and nose covered by a white surgical-style mask.

There is no end in sight to the smoky conditions.

© Copyright – 2010 – Christopher Kelsall – Originally published on Flotrack -

Note: I wrote this interview with Bruce Deacon during March of 2010, for the May issue of Canadian Running Magazine. As the print business goes, the Canadian Running Magazine version was truncated down to 794 words. That is plenty of truncating! But a thank you must go out to Michal Kapral, Editor-in-Chief, as he let me be the one to shorten the conversation, giving me authority over the delete button (and the backspace button too). Thus I chose what words would remain for the print product; for this I am appreciative. Thanks Michal! I have seen a few too many articles shredded by someone else, where the end result may as well have been conducted by a rhesus monkey over-dosed on pseudoephedrine, trapped and swing-dancing in a carton of razor blades.

A very similar version of this interview also ran on Canadian Running Magazine’s website, shortly after the May issue had run its course on the newsstands – it sells quickly. For those not in Canada, CRM is dressed like Runner’s World Magazine, but performs a little more like Running Times Magazine or somehwere in between the two.

Since this interview, Bruce has continued his comeback from surgery of Haglund’s Deformity; it’s a heel-thing that is more common than you may think. You may follow his comeback by visiting his blog: The Long Road.

Here is the interview in its entirety:

Bruce Deacon caught and held the attention of the Canadian distance running community for nearly a decade, as he qualified and competed internationally during much of the country’s marathon-distance dry spell. The lone torch bearer – sort of speak – of Canadian distance running, Deacon competed admirably for Canada, placing a very respectable 11th and 16th at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships, winning silver at the Pan American Games, twice winning the California International Marathon, once in a storm, besting Kenyan, Elly Rono (who has a personal best time of 2:10:57) and he won the other CIM in oppressive heat. 

Now retired from competing internationally, Bruce works with the Canadian Olympic Committee in delivering education programs to Canadian schools. He kindly took the time from his busy work schedule to talk with me regarding his running career.

Christopher Kelsall: Most Canadians, who fancy themselves fans of the sport of running, are familiar with your story of competing in two marathons when you were 12-years of age. I understand that for typical stick and ball games you weren’t normally a high, schoolyard pick. Were you experimenting with marathons then because you weren’t playing on teams?
 
Bruce Deacon: I was one of the shortest kids in my school and really uncoordinated. I was the kid who rushed for the outfield in gym class because I knew that no one could hit the ball that far and so I wouldn’t embarrass myself. I was not an athlete. In fact, if they had a vote in my school for the least likely to ever be an Olympian, I would have voted for myself. 
 
It wasn’t until the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games that I really wanted to be an athlete. I prayed: “God if you find me a sport at which I can beat the big kids (pretty much all the other kids), then I would work really hard at it.” I went away to a summer camp and discovered I could run long distances. I just figured that God expected that I live up to my end of the deal and train at it.

I wasn’t last in my first races, but I was close enough to last to convince myself that longer distances, like the marathon, might be where I could best achieve a bit of sporting success. So, I did two marathons when I was 12. I would have done more, but for Bill Rodgers. I was a HUGE fan, and wrote him to tell him that I was running marathons. He was kind enough to write back, and wise enough to steer me towards track.

CK: You were around 9-years of age during the Montreal Games, which seems young to recognize you were probably not going to be a stick and ball athlete and that you wanted to be an Olympian.

BD: I was 10 during the games and didn’t really see much of them until we were herded into the gym in the fall to watch the films. I spent most of my summers at our cottage and at camp, so I didn’t watch much TV during the Montreal Games. I do think that there was divine direction during my teen years. I believe that as you use the abilities God gives you, that you are given more opportunities. I look back and see lots of great opportunities that opened up and how they encouraged me to persevere.

CK: You were one of a few to represent Canada internationally in distance running during the 1990s and early 2000s. You managed a couple 2:13 marathon results. It appears that even though Canadian distance running has been improving over recent years, your times would still be top-level as a Canadian today. How far away do you think we are from seeing someone pop a sub-2:10?

BD: Well, I would preface my remarks by saying that there were some great Canadian marathoners in the 1990s, including Peter Maher, Peter Fonseca, Carey Nelson and Art Boileau. All of these runners ran faster than I did. I guess the difference is that I outlasted them and kept at it. I think that Canada will get its sub-2:10, but you never know by who and when. I am confident that Coolsaet, Bairu or Gillis can run really fast, but you just can’t guarantee anything in the marathon. It is a strange event and luck plays a bigger role in it than in most others. There were many times I was ready for a 2:11 or 2:12, but arrived at the race to find howling winds or something small going wrong. I thought for sure that Jeff Schiebler would get a 2:08, or that Jon Brown would run 2:07, but so many little things can derail you. It isn’t like a shorter distance where you can try again the next week. In the marathon, your whole season comes down to one race.

CK: How is recovery from surgery on your Haglund’s Deformity progressing?

BD: It is getting better each day. It will still be a while until I can start a run-walk program, but I am running in the pool. I am just glad that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I battled with chronic Achilles tendinosis for more than a year and simply couldn’t run. I had all kinds of treatments that in the end proved to be very frustrating. Half the battle is learning the cause of the pain. The other half is getting rid of the pain and recovering.

CK: Seems like you have a high tolerance for boredom and pain. I am sure I read that you ran on a treadmill in a sauna in advance of a potential hot-weather marathon for the purpose of heat acclimatization.

BD: Yes, and it works like a charm. Prior to some of my hot-weather races I also used a heat chamber built around a treadmill. I was running in 40C heat and let me tell you how tough that makes you.

CK: You and I had a conversation once about base building. You seemed to indicate that after all of your years of running, you questioned how much of a base phase you really needed to repeat every cycle. Also I remember you once mentioning that your anaerobic phase is or was 8 – 12 weeks before you stop seeing improvements, which seems like a fairly long stretch. Looking at your 5k, 10k and half-marathon times in comparison to your marathon results, do you think you needed a lot more quality than a typical marathoner – that as a distance guy your stamina was easily improved?

BD: I found the long runs relatively easier than many people. I am more of an endurance guy and lack the leg speed of a lot of others. I mean on a downhill track with a running start and a tailwind, I might have been able to run a 54 second quarter. I would have a 10-13 week marathon build-up that would include a mix of aerobic and anaerobic threshold running. However, the anaerobic running would be more 5,000m or 10, 000m pace work. I would always include some 5-10K work in my typical week of marathon training, and would very rarely do a full week of nothing other than aerobic running unless I was in a recovery period after a marathon. I guess I never really felt that this was sound training practice. 
 
When you are training, you want to create a sufficient training stimulus to cause your body to adapt to a higher level of fitness. If you keep the same types of training for much more than 4-5 weeks, then your body will begin to experience a diminishing return on your training. For instance, if I run a 20-mile long run week in and week out, I sooner or later get into diminishing returns. My body has adapted to the stimulus, and I no longer gain any additional fitness. I need to either increase the stimulus or detrain and then return to the 20-mile long runs later. Many runners feel that if they bump up their long runs from 20 to 22 it will create a much greater stimulus. I don’t buy that. I don’t think that your body will differentiate between another 12-15 minutes of running. I would usually get my longest runs in the first 5 weeks of a marathon build-up. I would then reduce the volume and focus on more quality. I might do a 24-26 mile long run at week 5-6 of the build up, and then do a 20 mile run with 10-13 miles at pace (or faster) at week 8.

CK: Any leg speed in your weeks – alactic strides?

BD: Well, over the span of my career, I tried tons of things. I used to do a lot of diagonal strides on a soccer field. I would do these on easy days in my second session. I also did these really short activation sprints of maybe 4-6 strides as fast a possible. These were to activate the central nervous system and I would do them when I was fully warmed up in a morning easy run. 

CK: Can you tell me about your role with the Vancouver Winter Olympics?

BD: I lead the Western office of the Canadian Olympic Committee. The COC has offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver (until the end of March). In the Vancouver office we take care of all of the COC’s education program and community relations West of Toronto. My primary responsibility is the Canadian Olympic School Program, which provides Olympic themed classroom activities for close to 1 million students.

CK: Was the delivery of the classroom activities successful? Was it well embraced by the schools and administration?

BD: Over the last two years, we have grown from a membership of 14,000 to over 52,000. We are now one of the best and most respected Olympic Education programs in the world.

Ed note: Bruce wrote in an August 16, 2010 message, “you may adjust the Canadian School Program numbers from 52, 000 to 65, 000. When we spoke, we were gaining upwards of 1500 new members/day…no kidding, it was crazy.”

CK: How was such a great level of success achieved?

BD: I think it helps having a home Games, but a lot of it is the result of the work that my team has done to elevate the program to a whole new level. We had a really successful execution of a solid plan and vision. I approached this with the same intensity that I did marathon running, and it paid off.  

CK: What are your thoughts on the IAAF versus the Canadian Olympic Committee’s standards for the marathon? You had run your fastest marathon time of 2:13:18, well inside the international A standard and even faster than Jon Brown had (for the UK at the time) and you were left off the team. Jon ended up within seconds of a bronze medal for Great Britain.

BD: It was a decision by the COC to have top-12 as the standard for 2004. It hurt, because I thought I should have been on the team. I was less than a second per kilometre from qualifying, but in the end I wasn’t fast enough. Each country determines its standards and then the athletes have to make them. It is really that simple. I had raced well on the Athens course (16th at WC in ‘97), but that didn’t seem to matter.

CK: If you were in the position to change the particular criteria, would you and what changes would you make?

BD: Now the COC lets the NSOs (National Sports Organizations) determine their selection standards based on IAAF standards. That is the way it should be.

I think that the IAAF standard should be sufficient to qualify. We focus way too much on qualifying and it sends all the wrong messages. By the time the athlete has qualified, he is so exhausted by all of the process, that he has had little time to focus on the purpose of the exercise – performing well when it counts. Prior to being selected for my first World Championships, I had to write a letter explaining how I intended to come top-16. The expectations were clear: perform or don’t go. We need to spend more time focusing our athletes on performance at the event and less time trying to keep them off the team.
We waste our efforts keeping people off the team. We need to focus on getting marathoners to perform at the event and not trying to set the bar so high that making the team becomes the big accomplishment. It is counter-productive.  We want people to race well when it counts, not chase standards for a team uniform. We should take more risks, but hold people more accountable at the Championships.

CK: Currently reading?
 
BD: Recently read: Playing the Enemy, Trade Like the Little Guy, and When the Heart Waits.
 
CK: Favourite running oriented book?

BD: Once a Runner

CK: Currently on your iPod?

BD: U2, CCR, Lifehouse, David Gray, Chris Tomlin, Delirious, Guess Who and a bunch more.

CK: I assume you don’t have any vices, but if you did, what would it be?

BD: I do have vices…Starbucks Coffee for starters.

CK: Are you a lifetime runner? Are you going to run marathons as long as you are physically able?

BD: I would say that these are two very different questions. I hope to always run. I would like to race again, but I am not sure if this will be at the marathon distance.

CK: Your eldest son must be ready for a marathon, is he 11 or 12 now?

BD: You are a cheeky one, Kelsall. My oldest is 10 and has no interest in running. My youngest is more interested in running than the oldest. I am just fine with this. 

I would not advise them to run marathons before they are in their 20s (if they are ever so inclined). However, I believe that there are development windows for endurance where aerobic exercise can yield high returns. From 11-13 is one of these windows. You don’t have to get kids running marathons to benefit from this window, but you can introduce them to longer easy running, tough hiking, cross country skiing, long bike rides, swimming lengths, etc. In western countries we are so scared that we will over do things, that we discourage kids from working on their aerobic endurance until they are older. Africans don’t have this hang up.

In September 2010, a group of dedicated White Rock Fire Fighters from Local 2407 will be cycling from Halifax, Nova Scotia to White Rock, BC to raise funds for Variety! They will ride in a relay format and plan to complete the tour in less than two weeks.

From now until their ride, the fire fighters from Local 2407 will be raising money by collecting pledges for their ride. “Raising money for charity has always been a big part of what we do. This event will be our biggest charity event to date!” says team leader, Eric Kameka.

Now you can be a part of the ride and Hop on in Hope! The Shore2Shore team is looking for other cyclists to ride the last leg of the trek with them, a 140km ride from Hope to White Rock. The Hope to White Rock ride will be on the final day of riding, Tuesday, September 21^st. Start time will be 10am and is expected to finish by 4pm. A celebration in White Rock waits all the cyclists, friends, family and other members of the community.

Participants should be experienced cyclists and able to maintain a pace of 25 km an hour. There will be brief stops every hour as well as a police escort the entire way to ensure the safety of all riders.  There are several options to get involved and join the ride. All levels of donors starting at $1,000, will receive a custom jersey and the opportunity to ride with the team. Donors of $2,500 and up qualify for the following women’s or men’s road bike: $2,500 – Allez X3/Dolce X3, $5,000 – Allez Sport/Dolce Sport V, $7,500 – Ruby Elite/Roubaix C2, $10,000 – Amira Comp /Tarmac, $50,000+ – Amira/Tarmac SL3 DA.Interested cyclists must register by September 6^th by contacting Tara Kurtz, Variety Special Events Coordinator at 604.320.0505 or tara.kurtz@variety.bc.ca. All proceeds go directly to Variety. The ride from Hope is supported by Specialized and Peninsula Cycles in White Rock.

To support this group of amazing guys click here.Visit the Shore2Shore Blog for great updates from the team!For more information, contact Tara Kurtz at tara.kurtz@variety.bc.ca or call 604.320.0505.

Written by Regan Lauscher and published August 15th in the Globe and Mail -

Mud clinging to their teeth and dirt splayed across their limbs, the tough-as-nails competitors of the TransRockies Mounatin Bike race crossed the finish line Saturday and dismounted with a sense of exhaustion and pride.

The seven-day, 399-kilometre expedition through perilous wilderness and extreme elements –beginning in Fernie, B.C., and ending in Canmore, Alta. – forced even the sport’s most accomplished athletes to breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of the finish tape.

“I’m sort of glad it’s over,” said Chris Sneddon of Sechelt, B.C., co-winner of the open men’s category and co-winner of the TransRockies 2008. “It was a long, long race.”

Sneddon, who has been riding for about eight years, said that Friday’s extreme weather, coupled with the intense demands of a 2,200-metre ascent to high altitude, made it one of the toughest days of the event.

“It was a lot harder than I thought it would be,” he said, “very technical, single track with water on it so it was quite slippery. To get away from anybody you had to pedal ridiculously hard.”

Calgary’s Jeff Neilson, co-winner and reigning champion of the open mixed category with partner and fellow Calgarian Mical Dyck, described the week as a “roller coaster.”

“When it was about four degrees and raining on us, you couldn’t feel your hands, you’re worried about your health, worried about your safety,” Dyck said. “That was probably one of the points of just digging as deep as you can and know that you got to keep moving forward.”

Changes to this year’s course included shortening it by about 140 kilometres, essentially swapping out long, gravel connecting sections for shorter, more technical single-track riding. And given the weather that riders endured last week, it was a good decision.

“To be quite honest, [Friday] was horrific,” TransRockies spokesman Paul Done said. “We actually gave our teams the option of coming off the high-altitude portion of the race. We imposed a time penalty if they did, but in the interest of safety … we’re not here to kill our riders or injure them. We really felt that a lot of the slower riders would struggle across the exposed sections.”

More than half the teams took the option.

Besides Mother Nature’s notorious unpredictability, teams were also challenged by the brute physicalities of the taxing terrain, mechanical malfunctions inherent in mountain bike racing, mental endurance, and strategy.

“Off the start is if there is going to be a bottleneck of any kind,” Neilson said. “Mical launches the attack, I try to follow and we ride up there with the professional men. On the road, if it’s slightly downhill, I make a good draft, sometimes she ducks in, but other times she’s out front just hammering away.”

Dyck, who now rides for Trek after recently turning pro, says this race will help propel her into the world championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Que., at the end of the month.

“It’s not so much the winning, just the actual riding,” she said. “The 30 hours in the saddle, it’s super good training. I had my best race last year after TransRockies. … You come out so much stronger.”

But Dyck will not only reap the training benefits and sponsor swag from this year’s TransRockies, she’ll also take home some Union Cycliste Internationale points, which riders need to secure a good starting position in the world championships.

This being the first year as a UCI sanctioned event, Done hopes the TransRockies will help elevate the success of North American riders.

A sentiment shared by Canmore Mayor Ron Casey as he stood at the finish line, cowbell in hand.

“This is so much what Canmore is about … the lifestyle,” he said. “We’re going to see our young athletes now being inspired by these riders to go and compete and become world-class athletes.”

http://clubfatass.com/blog/ean-jackson/jacksons-last-minute-100-miler-checklist

St.Louis Ultra-Runner Jason Eads’ race report from the Squamish Stormy 100:

“What are you, a meteorologist????” It began with rain…

It’s amazing what I’ll let friends talk me in to. That’s how I think of STORMY 100 miler many months after I signed up earlier this year. My friend, Ean “Action” Jackson, exudes the type of persuasiveness that is just the sort to make me wonder: “should I REALLY do this???”, but then he makes it sound like it would be the best thing in the world and I’d feel like a fool to turn down such an awesome opportunity.

So, I put my name in for the race and decided I’d stack up a heavy duty Spring racing schedule so I’d have no excuses not to train. Not that I was taking those events early in the year lightly, but my “big” race for the year was UNDOUBTEDLY going to be STORMY. I really wanted to “show up” for this one!

Continue reading more on Clubfatass.com

Rumon from Team Tinhorn Creek / North Shore Athletics provided this pre-report for the trans-rockies 7-day mountain bike stage race:

Friends:

North Vancouver’s Gary Robbins has run the 80km West Coast Trail in a record breaking time of 10 hours and 8 minutes, beating the previous record by 5 minutes. Gary will be posting a full account of his run on his blog shortly, in the meantime check out the video above which was taken as he finished. Congrats Gary!

The following report and photos come courtesy of TR’s Okanagan interior reporter Dirk Handke. Thanks as always Dirk!

WHO WAS WILLIS GREENAWAY?

Willis lost his three-year battle with Alzheimer’s three days after his 86th birthday in 2008. Willis’ running achievements include age category Canadian records in the 1500m, 5000m, 10mile and 50km distances. His 1992, 3:29:00 Portland Marathon clocking still ranks as a ‘BC Best’ for the 70-74 age category. At the age of 81/82 he ran four marathons in the calendar year, including Boston. But those who knew Willis will remember him best, not for his running, but for the personable, easy-going, gentle man that he was. (Ron Sherk)

About the WILLIS GREENAWAY HALF: As well as honoring Willis, the WILLIS GREENAWAY HALF will help support Alzheimer research. Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia now affects one in eleven Canadians over the age of 65. Donations can be made at the B.C. Alzheimer Society website with this link http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=904174 (Ron Sherk)

To continue reading Dirk’s report and to view the many photos from the event please click here…