Canmore Challenge

Steve on his 2nd lap! And me above, tackling my first hill.
Mike (in orange) ran from Banff to watch the race which I thought was hilarious! And we met up with our good buddy and running extraordinaire, Jason Loutitt. This is the man responsible for lighting my passion for trail running and I will be forever grateful to him for that.


I haven't done any short races for a very long time and had forgotten how hard they are!! Steve decided he wanted to run the 12 km Canmore Challenge at the Nodic Centre so I got caught up in the excitement and signed up for the 8 km, thinking that it would be a good way to get in some hard speedwork for the week. They were using this event to select the Canadian Mountain Running Team so there were lots of amazing runners competing in both distances. Unfortunately, the course that had been chosen for the race wasn't that great considering that we were in a place that has an abundance of very cool, single track to run. However, it was a beautiful hot day and fun to get out for a local race. Steve took 3rd place for his age category and I took first place in mine so we both enjoyed a brief moment on the podium. It was also a great way to catch up with some old friends who we haven't seen for a while. But the best bit was going for ice-cream afterwards! Hmmmm .... that was well worth running my socks off for!!