This past Sunday, XC Ottawa held the 8th annual Eload Duathlon at Nakkertok South. The day started out with a balmy -23 degrees, but gradually warmed up to about -18. The number of courageous souls willing to brave these conditions was very impressive!
Start of the "Faster" event
Two events took place, the \"faster\" category race, and the \"fastest\" race. The \"faster\" race was a 5k duathlon, where one loop of a 2.5k course was done in classic equipment, and another loop of a different 2.5k course was completed in skate. The \"fastest\" category was a 10k duathlon, similar to the faster race, but with 2 loops of each course. Steffan was almost as speedy as the winners of the duathlon, and posted the results for both races on the same day! They can be found here.
Steffan and Riel working up a storm!
A huge thank you to everyone who came out and everyone who helped out with the event! Many thanks to Dirk Van Wijk for the expert grooming. We'd also like to thank the following volunteers who helped make race day possible: Fiona Hennessy, Kevin Gibb, John Langstone, Mike Kelly, Cyndy De Cuypere, Dave Mallory, Jack Lewis, John Lewis, Jen Cepella, and Ken Lindfors.
Just look at the perfect track!
From the XCOttawa side, we'd like to especially thank Sheila Kealey and Riel Allan for dedicating lots of time to planning this event, months in advance!
A Nakkertok skier, on her way to the finish line
Another big thank you to our generous sponsors, Eload/Emend and Fresh Air Experience, who donated a number of prizes including ski bags, ski scrapers, Vauhti wax, energy gels, recovery formula, and fly. Many skiers enjoyed the warm, and delicious recovery eload at the finish line!
Best part of the race....Eload just waiting at the finish line!
More pictures of the event can be found on Ian Austen's website, provided here. Thanks for the great pictures!
Hope to see everyone at the event next year!