Getting you muddy, one person at a time

Triathletes are renowned for skipping around puddles so as not to get their pretty white trainers dirty. There has been a rash of opportunities to get muddy recently, and as Mark Campbell said to us once "we're on a mission to get triathletes' shoes dirty, one athlete at a time", so let's see how we got on.

Before we get to the mud, a quick mention on Laura Keefe, who was second in her age-group at IM Florida a couple of weeks ago. She also qualified for Kona, and has the advantage of havng nearly a year to train and taper properly for it. This was also her first stab at the distance, and caps off an amazing year of racing for Laura. Congratulations.

So, like so many pre-schoolers, back to the mud!

We're please to see so many of you embracing dirt in the off-season. Firstly the Cuddly Coyote Trail Race, an event which the Advertising Standards Authority may have to get involved in given the possibly misleading and ambiguous use of the word "Trail" in the title.

The triathletes present were given a send-off by Cookie McScotch, the "award" for the Tartan Tally/Cookie Counter smack-down between Mark "Cookie Monster" Campbell and Ron"McScotch" McDougal. Ron tells us that Cookie McScotch will be travelling with him on his racing adventures from now on, kinda like the Travelocity gnome but with less hat, so we look forward to seeing Cookie in exotic locations. For now, Bikes and Beans in Tantallon will have to do;

Among the TNSers at Cuddly Coyote were Darlene Chapman and Provincial Champ Heather Doucette;

Bev Richardson, Tammy Slaunwhite and Judy Allen;

Ron MacDougal (getting taxonomically confused wearing his bluenose Bunny ears to a coyote race and what appeared to be autumn tartan camouflage) and Cyclesmith Du winner Jamie Haynes;

No adventure-type race in NS would be complete without Cookie Monster himself, here with a cookie;

Mark said he wasn't a race-organiser per se, more an ad hoc technical director. We think that his duties in this regard extended to eyeballing the course and saying "nah, not technical enough";

Here are Mark and Ron together with Steve Saunders listening to the race-briefing ("if you find a trail, well done, we didn't put one in")...

...and finally, a couple more of Ron with Brigitte Saborin and iRon Allen.

Then, of course, there's the ongoing saga of Cyclesmith's Kona Kup-A-Soup Cyclocross series. After several years, we finally got our "epic" 'cross picture. Terry Tomlin says it has a touch of the Mount Suribachiis about it and Dan Utting wanted to know what the theme-music is; we're going with Just Like You imagined by Nine Inch Nails, or maybe the Johnny Cash version of Hurt ("I hurt myself today, To see if I still feel, I focus on the pain, The only thing that's real").

We're not the only muppet getting epic down Seaview Lookoff Park each Sunday morning in the name of bicycle-portage. We saw Navy Tridents Prez Harry Reddin there last week (no photo unfortunately). Then there's Tim Brooks (we're pretty sure that's Tim under that muck, it's Tim's number-plate)....

...and Gerrad Lewin, who must be wondering why there aren't barriers across the bike course hiding a mud-pit when he races Continental Cups. You've got to admit, that would certainly enliven the race a bit!

If it looks epic, it's because it is!

Speaking of epic, slightly farther away, and presumbaly somewhat warmer, Chris Waldron took on La Ruta de los Conquistadores, a 4 day, 360km MTB stage-race in Costa Rica with 14000 m of climbing. Yikes. Makes The Moose seem flat. Anyway, he finished in 108th place with a time of 32:50, far from DFL and even got his picture on Cyclingnews.com (Chris is Plate#318)!

Chapeau Chris!

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