2001 Eastern Canadian Mountain Running Championships
By:  David Zylberberg   (2001/10/08)

The majority of XCOttawa.ca participated in the Fall Rhapsody Mountain Running Race at Camp Fortune in Gatineau Park. This was a 10km race on a challenging course. Ottawa may not be in the mountains, yet there was an elevation difference of 200m over the course. In addition, the descents followed the National Mountain Bike Championship course and were very technical single track with exposed roots and rocks. A number of locations on the downhills involved steep and rough sections followed by U-turns around a tree at the bottom. It rained for 2 days before the race so the course was muddy. The uphills were steep and fairly long but it was the downhills which made this race memorable. I have never seen descents like this in my life! A full course description and map are available at the Official Website with some unsorted results.

XCOttawa.ca, represented itself very well. Karl Saidla, took the lead about 4 km in and held on to win in convincing fashion despite having to stop to wait for 2nd place and ensure he went the right way. Tom McCarthy, had a very strong start, pulling the lead group for 4 km and holding on for a solid 2 nd place. I also had a strong day having been in 3rd until the top of the course and losing a place on the rough descent. Arno Turk came 5th. Toivo Koivokoski of Carleton U Ski Team, in his 3rd lifetime running race, had a good day for 6th. Lee Churchill's 8th place meant that we put 4 of the top 5, 5 of the top 10, and 7 of the top 15 - a good day for XCOttawa.ca.