Yup, urban downhilling. The kind of things our mothers warned us about. Actually, ours didn't, but one suspects mothers in most well-adjusted households tend to warn their offspring about this sort of thing. Oh, and Parisien girls/boys (depending on ones preference).
Then there's this one; some dude climbing then bombing the Stelvio on what appears to be ca, 70" fixed. Well, at least he didn't have to worry about his brake-blocks overheating
If you don't know what the Stelvio is, ask your mother (the same lady who warned you abut urban downhilling). Speaking of things your mother should have warned you about, these guys also brought us this;
Thanks for Cookie MacKilt putting us on to this one. We were aware that a couple of guys had gone north for this event, but there were more triathletes at the ski marathon than at Goffs. Here are a few of the pics from Cookie MacKilt'sphoto album from the event on Facebook;
Mark Cookie Monster Campbell did, in fact, win. Chapeau Mark
Shawn Amirault, IKON 2009 Fair Play Award winner was 2nd
Mens' podium (marathon)
Paul Newton and Gerrad Lewin (below) were also in the event
Darlene Chapman won the ladies.
In the half, Geoff Bennett (far right) was 2nd overall
Jason Murphy, 2009 IKON Official of the Year Finalist, was in the half as well (seen here mucking about in the waxing hut),
as was Ron MacDougall.
Geoff's Son, Luke Bennett (below left) cleaned up in the 7K; all the kids he beat, bar one, were older than he was: way to go Luke!
Amy Gough (below right) was 2nd in the 7K
We saw a photo of Ingonish RD Dan Murray, but we didn't see his name in the results but Dan has just had a busy time with the Canada Games cross country ski, so he was probable due a break.
To add to Dan's workload he was recently interviewed for Triathlon Magazine Canada as we understand Ingonish was also recently profiled in Triathlon Magazine Canada (and Brooke Brown got a name-check for her Cozumel result). We say "we understand" because, to be honest, the TA didn't get past the picture of Miranda Carfrae on p11!
A certain back-to-school feeling this morning, as we hit the first Nova Scotia race of the season. Well, we say first, we know many have been racing already, but these are races that involved strapping ungainly hardware to ones' feet and moving at improbable speeds on surfaces with suicidally low coefficients of friction.
Cookie MacKilt hit the road again this weekend for another loppet, the Trail Shop Marathon in Cape North, Cape Breton. Cookie stopped off at the Gaelic Cottage to get in touch with his Pictish roots...
(we can't help but feel there's some woad in there) before going up Smokey...
and arriving at Cape North, where he hung with the big dog himself...
We understand Cookie Snr may have been on the winning end of this event, but you know how reliable information on the internets can be, so we'll get back to you on this one.
Back on the mainland and back to the Goffs Back To Basics 8 miler; the traditional Run Nova Scotia season opener. Of course, the phrase "back to basics" was ruined for the TA by both it's use as a campaign slogan by the British Tory party some 18 years ago and an inventive corruption seen on posters around the University of Aberdeen a year or so later (Back To Baa-something or another, we forget). A corruption much in the same vein as Sylvain Morin's unfortunate attack of Sponnerism over the phrase "Atlantic Chip Timing". But we digress.
It was a reasonably warm day at Goffs, plus-something centigrade, but the sun never came out. Nevertheless, it was surprisingly warm out and many runners were feeling overdressed by the turnaround, which was where we were: where-else would the TA be? Really!
We saw several familiar faces. We didn't see the results as we were involved in a slight tizz at the finish, but we'll go on hear-say and how we think it unfolded after seeing the race at half-distance. Rayleen Hill was first lady and, by the strength of what we saw, third overall or perhaps fourth. She was on cracking form at the end of last season and the winter doesn't seem to have blunted her speed. The smile says it all.
Stacy Juckett-Chestnutt was second lady we think, and obviously posted a 54. This wasn't Stacy's first time placing a foot-fall in anger this year and this result comes off a couple of recent excellent placings over 5K and the half-marathon in FLA.
We also saw Brenda Topliss and Candice Stapleton out for an early-season leg-stretcher, the latter rocking up to registration in her Team Canada walk-out gear from last year's Worlds; tres chic.
For the guys, we think Chris MacKenzie was the first one of our guys back. He reckons he's not fit because it's still fishing season and he hasn't started to train yet. We can't speak for the fishing, but he clearly seems fit! Garth Spinney also made the trip of Yarmouth, and had a good race. We couldn't find a pic of either of them racing, but we did find a pic of them trying to put the frighteners on a course-marshal :)
We're gonna need a bigger boat!
Also out there were Alan Miner, looking strong as always and eyeing the du season. Finally, we saw Ralph Davis who, as you can see, raced in his own indomitable style.
The usual caveats about the reliability, or fallibility, of TNS's Member Tracking Software apply!
Goffs is rarity, being an RNS race run by RNS itself with RNS as the race organiser! Most RNS events are run by an independent race organiser and are sanctioned by RNS. TNS runs on the same general principle (just an FYI). As such, many prominent faces in RNS are to be seen helping out at Goffs, not racing. We saw 2009 banquet guest-speakers Dave Nevitt and Ray Williams staffing the water-table for example.
Rather like Stacy, Dave has just come back from a successful racing trip down south, where he clocked two marathons (his 81st and 82nd if anyone's counting) and a 100K Ultra. Or put another way, let us know if you clock 184 kilometers of running races this year - Dave has that already (Ron McKilt and Cookie need not apply).
Next up? The Moose Run; a hilly 25 kms in Eastern Passage on March 20th. This rce won't tell you if you're on track for your spring marathon, but it will sure tell you if you're not. So if you're Boston, Ottawa, Toronto Waterfront, Cincinatti or (God help you) Bluenose bound, you need to get this on your calendar. After that, it's the Lung Run, a flat 5K on the Halifax waterfront.
Then we get going with Stacy's Double-header; the Shelter Challenge - the Benny Bulldog 5K and the Du It For Shelter Duathlon (May 14/15). Last year, the TA won a bottle of gin for winning the weekend (sorry Rambo); for the sakes of our liver please put these dates in your calendar!
Hic!
AD
Photos from David Holder and rRon MacDougall; thanks guys.
