Rollerski Duathlon "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?"

Editor Note: This blog entry is very much overdue, seeing as this race happened earlier in the month. UWNN would like to point out that other important events have happened since then that have led to its delay. Such as the start of the World Cup season, there was a little race in Gallivare last weekend and a mini tour coming up this weekend in Kuusamo. Which meant that all of the staff was on assignment. If you haven't been paying attention, go to your favourite skiing news outlet and catch up. Oh, and you should probably watch some of the races this weekend, seeing as there are two sprints which are always exciting. Now, on to the race report, with lots of pictures!

UW skiers traveled done to Badenoch to participate in the annual rollerski dualthon organized by the University of Guelph. Entitled "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?", the event tested the shear determination, will and endurance of every athlete, pushing them to their physical and mental limits.
Okay, so it was a little tamer than that with the women running 2 km and then rollerskiing 10km and the men running 4 km and then skiing the same 10km with the women.

The event was well attended with athletes from the University of Toronto and Queen's joining those from Guelph and Waterloo. In all, there were approximately 30 participants, with 6 Waterloo athletes/coaches taking part.

Everyone lined up at the start waiting for the go.

Alison and Katie, among others, running off of the start.

Katie coming into the transition off of the run.

Alison and Katie in the transition.

Katie heading out from the transition into the rollerski leg.

Coach Rhodes coming in from the run to the transition.

Nathaniel (Top) and Ryan (Bottom) coming in off of the run.

Glenn heading out on the rollerski.

At the end, Glenn was narrowly edge out at the line to end up in a solid 2nd place and earn himself some baked goods. Overall, the Waterloo athletes had successful days and everyone was deemed "Bad Enough for Badenoch".

Editorial - No-Good November

For most cross country skiers, the end of October and most of November is useless. This is especially true when you attend a post-secondary institution in Southern Ontario.

You want to train after school? Do it in the dark with the sketchy dude drinking beer by himself on North Campus. You want to rollerski? Wear a vest and a light, or some crazy soccer mom from the suburbs will have you as a hood ornament for her Acura MDX. You want to ski? To &*%$ing bad – it’s Southern Ontario, probably between 5-10 degrees and raining and cold, but with no real hope of snow. Want to go out of town to ski? Tough – you have classes and midterms, or if not, a bunch of lazy jabroni’s on your ski team who say they don’t have time to drive 10 hours each way to Quebec. So what are you left with, you ask?

You’ve come to the right place.

Last year, the UW Nordic Ski Team pulled off a pretty solid November session that involved a figure eight loop, a bunch of shovels, and a shit ton of enthusiasm.

In previous years, we’ve rocked Westmount G and CC with minimal snow, which is more fun that you might think, unless you’re a G and CC member, in which case, those were not my ski tracks on your greens.

But if you’re still without snow in the middle of November, there is really only one activity I can truly recommend to avoid a complete and utter skiing meltdown.

A trip to St. Jacobs Market.

That’s right, eating. Who cares how much ass your workout sucks when you can come home to awesome (and cheap) Mennonite bacon? Or those sausages that you know are legit, because they cut them off a 200 foot roll for you when you buy them? How about 20 lbs of potato’s for $5 from a guy who is still covered in dirt from the field where he dug them out of? Fresh bread? Apples? Or maybe a Sherpa jacket?

November – the month to come home from your miserable, rainy, cold, dirty, not-quite-snowing, school-work-talk-filled hell of a workout and settle into some good food, and not moving for at least an hour. Get it in ya.

Snow! and Skiing!!

Well attending "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?" rollerski dualthon on Saturday (results and post in the near future), word was received that Highlands Nordic had received 10cm of snow and then had panned some trails for skiing!!! Excitement was rampid with all of those in attendance and the very, very easy decision was made to head up early Sunday morning for some skiing. Upon arriving back from the duathlon, most members of the ski team obviously went and checked the Highlands website to verify the snow and no one was disappointed as this is what greeted them.

Photo credit: Highlands Nordic (www.highlandsnordic.ca)

So a couple car loads of skiers headed out at 7 am to make their way to Highlands and get some early season skiing in. What greeted them did not disappoint, as there was in fact snow and the trails were in good/excellent rock skiing conditions.


The trail leading up to Larry's Glacier had some water/mud portions, but it was possible to ski up. The good skiing was at the glacier, as the yellow, along with portions of the orange loop were panned and very excellent for early season skiing. Overall, the loop was long enough to ski about 20 min continuous on the loop. And so the skiers went out putting in numerous loops in order to take advantage of the snow.

Lots of snow and good coverage on the trails made for some excellent skiing conditions, considering it is only November 7th. Now the countdown begins until their is consistent snow, but obviously everyone was very excited to get the opportunity for some skiing this early in the season.

Trail Building at Bechtel

This past Saturday was the annual trail building day at Bechtel Park where the team helps to maintain the trail system at World Cup levels, at least by Waterloo standards.

Generally, the tasks entail spreading wood chips on the trails. There were a lot of wood chips to be spread this year and in the picture, Martha and Katie are hard at work spreading out some of the many wood chips.


Coach Rhodes is also seen spreading some wood chips, however this was one of the rare moments he was in one place long enough for a paparazzi to snap his photo, as he was constantly running around helping to organize the entire endeavor.


Another project that was undertaking was of the drainage nature, as Derek, Glenn and Ryan were tasked with trying to prevent a reoccurance of the Ice Crisis of 2010. That is prevent water from going over the trail instead of under it, on the bottom corner of the figure eight loop. Many a Waterloo skier was almost lost on this corner last year while doing intervals, and so action was desperately needed.
So they stuck three engineering students on the task, gave them shovels and said fix it. Surprisingly enough, the three actually knew that a shovel was not just for leaning on and went to work. The end goal is a valley which will help to direct the water in the culvert and additionally prevent dirt and debris from clogging in the culvert. Only time will tell if it is a success, or if the civil engineering student in the group should look for a new career path.

Picture Profiles - Returning Athletes

And here are some picture profiles of the returning members of the team.
For their picture (the none skiing one), we have tried to guess what they were thinking at the moments that these pictures were taken.
Please add your own (appropriate) captions for these pictures in the comment section below.


Alison

"I'm a caterpillar"


Derek

"Damn, ANOTHER concussion? Eric Lindros, here I come!"


Jess

"I think this should count as training!"


Martha


"Holy s*&t, these targets are SO small!"


Nolan
"

"You got me all of the running race results from the last year, SWEET, oh wait the Office?"

Ryan

"I have a back-up plan in case my career as a skier doesn't work out"

Tim Rhodes

"Damn, this cat has everything going for it right now, I am so JEALOUS"

Team Profile Photos - The Rookies

Nathaniel

Glenn

Katie


We will look to get some more in depth profiles and/or interviews with the rookies in the near future. And perhaps find out what is behind some of these pictures.

The Team

Here is a quick glance at the athletes that are training and competing with the team this season.

The Rookies:

Glenn Hartman
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Civil Engineering, 1st

Katie Madden
Hometown: Parry Sound ON
Program, Year: Knowledge Integration, 1st

Nathaniel Reilly
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Knowledge Integration, 1st


Returning Athletes:

Alison Stephenson
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Kinesiology, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Derek Hartman
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Mechanical Engineering, 4th
Years on Team: 5th

Martha Sutton
Hometown: South Porcupine ON
Program, Year: Biology, 4th
Years on Team: 4th

Ryan McNamara
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Mechanical Engineering, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Tim Hughes
Hometown: Duntroon ON
Program, Year: Computer Science, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Tim Rhodes
Hometown: Deep River ON
Program, Year: Kinesiology, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Athletes on Coop, but training/racing with the team in the winter:

Jess Stevenson
Hometown: Calgary AB
Program, Year: Chemical Engineering, 4th
Years on Team: 3rd

Nolan Beanlands
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Nanotechnology Engineering, 3rd
Years on Team: 3rd


Also training with the team and potential racing:
Cam Moore
Greg Cartmell