What’s with Melissa’s 22K race? Why so popular?
Never been to the area, but we have friends who have tried to entice us to come up there.
They call us yesterday morning, tell us to get going on the registration - my wife and I discuss when I get home - decide to go for it (we live in New York), but at 8 pm our time, the race is closed already!!!
So, were thinking of making this an A race for travel in Fall '06. Is it that good??
I don’t know about the event itself, but any excuse to get to the Banff area would be a good excuse.
I’ve never even heard of this race until now, but if it’s in Banff it’s excuse enough to go. Especially for me since my daughter is going to university in Calgary and my son is in Golden, BC about an hour away from Banff.
Yeah…after some research I’ve seen that the “Jasper to Banff” riding looks awesome. I think we’ll seriously consider this for next year…and I’ll definitely be bringing the bike.
Must be a pretty popular road race though - sold out 1500 slots in less than a day!
I’ve done the race the last two years… the 10km is bigger and more of an event… the 22km kinda finishes after with very little fanfare…
like the other dudes said though… the point of going isn’t the race, it’s the spending time in Banff… it’s awesome.
Don’t wait until 06, you can always go and ghost the race or pick up entries at online classifieds… if you are interested… PM me.
Banff and surrounding area is worth the 05 trip.
Trev
I’ve done the 22K race 4 times (signed up again this year) and the 10K another 5 or 6. Like Brent said for alot of people (me included) it’s simply tradition.
As for the race it’s fairly scenic, starts in town and heads out for a loop around the Banff Springs golf course, back into town (up the first hill) past where you started and then an out and back along a river pathway. The only down sides to the race are that a) it does fill up fast b) the out and back along the pathway can get very congested although the 22K is much better than the 10K c) the weather is usually nice but it can be cold… one year started as short and long sleeve t-shirt weather and then turned to a blizzard (10K people finished in decent weather most 22K didn’t).
If you don’t get in right away there are usually a bunch of spots that get sold by individuals closer to the date… try registering for the 10K and then closer to the date seeing if there are any 22K spots available.
john