How far for rum?

Is there no stopping the guy?

http://www.journalpioneer.com/News/Local/2010-09-20/article-1774501/Testing-personal-limits-on-Terry-Fox-Run/1

As you can see, the Tartan Tally/Cookie Counter has been updated to take into account Ironman.

Ron has a seemingly unassailable lead of ten events with only fourteen weekends left this season, including this one. The question de jour is should Mark be given an extra count on the counter for RDing Shubie-Doobie and, similarly, should McScotch get a Tally-mark for the 50k-er?

Let us know; as always, your decision will be final.

Speaking of this weekend, the virtual TNS team for Rum Runners is looking like this;

Leg#1: Tom Rogers, Trevor MacLean

Leg#2: Kali Caulier, Jen Worden, Marie-Claude Gregoire

Leg#3: TurnAround

Leg#4: Nancy Petrie, Garth Spinney

Leg#5: Chris MacKenzie

Leg#6: Ian Loughead

Leg#7: Tammy Slaunwhite, Brigitte Sabourin, Caitlin Cormier, Phillip Caulier, Ian McGrath, Chris MacKenzie

Leg#8: Janelle Knickle, Dan Thompson

Leg#9: Suzanne Ferrier, Candice Stapleton, Farley MacLeod, Ron MacDougall

Leg#10: Freda Cormier, Meghan McNamara, Sean Borden

Reply on the FB page or comment below if you're running a leg; we'd love to firm this table up.

We're surprised no-one has been tapped for Leg#4 yet, the long one. Triathletes often make up a good fraction of the 60 or so lining up at the fire-hall; for better or for worse team captains seems to regard us as endurance athletes! Even with a few blanks, it looks like a good team. We wonder how it will fare? The trash-talk around the running community is the Halifax Running Club-A team, going for a record fourth consecutive win of the barrel, is facing a determined challenge from Oxford At 8 and this years dark-horses, Les garcons de St Pierre et Miquelon. Both are teams that have come second to HRC-A in recent years and have scores to settle. Rumours Oxford's Harry Neynens has a picture of Rami Bardessey on his dartboard have to remain unconfirmed.

The eponymous barrel.

The ladies race also seems to be a good one, with four all-ladies teams this year; a League Of Their Own will have to work hard too for an all-ladies repeat.

See you on Rte3 this weekend; as along as you park with all four wheels off the road and don't drop runners at the start/finish I think we'll get on just fine. And don't forget to vote opposite.

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Not that kind of triathlon

The TurnAround saw this on the London Underground last week;

Run, plant, wish. We could do that.

Now we hope this doesn't cause problems! We remember hearing at Investors '05 Sylvain Morin's Spoonerism attack with the words "Atlantic Chip Timing" (hint; the final word was "Chiming") and we haven't been the same since.

So please remember it's triathlon, not treeathlon the next time you're in conversation. Furthermore there is no second 'a' in triathlon (between the 'h' and the 'l'), and has three syllables, not four. Same rationale for duathlon.

Repeated violations will be reported to the TNS Elocution Committee (emails addressed to the Executive Director will reach this c'ttee!)

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Shubie Doobie;

From Shubie Doobie RD Mark Campbell

Wow, what a week, weekend, day!

Thanks to the overwhelming response and all those that braved some challenging conditions on a pretty tough course. Putting a triathlon on inside the city limits certainly has its challenges, but it is well worth it when I can finally relax hearing that everyone has made it safe in off the bike.

There are many of you that challenged yourself with this event either for speed, placing or just to complete it. Congrats to all! So glad to see so many first timers too as they finished and are seemingly now hooked.

Barring any unforseen expenses, I will be passing a cheque for over $5700 to the Give To Live cancer cause. (www.givetolive.ca). Every year I get very humbling and amazing messages from people, many touched deeply by cancer and also support the event for that reason. It is for those moments that I am already thinking of next year.

While it seems we still learn every year and everything may not go exactly as planned, we will continue to try and improve and make this event run as well and as safe as possible. The event would not come off without generous support from sponsors. Please be sure to thank them with a little business if you possibly can : the trail shop, cyclesmith, java blend coffee, aerobics first, helly hansen, genworth financial, four points shereton, and also products from camelbak, icebreaker merino wool, new balance, salomon, and oakley.

Once again a huge thanks to the crew, the race day volunteers who graciously give up their own time, and of course my dear wife Amy, for all these 'great' ideas that we get each other into.

As we had completed the final tasks of clean-up at around 6:30pm, my final task was to paddle my kayak back home from the beach. As tired as I was, it was a quick, but very relaxing journey, where I felt a great relief of pressure. I also couldn't help thinking how lucky I am. I really can only at tribute it to luck, as I have been so very fortunate to have had so many great experiences and met people who inspire and motivate to do more.

So I must say it is I who is thankful to be able to host this event for you all, and lets do it all again next year shall we?!!

in gudhealth,

mark c.

World Duathlon Championships

Wow, those were a long two days; up at 05:00 (which felt like 01:00 with the unresolved jet-lag), race site at 06:00 (continue subtracting 4hrs as desired), first wave off at 08:00 and last athlete home at 17:30 (or later). Add in an officials meeting at 18:00 or later.....

Still, it was a good and rewarding time out. It was amazing to work with a large team of knowledgeable officials and we feel that we learned a lot about being an official. Sometimes our life as an official is a bit like one's professional life; there's always something to learn. Just getting your undergrad isn't enough, there's then the post-grad, and the post-doc and then all the things you learn as you actually do the job rather than just learn about it, where sometimes best practices vary from the theory.

Another thing; I (the TA) felt it hard to feel welcome within Team Canada (perhaps even being actively brushed off!), but felt as though I was immediately made welcome within the officials' team. Far from being given the windy corner at the back of Arthurs Seat (there was one) as I had feared, being a "newbie" in a British Triathlon officials team, all of whom knew each other, I was given interesting roles with responsibility. It was pointed out at the debrief that this showed the international nature of triathlon and the "brotherhood" within officialing; as well as 15 BT officials there were two Canadians, two Kiwis, a Dutch, an Aussie and the TD was Hungarian. We all (literally) sing from the same hymn-sheet and while I/we were on the blue carpet we could have been anywhere, and I felt just as valuable a member of the team as the established British Triathlon officials. For this I have to thank the Asst TD John Petrades, the Chief Official Bob Newton, the Head Ref Paul Groves and the TD Lorand Kalotai; merci guys!

Here are some pics from the event (we'll post some scrappy video later). Apologies in advance for the quality; a Nokia 'phone isn't necessarily the best thing to use, but it's all we had...

Age-group morning as the sun rises over Arthurs Seat

Three of the South African Junior ladies on the climb of Arthurs Seat. I felt sorry for them; it was a chilly Edinburgh morning, but temp wise it was a bad winters day in Cape Town for them and they were racing in one-piece, sleeveless tri-suits. They must have felt freezing! They were spread all over the course at the end of R1. After one loop on the bike the coaches got the first two girls to wait for the second two, who were in danger of getting lapped (out). They came together on lap 2 as a four; this was a dangerous tactic as they all could have been lapped out, but they worked together and all of them finished the race.

David and Michelle, two of the BT officials, in the finish chute during the age-group medal ceremonies. Yes, they look cold.

The motor-bikes. I was on the first one in line; big Honda Goldwing - I asked my pilot when the stewardess was coming around with the drinks! The hardest thing in the junior races was not falling asleep. The ladies race woke me up and I had to officiate in three languages; English, French and Afrikaans, four if you include Scottish English!

The officials huddle in Elite TZ

Checking bikes in to Elite men's TZ. Those two ladies got every single guy to drop his trousers!

The senior officials (L-R); John Pretrades (asst TD), Brian Hinton (Team Leader), Lorand Kalotai (TD) and Bob Newton (Chief Official).

The finishing chute

It's not "The Devil" but there was a Belgian witch on the climb. She must have spun her magic as the Belgians took and emotional 1-2 in the Elite Mens as well as a gold in the Junior ladies!

Your faithful reporter in the finish chute. The closest I'll ever get to international glory came when my oppo David and I did some sprint finishes down here early on Saturday morning to help the guys calibate the photo finish camera. At least I won the sprints!

I'm not saying anything against Edinburgh (beautiful city) or Scotland, or even the UK, but the Officials and Voluntolds freebie gear was a tech t-shirt or two and the big red rain-coats you see we're all wearing. Rain-coats!

Marie-Claude Gregoire at the mount line. I think she needs a bigger whistle!

Holding the finish-line tape and trying to stay out of the shot.

A Canadian gold medalist, Mr Frakes (can't remember his first name) breaks the tape in the 40-44 category. Go Team Canada!

The Age-Group finishers medals.

As officials we are supposed to be impartial, but I still managed to sneak a pair of Triathlon Canada socks into the finish chute (besides, I haven't received my ITU ones yet. Are there ITU socks?). I recused myself from any sprint finish involving a Canadian however.....

The morning after; all the ITU scrim and the officials vests wait for their lift to Budapest.

The medals they were all fighting for. This is a Gold Medal, sweet eh? Only problem; after so many ceremonies and al right next to the finish-line (where I was stationed) I couldn' get the music (the ITU anthem I think, or maybe the special BT music?) out of my head, grrrr.

That's all for now folks, I'll try and post some video later. See you all back in YHZ next week.

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World Duathlon Pre-Game, well game

Today was the start of competition at World Du's, with the paraduathlon taking place immeaditely after the Parade of Nations. We missed the parade, being on completely the other side of Holyrood Park at the time but we'll try and bring you some photos from that when we can find them.

Communication is key at these events, and the schedule for the weekend is prominently displayed all over race-site on these big banners.

Turned up a bit early at race site, but soon enough the Chief Official turned up and we sorted out our roles. We got, perhaps appropriately, the turnaround on the bike course. We rocked off to the turn on the back of a large, comfy Gullwing kitted out in the best black gillett vest the ITU had to offer.

Of course once there, we found our radio didn't work behind the big lump of volcanic rock that is Arthur's Seat and I'm sure we were communicating with TZ by smoke-signals at one point.

Of course, any voluntolding gig isn't complete without manhandling racks and zip-ties and we had our wishes granted as we set up the TA just so.

The TA (as in us, not the thing we were building) now has a huge case of barrier-envy now as these barriers were made of aluminium and really light to portage! We didn't get the upper-body work-out we got at Magog, and to be honest, that's OK by us!

The race itself went without a hitch from our perspective at the back of Arthurs Seat, we didn't even get to use the penalty box! There were only a couple of near-crashes, which considering the turnaround was a tear-drop shaped 180 at the bottom of a gentle incline is a pretty good record!

Here is my oppo for the day, Massie from the BTF and Nicki, one of the voluntolds.

After a quick debrief and going through my lap-audit notes with the Chief Official and TD we were released for the evening, but have another meeting at 21:00 tonight. As we left race-site, the bike course was openned to age-groupers and Elites.

As you can see it was crowded; the draft-busters are going to be busy tomorrow.

A word on that course. It's a toughie. There is ca. 150m of climbing on each lap; the Arthurs Seat loop accounts for over 90m of this. In turn, most of this is accounted for in about 2 kms straight up from TZ. On the other side however, the descent, which is narrow (single lane and twisty) brings you back down the 90m in only 1.3 km. To give you a sense of scale, Cape Smokey rises 200 vertical metres in 2km of road. When we ran it, the grade of the ascent felt more like North. The run course is pretty much 1.25 km up and 1.25 km down, to be done four times in R1 and twice for R2. Make no mistake, this is a hard course.

The general feeling is a TT-specific bike is going to be hinderance; there's nowhere you really need to get aero and they typically don't climb or descend as well as a regular road bike. We reckon a lot of clip-ons are being taken off bikes all over Edinburgh tonight!

Of course, these guys don't know they're born :) When the TA did this course has part of the Hogmany Triathlon in '98, we rode up the descent and down the other side. Apparently, this way around is now considered too dangerous by the BTF.

Anyway, early to bed tonight; TZ opens at 07:00 for a 08:00 start for wave 1 and even if our job (finish line) remain unchanged, we'd be pushing it if we rocked up at 10:00 and said "where's the tape? Consider this sector managed!"

More later

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World Duathlon Championships; pre-pre-game

Slept in big-time this morning, must have been the jet-lag. Had a nice breakfast at the athletes village; being in Scotland a lot of it viz back-bacon, sausages, black-pudding, fried mushrooms and vegetarian (yes vegetarian) haggis was decidedly non-athlete friendly. Thus said, the TA ate a metric ton.

A couple of photos from this morning from registration. The location was identified by scrim, what else?

Hmmm, BTF scrim.

Oh, what's that? You'd like to see the BTF logo again? Sure...

....and what's that on your TNS hoodie?

Oh. Halifax? We have a problem.

The HR, Bob Newton from BTF, was polite enough not to notice when the TA saw him at registration. Besides, he gave us this nice badge to wear for the next few days....

Off to run the bike-course now. Trust me, it's hilly....

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World Duathlon Championships; pre-pre-pre-game

The TurnAround made it safely to Edinburgh, at least it was a direct flight from Newark and the 1.5hr delay into Edinburgh didn't screw up any connecting flights.

The flight from Newark was a palimplest of triathlon T-shirts. Oddly (perhaps) as we were going to an ITU duathlon event, they were mostly Ironman T-shirts, we guess people were either showing off or trying to intimidate the opposition early. USAT jerseys and one Equipe Canada jersey were also in evidence. At least the travelling dress-code from Kelowna (knee length bermudas, knee-high compression socks and sandals) was not seen.

When we got to the baggage claim in EDI, we,d never seen so many bike-boxes in one place.

Now safely ensonced in Pollock Hall, an Edinburgh University res, just round the corner from race-site. At least we won't be running around on Saturday or Sunday morning trying to find parking.

Here are a few of the pictures;

Nice to see the word "Duathlon" plastered all around town. Speaking of plastered all around town, Team Canada are very visible in their team jackets, the uniform de rigueur, even though the Parade of Nations isn't for a couple more days. More-so than any other country so far; the USAT guys may have been in IM t-shirts on the plane but they all seem to be in mufti now.

Finally, we got MC to try haggis at a "free haggis tasting" in an all-things-tartan shop on the Royal Mile (where's Ron McScotch when you need him?).

Now, don't knock haggis until you've tried it; it's essentially a cross between savoury porridge and a sausage. To be frank, we (as triathletes) have a lot in common with haggis. What is a haggis and what is a triathlete on race morning? They are both artificial skins stuffed with liver, kidneys and oatmeal.

Right now, we will try and deal with our jet-lag and carry on getting re-acquainted with British foods; we know that Mike Myers once said that "all Scottish food was invented on a dare" but really, once you get past the improbably lurid colour of Irn Bru (made in Scotland, from girders) or the crusty batter of a deep-fried Mars Bar, och it's really nay bad....

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