Death Race

Tomorrow the Fast Trax crew heads to Grande Cache for the Death Race - Death Race website. This will be our fifth year entering the race, and with the exception of 2008 (when I got lost on stage 4), we've typically done quite well.

This year's lineup will be as follows:

1. Paul Moore
2. Reid Hosford
3. Tyla Cooper
4. Will Critchley
5. Patrick Moore

Our best times for this race were in 2007 and 2009 - both years we finished the 125km even in 12:12:00. I'm pretty proud of those results, but with our crew this year I think we'll be able to take a run at them.

Unfortunately, there are no live results for the Death Race and the official results typically take weeks to get posted. In the meantime, the best way to follow our progress throughout the day is on the Fast Trax Facebook page - FT on FB. We'll be live blogging throughout the day as the relay and solo events go down.

In addition, Jack (a legend of the Death Race, literally), Marcelo (a legend in his own way), and Claire (a first time soloist) will be tackling the whole event on their own. We'll keep you posted on their progress as well.

Let's get dangerous.

Patrick, Robin, Will, and Paul getting dangerous.

Sinister 7

This weekend the Fast Trax shop team, consisting of Tyla, me, Will, Paul, Reid, Kristen, and Maryann, headed to Blairemore for the Sinister 7 trail race. This is a 148km trail race comprising seven stages ranging from 12km to 35km. The scenery is beautiful, but the terrain is tough. You can check out more details here - Sinister 7.

We did a pretty good job of live blogging the race to Facebook, but for those of you who don't following the shop (Fast Trax on Facebook), here is what went down. There are a [very] few pictures as well.

The weekend started at Wok Box in Leduc. Whether skiing or running, this is how I like to start my trips.

Saturday, 12:48PM:  Tyla had a strong run and powered through Leg 1 to finish in 1:40. Patrick floated up and down the technical Leg 2 to finish in 1:40. Will out on Leg 3 now, we expect him to finish around 1:20PM.

Saturday, 1:52PM: Will utterly slays Leg 3 in ~2:45. Paul has now been out on Leg 4 for about 45 minutes.

Saturday, 4:22PM: Stage 4 over. Paul kills it in 3:13. Team Fast Trax comfortably in fourth overall.

"That bottle of cola was one of the best things I've ever put to my lips. Straight up."  Paul Moore

"They say that you feel most alive when you're close to dying. I guess I felt pretty alive for those final few kilometres then."  Paul Moore

Saturday,  6:49PM:  Reid done Leg 5 in 2:05. Fast Trax now second overall, at least 8 minutes up on third. Kristen out on course.

Saturday, 8:13PM:  Kristen through Leg 6 in 1:25. Fast Trax now in fourth overall. Maryann out on course with two teams hot on her heels. This is going to be close.

Saturday, 9:00PM(ish):  Fast Trax finishes fourth! Maryann held off hard charging teams for a sweet run!


A fun weekend with an awesome team. You can check out full results here later in the week - results. Also, you can check out my GPS download of Leg 2 here - Patrick Garmin Connect. Click on "Player" in the upper-right of the screen and then click the "Toggle FullScreen" button once it loads. If you check out the hybrid view you can see a map of where I went. Hitting the "play" button will give you real time speed, heart rate, and elevation data. Pretty cool.    


Next up is the Death Race on July 30th. The first five members of our Sinister team make up the Fast Trax Death Race squad. As Paul said, "we are going to have a phenomenon of a Death Race team."  He is correct - I think we're going to be pretty darn good!


Huge thanks to Jack for arranging the race entry, smokin' team kits, and accommodation! The whole team is ultra proud to represent the shop!

Warning - not skiing related

This is mostly for Grandma.

Maryann and I made cookies! I accidentally ate a couple out of the batch on the right. They turned out really well!

Quick update

After tours at both Fischer and Madshus, tomorrow is my last day in Europe. I will spend the night with a friend in Oslo and then fly home to Edmonton.

Here are a few pictures - I will post a few more when I get home.

This is where we live.

The main square in our little town; Ried, Austria

Now we have cappos.

Grillteller - Google it.

Fischer is one of my best things.

Now we ski at Sognefjellet, Norway.

Ski testing. We are always testing, even in June.

Prototypes.

We played in a trivia tournament in Lilihammer. Team BNS did not place well.

In London

As always international travel is an adventure. The trip started off super well with supper with Maryann at Famoso in Edmonton. Then, my flight was delayed by 50 minutes for some mysterious reason, but that was OK as Maryann and I got to hang out a little longer.

That's when things started to go downhill. As the departure time approached, a massive thunderstorm arrived in Edmonton. Lightening activity meant that all airline operations were stopped - bummer. Eventually we were allowed to board, but by this time it was even later.

Enter the next complication - the electrical storm had fried the plane's computer and a technician had to come get that fixed. Luckily, they didn't figure that out until we had boarded so we got to sit on the plane at the gate for a while sweet.

Finally, we pushed back from the gate and started to taxi to the runway. Enter complication numero deux - a fuel pump was now broken. So, again, we sat on the tarmac for a while and eventually Air Canada decided we should go back to the gate. We didn't get to leave the plane however, we just sat there while the fuel pump was fixed.

Once those two issues got worked out it was 1AM and our flight was 2.5 hours late. The sweet part about that is that it means that I missed my connection in London to head to Munich. That wasn't a big deal though, and I'm on a later flight.

So, for now I'm chilling in a Servisair lounge that has snacks, drinks, wifi, and a private bathroom - decent.


The plan is to sleep in Munich tonight and then meet up with Nathan and Roger tomorrow. That could be interesting as the current level of detail is to meet at the Munich Airport. Paul and I tried that once at the train station and it was interesting to say the least!

Now we go to Europe.

See you in Austria.

Perspective

About three weeks ago, I was passed over for a major promotion at work due to the time I have dedicated to pursuing the sport of cross country skiing. While this was not unexpected, it didn't make the announcement any easier to swallow; that was a tough day. My plans for next year with respect to skiing have been weighing heavily on my mind - until today. An email from Madeleine really put things in perspective and caused me to consider the past several years. And you know what? I wouldn't trade the opportunities I've had for anything in the world.

I've been part of some pretty big races - the Olympics, several World Cups, races in Europe. But none of that really matters. What matters is that I've had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with people I now consider to be close family - Madeline, Lorris, Graham, Emily, and Jack. Here are some examples, in now particular order:

The Olympics with Madeleine and Jack. Fact.

If someone asked me what has been the happiest moment of my life, without question it was being there when Madeleine crossed the finish line to qualify for the Olympics. My grin was a mile wide for days!

Team Fast Trax. We are awesome.

Pushing out a very stuck car in Quebec with Graham and Lorris. Graham had to get his pushing pants on.

Lorris and I have spent a lot of time travelling together.

Probably my favourite picture of all.

So what happens now? It's time to up my ski service game to the next level. There are going to be some exciting national team announcements in the next few weeks and I want to be part of it. It's time to get awesome.

And Madeleine - thanks for making me feel better.

Time to get after it.