Du It For Shelter race report

The Du It For Shelter Duathlon (henceforth DIFS) event was held last Sunday, May 9th. the course was the same as the old Achy Joint Duathlon ( not Hammerman, as previously and erroneously reported, sorry) but under new management and for a different cause. Sunday's management was courtesy of Stacy Chestnutt and Tim Chestnutt, and the cause was the St Leonards Society that provides shelters and transition houses for the homeless. DIFS was run in conjunction with a 5k in Shubie Park the day before, and between them the two events raised over $4000 for St Leonards. the event was also in memorium for Stacy's beloved bulldog Benny, who passed early this year, hence the bulldog theme branded on everything, including the very chunky finishers medals and some decidedly smart race-trophies. We're not sure if this is coincidence or not, but we wonder if Stacy was hanging around truck-stops nicking hood-ornaments from Mack trucks?



Both the Weather Network and Environment Canada were calling for rain, but the 50 or so who turned up in Musquodobit Harbour on Sunday morning were treated to warm sunshine, albeit somewhat tempered by a blustery west wind, which blew across the bike-course, making for blustery conditions, certainly, we're glad we weren't the bloke who rode on a rear disk on Sunday; big kudos for keeping it upright and level!

There was one, unforeseen last-minute hold-up; after Stacy had herded the cats onto the start-line it was pointed out that Ron MacDougall had left his bike shoes not in TZ but on the roof of his car, so we were held on the line for two minutes while Ron jogged to the car-park, retrieved his shoes and jogged back to TZ to place them with his bike and helmet. Kurt Stevenson wryly pointed out that with the number of races Ron does, you'd think he would have figured out a system by now. Once Ron had rejoined the throng, we were off.


The Piggott lads took off at a great rate of knots. Several hardy (Ed - foolhardy more like) people tried to stay with them, but we were all shelled off the back within a few hundred metres. R1 was a straight 2km shot down the trail, dead-turned around a pylon and back the way we came. Brad and Matt ran easily together with a couple of hundred metres lead at the turn. Shawn Amirault pegged back some time on the way back to TZ. A little further back, newcomer Caitlin Gillis, who we understand is the sister of Erin Gillis, was causing fits and starts amongst the faster women by leading the ladies into T1.

The bike course was a rolling out-and-back on Meaghers Grant Road; the race-distance being shortened slightly due to inclement road conditions further up the road. The course was full of rolling hills and false-flats and was made more sporting by a blustery cross wind that at times was also a head- and a tail-wind both on the way to the turn and the way back. Brad and Matt didn't have the bike all their way, Shawn Amirault was able to peg back the minute he'd conceded on the run to catch and pass the lads at the turn. Shawn was the only rider to break 40 minutes for the 24km test. In the ladies race, Caitlin, riding a mountain bike, conceded time to ladies Provincial champ Heather Doucette, who wasn't, and who led the ladies into T2 after posting the fasts ladies bike-split.

Brad and Matt were both catching Shawn by T2. Brad, leading his brother by 30 seconds, passed Shawn in transition heading out to R2. They both posted sub-15 4ks, in fact Brad's 4K was 13:41, and he took the event in 1:08:57, 50 seconds ahead of Matt, with Shawn in 3rd with a 1:11:12. Heather maintained the lead she had built on the bike to take the ladies race in 1:19:47 with Marie-Claude Gregoire 1:57 back for 2nd and Brigitte Sabourin 4 minutes back in 3rd.

Among the volunteers, we really feel we must mention Kurt Stevenson. He was supposed to run the Fredericton marathon on Sunday and had been training all winter for it. However he dinged his ribs quite badly in a bike-crash four weeks ago and hadn't recovered sufficiently to take the marathon on; but seeing as his helmet was written off in the process, one can see how it could have been much worse. Anyway, instead of sitting on the couch being all grumpy at missing the marathon, he turned up to DIFS instead and worked TZ and mount/dismount. Although healthier than watching cartoons eating cookie-dough (Clif bar cookie dough?) ice-cream directly from the tub, it still can't have been easy to see all those people racing, knowing that he should have been racing too. Thanks Kurt.

Kurt Stevenson taking names (if not kicking ass this time) while Stacy tries to get a medal to a hard-finishing Ian Loughead.

Up for grabs this weekend was also the Shelter Challenge; an overall classement for the fastest aggregate time over the two events (Saturdays 5k and Sunday's du). In all, five individuals were eligible; Shawna Murdock-Moore, Brigitte Sabourin, Marie-Claude Gregoire, Ron McIntrepid MacDougall and your faithfull reporter. The overall classements went to Marie-Claude Gregoire and yours truly. Interestingly, the five Shelter Challenge Folks were all from the militant wing of TNS and can boast between them 65 marathons (not to mention the crazy training runs), 13 Ironman and countless 70.3-type events, long-distance bike events and the likes. Indeed Shawna is quietly approaching Mark Campbell's IM total of 18! This isn't to say the Shelter Challenge was tough and only hardcases need apply; it was less than 2hrs racing. Compared to doing, say, a track workout one day and a brick workout the next, it felt (to the TurnAround at least) easier than training. Like they say, train hard, race easy. Many triathletes seem to be Grand tour afficiandos ( viz the Tour de France) and this may be our only chance to participate in anything like a stage-race; hopefully next year we'll see more out for the Challenge. the overall prize, by the way, was a bottle of Bulldog Gin; martinis and G&Ts all round! Hic!

Thanks to Stacy and Tim for putting on a great event, well two events, and thanks to everyone who turned up, even if we didn't get to eat all the croissants and pain au chocolate.

Next up, May 30th, Navy Tridents at CFB Shearwater. All the runway you could possibly want For those of you who said about DIFS, too early, no swim, well you're out of excuses this time; it's right on schedule and there's a pool full of water just waiting to see you there.

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Rae photos courtesy of Ian Loughhead, thanks Ian.

Bling and croissants

There are still only 28 people registered for the Du It For Shelter duathlon this Sunday. You know, now we think about it, this monster prize-table is only going to be split a handful of ways, so the TurnAround is surely going to win the "Best Red Bike" award, because it looks like she'll have run out of categories before she runs out of bling.

Not all of Sunday's bling will be wearable. Some will be very edible, courtesy of Two If By Sea over in Dartmouth.

They're on Ouchterlony, right by the start of the Natal Day 6 miler, and is the cafe that has made running the Mic Mac Mall/Shubie loop damn well impossible as running past this place with it's veritable cornucopia of pastries while you're feeling a bit bonky, well you get our drift. We understand they are catering croissants at Stacy's race. The croissants might look like this, but without the flower and coffee....

...but they'll still be to die for. On second thoughts, there'll be a load left for me. I'd better remember to bring a spare bag.

No seriously, bling and croissants aside, get over to Atlantic Chip and do what's right. You might as well sign up for Navy at the same time and save a little bit of money while you're at it.

See you Sunday (right......?)

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What happens at the Moose, stays at the Moose....

The TA has a history at this race; this marking our seventh appearance at the Moose run, the sixth with a number. As such we've run this race in snow and rain (in the same race), sun but screaming wind and cold, always cold. This year, the gloves were off, in a literal clothing sense.

Normally the pre-race chat is "what pace are you running" but on Sunday it was also "what are you wearing? Shorts? Really?". The warm-up settled it as all but one of us said 'no' to tights and 'yes' to shorts. One of our number decided "Shorts, definitely, these tights are way too warm. Oh my, I don't think I remembered to shave my legs"; thus highlighting one of the problems with early season races! You do need to remember to shave your legs the night before, just in case shorts end up being needed. How high is up to you as long as you remember which shorts you packed; the long baggy Premier League soccer shorts, running regular shorts or your trusty race-proven shorty-short tri-shorts. Nothing says "neo-Fred" like stubbly legs or a hairy line across your mid-thigh!

By our count triathletes only made up 8% of the field on Sunday. That's not to say that there were any fewer triathletes Moosing, rather than the good weather meant a record turnout of 150. Indeed, the race was slightly delayed as there was still a good queue to sign in with ten minutes to go. Rather than rely on our notoriously patchy memory, we came armed with a pad and pencil and came up with the following list (in no particular order); Kurt Stevenson, Ron MacDougall, Dan Thompson, Tina White, Steve Saunders, Laura Keefe, Ian Hayward, Brenda Topliss, Brigitte Sabourin, Lyn Vernon, Mike Kennedy and Steve Abbot. Furthermore Bev Richardson, Mike Pettipas and Shannon Read were there in support, backing up runners. Shannon and Mike were mobile on the course on their bikes, Shannon to cheer people on and Mike on official RNS business, topping his cycling togs off with a fetching fluorescent-green tabbard.

As predicted, Rami Bardessey won the overall, running within a minute or two of his course record. We mentioned in the preview that a ringer might turn up and put twenty minute into all of us, and we were nearly correct. A guy no-one had seen before, and whose name I can't remember despite being introduced several times (sorry!) signed on and ran a 1:30 for second place. He's aiming for a 2:35 at Ottawa this year and we wouldn't bet against it! The ladies also went as predicted, with Denise Robson winning with a two minute PB.

As the Duke of Wellington is reputed to have said "one may as well write the history of a ball as of a battle" and the same can be said of races, the perception of which can be quite different depending where, and when, you are. So what the TA saw of the race race might not be an accurate representation of the day. One thing common to us all was probably the perception of it being well supported. Not just by the race organisers though (which it was). In the preview we forgot to tell you about the relay; teams of three, each taking on ca. 8km. (after all, 25 km is a distance not to be taken on with alacrity) . The tag-zone was at the second/fourth water table at the corner of Cow Bay and Bissett Roads. This made for a little cheer-zone at what traditionally felt like the low-spot in the race and really made the event feel like a lot more fun.

One story we are familiar with is Laura Keefe's. She was locked in a battle for a good part of the race and came home second lady, or first regular person as we prefer to call it. She spent many of the 25 kms of it with Kurt Stevenson, who (for the record) ran a 2 minute PB. Remember how we said that the Moose wouldn't tell you if you were in shape for a spring marathon, but it would tell you if you weren't? Well, that huge result must have been good news for Kurt, who is preparing for his first marathon. Not that we think he's obsessing about it but he told us in days how long until the big day!

Knowing we had a date with a large plate of pork-based breakfast products we had to leave before the results were up, but when we find them, we'll post them. Big props by the way to the RD and RNS team who between them compiled a 150-strong results list armed with a stop-watch and clip-board.

We don't have any photographs yet either; the TA's overall visual impression of the race was something like this...


...but there were a goodly number of cameras pointed in the general direction of the race, so when we find any, we'll either post or link to them.

How did the TA do? Well, it wasn't our best Moose ever but it wasn't our worse either. As you might have guessed from the picture, was a hard day out. Of course, we probably shouldn't have gone out at our 5K pace (give or take a few seconds). We hung in there though, scoffed gels and played the mental game, concentrated on our form and tried to ignore that we weren't having "good sensations" in our legs (as a Euro-Pro cyclist would say). As a dress rehearsal for bigger, longer races in the depressingly near future it didn't bode too well, but Brenda Topliss has since convinced us that we made our mistakes in the dry-run and the main show will go fine!

A big chapeau to RD Tom Harmes, who as always puts on a great race and we were so happy that his event was finally blessed with great weather. Congrats to all for running great races; everyone was looking fit and seemed to be raring and ready for the season.

Our next date will be the Credit Union Atlantic Lung Run on Saturday April 10th; a pan-flat 5K around Pier 21 and possibly the fastest road-race in Nova Scotia. Then there's Stacy Juckett-Chestnutt's 5K and 4/28/4 duathlon double header on 8/9 May. Best go and sharpen up our fast-twitch muscles and lactic threshold then.


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