For the first time in several years two of my favourite events were held on the same weekend this year. The Winterlude Triathlon takes place on Saturday near downtown Ottawa and consists of an 8 km skate on the Rideau Canal, a 5 km ski through the Dominion Arboretum, and a 5 km run on the frozen verges of the canal. The Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM) is a two-day (Saturday/Sunday), 160 km classic ski tour from Lachute to Buckingham, Quebec. The headquarters for this event is in the town of Montebello, about 1.5 hours from Ottawa by car. The events are usually a week apart, and both are a ton of fun, but which to do? Why not try both? My plan was to do the tri on Saturday morning, drive to Montebello and ski as much as I could Saturday afternoon, then try to ski the full 80 km of the CSM on Sunday.
The Friday night stack of gear: skate-skis, poles and boots, classic skis, poles and boots, long blades, running shoes, the 5 kg pack I’ll wear throughout the CSM and enough clothes for three sports in any temperature between -15 and +5. Think I’m good to go!
Saturday morning: First stop is the Winterlude Tri. In transition before the race STer Dev Paul waves to his Slowtwitch fans. In 25 years of doing multi-sport events, Dev has NEVER won a race…
Sportstats was at the race, laying out their mats and doing their usual excellent timing job.
I was too busy racing to take any photos, but here’s a couple of photos from previous years’ races, to give an idea of what the race is like:
For the first time in several years we had excellent conditions for the race: Hard, crack-free ice, firm snow and a perfect temperature of -5. I had my usual middling skate and ski, then one of the faster runs to squeek into the top 10 percent of the field. But the winner of the event was… Dev! The guy giving the post-race “Dev’s da man” sign is Yves Fortin. I believe Yves has done four Ironman races: he’s won two of them (The Canadian and Esprit); won his AG at IMUSA; and gone sub-10:30 at IMHawaii while suffering from an eye infection. Yves and Dev are two of the never-ending stream of studly Ottawa age groupers.
After the tri I hopped in my car and drove 90 minutes to Montebello. The Canadian Ski Marathon is headquarted in the Chateau Montebello, a beautiful old wooden hotel.
The CSM tour, not a race, so there’s no timing chips, no results, no winner. There’s five sections of skiing per day, each section being 15-20 km long. There are several different levels of participation in the CSM. “Tourers” can ski any number of sections each day. Bronze Coureur des Bois (CdB) skiers “merely” have to ski all 160 km over the two days. Silver Coureur des Bois guys have to complete all 160 km of skiing while carrying a 5 kg pack. The supremely studly Gold Coureur des Bois skiers have to ski the entire distance while carrying a pack containing food, sleeping bag, shelter and whatever else they need to camp outside on Saturday night. You have to complete the Bronze level before you can do the Silver level, and complete the Silver level before you can do Gold. If you’re insane enough to complete the Gold level five times, (which takes at least 7 years) you get a permanent bib number, coloured in gold to proclaim your studliness to the world. The guys wearing the gold bibs are my heroes; they’ve put years of training and dedication into getting their permanent bibs, and for the most part look totally relaxed and graceful while cruising on the toughest trails of the marathon. I’m overusing the word, but no studlier athletes exist in the world of sport than gold-bibbed Coureur des Bois skiers.
Though there’s no timing during the event, skiers need to complete the fourth section of each day (60-65 km of skiing) by 3:15 p.m. This is for safety, so everyone can be finished skiing the last section before dark. You can ski 145 km from early Saturday morning to the fourth checkpoint on Sunday afternoon, but if you don’t make it there by 3:15 you’re out of luck, and aren’t allowed to ski the final section.
I completed my Silver CdB last year, and was registered as a Silver CdB again this year. Due to participating in the tri, I wouldn’t be able to complete the entire marathon this year, so it wouldn’t count as an official finish, but I thought I’d wear the 5 kg pack anyway. I managed to get in a very pleasant 20 km of skiing on Saturday’s last section, ending my ski right at the Chateau.
Then it was time for supper. The Chateau puts on an awesome spread of food. I ate my meals there last year, and although I skied 160 km over two days carrying a 5 kg pack, I put on weight over the weekend!
Mmmm, pies…
Sunday morning, up at 4:30 for the breakfast buffet, then over to the start line of the day’s skiing. For those who think a 7 a.m. Ironman start is early, the CSM skiers hit the trail at 5:40 a.m. The first hour of skiing takes place while it’s dark, so you need to use a headtorch.
There’s checkpoints every 15-20 km where you can fuel up on all kinds of snacks, as well as get your skis waxed. I’ve got a pretty good routine at checkpoints. As soon as I stop I put on the down jacket that I’ve been carrying in my pack. I go to get as much food and drink as I can eat and while refueling I wax my skis. As soon as I’m done waxing I get more food and drink and continued to refuel as I pack away my jacket and waxes, put my pack on and head out. I kept most of my checkpoint stops to less than 10 minutes. That sounds like a lot of time but in reality many people spend 20 minutes or more at checkpoints.
Again, we had near-perfect conditions. There was a pretty strong wind most of the day, but being in the woods, we were sheltered from it much of the time. It was warmer than I thought it would be (above freezing at the start) and I messed up on my wax for the first section. At the first checkpoint I put on a layer of purple wax, which worked perfectly for the rest of the day.
Even in Canada, in winter, here’s a sign you don’t see very often:
And later in the day … here’s one of them:
Could there possibly be a better way to spend a Canadian winter day? I don’t think so.
This sign means there’s only 20 km to go:
By the end of the day Sunday, here’s what everyone’s looking forward to:
I have to say that this was not a particularly hard day, as I finished my 80 km ski by 2:30 p.m. But it was exponentially easier for me to do the Winterlude Tri and ski only one section on Saturday than it would have been to ski all five sections and 80 km, then ski Sunday’s 80 km. Nonetheless, I was still very happy to be finished. What a weekend!
At the awards banquet in the evening I picked up my girlfriend’s Hat Trick Award from last year. If you’ve completed the previous year’s CSM, a double century bike ride and a marathon in a calendar year, the CSM gives you a nice award, which changes every year. This year they went for the inukshuk look. Completing the CSM is by far the hardest of the three events you need to complete. I think this was Zoe’s 7th Hat Trick Award, which our friends call “The Coveted Weenie Award”.
Here’s the websites for the Winterlude Tri and the Canadian Ski Marathon:
http://www.zone3sports.com/
http://www.csm-mcs.com/index2.html
Come up to Ottawa and join us for these fantastic events next year. Hopefully they’ll be on separate weekends.
A la prochaine!
