PHOTO ESSAY

I had the chance to get to OFSAA XC this year, so I packed up my daughter Kate, picked up Ian and Connor in Guelph, and headed to Boyd Conservation Area for the races.

Ian's comment less than 2 minutes before this picture was taken: "Wow, Kate falls asleep really fast."



The weather was great; low wind, sunny skies and 14 degrees. A perfect Fall day:



While Ian and Conner were off buying OFSAA gear, and trying to enter themselves in the senior boys race, I toured around the finish line and met up with a lot of familiar faces (parents, coaches and athletes). I even caught this pic of the 6th place finisher in the Junior Boys race - not a triathlete (yet), but our top recruiters are working on it:



I also bumped into Joanna Brown and her ByTown Storm coach Greg Kealey before her race. Jo, the Provincial Junior Triathlon Champion and member of Ontario's Canada Games Triathlon Team was relaxed and looking forward to racing in warm conditions...



...and she ran away from the field to a convincing win in the Senior Women's race:



I was hoping to catch the Senior Men's race too, but it was delayed by approximately 45 minutes, so I had to leave before the gun went off. That's too bad, because I missed Tristan Woodfine (Joanna's ByTown Storm teammate, and Canada Games teammate) taking the early lead and running away with the Senior Men's title!

Both OFSAA Senior Champs are triathletes, from the same triathlon club. Very impressive.

In addition to Joanna and Tristan's excellent races, there we many other triathletes racing throughout the day. The most impressive race was probably the Senior Women's; close behind Joanna were Chelsea Mackinnon (Hamilton Hammerheads) in 8th, and Dominika Jamnicky (another ByTown athlete who raced on Ontario's Canada Games team) in 10th. Three triathletes in the top 10 - great stuff!

There were a host of other triathletes, with a lot of very impressive performances. Hopefully most of you heard us cheering for you, and if I've missed anyone (and I probably have), please e-mail me so I can add you to the list. Where I have the info, I've included the associated triathlon club - feel free to send corrections or updates on that, too.

Congrats to everyone on their efforts today.

Full results here.

Dylan Bates
Joanna Brown (ByTown)
Stephanie Daley
Aleksa Despinic (Hammerheads)
Adam Doxtator
Rachel Faulds
Austen Forbes (Hammerheads)
Taylor Forbes (Hammerheads)
Kyle Haas (Fun2Tri)
Kent Hambly (Hammerheads)
Katherine Howell (Hammerheads)
Domi Jamnicky (ByTown)
Samantha Klus (ByTown)
Jackie Lloyd (Hammerheads)
Duke Lloyd (Hammerheads)
David Mackie
Chelsea Mackinnon (Hammerheads)
Adrienne Morgan
Peter Quosai (Guelph Marlins a while ago, but now running with Speed River...way to go Peter)
Pauline Skowron (C3)
Heather Summers (Hammerheads)
Paige Tate (Hammerheads)
Jessica Witt (Hammerheads)
Tristan Woodfine (ByTown)
Rui Xu (Hammerheads)
Myles Zagar (Fun2Tri)

2015 PAN AM GAMES

Toronto region wins 2015 Pan / Parapan American Games
Will bring jobs, 250,000 visitors, new facilities for region.

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO, November 6, 2009 – Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe region has been chosen to host the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games. The decision was made today by the Pan American Sport Organization (PASO) in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“We are thrilled,” said Toronto 2015 Bid Chair, the Hon. David Peterson. “We would like to thank PASO and in particular, PASO President, Mario Vasquez Rana for having confidence in us and allowing us this great honour. We will work hard to stage the best Pan and Parapan Am Games ever.”

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Great news for Canadian sport, and for triathlon.

Full press release here.

CHAMPION CARVER...

...and other Champions.

First off, congrats to the Guelph Gryphons XC Teams for the double five-peat at the OUA Championships on the weekend. The mens and womens teams were once again crowned as OUA Champions, with the men setting a new record for lowest team score: 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 = 17...almost perfect. Wow! The Gryphon women have won 6 consecutive OUA Team titles, and 9 of the last 11 OUA Team titles.

Gyphons photo album. Gryphons Varsity coverage.

Now, on to the big winner of the weekend - the first PTC Pumpkin Carving Champion. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the work of Derek Snider. Like many great artists before him, Derek said he didn't start with a plan, he simply started carving and let the work evolve naturally. Derek, your award is in the mail.

I DARE YOU...

...to carve a pumpkin like this:







These are just some of the pumpkins carved by Noel Dickover and his family over the last 9 years. You can find all of his work at fantasypumpkins.com. He even has tutorials and templates for a few designs - all free. Great stuff from a guy who really gets into the Hallowe'en season. I wonder what his house looks like at Christmas.

You can also find a few ideas at extremepumpkins.com, but after looking at Noel's work, this site isn't nearly as 'extreme'.

Send me some pics of your pumpkins and we'll post them on Monday.

EASTBOUND AND DOWN

A few notes on random happenings....

ROAD TRIP
I hit the road late last week for a quick trip to Ottawa to visit some coaches and athletes. The ByTown crew were hard at work Friday morning, training alongside the Carleton Ravens, under the watchful eyes of Ravens coach John Hawes and ByTown coach Greg Kealey. Everyone looks to be rolling along well and it was good to get a quick visit with Matt V, Jo Brown and Jamie Stephenson.


BROWN NAMED ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Joanna Brown was named athlete of the week by the Ottawa Citizen. If I knew about this when I was in Ottawa, I would have asked for an autograph.




QUEST FOR GOLD NOMINEES ANNOUNCED
The 2009-2010 Quest for Gold Nominees have been announced on the OAT website. Almost everyone is from "eastern" Ontario. Maybe it's something in the water.

Congratulations to:
Ian Donald, Ottawa, ON (PTC)
Matt Vierula, Ottawa, ON (ByTown Storm)
Alexander Hinton, Kingston, ON (PTC)
Andrew Yorke, Caledon, ON (C3)
Tristan Woodfine, Cobden, ON (ByTown Storm)
Domi Jamnicky, Cobourg, ON (ByTown Storm)
Joanna Brown, Carp, ON (ByTown Storm)
Dorelle Hinton, Kingston, ON (PTC)


C3 AWARDS DINNER
The C3 club is hosting an awards dinner & dance on November 21st, with keynote speaker Darren Karasiuk. More info here. And congrats to the C3 club on setting a National Record with 1000+ kids running the Kinetico Caledon Running Festival recently. Great stuff.

ICE CARTEL

A conspiracy that drove up the price of ice
Nathan Vanderklippe
Oct 21, 2009

www.theglobeandmail.com

A few years ago, Peggy Perry found herself scratching her head over the cost of ice.

Her store, Calgary-based Willow Park Wines & Spirits, sells bagged ice along with a wide variety of alcoholic beverages. When she sat down to do the math, buying the ice seemed unreasonably expensive.

Ms. Perry, Willow Park's vice-president for marketing and purchasing, figured there was “something fishy going on.”

And she realized “if we made our own ice we'd make a small fortune.”

Ms. Perry was right. For $5,000, Willow Park bought an ice machine. It paid it off in months. The store now sells ice at $2 a bag – less than the Calgary going rate of $2.50 – but still manages to turn an 80-per-cent profit. It is likely the store's highest-margin product, she said.

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This almost seems like a joke, except that we spend a fair bit of money each summer at the OAT camps for ice baths.

Full article here.

STRETCHING: THE TRUTH

A great video lecture (or available as audio via iTunes) entitled "Stretching: The Truth", from Dr. Doug Richards. Dr. Richards is a professor with the department of Physical Education at the University of Toronto, and the Medical Director of the Macintosh Sports Med Clinic at UofT. He keeps a busy schedule as a clinician, teacher and researcher. I had the good fortune to work as a TA for Dr. Richards during my grad studies at UofT, back when he was 'only' an MD. Since then, he's completed his PhD, under the supervision of Dr. Stuart McGill at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Doug is a great teacher, and a fantastic lecturer - he stays current with emerging research (some of which he's doing himself), and he's very good at distilling the evidence into practical terms. Good info for coaches and athletes from an expert in the field.