What a great way to spend a weekend, we had great weather, great volunteers and some very determined racers.  It started off with the Kids race on Saturday with 26 runners and 12 bikers with 4 brave athletes doing both.  Many parents and spectators lined the 90% single track course to cheer them on.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to help out or just come watch, there was a great vibe out there.

The rain that was forecast for Sunday ended up moving to Monday leaving us with a scorching (well at least to our standards) beautiful sunny day.  The course was dry and fast all day long and held up well under all of our pounding and skidding.  Thanks again to Barry Hagen and his crew for maintaining the trails out there, it is not easy with the year of rain we have had.  Other than quite a few cramped up muscles and parched lips everyone seemed to be having a great time. Shayne from Stride & Glide did a spectacular job timing this years event, complete with a live results TV, personalized race plates and an announcers checkpoint so we knew who was coming into the stadium next.  Thanks to Aaron from Evolve for providing a bike to give away for the second year in a row and helping with race bibs and plates. Thanks also to Integris Credit Union, Northern Cycle, Cycle Logic, Ruckus, Ruins, Koops, Clear Choice water and Seth Tobin for all their donations.  Thanks to Mandy from Script Monster for helping with the BBQ and a big thanks to Otway Nordic Center for use of their lodge, sound system and most importantly - their trails!

Thanks again to our brave volunteers who stood out in the woods for hours watching us pull our sweaty bodies around and around the course. Also to all our co-organizers; thank you so much for putting on an amazing race, this is a completely volunteer run event and many people stepped up to the plate to make sure this event happened this year.

Feel free to post comments on the day on this page or email us at otwaychallenge@yahoo.ca.  We have already have had a video of the event been made by Chrissy Alder and we have posted it on our results and pictures page.  If you have any photos of the event that you would like to share please send them to us!

Race results for sunday can be found at http://www.strideandglide.ca/Results/2011-otway-challenge-results and kids results from Saturday are on our results page.

Another big thankyou to all our volunteers and participants, we couldn't have done it with out you.  A larger update of the day will come soon

If you've been interested in barefoot running shoes and want to see what they are all about, Stride & Glide Sports will have a full fleet of New Balance Minimus shoes to try.  They will be there at package pick up and after the running race during the mtb enduro.

Trails are looking better and better, I also saw quite a few blue berry's along the side of the trail this morning.  Free recovery snack!

We have just made the decision to start the team enduro riders with the solo riders.  This follows what you see at most enduro races and gives a better chance to see if your team can keep up with those crazy soloists! So, both groups will now start together at 10:00 am instead of separately at 10:00 and 10:15. 

Also to keep all of our lovely runners happy the bike race will start with a Le Mans (or running) start.  Riders will start about 250m away from their bikes and on the starting whistle will run to their bikes, hop on and start riding.  Spectators remember your camera's!!! This should be memorable :)

The race is fast approaching and we are just pulling the final few things together for what should be a great race.

Despite the ugly weather we have had over the past week the trails seem to be recovering well with a few dry days.  As of Wednesday night the trails still had a few muddy sections but overall the trail work being done has paid off and the majority of the course is hard packed and grippy through the corners.  Many thanks to Barry Hagen and everyone else for helping to get the trails at their best.  The weather forecast for the weekend is promising with a mix of sun and cloud and (most importantly) a low chance of precipitation.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at package pick up on Sat from 2pm-4pm and have a few things for you to check out when you stop by.  The very popular kids race is back this year and should be a blast with quite a few kids already signed up.  While you are cheering the kids on, Shayne from Stride & Glide Sports has brought in a huge range of Salomon trail shoes for you to test out on the trails.  If you've been thinking about a new pair lately it will be a fantastic chance to try out some of the newest options from Salomon.

We have also just heard that the Stride & Glide timing system that we are using this year will have live race updates streaming on to their 42" flat screen.  Number of laps, time and position will be updated in real time as you pass through the start finish area.  Should be fantastic!

    Thanks again to everyone that has signed up, and if you know anyone still thinking about the race they still have one last chance to sign up on Sat. during package pickup (cash or check only).

The race map is ready to go and has been posted under the race details section as well as on the Stride & Glide registration page.  As for other news we had a good response to our early registration extension and hope to see more register soon.  Race preparation is in full swing, race plates have been ordered along with awards for this year and all of the little things are starting to come together.  


Special thanks to the weather for turning around and drying up the trails nicely!  If you havn't been out for a run or a ride lately, now is the time with the trails recovering really well from all that rain.  Also thank you to Shayne at Stride & Glide Sports and Aaron at Evolve Cycles for helping us out with the past few very busy weeks!