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!

AD

Trash talking

If you scoot over to the side-bar on the right there, you will see a new graphic. Email trash-talk has spilled out into the public domain and here at the TurnAround we are only too willing to give it an airing and maybe even stoke the flame. Mwah ha ha!

In the red corner (the predominant colour of the MacDougall tartan) we have Ron "McIntrepid" MacDougall, the man who will do a marathon on any given, random Sunday purely because he hasn't done one yet this week. This guy has more dossards in a drawer at home than TNS has in it's stash at the office. He has so many numbers written on his arm over the course of the summer that his farmers' tan is less a line than a palimplest. You get our drift.

In the blue corner, we have Cookie Monster, Mark "the Mule" Campbell; past-president of TNS, multi-race-organizer and guy with the largest number of Ironman completed under his number belt than any other Nova Scotia athlete, past or present. This is the guy who does Ironman as training for other things, things like E2C and TransRockies. Not to mention doing the 280km Cabot Trail Relay in an ever-decreasing team.

The smack-down is quite simple; Tartan Tally or Cookie Counter?

If you don't mind, the TurnAround will act as TD for the event. Normal rules apply. We'd like to see sportsmanlike conduct; no spitting, gratuitous elbows, coarse language, blows below the belt or sticks in the spokes. To qualify for the counter/tally, the "event" must have issued a bib-number, bike-number, body-marking, timing chip, Popsicle stick or the sport-appropriate equivalent. We'll accept anything as long as this is done. A multi-day event will be counted as multiple events as long as there is a break (or maybe a sleep) between the events. Transrockies; six legs in six days, would be six events. E2C, a 24 hr orienteering event run off in one go will be one event. In the event of a disagreement, the gray area will be resolved by the Competition Jury, namely by polling all of you.

In case the Tartan Tally and the Cookie Counter are tied come December, we'll need a decider; a Ron vs Mark cage-fight perhaps. Or maybe a time-trial! Or competitive coffee drinking? We're leaning toward a combination cage/coffee/TT but we'll let you decide if it comes to that!

Yes, we acknowledge that by merely ("merely", ha!) counting the number of races, and not the type of race, we are giving equal weight to, say, a 5 K and an Ironman. Here at the TurnAround we are not distance snobs, and recognise racing for racing's sakes. It doesn't have to be long to be a meaningful sporting achievement.

At the time of publication it's (we think) 14-12 to the Tartan Tally, with Mark making a swift comeback after the Cabot Trail to do both Cyclesmith and the Muffin run. So good luck guys and may the best man win. Plus, it's going to make an awesome end-of-season graphic!

AD