Our Own Olympics

February 12, 2010 is a very special day in Canada, the opening of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games!

It's also a long weekend in Alberta with Monday being "Family Day". A few of us arranged to take Friday off work to make an even extra long weekend. It felt like it was a Friday to celebrate with my snowshoeing family of friends. What better way to celebrate with friends, doing something sporty in recognition of the Olympic Games. We had our own games!

Event

Crazy Carpeting

Venue

Taylor Lake

Athletes

Making Waves

Sunny D Light

Adventure Designer

Ms D No Stopping Me

Stealth MD

Our games are a fun and friendly competition! Yet, like all athletes, there is that drive within to compete against our selves. My goal was to beat 26.9km/hr which found me in 3rd place at the last race. I wanted to do better today. When I glanced around at my competitors, I knew there were a couple I could beat. One though, I was suspicious about! Stealth MD showed up with a black carpet (equal to a black belt in karate) and he lived up to the name Stealth! He was long gone never to be seen again until we reached the finish line. I think I may file a grievance as there was talk he may have treated the bottom of his carpet with furniture polish. Like "doping", I am not so sure "polishing" is allowed!

As you can see, our equipment comes in many different colors and also there are many different carpeting techniques. We are fortunate this is not an expensive sport! Carpet= $4.99, Venue Rental=$0.00, Transportation to Event=$60.00/4, Experience=Priceless!

The race took place over a 6 kilometer stretch on the trail leading down from Taylor Lake. The course was narrow with lots of curves and steep drop offs in sections. It was a challenge to stay on course which most of us did most of the time but there were occasions when we needed help being hauled out of tree wells and pulled up slopes to get back on the track. My speed was no where near what I had hoped for. My maximum was only 12.9km/hr, as you can see in the following chart.

Final results are as follows:

Stealth MD-Gold

Adventure Designer-Silver

Making Waves-Bronze

Sunny D Light/Ms D No Stopping Me (a tie)

In my books, we are all winners!

Note: Stealth MD may be stripped of his Gold medal if the results come back positive for "polishing"!  Another note: Be sure to check out my snowshoe report for Taylor Lake leading up to the competition which is below this one.