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