Race Report McLean Mills by Joldine Lee

As good fortune would have it, this year's McLean Mills 10k race was timed perfectly between snow showers. Yes snow! This race includes glitter. (Snow is no stranger). It was the 7th race in the Vancouver Island Race Series sponsored by Ridge View Health & Performance in Port Alberni. The race took place on March 29th with the start and finish at rustic McLean Mills National Historic Site. 

 After a three hour drive up-island past beautiful Cameron Lake, Jill and Joldine arrived early to secure their parking spots and kept warm jogging through the picturesque mill grounds. 

 The race started out undulating and peaceful, leading out towards the countryside; returning through splendid forest; finishing downhill back through the old mill.  As the forest opened up, the sun shone and the sight of the wooden water tower signalled the finish line!

 Besides Jill's shiny ribbon, the race rewarded us with a traditional smoked salmon chowder, chilli, Dog Mountain Beer, fruit and homemade granola bars. However, instead of standing outside in the sun, enjoying chilli and beer (as were our expectations), we found ourselves huddled inside the hall peering out a window at the awards presentation carrying on under the auspices of snow and hail. Needless to say we didn't stick around for long after that.

 Of note, Derek Brenchley of Comox Valley Road Runners won the 70-74 age category and set a new course record for his age group, clocking in at an impressive 41:49 chip time. One week ago, he broke the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon age group course record.

 We had two STARR runners participate. Congratulations to Jill finishing in1:01: 31 with a 10th place ribbon and Joldine 1:19:21 15th in our age group.

 Thanks to Tashia Potter Photography for taking these wonderful photos!

2026 Edition of STARR’s Around the Bay Simulation Run by Leslie Ann Bent

A big thanks from the Club to Leslie Ann for arranging a super fun event, providing the prizes, taking the photos and writing the race report!

The mass start, suggesting various degrees of enthusiasm for the run ahead!

Saturday, April 4th was a great day for a race – warm and no chance of rain. For the past 6 or 7 years (we lost count!), the STARR running club has done a simulation of North America’s oldest race – Around the Bay (ATB).  The race has been used over the decades as a last training run by elite runners for the Boston marathon. ATB is a 30km loop course around Hamilton’s bay – fast and fairly flat for the first 20k and some real kickers over the last 10k. The race has welcomed solo runners, 2-person relays (each tackling 15km) and 3-person relays (10km each). 

STARR runners used the Galloping Goose to simulate the run. The out and back route we followed allowed club members to see other participants, cheer them on or get inspired for one last push to the finish. This year 16 runners and walkers came out in person, two members competed virtually and I was the lone volunteer. This club event promotes team work and comradery – an opportunity to see some of the members we don’t often see. Not so many races have relay and it’s also an opportunity to experience this type of race as well.

One notable result came from Barb. She beat her solo 30km time of last year by a mere 6 seconds. Talk about consistency! Paul suffered a groin injury in the first 5km of the course but he soldiered on and completed the course with a very respectable time. The 3-person relay teams had a mix of running and walking. Whatever one’s goal was for the day, it was just so lovely to be out and have a chance to catch up.  Congrats to all of our participants. Medals for the top teams will be awarded at the April meeting.

Results:

Solo:

Barb (virtual)                                                           2:55:23

Danny, Solo Man (walker, 3 X 10k)                    6 hours

Dave D (15k, that’s another story)                    1:09

2-Person relay:

Galloping Geezers (Paul, Ian)                              2:42:04

3- Person relay:

Winging It (Tory, Claude, Andy)                          2:38:52

Mel’s team (David W, Melanie, Lisette)            3:44:48

Gelato Junkies (Ken, Jackie, Joldine)                 4:02:30

Slow Farm (Jill, Kari, Maggie & Kayla (5k each – W)              4:23:27

Race Report for the Sooke West Coast Run March 8th

By Karla Sache

The Westcoast Sooke 10K on March 8 delivered classic Island Series racing along our very own home route out and back along Sooke River Road. It is nice to be familiar with the turns, hills and potholes (hehe).  Part of the Vancouver Island Race Series, the event drew a strong field and solid turnout.

The weather turned out to be a pleasant surprise—sunny skies instead of the forecasted rain, though a steady wind added an extra challenge on exposed sections of the course. A wee bit chilly at the start, but everyone warmed up quickly.

At the front of the race, Liam Donnelly took the men’s win in 30:25, while Waverley Mulligan led the women’s field in 35:25.

Runners were also treated to a great post-race spread, with pancakes and beer. Always such a great community feel at this race!

Congrats to all the STARR racers who participated, and especially the ones doing the whole series! Only a few more to go! I personally love the out and back course to not only see the really fast racers, but also to cheer on our fellow team members while running. Thanks to those cheering from the sidelines too, Jackie and Bri!

The runners from STARR were:

 

Barbara Cina 45.41 (6th place in her division)

 

Stephanie Croft 47:53 (4th in her division)

 

Karla Sache 49:28

 

Jill Potter- Hellman 58:58

 

Maggie Curtis 1:00

 

Kari Toovey 1:03

 

Pauline Nielsen 1:07

 

Erin Nielsen 1:07

 

Joldine Lee 1:19

Comox Valley RV Half Marathon Race Report

By Jill Potter-Hellmann

I have a love-hate relationship with the half marathon distance, so I asked myself a couple times during the race on Sunday, why I was running. At the finish, after I made it to the end in one piece, I was reminded of why I do this.

On Sunday, March 22, the Comox Valley RV Half Marathon took place under perfect weather conditions. 736 runners completed the hilly 21.1 km course.

We (Kari, Maggie and myself, pictured above) decided on the 10 a.m early start, 1 hour ahead of the main start at 11 a.m. This gave us the experience of being at the front of the pack for a brief moment or two!

A lot of hills, until the turn around, the route is in a beautiful setting—snow capped mountains in the distance, horses relaxing in the sun, a stream and a chorus of frogs. Great community support along the way encouraged you on just when you needed that extra boost.

The event is very well organized by the Comox Valley Road Runners. Traffic control was excellent and aid stations provided water and electrolyte drinks. At the main start and finish area, the Florence Filberg Centre, there was plenty of available parking at the centre itself and around the surrounding area. Plenty of washrooms were available at the centre itself, as well as areas to relax pre and post race. Food and drinks were plentiful after the race and organized very well. Choice of a variety of pizzas and other foods (cheese, fruit, veggies, cookies, popcorn, pop, broth to name a few of the options) were available.

The winner of the event, who blew by me effortlessly at 17.5 km, starting an hour after I did,

finished in just over an hour.

First male finisher and overall winner: Russell Pennock of Kelowna BC with the Prairie Inn Harrier’s, with a time of 1:05:30

First female finisher: Katelyn Ayers of Victoria BC with the Victoria Endurance Track Club, with a time of 1:14:01

The Comox Half is race #6 of the Island Race Series (2 more to go!!).

Our STARRs at the Half:

Barb Cina 1:42:13

Emily Mann 1:54:58

Jill Potter-Hellmann 2:16:57

Maggie Curtis 2:18:21

Kari Toovey 2:23:45

Pauline Nielsen 2:24:24

Erin Nielsen 2:24:25

Congratulations everyone for a great race!

January Blues Finale – STARR Torch Relay

By Leslie Ann Bent

We’d hoped for a lovely warm and sunny day to complete our virtual journey from Athens to Cortina, Italy, but that was not what the Vancouver Island skies had in store for us, although it was about 9C. When 14 STARRs met this morning, we had 12km to complete while carrying the torch for the completion of our challenge.

From January 1 to 30, seventeen of our STARR members completed more than 3,000km of running and walking as part of our January Blues Challenge.  If you haven’t been following Ian’s weekly running club updates of our progress, I summarize by saying that this distance is the equivalent of taking the Olympic torch from Athens to Cortina with a variety of side tours along the route to virtually visit previous sites of the Olympic games and arriving in Cortina just in time for the Opening ceremonies and sport competition which starts this week.

We used an official PanAm torch for our in-person relay - 1.2kg in weight and about the size of a baseball bat.  Each of our participants carried the torch for 500m to 1.3km depending on their leg of the route. Each wore a bib in honour of one of our current Canadian Winter Olympians who will be competing in Cortina shortly. We aren’t large enough a club to have 208 bibs, the total of our Canadian Winter Olympic team, but we tried to cover almost every sport and of course we honour all of them. Claude gave out bibs randomly, while Andy was our lead photographer, chasing the parade of athletes along the Galloping Goose course. As the rain gods played a role in impacting the pictures, some of the photos may be a bit blurred, but what the heck, it’s Vancouver Island in the winter. We shouldn’t be expecting sun!

The event today went almost without mishap. One runner who I won’t mention by name, passed her exchange point and kept running. When the other runner reached the 42km marker for the exchange, there was no sign of her exchange partner.  Barb and Andy accompanied the runner to the next exchange (thanks, Mel for covering more than your part!) and we believe things worked out.  No one was left without a turn to carry the torch. Let’s just say the incident made for a comical story as the missing runner’s husband just smiled and shook his head when he heard what she’d done!

Thanks to everyone who participated virtually this month, plus in person today.

Good luck to all of our winter Olympians. We are very proud of each and everyone of you who will be living your dreams in the coming weeks. We’ll be watching those spectacular performances, starting February 4 (February 6 for the opening ceremonies).

The roster recap in order of relay exchange:

Honouring Cdn

STARR Participant Olympic Athlete Sport

Andrea Marie-Philip Poulin Hockey (women's)

Danny Connor McDavid Hockey (men's)

Leslie Ann Abi Strate Ski Jump

Melanie Sonjaa Schmidt Cross-country ski

Jackie Valerie Maltais LT Speed Skating

Jill Reece Howden Freestyle/ski cross

Paul Adam Runnalls Biathlon

Barb Melissa Lotholz Bobsleigh

Liz Mikael Kingsbury Freestyle

Lisette Rachel Homan Curling (women's)

Tori Trinity Ellis Luge

Claude Laurence St Germain Claude

Andy Mark McMorris Snowboard

Kari Haillie Clarke Skeleton

Spare Kim Boutin ST Speed skating

Spare Gilles and Piorier Figure Skating

January Blues Athens to Cortina Week 5 Review

Before leaving Turin we reflected on the 2006 Winter Paralympics and our countryman Brian McKeever’s treble gold medal performance in the partially sighted Nordic skiing and biathlon events.  Brian started losing his sight aged 19 due to Stargardt's disease.  Guided by his older brother Robin and then childhood friend Erik Carleton he went on to win a total of 16 Paralympic gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals!  You might recall the brothers starring in a Toyota Superbowl advert in 2022.  Watch here and get inspired! 

Brian & Erik courtesy of skitrax.com

Brian’s nephew Xavier will be competing in Cortina, see here for the roster of all Canada’s Olympians competing in 2026.

Our route took us around the south side of beautiful Lake Garda and Lisette suggested we stay a while and enjoy the Colombare peninsular.  For this she wins a pair of Canada running socks.

Leaving Colombare it was time to head for Cortina, our journey’s 10th and final Olympic site, carrying our torch to finally light the Olympic flame.  The Olympics are not new to Cortina or officially Cortina d’Ampezzo, as they were very successfully held here in 1956.  It was the first venue to have all the events Winter Olympic events held in the same place.  The opening ceremony is remembered for the torch bearing speed skater Guido Caroli tripping over a microphone cable draped across the ice but somehow juggling the torch, getting back to his feet with the flame still burning [NB those of you running on the Goose on the final leg of our torch journey!].  Here is a photo of the incident.

Courtesy of Olympedia website

Other highlights include Austria’s Toni Sailer a.k.a. “The Blitz from Kitz” (Kitzbühel), comfortably winning all three alpine events, and then going on to have a starring career in the movies!  Here is a photo of the handsome devil!

Courtesy of Olympedia

These games are also famous for ski jump’s Fosbury Flop moment!  The two Finns, Antti Hyvärinen and Aulis Källakorpi, were early adopters of Windisch and Däscher techniques whereby the skis are held parallel and the arms are held back by the sides of the body.  Meanwhile all of the other competitors were still ‘Superman-ing it’!  The Finns won gold and silver.  So, next time you trip on a trail run, or head over your handlebars, remember hold your arms back by your sides because i) you will go much further and, ii) you won’t break your wrists or collarbones!

The crew stopped 12 km short of Cortina so that the torch can be carried the final 12km tomorrow in the STARR torch relay on the Galloping Goose.  Maggie was carrying the torch as we entered the camp, and wins a Kodak Charmera thumb sized camera!  On winning the camera Maggie said, allegedly, something along the lines of “ the Charmera is so cute and its tiny size makes it perfect for taking on all STARR runs its retro photos are perfect for publishing on the STARRs Insta site!  STARRs are going to go viral!”.

Congratulations to the 17 STARRS that got out there every day and completed more than 3,000 km or running and walking over the month of January.  Now that the flame has arrived, let’s hope it inspires Sid and our other Canadian athletes and para-athletes to achieve their dreams in Cortina!

RACE #2 OF THE ISLAND RACE SERIES—COBBLE HILL 10KM

Andy, Jill, Maggie, Barb & Kari

On Sunday, January 25th, the second race of the 8 race Island Series took place in Cobble Hill.

A record number of participants (613 finishers) participated in the 10 km race under perfect running conditions, frosty and sunny. The route has been changed a bit this year, apparently now being run in the opposite direction, but I’m not sure about this. I have run this event the past 2 years, but I’m honestly not sure how it was different. By the end of the series, all the routes start to blend together for me! I enjoyed the route nonetheless.

The route was run entirely on roads in a lovely rural setting. A fast downhill start and one towards the finish. There was a slight climb to the finish, but not much of one (as in running in Sooke). Traffic was handled very well, with runners having full use of the roads for parts of the race. Overall, the course was not that hilly. As Kari noted, “it felt like I was running downhill for a lot of the run”.

George Bonner School provided their facility for pre and post race activities. Chill, wraps and sandwiches along with cookies and fruit were provide as post race nourishment. Water, coffee and tea were available both pre and post race.

For the first time at one of the series races, I made use of the massage and physiotherapy services provided by Start LIne Health and Wellness. They offer about a 10 minute session at the end of the race at no cost to you. This is something that I probably will be signing up for at each race. I think that Maggie, who also used the service, would agree with me. It did definitely help with my recovery post race.

The winning time for the event was by Louis Maruk (M35-39) of Port Moody BC with a time of 0:30:24. Alison Mcpherson (F30-34) from Canmore AB, was the first woman across the line with a time of 0:35:43.

STARR runners at the event had a great day:

Andy Smith 0:42:58

Barbara Cina 0:45:29

Stephanie Croft 0:48:29

Melanie Eskildsen 0:53:38

Jill Potter-Hellmann 0:58:02

Maggie Curtis 0:58:55

Kari Toovey 1:01:35

Pauline Nielsen 1:07:28

Erin Nielsen 1:07:29

Joldine Lee 1:17:01

Well done everyone!!

January Blues Athens to Cortina Week 4 Review

After resting in Sesto Sexten, we headed to Innsbruck home of the 1964 & 1976 Winter Olympics. Sarah was our torch bearer and wins a prize of a book.  Last week we learned of the curious tale of the 1976 Olympics so this week we will have a review of the 1964 events.  Calgary were the runner up bidder, but as you know prevailed later in 1988.  The 1964 organising committee forgot to order the ……snow!  The Austrian Army stepped forward and delivered 20,000 m3 just in time.  Lastly, we should remember Italy’s Eugenio Monti, for a wonderful act of sportsmanship for which he was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin World Trophy. Read all about it here here

Innsbruck Courtesy of reisenexclusiv.com

Eugenio Monti, Courtesy of Wikipedia

1976 was also the year of the first formal Winter Paralympics. But not in Innsbruck, it was arranged as an entirely separate event in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.  It wasn’t until Albertville, France in 1992 that a common venue was chosen for both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Bumper Crowds at the 1936 Winter Olympics

Next up we headed into Germany at the mountain village of Scharnitz.  Andrea was carrying our torch at the border and wins a prize of a book.  Just across the border we stopped at Garmisch-Partenkirchen home of the 1936 Olympics, presided over by Hitler, as were the summer Olympics held in Berlin that year too.  This was the first Olympics to feature the alpine skiing events!  Famously, 150,000 spectators showed up to watch the ski jump, and the Hockey gold was won by Great Britain, Canada winning silver!  (Ok the GB team was entirely made up of Canadians with British heritage.) 

Heading south back through Austria took us into Switzerland crossing at the border town of Schalkl.  Appropriately Barb was carrying the torch here and wins a prize of a book.

Next stop was Saint Moritz (with Maggie holding the torch and winning a book), home of the 1928 and 1948 Winter Olympics and the famous Cresta Run skeleton-toboggan track built in 1884.  Women were banned from riding the Cresta Run from 1929 for the next 90 years due to fears that it caused breast cancer?!  Here is a photo of a female rider from 1904, hats off to her!  Paul carried the torch into Saint Moritz and won a prize of a book. Both of the Saint Moritz Olympics were blighted by the Föhn, a strong southerly warm wind.  The 1928 the 50km cross country ski race saw temperatures rise from zero at the start to 25 deg C.  This caused havoc for the waxing.  The race was won by Swede Per Erik Hedlund in just under 5 hours, with a lead of 13+ minutes over silver.  On the day he wore a white suit instead of the official Swedish blue, and since then Sweden has followed his lead and adopted white as their colour for their national team.   Elsewhere, Canada won the hockey gold with a record breaking goal margin of 38-0 over the tournament.

From Saint Moritz we passed though Milan (with Steve holding the torch and winning a book).  Milan is co-host of  the 2026 Winter Olympics with Cortina, so we stopped by for Sid to check in on the hockey arena construction….. still going on.  Next stop, Turin the home of the 2006 Olympic events.  Canada won an impressive 24 medals.  Amongst their stars were Cindy Klassen wining a gold, two silvers and two bronzes in the speed skating and Canmore’s Chandra Crawford winning the gold in the cross country sprint.  Then CBC commentator Brian Willams watching the medal ceremony said of Chandra: "If you're ever standing on top of the podium, this is how you sing our national anthem.”  Watch and learn here!

Cindy Klassen practising her weight lifting!

24 days in Sid, our chauffer advised us the odometer read an impressive 705 km for the week and 2,597 km overall.  Well done team, we have now visited 9 Olympic sites and 11 countries!

Island Race Series, the Harriers Pioneer 8 km

Barb, Jill, Maggie & Kari at the start

The first run of the Island Race Series, the Harriers Pioneer, took place January 11. This is always a fun race and a chance to get our post holiday cobwebs out of our systems. The course changed this year (or rather, returned to its former route) and was a nice flat route through the Saanich countryside, in the area of the Saanich Fairgrounds.

The route allowed for some very fast paces – the run leaders could be seen way off in the distance looping around as those of us closer to the back of the pack were either inspired by the speedsters, too busy breathing and putting one foot in front of the other to care, or just taking in the scenery.  The winner of this year’s race, Jaxon Kuchar, finished in 23.34 (mindblowing)!

During my run I always like to focus on the scenery, the dogs on the sidelines and for this run, a pony in a coat being walked by his handlers!

Leslie Ann Bent, another STARR runner who took part said of the new route “I really loved this year's Pioneer 8k course - the farms, old country roads and the lack of traffic - plus a new-to-us course made it interesting as I'd never been on the route before.  What was also exciting was there large group of very fast runners which always impresses and inspires me. It was fantastic to see Natasha Wodack run in this local race too. I enjoy seeing familiar faces before and after the race”. 

As always, the Island Race Series is a great way to get out of the house, spend time with friends, pet some dogs, eat some food…oh, and enjoy a run.

STARR had an impressive 11 runners this year, with the following results:

Andy Smith 34.39

Barbara Cina 38.43

Stephanie Croft 39.02

Emily Mann 40.38

Melanie Eskildsen 43.31

Jill Potter Hellman 47.44

Maggie Curtis 48.23

Kari Toovey 50.02

Pauline Nielsen 52.13

Erin Nielsen 52.15

Joldene Lee 1:04

Great jobs STARRs!

January Blues Athens to Cortina Week 3 Review

We set off NW from Sarajevo and Paul was carrying the torch through Banja Luka famous for the ‘Banja Luka Incident’, this being the first ever NATO combat engagement in the skies above in February 1994.  https://youtu.be/WevXTsed_oc this link tells the story.  Paul wins a blue Tely 10 long sleeved shirt for his modern history knowledge.  At Kostajnica we crossed the border from Bosnia in to our 6th country, Croatia.  Georgia was our torch bearer here.  Georgia wins a Valley Harvest long sleeve orange shirt for her efforts.

The Balkans, aside from Sarajevo, are somewhat short on Olympic history so we pressed ahead to Harmika and crossed into Slovenia.  Rick suggested we stop a while by the spellbindingly beautiful Lake Bled and enjoy a well earned coffee and vanilijevi kifeljčki (crescent cookies).  Rick was so taken by the cookies that he grabbed the recipe https://sloveniankitchen.com/blogs/desserts/slovenian-vanilla-crescent-cookies and Rick is likely to bring some to a future STARRs event!  This is certainly worthy of a prize of a(nother) Valley Harvest long sleeve orange shirt. (Courtesy of yaska.si and sloveniaalps.com for the photos.)

From here our path becomes much more Winter-Olympic-like, as we begin the steady climb into the Julian Alps.  Kari suggested we stop a while in the ski resort of Kranjska Gora, which is on the World Cup circuit for slalom, giant slalom, ski jump and the Nordic events.  What a beautiful place, and also the hometown of the LA Kings Captain and Centre Anže Kopitar.  Kari wins a prize of her choice of book.

Just a short distance from here we climbed Mount Dreiländerec/ Peč/ Forno which is the border tripoint between Austria, Slovenia and Italy (hence the 3 names).  Here we need to make a decision to go straight to Cortina or head off on an Olympic themed Alps detour.  We checked in with Sid our driver and he was very relaxed about the schedule as, after all, the 3 foot short Olympic hockey rink isn’t even finished yet!  So it was Leslie Ann, who wins a prize of a Paris Olympics 2024 tote bag for suggesting we head to Innsbruck, home of the 1964 & 1976 Winter Olympics.  Why twice, why so close?  Originally, Denver won the 1970 bidding for the 1976 Winter Olympics, but the Citizens of Colorado voted 60/40 in a 1972 State referendum to decline (for environmental and cost reasons)!  The IOC then asked Whistler to fill the slot but the looming 1972 Federal election prevented Canada from committing.  Ultimately, Innsbruck agreed to step in.

We didn’t quite get to Innsbruck this week so stopped at the tiny Italian mountain ski town of Sesto Sexten.  This is the hometown of the of the Italian 2008 Giant Slalom aged 7 and under ski champion, who went on to have a promising youth career as a soccer player, and eventually swapped sports again and became…… the world’s number 1 tennis player, Jannick Sinner!

17 days in Sid, our chauffer advised us the odometer read an impressive 726 km for the week and 1,892 km overall.  Well done team, already we have visited 4 Olympic sites and 9 countries!

January Blues Athens to Cortina Week 2 Review

Leaving Trikala we headed north west for the Albanian border at Trestenik. Jill was carrying the torch as we crossed and earned a prize of a ‘hat/buff thing’ courtesy of Sarah.  From there we took a short detour to bag another country, North Macedonia and rest by Lake Ohrid.  It is way better than it sounds and locally known as the Pearl of the Balkans!  Thanks to Barb for suggesting we stop by the lake, you win a prize of one of the books.

Lake Ohrid courtesy of tourtirana.com

From Ohrid, we headed back across into Albania and some km’s later at Hani i Hotit were back on track with Kim holding the torch as we crossed into Montenegro for which Kim wins a prize of one of the books.  Next we crossed into Bosnia & Herzegovina at Bobotovo Groblje!  Danny was our torch bearer there and picked up a prize of a light, courtesy again of Sarah.

Mel was concerned about the lack of Olympic sites we had visited and suggested we veer direct north and head to Sarjevo, the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics.  For this Mel wins a prize of a book. Here the Canadians had their best Olympic results since 1960 and won 4 medals with speed skater Gaetan Boucher picking up 3 of them; two golds and a bronze.  Sarajevo was also GB’s Torvill and Dean Golden Olympics with the pair receiving the first ever perfect set of scores for their figure skating free programme to the music of Ravel’s Bolero.

Gaetan Boucher on the Podium in Sarajevo

It is difficult to believe that just six years after the Olympics Sarajevo was held at siege during the Balkan conflict.  Lasting just short of four years the siege is amongst the longest endured in modern history.  Little of the Olympic infrastructure survived but we did climb the hills to visit the derelict bobsleigh and luge track and athletes village and take a moment to reflect on the Balkan tragedy. See photos below from laughingsquid.com and Feel Bosnia.

There is a recently released critically acclaimed Canadian movie documenting over 5 years 3 young Bosinan wannabe lugists and their inspirational coach as they attempt to meet the Olympic standard by practising on this track on wheeled sleds. The movie is called The Track and is highly recommended viewing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35699183/. Its been a recent film festival favourite and look out for it on streaming services soon.

10 days in Sid, our chauffer in the support car advised us the odometer read an impressive 816 km for the week and 1,166 km overall.  Well done team, already we have visited 4 Olympic sites and 5 countries!