Discussion: AR Get-together Feb. 16 - older thread

If you're in southern Ontario and want to share stories with local adventure racers, mark Sat. Feb. 16 on your calendar. In the morning, most of us will be racing in the Caledon area at O-Cup #4 IceBreaker, a fun winter navigation race. The race location hasn't been finalized yet but we'll look for a nearby pub or restaurant where we can meet afterward and get adequate nutrition and hydration while catching up with friends, meeting new ones and sharing our AR tales. If you can't make it to the race, you're very welcome to just come for the get-together.

This isn't just for experienced racers. In fact, if you're new to AR or have been thinking about trying the sport, this is the event for you. Instead of bringing in the pros to share advanced tips for international racing, we've lined up a few adventure racers (and Attackpointers) to share their learning experiences in the sport.

1) Chris Laughren (DoubleDown_on11) on his first year of AR (2012), which included a finish in his first 24-hr AR (a very respectable one, I might add!)

2) Team Bugs in Teeth - Sally Heath (Funderstorm) and Mike Simpson (Simpy) on lessons learned as they moved into multi-day AR

3) This event is being coordinated by Bob Miller (Getawaystix), Sean Roper (STORM), Jay Hahn (AngrySeagull) and myself (Bash), and we'll share a little info about the upcoming 2013 season for STORM Racing, Wilderness Traverse, Angry Seagull, Logs Rocks & Steel and the Salomon Dontgetlost Adventure Running Series.

More info to come. Hope to see you there!

Awesome! Looking forward to it.

Sounds like a lot of fun, l am considering the drive from Mtl :)

It would be great to see you, Jackson5! In addition to the presenters, we're hoping that people will just speak up and share ideas and experiences. I'm still thinking about random ideas where more people can take part, e.g. "60 seconds to explain why I love this piece of gear".

I've also tentatively marked it in my calendar. Keep us posted!!

Nice idea. Reason #442 why I'd like to live in ON.

If you come to ON for this, you can stay with us, O9Man! If enough people come to town, maybe we'll need to plan a Bruce Trail run or an XC ski outing on the Sunday.

Someone pointed out yesterday that Feb. 16 is Family Day Weekend, which may be good or bad, depending on your plans. We didn't plan it that way; we just wanted to piggyback on an O-Cup race in the GTA in February! It's also Gatineau Loppet weekend.

I'd be happy to help organize something for the Sunday if there are enough people around for it.

Thanks, DD11! As it gets closer, we'll try to get an idea of numbers. The O-Cup is confirmed for Palgrave now so I will aim to find a friendly pub in Bolton for the get-together.

Any reason this O Cup is a Saturday rather than Sunday? Just curious, as we have kid's stuff happening on Saturdays. Sad to miss this.

Looking forward to it!

Since the it's a long weekend, we thought Saturday was a better fit as people could go to the event and then go elsewhere for the rest of the holiday - a good start to the long weekend.
Also, there is kids stuff happening in conjunction with the O-Cup race:
http://dontgetlost.ca/index.php?option=com_content...

Pat-hectic - I am curious what age would you say would be the minimum for the kids course? We have some friends with young families that would want to try but not sure if the kids are old enough yet.

For The Chase kids race we didn't set a minimum age, but recommended any kid under 8 (or any feeling less confidant) to go out with a parent, unless they have nav experience.
It will be a mass start race, all on trails (or marked cross country routes) with controls at all turning points and a safety net of signs telling kids if they've taken the wrong trail at a junction (roughly 100m along the wrong trail)
It worked really well, so I'll be doing the same for this event. (The only MPs were kids running past one of the flags that wasn't on a turning point!)

Jackson5, you are welcome to stay with us too. XC ski out the door if snow permits. I bet you have some good stories...

Thanks 'Bent, I'm sure it will be good sport and fun, will let you know. I'm not very good at stories thought..

Aww come on, surely you have stories about dragging along first one sick teammate than another at WT...

Ok.. well maybe I have a few then... ;)

Hey all - I think I am out. I have a workshop that I will need to be in Ottawa for the 17th - this trip would be too short with too much driving. Darn.