Trail Shop Ski Marathon

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's photo 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!

Thanks to Ron and Cookie for the photos.

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Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go

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!

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Photos from David Holder and rRon MacDougall; thanks guys.

Sublime, or ridiculous?

This one goes out to all you weight-weenies out there, we know there are a few. Courtesy of the veloptimum blog, we bring you a decidedly non-UCI legal 2.85 kg bike.

There's precious little here that's not carbon. Naturally the frame, fork, rims, handlebars, seat and so-on are made of our (well your) favourite layered, composite material. Interestingly (and I do mean this, as opposed to many people who say interestingly when it is only interesting to them) it appears even the chain-rings are carbon.

We wondered about the durability of those rings, and got us to thinking what good is a 2.85 kg bike, that costs goodness knows what but you can only get one good Olympic distance out of one? Well, the makers claim it's good for 23 000 kms, a figure we (for one) find remarkably precise!

Looking at the stock items on the frame, aficionados will see that Campy Record 10 and SRAM Red all get an outing. The pedals of choice for this weight-saving exercise were Speedplays; which is good news because an informal TZ poll shows that Speedplays are TNS's pedal of choice already! The AX-Lightness rims are commercially available, but are for tubs only, not clinchers. Which is probably good as choosing the wrong inner-tubes could significantly add to the weight of the bike! Also, the brake-calipers appear to be stock items and not custom (if a fully carbon brake-caliper can ever be considered something as mundane as "stock"). So, if you're serious about looking to shed some weight from your whip, there are a couple of small pointers here without having to go all custom on us!

We were most interested by the retro gear-levers. They gutted a set of Record 10 brifters and left them as old-school brake-levers, mounting some even more retro-looking downtube shifters to the headtube. So again, in the interests of weight, something to consider. If you're road-racing in a pack, having fingertip control over your gears is a massive advantage, and one the TA would be loathe to give up. However, if time-trailing is your thing, and you're resolutely sticking to your tried and trusted Cinelli 64-42s, then perhaps old-school might be the best school!

It's not even that an iconoclastic thing to do either. Remember; even in the days of STI/Ergo Marco Pantani famously used an old-school left-hand Record brake-lever and corresponding down-tube shifter on mountain stages, ostensibly to keep weight down and improve his climbing performance. Check out the photo below and you'll see what we mean.

In hindsight, the 60% haematocrit probably helped too. And there's the second lesson (the third, if you count "don't take performance enchacing drugs"). As cool as this would be, if your BMI is up there, perhaps it would be cheaper to watch the grams in your diet, not the grams on your bike.

Keep drooling

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Travelocity Gnome (TM)

TNS has it's own version of the Travelocity Gnome! Cookie MacKilt has been going places recently, certainly more places than his erstwhile guardians. And more cookies! He even has his own Facebook page where you can follow his progress across the endurance-sport world.

Here are a few examples of Cookie's recent travels. Here's Cookie at the Fundy Loppet.....

at Leah Jabour's Ugly Sweater Run.....

(Hmmm, brunch, nom nom nom)

the Falmouth Half & 10K.....

(left, no right, no Coookies)

the TNS Banquet....

(Hey, Kilt-guy, you give me Coookies?)

(Hmmm, lashings of extra lasagna, nom nom nom)

and the TNS AGM

(yes, the meeting was chaired by a Muppet)

That cookie-lovin' monster sure does get around.

So head on over to Facebook and Friend Cookie. I'm sure if we try, Cookie could have more friends than Triathlon New Funswick by the end of the day (sorry Scott!). Oh, and if you're searching for him, remember, even though TNS is a non-sectarian organisation, nonetheless it's Cookie MAcKilt (with an 'a'), not McKilt (without).

Hmmm, Coookies....

Or if you're feeling highbrow, Hmmmm, biscotti....

AiDa

Many, many thanks to Ron MacDougall!

Go athletes go!

It used to be said that it was always time to have a drink as the sun was over the yardarm somewhere. Similarly, just because as age-groupers we are, in the main getting our base miles in on the trainer (remember a base mile is 60% longer than a base kilometre), it doesn't mean someone, somewhere, is racing.

Meggie Soehl will be skiing cross-country for Team Nova Scotia at the Canada Winter .games. She was profiled recently in the Herald alomg with the rest if the team, where we learned that this will be her third Canada Games; two winter and one summer, making her our very own Clara Hughes! Her sister, Marie Soehl, will be there too in cross country ski as will Liam McInerney and Lydia McInerney. Cross Country ski is a week two sport out at Ski Martock, so if you're in the vicinity, go along and give them a cheer. Additonally, Cole MacDonnell is in .biathlon, which we recently heard described as "all the fun of cycling, with firearms". Biathlon (note, not bi-ath-alon. Just sayin') is a week one sport we think, so if you're around, check the schedule and go gice him a shout. Just remember to stand behind him when he stops skiing!

We mustn't forget TNS behind the scenes at the Winter Games; Mark "Cookie Monster" Campbell is one of the big-dogs (venue leader) at one of the skiing venues and TNS ED Sarah "Hopalong" Wood is keeping them straight at the Oval.

Meanwhile, in the pool, pretty much the rest of the 2009 Canada Games squad was fighting it out at the AUS swim championships; Emily Wood, Brad Piggott, Macgregor Grant and Parker Vaughan as well as Matt Piggott. Em, Matt and Brad all made their times and will be heading to Nationals in Calgary in a coup,e of weeks.

Good luck to all as they race againat the the best in the country

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Half, Hypothermic.

So we guess the racing season has begun for many of us. We saw that Cookie Monster (both of them), Ron McScotch, Geoff Bennett, Darlene Chapman and Gerrad Lewin, hit a 30km/50km loppet in New Brunswick back in January.

Rumours that Cookie, in the 50K, lapped McScotch in the 30K have to remain unconfirmed.

Never too early to get a jibe in (if the alleged lapping wasn't enough), Cookie has been coaching McScotch on the finer points of ski-etiquette (the original caption for the photo below was something like "Ron in mid-stride") and judging from the looks of things, we might have to do the same and weigh in on the finer points of fashion-etiquette. Red and green and plaid on blue skis?

Puh-leeze.

There were a good number out at the long-track speedskating endurance events a couple of weeks ago, including McScotch, Moka Case, Charles Verge, Ron Allen, Darlene Chapman and Marie-Claude Gregoire. Oh, and Cookie McKilt too.

Yup we might to start the Challenge again soon; we make it Tartan 3 - Cookie 1 and it's only just February. It's going to be a long season for somebody's knees!

Cross-country ski and long-track aren't part of our core competencies; running is. So it wasn't a surprise to hear of so many at the Hypothermic Half in Dartmouth this weekend. The weather wasn't quite hypothermic, but it was very wet, windy and slushy. The conditions reminded the TA uncomfortably of the "epic" 2005 Bluenose. It will likely take a week or so for the results to make it on-line but the entry-list read like the TNS Awards banquet; Mike Bedard, Jamie Haynes, Brooke Brown, Carolyn Burke, Moka Case, Elizabeth Corkum, Freda Cormier, Caitlyn Cormier, Andreas Burger, Julie Curwin, Heather Doucette, Caitlyn Gillis, Erin Gillis, Stacy Juckettt Chestnutt, Pat Kennedy, Leanne MacDougall, Norma Jean MacPhee, Dion McKay, Chris Milburn, Erin Pike, Beverley Richardson, Steve Saunders, Tammy Slaunwhite, Sara Strickland and Erin Thibault. We read somewhere on Facebook "Stace won it", which wouldn't surprise us in the least. Chapeau all for for slogging through the slush and the wind.

Once more, our apologies if the TNS member tracking software didn't pick you up. To be honest, it might have received a mild concussion yesterday from us banging on the side of it to make it work (like a 50's TV) and so it wasn't quite up to registering names correctly.

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Photos from various Facebook accounts and Ron.

Competition Rules Update

We recently heard that a couple of the updated rules in the 2010 Competition Rules that caused some confusion at the end of last year have been examined and ruled on by the ITU Technical C'ttee. This is, word for word, what we have today;

Handlebars/Non Drafting Races - any aerobar is now acceptable providing it does not extend any further than the leading edge of the front tire. Bridging is not required. Open bar ends must be plugged. Brakes must not face forward.

Compression Socks. Cannot be used in a non-wetsuit swim. they can be used in duathlon and after the non-wetsuit swim. Compression socks include any covering below the knee

So, even if the SockSnob thinks compression socks (and calf-guards too) are a fashion-crime, you won't get dinged for wearing them at Cyclesmith or DIFS, or Riverport for that matter (do we have any duathlons when it's warm?). As for non-wetsuit swims, well we're almost always in wetsuits. However, should you venture out-of-province, you should be prepared for this rule to be enforced. This goes double should you, even as an age-grouper, be at any of the ITU Triathlon Worlds such as Long Course Worlds (Henderson, NV, November '11) or Olympic Distance Worlds (Beijing, China, September '11), both of which sound warm.

Handlebars. Well after the confusion at the end of last year we're back to status quo ante for non-drafting races, even at Worlds. So, as long as they are plugged, you aren't a mid-90s Graeme Obree....

.... and you haven't done that hispter flop-and-chop thing, you're good to go.

We also think that although not explicitly covered by the Competition Rules, we'd find it in our cold, dead, unfeeling NTO hearts to DSQ this entry to BikesnobNYC's "Cockies" (as in outrageous bicycle cockpits you one-track-minded person you).

Ten extra bonus points however if you modified your bar-end shifters to comply with the 2010 Competition Rules (we did see someone do this!).

A word about those Worlds, and this comes from, the "personal experience file" (as in "a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others"). Remember, disc wheels in non-drafting races have always been allowed at the discretion of the TD. The TA can only think of one instance provincially in the last eight years where such a ruling was made; however the ruling was made at Du Worlds last year, much to the consternation of some international athletes who only had a rear disc.

You should always be prepared for discs to be disallowed on competition day. If you're driving to an event, chucking a spoked wheel in the trunk isn't an issue. If you are travelling abroad, then whilst space may be a premium, remember to pack a spoked wheel. Perhaps even a mass-start road-racing UCI-legal wheel, should the TD be a bit of a hard-ass. Sure, a $50 surcharge to get your spare wheel-set on the plane may be steep, but not starting Worlds because of a strong cross-wind is going to cost you more.

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